Guild Wars 2

It’s kind of like a class overview just taking into account the patch, lets get started!
Edit: For your info this is for high level play, not some hotjoins where you go in with whatever build you like and stomp face. Lots of builds are viable for that.

First off I’d like to discuss.
Engineer: There has pretty much been 3 builds used in serious competitive play through out the games life so I will discuss those 3.

Elixirs HGH: Over powered and didn’t get touched in the patch.
100 nades: Easily killed target, but it has a crazy 1 shot – never was overpowered but something did need to change about the 1 shot, the 1 shot is now non existent and it even lost some utility through the kit refinement change – verdict – went from semi viable to completely not viable.
2 kit with double elixir R (teldos fav build) – also easily killed like 100 nades, gets 1 shot by thieves, the kit refinement change didn’t affect the build very much. Hasn’t been viable for a while and will remain that way.

Engi overall – only 1 viable build and it’s over powered and brain dead. It’s interesting to also state that, hgh build is the most tanky, has the only condi removal, and does the most damage of all 3 builds. Kit refinements global cooldown on kits should be removed.

Elementalist – unchanged, damage scepter got a slight buff. Ele is a hard one to balance but cantrips should have at least been nerfed more this patch.
Viable builds – A bunch of variations of the same build pretty much, you just take different utilities/weapon sets, and 10 – 20 different trait point allocations.

Thief – Nerfed a little, still completely viable.
1 viable build: Full damage glass

Warrior – Before patch it was this beast that could only be unleashed if given the right support, so you had to sacrifice other things to bring a warrior. Now you are taking sacrifices in your team comp to bring a nerfed beast, so it just makes it all the more not viable. The haste nerf just feels really not fun on warrior, unnerfed haste on warrior was just really fun, maybe they should make a trait for warrior that makes haste faster or something.
1 viable build: Full damage glass, is it still viable though? dunno

Necro – Epidemic can now be blocked, dodged, line of sighted and all that crap. A buff to it should have came along with this change, like making the cast time way shorter. Otherwise nearly unchanged.
1 viable build – about 3 different variations of epidemic/corrupt boon build.

Ranger – Class I care about personally the least. Sorry don’t have much input here.
2 viable builds – traps and beastmastery

Mesmer – Greatsword got buffed a little bit and time warp got rightfully nerfed.
1 viable build: Shatter with staff or greatsword, whichever you want. There’s a few variations but I don’t like em that much.

Guardian – Symbols buffed a little bit?
1 viable build: bunker, I personally don’t think any form of offensive guardian is as good as something else you could bring.

Overall verdict on the patch – Haste overall was a good change but makes warrior worse than it was and not as fun. bunker nerfs should have came with the haste change. Kit refinement change overall is completely null of logic, zero sense it makes, but with a few tweaks can be for the good. Otherwise not much happened.

I agree with all of the above.

The real take-away is that not much has changed – read not enough has changed

We need more updates, more changes, and faster.

The philosophy of “we’ll make 2 tiny changes and wait a month to see the results” is not going to work any more.

It’s time to pull up your socks and do a lot of changes to really push the meta out.

xiv.7136:

It’s time to pull up your socks and do a lot of changes to really push the meta out.

they can’t do that

i agree, i think Anet is doing the right things in 80% of the cases.
Let just admit this game is 70% PVE, 25% WvW, 5% PVP.
Almost no one do spvp a lot, just casual, so it’s normal that devs do not pay big attentions to the pvp comunity.
Btw right now i just feel that the only classes that should get changed (only talking about pvp) are ele and warrior. And i say that as an ele and warrior player

Phantaram.1265:

[…]
Engineer: There has pretty much been 3 builds used in serious competitive play through out the games life so I will discuss those 3.

Elixirs HGH: Over powered and didn’t get touched in the patch.
100 nades: Easily killed target, but it has a crazy 1 shot – never was overpowered but something did need to change about the 1 shot, the 1 shot is now non existent and it even lost some utility through the kit refinement change – verdict – went from semi viable to completely not viable.
2 kit with double elixir R (teldos fav build) – also easily killed like 100 nades, gets 1 shot by thieves, the kit refinement change didn’t affect the build very much. Hasn’t been viable for a while and will remain that way.

Engi overall – only 1 viable build and it’s over powered and brain dead. It’s interesting to also state that, hgh build is the most tanky, has the only condi removal, and does the most damage of all 3 builds. Kit refinements global cooldown on kits should be removed. […]
.

As I play that profession the most, I like to add one thing (and I surely think this counts for other professions aswell)

2kit with Elixier R is one-shotted by the thief – that’s correct but it’s simply that every build is being one-shotted by the thief! Even with HGH Engi you would have a hard time – but you have Elixier S which saves your …
Elixier R is a good stunbreak – but it will never protect yourself from a thief!

And that’s the main problem – due to thiefs you are currently forced to take Elixier S as one utility. This is your only stun-break – but you wouldn’t use this as a regular stunbreak… you would take the stun except there comes huge amount of damage with it. Elixier S is now your PANIC BUTTON!

I don’t like that we are being forced to use something like that. And I think Ele has the same with Mist Form. Probably other classes aswell.

for engineer :
the hgh build is not the only build that is good at tourneys,it is not OP too
for ele:
they buff it instead nerf it …weird …..ele maybe not OP but too powerfull
warrior:
warriors are very good without any quickness too but whole team has to be build for playing with warrior in setup-that is main problem,becouse (one guy wrote it to me yesterday)“it’s easier to play other tactics and setups for people”

I’ll never understand why devs dont ask experienced players about game balance.

Rangers:
Both builds can no longer pet swap stomp as the duration of quickness no longer covers the full stomp duration.
Both builds now have less access to pet CC and attacks with the cooldown changes. (good change but it makes them weaker)

ow i though i could go back to my pw thief ….. i have enough of burst

Guardian: DPS-guard has a pretty viable build actually and a decent burst. Played by us and Crs.

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Adaneshade.2409:

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Every class has many builds, the other question is if they are viable.
Condition thief is obviously not one of them, same goes for tanky thief (started laughing when I read this). Group support? (I’m nearly dying, please stahp)
Disagreeing on that my son?

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Every class has many builds, the other question is if they are viable.
Condition thief is obviously not one of them, same goes for tanky thief (started laughing when I read this). Group support? (I’m nearly dying, please stahp)
Disagreeing on that my son?

The question is viable for what. Reading your post I see clearly that you talk about tPvP. Reading the tanky build and group support and condi build – I think he was talking about hotjoin (sure you can be tanky when you are in stealth like 99% of the time – can you hold a node like that – no!)

For serious tPvP where you want to follow the principles of conquest there is only one build viable! (maybe one and a half :-))

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Every class has many builds, the other question is if they are viable.
Condition thief is obviously not one of them, same goes for tanky thief (started laughing when I read this). Group support? (I’m nearly dying, please stahp)
Disagreeing on that my son?

They are VERY viable, your narrow mindedness is astounding >.<

Tanky venom share build took our tPvP team to 15 straight victories last night…..I’d call that viable both on the tank and group support front.

Shranks.3260:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Every class has many builds, the other question is if they are viable.
Condition thief is obviously not one of them, same goes for tanky thief (started laughing when I read this). Group support? (I’m nearly dying, please stahp)
Disagreeing on that my son?

The question is viable for what. Reading your post I see clearly that you talk about tPvP. Reading the tanky build and group support and condi build – I think he was talking about hotjoin (sure you can be tanky when you are in stealth like 99% of the time – can you hold a node like that – no!)

For serious tPvP where you want to follow the principles of conquest there is only one build viable! (maybe one and a half :-))

Not all tank builds rely on stealth, aoe CC coupled with evasion works wonders.

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Every class has many builds, the other question is if they are viable.
Condition thief is obviously not one of them, same goes for tanky thief (started laughing when I read this). Group support? (I’m nearly dying, please stahp)
Disagreeing on that my son?

They are VERY viable, your narrow mindedness is astounding >.<

Tanky venom share build took our tPvP to 15 straight victories last night…..I’d call that viable both on the tank and group support front.

Did actually the thief only got you to the victories? Probably not – maybe it’s playable – but talking about being tanky you have to commit that other classes can do better than the thief

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Every class has many builds, the other question is if they are viable.
Condition thief is obviously not one of them, same goes for tanky thief (started laughing when I read this). Group support? (I’m nearly dying, please stahp)
Disagreeing on that my son?

They are VERY viable, your narrow mindedness is astounding >.<

Tanky venom share build took our tPvP to 15 straight victories last night…..I’d call that viable both on the tank and group support front.

Allright my son, GJ on that.
We talk about this later, when you reach the higher-end.
Wishing you good dreams and some nice sleep.

Shranks.3260:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Thief has way more than 1 viable build lol. We have builds ranging from full on tank to group support to conditions…….

Every class has many builds, the other question is if they are viable.
Condition thief is obviously not one of them, same goes for tanky thief (started laughing when I read this). Group support? (I’m nearly dying, please stahp)
Disagreeing on that my son?

They are VERY viable, your narrow mindedness is astounding >.<

Tanky venom share build took our tPvP to 15 straight victories last night…..I’d call that viable both on the tank and group support front.

Did actually the thief only got you to the victories? Probably not – maybe it’s playable – but talking about being tanky you have to commit that other classes can do better than the thief

I’m not calling it a bunker, never did tank != bunker. Players tend to focus the thief in the party, if you want to provide group support you have to be able to take a hit. My build can not be bursted down by any known burst combo, hence “tank”.

And yes, the venoms were an integral part of the wins. When I logged for the night, the team started to lose matches.

share the build so. im interested in changin my burst boring brainless build with something smarter.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I really appreciate you posting the build. Now everyone can try for their own and decide if it’s viable or not for him/her!

Thanks

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Guardian: DPS-guard has a pretty viable build actually and a decent burst. Played by us and Crs.

I often play in teams with a dps guard and it isnt that bad. Probably improved after the patch relative to other options tbh

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

Shranks.3260:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I really appreciate you posting the build. Now everyone can try for their own and decide if it’s viable or not for him/her!

Thanks

Yeah, I totally understand the statement about thieves only having a GC place as it’s a very common misconception. Just give it a bit of open mindedness and see for yourself. It plays very similarly to any S/D build, just gotta be aware of team-mate positions relative to you to gain the most effectiveness with venom share.

I don’t know how well it would work in sPvP as it kind of breaks up teams. As with any good support build it only reaches maximum effectiveness when everyone is on the same page.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

To summarize that for you. No portal = max 4 ppl on mid-fights. If the warrior gets shut down (and for sure he will) I doubt you will get smn down from your pressure. Also it’s easy to outroam your setup.
Still my question is how you handle a bunker-ele on your close? Your missing burst will destroy you.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

To summarize that for you. No portal = max 4 ppl on mid-fights. If the warrior gets shut down (and for sure he will) I doubt you will get smn down from your pressure. Also it’s easy to outroam your setup.
Still my question is how you handle a bunker-ele on your close? Your missing burst will destroy you.

I rotate venoms out, (Basilisk on inc, I hit and force stun break, GS warrior charges/ throws GS with his basilisk to stone second time: I then pop devourer to immobilize while warrior hits 100b rotation, then I chill, then venom….generally, an ele is dead before i get to chill, bunker guards will require the full venom rotation.)

We only focus on holding 2 points, this build grows in strength multiplicatively by the number of allies nearby. Lack of burst is a non issue when your opponent is forced to sit there and eat all your attacks.

All I can say is, if you actually play a thief, try it for a few nights. (Takes a good bit to learn as it does have a high skill cap and practiced users of burst builds really have no point of reference. I ran burst before, so I’m speaking form experience, got my kitten handed to me for a good bit til I got good with the build. Now I can’t imagine going back.)

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

To summarize that for you. No portal = max 4 ppl on mid-fights. If the warrior gets shut down (and for sure he will) I doubt you will get smn down from your pressure. Also it’s easy to outroam your setup.
Still my question is how you handle a bunker-ele on your close? Your missing burst will destroy you.

I rotate venoms out, (Basilisk on inc, I hit and force stun break, GS warrior charges/ throws GS with his basilisk to stone second time: I then pop devourer to immobilize while warrior hits 100b rotation, then I chill, then venom….generally, an ele is dead before i get to chill, bunker guards will require the full venom rotation.)

We only focus on holding 2 points, this build grows in strength multiplicatively by the number of allies nearby. Lack of burst is a non issue when your opponent is forced to sit there and eat all your attacks.

Any good ele will instantly teleport or mistform if he sees a warrior coming with 100b / a thief has basilisk up. So no you won’t kill him instantly. But actually i’d like to see that. If you play on EU-Servers then you can pm me. I really wanna see if this works.
still thank you for the description, appreciated that.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

To summarize that for you. No portal = max 4 ppl on mid-fights. If the warrior gets shut down (and for sure he will) I doubt you will get smn down from your pressure. Also it’s easy to outroam your setup.
Still my question is how you handle a bunker-ele on your close? Your missing burst will destroy you.

I rotate venoms out, (Basilisk on inc, I hit and force stun break, GS warrior charges/ throws GS with his basilisk to stone second time: I then pop devourer to immobilize while warrior hits 100b rotation, then I chill, then venom….generally, an ele is dead before i get to chill, bunker guards will require the full venom rotation.)

We only focus on holding 2 points, this build grows in strength multiplicatively by the number of allies nearby. Lack of burst is a non issue when your opponent is forced to sit there and eat all your attacks.

Any good ele will instantly teleport or mistform if he sees a warrior coming with 100b / a thief has basilisk up. So no you won’t kill him instantly. But actually i’d like to see that. If you play on EU-Servers then you can pm me. I really wanna see if this works.
still thank you for the description, appreciated that.

The whole point is we force them to use those CDs before we go for the kill. Won’t do the burst rotation til they are locked down. Often I’ll hold off on venoms and use infiltrator’s strike spam to force this if necessary (for the very talented eles) Most panic and blow all escape CDs on inc.

Tl;DR, OP has opionion’s about classes, and doesnt know much about most of them.

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

To summarize that for you. No portal = max 4 ppl on mid-fights. If the warrior gets shut down (and for sure he will) I doubt you will get smn down from your pressure. Also it’s easy to outroam your setup.
Still my question is how you handle a bunker-ele on your close? Your missing burst will destroy you.

I rotate venoms out, (Basilisk on inc, I hit and force stun break, GS warrior charges/ throws GS with his basilisk to stone second time: I then pop devourer to immobilize while warrior hits 100b rotation, then I chill, then venom….generally, an ele is dead before i get to chill, bunker guards will require the full venom rotation.)

We only focus on holding 2 points, this build grows in strength multiplicatively by the number of allies nearby. Lack of burst is a non issue when your opponent is forced to sit there and eat all your attacks.

Any good ele will instantly teleport or mistform if he sees a warrior coming with 100b / a thief has basilisk up. So no you won’t kill him instantly. But actually i’d like to see that. If you play on EU-Servers then you can pm me. I really wanna see if this works.
still thank you for the description, appreciated that.

The whole point is we force them to use those CDs before we go for the kill. Won’t do the burst rotation til they are locked down. Often I’ll hold off on venoms and use infiltrator’s strike spam to force this if necessary (for the very talented eles) Most panic and blow all escape CDs on inc.

All fine. But by the time you can kill the ele (good eles rtl out) you will loose the mid-node. That takes too much time.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

To summarize that for you. No portal = max 4 ppl on mid-fights. If the warrior gets shut down (and for sure he will) I doubt you will get smn down from your pressure. Also it’s easy to outroam your setup.
Still my question is how you handle a bunker-ele on your close? Your missing burst will destroy you.

I rotate venoms out, (Basilisk on inc, I hit and force stun break, GS warrior charges/ throws GS with his basilisk to stone second time: I then pop devourer to immobilize while warrior hits 100b rotation, then I chill, then venom….generally, an ele is dead before i get to chill, bunker guards will require the full venom rotation.)

We only focus on holding 2 points, this build grows in strength multiplicatively by the number of allies nearby. Lack of burst is a non issue when your opponent is forced to sit there and eat all your attacks.

Any good ele will instantly teleport or mistform if he sees a warrior coming with 100b / a thief has basilisk up. So no you won’t kill him instantly. But actually i’d like to see that. If you play on EU-Servers then you can pm me. I really wanna see if this works.
still thank you for the description, appreciated that.

The whole point is we force them to use those CDs before we go for the kill. Won’t do the burst rotation til they are locked down. Often I’ll hold off on venoms and use infiltrator’s strike spam to force this if necessary (for the very talented eles) Most panic and blow all escape CDs on inc.

All fine. But by the time you can kill the ele (good eles rtl out) you will loose the mid-node. That takes too much time.

True, but that’s not our job lol. We have 1 bunker at each node we want to hold (some maps not even mid is one of them) ele loats back and forth to support those 2 bunkers to hold point. Warrior and I go where the majority of the enemy is (Sometimes all but their 1 bunker hit one of our nodes, in that case we’d have ele/guard/warrior/and myself hit that node. With the crazy CC flying all over, the attackers are too impaired to effectively fight us. Warrior calls target, I lock em down, he kills.)

If we are not near a node and the ele wilsons to some random area, we have the option to just let them run. In the end, holding our 2 nodes and disrupting the flow of their players back from graveyard is all that matters.

If ele tries to bunker down, he dies, if he runs, we control the point.

Rerroll.9083:

I’ll never understand why devs dont ask experienced players about game balance.

Actually they do. In their SotG interview they were asking two top players, both playing mesmer class. Xeph from Team Paradigm actually had some very good comments about the game balance and he was surprised to see the developers buff mesmer greatsword “wouldn’t that make it overpowered?”. It seems Xeph knows more about game balancing than the developers do.

Full interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zCUvIrH2BlU

Of course wider communication would be better. Talk with players of different professions. Talk with people who are playing lots of different professions. They should also ask experienced players who play dungeons & other pve content, WvWvW. Balancing the game based on just spvp / tpvp won’t be that good idea and I think we need to have a bigger split between the skills in pvp and pve+WvWvW. For example warrior is very strong in pve (has been and still is), good in big WvWvW groups (e.g. hammer warrior as front line in melee train), but probably the weakest profession in pvp.

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

Adaneshade.2409:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc9cmMhxmmMhxmx0x0amRbmsbV8kiQ70M7070M7kNc70m707owY

Couldn’t show it there, but I run Knight’s Gem in the Soldier’s amulet.

Both the might and lifesteal work for your allies as well as you.

I like different builds. As our core thief allrdy tested quite the same build, we saw it didn’t work cuz without any fast burst you won’t kill anything. So for this you need some other burst class. Also this build just work in teamfights. In a 1v1 you’re in a lost state.
Try to roam around with this build and catch an ele. Will never happen cuz conditions won’t kill the ele. Mabye you could name your setup so we get an impression how you fit in it. Like to see that. Thanks

We run 2x bunker guards 1x D/D ele, myself on thief, and a GS warrior. Ele floats between guards and GS warrior and I roam for PK. I fill the role of primary CC for the team.

I do win nearly every 1v1 I just don’t “insta-gib”. My dps isn’t shabby at all due to sword’s natural high auto-attack dps, and my ability to keep protection/regeneration stripped off my target. They pretty much stay locked down from venoms during the fight.

To summarize that for you. No portal = max 4 ppl on mid-fights. If the warrior gets shut down (and for sure he will) I doubt you will get smn down from your pressure. Also it’s easy to outroam your setup.
Still my question is how you handle a bunker-ele on your close? Your missing burst will destroy you.

I rotate venoms out, (Basilisk on inc, I hit and force stun break, GS warrior charges/ throws GS with his basilisk to stone second time: I then pop devourer to immobilize while warrior hits 100b rotation, then I chill, then venom….generally, an ele is dead before i get to chill, bunker guards will require the full venom rotation.)

We only focus on holding 2 points, this build grows in strength multiplicatively by the number of allies nearby. Lack of burst is a non issue when your opponent is forced to sit there and eat all your attacks.

Any good ele will instantly teleport or mistform if he sees a warrior coming with 100b / a thief has basilisk up. So no you won’t kill him instantly. But actually i’d like to see that. If you play on EU-Servers then you can pm me. I really wanna see if this works.
still thank you for the description, appreciated that.

The whole point is we force them to use those CDs before we go for the kill. Won’t do the burst rotation til they are locked down. Often I’ll hold off on venoms and use infiltrator’s strike spam to force this if necessary (for the very talented eles) Most panic and blow all escape CDs on inc.

All fine. But by the time you can kill the ele (good eles rtl out) you will loose the mid-node. That takes too much time.

True, but that’s not our job lol. We have 1 bunker at each node we want to hold (some maps not even mid is one of them) ele loats back and forth to support those 2 bunkers to hold point. Warrior and I go where the majority of the enemy is (Sometimes all but their 1 bunker hit one of our nodes, in that case we’d have ele/guard/warrior/and myself hit that node. With the crazy CC flying all over, the attackers are too impaired to effectively fight us. Warrior calls target, I lock em down, he kills.)

If we are not near a node and the ele wilsons to some random area, we have the option to just let them run. In the end, holding our 2 nodes and disrupting the flow of their players back from graveyard is all that matters.

If ele tries to bunker down, he dies, if he runs, we control the point.

What? Now you tell me you go kill the ele on your close and in the other sentence is say it’s not your job? How you wanna get rid of it then? All 4 go to mid and let close neutral?
Sidenote for ppl that don’t know: The ele is able to reach your close before your guard actually can full-cap. If he has fullcapped during the game the ele can decap it with tornado. So you definitely need warrior and thief for this ele. Means you can’t go mid until you can cap/kill him.

Ok, we’re thinking of 2 different points in the match. I’ve been describing play after we’ve already established our 2 points of control and are bunkered down. We have an ele to match their ele in situations of tornado and hold long enough for the warrior and I to close in and finish off the aggressor or force them to flee. More often than not, the ele has blown all CDs trying to take the point and we just pin them down and kill.

You seem to be talking from the very start of the match, in that case the ele/guard go for close point. Warrior, other guard, and I go for other for initial cap they can’t stay in circle without dying from being shut down but we can.

Every player on our team is able to bunker down to some degree, no one if full out glass. Warrior simply has the most burst. In the end, outbunkering the other team is superior to killing them.

My point is that most bunkers do not expect to be shut down so hard and they die before they get the chance to react. (Probably due to not very many venom share thieves about, and even fewer that spam daze/boon shears while in a fight.)

maybe it works. problem is what do u do if your close point holder lose the point. u have a guardian vs ele at close and a probably 3+1 at mid with their close point taken.
no pressure to their point = 4 free opponents.

it doens’t mean it won’t work. just skeptical

Phantaram.1265:

Mesmer – Greatsword got buffed a little bit and time warp got rightfully nerfed.
1 viable build: Shatter with staff or greatsword, whichever you want. There’s a few variations but I don’t like em that much.

I disagree. There is a completely different build in terms of playstyle. Many refer to it as “Phantasms”. Just because Xeph doesn’t play it, doesn’t mean it isn’t viable. Although I would like a buff to Mantras, so that a 3. build can emerge.

Shukran.4851:

maybe it works. problem is what do u do if your close point holder lose the point. u have a guardian vs ele at close and a probably 3+1 at mid with their close point taken.
no pressure to their point = 4 free opponents.

it doens’t mean it won’t work. just skeptical

Hehe, however it looks, it works well for us, dunno what else to tell ya. Either way, we’ve gotten way off the track of whether Tankish Venom Share thief is viable or not. In the end, if what you have works and you’re not bored to tears by it, keep at it right?

Mijo.3274:

i agree, i think Anet is doing the right things in 80% of the cases.
Let just admit this game is 70% PVE, 25% WvW, 5% PVP.
Almost no one do spvp a lot, just casual, so it’s normal that devs do not pay big attentions to the pvp comunity.
Btw right now i just feel that the only classes that should get changed (only talking about pvp) are ele and warrior. And i say that as an ele and warrior player

Most balance patches are modest at best for their beneficial impact on PvE and always seem to prioritise the interests of the PvP community first. Even if more people play PvE than PvP, it’s pretty clear skill balance centers around PvP. If it didn’t, they’d have a lot more classes working much more efficiently in PvE rather than the trinity we have edging out other classes and their DPS/utility by a dramatic degree. Warriors are the kings of PvE and they keep getting buffs. Rangers are the scrubs and the yet we see the most viable ranger PvE builds (which are already underperforming compared to other classes that fill those roles) keep getting bizarre nerfs.

Shiren.9532:

Warriors are the kings of PvE.

yes, because gw2 pve is all about cof farm

Erwin.5603:

Phantaram.1265:

Mesmer – Greatsword got buffed a little bit and time warp got rightfully nerfed.
1 viable build: Shatter with staff or greatsword, whichever you want. There’s a few variations but I don’t like em that much.

I disagree. There is a completely different build in terms of playstyle. Many refer to it as “Phantasms”. Just because Xeph doesn’t play it, doesn’t mean it isn’t viable. Although I would like a buff to Mantras, so that a 3. build can emerge.

We used a phantasm mesmer quite a bit just recently on our team and I don’t think its viable. Just my opinion though. Maybe you could say its viable but its not optimal, you could bring something else in its place that performs the job better.

Phantaram.1265:

Erwin.5603:

Phantaram.1265:

Mesmer – Greatsword got buffed a little bit and time warp got rightfully nerfed.
1 viable build: Shatter with staff or greatsword, whichever you want. There’s a few variations but I don’t like em that much.

I disagree. There is a completely different build in terms of playstyle. Many refer to it as “Phantasms”. Just because Xeph doesn’t play it, doesn’t mean it isn’t viable. Although I would like a buff to Mantras, so that a 3. build can emerge.

We used a phantasm mesmer quite a bit just recently on our team and I don’t think its viable. Just my opinion though. Maybe you could say its viable but its not optimal, you could bring something else in its place that performs the job better.

We used Phantasm Mesmer against you yesterday (I’m Fixi). You need to run a different strat with the spec though, since its kinda useless in teamfights but very good 1v1 – so you need to enforce that.

He can not seem to grasp the fact that the venoms are shared and it is not just you locking down a class but also your team mates.
Think about it. Three players (self included) all now have Devourer/Basilisk.
Devourer = 2 second immobilize for the next three attacks x3 people = 18 seconds
Basilisk = 1.5 stun for the next two attacks x3 people = 9 seconds
This isn’t even taking into account the slow/-33% healing.
Hence you do not need a crap ton of burst.

Right now:

1 – Ele (Even more broken after quickness aka dmg nerf)
2 – Guardian (Same as ele)
3 – Ranger (Bunker-Trapper what else, toned down a bit noob pew pews)
4 – Mesmer (Still the same, tw still viable and better than the other elites)
5 – Necro (Well it’s sort of ok…worth it if he’s good)
6 – Engi (Buffed to a decent level, same as necro imo)
7 – Thief (Hit hard by quickness, revealed and caltrops patch, not really worth it atm both burst or cond dmg)
8 – Warrior (N\A Rip)

Erwin.5603:

Phantaram.1265:

Erwin.5603:

Phantaram.1265:

Mesmer – Greatsword got buffed a little bit and time warp got rightfully nerfed.
1 viable build: Shatter with staff or greatsword, whichever you want. There’s a few variations but I don’t like em that much.

I disagree. There is a completely different build in terms of playstyle. Many refer to it as “Phantasms”. Just because Xeph doesn’t play it, doesn’t mean it isn’t viable. Although I would like a buff to Mantras, so that a 3. build can emerge.

We used a phantasm mesmer quite a bit just recently on our team and I don’t think its viable. Just my opinion though. Maybe you could say its viable but its not optimal, you could bring something else in its place that performs the job better.

We used Phantasm Mesmer against you yesterday (I’m Fixi). You need to run a different strat with the spec though, since its kinda useless in teamfights but very good 1v1 – so you need to enforce that.

I’m aware of what it does and I know you beat us but we didn’t lose because your of spec :P

That was our first game in about 2 weeks.

Erwin.5603:

Phantaram.1265:

Mesmer – Greatsword got buffed a little bit and time warp got rightfully nerfed.
1 viable build: Shatter with staff or greatsword, whichever you want. There’s a few variations but I don’t like em that much.

I disagree. There is a completely different build in terms of playstyle. Many refer to it as “Phantasms”. Just because Xeph doesn’t play it, doesn’t mean it isn’t viable. Although I would like a buff to Mantras, so that a 3. build can emerge.

I don’t run shatter :<

Kit refinement would be semi ok if they made it have cds unique to each Kit. Instead of a universal cooldown. Theres so little control one has over it unless one runs just one kit. And its hardly worth it for what u get then.

I havnt tested it enough in new patch but some of the kits like wrench kit seem manifestly poor. Be better off with speedy kits for perma swiftness than a once every 20 seconds speed boost.

Xeph.4513:

Erwin.5603:

Phantaram.1265:

Mesmer – Greatsword got buffed a little bit and time warp got rightfully nerfed.
1 viable build: Shatter with staff or greatsword, whichever you want. There’s a few variations but I don’t like em that much.

I disagree. There is a completely different build in terms of playstyle. Many refer to it as “Phantasms”. Just because Xeph doesn’t play it, doesn’t mean it isn’t viable. Although I would like a buff to Mantras, so that a 3. build can emerge.

I don’t run shatter :<

Sneaky condition mesmer, 12 condi stack hit quite hard when u are spamming as ele

As an engi, all the changes did was kill the 100nades build- hgh condi builds are still pretty decent, turrets and gadgets are still useless.