Guild Wars 2

http://www.twitch.tv/acandis19/b/669692685?t=28m41s
NOTE: I start at 29 minutes because I accidentally left my music on and the initial rant about the stupidity of the condition and boon conversion changes was muted. Oh well.

Did VOD overview of the upcoming trait rework with some explanations as well as lot of predicted builds for every class (IN THE POWER META).

I didn’t go over a lot of condi builds, or bunker builds.

At some point tomorrow when the youtubes is done processing the vod I will update this post, I may also annotate it.

Enjoy.

CLASS CHECKPOINTS:
Engineer
Guardian
Mesmer
Necromancer
Ranger
Thief
Warrior

EDIT:
I posted what I think will be the most effective builds below.
Though, I recommend you watch the video segments for the classes you’re interested in playing, as I went through pretty much every trait option and a lot of combinations that are not clear from the links below.

Predicted Trait Spreads:
I’m only going to outline trait spreads, without more detailed info on how runes/sigils/weapon skills are changing, I don’t care enough to speculate about new builds.

Also, I’m mostly focusing on power meta builds, I don’t care too much to craft builds for any upcoming future meta I can’t predict.

Ele:

• d/X- core - You will always take this, no matter what.
  • Fire/blind spec
  • Air/lightning rod spec
  • Earth/bunky spec
• s/f- fresh air

Engi:

• rifle

Guard:

• scepter/focus+X
  Valor – Swap III for II depending on playstyle.
  You can also swap Radiance for Zeal if you want to play symbol based build.

Mes:

• shatter - Dueling has variable options depending on playstyle.
  As a last tree, you can take any of Chaos, Inspiration, Illusions, or Chrono depending on playstyle. All of them have solid options.

Necro:

• power wells
  blood magic – swap VII for IX if playing with coordinated team
  soul reaping – swap I for II, and/or IV for V, and/or VII for VII depending on playstyle.
• condi
  blood magic – swap VIII for IX if playing with coordinated team
  soul reaping – swap II for I AND VII for IX if you feel your comp would benefit from having additional burning.

Ranger:

• power lb
• condis
  There might be some sleeper trap build in here. But spirits got shafted.

Thief:

• d/p crit strikes
  Deadly Arts – swap IX for VIII depending on playstyle.
  Trickery – swap II for III depending on playstyle.
• d/p bich build
• s/d DA
  You can swap out DA for crit strikes if you don’t feel like playin an OP bich trait.
• cruuk build

Warrior:
I didn’t spend too much time on warrior, but this is Hman’s sword/horn+hammer build.
You can swap out Discipline VIII for IX AND pick up a bow, if you feel hammer has too much counterplay.

Have fun.

TL;DR ANET is bad at making balancing decisions.

no kitten sherlock

Your D/P CS build is bad.

Checked some of your predictions (will finish checking the rest now), there are a couple of trait decisions i disagree with but overall i would pick the same traitlines.
50% reduced recharge on slick shoes looks really strong on paper, can’t really know if it will beat recharging 1 toolbelt skill every 20 seconds though _

you missed the extremely strong 0/0/6/6/6 condi BM bunker on the ranger, that is if Beastly Warden satisfies certain requirements like being instacast with a decent aoe. pets will be able to blind and apply weakness with every f2 cast as well (this has no ICD). I cant imagine not running BW to peel, and interrupt rezzes, heals and stomps. there are pets that are reliable in their pathing and damage application, and those are birds. also we’re no longer pigeon-holed into using canines for the CC.

and yes, traps should be very interesting with the knockdown and quickdraw. I suspected this would happen because they kept us totally in the dark until the last minute. but at least it seems they got traps right.

I agree that they messed up with spirits and shouts.

Narcarsis.5739:

Your D/P CS build is bad.

you go girl.

You know Adandis, I’ve always told people that you and Hehk are 2 of the best PvP multi class theorycrafters I know. Would be nice if you added weapons, sigils and runes though.

Good job.

I disagree with your d/p prediction, in my opinion thieves are better off picking trickery + 1 defensive traitline + 1 offensive traitline. Putting both deadly arts and critical strikes in the same build looks too extreme even for a thief.

Longbow power ranger starts to look seriously viable now

@mistsim.2748 you miss out too much without skirmishing, 33% bleeding damage and 66% reduced cooldown beat 2s of taunt any day.

BW brings too much to teamfights. it’s probably the most significant utility the ranger will have. 2s aoe taunt on a 15s CD cant really be dismissed, it makes too much of a difference. it’s not any different from an earthshaker.

the other thing is on s/t + a/d, quickdraw seems kind of wasted. at best, it’s a little bit of burst, or an extra evade a little sooner. tbh id rather have an aoe taunt and a pet that nukes hard.

Lachanche.6859:

I disagree with your d/p prediction, in my opinion thieves are better off picking trickery + 1 defensive traitline + 1 offensive traitline. Putting both deadly arts and critical strikes in the same build looks too extreme even for a thief.

Longbow power ranger starts to look seriously viable now

@mistsim.2748 you miss out too much without skirmishing, 33% bleeding damage and 66% reduced cooldown beat 2s of taunt any day.

For a long time D/P 26006 was meta until panicstrike came. Under good circumstances crit-strikes can give you around 40% crit-damage and a lot of fury, what could be very strong with increased power on amulets. I didn´t like the 26006 that much though. Not much condi-remove. 60606 could be meta, too. But I´m not sure about it.

Necro in nutshell

http://www.twitch.tv/acandis19/b/669692685?t=2h06m50s

why are people crying about necro? they got some really good buffs.

no one is really gonna know what the guardian meta will be since theres so many changes I honestly dont know what role it will be best at playing

Neither of those ranger builds will be top tier “meta”, nor do I think that pure traps will ever be meta. 1 or 2 could be strong though. There are several permutations of ranger builds that could be strong and competitive.

I’ve been toying around with builds for hours and these are the ones I’m gonna try out first and that I think could be top-tier:

Mesmer
(Shatter/Stealth)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Rg-Fk;0VPV11y6JVV71;9;4STU;13-148237;9;1j2;45q

Ele
(Blinding-B)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-o34;2B2-V0y4wMFZ0;9;402G;0038036046;9;1F-03F-030H

(Fresh Air)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-o3d;2B2-V0v47NkY0;9;432G;0057036156;9;95i

Ranger
(QuickDraw PR)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Jo-g;2FVx-e2JEF-0;9k2;2YZ_;0258136157;9;1jzyvjzyv5j

Engi
(Cele-Rifle)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Z70;2cPVg0l6cQFx0;9;4ijk;0038248-57;9;90P

Guard
(Staffbunker)
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-BZ-3x;2k40J3NGV90;9;4nPQ;0036136148;9;1ZF18ZF183w

mistsim.2748:

BW brings too much to teamfights. it’s probably the most significant utility the ranger will have. 2s aoe taunt on a 15s CD cant really be dismissed, it makes too much of a difference. it’s not any different from an earthshaker.

the other thing is on s/t + a/d, quickdraw seems kind of wasted. at best, it’s a little bit of burst, or an extra evade a little sooner. tbh id rather have an aoe taunt and a pet that nukes hard.

I was thinking about shortbow + s/d (teamfight oriented build) to take advantage of the cd reduction with shortbow #5 or #2 now that poison stacks in intensity.

I agree with you though, if the taunt is istant and has decent radius (maybe 600 radius like a shout) it will be the superior team fight option.

Narcarsis.5739:

Your D/P CS build is bad.

Agreed, I’d go with this

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-g3RV;1Rw-1-6-FOFd0;9;4IJM;0147146237i

mistsim.2748:

why are people crying about necro? they got some really good buffs.

The nerfs that came with them hit way harder then the buffs could help. Plague became unusable (calculations have predicted 9k bleed damage on exotic rabid), consume condition has been severely crippled (the human healing skill has become a good contender and that’s saying something).

Eurantien.4632:

Neither of those ranger builds will be top tier “meta”, nor do I think that pure traps will ever be meta. 1 or 2 could be strong though. There are several permutations of ranger builds that could be strong and competitive.

yep.

not trying to flatter this guy too much, but Eura is probably the only person on these forums whose ranger-related opinions I take seriously. Acandis was way too careless, and just didn’t seem to give a kitten about the prof, and tbh doesn’t quite understand the prof either. Hman was even trolling his stream calling rangers AIDS, but i’ll be more than happy to change his mind.

So it is true that you have to take 3 trait lines and you can take grantmaster on every of them?

Lupanic.6502:

So it is true that you have to take 3 trait lines and you can take grantmaster on every of them?

yes, also you have to take a grandmaster, you can’t take 2 masters anymore.

Tim.6450:

Lupanic.6502:

So it is true that you have to take 3 trait lines and you can take grantmaster on every of them?

yes, also you have to take a grandmaster, you can’t take 2 masters anymore.

Hello diversity & customization <3

MyPuppy.8970:

Tim.6450:

Lupanic.6502:

So it is true that you have to take 3 trait lines and you can take grantmaster on every of them?

yes, also you have to take a grandmaster, you can’t take 2 masters anymore.

Hello diversity & customization <3

It’s very good change which makes traits much easier to balance.

Morwath.9817:

MyPuppy.8970:

Tim.6450:

Lupanic.6502:

So it is true that you have to take 3 trait lines and you can take grantmaster on every of them?

yes, also you have to take a grandmaster, you can’t take 2 masters anymore.

Hello diversity & customization <3

It’s very good change which makes traits much easier to balance.

Easier is not always better unfortunately. I hope you’re right, but i’d rather have the ability to make good or bad choices as long as they’re my own.

I want to know who got fired and who was replaced onto the Pvp side of the development team for Guild Wars 2. This patch seems like the most work they have put into since… probably forever.

Mia Crazymike.1780:

I want to know who got fired and who was replaced onto the Pvp side of the development team for Guild Wars 2. This patch seems like the most work they have put into since… probably forever.

Well we have had no balance updates for 15 months. Pretty much anyway. So this is a years worth of work along with elite specialisations and the new class.

I dont mind waiting for changes like this, that are major. The worst is when you wait 12 months and they nerf healing signet by 8%.