Guild Wars 2

Just got back from viewing the live stream about the DareDevil, and from the looks of it we might be able to hold our own in pvp again.

My thoughts:

Staff: the skills look ok, but to me it just looks like a melee version of the SB to me. it’s stealth skill however looks like it will allow us to set up some neat combo’s off of it.

Utilities: I liked the look of most of them except maybe the healing skill. its looks that each may have there own specific role in pvp depend on what weapon set you play which is nice, and the elite looks very cool. Its good to see that i may not have to rune bassy venom all the time for my elite.

Traits: the GM traits took the cake for me. They look visually pleasing and there are a a lot of potential set up we can use the combo-finishers. Though I wish Karl used the bounding dodger through a smoke field, because i’m not sure its the damage at the end of it will reveal us or not.

All that being said I cannot wait to test it out this coming beta weekend.

What are your guys’ thoughts?

staff – pve
utilities – nice but not usable w/o spec, get countered by blocks/blinds/body blocking/interrupts etc.; also kind of root you in place
heal is worthless – HEY SOMEONE INTERRUPT ME PLZ
elite is nice, suffers same issue as utilities
traits are nice for s/x builds
no team support
not much synergy with rest of weapons
Karl is so excited about weakness BUT it doesn’t affect condis which are frankly main reason we die in pvp (cough burning)
meh

overall alternative build for evade builds, nothing special otherwise

Staff: Needs a 2 second smoke field on #4. Otherwise not bad at all. It’s got so many finishers though, its dissapointing to have so many finishers without a field on it. The leap either costs a lot of initiative or endurance so it would be pretty balanced and the whirl finishers would help with the multiple combatants that they want us to sustain against.

Utilities: I don’t like the heal. We can’t cover it with stability so it seems like it would get interrupted a lot. The rest were cool.

Traits: I’d like the condi removal and healing to switch places. The rest were cool.

Edit: Let me put it this way, there’s nothing I saw on staff that couldn’t be done with S/D or S/P; both the sword specs have at least the same utility as staff. Introducing a smoke field would be like a hybrid of the two.

I don’t think they want to give staff a field because they don’t want it to have easy stealth access for a 2s knockdown.

IMO staff shouldn’t have a smoke field for exactly that reason. I don’t want to see that stealth attack nerfed down to a shorter duration. Maybe increasing it to 5 targets, adding another condition, giving it a close range aoe pulse, or something else in stead?

More I think about it, a close range pule at the beginning of the animation seems like the most unique route. This would upgrade it to 2 staggered blinds against a melee target, or allow you to blind a ranged target and his melee buddies to help you close on targets or evade better, and wouldn’t be straight overpowered for the 4 init cost.

PopeUrban.2578:

I don’t think they want to give staff a field because they don’t want it to have easy stealth access for a 2s knockdown.

IMO staff shouldn’t have a smoke field for exactly that reason. I don’t want to see that stealth attack nerfed down to a shorter duration. Maybe increasing it to 5 targets, adding another condition, giving it a close range aoe pulse, or something else in stead?

More I think about it, a close range pule at the beginning of the animation seems like the most unique route. This would upgrade it to 2 staggered blinds against a melee target, or allow you to blind a ranged target and his melee buddies to help you close on targets or evade better, and wouldn’t be straight overpowered for the 4 init cost.

A single target 2 second knockdown with virtually no damage though wouldn’t be too powerful to make achievable on the weapon set for 9-10 initiative or 4 + a dodge roll. The weapon itself has no other on demand CC and cannot access this attack without burning a long cooldown or coming up with a smoke field from another weapon skill and then swapping. At best, this set is equivalent to S/P which also has good damage, weakness, cleave, blind, on demand CC, and (when paired with the leap dodge) stealth. It could be said that this set is closer to S/D, without the access to stealth, condi remove, or boonsteal.

Maug- it’s not about consistency and cooldowns, unless you build evasion tank. Take this build and run zerker+impact/force (or strength sigil/rune+impact) with haste utility and just….watch things literally pop. I already watch things pop on D/P but this…this is too good. On the heavy golem the takedown combo took around 50% hp, combo this with the initation stun+ the dagger toss (the one applying conditions and massive damage) and you are looking at murdering just about anything you see. Right now I basically play “Spray and Pray” by dropping my utilities (despite my post, I just enjoy this too much…and I get the privilege of telling people a joke from League) and hoping things die before Basilisk wears out. I’m looking forward to staff because now Basilisk has a competitive trait slot, Basi for team builds or distributable stuns and takedown for takedowns. On top of that, I can stunlock someone dead =D And that means I don’t have to roll warrior and run Hammer/Mace-Shield. I’m so ready.

tl;dr- Don’t play staff as tank, play staff as assassin. You will murderize everyone. Absolutely everyone. That or stunlock with Killtank.

The QQ will erupt Sept 4th 2015.

My fist elite finish will be satisfyingly delicious

Serious Thought.5394:

Maug- it’s not about consistency and cooldowns, unless you build evasion tank. Take this build and run zerker+impact/force (or strength sigil/rune+impact) with haste utility and just….watch things literally pop. I already watch things pop on D/P but this…this is too good. On the heavy golem the takedown combo took around 50% hp, combo this with the initation stun+ the dagger toss (the one applying conditions and massive damage) and you are looking at murdering just about anything you see. Right now I basically play “Spray and Pray” by dropping my utilities (despite my post, I just enjoy this too much…and I get the privilege of telling people a joke from League) and hoping things die before Basilisk wears out. I’m looking forward to staff because now Basilisk has a competitive trait slot, Basi for team builds or distributable stuns and takedown for takedowns. On top of that, I can stunlock someone dead =D And that means I don’t have to roll warrior and run Hammer/Mace-Shield. I’m so ready.

tl;dr- Don’t play staff as tank, play staff as assassin. You will murderize everyone. Absolutely everyone. That or stunlock with Killtank.

The utilities can stun lock someone, but the staff can’t. What’s probably going to end up happening is you’ll pop a BPS +swap&leap, Blinding Powder, or smokescreen + leap, then enter combat to try to start off with a knockdown, and subsequently get met with a mirror of anguish/reaper’s protection/balanced stance, and consequently do nothing. The only other weapon set that won’t be able to have the option to stealth on DD is shortbow.

The autoattack is alright in terms of damage. It has a whirl finisher though that the weapon itself can’t utilize. Number 2 also has a whirl an 2 seconds of weakness. Again, no fields on the set and 2 seconds of weakness is available on the autoattack of sword. Number 3 is a nice dodge, however, that’s roughly equivalent to S/D’s #3, while S/X has infiltrators return which can remove any condi as well as making immobilize a moot point even if it isn’t removed. Number 4 is a blind: similar to BPS, but with no field. Making it 5 Initiative and putting a 2 second square field leading to the target would greatly improve Staff 1, 2, 4, and 5. Staff 5 is pretty decent, especially when they’re saying that the initiative cost will come down.

Anyway, that’s my opinion of the staff. It’s a slightly weaker version of the other weapon sets currently. Adding a 2 second smoke field (600 long, non-pulsing, the same width as the fire field left by burning speed) would bring it up to par with the other weapon sets.

Edit: I like pretty much everything else, especially Reckless dodge w/ leap Bounding Dodger

I agree that Staff should get a smoke field on #4. You still have to take a specific dodge trait, spend 50 endurance, and commit to rolling in a specific direction to get your stealth. Sounds fine to me.

Amante.8109:

I agree that Staff should get a smoke field on #4. You still have to take a specific dodge trait, spend 50 endurance, and commit to rolling in a specific direction to get your stealth. Sounds fine to me.

Well, full disclosure, you could use the leap on staff #5, but it would be 9 initiative once they lower staff 5 to 5 ini, and 14 to leap through twice.

Maugetarr.6823:

Amante.8109:

I agree that Staff should get a smoke field on #4. You still have to take a specific dodge trait, spend 50 endurance, and commit to rolling in a specific direction to get your stealth. Sounds fine to me.

Well, full disclosure, you could use the leap on staff #5, but it would be 9 initiative once they lower staff 5 to 5 ini, and 14 to leap through twice.

I also suggested this one. Just short smoke field on 4 enough to get stealth once with 5 or leap with evade. You are spending lots of initiative for it and you have to be careful not to get reveled by trying to get it. It would be short just so you can get Hook Strike but not camp stealth like with d/p.

Bojoo.7819:

Maugetarr.6823:

Amante.8109:

I agree that Staff should get a smoke field on #4. You still have to take a specific dodge trait, spend 50 endurance, and commit to rolling in a specific direction to get your stealth. Sounds fine to me.

Well, full disclosure, you could use the leap on staff #5, but it would be 9 initiative once they lower staff 5 to 5 ini, and 14 to leap through twice.

I also suggested this one. Just short smoke field on 4 enough to get stealth once with 5 or leap with evade. You are spending lots of initiative for it and you have to be careful not to get reveled by trying to get it. It would be short just so you can get Hook Strike but not camp stealth like with d/p.

Exactly. Just enough time to combo it once with 1, 2, or 5, but not long enough to do it twice.

Maugetarr.6823:

Bojoo.7819:

Maugetarr.6823:

Amante.8109:

I agree that Staff should get a smoke field on #4. You still have to take a specific dodge trait, spend 50 endurance, and commit to rolling in a specific direction to get your stealth. Sounds fine to me.

Well, full disclosure, you could use the leap on staff #5, but it would be 9 initiative once they lower staff 5 to 5 ini, and 14 to leap through twice.

I also suggested this one. Just short smoke field on 4 enough to get stealth once with 5 or leap with evade. You are spending lots of initiative for it and you have to be careful not to get reveled by trying to get it. It would be short just so you can get Hook Strike but not camp stealth like with d/p.

Exactly. Just enough time to combo it once with 1, 2, or 5, but not long enough to do it twice.

Exactly, just for 1 leap. It would give staff melee sustain I currently don’t see in it. Also if your taking staff you probably won’t take leap on dodge so 9 initiative for stealth is realistic.

It seems reasonable to ask that Staff #4 provides a Smoke field JUST long enough in duration to provide one Blast/Leap finisher’s worth of Stealth… especially given that the devs keep pushing Stealth and evasion as Thief’s replacement for the durability and diversity that every other profession in the game offers.

Let’s not get this buried in tone of brilliant condi d/d ides. rolleyes