Guild Wars 2

So I need to bring this up because I keep reading crap basically and I want peoples opinions.

I keep reading that the power/cond dmg and vitality stacks are sooo OP and give a massive advantage to vets over new players and that lines like this force players to stick with one character.

I disagree with this completely. I’m not going to lie, they are very useful for roaming and solo havoc (which is what I enjoy doing in game) and they do give an advantage but IMO its not as bad as people make it out to be.. Personally I only play another character because leveling in this game in mind numbingly boring and mesmers are just too much fun.

Lets do a comparison.

Guard lines cost 115 ranks each and give:

2500 hp
100 power
100 condition damage.

These require time to get stacks and are lost on death. Since I run solo I just WP but if a user were in a zerg and got a rev there stacks would be gone and they would have no advantage over any one.

Siege lines cost 75 each and do many more things. Siege might 30 ranks. Siege users have their advantage available all of the time. If they die and get a rev it is strait back on the siege and fire away. Lets take a closer look at the lines.

Cannon:
basic fire removes boons (<- notice plural)
27% damage
more bleed on grape shot
increased radius
increased chill

Ballista:

A whole new ability-spread shot
25% damage
faster bolts
increased range
increased radius

Ac:
Increased range
Increased damage
Increased effectiveness of conditions
Increased radius
New skill (stealth reveal)

Cata:
Damage to walls 20%
Gravel does bleed
Increases radius
Increased damage 25%
New skill (bubble

I’ve just covered what i consider to be the main siege, but treb line is coming and would not be suprised if golem line followed.

I’ve never shot siege in my life so have no idea of base damage values so can’t run any numbers.

As far as I’m concerned these give vet players a huge advantage over new players and considering that people will be in the relative safety of a tower/keep when using siege I would go as far to say that these give and advantage over people using guard stacks.

One thing I will look at later is the damage on the siege. I have a feeling that, for example, a cannon shot with 27% damage increase plus 5% siege might will cause enough extra damage to negate an extra 2500 HP.

In open field combat guard stacks vs. no guard stacks, guard stacks is the kitten. BUT the only people I see with these abilities are solo or in small groups (5 or less) and will usually be fighting outnumbered 1v2 2v3 etc putting themselves at a disadvantage. Oh and one thing about running like this is that some is always shooting a cannon at you.
I will also add that I really don’t see that many people with guard stacks, maybe 1 in 10 people and I have only ever saw one person with both.

Would like some other opinions about this and if some one has already ran some number that would be amazing.

Keep it civil yo.

Regards

Me

EDIT TL DR:

Guard stack’s don’t give that much of an advantage, in fact they give no more of an advantage (maybe less of an advantage) than siege ability lines.

You kinda answered your own question in your post. Sure 27% extra damage for cannons is a better stat increase than 2500 HP. But the number of times you’re likely to use a cannon, compared to the number of times you’re likely to gain 5 stacks, makes cannon-mastery a joke. 2500 extra HP is always useful, cannon mastery is useful for, if you’re lucky, 2 minutes per week.

Most AC’s are AoE’d off walls, most cannons are easily destroyed, most burning oils are easily destroyed, ballistas have horrible line of sight problems

Cata mastery is the only siege mastery worth it if you don’t like to wait

I don’t think I’ve heard anyone complain that fortitude gives a massive advantage.

Of the lines currently available and in general play it’s clearly the best option if you have the points to spend. Everything else is situational and mostly minor.
The only other things worth looking at (imo) are the basic treb and AC range increases.

lol I suppose I must have just seen a few random bouts of QQ, that or I’m just looking too much into it.

I see how siege is situational but when we consider that there are people who will man siege for extended periods (eg. ogrewatch cannon shooting my Brogers), some people are playing on this advantage a lot but no more than I am with applied fortitude. I will also add that a siege user can gain a large advantage over multiple enemies at once whereas my applied fortitude is mostly useless when I fail to notice that zerg charging me down.

I suppose at the end of the day it does come down to play-style/preferences. Personally I don’t think I would max a siege line before I have maxed guard killer and probably the Merc line as well.

I put points into sully speed line (I forget the name), the 20 sec swiftness is niice but i am a bit of a swiftness junky.

I would argue that applied fortitude does give a large advantage. As soon as I finished upgrading it on my thief, it felt like I was easily winning fights that I previously lost. I didn’t feel such a big boost when I got the guard leeching, but it definitely made a difference, I mean I certainly won’t argue with perma 3 stacks of might. I think Applied fortitude was a massive boost because Im running a 10.6k health pool on a glass cannon thief with 80% crit chance and high uptime on fury whilst in combat. The difference between 10.6k and 13.1k is essentially insurance for me that I am not going to get one combo killed. Before I couldn’t make a mistake and miss that key on my keyboard or get caught out with a drink in one hand, I can recoup from any initial unexpected attack and still turn around and win it. That said, I only bother with these upgrades on a solo thief right now. My other classes have team comp upgrades (supply, catas, repairs etc).