Guild Wars 2

One thing I’ve noticed lately about WvW that seems set to become more significant with the release of HoT is the tendency for profession based mechanics to be rendered obsolete by WvW specific mechanics. To give an example of what I mean, as an elementalist I have some of the best AoE damage available, which allows me to put pressure on enemy groups and destroy siege quickly. Neither of these abilities are all that relevant however, as arrow carts can output more damage with a larger AoE and larger target limit from a longer range and a safer firing position, while siege disablers can negate any siege for such a long time that destroying them becomes trivial.

Because arrow carts and siege disablers can do some of my best jobs better than I can, it feels like it doesn’t matter than I’m an elementalist. All that really matters, it seems, is what siege masteries I have unlocked.

I can see a similar issue occuring with the new shield generator siege. With the new stability mechanics coming soon most stability generation available to our professions just won’t be enough to push through a choke point if the defenders spam their lines. The defenders need only place one more line than the number of stability stacks the attackers can generate to negate the attackers’ stability entirely.

The new shield generator appears that it will be supremely effective at removing enemy stability, as it gets a siege projectile that knocks back and can hit multiple times and a line of its own. This appears to mean it will be better at removing enemy stability stacks than any profession, but also the third skill, force dome, appears that it will provide the only possible source of enough stability to have a chance of crossing a choke. Now we have a single siege weapon that obsoletes both anti stability skills and stability skills. All this and we don’t even know yet what its mastery will do or what improvements the superior version will have.

I don’t want siege, tricks and traps to be doing all of the work. I want there to be things that only some professions can do, so that profession choice matters. I don’t want to be nothing more than a miserable little pile of supplies (but enough talk, have at you!).

You think you have it bad?

I play thief.
As a roamer that is fine.

If i want to help my raid guild? not really.
They run by meta and anybody playing something else is sidelined and basically asked to tag along.

It is not very motivated that because your class choice was not Ele, Warrior, Guardian or Necro that you have no real place in the group.
Of my guild the few people that refuse to go meta class like me make a joke out of it each time we end up together in the same ‘reject’ group.

All I hear on TS is NECRO BOMBS NECRO BOMBS, PUT STATIC STATIC STATIC.
WARRIOR/GUARDIAN TRAIN DODGE LEFT/RIGHT.

My group is all but forgotten about, it’s more of a statistic than anything else.

Siege is the best aoe for situations that are not moving but in zerg vs zerg warfare an ele still has a place as most zerg battles at least in t1 eu take place outside of the range of arrowcarts.

Always funny when players think that pushing through aoe should be valid tactic. Sad part is that it actually work.

I <3 my reject group. I’ve played thief, ranger, and ele but my best times were Ele in the reject party.

As to the OP: It might hurt at first but overtime we’ll find a happy balance. Just remember you’re a pile of supplies, but you don’t cost supply to deploy

Thief is a necessary component of gank squads. If your guild isn’t using thieves your guild is bad. Invalidating profession choice also includes the fact that engineer and ranger are always useless outside of roaming, but my main point was that even for the professions that are currently useful, siege and tricks can replace them in any asymmetric fight.

If AoE is being spammed on the one path between you and your target (think hills lord’s room) then there is no choice but to push through it.

Thieves are extremely good at applying persistent pressure on backlines, just don’t run into heavy AOE, especially around narrow choke point.

If you run pretty much full zerker with a mix of trinkets you will melt, change to shortbow for that, shadow step and dodge through – while sticking close-ish to your MT.