Guild Wars 2

DresdenAllblack.1249:

I pop speed boosters like candy.

Where do you buy Speed Boosters?

New specialisations which focus on conditions are coming to the Heart of Thorns expansion.

But we have a problem with condition damage in PVE.

Is the Cap on condition damage per enemy fixed in Heart of Thorns? Or will all these condition builds still only be really effective for PVP/ WvW?

background:

Currently each creature has a max amount of conditions per type. Other players conditions overwrite your own conditions.

Therefore if the Condition Cap is 24 , and you put 14 stacks on a boss and a second stronger player comes after you and puts 24 stacks , The boss creature does not end up with 38 stacks of bleed. Instead, your 14 stacks are wiped out, and the boss creature just ends up with the cap of 24 stacks of bleed, always.

This of course has major implications for participation, DPS etc. for builds that rely on conditions to do their damage.

In the past I have read this was a technical limitation of the GW2 engine and would need a massive overhaul to be fixed.

That is pretty good. This might actually be useful, as I may have a look in mind but no knowledge of the in-game styles. If you have already done the work to figure this out, it could be useful

Ok, I had to talk to the guard outside the gate. No icon over his head or anything to indicate this needed to be done though Thanks much!

I can’t get to the Asura gate to take it It is blocked off with a wall.

I think I am in the correct location for the quest, I see the green swirly thing, but I can’t seem to reach it. And there is no Trahearne nearby to talk to.

What am I missing? It’s driving me nuts

I attached a screenshot of what the map shows.

Sooo…instead of fixing the shortcomings with Condition Damage, we get Physical damage nerfed? sigh. I recall people on the forums saying that this is what would be done, rather than wait to fix Condition damage. I’m a bit disappointed that they were correct.

The imbalance in my view is caused primarily by the fact that Physical damage is the only really effective damage type in PVE. If I’m alone with mobs my condition damage rocks. Once other players are added to the mix and the hard cap is reached, not so much.

Condition damage in PVE is badly broken, and this event only makes it more obvious. Since we do not have swappable equipment/trait setup slots in the user interface, this is a major flaw.

It isn’t worth it to be anything but power damage specced in PVE. The implementation of condition reflecting in this event implies that ANet doesn’t see this as a problem, since they actually chose to exacerbate it.

I know that you need to kill all three legendary mobs to get every coloured attunement. However, I find it a bit ridiculous that in the time it takes to kill the third mob, you lose one of the attunement colours that you had.

After killing the third Legendary I lost my green attunement and then was unable to enter the portal.

The logic behind this system escapes me. No it does not motivate me to try the sequence of events over again for another few hours.

Secondly, loot seems to drop randomly from these Legendary mobs. Even though I get Gold event completion and participation. Is this a bug, or is there some secret to getting the loot to drop?

These Living World events have just been a miss for me of late.

I actually am not for any fix for Berserker armor and stats before a fix for Condition damage.

The current meta is there because the other form of damage, Conditions, are broken in PVE.

So before we talk about removing the ability to dodge, making creatures take less damage (basically reducing Power and Crit damage to the level of current condition damage) I think we need to fix conditions.

Also, any reduction in effectiveness for Berserker Armor is going to be doing a disservice towards the player base who took time and effort to gather their current sets of Berserker Armor in the first place.

I think there needs to be the addition of attack options and damage options rather than the reduction, or removal of the existing state of affairs.

Buying Tomes would be more direct, and is actually something that I would do for my Alts, at least to a point where there’s less pain in the levelling curve.

Like that Mesmer for example!

Soilder.3607:

6/25/13

Pet leash range decreased to 2000 units.

Lightning Reflexes: The travel distance for this skill has been halved when underwater.

Man O’ War: The base recharge has been increased from 18 to 25.

Counterstrike: The base recharge has been increased from 15 to 20.

Crossfire: Decreased the range to 900.

Poison Volley: Decreased the range to 900.

Quick Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.

Crippling Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.

Concussion Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%. Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.

Pets

Armor Fish: Bite: Reduced the damage by 50%.

Eagle: Lacerating Slash: Reduced the damage by 50%.

Raven: Blinding Slash: Reduced the damage by 34%.

Canine: Bite: Reduced the damage by 27%

Devourer: Twin Darts: Reduced the damage by 20%.

Drake: Bite: Reduced the damage by 27%.

Insect Swarm: This skill can no longer fire behind the drake.

Drake: Lightning Breath: Reduced the damage by 17%.

Feline: Maul: Reduced the damage by 50%.

Jaguar: Stalking: Critical chance increase while in stealth reduced to 25%.

Jellyfish Blue: Chilling Whirl: Decreased the damage by 33%.

Moa: Peck: Reduced the damage by 7%.

Pig: Jab: Reduced the damage by 25%.

Instinctual Bond: This trait has been swapped with Zephyr’s Speed. Quickness has been increased to 3 seconds. (Went from being a 5 point trait to a 30 point trait. Significantly reduced the effectiveness of Zerk rangers.)

This nerf is what changed the game for me with regards to my Ranger. That massive reduction in the damage output of pets made other classes a lot more viable to look at. Luckily I had been building a warrior, and I switched to levelling that instead. The increase in the DPS from the bows didn’t make up for what was lost with the pets, in my view.

Now we are told that effective DPS comes only from the rooting-sword. sigh

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Because this build is outdated and predates any useful NM changes by almost half a year.

Sooo…when ya gonna update it?
Hmm? hmm?
when?
:)

I have to disagree that pets are not a good mechanic.

They have great utility with their different attacks, control options, and unique powers. You can make great use of your pets for multiple situations.

The issue with the Ranger is one of balance. You cannot have a character that can do high DPS alone, and then adds high DPS pets to that as well. And balancing DPS, health, and toughness between the Ranger himself, and his pets seems to be posing a problem for Arenanet.

I recall during levelling my Ranger when pets were a lot stronger and did more damage. That was great fun. Now the pets do less damage, but have a lot more health.

The issue about AOE killing pets very quickly, and the unnecessary micromanagement required is another issue.

These could be due to technical limitations, balance issues, or sheer oversight by the developers. But I think it’s a large negative to playing the Ranger class in Dungeons.

The idea of the Pet mechanic between Rangers and several different pets is a great one. I wouldn’t want the class to be any other way.
But for it to work properly there needs to be a lot of time spent balancing. The combinations of each pet type, each pet unique power, and all the traits and skills of the Ranger is just mind boggling. And making sure that we don’t end up with a bear doing 4k damage, and the Ranger doing 5K damage and out DPSing everything in the game, is something that takes great care.

I still think that a blanket reduction in the Damage from AOEs on pets in PVE would go a long way to alleviating some of the problems. However, they gave us more pet health in lieu of that. And Ranged attacks…somehow those need to be made competitive for the Ranger class with melee damage. Would that be unbalanced? I don’t know. But it is the reason why 99% of people pick the class in the first place.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoyed levelling my Ranger? :-)

Here is some gameplay from another popular game that has their own version of a Ranger class. This is how I think many people expected the Rangers in Guild Wars 2 to play at range

Elementalist seems to be constantly pressing buttons to make an impact. An extremely frenetic playstyle that is similar to playing a fighting game with button mashing combos.

It wasn’t my cup of tea although I really wanted to like it :-)

StriderShinryu.6923:

I honestly am not sure what to think at this point. The devs have repeatedly stated that they recognize the game is zerg heavy or even zerg dependent and that it’s something they are taking steps to address. And then they release an update that is, for all intents and purposes, a big “zerg this or suffer” sign.

This type of content is easiest to churn out. Instanced content, and more balance will take more time, and more testing to get right.

When you DO get into a Zerg, the content isn’t that bad. But the thing is getting into the zerg in the first place. It’s another type of RNG ;-)

I think this was poorly planned content. It is designed for massive groups of players , which isn’t feasible for any type of content.

The massive groups last for the first day or two, then dwindle.

The content scaling doesn’t work effectively.

I really wish they would implement feedback In-Game instead of relying on forum feedback.

It is easier to be effective with the warrior than with other classes. With some builds you have no need to swap weapons constantly to complete PVE objectives, or to contribute in dungeons. The use of Soldiers or Knights gear allows the average player to do great damage, while maintaining fairly high protection and survivability compared to other classes.

Other classes such as the Engineer are a mess of multiple button presses and swapping kits, firing gadgets…all while trying to move.

Some players like that, others don’t. The popularity of the warrior class suggests most do not.

This does not mean that the Warrior is overpowered. A Ranger can have more survivability than a Warrior by far, and when properly geared and traited it can do comparable damage. However, you would need a fairly specific build, and a very specific and difficult playstyle to accomplish that.

Warrior is easier to play effectively. And I think Arenanet needs to look at the mechanics of the other classes and try to see where they can act either through their User Interface or by other means to make these classes match the Pick up and play style of Warriors.

It’s ridiculous. But from the developer PVE live video on Friday, they think it is fine and working as intended.

I am not hopeful it will be changed at all. And therefore while it may be a great weapon, we aren’t going to see most rangers using it.

Questions:

Why don’t we have AOE damage reduction for pets to make up for their poor AI abilities and the problems with attempting to micromanage them?

Why is one of our best DPS abilities , the sword, so exceptionally clunky and difficult to use, requiring the player to do things like time animation frames, or cancel animations by using an ability then quickly dodging right after etc. ?

What is an effective, in the view of the developers, PVE build for Dungeons with the Ranger?

How do they feel the class stacks against the Warrior, Guardian and Elementalist for Dungeon play. What does the class bring to the table in those group situations?

Why isn’t ranged combat, which seems to be what the majority of people play the Ranger class to experience, more effective? And if it will never be on par with Melee shouldn’t this class have been called the Hunter or Woodsman instead, removing the idea of “Ranged” combat?

Are there any short term plans for improving play with the Ranger, or is the class considered to be " in a good place" now?

Are we going to see more balancing that separate PVE from PVP so that the class can be more enjoyable and provide a smoother play experience in both?

ilr.9675:

^ 25 stacks on a heavily nerfed damage source, with flawed AI to boot.

At the same time though…. I’d strongly caution against listening to some of these guys who will tell you damage is the only thing that matters. YOU ARE NOT A WARRIOR. ….it’s simply not in you. Your traits aren’t compressed enough. And Any time you see someone post some really big damage number with Ranger…. it’s b/c they stacked up damage buffs that any other Class can stack not only MUCH more often, but can typically share with the rest of their Party as well. (Fury & Regen is the only thing we can keep a constant duration running on and NEITHER OF THOSE STACK. )

That’s interesting contribution ilr. I looked through the thread, and I didn’t see your recommendation for a build, though…so what would you recommend?

teg.1340:

There are so many warrior QQ threads nowadays with so many false facts. So I think it’s time to clarify some of those:

Doesn’t matter. The masses have spoken and Arenanet intends to nerf the warrior class.

They will most likely mess up the Trait trees to ensure that a high DPS warrior cannot be defensive, and a defensive warrior cannot do good DPS. And that neither of these two can do crowd control.

It will be an overkill , and will be based almost entirely on the complaining found on the forums and PVP.

There will be a backlash because this time, this class is very highly used by the player base and changes made will affect a lot of people.

Or I could be wrong about how this will turn out.

Part of the problem of basing your reactions as a developer on just the negative folk that choose to use web based forums. Still hoping for in-game survey and feedback UI. hoping.

Hope the nerf applies to PVP only.
This is what I absolutely hate about MMOs. The constant changes to classes and powers after you become comfortable with a particular style of play.

And it isn’t always something being “overpowered”. It’s like changing the size and shape of the ball in the middle of a football game.

I would like instanced PVE content for players or small groups, that would scale.

So it could be a mission, almost a mini dungeon, included with each DLC that is related to that DLC.

This should also be repeatable…infinitely. And preferably without an interminable grind first ;-)

The scaling would mean that the difficulty could be adjusted manually as well. So one person could scale the difficulty to a group of 5 for example. Or a duo could scale to a group of 4 depending on skill level and the type of challenge a person/group wanted.

This would add an amazing layer of content and achievement to each DLC that a small group of players, or the solo player can enjoy over and over, and at their leisure. This was similar to the Queens Gauntlet type of events, which challenged the player and was repeatable (albeit frustrating at times).

Although what I am thinking is more something along the lines of missions in the Personal Story, just repeatable and with different challenges not all designed for Open World , group/raid play.

In fact…like the Queen’s Jubilee which introduced the Gauntlet, perhaps we could have a Hub created for these DLC Solo/Group missions. I think we had a repeatable mission with the Scarlett content as well. We already have the Fractals type of Hub. Something like that aimed at the Solo, Duo, or small group of players.

I’d like to see more of this. Something that would appeal to a broader base of player styles. And that can be accessed at will. In a year someone may even be able to level up an Alt by playing through these DLC missions perhaps, experiencing something enjoyable each time.

I can see some Asura opening a dimensional anomlay to different dimensions where the players can assist in various ways. And his lab would be the hub or something like that. Numerous story ways to get players into instanced, repeatable content.

I’m not sure that a two week release of DLC really counts if that DLC is temporary (not counting seasonal DLC). I can’t imagine a Call of Duty map being released for two weeks only, for example. The players would riot!

Nike.2631:

Skady.5916:

Movement speed is hard capped at 133%. You cannot move faster than 133% currently.

You might want to inform the Elementalists who get a massive 1 second speed buff when switching to Air attunement. Or you could just be wrong.

I’m just curious…what is the value of one second of anything? In the time it takes you to trigger the skill , it is done. Honestly, can someone explain the value of this? Or is there a video showing how it is used? Are we supposed to have at least 200% Boon Duration or something for these types of skills to make sense?

Uhh..Pets are NOT worthless. Good grief. A lot of your damage and several support effects come from your pets. If you don’t use them, then you are losing out on a lot of the functionality of the Ranger.

tattoohead.3217:

I have a warrior and an engineer and my necromancer has been placed on the shelf for everything but sPvP but now im considering playing him as my main, I easily do more damage than my engineer (and im good lol) My warrior is probably still slightly better at DPS but overall i would place MM necromancer in the #2 DPS spot for most encounters.

Also I usually run with half zerker half soldiers or some other mix so I get to do respectable damage while also maintaining good defense (for speed runs ill run full zerker)

Post your findings and questions here and if anyone has a video that wold be cool

I also looked into the Minion Master yesterday, and it surprised me. I have yet to try it in a dungeon, though.

I would also be interested in seeing a build example.

Here is what I am playing around with. Currently my equipment is rares, not Exotics while I see how things work out.

I am going to try to use this in a dungeon, it works well in open world PVE in Orr so far.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;00;3sH-D0v3FJ-K0;9;4T-JJ-18B;129-16;26NV-W;1IDOX8ecXMGGSkFo0S;1V1-60B1G2LZR_8N-5V0N-9cV19c;9;9;9;9;9;56-6x

I took the traits that affect Minion health and damage, and with the increase of Toughness based on the Minions out I will get into Melee range with the mob with the daggers. When my DS is full I swap over as needed and use Torment, the AOE life drain, The number 2 skill with the chill, and fear. I might swap into Death Shroud just to put on the number 2 chill skill.

Another way to do this would be to have a Staff so you have access to the more frequent chill from that.

The Choice of runes extends the Chill effect, which is quite useful when running solo.

I’m going to play around with this, and see how or if it works with Rares. Then if it works really well I may consider investing in Exotics.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Just wondering what everyone thinks of this.

What if the game worked like the following:

You pick a class, and your weapon skills, class mechanic and armor depend on that choice (so that light armor doesn’t become useless), but you can change your class on the go at any time.

I think Rift, Secret World and Final Fantasy latest MMO has that system. That said I wouldn’t mind some way of levelling ALTs more quickly, though. When you are itching to get to end game, or WvW, or dungeons….the time it takes through what might be the same content can be tough and very difficult depending on the class. We know some of them only get useful at certain points in the levelling curve (which is a problem in my view).

Astartes.2380:

I have no problem with people wanting unicorns flying out of their bows, oil spills to put the BP disaster to shame or strange colours oozing out as if they’ve just been hit by Ebola…but why must the rest of us have our entire environment affected by it for miles and miles?

Surely two or three footsteps of black vegemite/oil spill and 20% of the current ‘weapon swing’ smear of Twilight would have been more than enough?

X

I found it amusing that you mix environmental concerns with the notion of graphical purity of the video game being spoilt by these extraneous effects

I’m all for as many options for customisation as possible.

PVE:

1) Ineffectiveness of Condition damage in dungeons and champion events. The conditions cap etc. This really needs to be addressed somehow. Forget “realistic” and go with what is good for gameplay. Maybe “bleeding” and poison corrodes the concrete and wood on structures or something.

2) Unable to run dungeons repeatedly. Closure of dungeons on certain servers and the need to guest to run them. Especially with the living world it’s difficult to get a zerg together to open dungeons whenever you want to. And AFAIK it needs a zerg, it will not scale down to a party of 5.

3) Dungeon difficulty levels. Alter bosses behaviour, mob hit points, trap damage etc. suitable for Solo, Duo, Casual, Hard, INSANE. Extending the life of the existing content and providing a challenge for different player levels without needing to nerf or overly buff the existing content for everyone. It’s all instanced in the first place, so this should be doable.

4) Multiple builds that can be selected from the UI. Why was this left out? :-) Start with two and Gem store to buy more. Ability to share builds with others, or perhaps load builds (copy and paste a text string?).

5) Gemstore item to increase run speed to 25% / 33% out of combat in open world PVE. Way too much time is spent boosting boons etc. to get perma swiftness or run speed boosts basically for exploration. I actually have a 15% speed boost item still in my inventory. Cannot remember where this was from.

However we have a Swim speed consumable? Why not a Runspeed consumable? Major Quality of Life improvement levelling Mesmers, warriors etc. And less people running around with kitten builds because they need more run speed and access to swiftness to move overland.

Seras.5702:

Also, I noticed a sizeable difference in difficulty in the Labrynthe this year. Seems the bosses hit MUCH harder now, making it very difficult to stay alive with my <80 alts. Anyone else?

Certainly my level 45 Guardian has problems bringing down enemies. They just seem to absorb all his attacks, whether Scepter or Greatsword. Have not tried my Engineer yet, though.

It uplevels you, but unlike the Scarlet Queen series of events it isn’t useful for levelling characters. You hit like a wet noodle although your health is increased.

Disappointing for me, since I was hoping to level some Alts through these events.

I didn’t travel to Kessex since the patch, but this is the type of things that the living story should be about. Awesome.

Kamui.5726:

Deep Wells

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW3djQaV6ZaeaMcKAZGY/80DuHXcYBRFGG-jUyAocBZKCA9BmEBlzLiGbxtIasKdioa9CmHvIa1yAwuFA-w

A tidbit of info – With Scholar runes and Blood to Power minor trait, you will deal 15% more damage. With 32k hp, as long as you stay above 29k, you will get this extra damage…. and since we are mostly ranged, staying above 90% isn’t too terribly hard.

Staff is the primary weapon choice of this build. Axe and Focus are just personal choice… feel free to change them up. Sigils can be changed up as well. I liked Perception cause of the extra little crit but you could easily use Force for constant extra damge (+20% damage with scholar runes and Blood to Power trait).

Important thing is to have fun and find what works best for you.. Feel free to take what you want from this build and make it your own. PM here or in game if you have questions or just wanna chat ^^>

This build uses Sentinel Armor, which right now can run you over 486G for a suit, not counting the accessories. Do you actually have this armor, and do you play with this build?

http://www.gw2spidy.com/search/sentinel%27s%20exalted?recipes=
(this was on 11th October 2013, prices do fluctuate)
Wow.

Any alternatives?

I think an In-Game polling system is the best form of feedback from the userbase.

Yes, in the game options you should be able to Opt-Out of it. Key polls can be sent just as new Event notifications to the player’s in-game Mail. They click it, it pops a user interface asking a few questions.

Attach some silver to the poll or something like that to incentivise people to answer the poll. Or a Poll Participation achievement of some sort that advances based on the number of poll questions you answer.

Just adding a poll to the forum will leave you in the same situation where only those that read the forums will provide feedback, and that entire situation of “Forum Bias”.

I think just trying this a few times you will find a LOT more and varied feedback from players and it will reveal perspectives that you may never have read on the forums, or heard at your in-person developer meet and greets.

I really, really think that for true Collaborative Development, feedback and communication systems need to be integrated IN – GAME. Yes, the vocal and motivated minority will perhaps use the poll system more but I think even casual players will make some use of it, which is more than they are doing now. The majority of the people I play with have never visited the forums, or the main website, or any of the other related websites to find out information.

They just go directly into the game. The game is their source of information about the game.

The external WIKI is ok…but it still requires the player to leave the game. Also, not many people know about it.

Luna.9640:

I think that it’s time to put this BETA features back.

After reading Chris Whiteside’s Post where he stated that they read what community says and hear our feedbacks (while they called us – “vocal minority” of the community which feedbacks don’t represent the community in general) I’ve decided to offer Developers and the Company to put back the “Content Evaluation Tool” – CET which they used in betas and make the results Public this time ! (Let’s see what community thinks since you said you care so much for our feedbacks – Let’s make things crystal clear once forever.)

Fantastic idea, and I mentioned it recently over on this Youtube video from the developer meet.

“Best way to hear from the players is to have In-Game survey engine. Not to listen to Forums etc. That’s really the only way.? When a player logs in, or at some point, they can fill out a survey In-Game. Otherwise, all the dev team will be hearing is a specific subset of the player base, or just looking at numbers”

I don’t know why they took it out. I guess if it is in there, though, someone would actually have to sort through the data.. so there would be a cost attached to it.

There is that built-in Bug feature, though, that I have used once or twice. Most people don’t know about it, though, which limits its effectiveness as a feedback tool.

Luna.9640:

I think that it’s time to put this BETA features back.

After reading Chris Whiteside’s Post where he stated that they read what community says and hear our feedbacks (while they called us – “vocal minority” of the community which feedbacks don’t represent the community in general) I’ve decided to offer Developers and the Company to put back the “Content Evaluation Tool” – CET which they used in betas and make the results Public this time ! (Let’s see what community thinks since you said you care so much for our feedbacks – Let’s make things crystal clear once forever.)

Fantastic idea, and I mentioned it recently over on this Youtube video from the developer meet.

“Best way to hear from the players is to have In-Game survey engine. Not to listen to Forums etc. That’s really the only way.? When a player logs in, or at some point, they can fill out a survey In-Game. Otherwise, all the dev team will be hearing is a specific subset of the player base, or just looking at numbers”

I don’t know why they took it out. I guess if it is in there, though, someone would actually have to sort through the data.. so there would be a cost attached to it.

It may be easier just to listen to those with the loudest voices on the forums . Or to just look at numbers in isolation or in concert with those voices to make decisions.

Although in my experience, that never really works out too well. :-\

There is that built-in Bug feature, though, that I have used once or twice. Most people don’t know about it, though, which limits its effectiveness as a feedback tool.

[quote=2980348;colesy.8490:]

haviz.1340:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

-snip-

I’m sure there are many gw1 vets (including me) that wanted pve resembling gw1 pve where most of the mobs and bosses were using players’ skills. Not only that, but some groups of mobs had certain synergy in their builds and it was almost like fighting in pvp. But there was one fundamental flaw – mobs are not players. Ultimately, player should always win because he can adapt or use “cheap” tactics.

Actually I remember a lot of fights in GW1 coming down to you slotting the “right” powers for the situation like a puzzle. If you didn’t have the right combo, you would have serious problems with the content.

I like how PVE in GW2 is presented, but indeed even a few people in a dungeon group having very high DPS makes everything a lot easier. If they all have middling DPS, and maybe someone has crazy toughness or healing…that really doesn’t help. People still go down, and wipes still take place. If everyone is focussing down the objectives, though, that doesn’t happen.

So yes. For PVE content, full damage wins the day.

if Mobs were more intelligent, or indeed if they played more like PVP bots then we would have a serious problem. Namely because in my view the defensive skills are lack lustre and heals aren’t nearly what they need to be to be truly effective.

I went through this myself. Not the Guardian thing, but the All DPS vs mixing in defensive stuff.

For PVE, All DPS armor and equipment seems to be the best choice. Simply because with All DPS you kill your opponents a lot faster.

Nothing dodges, blocks, or uses complicated rotations against you in combat. It is kill, or be killed. And with a Berserker specced warrior you can put out about 13K hundredblades (critting) by yourself, and along with about 1K crit axe attacks you can slash the health of Veterans and two adds in seconds. All these mobs have fixed delays between when they use their powers, so once you kill them quickly you can even prevent them from getting off some of their bigger attacks.

In that sense, having the ability to absorb, deflect, reflect, heal through these special attacks isn’t even needed…because the mob will be dead.

As for Guardians, levelling one has proven quite difficult for me, because of the poor run speed they have.

After coming from a Ranger (25% Run speed), Warrior (spec with the 25% runspeed trait when necessary) and NEcro (25% run speed) the Guardian feels slow and clunky. Swiftness ever so often doesn’t compensate.

I really wanted to like the class, and I do in a way. But…just can’t get into it. He is at 41, and I have a 46 Engineer. I’m leaning more toward the Engineer, that speedy kits is great for getting between hearts, waypoints and anything else. AOE Fire damage on nearly all mobs infront you? Plus Tanky toughness? Pure gold!

I’d be interested in the same thing. Most of the builds I come across seem to be geared toward PVP or WvW.

This is great information Thanks much for this!
I find the Effective Damage value of Longbow to be very high though. Even from closer range, it seems quite good.

To achieve this target,though, so many things need to be optimal.

Whereas a warrior needs to be geared (berserker gear) with one weapon (Greatsword), with one skill (hundred blades) off cooldown and perhaps a buff, and he can match that or come very close. Or he can trait for the Axe and hack away with his autoattack and come close.

It feels as though we are chasing a DPS target that our class was not designed for. All of this ignores our pet, which is where our real damage and/or support is supposed to come from.

Basically if we want to do incredibly high damage from our own weapons, we should all be playing warriors.

A comparison of DPS against other classes, or even within our own class focusing solely on weapons doesn’t give a true impression of the Ranger and what it’s about.

It’s about the pets. All 20+ of them.

Most posts seem to relate directly to PVP , and the effect of changes and abilities on PVP. I don’t play PVP.

I want Conditions to be more effective in PVE , specifically in Dungeons against large bosses. The current system where my conditions overwrite someone elses’ and decreases their effectiveness and my own , needs to change.

I shouldn’t be happy playing Conditions in PVE, and then somehow need to swap gear and traits to go into a Dungeon. Or, if that is the case, then provide a UI for me to do so easily, swap between character sets.

I agree, for PVE play in the open world I feel as though Conditions are a good fit for many classes. It allows you to take on a lot while playing Solo doing hearts, champions, veteran mobs etc.

The builds that need to focus on Power, Precision and Critical Damage cannot also focus on Vitality and Toughness, so you end up doing great damage…but once that damage is not enough you will go down.

In some classes, if you cannot afford to Trait into condition removal and you go up against two or more mobs which stack conditions, you will most likely also go down.

Those times when you are facing enemies that just deal direct damage, these total power/crit based builds seem to be almost godlike, however, with the speed at which they drop opponents.

The response that players need to learn how to dodge is not a valid response when you take the majority of the player base into account. The advice to just “stack power/precision/crit damage” will not work for I think 90% of the player base.

I think for that 90% a more condition oriented, and defensive trait and ability based build would be better.

How do you deal with conditions? You have no condition cleanse so when you get poison or bleeds dropped on you, especially in dungeons, what do you do?

MTC.9536:

Oblivion.8307:

how to play necro at the moment: spam aoe, condition burst with ds at optimal times, rotate into different points optimally, win games.

Yes you are right considering some points but there IS a difference between good necros and bad necros if we look at the positioning and optimal skill use but yes I want to see the necro being a tricky class after the patch like mesmer or engi.

I don’t want it to be a “tricky” class. I really like it just the way it is now. I hated it before. I find it amusing that when people find a good rhythm with a class, and start posting videos the rest of folk complain bitterly.

Arenanet responds to the loudest voices, alters the class, then it starts again with another class. It is a neverending cycle and a lot of the time people simply refuse to play against the prevailing cycle. The same people complaining also continue to lose regardless of what changes Arenanet makes.

I’ve always thought that the effects of powers should be completely separate between PVE mobs and players. It’s possible, both from a user interface and a powers database perspective.

I would like a consumable, gem shop item, or something that provides Swiftness at 33% movement speed out of combat. Having to spec boon duration, signet cooldown and all sorts of craziness to get around the map faster for exploration and so on is a bit much. I reached 80 once, took my time…now for my alts etc. and even on my 80 I want the Freeeedom to zip around the place without having to kitten my build. I mean powers etc. should really be for in-combat reasons, not exploring.

Just a thought.

( ._.)

This looks great. But for theorycrafting, is there any chance of the tool having a section that shows real theorycrafting values such as DPS against standard Heavy Target, Medium, Light….

or let’s say Heal Per Second based on healing power, regeneration duration, boon duration buffs etc. etc. ?

Or what – if scenarios where you can slot powers into a sample rotation and see the outcome with Bleeds applied (resulting damage), Poison (Resulting damage), etc. etc. Or maximum burst damage with a particular rotation. The person making the build can add his own rotations, or someone coming after can play around with whatever’s already there, make his own etc.

People have made spreadsheets to do approximate calculations of these things, and apparently they translate fairly closely to the target dummies in the heart of the mists.

I’m just thinking maybe for a “next – gen” theorycrafting tool we could get some real world effects from all the stats and so forth. Some true what-if scenarios.

It seems to be working now, at least for me. Got in with my regular lag of about 150ms. ;-)

Just happened to me as well. Got kicked out about twice. And now can’t even log back in properly.

Or you could improve the pets. Have clear methods for increasing their run speed and allow them to close and attack mobile players and mobs better. Also have them ignore AOE, or at least not be affected by it. OR have a user selectable option for how they handle it, either stand in it, run, or maybe run if < half health i don’t know. But those two issues seem to be major issues with Rangers, since our entire class depends on pets so much.

I don’t know, though, if the game is actually balanced around the assumption that the pet is going to miss a lot of the time.