Guild Wars 2

Hepatolith.6389:

Substance E.4852:

It’s reasonable to assume the one video shows her using the dagger on either a zerk amulet or some other power build based on the damage of worldly impact.

If that is the case, then I doubt the dagger will outpace sword in a power build even with near perma quickness from the trait and dagger 3.

I guess we’ll find out in a week here though.

It’s Pretty Safe to Assume she uses a 4-Stat Power Amulet + a Power Mainstat rune. She hovers over Crippling Talon for a second and it shows 594dmg and that’s pretty much the setup you get that dmg with (=

And that allows calculating the damage coefficients, giving

dagger #1.1: 0.4
dagger #1.2: 0.4
dagger #1.3: 0.4
dagger #1.4: 0.5
dagger #2: 1.0
dagger #3: 0.6

which can be compared to
sword #1.1: 0.7
sword #1.2: 0.7
sword #1.3: 0.8
sword #2.1: 0.8
sword #2.2: 1.1
sword #3: 0.8

You’d need activation times as well to compare DPS though.

Which are the best pet picks after the update?
Are wolf and pink/black moa now good enough to pick for their F2s in PvP?
Do cats now end up doing more damage than smokeskales now in PvP and brief PvE encounters, considering they still have lower mobility but their damage got even higher?
What about river drake and jungle spider in both PvP and PvE, are they strong now?
Does anyone have DPS numbers / dummy TTK testing? Especially wondering how moas do against the moving dummy.
Are pink and black moa different and which one is better?

Archon.6480:

I really think the other pets F2 abilities need to be turned into something useful. Each one should have something that make other players have a bad day. Think about it:

Smokescale = Oh my gosh nasty pet jumped me!
Bristleback = Dodge the rapid fire spike barrage!

These pets are neat because the opponents need to learn their mechanics. The other pets can mostly be ignored. Let’s change that:

Fern Hound = 600 Range: Resistance, Regen 5s
Wolf = 600 Range : Fear, Cripple 3s base
Drakehound = Immobolize, Slow 3s base
Ice Wolf = Chill, Weakness, 6s base
Triple leap range so they can connect with it. This will be the thing that makes them stand out. When they leap at you.

Black Moa = 600 Range AoE Boon Corruption (2 boons)
White Moa = 600 Range AoE Boon Removal (2 boon)
Pink Moa = 600 Range Apply 2 Random Boons
Blue Moa = 600 Range Convert 2 Conditions into Boons
Red Moa = 600 Range Copy 2 boons to Allies

Birds should give bird specific boon and swiftness on quickening screech.

Pigs should be changed to always forage the same item and it should be like swoop, on auto. The charge should be made the f2 active attack and it should be instant.
Boar = bones
Warthog = skulls
Siamoth = feathers
Pig = Ectoplasm

All drake attacks should be balls that bounce, and they should turn and track like Bristleback.

River Drake = lightning balls
Ice Drake = freezing orbs
Reef Drake = confusing orbs
Marsh Drake = poison orbs
Salamander Drake = burning orbs

Bears should create combo fields.

Spiders should each attack with a specific condition.

Cats should all move 25% faster and have increased leap distance. These are the pets that will stick to you like glue.

I don’t think wolf need a F2 buff if you already give it a longer leap. 2 seconds of hard CC is strong already. I agree with the rest of dog buffs though.

Only reason I use smokescale over cats is the mobility aspect: cats take too long to initiate combat in PvP. Agree with increasing their mobility.

Really nice suggestion about pig mechanics. And I’ve always felt bears should be more supportive.

Moas aren’t going to work just because you change their F2s. The problem is the heal imo: it doesn’t activate. I’ve tested having my rager take damage and with for the moa to heal me, but it wouldn’t.

Agree about quickening screech needing something more.

Your spider suggetion is vague, and I’m not so sure it’s better than just working on their F2s.

Wyverns would be good if only their auto attacks could connect with moving targets (good in terms of usefulness – I’m not a fan of their animations).

It reads like a big bristleback nerf, but I can’t tell the difference in tests against target dummies: before bristleback did ~5% less damage than tiger, and now it still does 5% less damage than tiger.

I wonder what the seed of life nerf will mean for glyph builds, but I guess the other benefits are still there, and there aren’t enough enemy condi builds around to require wilderness survival or antidote signet.
I like how celestial avatar feels with the longer lunar impact CD, means I get to use more of the skills.

I’m surprised that ele took fewer nerfs than ranger, I though ele was the slightly easier one to do well with.

Calling for help when you’re already at the lord’s room is too late. By the time the teammate arrives you’ll be down and it’s another 1v2 for your ally. Coordinate going in instead, e.g. tell them to attack on next champion spawn.

Interesting point from Shadelang on bristleback. I’ve just assumed how strong it is from practice dummies (it killes the moving one faster than any other pet), but projectiles do represent a weakness.

Lettuce.2945:

Why is your approach to nerf multiple things at once? I would nerf 1 or 2 key things like bristleback dmg, reducing ancient seeds duration…And see how that affects druid overall and go from there. Rather than overnerfing out of haste. That’s very illogical.

It isn’t. I just ranked nerfs by how unpleasant different ones would be.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

And i don’t think, nerfs to staff would be the right way. It is not a bad weapon, very good for team support obviously – what it is meant to be after all – but not what makes druid so strong overall.

My non-staff druid builds sie so much faster than the staff ones, especially in open PvE, simply replacing one weapon makes solo encounters noticly easier. So I disagree about it being only a support weapon, it’s a strong duelling weapon. And non-staff druid builds aren’t nerfworthy or meta stuff, that’s why I think the alternative of nerfing astral force per healing would be worse than nerfing staff. And the alternative of nerfing druid damage would annoy non-ranger players who’d play alongside a ~no-damage support build – plus we already have PvP eles and PvE mesmers to fill that role.

@Lettice: yes, I listed ancient seeds first because it’s an obvious thing to nerf, would help diversity (if druid actully need a nerf). But what would you nerf next if you had to pick something? Celestial avatar? Or something different from my choices, like mobility or glyphs?

List of stuff that could be nerfed if need be (ranger/druid is in the top half of sPvP classes atm, but not dominating so not so sure there’s a need), ordered by the risk on making druid less fun to play. Not meant as a “all these should be nerfed!!” post, as such a nerf would druid at the state of bunker mesmers (i.e. gone).

1. Shorter duration on Ancient Seeds. I think cutting it to 4s would put it more inline with lingering light for power builds. Increasing cooldown would just make it annoyingly unreliable, so I wouldn’t want that,
2. Higher cooldown on staff #4 and staff #5.
3. Less healing or longer activation time on We heal as one. More cooldown would reduce swiftness uptime and lock PvE players into Natural stride, which would be bad. Non-druid builds rarely run beast mastery, so it’s a valid nerf target.
4. Higher cooldown but compensatorily more healing on staff #2. Would cut down astal force generation somewhat, without totally turning it into an autoattack weapon.
5. More cooldown on celestial avatar #4 and #5, basically making them once-per-F5 skills.
6. Fewer condition removed with Druidic clarity, e.g. just 5. Nerf it too much and people will use Cultivated synergy instead, which is a less fun trait, so can’t cut it too much.
7. Longer bristleback F2 recharge. That pet is a little strong. But then, ranger pets have been too weak in the past.
8. More cooldown or less range (but at least 900) on staff #3. This would cut ranger mobility, not just support, and could hurt the fell and fun of the weapon if nerfed more than very mildly.
9. Lower durations on Protective ward. This trait is used a lot by non-druid builds, so would be a pretty broad nerf.

Posting this build here (condi burst from traps/shortbow/axe/torch, uses sage’s/Skirm/WS/Druid) to celebrate recent shortbow kills in sPvP. New poison spray is quite deadly once you trait for it (quick draw + poison master => 8k dmg).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAnfVjMqQ3KWuCOsAVLWYEM4m6VtryUAucBgmxVtKpVi0PD-TphAQBA4EAwhHAgELDUgDBwGOCA0Y/BA

1. Tempest – I like how it rewards staying longer in a attunement, can finally enjoy more ele than just PvE staff
2. Daredevil – staff and new dodges are enjoyable in PvE
3. Dragonhunter – well-designed archer class, though not a fan of the PvP burst aspect
4. Druid – a bit too complicated system, but gives well-rounded builds, for both PvE and PvP
5. Reaper – new shroud is so much more fun
6. Scrapper – less kit-dependent than engineer is good
7. Herald – brought down by the revenant’s rough/unfinished feel, decent in itself
8. Chronomancer – wells are ok I guess
9. Berserker – stressful design, only elite spec I didn’t enjoy

I’d have thought I’d enjoy druid and reaper more, I guess it’s a issue with greatsword and staff not being great enough. No surprice at still not liking berserker and chronomancer, I saw already at the elite spec reveals that they weren’t what I’d enjoy.

Too little rather than too much stunlocking in the current meta – only mesmer (moa) does so currently. I wish CC warriors (mace or hammer) made a return.
CC is like conditions – your character take a probably-fatal dose of but then takes a bit of time before going down, it’s nicer in a way than power burst because you can notice what was happening and what you died from, instead of just reading the log afterwards.

I recorded profession distribution from 10 games (not counting myself) of unranked/amber/emerald/sapphire.

necromancer 26% (23)
ranger 15% (13)
elementalist 13% (11)
mesmer 13% (11)
thief 10% (9)
guardian 8% (7)
engineer 8% (7)
revenant 5% (4)
warrior 3% (3)

Except for necromancers and maybe warriors and revenants, it’s a uniform distribution. I haven’t seen other threads with class distribution, except for pro leagues.

Denneth.5683:

As title says, Im new to the game, and I have a desing for a weapon to spend, and would like to know this.

Anyone can help? Thanks in advance

You don’t need a max-level weapon to play PvP – the game will treat the weapon as lvl 80 exotic anyway while in (non-WvW) PvP, so you can just buy any cheap one.

Staff is easily the most common one, with a weapon swap to any power-based one (longbow/sword/greatsword). If you can’t equip staff, it’s either axe+torch (with a weapon swap to either sword or shortbow) or longbow (with a weapon swap to greatsword).

Which one is best to pick out of Turai Ossa, Nika, Grymm Svaard, Tybald Leftpaw? Does anyone of them go better with a particular class (I guess Nika isn’t much point with a scrapper)?

Healer. It feels missing now that ranger, ele and revenant got the tools to play the role.

Yannir.4132:

That in mind, I cannot imagine guardians ever using pistols or shortbows, but who knows, maybe Anet will surprise me. Maybe they’ll spin a John Constantine theme into a guard with pistols.

Pistol could def fit the guardian, they fit a supernatural-policeman/demon-hunter type of good guy archetype.

Probably beast master 2.0.
A while back people in the ranger forum seemed divided beween those who wanted more of a hunter (more shooting less pet involvement), beast master or nature mage. The HoT expansion gave a hunter spec (dragonhunter) and a nature mage one (druid), with the only hole being shapeshifting. While I like the nature mage aspect of the class, it’s time for the most animal lover part of the ranger crowd to get their share of new specs.

I like asymmetrical attack/defense maps, e.g. Team Fortress 2’s payload or GW1 fort aspenwood. Like a stronghold map with a lord on only one team.

THuGaNoMiX.5036:

Playing my Necro at the moment and literally all I have to do is press F1 and then own anyone near me.

This is a joke. Please nerf me so I can play other classes.

Necro is the strongest fighter type of class. But try playing healer (Tempest auramancer or Druid), they contribute in another way.

UnitedChaos.8364:

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Bristleback was the highest DPS before. But no more.
Average kill time against immobile heavy golem, with beastmastery:
Lynx: 19s
Tiger: 20s
Bristleback: 21s
Jaguar: 22s
Hawk: 25s

This is still a really biased result. See how a moa’s reach fairs against a moving target, it has kind of a leap attack to keep up with its target, making it much more effective. A ranged pet doesn’t need to move, but get’s LOSed like no other (see bristleback). It’s like comparing apples and oranges.

I think you’re got outdated info. Bristleback F2 Z-axis was bug-fixed, I thought that got it to 100%. And birds haven’t really ever been able to keep up, maybe they did because of swiftness before people traited for pet speed after HoT came.

More numbers, this time against moving golem:
Bristleback: 32s (including LOS misses)
Lynx: 34s
Hawk: 38s
Red Moa: >80s

Bristleback was the highest DPS before. But no more.
Average kill time against immobile heavy golem, with beastmastery:
Lynx: 19s
Tiger: 20s
Bristleback: 21s
Jaguar: 22s
Hawk: 25s

If revenant didn’t have weapon swapping this wouldn’t have been a problem and they colud just have extended the range on mace#2 to give it a mixed range/melee feeling like spear.
But I guess LucianDK is right and revenant will be turned into long-range condi spammers next expansion

I’d like another amulet with healing power as minor stat so my druid can play something in-between paladin and mender
1050 power 1050 precision 560 toughness 560 healing power

I have a feeling the ranking is different in stronghold, given how necros (condi reaper or MM), rangers (staff/longbow) and guardians (traps/longbow) are really common, while revenants, warriors and thieves are a rare sight (edit: actually just thieves).

*You’ve got 3 source of permanent speed buffs (signet of the hunt, resounding timbre+heal as one, natural stride). You only need one – throw out the signet at least
*Not the best elite for condi build, consider entangle instead, or even spirit of nature
*Trapper’s expertise will provide more bleeds than sharpened edges
*A staff could help for building astal force, as an alternative to shortbow.

Kicker.8203:

Wow this looks like it’s made sword even worse compared to d/p and staff

Some math:
dagger AA
before (0.56+0.85+0.85)/2.07
=> 1.09 (+ poison)
after (0.56*1.42+0.85+0.85*1.29)/(2.07-0.35+0.06)
=> 1.54 (+ 16% more poison than before)
the poison is worth like 0.2-0.3 in a power build, so ~1.8 dmg coefficient/sec

sword AA
before (0.8+0.8+1.3)/2.52
=> 1.15 (+ cripple+weakness)
after (0.8+0.8+1.3)/(2.52+0.16-0.1+0.08-0.48)
=> 1.33 (+ 15% more cripple+weakness than before) dmg coefficient/sec

staff AA
before (0.55+0.65+1.32)/2.14
=> 1.18 (+ vuln)
after (0.55*1.36+0.65*1.16+1.32*1.44)/2.14
=> 1.59 (+ vuln)
vulnerability is a 15% damage buff solo, so 1.83 dmg coefficient/sec

conclusion: you’re right, sword became worse compared to staff and dagger

Allies Aid: 85 sec.

SpreadCheese.5208:

Trapper Ranger DIRE

That stat combo is not available in PvP.

Azsune.7946:

What stats does the amulet have?

1050 Power
1050 Condition
560 Toughness
560 Vitality

Which amulets will be good for power druids and trapper rangers (and other ranger builds, though I guess pewpew ranger will stick to maurader)? Mender’s or Cleric’s for druid? Are the new condi amulets better for condi ranger builds or is carrion still good?

Josh Davis.6015:

Hi all,

We’re planning on making some changes to amulets/sigils/runes available in PvP for the Winter 2016 Update (January 26).
[…]

Amulet Changes:

We’ll be adding the following amulets:

Mercenary’s Amulet
1050 Power
1050 Condition
560 Toughness
560 Vitality

Sage’s Amulet
1050 Power
1050 Condition
560 Healing Power
560 Vitality

Paladin’s Amulet
1050 Power
1050 Precision
560 Toughness
560 Vitality

Mender’s Amulet
1050 Power
1050 Healing Power
560 Precision
560 Vitality

We’re also removing the following amulets:

• Soldier’s
• Settler’s
• Celestial
• Sentinel

SpreadCheese.5208:

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Swagger.1459:

Impressive set of changes…

He only picked out 4 changes per non-thief/warrior class to announce, so it should be more impressive later.

Won’t be more impressive because anything not mentioned in today’s video has to be minor stuff that don’t make much of a difference.

I still keep my hope up for a “Guard!” rework, they did fix “Protect Me!” to the point that it’s now just a numbers issue.

Swagger.1459:

Impressive set of changes…

He only picked out 4 changes per non-thief/warrior class to announce, so it should be more impressive later.

Levetty.1279:

I don’t see the point on putting regeneration on Search and Rescue since who is going to use the shouts without the trait?

It’s got a bigger area of effect than the trait, so better for healing allies,

Caedmon.6798:

Adrian Guardian.9480:

That’s not all the changes
Rifle changes IIRC:

• kill shot pierces
• aimed shot (#2) does 5 vuln (8 seconds?)
• volley pierces
• brutal shot does 1s(?) immobilize and 400 distance retreat
• crack shot gives 1 adrenaline per hit, no piercing, still recharge reduction
  There were speargun changes, like some skills there pierce

400 distance retreat ? Like a jump backwards ?

Yup. Hard to see though, it was a fast animation.

That’s not all the changes
Rifle changes IIRC:

• kill shot pierces
• aimed shot (#2) does 5 vuln (8 seconds?)
• volley pierces
• brutal shot does 1s(?) immobilize and 400 distance retreat
• crack shot gives 1 adrenaline per hit, no piercing, still recharge reduction
  There were speargun changes, like some skills there pierce

Sword damage got buffed or nerfed depending on how much energy you can spend. If you’re using the sword skills on recharge against 1 target, it should be a damage increase with the upcoming changes:

1x Unrelenting Assault + 3x Precision Stike + 6x Autoattack chains
0.715*7 + 1.0*1 * 3 + (0.85+1.0+1.3) * 6 = 26.9; 3*2 = 6s chill
0.715*5 + 1.0*3 * 3 + (0.75+0.8+1.2) * 6 = 29.1; 3 * 3 * 1.5 = 13.5s chill
=> 8% damage increase, 125% chill uptime increase (perma-chill basically), and 30% less evade uptime.

It made spirits boring to play with.
Just use te active to kill the spirit and the recreate it 20 seconds later.

Hidden barbs: 20->33% bleed damage increase
Predator’s onslaught: 10->15% dmg increase
Protect me: AoE stun break and protection, pet taunt the next enemy that attacks you
Search and rescue: 1200 range regeneration and pet drags downed ally to you and the rezzes

Cool changes to shouts, hoping for a good stuff happening to guard and sic em.
Condi trap builds will be a fair bit stronger, nice
I doubt the Predator’s onslaught buff will change much

It could also be that a third of the game modes are disabled, so the crowd that plays that mode have less reason the be in HotM now that it only has pre-HoT modes…

I’ve been mostly playing trapper ranger, power ranger and medi guardian before HoT, but found dragonhunter and power druid tricky to learn. I tried out a build that had worked well during betas (and made me one of the few who seemed to believe in overloads, I’ve not understood why there’s so much discussion about daggers) – staff, shouts, celestial amulet, fire attunement. I run earth instead of water attunement this time. It gives crazy amount of kills, like over 10 per match, but unlike a power ranger I can choose where to make a stand. It’s as if enemy players just enjoy basking in the heat while my toon screams ‘inferno!’… I’m still surprised how easy it is to catch people in the lingering whirlstorms after overloading.

Anyway, try staff+shouts in PvP, it’s easy to pick up and play.

They could colour the player names by health (e.g. white for 95-100% health, something light for 50-95%, a bit darker for 1-50%), that would only add minor clutter and still help healers a bunch.

Holland.9351:

However, In PvE land, Bristleback enemies are very tanky, so did they get their hp halved as well?

Yes. They can actually die within a reasonable time now. And hit you upslope, unlike before.
They feel slightly harder than smokeskales to fight now (thinking of fighting 2 veterans at once), could be a matter of practise though.

My suggestions for druid, mean to keep it at the same level but with more frontloaded healing so that the druid can run into an ongoing fight and save that low-health ally.

Immobilize/condition damage:
Reduce Ancient Seed duration to 4s, increase Vine Surge to 2.5s immobilize, add 1 more stack of poison to Glyph of Alightment (keeps the conditions at the same amount, but moves some from a strong trait to two weak skills).

Damage/daze:
Increase Solar Beam damage by 10%, reduce Lunar Impace daze to 1.5s [edit: on second look, the damage is pretty ok already on solar beam], reduce bristleback autoattack direct damage by 20%, make wyverns hit moving targets (buff something weak, nerf something strong).

Healing/astral force:
Double the healing on Astral Wisp and make the initial projectile heal allies it passes through (to help frontloading healing).
Make downed only give a partial astral force loss, same as leaving the avatar early (so that solo/open PvErs in difficult areas have a chance to use the avatar).
Increase the healing on Lingering Light by 400%, increase recharge to 18s (more frontloaded healing, less CC).
Add a stacking debuff on exiting Celestial Avatar that reduces astral force generation by 15% for 30s, compensate by reducing astral force loss on leaving the avatar to 33% (nerf to compensate for buffing astal wisp and lingering light, makes long-term sustained healing weaker, striking at the tankiest builds).

foste.3098:

Actually the bonus condition damage pets got from the patch is bugged and only effects the number shown in the tooltips not the actual skills.

For example the lynx rending pounce and maul tooltips state that 4 stacks of bleeds are applied for 10 sec doing 5.200 damage (520 dmg per tick), but they actually do 3.280 damage (so 328 dmg per tick).

Similar thing with the hawk can’t remember the exact numbers since i am not ingame but it should deal 225 dmg per tick, the actual number is ~130 dmg per tick.

This is a big issue that has gone unfixed for 4(?) months.

I don’t think you’re right. Sure, the damage ticks say 328, but 2x lynx F2 takes 90% off a light target golem’s health (14k, 2k toughness), which is in line with the tooltip.

Thanks for the numbers. I’m wondering how owl and leopard would do, since they’ve got F2 snares, I remember testing long ago and leopard did really well.
lol@wyvern kill times.

I’ve only played druid in PvE so far. The nerf is good for PvE – Lingering Light made you invincible in many situtations in open world PvE, basically against anything that didn’t have a breakbar, and what’s the fun in not being able to lose. Plus if the nerf means I get to keep my astral force out of combat…

I’ve not been able to make the choice (though in my case because I want both pet and support), been playing dual main ranger&guardian.

Ranger pros:

• better full-range builds (staff/longbow or staff/axe)
• pet collecting and learning pet commands
• choice to range with pet tank
• better open world exploration
• one with nature and and the sun and the moon and the stars

Guardian pros:

• a more defined hunter style
• no pet to keep track of
• more interesting utility skills
• more straight-forward support and generally easier-to-learn mechanics
• feels good when you kill wyverns

(not listing melee-related things)

So a bit more pros for ranger. I’m doing mainly open world PvE and sPvP, so can’t say about dungeons&similar.

Random suggsetion: set astral force to 50% out-of-combat, so so can use it early on (so frustrating to get into on ongoing fight and not being able to heal) and to let you use it in short fights. Astral force generation seems fine in long PvE fights (as in, I feel about as powerful as a support guardian or ele), even on non-staff, but in short fights… sad for not having access to the avatar form.

Vero.7013:

Can somebody double-check the conditions for Smokescales? I’ve been to both areas when all their tiers are up and no juveniles spawned.

For the southern location (SCAR Bivouac / Vine Wall), they spawn after you complete the event chain about building and moving a cannon to the location and using it to clear out the mordrem.

Assuming you just started a new character: walk around and do any events that pop up nearby, they show up with a description on the right side of your screen. Otherwise just do heart quests and hero points. Once you have a few silver, head back to starting point and into the nearby city, and buy so you have 1-2 daggers, 1 scepter, 1 staff (trading post or weapons merchant), 3-4 8-slot bags (trading post), so you can try out different weapons. Hero points unlock skills, events level you up. At level 10 you get the main story quests.

I took my general PvE build into the raid (except I swapped in the knockback glyph, stone signet and fire wyvern during the raid) and it seemed to do ok.

Stats: berserker/clerics mix
Weapons: staff, sword/torch
Heal: Troll Unguent
Utility: Glyph of the Tides, Sun Spirit, Signet of Stone
Elite: Mistfire Wolf
Pets: Tiger, Fire Wyvern
Traits:
* Marksmanship: Clarion Bond, Steady Focus, Predator’s Onslaught
* Skirmishing: Sharpened Edges, Spotter, Quick Draw
* Druid: Cultivated Synergy, Natural Stride, Grace of the Land