Guild Wars 2

They aren’t impossible, but they are significantly overpowered compared to their melee counterparts. Their ground DoT (fiery line) took out 5 people simultaneously in an event chain, and both me and the dude dead next to me said “they should probably bump down that sniper damage a bit” at the same time.

It’s good and all, but snipers really stick out a lot. Not to mention they are absurdly tanky for the damage they put out. I usually keep an eye out for them and kill them asap but if they aggro and do their initial snipe shot (which already takes out just under half HP even in soldier’s gear) then drop a line and you just barely don’t catch the fire line animation that follows, you’re going down.

idk, kind of curious what other players have noticed with them. Perhaps they’re there to provide a challenge, but all it takes is one of those buggers to drop a line and poof, gobs of players go down hard.

They’re strong, but you get a pretty easy “tell” that they’re aiming at you by having the crosshairs over your head. I target them first and strafe left/right to avoid their ground attack, then charge them and interrupt/dps. This doesn’t help if they have someone else targeted, but avoiding “clumping” together can help there also.

Sorry, but they are not that bad at all.as the post above said. They hit hard, but are made out of wet paper when you hit them.

The normal level 80 ones have like, 10k health tops.

They aren’t tanky, but they do have a single stunbreak so that might be why you think they get away from you often.

Jephiroth.3197:

They’re strong, but you get a pretty easy “tell” that they’re aiming at you by having the crosshairs over your head. I target them first and strafe left/right to avoid their ground attack, then charge them and interrupt/dps. This doesn’t help if they have someone else targeted, but avoiding “clumping” together can help there also.

Yeah, if someone else is targeted, it can be hard to tell where the line is going to land. As I said, they’re not too bad, but they really do catch my attention more than any of the other mobs. Bladedancers are somewhat similar, but then they have a somewhat easier avoidable attack chain.

I think people reading my inital post are probably seeing it with the “waah another whine post” mindset, but I don’t think they are TOO bad, just kind of pushing that fine line between comfortably matched challenge and getting wrecked if you’re focused on something else at just the wrong moment.

maybe it seems like I’m just crying over it, but I’m seriously just bringing up the concept: maybe they are just a little too powerful?

Needs no nerf.. They die easily and are very vulnerable to interupts, controling the way they face and dodges. Play smarter.

Coulter.2315:

Needs no nerf.. They die easily and are very vulnerable to interupts, controling the way they face and dodges. Play smarter.

Got it. the “lern 2 play” theme is strong.

They are one of my favourite mobs in the jungle. They have massively reduced health pools versus other mobs, but they force me to stay on my toes. Many a time I’ve been too casually minded and walked into a stray shot or got into a bad habit with not dodging – both resulting in punishment.

I do however, thoroughly enjoying reflecting their snipe back at them with my shield on my Warrior. Second only in enjoyment to the near insta reflect kill when Karka try and gank me with their projectile attacks.

If memory serves me, they are actually a toned down version of how they were in beta

Snipers are completely fine. They require active defense rather than something that can be blatantly ignored by putting on defensive gear. If anything we need more mobs like them.

One thing I will say, if you don’t dodge, block, profession, or utility skill yourself out of harm’s way when the shot is fired, it will land and it will hurt. I have to admit that it’s funny as kitten when I get targeted by 3+ of these during meta events, because the melee stack gets destroyed.

I vote for toning down mushroom’s aoe damage.

Also, the kittening frogs.

Those kittening frogs. You basically can’t melee them at all unless you have 100% aegis uptime or unless you one shot them.

They do stick out a bit but that’s a good thing, it keeps you on your toes and makes it interesting, nerfing the damage the ground thorns do by a little wouldn’t be too bad but nerf them too much would just make them boring.

They have no hp and die quick, target them first. Their thorn shot has like a 5 second cast time, a loud charging sound, puts a mark over your head and can be completely avoided by just moving to the side. Interupt it, burst them down or just back of and strafe in either direction to avoid it. Also when they stealth, they rarely actually go anywhere, you can’t see them but they’re still there most of the time just keep swinging at the air and you’ll hit them.

All i would say is that the champs and elites scale a bit hard. The whole “wet paper” thing doesn’t sufficiently apply to them, and they regular wipe out whatever they hit (and firing into melee, only the person targeted has any warning… )

the normal and veterans melt to any kind of sustained fire but those higher ranks could do with being either a lot weaker in hitpoints or somewhat more forgiving in damage.

Edit: alternately, when the target reticle fades, the shot fired could sketch out its path along the ground ahead of time, so you have a moment to realise what’s about to hit you and dodge.

Narrrz.7532:

(and firing into melee, only the person targeted has any warning… )

This is where everyone playing well matters – the target should move out from the group. If I see an Elite Sniper at the back I try to get aggro then face it away from the rest of the zerg – this kind of mob which allows for tactics should be encouraged in design (this is why I do not like people asking for nerfs).

Coulter.2315:

Narrrz.7532:

(and firing into melee, only the person targeted has any warning… )

This is where everyone playing well matters – the target should move out from the group. If I see an Elite Sniper at the back I try to get aggro then face it away from the rest of the zerg – this kind of mob which allows for tactics should be encouraged in design (this is why I do not like people asking for nerfs).

The mordrem sniper isn’t picked out fr you, though, and there may not even be just one. In the time it takes you to notice the reticle and determine where the sniper is firing from, it could easily be too late to move.

Narrrz.7532:

Coulter.2315:

Narrrz.7532:

(and firing into melee, only the person targeted has any warning… )

This is where everyone playing well matters – the target should move out from the group. If I see an Elite Sniper at the back I try to get aggro then face it away from the rest of the zerg – this kind of mob which allows for tactics should be encouraged in design (this is why I do not like people asking for nerfs).

The mordrem sniper isn’t picked out fr you, though, and there may not even be just one. In the time it takes you to notice the reticle and determine where the sniper is firing from, it could easily be too late to move.

I’m giving you tips that work, why would you try and push back when you haven’t even tried? The DS Meta event is a good place to practice and you’ll notice the impact you have disabling or making ineffective as many snipers as you can.

The sniper is a tad ridiculous in Dragon stand. Mainly because they are usually an elite (or at a minimum a vet) and come in bunches of 3+. thats when there’s no defense against them. The zerg is fighting 10+ mobs, and way in the back, all spread out, are 4-6 snipers crisscrossing their shots.

There are alot of mobs that hit for questionable damage. The vet mushrooms hit me for 22k plus (in soldier gear no less). But there are ways to get around them. But those stupid mushrooms that generate multiple spores, which little spore cover the ground in aoe acid that hits for 8k. I got hit for 64k (total) in one shot, from one vet mushroon spawning a bunch of these spores in Tangled this morning. thats just stupid.

Coulter.2315:

Narrrz.7532:

Coulter.2315:

Narrrz.7532:

(and firing into melee, only the person targeted has any warning… )

This is where everyone playing well matters – the target should move out from the group. If I see an Elite Sniper at the back I try to get aggro then face it away from the rest of the zerg – this kind of mob which allows for tactics should be encouraged in design (this is why I do not like people asking for nerfs).

The mordrem sniper isn’t picked out fr you, though, and there may not even be just one. In the time it takes you to notice the reticle and determine where the sniper is firing from, it could easily be too late to move.

I’m giving you tips that work, why would you try and push back when you haven’t even tried? The DS Meta event is a good place to practice and you’ll notice the impact you have disabling or making ineffective as many snipers as you can.

Why would you think i haven’t tried? Those are teh issues i’ve run into.

Oh no, a npc that I can’t run head first into their attacks and live. nerf nerf nerf…

Snipers can be quite nasty if a group of them shows up due to event scaling and half the zerg is kitten ing. once the first half dies, the second half is soon to follow.

My 2 cents: perfect! Finally we get punished for sleeping on the job.

Snipers are fine and good fun.

Snipers as they are now are not exactly hard. Just punishing. If you make one mistake, you might be downed already. Especially if there is more than one.

When there’s a lot of them, and tormentors too, they tend to cover the floor such that it’s near impossible to melee clusters of mobs without getting downed. Mix in mushrooms and rolling devils, and it’s insanity.

Again, not hard exactly. Just unforgiving of mistakes. Mobs in SW were/are every bit as punishing in their own way, but difference is that SW has lots of open space and when you are defending, there are multiple ways to hold off mobs from a distance (arrow carts, oil, etc.). In contrast, many areas in the jungle are densely packed with little-to-no advantage to be had from elevation. Although you can glide, most kinds of elevation in the jungle are either a path that is chock full of mobs the whole way, or a 1k+ feet drop up or down.

Perhaps something to consider for future jungle zones: Try to make areas where elevation can be used to give you a strategic advantage against mobs. Snipers, for example, would be a lot less effective if you could use a special mushroom to leap onto an area that is too high to reach with a regular jump, but no so high that the two of you are out of range (their ground attack’s effectiveness would suffer).

Like the jump mushrooms, but with something like 1/10th of the height. Even cooler would be if you could program the AI to run onto these jump pads to try to chase you.

That said, my recommendation for the current zones is: Find a way to “soft nerf” some of these mobs. For example, you could add a mastery line that gives you certain protective/strategic bonuses against the mobs. Kinda like Nuhoch Stealth Detection, but more defensive. Think the flavor/style of WvW bonuses. Reduced damage by %, increased damage, maybe even a reflect on an ICD.

These would only apply in the maguuma zones and would give the sense that the more time you spend there, the easier it is to survive.

No do not nerf them or any other mobs. I enjoy engaging pve fights, and these guys in particular are really fun.

I doubt anything will be done about all the broken mobs. Just like the SW mobs have never been fixed.

Leeching thrasher that hits you through walls and around the corner half the map away without any warning. Yep, thats called tormentor in HoT maps, same mechanics, and broken exactly same way.

Or the knockdown lines teragriff leave behind. Not really a line but wide area with hitbox hitting everyone nearby. Yep, same line the snipers now use, again you not even anywhere close to it and you still take damage from it. Gets even better when multiple enemies criss-cross those on the ground. Has been broken since the SW came out.

Invisible aoe damage. Yep its there. No markers on the ground, you just die. Who knows, there could be some new small particle within all the animated plants, rainbow colored grass, skill effects and million other visual distractions nobody can see. Clearly broken.

Enemies that never suffer from bad line-of-sight. They can shoot you miles away but if you try to shoot back you are welcomed with lovely “Obstructed” messages because of some weird invisible bump in the terrain.

Some mechanics normal enemies below champs should never use. Fighting mobs that constantly use stealth or teleport is not fun. Its simply annoying. When game gets annoying enough people stop playing it.

Have you tried the taking two steps to the left and or right approach ….. ?

I mean this isn’t an on the rail shooter you can actually do more than stand there and take it.

Working as intended. Nothing wrong with them, they’re just strong, not unbeatable.

the vets and elites are pretty strong, but honestly they arnt much worse of a tactical problem than the jungle tendrils; you already have to do fancy footwork and be careful with melee stacking as is.

the stealth can be irritating, but they usually do not move after stealth; ironically the snipe shot damage line gives you a perfect indicator of where they are standing.

My only complaint about the Mordrem Snipers is that they always shout “I’ll pin them down, you take them out!” And then the sniper takes me out while the other mordrem are keeping me occupied.

Unless this is intentional, and they engage in psychological warfare while they fight.

we should also nerf the critters in the wild. they take 1 hit to kill… way to OP

snipers are fine.

Just no so please stop with this

I’ve seen this requested a lot and I still disagree. The elite/champion versions are very strong and will one shot you but so will any other elite/champion mob in HoT, the Snipers are no different. Honestly the only thing I hate about them is their melee kick attack because it’s so fast and even on a regular veteran it does a lot of damage. At least with the projectile attacks you have a very obvious tell with the crosshair over your head where as the kick is almost instant and screws you over when you try to close the gap to avoid their ranged attacks.

The mobs in HoT are tough but none of them need a nerf… Besides maybe the Mushroomkings… They’ve got a little too much CC for a single enemy IMO… Knockdown, knockback, launch, pull and cripple is kinda ridiculous. You can’t dodge all that and they eat through stability stacks in seconds. Remove the pull and they’re good.

I think it’s well designed, I would only make the telegraph better.

The crosshairs over their target is great, but it takes such a long time to go off you don’t really know when it’s gonna come, especially when multiple are targeting you.

They should make the crosshair telegraph have a visual effect where it shrinks or grows based on the cast time so you can get a better idea of when it’s coming. I like the raid boss mechanic style of the attack though, that whoever is targeted is responsible for getting out of the way of allies so they don’t drop the aoe on everyone.

What’s really stupid is how strong snipers are in melee. They’re actually WEAK at ranged and broken in melee range. Look at the hero point champion in that underground cave zone for instance, the champion sniper. It does massive burst dmg and constant knockdowns in melee, it’s so frustrating cause you can’t even predict it.

Captain Unusual.9163:

My only complaint about the Mordrem Snipers is that they always shout “I’ll pin them down, you take them out!” And then the sniper takes me out while the other mordrem are keeping me occupied.

Unless this is intentional, and they engage in psychological warfare while they fight.

This made me grin like an idiot.

I don’t think they warrant a nerf, I like the threat they pose.

HOWEVER, I would like it if their Super-Special-Awesome Charge-Up Projectile could be reflected/destroyed and doing so would negate the damaging line it leaves behind. For all the people talking about ‘active defenses’ this has been surprisingly absent.

Meanwhile in Smokescale land… Aka the thing that relentlessly obliterates you and you can’t even hit it due to blind/evade spam whilst it’s ripping your guts out…

So. Snipers, hmm?

I’ve been running around in FULL ZERKER TWERKER TIME herald mode aka if something scary hits me off guard I probably won’t survive… BUT – I have some advice against Snipers…

- be situationally aware & alert at all times
- they will crouch down and put a “target” over someone’s head. Get out of the firing line when this is happening or strafe away
- if you get too close sometimes they do a knock back. Try to have stab up or get behind them/dodge roll through them and DPS.
- CC them if possible. It will prolong their “one shot kill” move
- make sure you time your evades, blocks, invuls when the “one shot kill” line is on the ground or when they shoot it – it’s pretty obvious

Yes they are powerful but they can be defeated. My only gripe is the Chanpion ones. Now those are definitely one shot killers and must be dealt with immediately.

Any monster, even the really broken ones, can be killed eventually. You guys dont have to post about it, this is not the competition and you dont get prize here. Everyone knows it already. The problem is where the OP monsters spawn (on the middle of road from one side of map to the other) and when they spawn (just behind you during fights against group of enemies).

Quite a lot of fun GW2 has provided is related to the freedom of your character build. Every class is capable of exploring the world. Every class has many possible combinations of weapons, traits and utilities. Not every build is super-effective obviously but in the open world against normal mobs they are still capable.

Sadly the ability to easily run with different builds is lost with GW2. Not only are many weapons, traits and skills pretty much useless there but only handful of classes go around fighting enemies easily. Many classes clearly struggle and its troubling because it reduces available options and forcing every player into same boring mold.

I can relate when it comes to champs and elites. Normals and veterans die so quickly they aren’t much of a trouble.

Agreed with the OP. “Learn to play” people, if you don’t have a problem with the snipers, then that’s fine, but stop dismissing the reports from people who do.

Ohoni.6057:

Agreed with the OP. “Learn to play” people, if you don’t have a problem with the snipers, then that’s fine, but stop dismissing the reports from people who do.

They aren’t really dismissing them….. just telling them to get better. Other people can do it, why can’t they?

I personally preferred to keep the sniper as is, they are powerful foe that actually post some threat to players. But I also agree that the vet or elite version is a bit OP at the moment, maybe tune down the hp and def a bit.

But i like how they can hit like a truck and catch “us” off guard. We do need foes like that, otherwise the HoT combat will too boring.

Please don’t.

I’m really happy that some mobs like the snipers, the chargers and the rollers are actually dangerous if you don’t read their description and pay attention to them.

I feel the game needs more of these. Encourage a social atmosphere, people wanting to run around together for protection and power.

They aren’t really dismissing them….. just telling them to get better. Other people can do it, why can’t they?

but it’s basically dismissing their experiences, saying that the inconvenience they are having is not something that should exist, or not something that should bother them. If someone is saying that they’re bothered, then they’re bothered. Accept that as a fact and move on from there, don’t try to explain to them why they’re wrong for being bothered.

These snipers are fine as is, they put a darn “Target” over your head, and crouch as their going to shoot. As others have said, they are very squishy, and dealt with easily. HoT Mobs are great, people need to learn to take out the “Prime” targets first. None of the mobs are hard if you know how to deal with them or pay attention…

I don’t have a problem with a sniper, but they usually come in groups, and for some strange reason, Anet has decided that they love to interrupt, stun-lock and in any other way, incapacitate you when you play. On my revenant I was stun-locked from doing anything through chained CC from 3 mobs. I couldn’t do any thing at all, and I couldn’t avoid the mobs either (this was a story mission).

Having one monster is fine by itself with those abilities, but when you have 3-4 of them together – or even more – the combination of damage, stun-locks and other abilities becomes more or less impossible to dodge around. You can dodge one thing, only to role into the next. That makes it more or less impossible to avoid certain things.

I don’t mind the difficulty, but certain monsters are nigh-on impossible when they’re together with others. Alone they’re fine, in groups they’re impossible. Look at those mushroom things per example, one on one they’re OK to be dealt with, but add a charger, a bomber and a couple of spikers and you’re in for a very bad day. You have to dodge the goo on the floor, dodge the charger who charges all the time, dodge the bomber that bombs you all the time and have the constant damage taken from fast little spikers on your tail. All the abilities put on-top of each other, chains together in a pile of mess that makes it more or less impossible to survive unless you just run strait through and hope for the love of it that the charger misses you.

I actually had fun fighting them. I was on my way to the Tangled Depths.

" HoT Mobs are great, people need to learn to take out the ‘Prime’ targets first. None of the mobs are hard if you know how to deal with them or pay attention…"

Even in Silverwaste we have prime targets. From my experience the kill order is as follows assuming they’re all at full health:

1.Menders. They have strong healing and are very squishy. The obvious #1. When in a big group spam poison (shortbow 4 on thieves even interrupts) since that reduces their healing output, so if they do get off a heal they aren’t at full again. Try separating them. Sword/dagger thieves can try spamming daze with cloak and dagger then number 1 skill from behind. Scorpion wire is good here too, but may need to give up haste (reserved for teagarrif knockdowns or gaining quickness to ensure credit in the face of rangers who’d rapid fire at the worst possible moment I salvaged many bronzes in the nick of time that way) or signet of shadows for it.

2.Small tendrils. These nasty things do big damage, are mobile, and cause cripple. They go underground so conditions are good against them, but are low HP enough to burst down in a reasonable time. If you’re stunlocking a thrasher or teagariff their poison spit can disrupt you. Their mobility makes them much higher priority than the larger ones.

3.Trolls. These guys go down fast, but are typically accompanied by menders. They have a bee attack that does big damage if many red circles converge on you. You’re working against a monster then suddenly the bees put you on the defensive.

4.Thrashers. These guys have a vine attack that even ignores elevation, stealth, and LoS. Thus, the need to take them out fast is obvious. They have lifesteal but only if you stand in their field. Their vine attack also target everyone and in emergency situations become number 1.

5.Teagarrifs. Knocks down unexpectedly. In some tactical situations become number one. They give themselves might, which is good for boon stealing. They can be daze locked and rubble lying around can be tossed at them to stall their charge.

6.Big tendrils. Have a knockdown, but if blinded they’ll miss it. Take their closeup attack, cloak and dagger, then blind to ensure a smooth, easy win. They do spit, but their lack of mobility means you know where to avoid.

7.Hounds. These guys cause cripple and give themselves and their allies haste. With boonstealing they become far more manageable. They hit hard, but aren’t cheap unless paired with others.

8.Husks. These guys are tanky and their rocks hit hard, but their lack of cheap mechanics combined with tankiness makes them very low on the priority list. They’re weak to conditions however.

This is from my personal experience with a thief and elementalist so other classes may vary.

Pharazon translator: “Mushrooms are kittens. Activate the Super Mario Signal :O”

I didn’t know I had a translator, that’s rather nice though as I’m having trouble understanding myself half the time. Though I don’t activate any Mario signal, there’s only one signal that is necessary. That of Batman. If Batman can’t fix it, we’re screwed.

the normal snipers are fine, even with multiple ones in an encounter, but the veterans and elites are on a whole different level. However, even with the crazy damage I still prefer not to nerf them. The new maps kind of promote situational awareness and/or need to travel in small groups. Unlike most of the old maps, you can just kill anything by yourself. Challenge is good, imo.

Pretty sure that so called elites can 1v10 them in zerker gear while tanking a random HP champion so nope, they are fine.

Randulf.7614:

They are one of my favourite mobs in the jungle. They have massively reduced health pools versus other mobs, but they force me to stay on my toes. Many a time I’ve been too casually minded and walked into a stray shot or got into a bad habit with not dodging – both resulting in punishment.

I do however, thoroughly enjoying reflecting their snipe back at them with my shield on my Warrior. Second only in enjoyment to the near insta reflect kill when Karka try and gank me with their projectile attacks.

If memory serves me, they are actually a toned down version of how they were in beta

Originally they just shot you, and all the damage was delivered at once, which meant you could potentially be one shotted. You just got a target over your head for just a second and then BAM if you didn’t dodge or otherwise defend at just the right time you went down unless you’re running with equipment that had good defensive stats. This is a much better version.

Ohoni.6057:

They aren’t really dismissing them….. just telling them to get better. Other people can do it, why can’t they?

but it’s basically dismissing their experiences, saying that the inconvenience they are having is not something that should exist, or not something that should bother them. If someone is saying that they’re bothered, then they’re bothered. Accept that as a fact and move on from there, don’t try to explain to them why they’re wrong for being bothered.

I accept the fact that they are having a problem. The solution to that problem, though, is not to reduce the difficulty of the mob, but to increase the skill of the individual. That is the point of L2P. It isn’t to say you’re wrong, they’re not strong, it’s to say that your solution to the problem is wrong, you need to rise to the challenge, not lower the challenge to yourself.

Ohoni.6057:

They aren’t really dismissing them….. just telling them to get better. Other people can do it, why can’t they?

but it’s basically dismissing their experiences, saying that the inconvenience they are having is not something that should exist, or not something that should bother them. If someone is saying that they’re bothered, then they’re bothered. Accept that as a fact and move on from there, don’t try to explain to them why they’re wrong for being bothered.

On the contrary, that inconvenience should exist, we all faced it.
That inconvenience should motivate’em to improve so that they can beat it, instead of whining on the forum asking Anet to remove the inconvenience for’em.

HoT was advertised as hard content, we already got a crapload of nerfs, stop asking for more.