Guild Wars 2

Fixing the post bug.

Zaxares.5419:

Tsk. Full Nomad’s with Mercy runes is the meta now.

Bu-but Dolyak runes make you even tankier !

OP: Im gonna put a tiny url link to your post on macro to be able to spam it ingame. Thx

Zaxares.5419:

Tsk. Full Nomad’s with Mercy runes is the meta now.

The sad part.. I just had a guildy come back after trying to take on a project of training pugs. What he described sounds like this might actually be true..

Enaretos.8079:

Zaxares.5419:

Tsk. Full Nomad’s with Mercy runes is the meta now.

Bu-but Dolyak runes make you even tankier !

but mercy is for 24/7 spam res. Because somehow people still die in nomads, even 5 wars run our of battle standards

Artemis Thuras.8795:

Enaretos.8079:

Zaxares.5419:

Tsk. Full Nomad’s with Mercy runes is the meta now.

Bu-but Dolyak runes make you even tankier !

but mercy is for 24/7 spam res. Because somehow people still die in nomads, even 5 wars run our of battle standards

Friend and I run a Nomads Guardian to duo HotW p1, come at me bros!

Should try killing everything with just retaliation :x

I somewhat play random team only jump into the first dungeon I get with no vent or setup and get to chop things. Organised party? Why waste the time waiting for one. When you live this kind of dungeon running life you get used to relying on no one but yourself in a team because its 90% improvisation 9% self awareness and 1% team synergy in a pug.

I think GW2 is one of the first games I’ve played where simply playing properly is considered “elitist”. It’s mind boggling how far removed, being “elitist” in GW2, is compared to the kittenfest that other games and MMO’s are.

You don’t need to farm mats every day to make sure your have a full row of buffs from expensive potions, grind months on end to get the right gear or to even gain access to dungeons. Nope, you just have to know how to play your class and bam you’re an elitist.

Rangersix.1754:

Nope, you just have to know how to play your class and bam you’re an elitist.

Yep, you can’t tell a player to play as a valuable team member, that’s oppression. Thanks, Obama!

Rangersix.1754:

I think GW2 is one of the first games I’ve played where simply playing properly is considered “elitist”. It’s mind boggling how far removed, being “elitist” in GW2, is compared to the kittenfest that other games and MMO’s are.

You don’t need to farm mats every day to make sure your have a full row of buffs from expensive potions, grind months on end to get the right gear or to even gain access to dungeons. Nope, you just have to know how to play your class and bam you’re an elitist.

This is so true…it’s like GW2 is the game of the “Carry me or you are the most horrible person and player ever seen”. To them, you simply don’t have the right to have a smooth run, it’s a crime to claim such thing…

It’s interesting to see people not knowing the basics of the game even though they have thousands of achievement points.
I mean, Elementalist with 9k AP joins team (staff) and I ask him to give us some might, he didn’t even know how.

I’d personally list blast combos in-between basic and advanced mechanics. Doing blast combos is not really needed (well, used) for the majority of the game so a lot of people are not exposed to it. Even a large percentage of pug groups don’t do it. I would not personally consider blast finishers on the same level as mitigating damage through dodges and blocks. Would it be nice to have? Yes. Would I expect it from the average pug? No.

I have a staff on my elementalist, but I don’t think char uses it. It seems all my attacks just use spells. Am I using it? If not how do I?

New to game : )

I see a lot of sword/offhand builds, should I look into using other weapons? What’s all this I hear about “reflection?”

Thanks, -Someone who feels like they’re playing a mesmer totally wrong

I get it, they are new but … I seriously can’t understand where such players come from.

ps: Found them on reddit in the past days.

Thanks for the laugh Dalanor

Everyone starts somewhere. I’d imagine they aren’t just new to this game but new to gaming in general. There is a level of experience that is expected in most games. It reminds me of people with computers. Some people are just completely oblivious to even the basics. These people can come up with questions that should never have to be asked.

I had a lady ask me why her computer wasn’t working one time. I peek over, “well it’s not on…” She laughs, then flips the switch on the power source “why isn’t it turning on?” /facepalm.

Rangersix.1754:

I think GW2 is one of the first games I’ve played where simply playing properly is considered “elitist”. It’s mind boggling how far removed, being “elitist” in GW2, is compared to the kittenfest that other games and MMO’s are.

it is also the very first game where speccing for support or tanking is considered selfish while being dps is considering team mate. It is exactly the opposite as every other MMO out there, it goes both ways

Mesket.5728:

Rangersix.1754:

I think GW2 is one of the first games I’ve played where simply playing properly is considered “elitist”. It’s mind boggling how far removed, being “elitist” in GW2, is compared to the kittenfest that other games and MMO’s are.

it is also the very first game where speccing for support or tanking is considered selfish while being dps is considering team mate. It is exactly the opposite as every other MMO out there, it goes both ways

That was basically decided the second they said “this will be a game without a trinity and every build is viable” Boom DPS is king.

Dalanor.5387:

I have a staff on my elementalist, but I don’t think char uses it. It seems all my attacks just use spells. Am I using it? If not how do I?

New to game : )

I see a lot of sword/offhand builds, should I look into using other weapons? What’s all this I hear about “reflection?”

Thanks, -Someone who feels like they’re playing a mesmer totally wrong

I get it, they are new but … I seriously can’t understand where such players come from.

ps: Found them on reddit in the past days.

There are a lot of games where weapon type equipped doesn’t determine the spells/skills that you have. Just look at Guild Wars.

Nick.6972:

It’s interesting to see people not knowing the basics of the game even though they have thousands of achievement points.
I mean, Elementalist with 9k AP joins team (staff) and I ask him to give us some might, he didn’t even know how.

Aaaalot of ppl are buying accounts from other players.

Harny.6012:

Nick.6972:

It’s interesting to see people not knowing the basics of the game even though they have thousands of achievement points.
I mean, Elementalist with 9k AP joins team (staff) and I ask him to give us some might, he didn’t even know how.

Aaaalot of ppl are buying accounts from other players.

Really??? I mean I understand that in other games where there are these very powerful and hard to acquire account bound items, it allows a quick and easy skip to the top tier. But, here you’re top tier almost instantly after hitting 80, I guess for legendaries but wow… seems insane to me.

Yes, I knew or met several who sold theirs and the accounts were active later.
Also met one guy who sold his main and after few months missed the game so he bought another (a new one).
Kick solves it every time :p

I once got a pug ranger with 9k ap on my arah run and he was completely clueless, we had to explain everything to him. At the end of the run i asked if he bought that account and he replied that it was his brother’s account, but since his brother went to college he gave the account to him.

Once i got a lvl 80 pug that didnt know he could weapon swap in gw2, he never used that second slot for weapons, it was an amazing discovery for him when we told he could equip a gs together with his staff and swap during the battle.

TKiller.6829:

Rangersix.1754:

Nope, you just have to know how to play your class and bam you’re an elitist.

Yep, you can’t tell a player to play as a valuable team member, that’s oppression. Thanks, Obama!

Well you can but the way it’s done is what matters. For example there was this French high Ap Wannabe Zerker Warrior, well in reality he was a guardian, We did AC path 1, and he was the worse guardian ever, Every member including himself had like 5 conditions simultaneosly for most of the run, He himself died a kittenload times, But he was a kittening kitten. Even when I was a kittening engineer gave him tips to to deal with conditions better, to increase toughness etc. And then he kittening ragequits and talks kitten. I with my condition engineer was a better kittening guardian then him lol. This is sadly an example based on my experiences. What I mean to say is that you can call out other players on thier flaws and kick them. But there is no need to be a kitten about it. I’m not accusing you or anybody here for bieng one. But the response you paraphrased might be due to the reason I described.. Not everybody goes nicely about it, but sometimes goes in a very rude way about it. You don’t nessisarily need to be super nice about it and hold thier hands. Just a simple kick would suffice, Or a warning or you flat out stating the facts. But unfortunately you have those kittens that just blabber away.

In my experience asking for specific skills or giving tips is akin to kitten their mother.
They will either refuse to talk to you, start bawwing, start bawwing, somehow kick you, rage against the machine,and/or fill mail with “love” letters.

it is rare I can say " hey can you equip x? it would help the team out a lot" and actually be able to say “thanks!”

+ 1.

You totally agree.

The most bad thing is that, cause they don’t know how bad they are, they will never improve.

We could post a billion thread of how being a good pug, but if just few of them read it, is quite useless (also cause those few will improve anyway).

May be we just have to handle it: pugs are pigs.
They want us to feed them with free loot and don’t bother cryticism.

In pvp, I’m so God thankfull that I can at least kill them!

Similar experience in SE with dredge bombers. Bearing in mind this guy had 15k ap, and was a self proclaimed pro.
my guildy: “guardian, wheres the condi removal? it’s there on the build we asked you to use”
guard:“na man just chill.”
my guildy: “guardian, wheres the WoR?”
guard:" Enjoy the game"
my guildy:" but we need that or we die/take a lot longer. For us that isn’t fun. Using WoR isn’t difficult."
guard: " ok whatever, i’ll just leave then to make your run quicker"

Funny thing, we swapped to our “mains” (as much as you can call them mains when you have multiple toons in full asc, that you play equally well) which meant i’m on guardian.

We 4 manned the next part of the path waiting for another guildy to port over.

We had a pug PS warrior with us.
This person what like “wow wtf just happened?” (directly after dredge boss died in seconds).
We reply: " yeah.. thats how it goes when people know how to play their kitten class."

Even funnier, I later remembered my accessories were on my alt, so my guardian was running without accessories..

This is the problem with the majority of skilled players having quit the game because there is kitten all to do. Resulting in the “average” players having very few people to learn from, and very few examples to strive for.

WTB hard content that is justified in its difficulty. (cause lets be honest, SE is hardly difficult.. but is still more lucrative than say arah).

It just looks to me you guys expect too much from people, because you have your fixed groups of friends/guildies you usually play with. I pug all the time and especially in the most common (and easiest) dungeon paths and I hardly encounter major problems (I don’t play CM/Arah, though). But yeah, they’re no speed record runs, obviously.

I play guardian and try not to use lightfields, when I see we have an ele in the group (sometimes I put down a light field and whirl to remove conditions; don’t know if that’s frowned upon, do tell me if it is a bad thing to do, please). Recently I’ve seen more and more pugs taking down defiance stacks and use ice bow 5 on bosses. Thieves blasting smoke fields aren’t that rare. I switch weapons/support skills quite often, and suspect others do as well, because I’m by no means a better-than-average player.

Do I miss timing on aegis sometimes? Sorry, but yes. When switching to hammer and switching traits to take longer lasting symbols, do I sometimes forget to switch back my traits when I take out my GS again? Yes, it happens. It’s despicable mistakes like that, that you’ll have to just be patient with, if you decide to take pugs.

I myself never join “meta only” groups, so you needn’t worry to encounter me if you put that in your LFG message^^ Even though I read the guardian builds on gw2dungeons, I haven’t copy/pasted the traits exactly as written there and I have some knights in my accessories, instead of full zerk.

Just want to say that if you take pugs that aren’t used to organized dungeon runs, then you have to expect worse than what you’re used to.
That said, people who ignore the requirements in the LFG message do deserve a kick.

TL;DR
If you are going to take pugs, you know you’ll have to be patient and expect worse than you’re used to.

Just my two cents as a “kazul”.
And sorry beforehand, if I ever end up in any of you guys’ LFG party^^

I always run full zerk in my builds but it doesnt mean i trait for meta. Im very gimmicky by default and generaly will play a class the way i created it for. Doesnt mean i dont run a glass cannon just mean you may not get what you expected to get. The effectiveness will generaly be there but might be subpar due to various reasons (self might relient build, Pet reliant build, unusual weapon set or trait gimmick that is not considered optimal etc)

Aka for exemple i might be running a full arcane elementalist with summon instead of fiery GS and frostbow. Means i get a lot of access to might and burst combo but no Aoe for stuff like lets say object items. In wich case ill likely switch one move mid dungeon for that only encounter but that still is a rare case.

Even then i generaly make my own dungeon groups or run in ‘’non meta announced’’ party description because i dont realy care about speed only in how fast it takes for me to join or make a party and if the jobs gets done or not with pleasent not assholish people not to mention i waste a LOT of time in instance talking between fights or saying jokes wich is something anyone bent on speedrunning a place as quick as possible would likely not appreciate. Theres of course limit to it, if a guy is obviously trolling (aka naked armor players or punching jokers because yes ive seen a guy attempt to do a dungeon witheout weapons) its likely hell get kicked save by the most tolerent pugging team.

Xanctus The Dragonslayer.2318:

snip

I agree with that. There’s no need to act condescdening or rude to random people. Just kick the person if he is deaf to reason or leave yourself if things are going south.

I mean, expecting people you see for the first time in your life to be competent is pretty silly. And this sort of mentality is all over the online gaming, Guild Wars 2 is perhaps one of the most grief-free games even if we have our fair share.

Again thats relative to the therm of ’’competent’’ some people choose to run something by choice rather then by ignorance. Doesnt mean they are inefective ive seen guys running realy random stuff and still be very usefull to the team, it just mean its not what the meta engineered build run and that it wont fit in the perfectly designed combo.

Yeah. There’s a difference between being “OK, he’s running an unusual/sub-par build, but he’s still pulling his weight” and “WTH are you doing?!” I’ve been in PUG runs where people were clearly using non-Exotic gear or strange builds, but we were getting through the content fine. And then there’s runs where you get people who keep on attacking the wrong targets, insisting on meleeing/ranging a boss when it’s suicide to be using that method, or just aggroing everything in sight and then pulling them back to the group. (I don’t mind full clears, but in measured portions please! Don’t go popping all the eggs in Fyonna’s room and then pulling them to us while we’re still fighting her.)

Zaxares.5419:

Don’t go popping all the eggs in Fyonna’s room and then pulling them to us while we’re still fighting her.)

You mean you arent supposed to do that?

But the sound is like bubble wrap, I can’t resist!!!

My only problem with stacking is now people want to stack “everything.” Best example is CoF 2 after the devourer nests those 3 Flameforged whatevers you need to kill in the little room. Never ONCE have those 3 EVER been a problem, but now it’s stack around the corner or gtfo.

Trying not to rant about stacking, as it actually is pretty helpful at time especially in CM. I don’t go down NEAR as many times as I used to pre stacking in certain areas, but it’s painful to have every group I join feel the need to stack easy bosses or enemies.

Uh… okay?

Mesket.5728:

it is also the very first game where speccing for support or tanking is considered selfish while being dps is considering team mate. It is exactly the opposite as every other MMO out there, it goes both ways

Not entirely true, PvE evolves around finding the highest damage build that gives most support. Pure DPS isn’t wanted in PvE either. Anyway, traiting for tanking or healing (support comes in many forms and is very much desired, healing however is only one form of support.) is unwanted, but the developers specifically said that “the trinity is out” so that was to be expected.

Rangersix.1754:

Mesket.5728:

it is also the very first game where speccing for support or tanking is considered selfish while being dps is considering team mate. It is exactly the opposite as every other MMO out there, it goes both ways

Not entirely true, PvE evolves around finding the highest damage build that gives most support. Pure DPS isn’t wanted in PvE either. Anyway, traiting for tanking or healing (support comes in many forms and is very much desired, healing however is only one form of support.) is unwanted, but the developers specifically said that “the trinity is out” so that was to be expected.

Don’t get into mechanics, I’m speaking conceptually. In GW2 most players build entirely for damage and consider support what can provide more and more damage (except guardians which can provide one or two goodies without going outside a dps build). If someone builds entirely for support (because he played every other MMO and likes being helpful for others) he will be considered “selfish”. Only MMO where this happens.

What does wearing tanky gear have to do with speccing for support? Does Sentinel’s gear make your Wall of Reflect last longer?

Speaking conceptually, the faster you divorce yourself from the gear = playstyle mindset the better you’ll be. I mean it’s only been two years and I still have to put this fire out on a weekly basis so maybe I’m hoping for people to learn something they never will.

hybrid.5027:

What does wearing tanky gear have to do with speccing for support? Does Sentinel’s gear make your Wall of Reflect last longer?

Speaking conceptually, the faster you divorce yourself from the gear = playstyle mindset the better you’ll be. I mean it’s only been two years and I still have to put this fire out on a weekly basis so maybe I’m hoping for people to learn something they never will.

Maybe after 2 years you will realize that you are wrong? Its an MMORPG after all, gearing, stat/trait/perk/talent (w/e it’s called in dif. games) build and play-style goes hand by hand. It is defined by genre and its not like ANet wanted to changed that, they designed the game wrong and ended up where we are. The fact we all use the same dps gear is not a design feature, it’s a symptom of a badly designed game. You can’t blame players for playing an MMORPG like an MMORPG.

Mesket.5728:

hybrid.5027:

What does wearing tanky gear have to do with speccing for support? Does Sentinel’s gear make your Wall of Reflect last longer?

Speaking conceptually, the faster you divorce yourself from the gear = playstyle mindset the better you’ll be. I mean it’s only been two years and I still have to put this fire out on a weekly basis so maybe I’m hoping for people to learn something they never will.

Maybe after 2 years you will realize that you are wrong? Its an MMORPG after all, gearing, stat/trait/perk/talent (w/e it’s called in dif. games) build and play-style goes hand by hand. It is defined by genre and its not like ANet wanted to changed that, they designed the game wrong and ended up where we are. The fact we all use the same dps gear is not a design feature, it’s a symptom of a badly designed game. You can’t blame players for playing an MMORPG like an MMORPG.

I disagree that Anet designed the game wrong. They simply did it different, which I like. I like not having to look for a healer and a tank to do anything. The real issue with this game is the lack of a competent AI for the mobs, not its combat design.

Talyn.3295:

Mesket.5728:

hybrid.5027:

What does wearing tanky gear have to do with speccing for support? Does Sentinel’s gear make your Wall of Reflect last longer?

Speaking conceptually, the faster you divorce yourself from the gear = playstyle mindset the better you’ll be. I mean it’s only been two years and I still have to put this fire out on a weekly basis so maybe I’m hoping for people to learn something they never will.

Maybe after 2 years you will realize that you are wrong? Its an MMORPG after all, gearing, stat/trait/perk/talent (w/e it’s called in dif. games) build and play-style goes hand by hand. It is defined by genre and its not like ANet wanted to changed that, they designed the game wrong and ended up where we are. The fact we all use the same dps gear is not a design feature, it’s a symptom of a badly designed game. You can’t blame players for playing an MMORPG like an MMORPG.

I disagree that Anet designed the game wrong. They simply did it different, which I like. I like not having to look for a healer and a tank to do anything. The real issue with this game is the lack of a competent AI for the mobs, not its combat design.

You get me wrong… removing the trinity is one thing (which ANet is not the first one to do, there are others MMO without tank/heal/dps structure). Another thing is to have 1 stat set so superior from the others.

The risk vs reward balance is terrible; PvE AI is bad, I agree and there are other things to consider like horrible escalation for some stats, condition damage is horrible too (no need to get deep here, we all know conditions need to be redesign completely to be viable in all aspects of the game), lack of stats for the roles they proposed (there are no stats for increasing support or control efficiency on gear),… point is, there is a lot of evidence to realize the game design is far from flawless. They have a lot to tweak and some to rework. The sad part is that there was a lot of effort put in gear stat sets, all that effort would now be wasted if it wasn’t for pvp.

I really like CM, as the bonus of grinding for the ascended assassin accessory. Whenever I pug with my mesmer, I always feel that she has to work extra hard to carry people with all sort of reflect, stealth and stability. Her DPS is usually underappreciated by the almost ignorant pug even though the fight is usually long enough for her to put down all three phantasms infinitely.

Then enters my thief. She starts practicing solo the bomb part in p1 and all the stealth/skipping part. I notice how my normal pug runs have become significantly longer. My thief once was in a group with three mesmers and she was the only one to put down smoke screen. My guilty pleasure is I can alway stealth myself and disengage whenever the pug decides to do something stupid, like fighting Wahlen and his minions in the open room, or pull the whole chamber of bandits prior to the last boss. I let them die and return to res the aftermath. Am I allowed to hope they will learn something?

Playing an MMORPG is about making good choices though, wearing soldier gear is specifically giving up crit chance/damage (DPS overall) for the sake of more toughness/vitality(passive defense). In this game that’s pointless in Dungeons and most PVE content in general because we have the tools to actively defend ourselves and keep ourselves alive.

Just because other MMORPGs have tanks and healers doesn’t mean it’s by definition the way to play MMORPGs, it’s ALWAYS been about making good choices with a variety of possibilities.

There’s a reason my tanks/healers always had DPS gear in other games, because sometimes my tanking/healing simply wasn’t needed to the level I could obtain, so I’d start making some cuts here and there to further optimize my setup.

In this game we don’t have support gear, it simply doesn’t exist. Yes there is Givers but that stuff is crap. What we have are support traits.

Look at Guardian setups. You run full zerk, but you trait for the support needed. 45005 for condi times, 46202 with master of consecrations for times you don’t, finally swap in unscathed for when you don’t need any extra help on your support utilities. And, then there is 35042 for hammer guard times with it’s variations. You trait for support not gear for support.

Mesmer is the same, 64004 for more damage oriented times, 64040 for reflects, 24044 for good warden uptime and reflects. Even seen some other variations. Then like thief will spec for stealth at times to make things easier on a group. Warriors can trait phalanx if it helps the overall group damage. Engi’s usually go grenades because of the vuln even though bombs are better damage ignoring that vuln. Most professions have their support type choices that you take because it’s better overall.

Trying to fight zerk gear though… silly. If there were a true support style set I’d agree, but the best we have is givers (again lol) and the toughness pulling some agro, though it’s not consistent enough at all to be worthwhile.

Iris Ng.9845:

I really like CM, as the bonus of grinding for the ascended assassin accessory. Whenever I pug with my mesmer, I always feel that she has to work extra hard to carry people with all sort of reflect, stealth and stability. Her DPS is usually underappreciated by the almost ignorant pug even though the fight is usually long enough for her to put down all three phantasms infinitely.

Then enters my thief. She starts practicing solo the bomb part in p1 and all the stealth/skipping part. I notice how my normal pug runs have become significantly longer. My thief once was in a group with three mesmers and she was the only one to put down smoke screen. My guilty pleasure is I can alway stealth myself and disengage whenever the pug decides to do something stupid, like fighting Wahlen and his minions in the open room, or pull the whole chamber of bandits prior to the last boss. I let them die and return to res the aftermath. Am I allowed to hope they will learn something?

This is exactly what I meant in one of my earlier posts taht people read something and just go with it instead of applying any thought to it. Mesmers bad damage in CM? what? Sure mesmers are bad damage in a lot of areas, but not when you have that much to reflect, my god they are amazing! I’m not one to search through youtube videos but are there any CM records that don’t rely on amazing mesmer play?

Unfortunately Iris, they’ll only learn when someone like Brazil/Nike posts a new mesmer video and specifically mentions CM and it’s uses as those players can’t use their own brains. It’s not DNT type people’s fault that they can’t, it’s just an unfortunate side effect of handing people almost all the information, some people just blindly follow instead of applying a little of their own brain power.

(yes feeling salty this morning )

Jerus.4350:

In this game that’s pointless

Jerus.4350:

In this game we don’t have support gear, it simply doesn’t exist. Yes there is Givers but that stuff is crap. What we have are support traits.

Sorry I edited your post so we don’t create text walls.

You make some valid points here and this is where we agree. I’m not saying you are all wrong because the game can be played different… I’m saying the game should’ve been different. But not because I said so… but because the evidence out there showing that they had the intention of it being different, but something went wrong. Maybe they lowered the standard and made it easier than they originally planned, who knows… but the tools provided and the game presented doesn’t match and that is a fact that one can’t deny… if the game is easy enough to set the meta in how fast we do it, then they should provide tools for it and make support a support for that task, not healing when its not needed but giving support gear the possibility to assist in how fast a group can kill (how about a stat that makes more potent might, higher % of crit for fury, etc…)

Jerus.4350:

Trying to fight zerk gear though… silly. If there were a true support style set I’d agree, but the best we have is givers (again lol) and the toughness pulling some agro, though it’s not consistent enough at all to be worthwhile.

Again I agree, fighting zerk is silly… and it’s silly that is silly. This is supposed to be an RPG after all and by definitions we play roles. Roles means we are different and we do different things. If we all do the same, if we all dps, support and control then there are no roles, there is one multi rol.

Mesket.5728:

Talyn.3295:

Mesket.5728:

hybrid.5027:

What does wearing tanky gear have to do with speccing for support? Does Sentinel’s gear make your Wall of Reflect last longer?

Speaking conceptually, the faster you divorce yourself from the gear = playstyle mindset the better you’ll be. I mean it’s only been two years and I still have to put this fire out on a weekly basis so maybe I’m hoping for people to learn something they never will.

Maybe after 2 years you will realize that you are wrong? Its an MMORPG after all, gearing, stat/trait/perk/talent (w/e it’s called in dif. games) build and play-style goes hand by hand. It is defined by genre and its not like ANet wanted to changed that, they designed the game wrong and ended up where we are. The fact we all use the same dps gear is not a design feature, it’s a symptom of a badly designed game. You can’t blame players for playing an MMORPG like an MMORPG.

I disagree that Anet designed the game wrong. They simply did it different, which I like. I like not having to look for a healer and a tank to do anything. The real issue with this game is the lack of a competent AI for the mobs, not its combat design.

You get me wrong… removing the trinity is one thing (which ANet is not the first one to do, there are others MMO without tank/heal/dps structure). Another thing is to have 1 stat set so superior from the others.

The risk vs reward balance is terrible; PvE AI is bad, I agree and there are other things to consider like horrible escalation for some stats, condition damage is horrible too (no need to get deep here, we all know conditions need to be redesign completely to be viable in all aspects of the game), lack of stats for the roles they proposed (there are no stats for increasing support or control efficiency on gear),… point is, there is a lot of evidence to realize the game design is far from flawless. They have a lot to tweak and some to rework. The sad part is that there was a lot of effort put in gear stat sets, all that effort would now be wasted if it wasn’t for pvp.

I know anet was not the first game to do this. I am sure that they won’t be the last. Condition damage i this game is horrible I won’t argue that. There are many reasons for it, but as you said, not the place to be talking about that here.

I am in not a fan of the idea to add gear to improve the effectiveness of Control or Support. That I feel is the role of Traits. And there are many traits that give us better access to control and support. (I play a Zerker guardian) The only way I can stay on my feet is to use my support and CC skills well and at the right time.

Yes there was wasted effort on the stats. But many get used, even if they are less effective in PvE. I know there are still people wanting to run no zerker builds, not just in WvW or sPvP. Also consider that for people who solo or due content conditions are more effective then some zerker builds because no one is there to mess up their stacks.

Mob AI is still the major problem. And Unshakable doesn’t help.

We can agree there Mesket, gear choices could have been made much more interesting. Unfortunately what we have is a dumbed down version which is likely just much easier for them to handle balance wise. It’s more or less simply a scaling of survival and damage instead of bringing other elements in. But, it is what it is and people should accept it and leave their customization and what not to their trait, weapon, and utility choices mainly and to a lesser effect sigil/runes.

Jerus.4350:

We can agree there Mesket, gear choices could have been made much more interesting. Unfortunately what we have is a dumbed down version which is likely just much easier for them to handle balance wise. It’s more or less simply a scaling of survival and damage instead of bringing other elements in. But, it is what it is and people should accept it and leave their customization and what not to their trait, weapon, and utility choices mainly and to a lesser effect sigil/runes.

Unless! (and this is probably why I’m such a forum activist, lol) we get them to include some hard mode or something of the sort… I just hope nothing is set on stone for them yet

Hard mode appeals more experienced players, and experienced players are a majority of berserker users, because they understood how the game works. So no, hardmode won’t make sentinel magically useful.

No but a hardmode that had added passive damage could make zerker gear out of the question. Pushing players more into maybe Valkyrie or Zealot’s sets if it were a condition type damage.

Personally I don’t like that idea though, I like the fact that you can truly master most content to the point that you take almost no damage, it’s a good thing and should always be an option. I’m not opposed to a more difficult set of content though. And if they did do hardmodes (which they said they won’t) in a way like the gauntlets I’d imagine one of the options would be just strait passive damage as it’d be an “easy” addition.