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[Vigilant Walrus]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to move while in the downed state after using a downed skill.

But I want this. I think you should be able to crawl in downed state. Perhaps even have a few classes with minor traits that lets them crawl faster.

I like downed state, but I don't like being stationary. I think being able to move, would make it feel more fresh. Maybe you can't attack while moving!?

There could be some cool strategy with it. Or if you could grab a downed player and drag him out of an AOE field. It would just be problematic if people could take a downed player and drag them off the edge of a map in EOTM or something. But I still like the idea.



And speaking of this, I want them to make it so that reviving downed players (not completely dead) yields progress towards completion. On world bosses and Silverwaste, I am sometimes afraid I wont do enough damage to register for gold completion if I spend time reviving people. It's a really big problem, and something I've also felt trying to do condi cleansing cleric builds with low damage. I really hope they will change this.

 

[Taffer]

They slightly changed the UI so I can't select johnny flesh golem if he's already been summoned in order to dismiss him, I have to switch to another skill and switch back to be rid of him.
This is mildly inconvenient sometimes!

 

[shysaursoft]

Hmm what is streamed first?

Usually, the tutorial area for the race you picked, and all necessary files. It's a kind of 'on demand' thing, depending on what the player is doing, Just like Guild Wars 1, or WoW.

 

[Proven]

New blog post too



So the next "content update" will have the core specs. I dunno if that means two weeks or not.

Yeah I just saw that, kind of weird to write a blog post about the next update just as an update comes out... For a second, I thought they were talking about this update, and maybe the patch notes just didn't mention anything about Lion's Arch.

Also, not naming the lighthouse after Graidy is a crime.

Dwayna Outfit might look good on my mesmer though.

Pulling an E3 'Available now' announcement maybe ? who knows.

I doubt we'll get the update for at least a month, but that's assuming they want to make it a really big patch. Currently we have Core Specializations, Lion's Arch Revitalization, and Personal Story fixes all planned to come in soon. Lion's Arch might even come as a mini Living Story episode if they expand on the Karka immediately.

Since ANet will be at the PC Gaming E3 thing it looks more and more like we'll at least get a price and the ability to pre-purchase during/right after that show.

This is actually pretty likely, now that I think about it. Although even as I say that I want to give it a 50/50 chance. Anyone know if ANet is giving a presentation next week or if they'll just have a blog post + press release on the day of the show?

I'm more excited for the Core Specializations coming than anything else, hah.

Amen.

 

[Minamu]

But I want this. I think you should be able to crawl in downed state. Perhaps even have a few classes with minor traits that lets them crawl faster.

I like downed state, but I don't like being stationary. I think being able to move, would make it feel more fresh. Maybe you can't attack while moving!?

There could be some cool strategy with it. Or if you could grab a downed player and drag him out of an AOE field. It would just be problematic if people could take a downed player and drag them off the edge of a map in EOTM or something. But I still like the idea.



And speaking of this, I want them to make it so that reviving downed players (not completely dead) yields progress towards completion. On world bosses and Silverwaste, I am sometimes afraid I wont do enough damage to register for gold completion if I spend time reviving people. It's a really big problem, and something I've also felt trying to do condi cleansing cleric builds with low damage. I really hope they will change this.

I agree completely. I tend to use my teleport on my mesmer when I get downed, and that usually brings me further into pain because of AOEs. Sucks and it's boring just lying there. The mesmer down skills aren't doing much at all or I'm playing terribly after 3 years. The teleport and clone creation can't even protect me from pvp finishers. Feels completely useless. Crawling could add some variety and ressing should definitely be encouraged!

 

[Zeroth]

I would be surprised if the trait revamp comes out so soon. We know a few stuff already changed from the last time they did a ready up on em.

 

[Proven]

But I want this. I think you should be able to crawl in downed state. Perhaps even have a few classes with minor traits that lets them crawl faster.

I like downed state, but I don't like being stationary. I think being able to move, would make it feel more fresh. Maybe you can't attack while moving!?

There could be some cool strategy with it. Or if you could grab a downed player and drag him out of an AOE field. It would just be problematic if people could take a downed player and drag them off the edge of a map in EOTM or something. But I still like the idea.



And speaking of this, I want them to make it so that reviving downed players (not completely dead) yields progress towards completion. On world bosses and Silverwaste, I am sometimes afraid I wont do enough damage to register for gold completion if I spend time reviving people. It's a really big problem, and something I've also felt trying to do condi cleansing cleric builds with low damage. I really hope they will change this.

I made a post on the official forums about the downed state a while back. Basically, I wished it gave a notification to party members and went by faster (both decaying health speed and revive speed).

But if all you're looking for is a fresh feeling, I'd recommend becoming a squid.

 

[Ashodin]

I need Core Specs! SYMBOL GUARDIAN MUST LIVE

 

[_woLf]

Has anyone discovered any hidden additions to Lion's Arch with this patch? Newly added construction sights?

 

[Hawkian]

We should decide on a time everyone is available, and we can look around for other events in the area while we are at it.

Oh yeah did we ever rock this? I wanna do that event

 

[Moondrop]

But I want this. I think you should be able to crawl in downed state. Perhaps even have a few classes with minor traits that lets them crawl faster.

I would support crawling. I think Fallout or some of the older RPGs have equivalent systems.

I made a post on the official forums about the downed state a while back. Basically, I wished it gave a notification to party members and went by faster (both decaying health speed and revive speed).

I'm not saying some of these tweaks wouldn't be for the better, but there's so many interconnected systems: stomp speed, revival skill (e.g. warbanner) cast times, etc. But in a vacuum, I would posit that quicker revive speed would lead to a return of a bunker meta- not good times.

But if all you're looking for is a fresh feeling, I'd recommend becoming a squid.

Staaaay fresh! *wiggles hands with limp wrists and fingers

 

[spiritfox]

Dear god that Dwayna outfit. I know it's a copy from GW1 but that is a shit design. Plus it looks stupid on Asura and Charr. Well more stupid than usual anyway.

 

[Morokh]

But I want this. I think you should be able to crawl in downed state. Perhaps even have a few classes with minor traits that lets them crawl faster.

I like downed state, but I don't like being stationary. I think being able to move, would make it feel more fresh. Maybe you can't attack while moving!?

There could be some cool strategy with it. Or if you could grab a downed player and drag him out of an AOE field. It would just be problematic if people could take a downed player and drag them off the edge of a map in EOTM or something. But I still like the idea.

The issue here is that it prevented downed people to be stomped, didn't work well in sPvP.

 

[Nemesis121]

So happy Anet change the login reward system, I log get my reward and log out, maybe when LA gets rebuilt i will play again..

 

[Boss Doggie]

Here :

Ah interesting. I guess they're not so secret anymore. Already gotten them so that's why I didn't get the update!

Usually, the tutorial area for the race you picked, and all necessary files. It's a kind of 'on demand' thing, depending on what the player is doing, Just like Guild Wars 1, or WoW.

I see. It makes me wonder since you'd have characters on different places.

The face sells it.

 

[Emitan]

Finally did it again

my thief is almost ready for heart of thorns now! just missing ascended gear

 

[UltimateIke]

Bearbow makes you look lazy. Wolfsword is where it's at.

Same amount of (non)effort, much faster results. And it looks like you are trying.

Oh yeah did we ever rock this? I wanna do that event

We've not gotten everyone together yet, no. It's hard to find a common time when people are on.

 

[Shanlei91]

Wolf Sword?

zzzzzz

Ice Bow and Lightning Hammer getting nerfed. Time to switch classes again?

 

[appletoasty]

The ice bow nerf is warranted - ice storm is straight up broken, I don't think anyone will disagree with that - but I'm not sure I understand the lightning hammer damage nerf. In PvE it is mostly used as a surrogate autoattack for scepter builds because scepter has strong might stacking potential but crappy autos. The blast finisher and aoe blind every 3rd hit is kind of strong but they mentioned nerfing LH damage, not the utility. :| I would like to hear what the changes are and the reasoning behind it but that's yet to come. Still gonna wait until after they mention actual changes and then get the pitchforks but bleh. They backpedaled and moved boon on attune away from grandmaster (yay) so it seems nothing is set in stone yet.

It's like they want people to play boring old staff and camp fire forever zzzzzzzzz

 

[shysaursoft]

I see. It makes me wonder since you'd have characters on different places.
.

Well, the streaming client is more for totally new players, so they can get into the game faster than waiting for a 20GB download, that gets bigger as time goes by. New players won't have multiple characters yet.

 

[Shanlei91]

I'm putting all my faith into one handed sword going to Ele and it being amazing.

 

[shysaursoft]

Ooh, wallet changes: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/

Will now be stored in wallet:

Pristine Fractal Relics
WvW Tournament Claim Tickets
Geodes
Bandit Crests

Along with changes for the new Spirit Shard system.

Also, wow: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/combat-changes-dotsanddashes/

Soon, each intensity-stacking damaging condition will stack to a much larger number. While I can’t reveal that number today because we’re still doing performance tests, let’s just say it’s large enough that you should never notice it while you’re playing, even during world boss fights.


Essentially, there will be no more limit on damaging conditions. You’ll no longer be punished or punish others when you choose a playstyle that focuses on causing damage over time.

 

[Dog Problems]

Finally did it again

my thief is almost ready for heart of thorns now! just missing ascended gear

Congrats!

 

[Moondrop]

I'm putting all my faith into one handed sword going to Ele and it being amazing.

I have so much faith I bought the chain-whip sword for my ele.

 

[Taffer]

;_;

TEARS OF JOY

 

[appletoasty]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/updating-your-wallet/

Updating Your Wallet
by Matthew Pennebaker on June 10, 2015

Hello, everyone! Matt Pennebaker here from the rewards team, and I want to talk about upcoming changes to the wallet. Let’s jump right in.

Where Is It?

Veteran wallet users know that if you want to check out your current stockpile of wealth, you head to the Hero panel and click on the wallet tab. There you can find all of your currencies laid out in a big grid. You can also navigate there from the little + button in the bottom of your inventory, but that results in opening two windows to view one piece of information. Neither of these options make the wallet easy to find or use, so we’ve moved the wallet to the Inventory panel. Clicking the Wallet button will now toggle your inventory to the wallet view.

What Does It Look Like?

The grid view of the old wallet, while nice to look at, took up a lot of space and didn’t leave much room to expand. Since the wallet is functionally a list of numbers, that’s what we decided to visually display. It’s now much more compact, with the option to filter it, and this makes future additions much easier. At the top of the wallet is a drop-down menu that will filter the wallet to display only the currency categories you want to see.

Hover your mouse over a currency to display its details—some of which you can click for extra functionality, indicated by an icon appearing to the far right. Gems and gold will take you to the Gem Store and Currency Exchange, respectively, while dungeon currencies show you where the entrances to their dungeons are.
As an added bonus, we’ve slightly changed how currencies display in the bottom of your inventory. Your gold will always be there, but the other visible currency will change based on where you are. For example, in World vs. World you’ll see badges of honor, and while in the Fractals of the Mists you’ll see fractal relics.

Did Someone Say Additions?

We’ve added more currencies to the wallet! When you log in after the update, the following items will be converted to currencies and stored in your wallet:

• Pristine Fractal Relics
• WvW Tournament Claim Tickets
• Geodes
• Bandit Crests

These items will be automatically converted to the new versions of the currencies when the character holding them logs in, so be sure to check each of your characters’ inventories.

What about Skill Points?

Previously, we told you that endless sources of skill points will reward a different currency instead. The new wallet will house the new currency, spirit shards.
Currently, there are two sources of skill points. The first are limited sources, such as skill-point challenges and the level-up guide. The second are endlessly repeatable, such as scrolls of knowledge and leveling up after 80. Skill points also had two uses: unlocking skills, and buying materials for the Mystic Forge.

What we had were two systems that should have been using two different currencies, and now they do. Every source that used to give scrolls of knowledge will now give spirit shards, which Miyani will accept for her materials. A few things will change to accommodate this split:

• Tomes of knowledge will level you up if you are under level 80 and give one spirit shard if you’ve reached level 80.
• Writs of experience can only be used if you’re under level 80, and they can be traded in to Miyani for a tome of knowledge at a rate of 20 writs per tome.
• Leveling up after level 80 no longer grants skill points, but level 80 characters will be able to loot spirit shards off of monsters.
• Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.

The conversion of skill points to spirit shards will be automatic. This will happen on a per‑character basis, so make sure to log in on each character to receive your total count! I think you’ll be surprised at just how many spirit shards you have.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy the new wallet!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/combat-changes-dotsanddashes/

Combat Changes: DoTs and Dashes
by Roy Cronacher on June 10, 2015

Welcome, Tyrians! I’m Roy Cronacher, and I’m here to tell you about changes to our combat systems that’ll be arriving alongside the new specializations. I’ve personally wanted these changes for a while, so I’m very excited to discuss them with you.

Currently, conditions don’t really play well with others. Right now, we have two types of conditions: duration stacking, which increases duration for each version of the condition applied (such as weakness); and intensity stacking, which adds a stack of that condition for each version of it that is applied (such as bleeding). Intensity stacking conditions are limited to 25 stacks, which isn’t very many considering how prevalent damaging conditions are in combat.

Now, these work okay in smaller combat scenarios, but even a single player can take up a full stack of a condition. This makes things frustrating for other players because they’re constantly fighting for room in this small stack size to deal their damage. Physical damage has no limitations on its damage output gated by those around you, so why should conditions? We’re aiming to alleviate that problem with the following changes.

That’s a Big Kittening Number

The first piece of the puzzle is stack size. Some professions allow players to reach the 25-stack cap by themselves, which leaves no room for other players to apply their stacks for that condition. If they could, it would override the existing stacks. Both scenarios are frustrating.
Luckily, this will be a thing of the past. Soon, each intensity-stacking damaging condition will stack to a much larger number. While I can’t reveal that number today because we’re still doing performance tests, let’s just say it’s large enough that you should never notice it while you’re playing, even during world boss fights. Essentially, there will be no more limit on damaging conditions. You’ll no longer be punished or punish others when you choose a playstyle that focuses on causing damage over time.
Condition removal will work just as it does now—using a skill that removes a condition will remove the entire stack of a condition, whether it’s two stacks of bleeding or four hundred stacks of bleeding. A player with four hundred stacks of bleeding would be a dead player, but you get my point.

Now That’s Some Intensity

You may be thinking, “Okay, that’s awesome for the intensity-stacking damaging conditions, but what about burning and poison?” Well, burning and poison will be intensity-stacking conditions as well. This lets us remove the limitations on any damage-dealing conditions so that you can always deal the damage you are trying to deliver no matter who’s attacking the target.

Since both of these conditions will stack intensity, their damage formulas will be adjusted to account for this. You can expect the damage per stack of these conditions to be lowered quite a bit, but we’ll keep the relative proportions consistent. For example, burning will still deliver the highest damage per tick. I’ll go into the formulas a little bit more below.

Poison will only stack its damaging portion on a foe. Once a stack of poison is applied, it will also apply the healing effect associated with it. Any further stacks of poison placed on that foe will only stack the damage portion of the condition.

A Worthy Split

We didn’t want to leave out the last damaging condition, confusion. Confusion is quite fickle. Currently, whenever a foe afflicted with confusion attacks, they take damage. In some combat situations, this is far too effective, such as against a very rapidly attacking character. In other cases, it performs very poorly, such as on a slowly attacking boss.

To make this damaging condition more reliable, we’ve changed what it does, splitting it into two effects. It will retain the damage on attack, but at a lesser amount than its previous version. That damage has been added back in the form of a damage-over-time effect.

When confusion is placed on an enemy, it will not just slowly drain their life over time but also damage them when they attack. This allows for a more consistent result, as some foes attack quickly but others only once every few seconds, wasting potential damage. We believe we’ve found a happy middle ground where confusion retains its original design intent but will be useful in more areas of the game.

Adjusting the Scaling

As mentioned above, we’re changing damage formulas a bit for the damaging conditions. Since you’ll be able to reliably deliver your condition damage with the upcoming changes, it felt necessary to look at the damage formulas themselves and how conditions scale.

Essentially, conditions are too effective right now without investing points into the condition-damage stat. We will significantly lower the base damage on damaging conditions while increasing how much they scale with the condition-damage stat. This means at lower levels of condition damage you can expect to do less damage than you currently do, while at higher values you’ll do even more damage than you are currently able to. The formulas are still being adjusted, but to give you an idea, the break-even point before you start doing more damage is around 700 condition damage.

Vulnerable Foes

The vulnerability condition increases damage done to the foe by 1% per stack, up to 25 stacks. I think condition-damage dealers feel a little left out by this condition, don’t you? Well, now vulnerability will increase both direct damage and condition damage taken by an afflicted foe.

As previously stated, we are only drastically increasing the stack cap for damaging conditions. The nondamaging conditions, such as vulnerability, will remain as they are since there is much tighter balance around their effects. As fun as 700 stacks of vulnerability would be, it might break a few things.

Movement

Let’s take a second and look at movement skills, which are skills that move your character between positions or toward your target, such as Savage Leap or Leap of Faith. Right now, these are affected by movement-speed decreases or increases. These skills are less effective when you’re crippled or chilled, making it so the skill does not perform as expected, preventing you from reaching the intended distance. On the other hand, using a movement skill with Super Speed will propel you much farther than we want.

In order to make these skills more reliable in combat and prevent unintended behavior, we’ve normalized them so that movement-speed increases or decreases do not impact the distance traveled by your character.

That was a lot to go over, but we hope these changes will help improve our combat systems and provide a better experience for all of you. This will all be coming soon alongside all of the core specialization and training updates, which we’ve been sharing via livestreams and in earlier blog posts by Jon Peters. See you all on the battlefield!

fuck yes @ at all of this

 

[human onion]

Hmm not a fan of the movement change, but the rest sounds cool. On one hand, that means Leap of Faith is a better escape, but I did like leaping further with swiftness. We'll see.

 

[Quenk]

The wallet changes were about what I expected (thankfully). I'm a bit sad that they didn't go with djinngots though.

 

[Wanderer5]

Yes thank god for the wallet update!

 

[Proven]

Holy shit, blog posts!? On combat!?

I'll get on them later, though. Wanted to post that the Go4 GW2 Monthly tournament for EU has already started. Last month actually had a fantastic finals series, so take a peek on twitch.tv/guildwars2 to take a look later.

 

[Levyne]

The game is gonna look very different after these changes to conditions and traits, geez.

Just need some templates and I think my excitement would peak.

 

[Moondrop]

RIP Rocket Boots + Super Speed

QQ

 

[Proven]

Okay, quick post on the combat blog.

Uncapped Conditions
ALL damaging conditions will be uncapped, and the cap will likely be at least 100, probably higher. Big change.

Vulnerability
Sticking to 25 cap, but now will work like Might and affect both direct and condition damage. Bigger change.

Condition Damage Scaling
Investing points into Condition Damage will be more important. They say 700 is the break even point, which is about Celestial and 10 stacks of Might. Below that you'll be doing less, above that you'll be doing more, which means with the Vulnerability change Condition specs will be doing A LOT MORE damage. Biggest change.

Normalized Combat Mobility.
We saw a taste of this with Reaper. This is necessary for one reason only; they'll likely be increasing the amount of Cripple and Chill in the game by a lot, including with Reaper. This is actually super important for Warriors, as it means our skills are a lot more useful as gap closers, and a lot less useful as getaway tools. This also alters my Thief spec, as it'll likely mean that Thrill of the Crime's Swiftness will no longer allow Heartseekers to out pace Infiltration Arrow for general movement. Combined, this means Thieves will likely go back to being the masters of flat ground movement, which is probably a good thing as I was tired of Warrior Greatsword with Swiftness in WvW. Then again, it means that I can't keep them Crippled or Chilled as a Necro to keep them in range anymore...

 

[Ashodin]

Brace yourselves, condition meta is coming

 

[Shanlei91]

I have so much faith I bought the chain-whip sword for my ele.

If all else fails, Necro will be a powerhouse.

 

[SourBear]

Also, wow: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/combat-changes-dotsanddashes/

Three years and finally conditions are what they should have been at launch. I guess it was a technical limitation, because it never made sense to me why condition damage didn't scale, why condition damage wasn't affected by vulnerability, and why condition damage had a hard cap on the number of applies. These things are what made the Berzerker meta that we have today the only viable way to play.

I'm hoping they are tweaking the healing stats to scale better as well.

 

[Emitan]

Brace yourselves, condition meta is coming

Gooooooooood.

I always want to make condi builds but I mainly play PvE where it's not very useful.

 

[Proven]

Oh, I forgot another thing. They say that the wallet changes are coming in the next content patch. But because of the removal of skill points, which we need to buy skills currently, it also means the specialization patch will happen along with that combat patch. Okay, good, all together.

But with this much talk about it... maybe it really is coming in a week or two...

 

[Levyne]

Heh, part of me wished I didn't eat through so many skill scrolls (thousands) to convert to gold for....things. Gonna be so behind on spirit shards or whatever.

 

[Kos Luftar]

With these condition changes, if they don't beef up the dungeon mobs, dungeons will be even easier then they are already.

If they end up being too easy the GAF dungeon crew will split up because they will be able to solo every path and won't need each other anymore.

 

[Proven]

Heh, part of me wished I didn't eat through so many skill scrolls (thousands) to convert to gold for....things. Gonna be so behind on spirit shards or whatever.

Spirit Shards are only useful for the very things you're doing with them right now. Unless they provide more gold conversion, don't worry, you're in the clear.

With these condition changes, if they don't beef up the dungeon mobs, dungeons will be even easier then they are already.

If they end up being too easy the GAF dungeon crew will split up because they will be able to solo every path and won't need each other anymore.

ANet trying to close down GAF's #1 breakfast dungeon club.

 

[Quenk]

If they end up being too easy the GAF dungeon crew will split up because they will be able to solo every path and won't need each other anymore.

Then we'll have to set them up to race against each other.

 

[Ashodin]

With these condition changes, if they don't beef up the dungeon mobs, dungeons will be even easier then they are already.

If they end up being too easy the GAF dungeon crew will split up because they will be able to solo every path and won't need each other anymore.

Honestly they will give fuck all about the dungeons. They already don't care and don't design the game for that crowd anymore. Which is perfectly fine, the game is all about open-world co-operation way more than it was about dungeon runs.

 

[Levyne]

There's a dungeon club? How do I join

Honestly they will give fuck all about the dungeons. They already don't care and don't design the game for that crowd anymore. Which is perfectly fine, the game is all about open-world co-operation way more than it was about dungeon runs.

now I am sad

 

[SourBear]

I'm holding out hope for 10-man instanced content, whatever form that takes, either as personal story achievement style stuff that requires additional people, 10-man fractals, or whatever. Maybe instead of 'personal story' stuff there are 'guild story' instances - that unlock shit for your guild hall.

 

[Hawkian]

woeee wawowwow, no more condition cap....

 

[Emitan]

Honestly they will give fuck all about the dungeons. They already don't care and don't design the game for that crowd anymore. Which is perfectly fine, the game is all about open-world co-operation way more than it was about dungeon runs.

I want GW2's combat with challenging content. I'm hoping HoT deals with this in some way. Grinding fractals so that eventually they'll be hard isn't fun :/

 

[Quenk]

There's a dungeon club? How do I join



now I am sad

Can I join too? My ranger has a longbow and a bear.

ANet at least cares about dungeon runners somewhat. The gw2 twitch account sometimes hosts some dungeon streamers. And I think they provided some prize support to that Trio Tournament a few months back.

My thoughts for future dungeon/fractal content would be more sub-80 dungeon paths and more fractals for experimenting with aetherpath style difficulty/mechanics.

woeee wawowwow, no more condition cap....

I take it that work isn't blocking this page for you. That rules out a couple image hosts at least

 

[Ashodin]

I mean you might see some "challenging content" as that datamined instance stuff but no idea if and when that stuff is coming.

 

[appletoasty]

I like PvE but open world content sucks sometimes due to the very nature of being open world. What a headache it is when random people refuse to cooperate, and you can't avoid or get rid of them. Ugh.

I would pay gems to be able to buy a controlled instance for a large group like Triple Wurm or Silverwastes instead of desperately trying to ferry a large organized group in. Yeah, you don't *need* to have an instanced group for this open world stuff but sometimes you want to play with your friends and not random people. There are obviously drawbacks to this so I don't ever see it happening but I would be just as happy with instanced content for medium to large sized groups.

I'm not holding my breath though. Anet pls

Grinding fractals so that eventually they'll be hard isn't fun :/

I don't think it necessarily gets harder at higher levels. It feels like an artificial gate to me (ascended gear/agony resist). I started doing level 50 fractals when my personal level was 15 or something. Mobs supposedly hit harder but that doesn't introduce any interesting mechanics, it means that one mistake ends up with you downed.

The instabilities from 30 upwards look like minor annoyances rather than interesting mechanics. But I've only done 49/50, so what do I know