Bloggi

Lordkrall, on 21 May 2013 - 07:42 AM, said:

Yes, and the article also mentions that world xp (which affects the rise in rank) will be awarded for performing other productive (but previously unrewarding) activities such as repairing walls. But there remains a concern of whether the next most efficient way of earning badges in WvW is still going to be tagging in zerg clashes. If this is the case, we'll just have bigger zerg fights.

Here's the website that ProfGast was referring to, in case you're looking for a direct link:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/

Just a brief comment though, stacking toughness and focusing on DPS is really looking at two things that are virtually mutually exclusive. Toughness is a defensive stat, so by virtue of that, being more defensive will reduce your DPS. If you are looking for toughness while doing moderate amounts of damage, then yes, Knight's gear is your best bet. But if you want to truly focus on DPS, look at Berserker's gear. In the game's current state, Berserker's gear is all the buzz as people chase DPS to its very ceiling.

The ability to get ascended gear through the WvW system will be good for some: 1) People who don't want to, or can't dedicate the time to Fractals, 2) People who have been unable to get into Guild Missions on a regular basis for the commendations due to timezone differences or other commitments, 3) People who spend a lot of their game time in WvW.

Those three things describe myself to some degree, and it's added flexibility which could be a good thing so I should be happy (don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the game). Having said that, I'm sure that the ascended gear will require a buttload of WvW badges and a whole slew of other things (eg. coin or ectoplasm) to obtain. Happily enough, I refrained from spending those WvW badges yesterday on a set of invader's armor...

If they don't improve the amount of badges awarded to people doing things other than running with the zerg (ie. sentrying, repairing, building siege, escorting yaks etc), then all we're going to be seeing is bigger zergs.

Well I get where you're coming from. Ultimately though, you got to play what is fun for you. If part of that fun means being easily accepted into a dungeon group, then well we have our answer: roll one of the classes in the current 'trinity' for today's meta. For me, part of the fun is feeling useful in a group. In that sense, being useful in today's meta does require certain qualities which fortunately or not, is what the current trinity appears to provide in spades. I've put at least three times the amount of hours into my elementalist compared to my guardian, but I've seen myself just how much easier I can make a dungeon run (not just for myself, but for my group) just by taking the guardian instead of my elementalist.

So in the end it boils down to this: less effort yet more useful. On nights when I just want to come home from work and have some low-stress gaming, that's really important.

On that note I've tried really hard to not be partial to any one of my toons, outfitting each and every one with the best gear I can afford, aesthetics included. It gives me the flexibility to use any of those toons, anytime, regardless of changes to the current meta. So I don't subscribe by any means to the 'go Trinity or go home' mentality. However I must stress that each person must play what is fun for them to play.

And I've said this before elsewhere, but I'll say it again: at the end of the game's lifecycle, nobody cares about what fat loot we found in the game, how much in-game coin we have or how many achievements were credited to our account. We take away nothing but the experience, and if we're lucky in a multi-player game, maybe a few friends. So don't chase loot to the point of exclusion of everything else.

If I had the time, I'd watch more of it.