Guild Wars 2

This game is not conducive to esports because it looks and is too complex to follow as a spectator. It just looks like a spam salad of AOE’s, and for those that don’t play or only casually play, its near impossible to follow versus a MOBA, or a game like Hearthstone.

If esports didn’t work for the most popular MMO ever made, it sure as hell wouldn’t work for GW2. Definitely not GvG which would be even worse as a spectator.

Spurnshadow.3678:

Nikkinella.8254:

Electra.7530:

I am a condi necro and I have a very difficult time competing against power builds. I very rarely see condi builds anymore other than the theif. Most necros I come across are power necros. They can burst me down before I really get my conditions stacked on them. If I’m interrupted or stunned by group of players, it’s game over for me.

Players that can clear my condi off can finish me off, though I can keep stacking the condi. But, seriously, I don’t see a lot of condi anymore. Everyone wants fast kill, huge power bursts.

I run around in dire/trailblazer stats and hear people crying and complaining about that. I have to say, stop it. All my 3k armor gives me is the privilege of being the last one standing in the fight and the one taken down by multiple players.

And there’s so much condi clear it’s ruined the burn guardian build. I had a torment herald that was fun for a while, but … clearing that torment off all the time made it very ineffective.

You’re either lying or we’re playing 2 completely different games. Power builds are basically extinct in wvw now. Even for zerging, the meta is all condi now. In roaming, its nothing but condi on every class. I haven’t come across a single player aside from myself using a power build in the past 6 months because of the fact condi is so overpowered and zero risk/high reward now. If you’re not lying, then what server are you on? Because I may have to transfer there if you somehow are in the one place that isn’t infested with cancer.

He’s not lying. No one competent in large scale combat uses condi builds. Guard, guard, rev with an ele, druid, or mesmer as a 4th means you will never do condi damage to that group. Wiping unguilded, uncoordinated pugs in EB with your condi zerg doesn’t count.

Roaming: it’s a rock, paper, scissors game combined with l2p. I have 0 active condi clears on my zerk guard. The trick is bursting down the condi damage dealer asap before they kill me. Condi on necros takes a while to ramp up. Some classes will anhiallate me, such as a burst condi mesmer. But, they have to be good.

As someone else pointed out, i’d say interrupt builds are more problematic than condi builds, but you have to be really good at them.

Sometimes, people are just better skilled at the game. I’d sooner blame you running a sub par build, sub par gear, or watching videos of you playing to see if you’re doing something wrong, or what you could be doing better rather than just putting out a ridiculous, blanket statement that condi needs to be nerfed or removed. That’s just irrational.

You are on Blackgate, yet it seems you’ve never heard of corruption before. The reason Condi Necro is THE defacto zerg damage dealer is because they can, at will, completely negate much of the defense against condition damage… all while being built quite tanky. Honestly, if you aren’t getting corruption spammed and condi-showered it can only be because you are running on a BG blob of 50+ versus everyone else’s 25 or less blob.

Its time for Anet to look at history and understand the mistakes already made and solved by the 800lb. gorilla, WoW. WoW’s implementation of LFR has been very successful, and there is absolutely no reason why Anet has not yet implemented an LFR system with easier raids that give reduced rewards (ie: less Ascended currency and no path to Legendary Armor through the LFR). That way, casual players are more likely to complete the content, get something for their effort AND see the story. The only argument against this is some weird elitist mental block… which makes no sense since those that complete the real raid will be rewarded more, and have the opportunity for prestigious legendary armor.

Chaba.5410:

Bhima.9518:

I think its time for Anet to really try and make Tier 1 fun for other servers than just BG. The other two servers should each have a much larger alliance server. For example, SoS should have say, YB and FA should have JQ or something like that.

And ruin the fun for all the other tiers? No thank you.

How would that ruin the other tiers? The alliance would only last as long as these conditions are met:
1) in Tier 1
2) The end score for the week isn’t completely lopsided

As the other servers drop back down to Tier 2 or 3, they go back to the smaller server alliance or none like we have right now.

pointaction.4639:

What is your thoughts and ideas?

What you think needs to be improved?

Give your response and please keep it clean so maybe ArenaNet will see it and get some ideas for WvW.

I think its time for Anet to really try and make Tier 1 fun for other servers than just BG. The other two servers should each have a much larger alliance server. For example, SoS should have say, YB and FA should have JQ or something like that. Really swing the balance of power when you push other servers to Tier 1 because, as it stands, both FA and SoS are wearing out pretty quickly to BG. I’m sure the bags are fun for a few days for BG, but I bet it gets a bit old ALWAYS being on top by such a large margin.

Xenesis.6389:

Atros.9607:

Honestly there is a lot missing here in terms of info. What time did you take this, what day, what is the coverage for your server on that time?

However, Anet made the decision to listen to you and made this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Glicko-Temporary-Manual-Adjustments/first#post6529467

But there will be salt on both sides about the changes. I for one am really not having the T1 crap. Anet needs to come onto these forums and read suggestions and start thinking about ways to fix the imbalance and linking crap that has caused so much volatility in WvW to allow for “Manual Glicko Adjustments” when they did not need to do that for the first 3 years of GW2’s life.

I am not looking forward to FA being in T1 or close T1. All the blobs can stay in T1 and I will enjoy my small group fights in T2. Because it’s not a blob-fest against SoS and JQ.

Wtf why is Fa and sos who have been losing to jq in t2 for weeks, get a boost and JQ doesn’t? lol jfc.

The only balance that needs to be done is BG needs to stop kittening hibernating and destack, like every single other server already has.

Yeah, JQ, whether they like it or not, should likely head into T1. This would be sad of course, because I actually enjoy fighting JQ even if we lose because the fights are close… whereas when I was on TC fighting BG they aren’t close. Or fighting against Mag when they aren’t intentionally tanking.

If Mag drops to T2, I hope the other two servers can properly coordinate to just attack Mag. They deserve getting tag teamed.

PierPiero.9142:

spvp is much more tactic aware than wvw. In spvp there are 3 big components : player mechanic, player rotation on the map and team coordinations . In wvw, if you roam you have only player mechanic : i win if i am better of my opponent or if i am a counter ( in rare cases when fights are balanced in number ) , if you go behind a zerg … the only thing that makes the difference is numbers …. the biggest one usually wins …

There is even less tactics in spvp compared to wvw. The one thing spvp has over wvw is that individual skill level means more to the outcome than it does in wvw, but strategy means more to the outcome of wvw.

Svarty.8019:

Limodriver.4106:

its probably coming out with expansion #2

I think that got cancelled years ago.

Anet has spent considerable time and resources creating a bunch of new maps that are leading the story to face off against Jormag and Primordius. You KNOW this setup is to sell more boxes of the next expansion: GW2 Of Fire and Ice or something.

I absolutely support these ideas. I was never a big fan of 5v5 conquest that GW2 seems to love so much. I know its the new MOBA-esque thing to do, but its just not that fun as it ends up being mostly a 1v1 or 1v2 fight on the map. Your battleground ideas take from games like WoW but add quite a new spin to it that would be very unique and could tie well with this game.

I hope someone at Anet cares about this type of pvp playstyle but I think they have decided to die on the sword of 5v5 conquest.

Easy fix: gotta do 5%+ damage to a gate or wall. Its fast enough so a legitimate group trying to actually take something won’t be punished by people using the WP, yet it will stop the trolls from just killing a guard to contest the keep.

JQ is probably the premiere T2 zerg server, and, at some point will likely overcome TC and become T1. Luckily for them, Anet’s system moves slowly so I’m sure JQ will be in T2 for quite awhile.

This build looks like a great keep tapper… but you hit with pillows compared to ghost thief. You really aren’t killing anyone with this build save for the pugs that run glass and don’t know how to play. Playing against a WvW zerg Guard or Rev build would be boring as hell.

While I agree with you, I doubt Anet will spend their man hours overseeing WvW performances on a weekly basis. But even with that, the response to server matchups are definitely too slow, and a bit random. You are right, SBI has no business being in T4, and its not fun for us on SBI either…would rather bang my head against the JQ, FA or YB wall. At the very least, changes need to be made faster than they are.

Straegen.2938:

T4 last week was a lot of fun even with the lopsided time zones. Each side had a single map blob which made attack/defense entertaining with all the shuffling between maps. Roaming was pretty fantastic even if I was being a pain to NSP (they know). Even the PPT which few care about came down to the last few hours.

T4 this week is watching SBI with multiple map blobs roll over pretty much everything. Servers are still trying but towards the end of NA Prime you could tell map chat was a somber relatively joyless conversation unlike last week.

Yeah, I’m on SBI now and we really have no business being in T4. I feel like BG against TC in T1 and its not very fun. T4 tried to bring it at first, but then they got discouraged and now they run away (can’t blame them). I like fighting FA, YB and JQ even if we don’t win most of the fights at least its fun.

Baldrick.8967:

I’ve been playing necro as one of my mains for a bit now (ele got boring/nerfed and less drops as water ele), and glad to say I didn’t join in the epidemic fad, so not going to miss it either.

A good change, next up will be bleed stacking on chill in a month or so.

Honestly, I hope they don’t nerf that since there actually IS counterplay to it, where there isn’t counterplay to a strong epi bomb.

Its a drag for sure, just like its a drag the other way when we drop to Tier 2 and curbstomp YB and SBI. The solution is obvious: If TC gets matched in Tier 1 it should go like this:
BG/Mag+lowest tier server/TC+Tier 2 server (YB or SBI). If that flips the scales too hard, change the server combo the next week (if still in Tier 1) to something like TC+FA. The same goes for Tier 2. When TC is in Tier 2, it should go: TC/SBI+FA/YB+BP. Adjust the server combos according to the past few months of data plus the latest outcomes. This would not be hard to do and it would absolutely change the dynamic of these matchups.

I find the scoring much less of a problem, as the scoring type is literally just polishing the brass on the Titanic. It has no effect on the actual outcomes or the dynamics of the weekly fights. You can change that scoring system all you like, but when it comes down to it, Tier 1 will almost always go like this: BG then Mag. Tier 2 will almost always be TC/JQ on top.

As a TC player, its pretty freaking boring either getting rolled by BG/MAG, or rolling YB and SBI. Anet needs to experiment more with server linking based on the previous weeks results. If TC is in a distant 3rd place in Tier 1, then TC should be linked with a decent server like YB or SBI to fight Mag and BG in Tier 1 next week. If TC is rolling face in Tier 2, then YB and SBI should be combined that week and combine the next few servers to join Tier 2 to fight TC. As it is, the fight dynamics are exactly the same. TC looks huge to those in Tier 2, but we are pretty small on organized groups against BG and MAG. Its gotta also get boring on BG just K-training everything.

Most ranged damage is ground targeted anyways. The bubbles can help a bit with pressure, but once you start fighting say, Blackgate, you will have a MUCH larger issue with the being outmanned, and completely outgunned by their condi-showers. I’ve shelved my Guardian when playing Blackgate because the conditions are just too extreme. So I camp Mallyx as Rev.

This is definitely a roaming build and I have zero experience with that. If you are looking for a Zerg build, I find this to be the most effective:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJASmnvNeNS6JvJRVlHlsrykSYW5SJYssrklZlhNma2RNgCawO6r/G-TVhXAB1q+TzKBFd/BAU+9hugAAIAczbezbezbWKgM3CA-w

I know most would say go with Glint/Mallyx, but, Glint’s buffs aren’t as necessary when you have a ridiculous amount of boon duration with Wanderers, Gnashblade, Durability, etc. And Glint only has one stunbreak and cannot cleanse immob (I also don’t think Mallyx pain absorption’s resistance is working properly with immob either). Shiro allows you to basically camp Mallyx as the parties main condi-cleanser, and when you are starting to get focused by actual direct damage and they immobilize/etc., you can quickly swap to shiro and use Riposting Shadows. This has been so much more valuable than going Glint and just dying to the huge Blackgate blobs.

I disagree completely. They were quite effective as an anti-zerg dumb blob defense. If the blob was dumb, they could get pushed back by much smaller numbers that also used canons. If they got smart and sieged out the canons, or sent in a few thieves to disrupt the canons and then push, the blob zerg would win. It was just another tool to help deal with heavily skewed fights.

I’m not too into roaming, but I like what I see here. I might give it a go when I get bored of the bigger fights.

In small group WvW, ele support is better. The support guard shines in larger scale fights. In smaller scale, meditrapper is likely the way to go because you need to down the other small groups fast, versus you need to outsustain a large, prolonged zerg fight.

Canons are fine. If you want to fight without siege, do spvp or structure a GvG match.

Reh.5986:

TC tanking HARD today.

You forgot your /sarcasm tag. TC won 9 out of 12 first place in those skirmishes for that day.

This is a great idea, and much easier than map hopping and spamming chat to join a squad.

This is a good idea, and rather easy to implement. They should also allow us to turn in Tomes of Knowledge for other things like mystic coins, WXP potions or even WvW badges.

Am I the only one that actually misses the WvW tournament? I really enjoyed playing during tournament time… the game just had a greater sense of urgency.

I agree with this sentiment in competitive structured PvP, and that is because Anet pigeon-holed that PvP type to being very small group conquest. That IS a design flaw for that game type imo, but they are too busy poking the e-sport windmill to realize the game-mode would actually be more fun, and involve more build diversity if they made different pvp game types with a different number of people on each side.

WvW, you can be effective with just about any build as long as you play to the strengths of whatever build you made. You can play a stealth medic thief, or a roaming ganker. You can be a support guardian, or a damage dealer, etc. etc. You do not need meta builds for WvW simply because the increase in number of players effectively reduces the need for one person’s individual skill EXCEPT for the commanders and the scouts.

You can get ascended drops at a decent clip in WvW if you are just playing the game for fun and not being aware of potential ascended until you get one. I’m rank 260 and have gotten 5 ascended pieces. Best way to maximize this is:
1) Birthday booster
2) Guild WXP booster
3) Candy Corn Gobbler (yes the cooldown is a PITA, but its worth it. Just spam it while walking to where you need to go in WvW)
From this, you gain levels pretty fast and can get you some ascended a bit faster through WvW alone. Crafting is the most sure way, but its kitten expensive especially now with the crazy hardened leather prices.

In short, just rock your exotic gear, max out your WXP buffs and just have fun. If you aren’t roaming, Ascended gear just doesn’t matter that much. Proper positioning and situational awareness are the keys to success in larger group fights. The gear will come, and besides, when it does its much more thrilling than just blowing gold/cash to craft it.

Thaddeus.4891:

FogLeg.9354:

Hardcore players should really stop posting about what is or is not suitable content for casual players. The fact that you can finish something under a minute, naked, with one hand only and wearing blindfold, does not mean it is doable for average casual player.

The average casual player never reads forums btw, so arguing with them in forum is fairly useless. If they don’t like the content, they simply stop playing.

So everybody able to do what you can’t is an Elite player and anyone under you is a casual? I’ll need to give the good news to my friend with whom I kill the Vale Guardian with that after all he’s an elite hardcore players. His wife and 3 kids will be astonished since he only play 10 hours per week.

I learn everyday on these forums.

10 hours a week is actually quite a bit, and I’d doubt that the skill level between someone who spends a good portion of that 10 hours in raids versus a hardcore player that plays many more hours won’t be that big of a gap. Guy is lucky his wife lets him play for 10 hours a week with 3 kids haha! I’m lucky if I can scrape 4-5 hours a week with 2 kids.

The timers are a necessary evil to raid design because they force you and your group to make as few mistakes as possible. It does have the unfortunate side effect that everyone is supposed to be specc’d full zerker, with one tank that has just a bit more toughness than the rest of the group (even the healer shouldn’t go much past zealots armor, maybe a weapon and the rest zerk). I suspect your biggest problem, and it has been my problem when pugging the fight, is that your other players aren’t optimally specc’d or geared and don’t know their optimal rotations. Raiding is basically the “safety dance”, and how it works was perfectly distilled in the WoW boss fight Heigan.

I find that cav gear is better for an ele wanting some tankiness since it sacrifices alot less dmg than soldiers.

Vayne.8563:

Legendary gear has the same stats as ascended gear. /thread

^This precisely. Legendary armor is NOT a new gear tier. I don’t know why people still can’t wrap their head around this.

NeoJerod.8104:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlEQRApX5un3geNSuQvJRboHlsP0kS4I6SJ4EtrkFUlR9iPGJNgCWwO92jH-ThyCABAcCBOZ/hIOIAqqE84nEAKaMMw8nRK/yTfwNq/EA4AY36W3AQKgFVWB-e

nuff said, this is my build, it crushes in PvP, WvWvW, and all the PvE content I have tried (Raid excluded until this Saturday)

Man, if there was gear that had Power, Ferocity and Condi… this build would be even better.

Verificus.4320:

So I’m about to craft my third ascended armor set but I’m having trouble deciding what to go for now in light of raids. I already have Assassin on Mesmer and Berserker on Necro. I was thinking getting a condition or healing set. I like healing as an ele and it worked fine in exotics vs Vale Guardian. The main problem I see though is that I think we’re slowly gravitating towards more damage oriented support. I think a few weeks from now no one will be running pure dedicated healers anymore and all the tanks will only have just enough toughness to have aggro and go full damage. At the same time, conditions don’t seem to be Ele’s strong suit. While they can definitely pile on some heavy burns it seems that in a dedicated party you’d rather have a second/third/fourth engi over a condi ele.

So far the builds I’ve traid is a condi/tank ele, a condi/heal ele, a heal/tank ele and a standard staff DPS ele. All work nicely but I just don’t really feel like I’m contributing anything that someone else can’t do. Im leaning towards just making another Berserker set and call it a day but I’m not sure.

What do you guys think Ele meta is in raids right? Would you invest in a healing or condi damage set for an ele at this time?

Eles can heal, but they cannot swap out of water as easily to contribute dmg as effectively as a Zealot’s druid. This seems to be pretty clutch, especially in the second fight as his timer seems to be even more finely tuned than the first. If you are dead set on Ele, you could possibly opt for a tank build, as I think it would be possible to build a pretty durable tank that can still dps well. Use your original Air/Earth/Tempest build but use only a few toughness pieces, and the rest Zerk.

Honestly though, your mes will likely be more valuable overall to the group with heavy boon stripping and alacrity/quickness. I want to find a place for ele besides zerk staff, but I don’t think the class is as optimal for dmg in mobile fights with D/F as say, a zerk Herald is. Personally, you may want to consider having optimal options for all the desired roles. This increases the likelihood that you will be needed for the raid. Save your coin for making an optimal condi build (engie or possibly warrior), and maybe a druid healer/dps hybrid and possibly a tank (not sure what the optimal tank is, atm).

Verificus.4320:

I don’t really understand why Fire is used over Arcane though. All the raids I’ve been in I’ve had 5 or more boons on me all the time. If you play Fresh Air ele that means anything other than OLA spam is a DPS loss so there is no use for the power boost or 10% fire dmg boost you get. The only time you go out of air is to reset your cooldown. Arcane gives you boon duration, often alot more than 10% dmg, more vigor uptime and elemental attunement. Especially since it’s no longer Ele’s job to provide might and fury as other classes do it better, i’d say maximizing personal DPS is the best choice. That means maximizing OLA damage. Hell, most of the time the air cooldown resets so fast that casting drakes breath or cone of cold takes another second that I could have spent in Air and used Lightning Whip.

Fire should only be used on staff builds and the only reason it was ever used on D/X in fractals and dungeons was because there were no revenants and Ele could give long fury the easiest.

Hrmm… not sure the small addition to boon duration is that vital either since, as you say, you aren’t the one supplying them (rev/warr is). Also, 6 boons with 100% uptime during a fight isn’t trivial… neither is 5 boons which is what you would need to compete with the fire line’s 10% dmg to burning foes (boss will be burning 100% of the time from SOMEONE), plus the added tick dmg from your own burns from crits trait. The added vigor might make it worth it though in some fights. It really just depends on boon uptime to be fully effective with Arcane as damage, otherwise Fire is just a foolproof dps increase.

To be fair, no expansion for ANY game has had as much content as the original game because no expansion gives you 8+ new classes a 5+ new races and they almost never give you the same size/number of maps to play on. This also has to do with development time of a new game versus the development time of an expansion. GW2 was in development for well over 5 years… HoT was in development for what, 2 years at the most?

Raids have clearly increased the need for dps meters, since all these fights basically have enrage timers on them. We all know the problems with standard DPS meters, as they can be very exclusionary, and they don’t tell the whole picture in a fight. Yet clearly, we need SOMETHING so we can all have some data that tells how close we are/need to get to in terms of the right damage for a fight.

The answer to this that both allows players the ability to have a true dps benchmark WITHOUT the exclusionary effect of a public dps meter is to simply create personal DPS meters that are not seen by other players. That way, those that want to use it to find out where they stand, and give them a repeatable test to practice new builds until they reach their goal can do so while not being under the critical eye of public scrutiny.

Anet needs to make this or something like this happen, because of the nature of these new encounters and I personally think most people aren’t exactly sure if they are or are not contributing enough damage and they have no basis to confirm or deny that. Give us some way to personally confirm this Anet, and it will allow us to be better players.

I find VB to be the easiest map currency to get. If you think this is bad, enjoy the ley-line crystal currency from Tangled Depths.

Agreed. One thing I find funny though, is when the Mouth’s body is over an island and its shaking, it always seems to shimmy perfectly with the music like its dancing. Cracks me up everytime.

Honestly, the same thing could happen in guild fractal groups, or really any content that has a player restriction on it. Hell, this happens in sPvP… you sit in Ventrillo with the sPvP group, and wait till someone drops out, or you scrape together 1 or 2 other guildies and pug the rest. I sympathize with the problem, but there is no easy fix to it.

circuitnerd.5863:

Seeing as probably the majority of people are not going to be able to complete raids or even get beyond the Vale Guardian due to difficulty I’d like to make the suggestion of having 2 different modes for raids.

As it is right now it could be “Hard mode.” And for “Normal mode” the boss has somewhat less health, his attacks do a little less damage, and a timer more like 12 minutes.

Changing the rewards for Normal to be less giving than Hard would be key. For instance the recipes would be exotic instead of ascended and so on.

I’m making this suggestion because I personally probably won’t get to see the enemies you guys have designed beyond the VG and would love to fight them. I’m a good player, but not the best.

This lets both the “casuals” and “hardcore” players experience it more attuned to their level of play.

So what’s to prevent “hardcore” players from farming the Normal mode? Well nothing technically. But they won’t get the better rewards AND those who truly want the challenge still have it.

If you could, please take my suggestion into account Arenanet. I think it would satisfy everyone.

Don’t worry about the naysayers… eventually, Anet will come to the exact same conclusion Blizzard did and create a LFR-type experience. It’ll likely be awhile, but it will happen just for the simple fact that they spent SOOO much time/effort in creating this content that they will eventually want a higher percentage of players actually experiencing it. It took Blizzard years to figure this out, but they eventually did, and the LFR in WoW is a HUGE draw for a majority of players.

The legendary armor argument is sort of moot as it is equivalent in power to Ascended which in turn, is only about a 2% increase in effective power over exotic (just the 6 total armor pieces). As long as Anet keeps the stat distributions the same and doesn’t power creep with either a level increase or decide to make legendaries more powerful, the players will be saved from being excluded by not having that armor. I’d wager that every encounter in these raids could be done just as well in exotic armor with ascend trinks/weapons versus full ascended.

The VO work with Glint’s dialogue is great and I enjoy it. The grunts though, they sound like a dragon that just woke up and had their first bowel movement in a thousand years.

Raif.9507:

Only thing that stands out to be pretty meh is:

• Warhorn
• Ramp up time for Water Overload
• Radius of Fire Overload (but that’s not too big a deal)

Warhorn gets sort of a bum rap on this forum, but I think its actually quite strong (though some skills are weak… but EVERY weapon has some not so great skills except for Rev. Hammer).

The Ramp up time for Water Overload is an issue mostly for Focus users. With Dagger/Warhorn, the 4 seconds you wait are spent casting Water 5/3/4 for about 5K+ heal. Then overload water is up and if you actually need it you can use it. I find I just go into water to cast 5/3/4 and sometimes 2 then swap attunements… rarely do I overload water.

Agreed on the OLF radius… it could stand to be a BIT bigger.

Esquilax.3491:

I’m traveling through the new zones as my Tempest (which I love). I am having extreme difficulty though. I’m fine when I stay at range and dodge attacks with a staff, but if I try to Overload one of my elements I generally get killed in 1-2 hits extremely quickly when I walk near things (I swear Overload Element has a built in Taunt).

Tempest has so much Protection and self heals. But all that’s useless in Berserker gear because you can’t heal when you die in one hit.

I’ve read accounts of people saying changing to tougher gear doesn’t help much and you still can’t tank things, so it’s best to just stay as berserker and dodge. But I just want to check with other peoples experience to make sure before/if I make an investment in tougher gear.

I’ve had zero issue using a tankier build/setup that other forum posters have created. You still have to dodge and move, but its waaaaay more forgiving than pure zerker. Build is Air/Earth/Tempest, Dagger (zerk)/Warhorn(knights), armor (cav), runes (I run scrapper, but you can really use whatever you want, all trinkets/back (zerker). Basically permanent protection, 1700+ toughness = you stay alive through most “oh schnap!” moments.

Imbued Melodies is good when going for perma protection though. Not too sure if that extra prot uptime makes up for the 700+ hp heal on aura application or not.

Honestly, just giving rebound a stunbreak on use would likely make it closer to being useful. As it is, its more of an extra aura for 75s cooldown.

The server system has proven to just not work in the long run. Anet now has more than enough playtime data to create alliances based on a cluster of a few servers. Basically take One Tier 1, one Tier 2 and two Tier 3 servers, combine them into an alliance and give them a name. Base these server clusters off of the performance data/coverage over the past few years to try and create balanced alliances. Likely should also reset/re-organize the alliances every 6 months based on the data to optimize skill/coverage balancing as people play more/play less per server.

Yeah, I know the whole: play for your server thing (which, in a sense you would STILL be doing, but you would be a part of a larger system), but WvW is waaaay too set in stone at this point. There are 2, maybe 3 servers that ever duke it out at the top, with no real surprises/interesting turn of events because of the current system. Also, those on lower pop servers just have a bad WvW experience when they fight servers with better coverage. An Alliance system like I described that is constantly balancing every few months should, in theory, have a better chance at creating more equal playing fields and thus, more interesting and lively WvW.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Lothirieth.3408:

I think because I don’t want to struggle with map finding, don’t find it so fun to play with a map full of strangers, or want to spend 2 hours straight keeping up with same events I’ve already done more than a few times now, all with a decent chance to fail and feel completely unrewarded for the effort I put in because maybe there wasn’t enough people on the map or enough people simply didn’t care.

HoT was just released. I don’t want to be feeling like this yet. :/

I was in Tangled Depths recently and was trying to do the meta. It was on a map I joined because the person advertising said it was an organized map. Just before the meta began, people that were still taxiing in others started saying the map was full. Great. The map’s full, so we should be able to get the meta done.

But it failed. The map was full, but there weren’t enough people doing the meta for it to succeed. So, what happens? People in map chat start blaming and insulting the people that weren’t helping with the meta specifically but that were playing in the map.

I mean, I was doing the meta; I joined this specific map to get it done, but I still don’t think it’s fair some of the things I’m seeing.

People telling others to “get out of the map and go do something else if you’re not going to help with the meta” or telling everyone that’s in the map doing something else, like Hero Challenges or their map completions, that they need to drop everything they’re doing and “come help with this meta event.”

To be fair… the Tangled Depths meta is actually HARD. A full map on VB, AB, or DS can almost always get the meta completed successfully. Tangled Depths meta requires a full guild of people who are on it to complete it properly. Personally, I think TD’s meta might need a nerf because the failure rate is waaaaay too high even on coordinated full maps.

Aomine.5012:

Bhima.9518:

Celestial gear is just not that great. The power is just way too low, vitality is not that great of a stat, and neither is healing power or condi dmg (unless you are building for condi, but then you wouldn’t use celestial at all). Basically, celestial siphons too many important stats so you can have points in those stats that are much less important.

Things that can help if you are having trouble getting downed while using an overload:
1) spec Air/Earth/Tempest. Earth gives you an insane amount of protection from using skills/overloads.
This might be the only thing you need to do, but
2) if you are still having trouble while in full zerkers, consider using cavalier’s armor for the extra toughness.

I personally play in lazy-mode (well, as lazy as one can be in the HoT maps at melee range). I took a build from Vernificus (sp?) on this forum, and I really like how tanky it is while retaining good damage overall (roughly 20% less dmg than a full glass/scholar build but you have WAAAAAY more survivability).

The build is Air 1 3 2, Earth 3 3 1, Tempest 3 3 1. Utilities are mostly shouts for the auras, though I also use glyph of storms to help burn down bosses. Use dagger/warhorn. Dagger is zerk, warhorn is knights(both are ascended), armor is cavalier’s (exotic), trinkets and back are all zerk (ascended). Runes are Scrapper, sigils are whatever you personally prefer, and the food I use is Nopolitos Saute (70 tough +10% boon duration) and the cheapo precision oil (5% of toughness/3% of vit).

This build is definitely not the top dps, but I think it is about as close as one can get when trying to balance survivability that noticeably helps, especially when trying to complete overloads AND retain good overall damage.

Also, I think the warhorn gets crapped on a bit too much in this forum. Yes fire 4 is horrible and air 5 is meh, but man… Water is almost OP in how much you can heal even without any healing power. Just press water 5, water 3 to blast and water 4. Easily gives you 2/3’s your HP back.

Hey, I would like to thank you for your good suggestion of a more defensive fresh air variant. I find that the survivability is indeed much higher compare to my pure dps fresh air sped I do not feel like I lose too much damage with the overload spam either. I’m still playing Marauder + zerk and find a significant survival improvement.

Also I feel like your spec would be stronger with Elemental Basion. You gets lots of health back by your Aura spam. Also I find that Tempest’s exclusive heal is much better than other Ele healing skills. (Cast speed/heal margin/cd/utility value-wise)

I’m still up in the air with bastion because imbued melodies gives you another 20% duration on protection (and your other boons). I’ll probably play-test a bit more with them both and see which one helps more, though Bastion on its face looks like it could be the winner with how much healing you get from it.