The HoD Sword

Think of what goes in the offhand. The Yak doesn't have 20% fast cast along with recharge.

Is 5 energy really THAT big of an advantage? Using the sword nets you ONE more cast of orison, ONE more cast of reversal of fortune, ONE more cast of shielding hands. In the end, is that one more cast of a 5 mana spell going to make a clear advantage? The outcome of a battle is so rarely decided by one additional cast of a 5 mana spell. And besides, the bonus mana from the sword is only helping if your mana dips below 5 without it.

The Lieutenant helm effectively halves the effect of a hex, making it a much more imbalanced item than the HoD sword.

And the guy with the HoD sword can't attack at a range and can't do any damage in melee unless he has 9 swordsmanship.

The dance continues.

And I'll sell you mine for the low low price of 250 rubies.

Again, see my above post.

And as far as I'm concerned, that extra 5 energy becomes more and more important as the battle rages on. First its one orison, in ten minutes of a battle its 100 orisons.

20/20 axe was an abomination which Anet never intended to be present in the game. Because of this deliberate exploit, Anet was forced, and rightly so, to remove the item from the game. They did NOT put this item into the game; it was a mere exploit that was wiped frome existance.

HoD items, Rockmolder, etc. are accidents made exclusively by Anet. Removing the items would "hurt" the people who already LEGITLY acquired the items. There was no but, no exploit, no anything against the EULA. Anet made a mistake, and they fixed it by stopping more from coming into existance. They won't bother destroying items which existed from previous collectors/crafters because it was their fault, not the players.

LT helms are a discussion of their own, and I'm sure Anet will initiate something, if they feel it's an unbalanced item. What you won't see is the disappearance of every helm in the game; it's not the player's fault Anet screwed up by creating the helm and allowing its continued crafting/use.

On a different note, no one has the right to complain about not having access to HoD items or any other previously "nerfed" items. If you want it bad enough, you'll trade for one. They're not overwhelmingly high in price, so stop digging up old topics because you don't want to spend the gold. A HoD sword only provides 2 more eng than most staves/rod+focus combos; if a 20% enchant mod is so important to you, have one on switch for casting aegis or what have you. Think outside the box and find cost-effective ways around items such as HoD. >.>

I don't know about most, but when you're monking you're not worried about dealing damage.

Unless your mana drops below 5, then recharges back to maximum 100 times in a battle, you will not be getting 100 more orisons in. The HoD sword only increases your maximum energy, so unless you use all of your energy and fully recharge, you are only getting 5 bonus mana to play with.

K, so the 20/20, which was an accident is a bad thing, but the HoD which was an accident is an ok thing.

These players would be "hurt" by having the HoD sword taken away, yet they're allowed to make 100's of plat worth of gold from it. Ya that's fair and balanced.

Think outside the box for a cost effective way around the item such as the HoD...

Hmm.
I don't think I can come up with anything close to a +17 Energy, 20/20 cast/recharege, +20 enchant weapon combo, that also reduces bleeding time for kicks.

Who people who don't have the time to grind for 300K to buy one CAN'T play with.

PH34Rrr MY NEW TOMBS BUILD! 8 MONKS WITH 5+ ENERGY, NON MAX DAMAGE SWORDS! BWHAHAHAH!

Yes, that's right! No bonus recharge or casting speed! 5+ energy! A total 47 Energy over 43! I am so evil!

When Factions comes out, i shall use this awesome build to take over the world and become the new Dark Lord of the Sith! AND I SHALL MAKE A GUILD CALLED 'Teh Sith Lords [PWN]'! It shall last 1000 years!

Phear me, mortals! I am Lord Hod! Master of Space and Time and Swords and Pwn!

So refund them the iron and gold that they paid to have it crafted? Hell let them keep the mods they put on for all I care.

Long story short, you can still put a mod in the pommel, while you can not put a mod into a wand.

There are two choices for these "rare" attribute items. They can be removed, or they can insert a way to customise any property on any piece of equipment. Either way it becomes balanced for everyone.

The 20/20 is no accident, it was a hack.

Define hack. I was under the impression you just took whatever axe hilts you wanted and could stack them. Hack would mean people were using a third party program to manipulate Guild Wars..

ANY sword with a 20% enchant mod, a reduce bleeding mod, and a 12/20/20 collector focus from the desert. The only real cost is the 20% enchant mod.

The reason as to why someone would grind 300k gold to have 5 more energy than another setups still baffles me. Give me one good reason why it is worth 300k to have 5 more energy.

I don't believe I've ever ran across a "reduces bleeding" sword from Pre to UW.

Its not the 5 more energy that's the most important, its the ability to have +20 enchant with 20/20 casting WITH +5 energy.

As the title of this thread is "The HoD Sword", I think it's a bit unfair and even misrepresenting to bring in Ensign's comment on the Henge Helm. You want to make a case for the Helm being unbalanced, or not available to PvP-Only Characters then go ahead. You have a reasonable case to make.

You can also make the case to reinstate these item.

But the HoD sword and the 20% Rock are not unbalancing. They offer minor improvements over the normal items, by having a single slightly above spec attribute.

If you think you need an HoD or 20% Rock to be as good as everyone else, you're deeply mistaken. The advantages granted by these items are not going to save you from, or let you beat a skilled player.

If someone with an HoD can beat you easily, then I'll bet 100k that they can do it without the HoD just as easily.

Usually, the argument against these items sounds more like envy, not imbalance. The "Have Nots' ringing the 'Imbalance' bell because people listen to them then. Not saying that's happening here, but people need to keep that in mind when making arguments against the HoD and Rock.

I strongly suspect the reason for removal of the HoD sword was the 55 Invincimonks, not any PvP imbalance. They simply didn't want to encourage solo farming. But removing ALL HoD swords would have not been fair to all the non-55ers, especially the Warrior community, who was clearly the intended original target of the HoD. ArenaNet simply did not expect a solo build to appear and for the sword to fit that build so well. It's not an imbalance, it's a retrospective correction.

The Rockmolder was likely an 'oops'. But the advantage is minor.....and more importantly...it's unpredictable. You can't base a build around the minor advantage it provides. When you come up with that killer Illusion build that NEEDS a Rock, you let me know.

That's MY opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

Okay, then...

First: Hod with 20% enchanting and a 12/20/20 collector's offhand does not provide lessened bleeding duration.

Second: A 10/20/20 collector's staff with a +5 insightful and a 20% of enchanting mod will give you... again... 2 less energy than using a HoD sword.

So I can come up with "anything close" very easily. The HoD user gains 2 energy and loses the ability to attack at a range.

With a sword with a 20% enchant mod, and a focus with 20/20 casting, you have the exact same thing, EXCEPT for the +5 energy the HoD sword offers. How can you then say

Staffs can have that aswel,
Energy +10
11-22 dmg
20% Recharge
20% Cast
+20% staff wrapping
+5 Energy Head