Guild Wars 2

Zypher.7609:

Chaith.8256:

You’re traited for power wrench btw.

Even with tank stats the Holosmith will move from a glass cannon a little bit up the spectrum to a balanced fighter or bruiser. There is no tank.

Also the stab and barrier on corona burst is way more survivable than super speed. Alchemy way more survivable than tools.. Idk what you’re trying to do really

I have not had a chance to try anything out yet just theory crafting about a tank build. Since there has not been any mention so far in postings about using the Holosmith to tank.

I enjoy using shields and was hoping to find a build that would mesh well with it rather than going the sword/pistol route.

Sadly, the shield is still pretty weak due to the long cooldowns. Scrapper with hammer is much more defensive overall.

The devs seem to have something against the shield in this game. It’s a mediocre weapon with niche usefulness for pretty much every class that can use it.

Bleh, it’s hard to tell. Holo doesn’t look ideal for either pure condi or pure power, so maybe the new Grieving stats could be good?

There’s really not much condi on the holo-specific stuff, such as the sword mainhand and the heat mechanics will likely favor attacking with a sword to generate heat instead of using kits, which are the main source of condis.

However, a pure damage build will probably end up going Firearms, regardless of stats since Inventions, Alchemy, and Tools don’t contribute much to damage for any stat type.

An invisible glider would totally kitten with me since I’d think that my graphics were lagging every time someone with this flew past me.

As for a cape glider, I think that would be pretty awesome, lol.

DirtyDan.4759:

PS = Phalanx Strength. Deadeye has this trait? No. End of discussion.

You do realize that there were quotes around “PS” for a reason, right?

Anyways, as for the actual discussion itself, I think that the biggest problem with deadeye for a lot of content is that it’s a very single target-based damage spec. Even if you’re not using rifle, the malice mechanic centers around one target. This may be fine for a lot of individual boss fights, but it will probably hamstring the spec a lot in dungeons and other add-based encounters.

However, if the devs do want there to be an alternative might-stacking build for the meta outside of PS, they just need to make sure that PS warriors (or other might stacking builds) don’t deal equivalent DPS to pure DPS classes. This should be fair since it’s the same reason why a Chrono deals low damage.
If they did this, you could still cover banners by bringing a higher damage build of a warrior to the group for something closer to a pure DPS role and just have them drop banners.

Odokuro.5049:

Does anyone else feel uneasy playing a toon of the opposite gender, I do.

I’m a guy, and even though most female toons are more pleasing on the eye to look at, playing one just makes me feel, “Strange”, not to mention the countless guys hitting on my toon, only to find out I’m a guy, and calling me well, some unpleasant names to say the least.

Like I want to make a female norn warrior, because I don’t like how the male norn’s torso seems to be shorter on one side than the other, lol.

Nope. I play characters of both genders. I play some characters that vaguely share some features similar to me and I play some that look wildly different. That’s half the fun of being able to choose your own avatar in a game.

TheUndefined.1720:

• I paid for the HoT / PoF bundle, which was 50$, so HoT was 20$. I really think that price is a fair price for what I got out of the game. The most I’d pay for this game would probably be 30$, so I do think I got a deal. The pricing for PoF (30$) seems like a good choice as well. The initial high price of HoT was one factor I didn’t buy it the first go around.

Stuff like this really confuses me. I mean, considering how much play you get out of an MMO like this with no sub fee should make this a very good buy for the price, particularly when you compare the amount of gameplay you get from other AAA game titles that sell for $60.

This comment really isn’t entirely meant in response to the OP since I’ve seen a lot of people with the same opinion. It also isn’t a judgement against people who don’t believe that an expansion of an MMO is worth $60. I really mean this as more of an observation.

And I think this is kind of emblematic of why the MMO genre is fading out (at least in NA). There’s some very high expectations for content that takes a lot of development resources to produce.

I love snowy maps.

Sandy maps? Not so much.

Skuzz.6580:

Longbow just does not work well with melee weapons in a competitive environment (it has its uses in WvW and Open World of course) simply because when in close proximity for your ‘main’ weapon set, swapping to Longbow (which requires max range to be even close to ‘competitive damage wise’) is just a DPS loss.
If they got rid of the damage numbers on ranges and just made it do its top damage at all ranges then it could be viable, but as is it is just counter productive.

I honestly think Soulbeast is going to be the wet dream for melee/medium ranged rangers, and we will probably have to wait for a next expansion to get a proper ranged elite spec.

I really hope they implement new weapons next expansion that we have never seen before. A throwing spear weapon would be so awesome honestly! Amazon being the Elite spec name

Autoattack is the only ability on the longbow that increases damage-wise from range.

Definitely chrono. Back when I raided, I could never play anything but chrono since I had one that was geared and I played it well enough. However, I never found the profession particularly fun.

Nowadays, since I’m not in the same guild any longer, I try to pretend like I don’t have a chrono, lol.

Dadnir.5038:

I believe that the soulbeast have already the tools to be as competive at range than he will be at melee range.

However, when it come to the debate about range damage, the reality is not that the longbow is bad or anything but that in high end PvE it’s better to have everyone close together so that everyone benefit from all buff. Having a profession that do inately more damage at range than the others can only be a bad thing for this profession since it would promote a gameplay that put this profession far away from it’s group, losing large part of the teamplay.

This way it’s better to have a longbow that have the reputation to be an underperforming weapon since it promote a gameplay where the ranger is close from it’s teammate, sharing and receiving buff instead of the gameplay of a lone wolf that just cower away from the fight, without receiving any benefit from it’s teammate nor giving anything.

From the point of view of most non ranger, a ranger that like to camp or even use longbow in group content, is a ranger that is super anoying to have as teammate. That’s mainly due to their habit to use the knockback on cool down. No ranger will ever be able to remove this bad image of the longbow on other player view because there will always be rangers that will abuse this kitten skill ruining the game experience of other players.

It’s better that the longbow do not perform to well due to that.

Yea, but I think they can still have longbow as a meta-viable weapon without making it a ranged spec. So long as the longbow auto attack hits like a wet noodle, you’ll never want to camp a longbow at range. However, if Rapid Fire and Barrage are strong enough, it could be worth swapping off your melee weapon to use those skills and then swap back immediately.

This gives the longbow flavor while preserving the high risk melee play style.

Kreed.2768:

Anela.3867:

I agree. I love my long bow and since we are Rangers, you would think that would be the main focus.

Ranger =/= ranged.

The term ranger doesn’t mean someone who focuses on the use of ranged weapons, so that’s not a valid enough reason to think the class should be focused around bows.

We don’t need to spiral into the same debate that’s gone on in this subforum since the dawn of time. Yes, the word ranger doesn’t imply ranged dps, but it’s also still true that the art and marketting of the ranger class in GW2, along with one of the trait lines (marksmanship) imply that using a bow is a core part of the class identity.

Before I get into this, I’ll admit that I haven’t followed a lot of Soulbeast stuff too closely, but from what I’ve seen so far, it looks like it’s possible that a power Soulbeast build could be good enough to be meta in PvE with the PoF release.

If this happens, I really hope that there’s a build that will make use of the longbow. Of course, I don’t expect this to be a build that camps longbow, but I could see it being a weapon that’s at least swapped to for Rapid Fire/Barrage and then swapped off of after.

It’s clear that ANet never want to balance this weapon to outpace a melee weaponset, despite how much they’ve stylized the class behind the use of a bow. However, I’m still dreaming of a day when a ranger running with a longbow is considered strong, even if they spend most of their time using a sword or greatsword.

Krispera.5087:

Dahkeus.8243:

Krispera.5087:

If you have no arguments and have no constructive answers, then you can go derail somewhere else or go back under the bridge you come from.

Your post is built on such a flimsy, ridiculous premise that there’s nothing really constructive to answer with.

If it is so, don’t participate. You brought nothing.

Dahkeus.8243:

Your list of similarities doesn’t matter when there’s an even longer list of differences that matter even more.

What are those long list of differences ? That matter more ? I’m here talking strictly about traits and skills that are similar.

You wanted me to talk about Grace of the Land, Frost and Sun spirit ? (Which are the only things left, with the coming of PoF, that will make Ranger meta in Raids) When they have nothing to do with it ? You want me to talk about Alacrity from Renegade then ?

If you see no problem with Crossfire needing to flank to get 3 secs of bleed and that Shattershot does it without flanking… Good, then the discussion doesn’t matter to you.

Dahkeus.8243:

You’re also arguing for one of the strongest weapons in the PvE meta for the class.

Oh yes, the weapon that you only use when Axe/Torch is on cooldown as an afterthought. LoyF, the SBow trait, not even traited ! Sure, leave it that way.

Again, brought nothing to the discussion, but snarky comments. Easier to brush off something than coming with something.

If you have information, because it seems I clearly don’t get it, by your tone and comments, then be happy to share it with us.

You’re having a lot of trouble understanding, but instead of talking anymore about the trees, let’s take a step back, because you’ve lost perspective of the forest.

GW2 is an MMO. It’s not chess or checkers, so balance is never entirely about what is “fair”. Making sure that things aren’t too unfair is a part of balance, but it’s not what it’s all about.

Classes/professions in MMOs are supposed to be distinct. This is part of what makes those classes appealing to players and part of what makes the game fun. This is at the heart of why balance in MMOs will never be entirely fair. To some degree, you can keep things fair by having different classes fill distinct roles, similar to how a rook is different than a knight in chess, but sometimes that’s thrown out the window in favor of making something fun.

Maintaining the distinct differences to classes not only allows for customization that fits the theme of a class, but it also keeps the experience of playing a character feeling new when a player switches from one character to another. This is why it’s good game design to give one character a skill that works differently on one class than a similar one does on another, even when theme isn’t a direct tie.

So, there’s no reason for developers to judge the mechanics of one class based on another class. To some degree, they will of course always judge the performance across classes, but they will always want to obtain relatively comparable performance between classes with different methods.

And this is why a revenant’s bow skills are not apples to apples with a ranger bow skills. They are different for a reason. So long as a ranger’s bow skills are good enough for a ranger to use a bow and be viable, balance is not needed for those skills. If those bow skills are not good enough to be viable, they will need to be adjusted, but they should still be different than the bow skills of other classes, mechanically and stylistically.

Classes are designed from the base up to be apples to oranges.

If you don’t think that short bow skills are strong enough, I may still disagree with you, but it’s not as laughably ludicrous as saying that a ranger’s short bow is “apples to apples” with a revenant.

Unfortunately, you won’t find much synergy with these weapons. The longbow is a weapon without any damaging conditions, so it benefits the most from power stats (power and ferocity), whereas the short bow gets most of its damage from the bleeds and poison it causes. Because of this, condition damage stats are best for the weapon (condition damage and expertise). Builds tend to be best when they either focus on power or condition damage.

As for what is best, I would ask what your goals are with the game. If you’re looking to find a class that holds its own for most of the casual content, you’ll do just fine with either bow on a ranger.

However, in the current end game content where players tend to use “meta” builds that maximize performance, you won’t see a lot of use for the ranger longbow because of its lower damage. The short bow, on the other hand, is still utilized along with axe/torch on many PvE focused builds.

If you’re looking to find a class that focuses a lot on the bow, I would suggest:
Ranger
– For reasons mentioned above
Warrior
– There are some good condition builds in PvE
Guardian
– with the Dragonhunter elite spec unlocked in the HoT expansion, this class can use a longbow and performs well in PvP
Revenant
– In the expansion releasing in less than a month, there will be a new elite spec called Renegade that will give the profession the ability to use the short bow.

With all that being said, it’s hard to say exactly what will perform well in the near future since the release of the new elite specs in the PoF expansion will inevitably shake things up. Still, all the options above should be worth considering. Thief is the only bow-wielding class that I would advocate avoiding if you actually want to use a bow. This is because the bow on that class tends to be a secondary, utility weapon that is only swapped to for short periods of time.

Krispera.5087:

If you have no arguments and have no constructive answers, then you can go derail somewhere else or go back under the bridge you come from.

Your post is built on such a flimsy, ridiculous premise that there’s nothing really constructive to answer with.

Your list of similarities doesn’t matter when there’s an even longer list of differences that matter even more.

You’re also arguing for one of the strongest weapons in the PvE meta for the class.

Snowywonders.1378:

You didnt really address the fact that there’s energy costs and that rev sb doesnt really have defense. You’re comparing a single weapon that each have different advantages in different game modes. Also, one is an elite spec weapon, deliberately stronger than core weapons. Your post fails.

APPLES TO APPLES!

APPLES TO APPLES!!!!

@ TheOneWhoSighs.7513

I think we’ve gone about as far as can be productive. You seem pretty set in believing that all of the internet is the same as you and if you think that my opinion just encourages you to try even harder to be a jerk to others, then all I can do is shake my head and move on, because you’re obviously not my target audience if so.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Dahkeus.8243:

You keep making this comparison of people doing kittenty things in video games to mosh pits, but that logic doesn’t hold up. You don’t go into a mosh pit if you don’t want to get hit because the sole purpose of a mosh pit is for people to flail around wildly.

Video games, and for a more specific example, WvW, aren’t designed to be places where people talk kitten to each other. Sure, it happens sometimes, but that’s not directly tied to the experience they are based on.

Allow me to explain why the mosh pit example holds up.

1. The internet is a place where people go to be themselves. Wholesale. That’s it. We hang out with like minded people. We listen to videos that we like or agree with, some of us listen to videos we disagree with for either enjoyment, argument, or for any number of reasons.

The mosh pit, is the internet.

If you go onto the internet, and aren’t 100% expecting & knowing that you’ll bump into something that you don’t like, you’re an idiot.

Just like a mosh pit. If you go into a mosh pit, and aren’t 100% expecting & knowing you’ll have people bump into you, you’re an idiot.

2. Online video games are on the internet.

Thus is why I tried to explain that what is being attempted is to cordon off (section off) a portion of this mosh pit (the internet).

Unfortunately, you’re taking up too much of the freaking pit. Maybe make your home a bit smaller. You know, like a discord server that has rules against saying the R word.

Sorry to tell you this, but the mosh pit analogy is perfect. It’s exactly what the internet is, and you’re consenting to being bumped into (note: Not attacked, just bumped into) every time you hop on the internet. Whether that be in a video game or otherwise.

I’m not an kitten if I bump into you, it’s expected here.

Here’s where your example doesn’t hold up:

1)
No one here doesn’t expect to not run into trolls. However, just because you expect to encounter people acting like jerks doesn’t mean that you can’t say something against it. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t say something against it. And saying something against it does make a difference, even though it won’t make the problem go away entirely.

But regardless of the medium of interaction, we are still human beings and we should expect people to be respectful with each other to some degree, even if disrespect is inevitable. Just because the degree of disrespect on the internet is greater doesn’t mean that disrespect is suddenly justified.

That freedom also cuts both ways. People are free to act like trolls, jerks, etc. People are also free to not act that way and speak in opposition to those actions. Opinions are expressed freely here, regardless of how taboo or conservative they may be.

And just because some people act some ways on the internet doesn’t mean everyone has to act that way. The internet has everyone, from 4-channers who spend their days drawing kittens on My Little Ponies to scholars who dedicate endless hours vetting the etymology of ants on Wikipedia pages.

The existence of the vocal and offensive does not define the silent and agreeable.

You may see more of one side of the internet, just because that’s where you dedicate most of your time, but that doesn’t mean that this is what the internet is in its entirety, nor even its majority.

2)
Video games may be on the internet, a place where some people act like jerks sometimes, but that doesn’t mean for the act of being a jerk.

Video games are designed for people to be able to play video games.

That’s it.

The community that inhabits a game are the effect of the game, not the cause of the game.

Mosh pits are designed for moshing. Video games are designed for gaming.

Your comparison works better with a bad neighborhood. There’s lots of violence in really rough neighborhoods and people going to those neighborhoods should expect that violence because of it’s prevalence.

Faux Play.6104:

AmberUK.5380:

Come on guys its 2017, and we are trying to get women gaming aren’t we? So is is the R word still used in WvW? I don’t see how it has a place in GW2 in 2017. Its not used often but its still about, please can it just go?

Thanks
A moo

The term I’m thinking about isn’t exclusive to women. What about guys that spent time in jail, or played football at Penn state?

Same goes for them. Yea, most people think of women as the ones affected by this, but there’s certainly plenty of guys who’ve been through this as well.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Why tell people to refrain, when you could just cordon off a section where refraining is the rule?

I just won’t go to that section outside of accident, unless that section is taking up the whole mosh pit.

Because people who have trouble with the r word can still enjoy video games and may actually want to interact with other people who enjoy video games too?

This isn’t some situation where all people that don’t like the R word are so allergic to it that they can’t be around any platform where it may be mentioned to any extent. It just sucks when it is said.

You keep making this comparison of people doing kittenty things in video games to mosh pits, but that logic doesn’t hold up. You don’t go into a mosh pit if you don’t want to get hit because the sole purpose of a mosh pit is for people to flail around wildly.

Video games, and for a more specific example, WvW, aren’t designed to be places where people talk kitten to each other. Sure, it happens sometimes, but that’s not directly tied to the experience they are based on.

And sure, there will always be trolls who will explicity aim to be as offensive as possible that will use places like video games as their outlet. No one expects that to ever go away.

However, all kinds of people PvP, kittens and gentlemen alike. Talking about this subject won’t solve the issue, but if a few people can listen and think to themselves “Hmm, maybe if I say ‘I kittening owned them’ instead of ‘I kittening r-ed them’, then I can still express myself without making someone else’s experience suck.”, then that’s the whole point of this.

Krispera.5087:

Before you say ‘’apples and orange’‘s. No, it’s apples and apples.

Lol! Thank you for this. I needed a good laugh today.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Dahkeus.8243:

Does it really matter if it makes sense to you? Is it really as hard to try and not use that word as it is to eliminate all references to guns and knives?

Yes, actually. In fact, it’s harder.
You can’t get rid of a word on the internet.

The internet is a mosh pit. You’re trying to cordon off a section of that mosh pit and say “You’re not allowed to mosh here”.

For that, I wish you good luck.

Personally, I’ma keep moshing. And if you get bumped into, you knew the risks.

However, if someone in the mosh pit goes out of their way after bumping into you to attack you, feel free to call the authorities.

Nobody likes moshing with those types anyway.

You don’t need to erase the word from the internet. It’s really just asking individuals to refrain from using the word when talking to groups of people that could involve those who are affected by it.

You’ll never stop everyone from using the word everywhere. I mean, people still use the N word and it’s 2017. However, we’ve reduced the use of that word a lot.

There seems to be this mentality that if you can’t make everything absolutely perfect anywhere, then there’s no point in doing anything. However, this is about making things better, not perfect.

Sure, there’s trolls out there who don’t give a kitten about anyone but themselves. There’s people out there who will choose whatever rationality is most convenient for their own personal experiences and perspectives.

But there’s also people out there who are open to seeing the world through more than just their own perspective. It’s those people that this message is intended for. It’s because good intentions only go so far without experience and knowledge to guide those good intentions to result in good outcomes.

New page bug

Zefiris.8297:

In WoW, you used to have similar mandatory buffs that meant some classes were always taken, while others never were.

The solution there was spreading the buffs around.

Yea, the druid is really like Shaman in early WoW days when they were the only ones who brought Bloodlust.

WoW solved this by giving the Bloodlust buff to other classes, but right now the buffs druid bring are exclusive to that spec and stack on top of whatever other classes bring.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Dahkeus.8243:

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

xikira.3264:

being forced to read it as an off hand joke.

I too cringe at the idea of strapping a person to a chair, taping their eyelids open, using a holster to keep their head still, and forcing them to recite line for line jokes about the R word.

Thankfully that doesn’t generally happen, and it’s just some easily ignorable text on the bottom left of the screen that can even be turned off.

Yea, it’s pretty easy to ignore when it’s never happened to you.

Oh, look who’s making assumptions about people.

And it’s not even me.

You’re telling me to tip toe around victims that, frankly, might not even be there at the moment.

Because you don’t believe they have the mental strength to handle a joke.

You’re victimizing them twice with your condescending virtue signaling.

And believe me, that’s ALL you’re doing. Trying to appear virtuous over something that is so trivial to avoid a 5 year old could figure it out.

Hint: Don’t disable the in game profanity filter. Or just turn chat off altogether.

I actually recommend the latter, chat is often full of stupid people anyway.

No, I think you may have misunderstood me.

I’m not saying that everyone who has been sexually assaulted handles it the same, nor that they are weak or anything of the sort.

My point is that people handle things differently. Some people have been assaulted, but have no problem with the r word or with jokes related to it. However, for some people, it has a very strong affect.

And to be affected in this way doesn’t mean that these people are weak or lack mental strength or anything like that.

We all have our breaking points. “Thick skin” is rarely as simple as the term implies. Some people handle stress and trauma by wearing a thick skin persona, but take out their anguish in other ways (drinking, outbursts at seemingly unrelated events, or simply by expressing this when alone). Other people may react more directly to things that remind them of their past.

And really, regardless of how someone handles this, they’re still just as deserving of respect and common decency regardless. Unless someone’s trying to harm you, why should they be treated them as any less of a person?

I also don’t mean this as any attack against you personally either. I guess I came across a bit snarky with that first sentence I use, so I apologize if that set me off on the wrong foot.

I don’t know you and I don’t know what you’ve been through. However, whether you’ve experienced anything like this or not doesn’t mean that you’re unable to have a valid opinion on the matter. I only ask that you take your own perspective as one of many available.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

xikira.3264:

being forced to read it as an off hand joke.

I too cringe at the idea of strapping a person to a chair, taping their eyelids open, using a holster to keep their head still, and forcing them to recite line for line jokes about the R word.

Thankfully that doesn’t generally happen, and it’s just some easily ignorable text on the bottom left of the screen that can even be turned off.

Yea, it’s pretty easy to ignore when it’s never happened to you.

For victims, unfortunately, that’s not really the case. You can’t block someone until after you’ve read that they posted it.

But really, why are people so kittening resistant to just not using this word? Is it really that big of a deal to people?

There’s lots of different people in this world. We’ve been through different circumstances, we have different perspectives, and we often react to things differently.

If the only thing you would need to do in order to prevent someone from unwillingly being reminded of a traumatic experience in their life is to just try not to reference sexual assault when you play a video game, is that such a big sacrifice?

And yea, there is a point where we can’t accommodate everything. We can’t anticipate everyone’s needs and there’s a limit to what we should be willing to change for ourselves vs what others need to change for themselves.

But is it really so bad to try and change this one little word? I mean, if it slips, it slips. Apologize if someone’s hurt and move on. This really doesn’t need to be some big deal.

Eh, I agree with OP in that I preferred having time to mess around and continue fighting people if I wanted. I’ve never really been the type of person that needed to teabag opponents or gloat after a win, so that may be why I’m not too impressed by the change.
But either way, it’s no big deal.

Because of how boon and buff sharing works, scaling with players is very complex.

Well, until HoT launches:

http://justflipacoin.com/

If heads, it’s a power meta.
If tails, it’s a condi meta.

But then again…maybe one of the new armor stat combos will give us will be OP and some power/condi hybrid will be meta.

I’d love to see the meta change, but the devs seem to absolutely love it way too much. The meta pretty much hasn’t significantly changed since launch. There’s been some small shifts with a few classes moving in and out of the meta, but it’s been all about chrono-PS-druid since the first days where players figured out the best group comps.

Sadly, from what I’ve seen, I don’t expect much to change with PoF unless there is some really major changes to the new elite specs between now and then. And this is pretty unfortunate, because they’re really pushing players to burnout with this.

Maybe the devs want to prevent really radical changes so that players who quit and come back won’t have too much trouble readjusting, but that doesn’t do much good if you’re encouraging the quitting with burnout in the first place. (Source: I quit from burnout and recently returned)

It depends…
It depends on what you play: Do you PvP? WvW? Fractals/Raids? Do you care about the meta?
It depends on whether you’re going condi or power: Pistol offhand only works with pistol mainhand as condi. Otherwise, you might as well just use a shield.
It depends on what changes: If we get heat generation for our other weapons, then rifle may end up being better than sword, even for power builds.

I like the ground aura idea. However, that’s largely because of how much I dislike the current aura.

Vicariuz.1605:

So is this officially a dead game mode or what? The rating give away ur system just gave me is nothing short of astonishing, +6 for a 4v5 win -16 to -18 for putting silvers on my team against top 25 duos. I’ll be passing the word on to a few connected friends about the current state of this game.

Enjoy the articles

Pretty much the forum equivalent of the rich kid shouting “JUST WAIT UNTIL MY DADDY HEARS ABOUT THIS!”

ellesee.8297:

Buran.3796:

ellesee.8297:

And you know what Blade and Soul has! Weekly tournaments! World championships! TV broadcasts! Just goes to show what a game can accomplish when you have devs who are worth a doot! The game mode helps too! What a surprise the arena game mode makes MMO PvP fun and competitive with the possibility of esportz! Who woulda thunk it! If only someone, or many someones, could have suggested it on these 4ums!

Ah well what’s past is past my frands! I hope you all have a great time playing Guild Warts 2. I’m sure it’s still a gr8 game.

haHAA

I oftenly check the numbers of GW2, ESO, BDO and Blade & Souls on Twitch.tv and all of then had pretty much the same crappy audience, at parsecs of distance from any remotely popular esport game (Counter, Overwatch, LoL, Dota…). Your little snowflake is as relevant and popular as GW2; is the same pulpy, undernourished dog with different collar…

Oh you are silly! Why would you say something that can be objectively proven false! It’s true, normal strims get only a little more views than Guild Warts! But we are talking about PvP! The tournaments in Blade and Soul attract way more numbers than the tournaments in Guild Warts! Wait, there are no tournaments in Guild Warts!

https://sullygnome.com/Game/Guild_Wars_2
https://sullygnome.com/Game/Blade_and_Soul

Look at that spike! 10000 viewers for a small weekly tournament! I wonder how many viewers the worlds tournament will have later this year!

A little cold water for the super fanboyism:
https://mmos.com/editorials/blade-and-souls-fading-esports-dream

Bumpin’ since we’re still on the lookout!

Bumpin’ in search of a place to call home!

Hi Mireles,

After looking over everything, I don’t think your guild would be quite the fit we’re looking for, but I appreciate the response. =)

Hey, Dahkeus here. We’re still on the lookout for a new place to call home. If you have any questions, feel free to let us know!

NikeEU.7690:

maddoctor.2738:

Obtena.7952:

No, they should not balance around the best comp for lots of reasons, including for the very reason this thread is complaining about; lack of diversity.

I was wondering, on which comp do they balance the game?

That’s easy. Take the boss HP, divide by seconds in enrage timer, divide by 10. That should give you an idea of what sort of comp the devs consider baseline.

Technically, sure, but that DPS value doesn’t really make sense considering boss mechanics that completely stop DPS:

VG – Split phases
Gorseval – Add phases and World Eater means you either need to have significantly above enrage DPS or need to factor in DPS stops on glide phases
Sabetha – Secondary bosses and loss of a DPS person to take out cannons.
Sloth – Break phases and loss of DPS character for slub
Bandit Trio – Time between bosses appearing
Matthias – Sacrifices
Escort – Escorting, lol
KC – This fight is really just a set of burst phases made available if you get the mechanics right.
Xera – kittening mini games, lol

In other words, there’s no boss fight where this math really plays out.

However, this does show that mechanics make a major impact on success, which is why the whole meta vs non-meta dichotomy is kittening stupid.

A group that nails mechanics perfectly will easily down a boss with terrible builds or great builds with terrible DPS rotations.

A group that plays perfect builds with perfect rotations will still wipe if they don’t pull off mechanics.

Chris McSwag.4683:

Necro is easy mode

Is necro still pretty decent, even after the minion nerf?

Cal Cohen.3527:

Hesacon.8735:

Cal Cohen.3527:

Funnily enough I mostly played power necro when climbing to legend last season. The build I played is pretty janky, but it was a fun change of pace and ended up being a bit better than I expected.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhZ6kZTocTsbTwdTgeTsgLYQXtAwBgKN0GeWxXxuYYE-TpBFABMcEAA4BAU/+DNcIAEvMABnAAA

Depending on the amount of condi builds on the enemy team I would swap in plague signet, and if the enemy comp was super condi heavy I would swap SR for curses to get the extra plague signet proc as well.

Not trying to say power necro is top tier or anything but it was good enough to win games with and pretty fun to play.

What, no greatsword?

Warhorn and Staff are both so strong that it’s hard to run greatsword

That’s a very optimistic way of saying that Greatsword is so bad off that it’s even inferior for power builds, but it’s nice to see a dev admit it.

I gotta say, I’m surprised that necro GS hasn’t been a giant red flag for the balance team. It’s been a weapon that’s been shown to be a bad decision for every build in every aspect of the game ever since it was released, which is sad considering how much potential it had.

I know the direction for balance has been steady shaves instead of big swings that overcompensate, but this weapon needs something much more than a minor shave to ever see legitimate use.

Ayrilana.1396:

Dahkeus.8243:

Wanna raid in WoW? As long as you’re playing anything but Frost DK or Ele Shaman, you’re good to go (although Brewmaster Monk may also be on that list). However, there is at least one very strong spec on every single class and it’s usually more like 2-3.

Wanna raid in GW2? There’s a short list of builds desired for raids that doesn’t include 2 classes. Oh, and you’ll probably need to have an alt or two because of how much some fights favor one profession that’s dead weight on another fight.

And how many non-meta builds are almost as effective as meta builds?.

That’s still a pretty short list, especially when you consider how many traits and skills are in the game. Sadly, so much of what is given to professions is completely useless or only useful in a small niche of the game.

Ging.6485:

Dahkeus.8243:

Jerus.4350:

Kinda funny when Rev and it’s buffs is still very viable and the profession hardest hit is actually Necro. But, groups of pugs are called grumbles for a reason

Necro is still desired because they still fit so well on certain fights, even if they took a big hit overall.

Rev doesn’t really have any fight that requires or highlights its strengths.

The thing about Rev is, it can provide to the group (on small hit boxes) pretty much exactly what a DH can. Comparable utility and comparable DPS. Add to this, it also has the Boon Duration.

The thing about Boon Duration though is that, with 50% Boon Duration, Chronos could run full zerkers, 1 piece of boon duration food, and the sigil of concentration and everything was fine. With only 33% though and the nerfs to SoI, Chronos now have to run some boon duration gear, and with the crappy DPS Chronos do anyway, you might as well just go 100% self sustain boon duration and replace the Rev with a Thief or Ele for the extra damage.

Rev doesn’t suck, it’s in a difficult place since it’s place in raids was completely reliant on Chronos. The nerf to Chrono however forced an adjustment that doesn’t require Rev, so Rev has to be on the sidelines.

As far as Necro goes, I don’t understand why they nerfed it the way they did. It changes nothing. They lowered a Necro’s personal DPS a little, but Necro’s were never taken for their personal DPS. They were taken because of how Epi works, and because of their survivability and utility… things that are completely in tact. You have made fights slightly longer by nerfing Necro, but nothing changed over all.

Rev definitely doesn’t suck. My guild cleared everything fine last night while running with a rev.

However, it’s not optimal anywhere. Necros are still at least optimal in some fights.

Wanna raid in WoW? As long as you’re playing anything but Frost DK or Ele Shaman, you’re good to go (although Brewmaster Monk may also be on that list). However, there is at least one very strong spec on every single class and it’s usually more like 2-3.

Wanna raid in GW2? There’s a short list of builds desired for raids that doesn’t include 2 classes. Oh, and you’ll probably need to have an alt or two because of how much some fights favor one profession that’s dead weight on another fight.

Jerus.4350:

Kinda funny when Rev and it’s buffs is still very viable and the profession hardest hit is actually Necro. But, groups of pugs are called grumbles for a reason

Necro is still desired because they still fit so well on certain fights, even if they took a big hit overall.

Rev doesn’t really have any fight that requires or highlights its strengths.

Honestly, you’re best off just running like before. The only change you really need to make is to swap your chrono runes for leadership and adjust your gear to hit either 66% boon duration or 100% without a rev (the latter is more likely).

But your rotation is
Get 2-3 phantasms up
While casting Time Warp, cast Continuum Split
Tides of Time
Well of Action
Well of Recall
Sig of Insp
Blurred Frenzy (if 3 phantasms)
End CS and repeat above

coro.3176:

Rocket Boots is an escape. Its “pure” purpose is to get away or reposition. Therefore, it could use something like:

• more distance, faster travel speed
• evade during travel
• clear a condition at the end
• break stun

What it doesn’t need is damage. No engi is using Rocket Boots to intentionally damage opponents as part of a combo. If this is what anet want Rocket Boots to be used for, it’ll have to deal much much more damage than it currently does – like 250% more, not 25%.

It actually used to have a stun break, but for some reason the devs didn’t like this, sadly.

Rocket boots is one of those skills that’s genuinely fun to use, but sadly ANet has a pretty bad track record for making fun skills viable in any sort of meta capacity (looks forlornly at the flamethrower).

phokus.8934:

What were people expecting with the changes to Mesmer? Because it seems like you wanted Mesmer to maintain its current course which we all knew was being nerfed.

Considering how significant the changes were to mesmers, I would have expected a significant increase to DPS. However, the DPS boost was pretty negligible, especially considering how far behind mesmer DPS is.

Yea, this is easily the worst patch we’ve seen in a long time from a balance perspective.

Instead of shaking up the meta and increasing build diversity, the same meta remains, but it just has less participants. =/

Tarasicodissa.7084:

From what I’ve seen, the recent changes didn’t affect top-tier groups too much (qT casually killed Xera with 4+ mins on the timer), but average groups have noticably harder time than before.
Thanks to the baseline nerfs of Druid healing, you’ll be seeing less heals overall no matter the gear (even full magi Druid will do less heals than pre-nerf). This will put a group under bigger pressure and will result in a DPS loss (because more dodges and recovery are needed) in addition to all the baseline DPS nerfs (boon duration, quickness uptime,…).
So everytime you had a “close kill” pre-nerf, it will basically become a wipe now. Raids are overall more demanding and will require much better gameplay.

It’s not harder, it’s more tedious.

They could have done the same thing by just boosting boss health by x% and at least then players wouldn’t feel like a kitten version of their former self and wouldn’t have to ditch rev, thief, and necro players to say competitive.