Is Anet biased against casters?

generik

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Just a little observation, when you get your amulet of the mists, you can trade it for cool looking ceremonal daggers, Shiro's sword, and of course for the casters you also have the wonderful wayward wand and a straw stick figure.

Likewise for The Deep you have wonderful glowing GREEN Zodiac hammers and swords and axes, but none for the casters. The zodiac skins for the staffs and wands do exist in game mind you, but unless you have the ability to fork out the 100K and 300 ectos to own one of these Kanaxai greens, it is unlikely you will EVER get a good usable zodiac staff/wand.

Why is there this bias? Maybe all the casters in Cantha should file a petition to have Anet introduce new Kanaxai wands and starves!

Esprit

Esprit

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Dvd Forums [DVDF]

E/

Don't forget the focii.

In Tombs, most of the green drops are wands, staves, focii, and one of the 2 bows. Getting Victor's Maul is common, the Axe and Sword a little less so, and the shield even more rare.

Maybe The Deep is a balance of that. The Zodiac skins are rare now, but in a couple of months, they'll be just like Tombs items, I imagine.

RinkXing

RinkXing

Academy Page

Join Date: Dec 2005

United Kingdom

Biscuit of Dewm [MEEP]

N/

I've got a Zodiac Staff for the Rit I think, somewhere in storage anyway, it's gold obviously, but well they're there.

The reason Kanaxai would only drop melee weapons is because he doesn't use the other stuff like wands, etc.

I personally think it's fine, now if there wasn't any zodiac caster weapons at all, I'd have to go get a plank and throw it at some heads,

generik

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Esprit
Don't forget the focii.

In Tombs, most of the green drops are wands, staves, focii, and one of the 2 bows. Getting Victor's Maul is common, the Axe and Sword a little less so, and the shield even more rare.
Yes, but let's not forget most of the ToPK focii are worthless.

As in, really worthless.

I'd take a collector's anyday over those items that aren't even worth the 35g the merchant pays out. They are pretty much that bad.

greenlantern

greenlantern

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

OA

C'mon is this the best complaint that you can come up with? They give you an option at the to pick from a perfect wand or perfect focii for each profession at the end of the game. ANET is doing just fine. Find a valid argument.

-Loki-

-Loki-

Forge Runner

Join Date: Oct 2005

When I did the Deep, 1/3 of my chest drops were Zodiac Staffs.

makosi

makosi

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

"Pre-nerf" is incorrect. It's pre-buff.

Requirement Begins With R [notQ]

Me/

I've noticed the emphasis on warrior and ranger items in GW and GW:F. For example there are many different bow, axe, hammer and sword skins in the game but how many skins are there for staves? I guess its easier to model these weapons because there are real life swords and axes etc yet the caster items were fabricated from the designers' imaginations.

It is still annoiyng that casters have the choice of the wayward wand or the <fugly> straw effigy where as the non-casters get a nice variety for their amulet.

Nexium

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2006

yeah kinda cheap i think well for ele the wands where all the same it could have been diffrent for water air etc...and all the wand where hte same for all classes and those skins arent even uniq to the end-game thingy since you can get most of those skins in ''The Deep''

Ira Blinks

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2006

my amulet of mists is still in storage... thinkin of selling it as is.

makosi

makosi

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

"Pre-nerf" is incorrect. It's pre-buff.

Requirement Begins With R [notQ]

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ira Blinks
my amulet of mists is still in storage... thinkin of selling it as is.
I have 3 they're getting rusty.

Deviant Angel

Deviant Angel

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2006

On a boat!

Homeless.

Mo/

If they gave the bosses in the elite missions caster stuff, I could see it now... "Ah nuts, stupid wand! Anybody wanna trade?"

Zodiac wands and staffs are very common and the reaction from most people after opening a chest and finding one is usually dissapointment... followed by even more moaning after IDing. Majority of the warrior, ranger, and assassin stuff is usually worth less than what was paid for the key as well, so it's not just casters that have trouble finding the perfect zodiac weapon. Sometimes you will get something good, sometimes you won't, it's just a risk you take with any chest.

So what if those bosses don't drop caster stuff! If you get a green, sell it and go buy a perfect zodiac staff or wand from a player if that's what you really want!

As for the straw effigy, I kinda like it. I guess it could be my mood lately, but I like carrying around something that resembles a voodoo doll... especially with a fire wand in the other hand.

*coughs* And um... sell the amulet as quickly as possible if you're not wanting anything, the prices are getting lower and lower.

lyra_song

lyra_song

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Oct 2005

R/Mo

I think something else to factor in is the fact the randomness of weapons doesnt apply so heavily towards the non-caster weapons.

Staves, Wands and Focii have MUCH MUCH more crazy possibilities with attributes and requirements that swords, axes, bows, hammers, shields, daggers ever will.

If you get a sword, it will always require swordsmanship. Theres very few sword mods that are un-usable, even if not maxed.

Staves can require ANY attribute, and could have modifiers from something else (Like triple and quad attribute staves)

What use is a staff req Fire, giving a +1 to curses, and 10% recharge on divine prayers?

Warriors, Rangers, and Sins only have to deal with the possible 20>50 or -10 while attacking mods.

Deviant Angel

Deviant Angel

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2006

On a boat!

Homeless.

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by lyra_song
What use is a staff req Fire, giving a +1 to curses, and 10% recharge on divine prayers?
I think I actually GOT that staff one night!

OKay okay, not exactly... but I get alot that are mixed like that, which are useless.

CyberNigma

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2006

San Antonio, TX

W/R

I don't think they're biased against casters at all. If you think about it, a caster's ability to prove useful revolves around the caster himself/herself. This is pretty common in fantasy books and movies (though not the rule), whereas for a warrior (fantasy or sci-fi) it has more to do with his weapon (excalibur, krull, kull's axe). Warriors identify themselves with their big badass weapon (dirty harry's big-assed gun, rambo's guns-out-of-the-arse, arnold's mini-gun).

The most powerful class (opinion, but shared amongst others as well) in the game (pve-wise) currently is the Spiteful/Shivers/MM/Touch-Kill necromancer (not all of the above, but from the above). There's not much they can't do. In the recent past tanks have been used as book carriers, torch bearers, keg poppers, etc. Cut them some slack and at least let them have something in their favor (a badass looking weapon and/or shield of some sort).

Disclaimer: this post doesn't say that there aren't other 'good' combinations of classes or that 'you' have a problem with your class in particular (as some people will read into that).

Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2006

I agree that casters get shafted in certain areas, but I expect some imbalance since Warriors are a heavy equipment based class. Still though, Anet can do much better by us caster folk.

...and as for you Straw Effigy haters out there - that end game green is actually dyeable (I guess anet made an exception/mistake there?) Either way, it takes to colors really well. I dyed mine silver and it looks awesome.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

What i don't get is why they didn't introduce a decent skin for a staff. Shadow Staffs? Who the hell wants that decrepid thing. Why not give us a Chaos Staff/Scepter or something, you know, it glows bright red of something. Something that will actually look 'pretty' as oppose to that lump of dead wood.

And yeah caster items are utterly retarded for bonus'. It would be nice if they actually limited bonus' to something that might be useful. I mean keep it the damn bonus' within the same profession. Who the hell wants a Req Earth, Skill Recharge Death, Cast Time Domination focus?

SnipiousMax

SnipiousMax

Perfectly Elocuted

Join Date: Sep 2005

^ I always think it's funny when I get a staff with more than one Primary attribute!

I seriously got a staff which req Divine Favor, and had Fast Cast and Spawning mods on it.

Evilsod

Evilsod

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

England

Lievs Death Squad [LDS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by SnipiousMax
^ I always think it's funny when I get a staff with more than one Primary attribute!

I seriously got a staff which req Divine Favor, and had Fast Cast and Spawning mods on it.
Gotta love multi-Primary stat items

Although i think it could've used a 'Soul Reaping +1 while using skills' mod.

achilles ankle

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2006

USA

The Primevil Spartans

A/

I think that the Zodiac staffs are almost the new Raven staffs. Going to the deep only a total of 4 times, 3/4 of the GOOD things i got where zodiac staffs, whether that be from chests or drops. They were gold mostly but they had mods ranging from spawning to water magic to soulreaping. They have all differnt types of mods, just like raven staffs and they also have the totaly random mods such as req fire magic, halves casting time of healing prayers.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

It's nigh-impossible to get a good caster item to drop, so even though there are some nice skins in the game now they aren't something people can realistically use unless you write off stats completely. This is largely because these items have two mods each, and draw from a huge pool of mods - many of which are entirely useless.

Warrior and ranger items on the other hand have only one mod, and that mod has a very good chance of being a good one. If you see a zodiac sword drop, for instance, it likely has around 1:10 odds of being a perfect 15>50 or 15/-5 weapon. On the other hand, if you see a zodiac staff drop you're looking at maybe 1:10,000 odds - at best - of it being something comparable to a collector or crafted item.

Warriors and rangers also get a better selection of green items to use. Again this comes down to there being less mods for them so there are less combinations to sort through. Of course, the fact that almost all the green staves are junked up by +energy mods doesn't help.

Basically golds are easy enough to get for physicals that they get to look through the different models for what they want to customize their looks, while casters can't reasonably find any gold drops for themselves and end up looking over collector and crafter lists as a result.

Peace,
-CxE

Stabber

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

Plane of Oblivion

Sigilum Sanguis [keep]

Me/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ira Blinks
my amulet of mists is still in storage... thinkin of selling it as is.
The window of opportunity for getting a good price on them is nearly past, I think. Very few people redeem their amulets, so I expect that soon (if not already) a large mass of players will want to sell them.

SpeedyKQ

SpeedyKQ

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

E/Me

I don't think they're biased against casters in general, but sure, caster weapon skins could use some love. The 20 versions of wayward wands and straw effigies was pretty lame.

Ira Blinks

Banned

Join Date: Feb 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stabber
The window of opportunity for getting a good price on them is nearly past, I think. Very few people redeem their amulets, so I expect that soon (if not already) a large mass of players will want to sell them.
I was just saying it to emphasize that I dont have any use for it atm. End game caster items are worthless.
Price of the ammy isnt something to be very excited about either, so I'd rather keep it hoping some day ANet will put some decent items there.

shadowfell

shadowfell

hamonite anur ruk

Join Date: Jan 2006

Echovald Forest

[PhD] Teh Academy

Me/A

Perfect 5^50 20% End game wand.. I'm happy with it ^^. Skin blows, but oh well.

But yah... btw, for whoever said Zodiac was rare.. I just thought I might like to point out that zodiac skins are the most common in the game. =]

Seriously.

robrobrob

Banned

Join Date: May 2006

Quote:
You get an amulet to trade in for a green. ArenaNet, in their infinite wisdom (by ‘infinite’ I mean ’sort of a lot.’ Secret emphasis on the ’sort of’), saw fit to let us casters get either a wand or an offhand. That’s right, no combo for you. Do they offer staves? Of course not!
Quote:
There’s only one logical explanation for this: ArenaNet hates casters. Of course, I’m not entirely serious sure. I am starting to wonder, though.
I agree with OP

Divinus Stella

Divinus Stella

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

Wales

Steel Phoenix

The endgame caster items suck, wands with +5 coniditonal energy (why is it still conditional), focii with +30 health isntead of a casting bonus then a +1 attrib have good uses but i'd much rather have casting speed bonuses.
All of the wands and focii look the same and are merely elite mission skins, for all attribs and professions, but for rangers and warriors they have unique skins.

Most of what ensign said was true, of the decent caster skins that exist in guildwars, your extremely unlikely to get a perfect 20/20 staff for a single attrib, and if one comes along it wont be 100-200k like most perfect warrior gear, itll be millions, a 20/20 platinum fire staff would be nice, but if it drops, its not gonna be cheap.

Panacea

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2005

I just wanna correct someone here on a statement they made. First off, bows have two mods - grip and bowstring. They don't require any other skills, aside from the grip of marksmanship. The swords have the handle and the blade, I'm pretty sure. The issue isn't how many mods can have on it, it's how many mods it has to chose from. Like said above, there's alot more mods for staves to have. I'd much prefer it if ANet could impliment a nice limiting factor that would leave the staves as to having only two professions required. Not like the three (I've gotten one of those) as stated above. It shouldn't be that hard to do. I dunno, I have been having issues getting staves for my casters, and it's rather annoying.

lyra_song

lyra_song

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Oct 2005

R/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Panacea
I just wanna correct someone here on a statement they made. First off, bows have two mods - grip and bowstring. They don't require any other skills, aside from the grip of marksmanship. The swords have the handle and the blade, I'm pretty sure. The issue isn't how many mods can have on it, it's how many mods it has to chose from. Like said above, there's alot more mods for staves to have. I'd much prefer it if ANet could impliment a nice limiting factor that would leave the staves as to having only two professions required. Not like the three (I've gotten one of those) as stated above. It shouldn't be that hard to do. I dunno, I have been having issues getting staves for my casters, and it's rather annoying.
Hes talking about built in modifiers. Not the prefix and suffix mods. Those can always be replaced, so they dont matter on a drop.

Weapons can have only 1 of the following modifiers as maximum (forgive me if i miss any):
+15% unconditional (good luck finding these)
+15% while health is above 50%
+20% while health is below 50%
+15% while enchanted
+15% while in stance
+15% vs Hexed
+15% while hexed
+5 Energy
+15% -10 armor while attacking
+15% energy regen -1
+15% energy -5
+15% health regen -1

Look at all of these. Altthough some of them are not exactly great, most of the mods are very usable, even if conditional.

Im not gonna get into shields, focii and wands, because i dont have enough knowledge of their mods.

Caster Staves can have TWO OR MORE built in modifiers including:
20% faster recharge of a specific attribute
20% faster cast of a specific attribute
Just within the two above you have TONS of possibilities, already outnumbering the mods on weapons.

You can also have:
10% universal faster recharge
10% universal faster cast
Lowers (insert condition here) duration by 20%

The problem is, its incredibly hard to get a staff with a useful set of built in mods with the proper attributes lined up along with the requirement. Collectors staves ALWAYS have perfect mods.

so as you can clearly see, weapons have the advantage already.

Vermilion Okeanos

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2005

Staves also becomming more of a lesser equipment for the caster, when it is put up against +5 energy wand/sword/axe. Especially the +5 energy melee weapon with their 1 more slot for a suffix mod.

The last time I wand someone to death was... a few month ago in random arena, but that was because his/her health was low.

But chances of finding good focus and wand is like impossible, that give another edge to the +5 energy weapon as it can be customized quite easily.

floppinghog

floppinghog

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

pit of brimstone

Squad Six Six Six [ssss]

A/Me

you can have as much as +20% while hexed also for weaps

focii can have +armor mods, i've got a +8 armor (health>50%) cesta claw thingy for necro with +12 energy. it dont have any other spell mods though.. thus kinda blows in most situations.

wands can have same i believe but yep! ---
staves piss me off, they always suck ass. i got this REALLY awesome spirit light tree staff thingy (u know the one the professor hench has?) its like +4 energy insight +5 armor hand part whatever --- and like screw it lemme log on and see... hmmm

insightful holy branch of defense
energy +10
fire dmg 11-22 req 13 divine favor
halves casting time of healing prayers spells chance 19%
halves skill recharge of spells chance 10%
energy +4
armor +5

its not that bad BUT DAMN its still like the ONLY gold staff ive got thats worth jack

oh and anyone wanna buy? lol... its really not that great.. healing cast time.. and 10% recharge of whatever blahhhh least it looks kinda cool

Nexium

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2006

Best Focus i gor was Protective Icon and it was Gold and had -20hp +5Arm 19%recharge onSmite prayer.. i dont know if it worth any but best ive found,,
though it whould be nice for 55hp Monks i whith dp i guess...

Red

Red

Rawr!

Join Date: Mar 2006

Kentucky, USA

Team Love [kiSu]

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by lyra_song
What use is a staff req Fire, giving a +1 to curses, and 10% recharge on divine prayers?
Amen.

floppinghog

floppinghog

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

pit of brimstone

Squad Six Six Six [ssss]

A/Me

i still have my very first gold staff drop on my ele.
it wasnt all THAT bad for my E/Me but well you'll see why it still sucked:

hale fire staff of domination magic
energy+10
firedmg 10-20 req12
half skill recharge of blood magic spells 18%
health+29
domination magic +1 16%
yaya it was my FIRST ONE - what is it? its essentially crap...

Stockholm

Stockholm

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Censored

Censored

R/

Worst is that Rare's are not always MAX dmg. What good is a Rare weapon thats 2-3 points lower than Max? That's not Rare, not even uncommen.

Ure Maker

Ure Maker

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

yer right....

Suicide Bunnies

R/Me

yer problem is i got 1 melee character (assasin) i got shiro blades and the 15k imperial armour for him, but, well all my other 5 there going to have have......

a item micky take of FF weapons , and oh wait............a wand with a skin youcan get on the elite missions blah...wat happened to things like Rago's items for ele, something that looks exotic, not something that looks like Anet rushed it out nvr got round to makin caster skins so they through on the rarest skinned caster weapons they had

Ure Maker

Ure Maker

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

yer right....

Suicide Bunnies

R/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by achilles ankle
I think that the Zodiac staffs are almost the new Raven staffs. Going to the deep only a total of 4 times, 3/4 of the GOOD things i got where zodiac staffs, whether that be from chests or drops. They were gold mostly but they had mods ranging from spawning to water magic to soulreaping. They have all differnt types of mods, just like raven staffs and they also have the totaly random mods such as req fire magic, halves casting time of healing prayers.
precisly wtf are anet thinking with having a fire staff with healing prayers for instant, IF we want a mod like that why can they have a NPC selling such mods or get them as drops, many times iv got great drops almost near perfect only to see that it had a earth mod when it req a necro -.-

floppinghog

floppinghog

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

pit of brimstone

Squad Six Six Six [ssss]

A/Me

they really should change the way staffs /wands /focii randomize when they drop.. cause really, if a staff req's fire, MAKE IT have only fire type mods, cant it be easy?

maybe the way it should be is, it may have one of the mods (half casting time or half recharge time) but it HAS to have ONE of them at least - RELATED to the attribute req. for dmg. Also they should have a big chance for 20% on the single mod.

Gold's should have a huge chance for both mods, but still possible for under 20% mods.. so all you need is a mod to do what you want with what you get (like it is for a melee weap).

For wand's im sure they aren't that bad, but the sheer amount of sub-par gold stated ones are pathetic. same goes for the focii, they just down right suck with the near useless mods, oh boy, +5 armor while casting INSTEAD of anything else... not that great for a gold huh? i notice that its really rare to find a +hp focus too, and its never +30. ever.

More skins that rival melee skin pool would be nice too.. but w/e... ill use collectors nontheless in the mean time

Curse You

Curse You

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2006

South Pole

The Magus Order

N/Mo

I was sure I posted here earlier...
Anyhow,

One of my guildies got a staff that was:

Light Damage 11-22 (Requires 12 Smiting Prayers)
Halves skill recharge of Domination Magic spells (Chance: 19%)
Halves casting time of Earth Magic spells (Chance 19%)

At first glance you may think this staff useless. But if you look closely, you can see that is is a good staff for a Elementalist with a mesmer secondary.
Simply use Earth Magic for damage, and then use Domination Magic to disable your ememies. This way you can devestate them with damage, while making them unable to do anything about it. The weapon damage on a staff is never a big issue.

So some of these staffs may apear useless, but can in fact be used to some effect.

Theus

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

W/Mo

Seriously.

I do not enjoy opening a Deep chest only to find out I got a gold Zodiac Staff with a Fire Req,a Domination skill recharge and a Blood Magic casting time mod on it.

I don't even understand as to WHY they would let such wands even spawn.

As for good looking Staff skins, the only one I ever saw wasythe WillCrusher.But..Too bad it has incredibliy shitty mods.

lg5000

lg5000

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2005

Australia

Maybe they're hinting that you can have 3 professions soon?