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    Guild Wars 2 Breaking news !

    August 18, 2021

    Guild Wars 2 Breaking news !

    Breaking news !

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 02:17 AM PDT

    Absolutely obsessing over this new outfit !! Had to share my fashion wars. Thanks Arenanet !

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 10:01 PM PDT

    Harbinger didn’t skip leg day

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 10:43 PM PDT

    First Glance at New Elite Spec Damage

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 07:13 AM PDT

    To fuel the debate, here are some first impressions of what the specs can do in PvE.

    Virtuoso: 41k
    Dagger/Sword & Sword/Focus.
    Beserker and Assassines Pieces. Scholar Runes. Force and Accuracy Sigils.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xYzA5FxTeg

    Harbinger: 45k (yes, there will be a quickness version)
    Pistol/Dagger & Scepter. Viper Pieces. Tormenting Runes. Bursting and Tormenting Sigils.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD09sKHx5kU

    Willbender: 37k (yes, there will be a virtues traitline version)
    Sword/Focus & Gs. Berserker Pieces. Scholar Runes. Force and Impact Sigils.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo4Qs6KeUHE

    Enjoy playing around with the Beta Specs while it lasts...

    submitted by /u/ahsokavarosan
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    School Uniform never made it into the game because it would have broken the immersion. Can we have it now?

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 03:43 AM PDT

    I am referring to this set of town clothes that was data mined back in 2013.

    I can't seem to find it again, but I remember someone from Anet saying it was discarded because it would have broken the immersion of the game. We have now Sailor Moon uniforms, cook uniforms, so many weird mount skins that absolutely make no sense in the GW2 lore.

    I think it's safe to say that the School uniform would break nothing as of today because there is nothing left to break, so can we please have it now?

    submitted by /u/hatbreak
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    [Harbinger] Feedback and suggestions (of theme rather than balance) of some ideas I had.

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 06:50 PM PDT

    Three seconds after logging in to Lion's Arch

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 10:18 AM PDT

    Complete the Cycle: Guild Wars 2 Living World Season 4 Return

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 09:05 AM PDT

    New Players Thoughts on the Personal Story 1-80

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 11:41 PM PDT

    Mild Spoilers obviously for new players like me who have not finished the personal story. But it has been waaaaay over 30 days since its come out so I think its ok?

    ​

    ​

    I have to say I am impressed. It's so refreshing to have such a quality story after all the bad ones in the many MMOs I have played. I just feel like I have to gush about it.

    I had my misgivings. The start of the personal quests arc was not very engaging. Until you start the Elder Dragon Story everything is a build up. But you don't know its a build up because its not clear how it all ties in.

    I didn't enjoy how as a human I was just killing centaurs without a end in sight, then going off to find out about my sister, and deal with assassination attempts on the queen etc. It felt disparate, decent stories individually, but nothing very cohesive.

    I ended up boosting a character to 80 (with the 2 expansion package deal bundle) and played through the norn campaign. It was aite as well, a bit more tied in with the Elder Dragon story, but I really enjoyed just blazing through the main story without having to level up 10 times doing mildly unrelated things to progress.

    And WOW I was amazed. The Zaithan storyline was really well established on the foundation made previously with reoccurring characters and an engaging plot. The difficulty ramp up was really appreciated as well, since as a veteran mmo player, the early story quests were a joke. Also it was decently long. I did the entire questline over several hours over the past few days. I initially expected to blitz it in 1 day, but it was amazingly long and well paced.

    Many times it DID feel like an epic fight for the fate of Tyria. Trahearne was by far my favorite character. I loved how organically I came to understand what a Wyld Hunt was...and how fulfilled I felt seeing him, someone who I could see as a friend succeed on his life mission.

    It felt refreshing NOT being the chosen one, but being a major cog in the wheel to success, where everyone had to work together to succeed.

    The big battles felt awesome to be a part of, and watching the other npcs fall, as I tried to heal them, get some of them up during the downtime between the waves was a lot of fun.

    The only thing I did not like (other then the start being a tad slow, and seemingly not related initially) was Destiny's Edge. I'm not sure if they appear in the dungeons, and you get to know them more there (Since I know Eir and the Charr hero appears in Ascalonian Catacombs), but them popping up at the end was a bit confusing.

    They helped out a bit, but overall they didn't really do anything. They weren't particularly powerful, and only helped during the power core mission. On the airship, they literally hung inside the ship, and didn't help AT ALL with the risen bombarding the ship and the undead dragons. I'm not sure if that's a glitch but it was irritating. ANY one of the npcs I spent time other then Eir, would of been better companions for the final battle then Destiny's Edge.

    The final battle against Zaithan was EPIC, the music was great, the visuals were awesome. And the only thing I disliked was that I was the ONLY one manning the cannons shooting at him. And the final battle was just pressing 1111111111 F to move from the flames 11111111. Don't get me wrong, it was epic enough to forgive, but felt weird seeing all the members of Destinys edge sitting on their ass, while I manned one of like 10 cannons to kill Zaithan.

    The aftermath really sealed the deal. Seeing all these npcs from the campaign celebrating there, having conversations, forming relationships, and having unique chats with me was AWESOME. Then finally going to talk with Trahearne and having the musical score die down, then change.

    It was great.

    This is a text wall, but I just felt like I had to GUSH about it. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the story, and I'll be doing another playthrough on the human necromancer I am playing with my friend, definitely going to choose as many different choices as I can.

    TLDR: New Players gushing about how GW2 Personal Story 1-80 started off weak but became AMAZING, music, story and characters. Looking forward to the expansions.

    submitted by /u/SentineIs
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    Design antipatterns to avoid in EoD

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 05:27 AM PDT

    Instead of explaining what I mean in detail, I'll just start listing off my points in random order, and hope you get the gist of it.

    1. Nonboon/noncondition - In general PvE, boonstrip and condition removal is heavily disincentivized. Mobs in open world just don't use conditions enough to warrant dedicating resources towards removing them, and only the high level instanced raids and fractals offer a use for most boon removal. This is exacerbated by ANet's tendency to design around their own design frameworks. "I want this mob to inflict a lot of bleeding, but players might just cleanse it, and I, for some reason, don't want that, so I'll give them SuperBleeding! It's a non-condition effect that you remove by dodging, and it keeps stacking up low-duration bleeds, just for fun!" So, instead of bringing a cleanse for it, just do what every prof already has access to: evade the eels. "Oooh, we can't have this mob just inflict a lot of Vulnerability and exploit it with mob-side boosts that double Vulnerability effect! Nono, the chak need something more dangerous! But you can just dodge out of it." This all started with the Southsun release. It was recognized as a mistake then, but ignored. Stop it. Give mobs conditions. Give them boons. Make people actually engage with the content in a manner that is not just 111ing things to make them die, with a dodge every now and then, at random.

    2. PvP design in PvE - Very powerful PvP effects, such as 5ish seconds of quickness on a 30+second cooldown, are significantly less useful in consistency-optimized PvE in which, at higher levels, access to full uptime teamwide quickness, alacrity, 25 might, and fury is pretty much a given. You need the full uptime to down the raid boss in 2 minutes of constant DPS rotation. You need the 5-second boost to secure an execute or manage to outplay a similarly-equipped player, and turn the tide of a match. However, you, alone, fighting an Elite Bitemonster? Yay. Enjoy your tiny temporary DPS increase, it isn't likely to turn the tide or significantly speed up the kill. All that coming from a skill you just won't bring with you to a raid, because the alacren/druid/qfb has you covered. Cat's out of the bag for instanced content. The builds that "got you covered" exist, and I highly doubt they'll be going anywhere. If it's a skill that makes your build work, such as a Fury providing you 100% crit chance, but only for 15 seconds per minute? It just feels bad, man. We have PvE/PvP splits, but they seem to be most commonly used to just bring damage down. Why not buff some buff skills for PvE, so that a Quickening Zephyr-based build can actually reach full quickness uptime for casual open world PvE without devoting the entire build, rune, sigil, food toward that one, singular goal.

    3. Temporary Precision boosts - This is a ticklish one, so bear with me for a moment. Power builds work with very high Precision values, often 100%. This is because 100% gives you not only a high resulting DPS off your natural or Ferocity-boosted critical damage, but because it also makes the build more consistent. Working with just 95% crit chance can, on paper, work 95% as good as a build with 100% precision, and possibly even just as good, if the 5% crit is shoved over into Power instead, but the first time your Decapitate hits for normal damage will make you feel bad. Will make you feel real bad. Warrior is a favorite example here, because of the lack of crit-chance boosters in their kit, outside of a banner, but let's start on the topic of Elementalists, too! Arcane skills. Their special power? They always crit. That's their schtick. Every hit, a crit. There is five of them. All of them hit for Power damage, without a single condition between them. So, it is easy to assume that they will be used in, you know, Power builds. The exact type of build that is likely to have a very high critical chance. Now, using them in PvP is beautiful, as you can siphon off your Precision stat points into more survivability, and use your Arcanes as killshots once you've significantly tenderized your target with weapon skills and staying power, but in PvE? Any PvE? The "passive" effect just might not even exist, it is such a niche thing, and using the skill type just feels wrong most of the time. I don't want this outright axed, but the feels-bad-man effect can be greatly lessened through the use of traits, PvP/PvE splits, and such... Just rethink them a tiny bit.

    4. Confusing monster design - Thankfully, there aren't a lot of examples of this, but I feel I must mention it, because hooo booy. Mushrooms. Heart of Thorns Mushroom enemy type. Nothing in the game is, to me at least, as frustrating to fight as these things. They have very varied abilities, they have overlapping threat patterns with varying amounts of threat, they will happily use chain CCs, and their damage output is quite high. All these combined would make a deadly special forces type faction that the player could approach with care and respect, and then tactically prioritize and engage... except for two-three things. First, the game loves spawning more of them mid-fight, and some of them spawn more, just for fun. Ok, so there's more of them to fight. No bother. Second, they all look so alike. Pretty much all other enemies have a clear silhouette, animation, glow, or other tell that lets you identify them at a glance, but not these guys. At best, you get hue, or size. Size often isn't even a clear indicator of threat level, either. Further complicating the identify-threat side of things is their AoE skillset. Some of their red circles hit you for four thousand damage. Some for five hundred. There are five around you, good luck choosing what to dodge. Naming your ranger Hearty Wolf and your pet X Pwnerer X was fun in GW1, but please...

    5. Leave It To Me - Some achievements aren't a test of skill, knowledge, or teamplay. Some are just there to annoy you. Leave It To Me is the perfect example of this. For those that don't remember, that's the HoT one that requires you to beat the rez-soldiers-as-a-bunny section without rezzing any soldiers. You just call up four friends, and then lose an hour of your life beating on shrubbery wolves, winning by attrition, while using a whole of four skills. There used to be methods of making that less painful: you could use food, and even some summon consumables, allowing you to "buy" your way past the agony. ANet quickly removed those. So, four friends, and an hour of whacking at enemies ineffectually. Because, obviously, killing the will to even play the game is the goal of this achievement. Could we please not have that in EoD? This. Genuine Imposter. Shield of Kormir. Stuff that significantly alter the approach to the game in a less entertaining way. God, I wish Leave It To Me was the only example of this, I truly do..

    So, you know. Just some stuff I wish were avoided in EoD.

    What would yours be?

    submitted by /u/TheRealBoz
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    Please reduce Willbender Animation delays/wind-ups

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 05:58 AM PDT

    I think, like many, Willbender was my most anticipated spec for this beta. The mobility just seemed insanely cool, the martial arts were awesome flair, the whole fantasy seemed quite tight.

    In practice though, particularly in PvP (where I feel this spec's main focus is?), the amount of awkward animation delays and wind-ups cause SO many of your skills to just totally whiff. For a spec dedicated to 'sticking to the enemy', I feel that while I can physically 'keep up' with them, I'm not actually able to deal any proper damage and even when skills DO connect the damage numbers on those utilities are even weaker than basic weaponskills.

    This has caused the spec to ironically feel quite sluggish and awkward to use. Both Virtuoso and Harbinger lock you down far less, making those specs feel much more fluid in their combat loop. One minor thing - I'd love some sort of physical UI above my character that shows the time remaining on my F-ability 'stances'.

    I understand this is a beta, so I'm hoping this criticism can simply be taken into consideration before the expansion launch.

    submitted by /u/AustronautHD
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    Sword 3 changes for Virtuoso

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 03:27 AM PDT

    I don't know if anyone had already mentioned it but I haven't seen any post about it yet as far as I know.

    The normal sword 3 for mesmer, called Illusionary Leap, created a clone at the target's position. After you can swap with the clone. The Virtuoso sword 3 is called Blade Leap, and is a gab closer where you leap towards your enemy while stocking a blade. The swap sends you back to the point where you leaped from.

    I hadn't seen a anything about this in any of the notes, so I was super confused when I used the skill and was suddenly launched towards the enemy xD

    It's probably changed to work well with the blades instead of clones. Wonder if there are any other weapon skills that have changed.

    submitted by /u/Spook-je
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    Arcdps is updated, thought it deserves a post considering how many people testing builds atm.

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 03:46 PM PDT

    Hot Take: Harbinger and Willbender seem to be lacking because Scourge and Firebrand are overloaded in comparison

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 08:28 AM PDT

    Now before i get into this: I am mainly focusing on comapring overall designs, not the design of single traits or skills. Numbers are certainly not irrelevant but not really important as they can easily be changed.

    Remember that this is purely subjective. Feel free to agree/disagree.

    Necro:

    Harbinger is designed as a more selfish glasscannon damage dealer with a stacking damage buff of choice at the cost of their health and the option to provide passive pulsing quickness.
    Elixirs as the Utility are boons on demand, a condi cleanse and a stunbreak. Very simple design.
    The traits are rather simple mainly giving passive stats which isn't the most exiting but it is what it is. The pulsing passives on the grandmaster traits are boring and lazy design tho which is the only problem i have with the spec so far.
    Scourge on the other hand is designed to have more of a support playstyle with access to massive amounts of barrier, is incredibly tanky because to that and the trait "Blood as Sand" in addition to Necros huge healthpool.
    Shroud has been replaced with shades resulting in permanent access to 6 additional AoE skills on rather low cooldowns while still having access to their utility skills.
    In addition to that every single utility skill has baseline boon corrupt instead of needing a trait for that effect.
    Despite having this massive amount of support/safety it is also somehow one of the stongest damage dealers in the game at the moment which should absolutely not be the case.

    Guardian:

    Firstly i want to note that comparing Willbender and Firebrand is quite difficult due to the nature of their different playstyles.

    Willbender is designed as a selfish melee brawler with lots of dashes. In fact it has the most amount of available dashes/leaps/teleports on 1 set in the game with a total of 8 if equipped with double swords not counting the whirlwind kick.
    The utility skills give access to melee CC which makes a lot of sense given the overall theme.
    All the Virtues are dashes and grant a unique passives which override each other. This is certainly interesting design.
    The traits are all selfish in nature and enhance 1 of the 3 virtues respectively which is very good design.

    Firebrand on the other hand has the rather immobile caster playstyle. Its weapon - the axe - uses magical flames as attacks to reflect this rather well.
    The Mantra utility skills are good and simple design only doing 1 thing at a time.
    Now the Tome mechanic on the other hand is completely ridiculous. Rather than augmenting the base virtues the spec basically turns them into a whole new weapon set effectively giving Firebrand access to 3 weapon sets. Now it would be fine if the Tome skills would not cover literally everything that can be covered. I'm talking massive condition burst from the F1 Tome, access to big heals and condition cleanse through the F2 Tome, access to even more Stability and access to the reflect bubble in addition to "Wall of Reflection" and "Sanctuary" which already deal with projectiles. The spec can literally adapt to anything and play every role.
    There is no drawback and/or choice to make at all for example by choosing which Virtue turns into a Tome in the traits.

    Mesmer:

    Virtuoso does not really have this problem because both previous Mesmer specs do not really have as overloaded designs as the above mentioned PoF specs.
    Yes the Mirage dodge is broken and cancer to balance in PvP and WvW and Chrono CS is by far the strongest skill in the game. But specs aren't really broken as a whole. They both rely on clones which kind of tones the power down a little bit since clones only focus the enemy that was targeted on cast, can't switch targets and die too fast in larger scale fights which is especially devastating for Mirage due to the nature of its Ambush skills.
    This isn't the case with Blades which makes Virtuoso a lot more independent in that regard.
    The only problem i have with the spec so far are the condition Traits which are in my opinion absolutely wasted especially with the complete annihilation of confusion. Now i could be wrong about this since it's only the 2nd day of the beta and it might be better than it looks.

    ​

    I didn't mention Reaper and Dragonhunter in the respective sections.
    I think both specs are among the best designed Elitespecs simply because they modify the base class without changing the base design too much. Their spec mechanics work as an augmentation rather than completely replacing the core class mechanic which is how Elitespecs should ideally be.

    ​

    Tl;dR The new specs aren't underdesigned (for the most part anyways) but Firebrand and Scourge are overdesigned and need to be toned down.

    submitted by /u/KazuhaYuki
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    Weapons for other especs leaked

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 10:03 AM PDT

    Chatcodes of these gear containers for other classes already exist in game.

    ​

    [&AgHocwEA] Thief

    [&AgHLcwEA] Ranger

    [&AgHXcwEA] Ele

    [&AgHhcwEA] Warrior

    [&AgHncwEA] Engi

    [&AgHNcwEA] Rev

    ​

    Explaination: In the preview it shows you which weapons the containers contain including the ones of the new especs.

    submitted by /u/Karthales
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    Players: "We want more classy, rough and realistic weapons without shiny glitter and effects." - ANET:

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 09:42 AM PDT

    Lady Gaga - Rain on Me (c.2021)

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 07:22 PM PDT

    Anet please

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 01:41 PM PDT

    Please update the Black Lion Vouchers

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 06:36 PM PDT

    The new 9th anniversary requisition includes old vouchers:

    These unfortunately haven't been updated in over a year and really need one. I know it's not a common problem but I still have my backpack and glider one from the last requisition because I have everything on there. Time for an update please.

    submitted by /u/MuscularApe
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    It aint much but it's honest numbers

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 10:51 AM PDT

    Weapon value with updated espec leaks (Spoilers!)

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 03:29 AM PDT

    Here's a list of how many classes can use each weapon. Since there will likely be balance patches before EoD, I'm not going to waste time on what is and isn't meta in the current moment. Elite spec weapons may or may not end up being useful. This is just how many classes can use each weapon once EoD launches, in case you were planning on making legendaries. Source for future weapons

    Source for current weapons

    Axe: 6

    Dagger: 6 (up from 5)

    Mace: 4 (up from 3)

    Pistol: 5 (up from 3)

    Sword: 8

    Scepter: 5 (up from 4)

    Focus: 4

    Shield: 5

    Torch: 5

    Warhorn: 4

    Greatsword: 6 (up from 5)

    Hammer: 6 (up from 4)

    Longbow: 3

    Rifle: 3

    Shortbow: 3

    Staff: 7

    Harpoon gun: 4

    Spear: 7

    Trident: 5

    submitted by /u/tensing99
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    Harbinger Shroud All Legendary Projectile Effects

    Posted: 18 Aug 2021 08:17 AM PDT

    [Harbinger][PvE] My Feedback, perceived issues and some proposals.

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 03:47 PM PDT

    Introduction

    It took some time to write all of this down, but I hereby present my feedback on the Harbinger elite spec for the Necromancer class. I will divide my feedback into several sections (because I have a lot to say), and will mostly look at things from a PvE gameplay perspective.

    Harbinger as an idea:

    Possible issue with the theme:

    Self damaging gunslinger necro? I am cool with that. But I disagree with how this spec tries to do everything, which leads to (in my opinion) no real choices. Because the spec tries to do support, condi AND power, there is always just a single trait for your playstyle, and often it is a boring +X % damage or convert X% of stat Y into a bonus for stat Z.

    Proposal:

    I would personally opt for scrapping most if not all of the power traits. Power makes it only compete with Reaper. Scourge is getting slowly relegated into a boon/mild heal support spec (and lower condi dps) with the bugfixes, which leaves Harbinger the option to excel as a condi damage (current benchmarks put it on 41k+) and boon/effect support spec (especially hybrid condi/boons appear very strong). It also frees up trait slots in multiple places for more interesting traits that promote active play (see my feedback on traits).

    Possible issue with the Mechanic:

    Blight is currently something completely passive that we have close to no control over and have almost zero ways to interact with it. For the most part it is just...there. Nothing more. In my opinion an elite spec should always try to make you actively interact with its mechanic. Furthermore, baseline Blight does nothing positive for you, it needs something positive backed into the baseline effect. No elite spec so far has had a mechanic that untraited/baseline only gives you a negative (and if you take the elixir trait you can end up with a mechanic that does NOTHING for you at all).

    Some Proposals:

    1. Make Blight function akin to Holosmith's heat mechanic. Your level of Blight could then have an effect on what your elixirs do, with weaker/stronger/different effects based on your blight threshold, with the same treatment given to your pistol attacks. Make the effects different enough that you want to actively juggle your Blight level.

    2. Another option could be a bit like DeadEye's Malice approach, with some of your skills consuming Blight for additional effects. This could make it potentially very rewarding to juggle your Blight levels.

    3. Another idea is to make Blight become an effect that you effectively stack upon yourself by actively doing things, a bit like how the Carapace effect works in Death Magic, just more thought out.

    4. Another idea is allowing you to consume Blight stacks with attacks and elixirs for better effects, possibly tied to a trait or traits that give effects based on Blight stacks that get consumed, making it an active resource.

    Possible issue with the pistol skills:

    Honestly, not many. I think the weapon skills look fine. I do think it could do with some additional complexity which I will describe below, but for the most part I think pistol is in a good place for a condi spec (numberwise at least).

    Proposal:

    Taking my heat proposal into account (as described under Mechanic proposals), giving the pistol skills an additional effect based on Blight thresholds seems like a good way of rewarding good Blight stack management. In addition, I would personally give pistol an auto-attack chain instead of just a single attack, where the last attack in the chain would inflict more damage/torment ( rebalance the previous two attacks so the total amount of damage stays the same).

    I think it would reduce the ability spam if you get the best results by finishing your auto attack chain between your skills. We see this being the case on power warrior axe, on firebrand and mirage axe, on necromancers own scepter, and on a lot more weapons. This may not be liked by everyone, but I think it could be balanced in a manner that people who finish the attack chain get rewarded with better DPS for actively interacting, while those that don't get lower DPS, but not to the level of it being useless.

    Possible issue with artwork of utility skills and traits:

    This has been discussed a lot, with plenty of people noticing the lower quality when compared to the artwork of other skill and trait icons. The biggest argument I have heard is people claiming these are 'beta icons'. If so the solution is simple:

    Proposal:
    Change the beta icons for real icons when End of Dragons launches. It is better to raise questions about this now, than it is to keep quiet, thinking the icons are just placeholders, and then end up with them on release day. Better to be safe than sorry folks!

    Possible issue with Utility skills:

    I am going to be very blunt here: These elixirs are boring as hell. Look at what engi elixirs had, on top of each elixir being two skills (drink and thrown/toolbelt): endurance refill, invuln, stealth, revive, moa/stun and (formerly) projectile hate. A lot more than just getting a few boons. Because that is what the Harbinger elixirs boil down to: Press button. Get boons. Done. Necromancers deserve better than this. I think there are several things Anet can do to elixirs to make them more interesting prior to adjusting any traits.

    A few possible Proposals/ideas:

    1. Make Elixir effects interact with Blight and get additional or different effects based on your Blight level ( like Holosmith skills doing more/different stuff based on 50/100/150 heat).
    2. Give Elixirs thrown skills on F2-F5 or give them a flip-over skill when used.
    3. Make Elixirs behave like Druid glyphs. Druid glyphs change their effects based on if the druid is in Celestial Avatar or not. Perhaps make Elixir skills accessible while in Shroud, and give them different effects if used while Harbinger Shroud is in use?
    4. Play into some sort of Dr. Jeckyll/Mr Hyde Yin/Yang vibe, possibly with your elixirs acting as brief transforms into afflicted creatures with different abilities (harness the corrupted power out of the Jade that got corrupted by Shiro's Jade Wind). Probably the most intensive (and because of that the least feasible) idea.
    5. Make elixirs interact with each other and allow us to somehow mix them into more powerful versions/versions with differing effects, meaning we effectively brew potions on the fly to adapt to our situation.
    6. If flip-over or F skills are not possible, make elixirs in addition to their boons give unique effects for our next few actions. Enhance our next few attacks, dodges, weapon swaps, control effects, something like that. Just make it more interesting than "drink potion. Get boons." Remember how engineer elixirs got resurrection, stealth, projectile reflect, endurance refill, invulnerability or even a transform? Give me...something.

    Possible issues with Traits:

    Once again I will be blunt: I am extremely underwhelmed by the traits that Harbinger currently has. A lot of in my opinion boring "gain + X in stat Y", "You now pulse effect A while doing nothing yourself", and " A percentage of B is now converted into C".

    We can do better than this, and more importantly: It can be a lot more active than this. To take Firebrand quickness as an example: As much as people like to call Firebrand 'braindead'' , at least it needs to take 2 traits, 3 skills, and some actual timing and awareness to give out its quickness. Compare this to Harbinger that simply selects trait, presses F1 for shroud...and just sits there while it pulses. In my opinion this completely passive approach is not fun and does not make for engaging gameplay.

    Proposals:

    Wicked Corruption

    If you follow my original proposal of this specialisation not stepping on the toes of roles necro already has ( Reaper being a power DPS and Scourge being a mainly defensive support/heal), Wicked Corruption would have to go. In it's place you could put perhaps put a trait that gives some additional support options to the Harbinger. Perhaps take away some quickness from the shroud and tie it to something else, tie it to using the heal skill ( both Firebrand and Scrapper have a part of their quickness tied to their healing skill) in addition to 1-2 more quickness sources. It fixes the problem of quickness currently being completely passive and fills a trait slot for support.

    Septic Corruption

    With a condition damage focus I can see something like this being needed. But if we stay with the heat-like approach, we get boosts from our amount of Blight already, Blight itself would not need to give a passive bonus on top of that. Instead, why not change this so you can actively work for a condi damage buff? Harbinger seems to have a control focus, with pistol 3 and shroud 4 + 5. How about a trait that changes fears to stuns, allows stuns to benefit from fear related traits, and gives you a bonus for condition damage when you sucessfully apply crowd control? This would also give Harbinger a reason for Warhorn in the off-hand for its CC. Harbinger is mostly going to play with scepter/X and pistol/X on a condi set, one of those X's will probably be off-hand dagger for condi transfer, this would give you a reason to take warhorn while promoting active play to get your bonus.

    Another option could be something akin to thief's lead attacks, where spending lifeforce/using certain skills provides a stacking bonus condition damage effect. That would at least ask you to actively interact, instead of just getting a buff that passively accumulates (current Blight) and where you have to do absolutely nothing for it.

    Vile Vials:

    Right now it reduces elixir recharge and inflicts vulnerability+slow on use to enemies. Boring. Make this more impactful with perhaps additional effects on elixirs, or cause some flip-over skills. If you want to support you can then make the trade-off between something that helps with regeneration from whatever replaces Wicked Corruption, or you can take this for better elixirs for a more offensive support, possibly tying some quickness application to this.

    Alchemic Vigor:

    Additional health. Thats all. In my opinion this should be scrapped for a minor that helps the Blight interaction. If the spec needs more health for its job then bake it into the base proficiency line, or tie the Blight interaction to this trait IN ADDITION to the health bonus. Don't just give health. Don't.

    Implacable foe:

    If you are on board with my idea that this should be a condi/support spec and not a power one this has to go.

    Twisted Medicine:

    I am sure we can replace this and Vile Vials with something more interesting and active, but without knowing what option of my suggestions (or something I didn't even think of!) for changing Blight/Elixirs would be preferred it is hard to give detailed feedback for any changes here.

    Dark Gunslinger:

    It's a standard trait I suppose. Not sure how to make it more exciting, perhaps it can change pistol 3 to become a different skill ( like how the Lingering Curse trait changes necro scepter 3)?

    Corrupted Talent:

    I can see this spec needing the lifeforce. Not sure if I like or dislike it.

    Cascading Corruption:

    If you are on board with my idea that this should be a condi/support spec and not a power one this has to go.

    Deathly Haste:

    I am okay with quickness support necro, but I want it to be an active action that we have to work for to maintain, not something we passively give out. Remember Firebrand having to take at least 2 traits, 3 utility skills, and needs to somewhat position itself and track timings. Or at the very least it has to press buttons. Or how Quickness Scrapper takes 3 traits and 2-3 utility skills for its quickness? Here you just press F1 and sit back. That is not engaging gameplay. Perhaps give the earlier mentioned elixir flip-overs/thrown skills a quickness bonus, with possibly additional quickness if certain conditions are met?

    Doom Approaches:

    Even more torment? Sure, more damage, but it feels lazy. The condition bonus can stay, but I would again like something a bit more active here. Perhaps this could shake up some of your shroud skills even more and cause movement skills and skill that give swiftness/superspeed to briefly leave behind fields that pulse the poison or torment conditions as you move, promoting active positioning?

    Another option is to think of something akin to Spoil Victor from Guild Wars 1. Spoil Victor made foes that attack you lose health if you had less health than them. With how Blight reduces your health it seems to fit the theme of Harbinger perfectly. I am unsure how to translate this idea into a GW2 trait version, but that is something I am sure Anet can figure out.

    Another idea: Considering how Shroud-focused Harbinger is, why not make the Grandmaster traits somehow change how the shroud functions all together. Basically the Daredevil approach, where each dodge got changed in addition to a power/condi/cleanse/speed bonus.

    Closing statement

    I am not saying these are the best solutions, or even that they are good solutions. I am not a game designer. Anet is. I am just hoping that something, somehwere, in this wall of text, gives them a nudge into a creative direction for this spec and to make it more engaging and active. I have seen people saying they are happy that the new specs are less complex, I have even seen people saying they feel like the majority of the gameplay of a specialisation should revolve around pressing 1 for the most part. I think it is pretty clear I completely disagree with that sentiment, and I hope Anet (and those that cared to read all of this) do as well.

    Thank you for reading!

    submitted by /u/Geralt_Romalion
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    Our static did Dhuum CM and the whole time while watching the Echo on the minimap this is all I could think of

    Posted: 17 Aug 2021 08:05 PM PDT
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