Anet’s endgame is now grinding gear like every other mmo. They just add the twist of changing around traits, and now actually stat allocations so you’re forced to farm every 2 months if you want to continue to play.
I haven’t really had a reason to login since mid-december. Hearing this news, and knowing that the majority of my ascended gear across 5 characters will be updated, I can say without a doubt I will not return if I can’t re-choose my stats on those ascended items. There is no way I’m going back through all the trouble of acquiring ascended gear, when Anet changes the “meta” every 2 months. I’d been under the suspicion that this was their endgame all along to keep people playing, but, this time, I’ve had enough. There are too many good games coming in the next couple of months for me to spend any more time with this one if the end game is just re-farming gear every 2 months.
Anet doesn’t want to break up the blobs. Karmatraining blobs pvdooring 24/7 is their vision. This is to push people who want to really fight other people with even odds into spvp where dreams of “esport” dances in anet’s head. There’s no sense in even trying to change it anymore.
There’s nothing more fun in this game than trolling zergling tryhards desperately attempting to make it back to the safety of their blob so they can get back to spamming 1 over and over again.
Worth what? It costs literally nothing for you to decided that for yourself.
1. Login
2. Play
3. Decide if it was worth it.
It’s funny how Guardians are defending their Retaliation. Engis are already not wanted AT ALL for zergs, just like rangers and now people want to make it a little better for them and that’s not allowed?
God some of you are just the biggest kitten heads I have ever encountered. When you encounter a zerg, do I really have to check every guy in the blob to see if he has retal. Is it fair that an engi or ranger can’t use its powerful moves while a guardian and warrior smashes away? You already bring much more support with stuns and heals and now you deny others to bring what they do, damage?
It’s the same desperate cries I hear in the Pvp-setting:
Healing signet is not OP
Hammer is not OP
PU isn’t OPKeep clinging to your cheap stuff, noobs
Wouldn’t you defend it if the majority of your time was spent hiding in a zerg spamming staff 1. Kids want easy mode.
Mesmer got to keep their cheap trait because that’s the #1 means of clone creation. Many clone generating mesmers use evades offensively to create clones for shattering or stacking bleeds. With out the perma vigor, clone creation would become unsustainable and would create a huge problem with balancing the class. I imagine mesmers were allowed to keep this cheap investment for that reason, whereas classes that used it for near perma evading (thief, engineer) got their versions nerfed.
People only think about what killed them. So, once you have them under 25% and use HS to finish them off, they see you as spamming HS. Or, if you use it mid fight to gap close, you’re a HS spammer! A true HS spammer uses it the entire fight, and I have seen some around even lately. That said, anyone dying to a true HS spammer needs to l2p because it’s nearly impossible to die to the damage it does over 25% health.
I like the guy that said using a Flamethrower in a zerg is stupid. Of course it’s stupid, that’s the whole point of this thread. The weapon was designed for this very thing, close range aoe damage. One should not insta die to a no brain passive ability using a weapon in the way it was intended to be used. The same goes for nades. Honestly, this is a thread that always crops up from time to time, and it’s usually an engineer that starts it (I know because I started one before). I gave up the fight, I only solo roam or run small havoc on my engy or any class for that matter. Guardian/Warrior melee blobs are the most boring gameplay I’ve ever been a part of in any game’s rvr/wvw.
LOL @ the warrior video.
This is pretty hilarious. My base lifeblast on my power necro hits harder than HS even when the enemy is under 25%. And, it stacks vulnerabilty, so each one progressively hits harder and harder.
Engy’s are awesome in roaming, havoc, and zerg play. Depending how I change my spec around, I can front, mid or backline in zergs. It just requires a bit more skill than other classes which is why I usually just bring my necro and faceroll when I feel like zerging (which is rare). I’d much rather run small man havoc, or roam solo. Thieves have roles in all 3 as well. So, basically this thread is about rangers. I can’t help you there.
I mainly roam on my engy or mesmer. Often I’ll run a hybrid PU build when I roam on my mesmer. There is a lot of good advice in this thread on how to counter. The tip on veil is spot on. Veil is on a 90s timer, so anytime I drop it, I’m never more than a couple of feet away from it because I want to get 2 uses out of it before it goes on cooldown. Longer in stealth = more boons and more time for my phantasms/gs clones to put in work. Also, someone said PU mesmers are slow. However, I run centaur runes in my PU build so I have 100% swiftness uptime. The majority of PU builds these days are the condi ones that most likely will be slow though. So, kite all you can. I typically try to kite all mesmers and drop nades/bombs right behind, so the illusions die while chasing me. Also remember that illusions can’t jump off cliffs, so use the terrain to your advantage. Like all pets in the game, the pathing can be horrible at times. There’s nothing worse on my mesmer than when I finally get 3 phantasms out, and someone jumps off a 2ft ledge. Then I get to watch them try to run around half the map to get down to where ever the person ran off to.
You should really go to bg, they could use more numbers.
It’s really stupid tbh. Armor bought from the gem store should store on your account just like the armor skins you get from achievement milestones. Then, if you decide to change your build you could just reskin the new armor with the armor skins you already bought. As it stands, you have to basically destroy (by transmuting) your existing armor. Currently, I have Dire armor w/the magitech skin on my engy. I would like to try out celestial armor, but I’m not destroying my existing Dire armor in the process. Plus, I refuse to give them more money to use a skin I already bought…..
Also, I have 3 sets of armor on my mesmer. I would cost me $30 to skin all of them. I’d gladly pay $10 to be able to skin all 3. Instead, anet makes nothing off me.
(edited by Dasboba.1652)
To the OP, I’ll explain it. Anet has figured out their endgame. They introduce a new level of gear that barely increases stats, but knowing that mmo min/maxers won’t be able to resist farming/buying the new gear. Then every few months they add a “balance” patch that resets the meta. This, in turn, will force all the ocd min/maxers who are fully decked out in their gear to spend another couple of months refarming everything. Then they’ll spend another month thinking they’re awesome until the next meta reset occurs. The good news for you is, all you really need are the trinkets, and maybe a weapon or 2 if you’re a power dps class. If you’re condition, like my engy, all you really need are trinkets. Full ascended weapons and armor for my engy would only make my bleeds tick for 2 additional dmg per bleed per tick. That’s hardly worth the time/investment when I know the meta will be reset in a few months. As a bonus, all these guys leveling their crafting to 500 have caused the prices of exotics to drop as well. The hardest part is convincing yourself that you don’t need ascended.
Have you tried transmuting the ascended stats to a white item? That usually returns the item to the account bound state. I’ve never done that with an ascended item though.
For healing, it’s inferior and like Pyro mentioned, I too ran into times where someone got away yet I was still stuck in combat with no way to cast illusions to heal up. That left me extremely vulnerable. But, man that active….Nothing sweeter than spawning 2 iZerkers on someone trying to run. Or opening a fight with 2 duelists. Running a modified version of BlackDevil’s PU hybrid, it really made me change up my playstyle a bit. There’s a good chance I’ll switch back to one of the other heals and mender’s purity, but for now it’s definitely fun if you ignore the healing and use it as an offensive tool.
Agree with Val. I’m trying to decide whether to take Menders or the new heal. I’ll probably take the new heal just to test for a few days. Then, I’ll have to decide what to do w/the extra 10 points.
I run blackdevil’s hybrid build with gs/s-p quite often. I also run my own version of a phantasm build from time to time. I never take DE in the phantasm build but always take it in the hybrid. The typical opening in the hybrid build is to: summon pistol4 phant, stun w/pistol4, leap w/sword3 to imobilize, then swap to gs and cast gs2 (clone replaces sw3 clone), then iZerker. At this point, I usually dodge away which gives me a gs clone (that replaces the gs2 clone – who’s already run his first attack cycle and stacked his bleeds). After this attack cycle, you still have the 2 main phantasms up, which you can now shatter to run the whole cycle over again, or just let them keep putting in work. It really depends on how the fight is going. Sometimes, the gs clones can stack bleeds so fast that it can be beneficial to have them out. When I play a pure phantasm build, I run gs/s-s, with traits to reduce cd on sword. I typically can get 3 phantasms up in these fights, so I never take DE for fear of a clone overwriting my hard hitting phantasms. I would suggest what Nretep said, and try running without DE. I know often, even in the hybrid build, I have bad habit of dodging for no reason just to summon another GS clone, which essentially is just overwriting the one already out. That comes from back in the days when I used to run pure shatter. It’s a tough habit to break on mesmers.
There’s an easy solution to this issue for those that didn’t get their chest. Run the champ train in Frostgorge for 30mins and you’ll have better rewards than what was in the chest.
Charrs may have invented the profession, but intellectually they will never be as smart as an Asuran. The mere fact that anyone would consider any bookah over the Asuran master race is beyond comprehension.
I’ve never taken clone on dodge in a phantasm build. Usually I run gs/sw-sw and take the sword cooldown trait. I could see taking Krispera’s advice after the patch and going possibly 30/15/0/25/0 and getting the extra mantra charges along with Phantasmal Strength. But then I’d have to give up that sword cooldown. Still, I may try this after the patch.
I already praised your build but I was wondering is bleeding such an important damage source in a build where power seems to be a more appropriate choice due to the weaponset you have choosen? Why not using knight armor instead of rabid? I tried both and the bleeding I get from knight is in the 40-50 damage per tick range while using rabid gives 70-80 per tick.
On the other hand you would gain 224 power, same crit and a great boost to toughness. This would also let you choose a different food to pump even more damage or crit if you need to.
I originally ran a similar PU build with a mixture of zerkers and knights. I replaced all of my knights pieces with rabid to test out a more hybrid version. After running both, I can’t honestly decide which is better. Each way has it’s strengths and you have to fit those into your playstyle. IE, I have a tough time leaving my clones up with this build. I like to get them up, let them get in a few hits, shatter them, then pop up 2 phantasms to let them put in some work. Thus, focus on knights over rabid seems to fit my playstyle better. Everything being the same, with knights I have a 51/tick bleed vs 69/tick bleed, but I have to give up almost 500 effective power, and almost 3% damage reduction. Thus, I’ve settled back into knight, but have kept the 40% duration food.
Also, as a side note, someone asked about condition stacks over precision. I’ve also tried both of these, and in the end I have to go with precision. Being that this build is a hybrid build, precision helps you with all your attacks, both stacking the bleeds (via illusions) and with critting on your power attacks. Whereas condition stacks only effect your bleeds and the occasional confusion.
For reference:
I logged in for a little wvw last night only to find bg’s map blob camping our spawn with an anet dev in a golem. Good times. :/
In the end it will only help out the group by ensuring only the most skilled player jumps on siege and not some newbie or PVE player who has no idea what they are doing.
Unlike the Veteran of the Mists title which gave the title to achievement hunters who only came into the bl’s for 2 weeks to waste supply and do jp’s as opposed to the people who have been doing wvw for over a year now.
I, too, swap between my engy and mesmer “mains.” My mesmer is my class for pure roaming. It’s a very fun class in small mans and solo play. I don’t tend to zerg with my mesmer b/c nothing spells boredom like spending 2 hours being a portal/veil bot. It’s also my pve class for when I rarely pve. That said, I tend to take my engy out more often because the jack of all trades aspect of the class allows me to roam, and join up with zergs from time to time. I’m effective in solo, small man, and zerg play on my engy so I can easily adapt. I can change a couple of traits on the fly to excel in each type of gameplay. If I know for a fact that I’ll be zerging all night, then I’ll bring out my necro and faceroll.
My tactic against them is bomb4 + shield 4 + rocketboots. That combo gives me stealth to get away and find someone else to fight. If you’re the scissors, there’s no reason to fight the rock. Instead, go find the paper. ;D
If you saw a dev on bg, it was most likely grouch. The majority of the time I’ve fought him has been when he runs with small man RIOT groups. I’m just happy there’s a dev playing an engy, I don’t care what server!
I have both a necro and engy. I prefer power necro in zergs since like naphack said grenade engy’s are suicide in zergs.
Don’t you guys realize it’s just going to be queued like every other map? That is unless they plan to add overflows which I can’t imagine happening until the beta map is tested thoroughly.
But they need a benchmark to determine who participated enough to earn that reward.
But it’s not an accurate benchmark. I guarantee that I’ve done more useful things in WVW since the start of the season than many of the pve players that came in and grinded the achievements. Yet, I’m sitting at 12/15 right now with no way of finishing the achievements without becoming a detriment to my server. In the 4.5 weeks so far I’ve only gotten into EB once so all 3 of those achievements are off limits. There’s no way I’m going to waste supply for an achievement either. The achievements should have had a weekly player kill achievement (500+ per week) that would have counted towards the final tally just like all of the pve achievements have a daily that counts. That would have counted for 7/15 and allowed the rest to fit into our playstyle without having to waste resources or playtime doing jps or grinding sentries.
I’m sure the main reason they’re being very careful with Mesmer vigor is that w/o that vigor up time it could come close to breaking the shatter build. The clone generation off dodging is very depended on that minor adept.
The statement on perma vigor really confuses me. I’ve been hesitant to say anything because my mesmer is probably tied with my engy for being my favorite class in the game. Currently to have access to perma vigor, engineers are forced to spend 20 trait points. After the patch, the only remote way to have near perma vigor will still be via 20 trait points. Even then, it will require you to crit to proc swiftness and vigor with only a 50% chance per crit. Compare that to the Mesmer who gets a 100% chance to proc vigor on a crit in a minor adept trait that costs only 5 points in a line that is always specced into (ps, my mesmer sits at 60% crit chance on nearly all my builds). I’m not sure in the year that I’ve been playing my mesmer that I’ve ever traited out of that line. It’s basically automatic free perma vigor. This is on a class that already has multiple ways to stealth, has stun breaks on nearly every popular utility, and has blocks/evades on multiple weaponsets. Now I understand that mesmers need access to vigor in order to produce clones, but I also think the majority of an engineer’s survival comes from the fact that we can currently evade quite often. I think the changes will reduce suvivability for my engineer or force me into speccing traits that I normally wouldn’t. I guess this is the “build diversity” they want. I still don’t agree with the philosophy that if you nerf something enough, it will force people to try something different. All it does is make people angry and stop playing altogether.
These changes do nothing for “build diversity.” The popular condition nade build (30/10/0/20/10) doesn’t change at all besides the nerf to vigor. All these notes do is push more people in to that build by moving IP to master. Even then, my condition necro is 10x easier to play, and more effective. A better option would have been to drop grenade specialization to master similar to how necro’s axe specilization was moved down in the June patch. That would open up more explorable lines for the engineer as it did for the necro. It also would help new engineers during the leveling process since it seems grenades are actually balanced for having the trait.
That said, I don’t really understand the nerfs that have been presented for what is the most underplayed class in the game. You should be focusing on making better master/gm traits to encourage people to try different lines (the changes to Elixir-infused bombs is a step in the right direction). This idea that pushing “must have” traits further up the trait lines so that people might experiment with other trait lines is flawed. Most likely, the few engineers you actually have playing the game will just give up on the class an play easy mode faceroll classes like Necros, Guardians and Warriors.
This is never about build diversity as anet puts it. It’s always about build shifting as opposed to diversity. I’ve figured out that anet’s endgame is shifting builds around every few months so we have to re-farm all our gear and farm/make all new ascended crap to go with it. Reading these notes, makes me want to try some sort of dps build instead of conditions, but I’m not re-farming all my gear. If the builds that worked before don’t work after this next patch, I just won’t play anymore. I’m sick of having to re-gear 4 characters every 2 months. Thankfully, looking at the notes, my engy only gets the vigor nerf. I run nade/bombs/x in a 30/0/0/30/10 build with dire/rabid. I stopped taking burn on crit awhile back due to the fact that it’s single target and I have other access to burning with bombs/rocket boots (plus I have a low crit chance anyway). Instead I take the 15% to cause bleeds on explosions since there’s no icd, and I’m not required to crit. Hopefully my build won’t be phased much by these notes.
Don’t worry, the workers are just waiting for their queue to pop.
I was hoping this was a joke. :/
I really can’t believe this is being allowed in WVW. Anet, my engy thanks you for finally putting the nails in her coffin.
I’ve been using Doiid’s hybrid phantasm build My armor/trinket setup is a bit different but achieves the same effect. It still does a ton of damage but also stacks massive amounts of bleeds (due to bleed on illusion crits, and stacks of might). Last night, with the new tickers, I saw a guy ticking for 1100 bleeding damage on what I consider a power heavy build. I had around 15 stacks of might at the time, so that means my phantasms alone had stacked at least 11 bleeds. I love using gs and s/x and this is my favorite build that I’ve played w/this weaponset.
Just go to gw2nodes. Next, find the server that has the shortest/easiest run. Guest to that server and profit. Rinse/repeat w/each reset. It’s 2013, ain’t nobody got time for treasure hunting!
If they’re going to keep this bs lottery system, they should at least let us queue for all 4 maps.
Trust me JQ had the lag at bg garry too. Even worse, two nights ago I couldn’t cast any abilities for 10mins. I didn’t want to relog to have to wait in the queue. Sadly, my abilities never came back. I guess I “de-synced” with the server.
The whole “meta” achievement system in WVW is stupid and shouldn’t even be in the game. It actually rewards pve nerdpoint hunters that steal supply, hog queues for jps, and do nothing to actually win the matchups. Whereas the people who have been putting the work for the past year will either not get the achievements or will have to drop their duties to do things like camping mercs, or wasting time on jps. I already figure I won’t get the meta achievement b/c I will have to do all but 4. I can already count more than 4 that I won’t be doing. I most likely won’t be doing the 4 jps, or the SMC captures b/c it’s more important to defend/attack the bls, plus the queue lasts for days. Nor will I camp pve mobs in wvw maps.
Like everything in WVW this is made for no brain zerging around. It should be very easy to accomplish. Just roll a warrior, and follow a commander around pressing 111111111.
I’ve gone through every ability for the last 10mins and can’t do anything in JQBL. Sucks having to relog at this point knowing the queue is bugged all to hell.
I roam with thieves on my engineer. It’s very fun, but prepare for carpel tunnel. Also, if you don’t like kiting, you may not like engineer. I spend alot of time moving all over the place. Even when I’m in bomb kit, I’m semi-kiting the entire time. Engineers can also have access to stealth with fits well with thieves. Honestly, my favorite class to roam with the thieves is my PU build mesmer with traveler runes.
Kill Shot is a highly telegraphed channel. It’s fine.
Warrior ability to shrug off all conditions and dash/charge away while passively regaining all their health and immune to CC is what needs nerfed.
This! I’ll take a killshot everyday over 300lb charrs in platemail that out run everyone in the game.
Doesn’t matter, you can faceroll easy with all the other guardians/warriors in your zerg. It’s all the game is anymore.