Guild Wars 2

Patch Notes January xx:

Map Fixes
Fixed Mount Maelstrom bug which allowed players to travel outside of the designated map boundaries, Drazma.8327 has also been banned.

Profession
Nothing

I’m not sure about PvE but in WvW I’ve seen an increase in berserker archers. They use short bow mostly and kite you around spamming their auto attack, which hits quite hard with full Pow/Prec/Crit. I play bunker Guardian and Elementalist mostly and they’re quite irritating to fight Also pets are a pain in the kitten :P

There isn’t much to them though, they seem to be lacking something since warriors can also use bows etc too and they also have a primary play style which is unique

Feeding the Dollys Hay refiles 1/4 of their health, there’s a little tip to help make the event less fun and quite easy mode

For a bunker ele build go with Power/Tough/Vit or Power/Tough/Healing (my personal favorite of the 2) and then go deep into Arcana and Water, I like 0/10/0/30/30 for the ultimate condition removal/healing build

In Wv3, Condition damage isn’t that great IMO, NPCs dont really remove conditions so it helps there, but in PvP most people are able to remove conditions quite easily, so power is better for upfront damage. but as a bunker ele don’t expect to actually do much damage, you win by outlasting people and CC’ing them for your team mates to take them down easier

What good is a timer when they aren’t releasing it until it’s ready?

They’re very handy since they work with your light combo fields to cast cleansing bolts which remove conditions (along with many other finishers)

You should at least try a cheap mouse for a short while and then compare the two. I think you might see an increase in your ability to play your ele with a mouse after some practice. but if you like the feel of a touchpad then stick with it, its your game so play it how you like

I personally use a razer naga with the 12 side buttons and I think it’s the best investment I’ve made as far as PC peripherals go It makes things so much easier for me personally, it keeps the keyboard pressing to a minimal and attunement dancing feels much more fluid

Make all my gear account bound while you’re at it.. Oh! and make all my dyes account bound too

My point is, that if it’s as easy to obtain ascended gear as AnemoneMeer says, then why would people hit 80 and aim for exotics when they can buy some cheap rares and spend a small amount of time making their own ascended gear and skip exotics all together

There are MANY guilds that don’t require vent in every game out there. Why not just leave the 1337ist ones and join the ones that aren’t? I’ve never used vent in my guild, we all use guild chat AND vent, it’s optional.

Then it makes one wonder. Why begin to phase out exotics for gear that is so easily obtainable after so many people spent a lot of time getting their exotics? I know there are only a few pieces right now, but eventually there will be more. People will eventually skip exotics all together since they are no longer part of the bridge

To anyone who says “Well they weren’t intended to be in in the first place”. They should have been in from the start and intended to be there. And they should never have been taken away. We were bad enough with them, now we’re pigeon holed into a certain build to be viable, and it’s nowhere near as viable as it used to be anymore.. We’re done for lads. Ele isn’t getting a fix anytime soon.

No elementalist will do well without using all 4 elements, you have to be switching between them constantly, especially in PvP :]

It’s probably chinese farmers trading gold through the Trading Post. They do a similar thing in WoW. It helps to stop them from being detected as easily

When you get used to pvp the buzz it gives when you’re locked into a fight is something PvE can’t match

Nageth.5648:

A fishing rod that looks like a huge fish that shoots fish out of its mouth to latch onto fish for you to reel them in.

Yo dawg, I heard you like to fish so we put fish in your fish so you can fish while you fish

LEGENDARY FISHING RODS! ! ! !

Great video, it was deffo worth the watch

I think you need to find the medium between the two though. It’s what you do AND why you do it

I thought ANet had said they LISTENED to the community? I’m sure if we had a poll, the % of people who DON"T want ascended gear would far exceed the ones that do.

One of the main draws to the game is the laid back no grind approach (which tbf still exists) but has made it a lot more accessible for players to enjoy end-game content without having to grind too much to get there.. If after only a few months they’re adding a new gear tier, what will they do when the hardcore players have got all the ascended stuff? Raise the vertical climb even more..? Many casual players are still on the road to 80 and/or still saving for those shiny exotics. is there much need to bother with them now that there’s a higher tier? I certainly won’t be yelling LFG CoF/AC and the likes anymore.

Gear should be a vanity thing, not to have the edge over other players by having superior stats.. Why can’t everyone be on an even playing field but with the veterans who have put time into creating legendaries and the likes standing out from the crowd simply by looks and skill rather than hitting the bigger numbers.

I thought ANet had said they LISTENED to the community? I’m sure if we had a poll, the % of people who DON"T want ascended gear would far exceed the ones that do.

One of the main draws to the game is the laid back no grind approach (which tbf still exists) but has made it a lot more accessible for players to enjoy end-game content without having to grind too much to get there.. If after only a few months they’re adding a new gear tier, what will they do when the hardcore players have got all the ascended stuff? Raise the vertical climb even more..? Many casual players are still on the road to 80 and/or still saving for those shiny exotics. is there much need to bother with them now that there’s a higher tier? I certainly won’t be yelling LFG CoF/AC and the likes anymore.

I’ve seen a similar thing happen a lot in Wv3, the bubbles seem to cause a graphical glitch and the bubble stays in place even if there’s nobody around. Maybe he was causing the visual glitch and just standing inside the bubble?

DanH.5879:

also our burst was nerfed to the ground, so, ALSO bunkers should be nerfed to compensate !

Nothing to see here, move on

@Fenghoang – Just rotate your camera 180 degrees quickly and pop it and you will jump forward instead. It’s handy when using it as you’re coming out of RTL, rotate the camera while travelling and then pop it when RTL is ending. but it’s not needed when using Zephyr’s Boon

The funny thing is, even when thieves get nerfed, their glass cannon specs will still massively outdamage Elementalists, and still be able to actually escape

In PvE you can use simple rotations to beat mobs. Put a lava font on the floor (over the mob), flame burst them, face backwards and use burning retreat. As you’re rolling over the lava font, use Arcane Blast for the might stack and damage and then throw an arcane blast at them. That should do a fair bit of damage

Ele can do all sorts of little combination tricks. but throwing basic fireballs etc will never work. They take a lot of work and often feel like you’re putting so much work in and barely matching what other people are doing in a couple of button spams. But it’s way more fun :]

My 2 main professions builds are Bunker/Support (Water/Arcane) Elementalist and Bunker/Support Guardian. I can say that a guardian is hands down the easier class to play From 1-80 and through every dungeon when comparing the 2. Elementalists can take a beating in PvP/Wv3 much more as this build than in PvE. The mobs big hits seem to affect an ele a lot more than a guardian. my guardian just stands there and takes the beating while shrugging it off with some heals, where my ele is jumping all over throwing out spells and heals left right and centre.. Not to say that I don’t live a lot longer than the rest of my group, but it isn’t as helpful as my guardian still manages to do more damage too, and all his spells are curing conditions/granting boons to allies and each boon is healing me at the same time. which is pretty awesome in a group. Ele takes a lot more work and has less payoff, but it’s still far more fun and engaging

Gain stability and shape-shift into a tornado “and” that damages and launches foes.

Is it just me or should it be: “Gain stability and shape-shift into a tornado that damages and launches foes.” ??

All an Ele can do right now is Bunker Down and wait for better days

I don’t understand why people are crying about this possible “nerf” if you all say that the only people who are possibly seen as OP are people using a gimmicky backstab build, and that they are at a hinderance in every other way.. Does that not mean that none of you are playing this build? in which case, the buffs that are coming elsewhere are surely a buff to anyone who isn’t playing a glass backstab build… If you don’t rely on your backstab to kill a person in a few seconds before they have time to react (and slaughter you, apparently) then the buffs to other skills are going to help the people who aren’t playing like this

Bunker Ele & Guardian FTW – I love pissing people off and never dying

Well I often play pvp and know a lot of the games classes are balanced mainly around PvP, but those builds don’t seem viable at all, I can only speak from experience as an elementalist and guardian, but I know neither of my characters have had issues dealing with those types of players, and the only ones who pose any threat are the glass cannon sneaks who hit you then run when you’re still standing, and they just come back trying to pick at you… It never works though. but I see them dropping most people in a few spammable hits, which seems pretty boring. I tried it in pvp and it was so easy and the mundane I gave up straight away.

@kKagari.6804 – Thankyou! that’s exactly how I feel it should play.. I don’t care what the tradition in videogames to make them play with this style is, but it’s not what a real thief is. think back to the old Victorian times of pickpockets and thieves, they didn’t run around stabbing people up then taking their wallets and kitten. They blended in with the crowd and used deception to take from people. I know this is a more combat based comparison to real life, but it should still be more about the deception (similar to a mesmers magical version of deception) only in a more melee format. rather than delivering a massive backstab to some dude. that isn’t what an actual thief does.

@ddrake.5436 – you do realise that the GW2 Thief plays exactly like the WoW Rogue right?

My point was that it’s called a thief but it plays more like an assassin… so am I not correct in saying that calling it a thief is wrong? If they called it “Assassin” that would make more sense. Read my title and what I wrote. don’t dwell on on what I said i personally want.

And I know people may say a thief can perma-vanish, but that’s because of a current bug which isn’t making a thief re-appear when he should. AFAIK

I love the idea of a thief and along with my elementalist, it was going to be my other main char to play. but what puts me off playing it is the fact that the thief doesn’t play how a thief should.
When I think of a thief I don’t think of a person skilled in the art of stabbing someone to death as fast as possible. it’s someone skilled in the art of stealth and deception. The thief in GW2’s main playstyle is to kill as quick as possible with stealth being used mainly as a way to escape if it goes kittens up. Why not lower the damage (which is fair to say way higher than any other class) and increase the amount of stealth type playstyle, I would rather deceive and vanish more often and whittle away at someone than kill them with a few spammable buttons before they have time to react or run away

Anyone else agree?

I recently joined the hammer crew after using GS + Staff, Now I like to combine my Hammer + GS together and chain their attacks. for example, my main catching combination would be to Cast Ring of Warding and during mid-cast use judges intervention, you teleport onto the enemy and instantly ring them, then cast Mighty Blow and switch to GS then Whirl on their face, if they try to run you can Bind them back and keep beating on em. If they get away again you can always switch back to your hammer and Wrap them up again or leap on their back.. I play like this as a tank and all they can do is try to fight back because theres a slim chance of escaping from personal experience, and I outlive anyone

I’m not a fan of playing a balanced character so I either go full defence or full force attack.

There’s a video on the forums and the topics something like “Guerilla warfare” which shows how a berserker (CoF Gear) guardian can damage. A DPS guardian can dish out a lot of damage and still have viable defences to help mitigate damage which other glass classes struggle to

I usually try out builds and gear in the mists first to get a taster of how the build will play out. But I think a Power/Precision/Crit Guardian is a decent spec to play as

As a Cleric Guardian I agree with this. I’d much prefer to better heal a lower health pool than have a larger health pool that once depleted, won’t fill back up.

Saying that, I wish healing gear scaled just a tiiiiiiny bit more :]

So the secret to playing a glass cannon ele is to stack glass cannon stats and traits.

I am enlightened

So the trading post doesn’t die and you have gear you can salvage. if everything you looted could be worn by you, there’d be no need to do multiple runs to find the stuff you need, and that would lessen the “content” of the game, and decrease the amount of stuff being sold on the trading post.

That’s the only reason I have managed to come up with

For added effect, switch to your torch and use “Zealot’s Flame”

I never knew Shredder was a Guardian

Mostly clerics with some vit thrown in, and a shout build. every boon you grant to allies will heal yourself (all your shouts do this, and all virtues grant boons to allies through the 10 points in virtues) conditions on allies are turned into boons (from the shouts) win win, your teammate is condition free and you’re a healing tank

I use the same in dungeons and can tank anything and everything. Many people have commented on how difficult I am to take down, and it makes you very handy for point holding etc in pvp and pve

I use this build too:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQBTkFuvjV4ERWBRi9AjfsjXPSoEZIA

The consecration choice in virtues was made because depending on the situation, i switch out some shouts for sanctuary, but normally keep “hold the line” and “save yourselves” on my bar at all times

Also, using a staff may be handy, “Empowerer” will grant might per tick which will mean you’ll see a bunch of healing numbers for every tick.

- This is just my personal build so if anyone has any ideas on improvements I’d like to hear them, im always looking to improve. but I’ve spent a while looking at the traits and the synergy between them all just goes hand in hand imo.

If you’re looking for more of a meat shield (which may be better in wvwvw) then go for soldiers,Orr,AC Power/Tough/Vit gear

Kosmos.3907:

I have all Exotic Cleric on my PvE since I run Orr and doing dungeons.

Running GS & Mace/Shield with Superior Sigil of Water & Superior Sigil of Life (Stack Healing) with Full Superior Runes of the Soldier with my Shouting/Support build like you mentioned. My purpose was to give boons, heal, and remove conditions, while keeping army alive. Works very well with a good group that sticks together.

DPS isn’t great but survivability is there and that’s my role in dungeon. Traits is 30 Valor, 20 Honor, and 20 Virtues.

I have to agree with this, I run full clerics in dungeons and with the right shout build you are invincible. The support it brings will make dungeon runs much easier for you and your team. Although the damage isn’t amazing, it’s nothing to sniff at. you can still solo any group of mobs with ease in open pve :] it’s also easy to craft. I’d also say that AC dungeon and Orr Toughness/Vit gear is handy to mix in a little, to boost your health up a bit, incase you receive a hard hitting combo it helps. but It’s not needed

The way in which mobs are tagged in PvE could also use some work imo. I often find that I’m using a staff just for the 180 degree AoE to tag the mobs before the zerg can burst them down in a few seconds. The Swing and Whirl of my GS doesn’t seem to cut compared to my staff and the other weapons are just fairly meh for tagging.

Being in the area of the mobs and actively helping the group should count as a whole rather than specifically hitting that singe mob in order to make it drop loot

I personally think that in dungeons it’s better to have healing over vitality as the support from healing benefits the whole group. Having high vit may help negate some of the high numbers but in pve it’s too easy to dodge and avoid those high hitting numbers. A constant higher healing of a lower health pool is better than a slower healing of a higher health pool. why have the health if you’re struggling to keep it topped up?

In WvWvW it seems different as people can burst you down very easily (something the NPC AI doesn’t have the brains to co-ordinate) so having the health pool to allow you to survive the burst and escape seems more beneficial. As for sPvP. I use a full clerics bunker build mostly. and it seems to keep me alive for a long time (1v1 and 2v1 it’s pretty much a victory for me every time) While also helping the group as a whole. Having a high health pool doesn’t prolong your death better than blocking and outhealing people imo.

So.. I would say, Clerics Healing for Dungeons & sPvP. Knights Vitality and so on for WvWvW

I don’t mind a small “balance” here and there, but when they decide to “balance” skills that are already broken without fixing them at the same time. I can’t help but wonder where their priorities lie.. They seem happy enough to let us deal with broken skills that players are exploiting in pvp.

Is there anyone who can share some experience who’s playing with a full(?) cleric’s set? I’m looking to go full support/tank for dungeon grouping. I know from experience that clerics works great in pve but I’m still currently lvling to 80 in PvE

If someone whirls up on me, I don’t just stand there and pop aegis. I do the normal thing and dodge. Dodging should always be used as your main form of damage evasion, and use skills like aegis to top your defence up to take those incoming “Uh Oh!” hits

I really like this idea, even if it’s just the ability to target specific allies. It’s too unreliable and clunky right now imo