Guild Wars 2

Hammdrang.4978:

Khristophoros.7194:

iHyper.7132:

Do we get enough hero points for the full spec from completing all hero points challenges, or is there another way? I feel like thats not enough if its 1 point each for them

It’s 10 points per hero point challenge in the new maps… but you have to spend hours leveling your masteries to gain access to most of the challenges AND a lot of them are pretty difficult to even locate in the first place.

OMG HOURS! I have to spend HOURS!

Why wont they think of the children? WHYYYY.

GDMNT but kids are entitled these days. You guys would never have lasted a week in the original EQ.

Funny thing there….I played EQ starting back in the PoP days. Might not be the Pre-Luclin era that people talk about, but I still remember stuff like having to get a Necro or Shadowknight to summon my corpse after deleveling.. Got my magicians epic 1.0(Quillmane camping anyone?). I loved that game. And I think this grind is stupid.

Not all grind is created equal. The EQ grind was great because of how much there was to explore. The game was so difficult that it never felt like you HAD to complete everything. Most stuff you really worked for was on the side, and you always had more to do, and more zones to explore. The game was largely designed with the self-knowledge that most people just won’t be able to do a lot of the grinding beyond leveling, and that additional grinding was for fun stuff like faction or clickies or mounts. You could still play the game just fine without AAs, and you got enough new content regularly to where you didn’t really feel like you were missing out if you couldn’t. The people who ran out of stuff to do were the ones with their AAs filled out anyways, and more casual folks just enjoyed the power creep while working on little side projects like being able to walk around Neriak safely.

This game, however, is built on the idea of a minimal mechanical grind. Anything you really grind for is cosmetic and unnecessary. Except for specs. This means that the game is designed around you not really having prolonged periods of progression. The new system they have for training trait lines and skills works because its VERY EASY to fill them out and you’re not left for long without being able to grab what you want or with completely broken trait lines. Trying to shove a huge grind-gated new trait line into the system makes no godkitten sense, because you’re left as a level 80 being forced to take an incomplete trait line to gain access to a new mechanic/weapon while taking utilities you may or may not want BEFORE being able to fill out a basic build. It just doesn’t work with the system they’ve made, and would admittedly be significantly less annoying for most classes(not Heralds, though…) if you got to choose what you want like you were at an old EQ spell vendor. But with the current system it’s idiotically terrible.

I feel like something that really needs to be highlighted is the experience of this system for Heralds/Revs. Every single Revenant is starting from scratch, and the class is particularly affected by the heavy gating. Due to the nature of legends, a new Herald is basically stuck with a shield and Facet of Nature for a LONG time, in addition to the usual incomplete talent tree. Taking Glint is a straight up LIABILITY for a long time because you can’t just fill in the facets you don’t have yet with something else. It feels like a punishment, and because of how many points you need the ‘journey’ ends up feeling more like a hurdle to pass. This is the elite for the NEW class that should, and one which many deem game changing for the class, yet it’s gated behind most of the new content. Which is such a huge shame.

I’m not stranger to grinding. I grinded Netherwing rep like a mofo in Burning Crusade, and knew the flight paths for that like the back of my hand. Hell, I played EQ back in the day and got my Magician Epic 1.0 which included camping the notoriously-difficult-to-find Quillmane for a week; I turned in wine for hours to get friendly with the Dark Elves and killed undead frogloks for days on end for an illusion clicky. But….I was also 13 years old, and playing MMOs in an era where grind was expected.

The rest of this game has minimal grind, and this just doesn’t synergize with it at all. And weirdly enough, Heralds are the prime example of that: legends are made with the assumption that minimal grind is needed for a leveling character to fill out a legend’s track, and specs are(more generally speaking) laid out similarly. To suddenly have a spec that adds a legend at end-game in hard PvE content which you can’t quickly flesh out, and a trait line which you similarly can’t flesh out quickly(yet are required to take), throws the gameplay of a progressing Herald off. Because the game isnt balanced around progressing characters because basic character progression should be quick. Masteries are amazing(they remind me of AA points, speaking of EQ) and serve the mildly-grindy progression role well already. We really don’t need, nor want, Elites to serve that role either.

They really need to do something for PvE. Ok, ok, they optimize for PvP, sure..But so many features outside of the hammer feel almost designed specifically for PvP with no thought to whether it even makes much sense in PvE. Half of function gyro’s ‘functions’, stomping, doesn’t exist. The other half, rezzing, will only be seriously useful in conditions where AI with health are notoriously easily killed. That extends to all other gyros, but this one is particularly egregious since its supposed to be our big mechanics change. The second minor is beyond terrible for PvE. The Elite Gyro is particularly stupid as an elite, despite their feigned insistence that it has uses outside of niche gameplay(even if it does act as a temporary ‘tank’ it’s only useful for either sneaking past a very short area, or getting a few free hits in: not at all worth trading in either Supply Crate or Mortar Kit in the vast majority of situations).

Really disappointed and hope they change it to have more synergy in PvE.

Arantheal.7396:

Bindaeyen.9613:

Arantheal.7396:

Calcifire.1864:

as someone who doesn’t PvP or WvW, I’m underwhelmed as hell.

the big profession mechanic is utterly useless in PvE unless there is someone dying nearby, and the elite is purely a PvP ability considering how insanely situational stealth is in PvE for non-thieves.

consider that for the elite mechanic revenants get a new legend, necros get a new death shroud, mesmers get to save-scum, the ability to rez/finish someone at range is so situational outside of PvP that unless HoT adds a LOT of finishable enemies like the toxic alliance, it may as well not exist.

We have no idea on the hammer cd’s & power-scaling so you may want to wait before calling it useless.
Also, do you remember the toxic alliance? I wouldn’t be surprised if you meet a lot of mordrem in the future that need to be stomped

They’re talking about the stealth elite and the function gyro being near useless, not the entire spec. I’m not sure about the elite, but the gyro is certainly near pointless in PvE from what we understand of it. It makes almost zero difference in open world.

Not to mention that they MENTIONED Toxic Alliance in their post. Assuming there’ll be a bunch of mobs to finish off is wishful thinking at best considering they seem to have ran away from that mechanic in PvE. Was there even any in the beta yet? Maybe that mounted boss from the story…? I don’t recall running into a single one.

It’s a heavily PvP skewed mechanic change, moreso than any other class’ and that’s extremely disappointing.

Opinions.
I for example find it extremely satisfying.

No, not opinions. In half of the game it’s use is minimal.

Arantheal.7396:

Calcifire.1864:

as someone who doesn’t PvP or WvW, I’m underwhelmed as hell.

the big profession mechanic is utterly useless in PvE unless there is someone dying nearby, and the elite is purely a PvP ability considering how insanely situational stealth is in PvE for non-thieves.

consider that for the elite mechanic revenants get a new legend, necros get a new death shroud, mesmers get to save-scum, the ability to rez/finish someone at range is so situational outside of PvP that unless HoT adds a LOT of finishable enemies like the toxic alliance, it may as well not exist.

We have no idea on the hammer cd’s & power-scaling so you may want to wait before calling it useless.
Also, do you remember the toxic alliance? I wouldn’t be surprised if you meet a lot of mordrem in the future that need to be stomped

They’re talking about the stealth elite and the function gyro being near useless, not the entire spec. I’m not sure about the elite, but the gyro is certainly near pointless in PvE from what we understand of it. It makes almost zero difference in open world, and if its useful in raids half of its utility is still going to be useless.

Not to mention that they MENTIONED Toxic Alliance in their post. Assuming there’ll be a bunch of mobs to finish off is wishful thinking at best considering they seem to have ran away from that mechanic in PvE. Was there even any in the beta yet? Maybe that mounted boss from the story…? I don’t recall running into a single one.

It’s a heavily PvP skewed mechanic change, moreso than any other class’ and that’s extremely disappointing.

Harnel.6810:

The problem I hold with “Seasons” is that it follows the same issue that you yourself pointed out; cycling is extremely clunky in a twitch gameplay setting like we have here. We’ve also had no indication that the Maguuma druids, who we’d be learning this from, even have much concept of season – the saurians in the jungle suggest that the place is hot (and possibly wet) all year round, so it wouldn’t fit traditional concepts. Otherwise, I agree, that could be cool.

I find the idea of choosing between two of the three aspects much more agreeable, though. working it much like Revenant legends would probably be for the best. Either way though, I just don’t see seasonal cycling as likely.

I really like the revenant-esque aspect swapping idea. It makes sense not just mechanically but pragmatically too-they probably prefer reusing existing systems rather than making something brand new.

My big question in all of this is what exactly will these aspects DO? I’d love it if they allowed a DS like access to a new bar of skills but I just don’t see that happening given the amount of effort that would take. Yet I have a hard time also seeing them just basically being reskinned signets or(worse) simply providing basic passive effects. Neither quite strikes me as being a fully fleshed out or satisfying idea, even with glyph skills in addition.

What I WANT:

A staff which is well balanced to provide both support and damage. Glyphs or can trip-like utilities, or perhaps a bunch of minion-spirit hybrids that have actual gameplay strategy aside from ‘set and forget’(maybe interacting with each other and providing unique benefits for different combinations?). Basically, interesting and different utilities that really emphasize either the ‘magical’ side of the druid theme, or an enhanced sense of summoning and communing with spirits. For the profession mechanic I’d love to see an f5 which allows us to access a new set of skills based upon our current pet, styled as a shapeshift or a body swap or calling upon a specific spirit.

What I EXPECT:

A staff which is too support oriented to be useful to anyone who wants to do something else with it, but which is tuned down anyway in fear of it becoming ‘the’ support spec. A minor addition to the class mechanic, probably something like an f5 skill that’s supposed to be special and powerful compared to f2 but often falls short, and lame spirit skills that are called something slightly different but offer little in the way of utility variety except to replace the niche that we lost with the spirits nerf.

As someone with little experience as a warrior, I can’t comment on too much regarding the details of the spec like damage numbers but I think it’s fair to reiterate the feedback on the general feel of Berserk.

I find myself saving up for berserk, using it, waiting a second, bursting, then scrambling to build back up before the timer runs out. So far, I’ve found my best scenario is 2 or 3 bursts per berserk. It just doesn’t feel like what they want to go for, and once you start to get into the flow of berserk you get pulled back out. It feels very frustrating, clunky, kind of stuttery, and not at all the way they pitched the idea in PoI.

Reworking the way that berserk is activated or how long it’s active for would go a long way on that.

Anymras.5729:

These are probably placeholders released too early because they’re trying to make up some goodwill by removing hobosacks as soon as they could.

Or, well. Let’s hope. I guess.

That’s literally what people thought the hobosacks were in Beta. How wrong they were….

glehmann.9586:

You realize that they will continue taking feedback and making changes after HoT releases, right? It’s not like HoT will release and we are then stuck with whatever state Druids and Forges are in at that moment.

Ranger’s pets had issues in beta and were controversial. That still hasn’t been addressed.

Engineer backpacks were hated from the beginning, with lots of people literally saying what you’re saying(’it’s beta! It’ll get fixed after launch!’) and it took 3 years and constant nagging to get them to remove them. And several of their replacements(bomb kit most notably) look cartoonishly bad.

Necros have been a joke since release and have only just now gotten the kind of attention needed to fix that.

So yeah, I don’t trust that something not addressed by beta will be fixed live.

Kidel.2057:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Kidel.2057:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

[…]my experience with the Rev so far is that Shiro is DPS, but only decent. Jalis, Mallyx, and Glint aren’t DPS legends, to boost that POV, Roy called Shiro the DPS legend.[…]

In the last beta Jalis upkeep actually did almost the same dps as Impossibe Odds. The damage on zerk build was insane, plus it was aoe.

Glint with perma Fury and 6-15 Might can boost up your damage a lot, expecially if you are alone.

Mallyx has a +10% in all stats upkeep + condi transfer. That alone is more then +20% damage increase on zerk builds, that actually stacks with external Might and Quickness. With a Mesmer/Guardian in the group, Mallyx and Jalis were the best dps legends in the last beta.

Each legend with a mh sword or hammer can do huge numbers. In a group Shiro is one of the weakest actually if you’re going in a meta group.

Why bother bringing up the previous beta at all?

He said “my experience with the Rev so far”, I was replying. Don’t remove posts from their context.

And actually IO is simply a waste of energy if you’re under an external source of quickness, while the other core upkeeps do stack with that.

It’s not out of context, you keep bringing up Jalis as a viable DPS legend when they’ve specifically said that Jalis felt too DPS heavy and will be changed accordingly.

DiogoSilva.7089:

I love the Herald so far. The only thing I’m worried about is how the upkeep skills may make it heavily reliant on auto-attacks.

This was my first thought reading about it. I’m excited to try it out eventually, and see it in detail tomorrow, and I LOVE that the first Elite spec touches on the Bardish aspects of the class, but the biggest issue I had last weekend was with energy costs(with customization after that. Upkeep skills feel horrifically awkward with the way they drain energy while you’re expected to expend it on weapon skills at the same time. A full bar of upkeep skills worries me.

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

I also wanted to touch on your upkeep skill statement.

I agree they are very situational, that they decrease your energy too quickly, and should provide additional benefits when activated. However, I think something that could also greatly assist the Revenant is being able to siphon/gain energy either from attacking or under moderately to frequently re-occurring conditions (like a Necromancer with Life Force).

Yes! Unrelenting Assault especially feels weird since you’re instinct is to try to get in as many attacks as soon as possible, but that drains your energy even faster. It’s just odd.

And yeah, I think if they’re attached to having energy on Weapon skills they need to give you a way to more quickly gain energy. Right now there isn’t much reason or incentive to stick with your current legend once you run out since the base regen is so slow and steady. Because right now it feels like just using two utilities together results in punishment through legend swapping.

Rym.1469:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Yes, everything besides auto-attacks has an associated energy cost.

As it should be. Don’t listen to people asking for freebies. Reward good gameplay, not spamming.

Thanks, Roy

Don’t mischaracterize people asking for reduced/no energy cost on weapon skills as just scrubs wanting handouts, it really stifles any sort of discussion. While I like the idea in theory, there are benefits to removing it. Namely it will make balancing energy cost far easier. With both sides of the bar using one mechanic in two different ways(one is a smallish cost with cooldowns, the other high costs with virtually no cooldowns), its not hard to see the potential problems. You don’t necessarily want players feeling forced to swap to a legend they don’t want to play right now because they literally can’t even swing their sword let alone use utilities; so you might be tempted to speed up regen. But you still want to punish utility spammers, so you’ll want to slow down the regen.

The devs will have to hit a sweet spot with both costs and regen which may be very difficult to hit with two different variations of the same system using the bar. Especially without going through extensive tweaks after eating feedback post-release. This is not ideal, but would provide the deepest gameplay and flavor for the Revenant’s play style . If they can manage it. If they aren’t sure it might be best to just make the costs nominal or non-existent on weapon skills.

There are arguments to be made on either side, and frankly I’m not sure where I stand personally.

I really like the idea of both, but I’m wondering if they can get the numbers down. This seems like it’s going to be very tricky to balance properly, and I’m concerned that you’re going to feel punished in your weapon skills for spamming your utility skills(and vice versa). Obviously there should be a downside to spamming utility skills, but that downside is already built-in: you can’t use those utilities again for a long time! It feels almost unfair to add on the punishment to the other side of your skill bar, and it splits your balancing efforts into two areas: on one hand, you want energy to regenerate quickly enough that you don’t feel locked out of all your abilities very long; on the other hand, you want it to regenerate more slowly to encourage thoughtful gameplay especially regarding utilities. I’m concerned those two areas will conflict and result in balances which don’t satisfy either area.

I guess one big question is how often(if at all) you will head into a situation where your weapon skills are unavailable due to using your utilities, and you feel forced into switching legends just to use any skills on your bar? How long is that going to last? How will this interact with upkeep skills? Given the way that legends seem integral to gameplay, it feels kind of cheap to twist players’ arms into switching legends by locking them out of their weapon skills and force them to incur the 10 second cooldown just to get back on track. I guess it all comes down to the question of whether or not I’m going to feel like I have to constantly choose between my Weapon and Utility skills, because every time I use my weapon skills I essentially have to cannibalize my utility skills(and vice versa); something no other class has to do.

The obvious solution here is to make the weapon skills’ energy costs essentially nominal: punish the players who absolutely drain their energy pools to the point that they’re bankrupt of even 4 or 6 energy. But then that kind of defeats some of the point…

I dunno, honestly I think this is one of those things that will have to be addressed after release once everyone has gotten familiar enough with the class to say “these should be cooldown only” or “just keep balancing the numbers.” I do hope they find a good balance, though, because I love the idea of a class with low-cooldown weapon skills.

Thank you for the responses, I really appreciate them. After a bit of research, I’m thinking a refurbished 7950 would be the best bang for my buck.

I’m only hesitant on pulling the trigger because I’m unsure how much it’ll help, especially WRT the slowdown from explosive/fiery effects. Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether this upgrade will help much?

Brother Grimm.5176:

ICfatcat.4056:

depends on what you consider cheap? your CPU and RAM are fine. I would upgrade to a GTX 9xx

I’m not sure anyone should consider the current GTX 900 series prices as “cheap” (bargin basement versions start at $200)…..yet.

Yeah,$200 range is about twice my price range. Any suggestions for a price range of around 100-125$? Like I said,my main concern is GW2 and the performance hit from explosive ability graphics/flame effects, so I don’t think I’m looking for a gigantic upgrade.

I’m thinking about upgrading a component for my computer, and I’m wondering what would be the best cheap upgrade I could make(especially in relation to GW2, of course). While I’m obviously not running on max graphics, my main annoyance with GW2 performance-wise is that explosive effects lag my computer. It’s most notable on my Engi(who I otherwise love); effects like Big Ol’ Bomb kills my performance, as do multiple flamethrower abilities and grenades and turret heal(when the water field is blasted). Even with other classes with heavy skill animations like Elementalist, the lag is almost non-existent; it’s just explosive effects that kill my performance. With that in mind(and the specs below), what would be my best bet to upgrade? What should I upgrade it to?

Thank you very much!

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.3GHz

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

RAM: 8GB

(I’m running on Windows 7, btw)

Navi.1032:

Wouldn’t it make more sense for Necro’s to get Spirits if this were the case? Like Binding Rituals.

• Heal: Ritual of Restoration
  Spirit could heal you and give allies regeneration
• Utility: Shadowsong Ritual
  Obviously this spirit would blind enemies, could also grant allies retaliation
• Utility: Ritual of Disenchantment
  Remove boons from enemies and conditions from allies
• Utility: Soothing Ritual
  Apply weakness to enemies and vigor to allies
• Elite: Ritual of Wanderlust
  Damages enemies, knockdown, and could give protection to allies

Necros get spirits? One of the most disliked and least interesting types of Ranger utilities, one of whose primary traits(the ability to walk) is getting removed?

Sounds about right.

Leonhardt.8164:

you dont need any guides for leveling a mesmer, My first and only character ive leveled to 80 was a mesmer and i’ve had no problem at all getting through content, it was easy, infact i felt op
people tell me it’s because since i havent played the other classes yet that i wouldnt know what it feels like to level an easier class, they considered me lucky

When did you level it, was it before the NPE? Because a huge part of the class’ leveling problem right now comes from the overly-high level gates for traits that arose from the NPE.

RigidForce.4690:

Another question, which is slightly off-topic. What your favorite thing about mesmer?

I’m leveling a mesmer myself, and so far I’m really loving the way I almost feel like a one-woman pack with all my illusions and phantasms. Let my phantasms chip away at the mobs while they go after the illusions. Once they’re low on health, go in for the kill with a satisfying shatter.

Very fun, very entertaining way to play with mobs. This isn’t even to mention how unique these mechanics are in an MMO and the epic spec that Mesmers are getting in HoT. It’s also worth noting how kitten some of the animations are, and the distinctly non-magey weapons you get access to. Mesmer GS’s AA in particular is amazing.

With the Ele, I mean this in the kindest of ways but…learn to play. Seriously, learn. Classes like Ele and Mesmer are tough at first because they’re so squishy, and tend to have really complicated mechanics which you need to know or else you’re gonna die. You rely upon your fancy skills, not your raw health or armor to stay alive. I had no trouble getting one up to lvl 32 because I kept moving, prevented enemies from getting near me, and used my defensive skills carefully(quit, though, since its just kinda boring for me).

I’m learning the importance of this myself as I’ve decided to restart a mesmer. I’d gotten one to 30 before but gave up because the entire time I just kept dying. As I’m rounding lvl 23, though, I’m finding it not nearly as hard as before. Sure, there are problems and groups are a serious threat, but it’s not constant like it was before where just a surprise add would kill me. Why? Because before I wasn’t using sword 2 as the evasive skill that it is, because I didn’t realize the usefulness of OH sword, I ignored Mantras, I didn’t realize that opening with a phantasm is a Great idea to TKD the heat off my for awhile, the list goes on. It takes more effort than just hopping on my old reliable Ranger who can nearly faceroll a Mordrem Terragriff in SWs. Especially with te wonderful ‘NPE’.

If you think you’d enjoy Ele, just stick with it, go over the skills, and maybe read a few guides. Get in game, make sure your gear’s up to date, and practice.

BattleCat.2098:

How about engineer? I find that class a lot of fun to play, though I’m only level 26. I solo a lot, though. It’s mobile, versatile and quite strong. And you can get a flamethrower. ’nough said. Hehe.

Actually Engi was my first choice! Unfortunately, silly as it sounds, all the explosions grind my computer to a halt and that drives me nuts(flamethrower 2, 4, and 5 for example all kill my FPS; bomb kit as well).

I’ve got one lvl 80(a ranger), and I’m looking for another class to play with. I’m really interested in the more mobile class, so I’m looking at either a Mesmer or a Thief.

I solo a lot since I often don’t have the time to commit to a group, so my question is which would afford me a better experience? Which is more forgiving of mistakes, both while leveling and at lvl 80?

Sebrent.3625:

While there are still the naysayers (always are, always will be), all of the class forums are abuzz with positivity.

What planet are you living on? No MMO forum is ever ‘abuzz with positivity’ but some of the forums are almost entirely negative. Namely, the Necro forum has been practically rioting(well, as much as any forum can) over the infuriating lack of changes compared to other classes, especially compared to Engis who were doing fine and got some huge improvements and tweaks while Necros continue to b the butt of every class joke.

The big issue with conjures is that they put them on the one class for whom they are actually detrimental. They need to make up for the extra 3 sets of skills you have available at any time. To do that, they pretty much have to be OP in one specific area due to the wide breadth of skills already available at once. If you make them a way to counter the limitations of your weapon set, then as TooBz said you need to give them lower cooldowns and strong utilities. Do that, though, and you might as well dedicate a utility slot on every Ele to conjures(who DOESN’T want to take a utility which basically completely shores up your biggest weakness?).

So you end up swinging between the skills being wastes of utility slots, or being OP and near mandatory.

The obvious solution(let us switch in and out nearly at will for the duration of the conjure) is problematic since it steps on the toes of Engineer’s class-defining(whether it should be or not) kit skills. I honestly am not sure what can be done to fix it, but they can’t just outright copy another classes mechanics to fix it(due to how closely tied it is to the class, that is). Either way, I think it’s pretty clear they created a balancing nightmare when they gave Eles conjures.

I haven’t heard this, so Mesmers will finally get passive swiftness?

Bhawb.7408:

Rym.1469:

From an expansion.

This isn’t the expansion, it will hit before hand.

They’re changes associated with an expansion, and as evidenced by many of the other classes, there’s usually an expectation that we’re going to see some major shake-ups in traits beyond just balance tweaks or making the old traits and skills fit into the new paradigm. Skill/spell/whatever and trait/talent/AA/whatever changes before an expansion are usually meant to not only shake the game up a bit and tighten it up, but also help to set the tone for the dev’s newest vision of how the class ought to work.

Given that necros are nearly universally considered the most broken class in the game, and that these are going to basically set the tone for Necros in the expansion, there absolutely was a reason for him to expect more from the changes. Instead, while classes which are in a decent state(e.g. Engis) get huge overhauls all necros get traitwise and apparently skillwise so far are basic balance changes and a nerf to literally the dumbest cheesey build I’ve ever heard of.

My guess is that we’ll see a different set of skills for DS, maybe even a change in functionality in how it drains. Instead of it being designed as a second life bar type thing, perhaps we’ll see it not replace the health pool or periodically drain but give access to a new set of skills which are particularly strong hitters and which drain the bar(perhaps even being constrained by life force than by cooldowns, ala Thieves). I’m envisioning a much more power-based DS with a focus on high damage rather than increasing survivability.

Another former Bard(and Magician) here, and yeah, I LOVE the way that I never feel completely out of tricks. It always feels like I’ve got one last trick up my sleeve, and like there’s always something to do.

It really makes me feel accomplished when I play the class.

Plus, I love the theme of class. Very unique feel. My only complaint is that all the explosions slow down my computer.

The number one issue in my view is the pace of the LS.

Every two weeks we get new content. Every two weeks, most of what was made available gets taken out.

For players who can’t complete the content for one reason or another, this I really depressing. Even worse, it is a cycle of dissuasion from playing. “Well, I missed the story that led to this one…might as well skip this since I’ve not clue what’s happening…..and this next one is even more confusing, now….”

This is also really disheartening when, say, you see Moto in Rata Sum. You look up Super Adventure box and IT’S SO COOL. Great weapon skins, fun idea, but…you can’t play it. That doesn’t make you want to play the game. At all.

Worst of all, though, it makes participating in these events stressful. If you don’t finish in two weeks, or get what you wanted, you’re screwed. This is your one chance. That’s ok for holiday events. That’s kind of their point. But to have this all year long, is just annoying and stressful and Skinner-esque.
This really needs to be fixed. I don’t care that I can catch up with the wiki. I want to play the game, not read it.

This is why I’ve had such a hard time deciding on a class as my main. I level up to 30 or so, realize I’ve settled into a small cluster of two or three builds, and that this is the entire game in terms of unique abilities.

The weapon system is far too restrictive atm, and for most classes the utility skills arent developed enough to remain interesting. (Lets not forget the fact that most classes have an entire skill line, sigils, that basicaly scream "I’m a placeholder skill that rarely does anything of interest and should have been weeded out in beta ")

They were on the right track, to be honest, with giving players more guidance in picking skills. Gw1 had an insanely complicated system that made creating an OK PvE buiild intuitively nearly impossible. I personally could never figure it out. They’ve swung way too wide here, though, and really ought to have given us more options to play with; especially since you can easily end up with most utilities (and certainly, any you’re particularly interested in), by level 30 (!). That is incredibly bad design.

Does anyone have advice for leveling a Mesmer?

I’m lvl 23, and while I really enjoy the concept of the class, it’s weapons, utility and gameplay, it just seems like I might as well be hitting enemies with a wet noodle when soloing. Unless I’m being down leveled significantly, soloing a single mob is a fairly arduous process. Combined with the Mesmer’s frailty, I end up getting downed very frequently as a result. Does anyone have advice on what traitlines I should go down, or weapons/utilities to use?

Also, is this just an aspect of leveling a Mesmer, or can I pretty much expect this to be the same at 80? Soloing’s pretty much my main activity, so it’s pretty important to me.

Terkov.4138:

Play what you like. Every single patch can turn everything upside down.

This is pretty much the best advice out there. Having played MMOs since Kunark-era EQ, I’ve spent SO much time getting my panties in a bunch over this nerf or that nerf, but I’ve found it’s just not worth worrying about.

Play what you want. Just understand that the Ranger is a VERY heavily pet-based class. If you just want the pet to be additional damage, there are ways to make that work, but a lot of your utilities are going to be based around them(shouts, for example) and if you don’t like traps or spirits then you’re looking at a class which will bore your pants off(which is what happened to me!).