Guild Wars 2

seithan.4823:

so all n all the condition damage is as useless as any? kitten !

It’s not useless by any means. But it’s not something you should center your build around as a Guardian. Burning has higher base damage than any other condition by a large margin. It also has the highest damage modifier. What that means is that without investing into it at all, it already plays a semi-large role in your damage dealing capabilities. However, due to it stacking in duration and not intensity, it does not yield as much improvement for investing into it as other conditions do. Increasing the duration isn’t usually worthwhile because you are just increasing the chances of it getting removed before benefiting from it’s full potential. Increasing it’s damage is worthwhile, but doesn’t do as well as bleeding or confusion due to lack of intensity stacking.

Polle.6908:

Title is very misleading. Most posts in this thread are nit pickings but ultimately, most skills and utilities listed are all useful in some way, some better in certain situations. The only real dud I see is merciful intervention because no matter how much effort you give it, it’ll teleport you to something you don’t want to protect. If this was improved then it will be worth using to a degree.

That’s your opinion, and it’s very much valued. Since you don’t feel the skills are lacking much, what about traits? Surely there are traits, whether minors or majors, that you don’t really find desirable. The goal here is to focus on what they are, why we feel that way, and what we can do to improve it. It’s ultimately up to the devs to decide on what deserves improvement, but we can help present the situation to them.

If you feel everything is perfect the way it is, then i am happy for you, but I don’t think this thread is of much concern to you in that case.

Just woke up and I am glad to see a solid amount of feedback. I am going to go through and compile a nicely formatted list in the original post. Please keep the feedback coming. The better we are able to present our case, the more likely we are to see positive results.

`I like it personally.

I was thinking, maybe we could be proactive in improving our profession by listing the skills, traits, etc that for one reason or another, we feel are not worth using, and why of course.

Weapon Skills

• Shield of Absorption – It would be nice if this skill could absorb more ranged damage sources than it does. Siege attacks at the least would be a huge improvement. I doubt all ground-targeted AoE will ever be able to be absorbed though.

• Zealot’s Defense – It would be nice if this was a mobile skill. As it is, it gets used because it is there, but it’s not very desirable. It roots for the duration, which leaves us open to flanking. The area it covers (width not length) is small and is difficult to aim properly.

• Orb of Wrath – We have all covered this one enough times to know that something needs to improve. Hopefully the devs already have something in the works for this though.

• Leap of Faith – Not useless by any means. But it has accuracy issues. And when it has accuracy issues, the blind does not get applied. Two issues that should be linked to one fix.

• Spear Wall – It sounds neat. It looks cool. In application though, it just fails hard. I propose changing it to Spear Cage. A cube of spear walls trapping the target for 2 seconds while doing damage of some type followed by a brief cripple condition.

Will continue editing comments into the original post as I have opportunities throughout the day.

If you want to really survive a sticky spot, nothing will serve you better than mace/focus imo. Blinds, blocks, condition removal, and healing packaged together nicely.

I’m trying to decide on either Mercy, Earth, or Forge. The bonuses all match my playstyle and I have decided to get my Toughness up via the Rune slots.

My recommendation on the matter, after trying and trying to make a burn build work: Don’t center your build around burning. It doesn’t seem it was designed as a focal point, but rather as supplemental damage for nearly every build if desired.

With that out of the way, I’ll share what knowledge I gleamed from about 60 hours of in-game testing:

1.) No, it only works when you have the burning condition on you.

2.)Conditions “remember” the fractions of seconds, but round down and do not apply them if they do not equal a full seconds worth. What I mean is this: Lets say you have a duration of 1 1/2 seconds for one burn application, and 3 3/4 on another. If you apply the 1 1/2 one and let it run its course without stacking another burn, it will only do 1 seconds worth of damage. But, if you stack the 3 3/4 burn with it, it remembers the 1/2 and 3/4, and will round up to 5 seconds, while remembering, but not applying, the remaining 1/4 second. if you continue to stack enough partial fractions to equal a whole before the duration runs out, you WILL benefit from the extra time. If not, you won’t.

3.) The 10% damage modifiers from those skills will not yield increased condition damage. That only applies to direct damage. The might boon, however, will increase both.

And to answer your other question further down about crits, base damage, and traits: Critical hits DO factor in bonuses from traits before final damage is applied.

I might have missed it, but what are you looking to get out of altering your build? More offensive power?

Offtopic: Do libraries really offer internet services?

Rainshine.5493:

The blind doesn’t help you at all to stay on a target, nor was I suggesting it did. It’s simply a nice bonus on a short cooldown. You’re correct about knockback vs. knockdown, it’s simply another CC.

Basically, if you’re having trouble keeping up with ranged players (other than thieves…and frankly almost no one keeps up with thieves for long except other thieves) you’re doing it wrong. Hammer is nice, but it’s absolutely not the only weapon that you can PvP on effectively.

Let’s recap gap closers/CCs that let you catch up to people.
Mighty Blow: 5 sec
Flashing Blade: 10 sec
Leap of Faith: 15 sec
Zealot’s Embrace: 15 sec
Chains of Light: 20 sec
Binding Blade: 30 sec
Ring of Warding: 40 sec
Line of Warding: 40 sec
Judge’s Intervention: 45 sec
Hammer of Wisdom: 45 sec

^Note all of these are untraited. Some of them can be reduced even further with traits. That’s a potential crapload of gap closers on any two weaponsets you choose. That’s also ignoring skills that grant swiftness (Symbol of Swiftness, Save Yourselves or Retreat which has a really long duration), ignoring easy CC removal for snares, ignoring multiple ways to access stability, and ignoring skills that have greater than melee range (which sword, scepter, focus, staff and torch all have), and all the defense against ranged characters you have if they happen to be attacking you.

All the while you can also hit hard with good survivability and great group support. Guild Wars 2 is not about permanently CCing your target. Sorry. Your opponent is going to have some time to react.

I really, really, really don’t see the problem dealing with ranged characters, unless you just have trouble sticking on a target — in which case you can always resort to melee assist option.

I 100% agree with this.

Yes, it would be nice to have a faster auto attack on the scepter, but we are by far not disadvantaged in ranged combat except specifically during a siege. Even then though, we have many options available to us to still remain useful, it just might not be what you want. I feel like most of these people that think we need a big change to our ranged capabilities don’t understand the profession fully.

Nearly everywhere. I use it in conjunction with Save Yourselves and Retreat! when I am traversing large amount of ground frequently. Like in WvW, or Zerging events in end-game zones. Sometimes SoS will stack onto it, other times it will turn 27 seconds left into 2 seconds left and fall off entirely.

I don’t know of a free recording program, but if anyone does, i would be glad to record a video compilation to help illustrate what i am saying.

Teleport skills at launch, were insanely OP. If you could target it, no matter the object in the way, or height difference, it would take you there. This led to many people using them to bypass terrain obstacles that weren’t designed to be bypassed. ANet took a quick and silent nerfbat to all of them before headstart was even over. The end result is our very limited gap closers you have today.

This. And also, SoS seesm to have inconsistency issues with stacking the swiftness boon. Sometimes it works, other times it refreshes the boon icon’s duration bar, but doesn’t actually add any time to the boon.

This reeks of being an exploit, not a feature. Personally, if I encountered someone doing this in game, i would report it.

I’m curious, how do people access the internet with no power?

I believe you are confusing acronyms, which have always been a valid form of conveyance, with plain old butchering of words that are already incredibly short.

I would also reply to help you out as per your request, instead I’m going to help you narrow down the replies you received in this thread as to which ones are going to be more useful.

Rabbit’s is brief and to the point, but will lack in-depth information if that’s something you want.

Dulfy’s is excellent. She is an amazing contributor to the gaming community in general, and will not disappoint.

Eveningstar herself is an exceptionally helpful and well informed person that also will not lead you astray.

My recommendation is to take your pick out of those 3. In my opinion you really lucked out by getting both dulfy and eveningstar in this thread =P

I can’t believe people actually expect these things.

I live in Florida, we get hammered with hurricanes and tropical storms/depressions all the time. It’s not the end of the world. No power for 7-10 days? Our power companies here can have everything back up and running in less than 36 hours on the worst of storms. That surely can’t be a realistic estimate.

It’s also not ArenaNet’s fault you might or might not miss the event due to a natural disaster. It’s just a game. Deal with it.

5 in Virtues is perhaps the best utilization of any 5 points in any guardian build in the entire tree. Seriously. You get more out of that than you will anything else. If you’re not, you’re probably not using your F skills like you should be, in which case, your not playing the Guardian to it’s fullest potential.

And people aren’t helping you because you came across as an kitten straight away in your post.

Nageth.5648:

fractalKinesis.8569:

Nageth.5648:

I was super annoyed that Sieran went and offed herself.

Yeah, what was up with that? How effective could that possibly have been?
Stupid, pointless… and completely expected. Anet always does this, in every story they make. It doesn’t feel epic or tragic. It feels entirely predictable and trite.

I really want to use that Amulet of Balthazar and wreck up more zombies though.

It was more how her combat ability was only slightly better than Trahearne’s. She probably lasted all of 5 seconds after that door closed.

I was able to rez her through the door. Nothing killed her a second time. I thought i had circumvented losing her, but nope.

Would be nice to know.

ditto on the sylvari guardian.

Don’t get attached to anyone, unless it’s Treehorn. You have been warned.

Wait what…we got a kitten hurricane coming or something? Goes to weather station

Oh THAT? You said the east coast, not the north east. Scared me, lol.

ANet has stated, I believe, that they actually don’t want people to be able to group up as a coordinated team against what is most assuredly a group of PuG’s as the opponent.

I think a better way to have handled this would be for the cinematic to cue for everyone the first time they log on, regardless of where they are in the game world. This way, everyone gets to experience it, and it doesn’t get repeated.

Doug.9628:

Angry Juju.1624:

Jrunyon.3012:

Its completely up to you whether you spend money anymore. I dont know why this post warrants a whole thread to itself?

He wants his post to be seen. His point doesn’t warrant an entire thread to itself, he just wants it to.

And the only thing that I think ANet should have improved upon for this event is say that there would be “A small chance” for a skin rather than “A chance”

There is a reason lottery tickets and casinos don’t state the odds on their games when you play them. Figure out how much you are willing to spend and spend it. Welcome to the real world.

Getting pretty far off topic, but I wanted to correct you. Casino’s and lottery tickets DO state the odds of winning. In fact, it’s required by law.

Angry Juju.1624:

Because there probably is already a title for doing all of the jumping puzzles, why would they add another one for a single jumping puzzle?

Well, it’s a pretty special JP. But I don’t agree that means it should have a title. To answer the OP, it’s an age of casuals in the gaming community. They are largely the majority, so it’s expected that they will be catered to on a larger percentage of the time than the more dedicated gamers.

Jrunyon.3012:

Its completely up to you whether you spend money anymore. I dont know why this post warrants a whole thread to itself?

I was hoping to get a message across to some of the playerbase that feels they need to complain non-stop about their dissatisfaction. Rather than having it drowned out amongst a river of back and forth arguments in another thread, I wanted it to be seen, if even briefly, in hopes it will have an impact on just a few. That’s all. I fully expect it to be merged in the near future and drowned out entirely. Until then.

midnight tea.3681:

Small, localized boycotts = Nothing changes.

Large, organized whinefest = Mass Effect 3 gets new endings.

Whining is the future.

This may be (sadly) true. But at the end of the day, I’ll feel a whole lot better about myself based on how I chose to approach the matter. If results require people to stoop to those levels of degradation, I’d rather have no results at all.

But rather than piss moan and groan, I’m just not going to spend any money in the future. I suggest everyone feeling the same react in a similar manner. Being vocal doesn’t seem to get anyone very far.

Either the complainers aren’t presenting their complaints in a respectable way, or they are getting drowned out by equally disrespectable fanatics. Neither approach leads to anything productive.

So let your wallets talk. If it’s as big of an issue as some of us think, that will garner the attention of the decision makers faster than 1,000 threads of back and forth bickering. If not, life goes on.

I feel ripped off as well, but rather than complain vocally, I’m just not going to spend any more money. It’s the only solution I feel comfortable with.

Balkor.2197:

Where did they say that?

Mod deleted his post.

My brother got 17 exotics from the Labyrinth in a few hours. By the time i got off work, nothing but blues and greens. Such is life =(

This freaking thing is impossibly hard. Been at it for 7 hours now.

Pay to get an advantage. I’m not really surprised. Cue someone saying you can buy gems with in-game gold.

I hope something is done to cater to everyone. Or at least an attempt to do so.

GreyFeathers.8175:

Honestly enough of the whinning already I’m really tired of the " gimmie " attitude and entitlement views of so many of these gamers. Can we get a moderator to bundle all of these into one thread so those who wish to complain can go to thread A and the rest of us can stop having to shift through all these whinning and worthless posts and actually discuss the game.

What’s funny is if you tag these posts where person " x " is complaining about not having the godly gear or items they’re also soon complaining about being bored because there is nothing to do either.

In all seriousness though I know I’m not the only one tired of the negative and whinning posts. Anyone else agree or do you all enjoy the drama here ? I’d rather have some good discussions or debates about things and get back to my gaming instead of shifting through what posts may or may not even be worthy of being here.

And your whining about people whining, which is worse. No one is forcing you to read these threads. Even better, no one is forcing you to comment in them either. Customer’s are not satisfied, and are expressing their dissatisfactions. It’s up to ANet to determine whether they are being unreasonable or not. If you do not feel the same as them, good for you, move along, as it has nothing to do with you.

Plant Wolf belongs in A Tier. He is often mistaken for a ranger pet, and his 1 attack is so darn quick. I got 50 Brawler Crowns in 15 minutes with him.

@samrogan: This is what I did. Spent $20 on keys, opened chests, was disappointed, put my wallet away. That still doesn’t make me feel any better about the shady business tactics involved here. ANet hyped up the BLC for halloween, but never posted the actual odds of obtaining the items everyone was hoping to get. IMO, this is where they made their biggest mistake. Be honest and upfront with your customers, that’s all.

I would like to know as well about the Halloween Events bar.

For the goggles. They don’t last very long, so don’t delay after using them. And be sure to perform a spin/roll type dive on your way down by pressing either the 1 or 2 keys. You get a temporary hotbar change when falling with the goggles equipped.

@ DumpTruck (quotes broken)

On the internet, it’s more like “Do unto others before they do unto you.”

I’m glad they attempted to rectify the situation. But they failed. I’m no stranger to “packs”, hell I played Perfect World and spent over $10,000 there over a few years. ANet needs to take lessons from more experienced cash shop models. I won’t be spending any more money on ANet unless some drastic changes occur.

I assume they are supposed to be under the Witch’s outfit, but it’s just a blank slate for me. I would really like to be able to get the event item =\

plasmacutter.2709:

Bobobejumbo.4951:

plasmacutter.2709:

Bobobejumbo.4951:

plasmacutter.2709:

Bobobejumbo.4951:

I’m slowly losing faith in ANet. All my friends have already left the game (before this patch). I was really hoping for more from this company.

Hopefully they didn’t go back to wow.. anyone who can go back to wow after gw2 has cognitive problems.

Nope, they are just kind of in limbo, playing a single player title here and there for a few days before dropping it.

I predict they’ll eventually return. I’m not giving ANet gems until greatsword is brought back to snuff for support (I don’t care about pvp nerfs), but I’m not leaving the game.

Most of them only care about PvP. I doubt they will return. This isn’t a group of kids, it’s a group of seasoned gamers who were really disappointed by this title.

They’re “seasoned gamers” but won’t give an MMO dev 6 months to get the initial balance in place (public betas consisted of what, 3 days?). These guys seem like a “bunch of kids” to me.

That’s your opinion. I have no interest in debating the maturity level of grown adults, who know when they do and don’t like something, with you.

plasmacutter.2709:

Bobobejumbo.4951:

plasmacutter.2709:

Bobobejumbo.4951:

I’m slowly losing faith in ANet. All my friends have already left the game (before this patch). I was really hoping for more from this company.

Hopefully they didn’t go back to wow.. anyone who can go back to wow after gw2 has cognitive problems.

Nope, they are just kind of in limbo, playing a single player title here and there for a few days before dropping it.

I predict they’ll eventually return. I’m not giving ANet gems until greatsword is brought back to snuff for support (I don’t care about pvp nerfs), but I’m not leaving the game.

Most of them only care about PvP. I doubt they will return. This isn’t a group of kids, it’s a group of seasoned gamers who were really disappointed by this title.

plasmacutter.2709:

Bobobejumbo.4951:

I’m slowly losing faith in ANet. All my friends have already left the game (before this patch). I was really hoping for more from this company.

Hopefully they didn’t go back to wow.. anyone who can go back to wow after gw2 has cognitive problems.

Nope, they are just kind of in limbo, playing a single player title here and there for a few days before dropping it.

Is that right? I must have misread them. I thought weapon skins came from chests and shoulder skins came from crafting.

Donate your life savings to keys, and then cross your fingers.

TheLordQ.1857:

Can we get a confirm that it IS working now? I just used $10 worth of keys and got no halloween items. Thank you.

Working as intended apparently.