Guild Wars 2

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/1109-qa-with-jonathan-sharp-and-jon-peters/

This isn’t much, but it’s a little acknowledgement that we’re not quite up to scratch in PvE and something will be done.

" What do you feel is currently the biggest issue with class balance in PvE?

Jonathan: There are a few things. It differs by content slightly. One of the big things in dungeons right now is that obviously people know that warriors and guardians are really good. We know that rangers are sometimes seen as very weak because of the liability that is the pet so right now we’re actually working on a lot of stuff to bring the ranger up and to get on the same page to be able to compete with the other guys who are taken very often into the dungeons. We’re also looking at all the different classes to make sure that they all have a role that they can fill. This goes back to some of the earlier questions. If you’ve got eight classes and five slots, somebody’s going to get picked more often than others. That’s something we want to make sure that we don’t take away some of the power that all the classes have and that they enjoy those top spots, but we want to give everyone a chance to be in there. We want to make sure that that ranger is getting a lot of help to pets and spirits and utilities. We want to get them back up there. Thieves as well."

Naturally, Rangers are suffering the most so it’s good to see they have something coming, but Thieves are also mentioned.

Just a little tidbit that gave me a smidgen of hope. Not much, but it’s there.

Short Bow is extremely weak DPS wise, but it’s sheer effectiveness in mass trash makes up for the DPS. I would love to see the auto attack be at the rate listed and the cluster bomb getting a speed boost so it actually could be used as a DPS weapon would be nice.

Daggers are fine as they are – They are the only hope of thief DPS with backstab and HS spam… which should not be thief’s only option.

Sword is pretty good, but would like to see #3 of both P and D helped a bit and an actual trait to specialize in sword to make them stronger when you do build for it.

Pistols are what need desperate love. They have fractionalized damage on the calculations of rapid attacks… that are then put on slow animations. Unload is an channeled animation so the attacks come at the speed they’re meant to, so it’s the only move not broken for DPS (though should either cost 4 or do more damage) making it a requirement to spam to do DPS as a pistol thief (or attack from stealth). This needs to be fixed. And if the animations can’t be fixed, damage and debuff durations needs to boosted by 50% to compensate. Also think #5 is too expensive for the utility – want to see it turn to smoke field at you and your target that you can teleport between twice at the cost of 1 or 2 init… or any other number of options to boost mobility/utility of the pistol 5.

Really, making pistols competitive DPS is the thief biggest need for a quick fix for dungeon viability. Skill curve of a squish class in melee is simply too steep to trust, and zero real ranged DPS means you can’t trust thief to be reliable DPS at this current time. With all the bosses being basically immune to blinds, they lose a major support option. So thieves either need more support, blinds buffed against bosses, or unparalleled DPS potential to make up for glass to be good dungeon options.

If you buff P/P to be a viable leveling/PvE spec (just give it some AOE, more range, reduce init costs slightly and give them a little bit more tankiness early game) I will love you forever.

Starbird.4029:

If you buff P/P to be a viable leveling/PvE spec (just give it some AOE, more range, reduce init costs slightly and give them a little bit more tankiness early game) I will love you forever.

AOE and range are problems the P/P set doesn’t have, what are you on about? The AOE would be pathetic compared to shortbow and the range is fine.

Please don’t suggest things that would do absolutely nothing useful for the set. It needs single target damage output and/or utility/mobility. And how do you give a weapon set tankiness in the early game? Equip toughness/vitality gear then… and compensate by increased single target damage.

So, I see the devs themselves aren’t fans of Sword/Dagger.

Tempest Darqmane.4862:

So, I see the devs themselves aren’t fans of Sword/Dagger.

That’s what I picked up too. I hope that means some improvement for that set.

well, it’s ok to turn back to the game if they actually balance the classes in PvE
i am so sick of guardian/warrior/mesmer combo for everything in pve

for wvw/spvp i think there are other happy persons

Gamblit.5041:

P/P needs 1200 Range for dungeons/world bosses. Doing Jormag as P/P is difficult.

Tempest Darqmane.4862:

So, I see the devs themselves aren’t fans of Sword/Dagger.

What’s wrong with s/d?

yeah, 900 range si crap at jormag…
you can always use shortbow and mash the no. 1 button for ~1050 range…

You should be playing the role of a thief on Jormag and stay out of site (afk) for all of phase 1 and only come out to hit the boss on phase 2 vulnerabilities

But yea, a real ranged build would be fun. I’d sooner make shortbow the longer range and have pistols stay at 900 and just make them more viable.

Gamblit.5041:

What’s wrong with s/d?

It seems they see the S/D set as a damage mitigation build for Thief but it fails short of that goal in every game format.

I’m not sure what they can do to it. Although I could suggest they remove S/D #3 skill and put some form of “Flashing Blades” from GW1 into it, it would be great :p

Allow to move while swinging?
Swing faster?
Change the stealth move to stab (3 with no offhand)?

I just find the burst ability for sword is WAY to low for the survivability of the class as a whole.

S/D was why I made a thief originally and when I found out how awful it was I shelved the thief again until recently (partner chose ranger as main so I wanted something that would compliment and not be a ranger).

Gamblit.5041:

P/P needs 1200 Range for dungeons/world bosses. Doing Jormag as P/P is difficult.

Tempest Darqmane.4862:

So, I see the devs themselves aren’t fans of Sword/Dagger.

What’s wrong with s/d?

Hmm, #3 is kind of wonky, #4 is pretty bad if you consider the initiative cost (the damage is now terrible) and overall the damage isn’t too impressive for the utility it gives you. Even #1 is kind of meh since the damage seems balanced around the fact that it’s AOE yet it’s got a pretty small cleaving range and well… you’re in the middle of a mob and the only real survivability you have involves running or using #3 which doesn’t help AOE damage.

It’s not a bad set but it is inferior and doesn’t quite excel at what it seems to want.

Gamblit.5041:

Isn’t it weird that a Shortbow has a longer range than a Pistol?

Isn’t it weird that a bow has shorter range than a guy throwing by hand 3 grenades at once ?

much better that 1200 range of cluster bomb that travels the 1200 distance in ~ 5 seconds…

Tempest Darqmane.4862:

So, I see the devs themselves aren’t fans of Sword/Dagger.

They want thief to be a ranged class it seems. But with only 1 decent ranged weapon.