Guild Wars 2

These suggestions are among the most reasonable/good to ever be posted in the PvP forum.

I am so up my own kitten about a recent GM decision to ban one of my character’s names that I need to yell about it here for a minute.

I’ve had a character for more than a year by the name of “Fatwa Jihad.” Today I was asked to rename it. I inquired as to why with the following email:

“I don’t expect you to change the name back. You’re doing your job after all and I’m not in the business of making that harder.

That said: could you tell me why you changed it?"

to which the response was:

“Your name was reported several times via In-game report, we cannot allowed a player to have an offensive name for other players out there. This is the main reason your character name was banned.”

Someone thought the name was offensive and then someone else, at ArenaNet, agreed.

In regards to Fatwa Jihad, you might be thinking “That makes me think of bad things! What a horrible name! You should pick a different name!” but let me tell you my friend, that’s the part of you that doesn’t know what these words mean speaking.

The words – they’re not offensive. Objectively, they’re not offensive. In the world where people are knee-jerk and irrational, or would rather assign their own definitions to words with already existing definitions, maybe the words are offensive. But I’d like to think we don’t live in that world when playing GW2.

Now let’s ignore everything of what I’ve said for a moment… The GM I spoke with offered to vet the next name I chose for offensive content. I ask "Is “Fatwa Haram” offensive?" to which they respond…

“Please understand any Islam related name might be reported by people who might feel offended as well, because of the context. We cannot advise you not to use the name but if it gets reported we will be forced to ban it once again.”

There you have it: Islam is offensive.

Eurozone Danse Party [UNTZ]

Our guild deals primarily in riffing in mapchat, being chill and talking about ways to spend a little bit of money to save a lot of money down the road. When we’re not doing that we PvP and WvW. More than one of our members have been rated in the top 10 PvPers in terms of winrate! We’re based in Maguuma and our hours are sporadic.

At Eurozone Danse Party every Sunday is Frat House roleplay day! Join Lance, Chad and the other brothers at Delta Fi house for their weekly adventures through Tyria!

If you join today, a member of the guild will find your place of domicile and take pictures of you as you sleep. Pictures will be developed and left for you at your bedside!

Contact: Dorkopotamis.1497 to join.

Having the same issue.

Coming primarily from PvP: I’m not psyched by the changes to skill trees. Shattering has been made an impossible to escape from mechanic. I understand that shattering is a core ability for mesmers, but by getting rid of previously supported play paths to lean/push/force people in that direction… well: I don’t like it.

Really all mesmers, viable or not, now fall into three builds: power shatter, condi shatter or Interrupt (with mandatory shatter traits).

This new skill system/tree doesn’t really allow for phantasm builds because half of their traits were removed. It definitely doesn’t support clone death builds as all (both? three?) traits were entirely removed. Also, basing a build around having clones apply conditions has become a significantly less attractive option, given most trees strong focus on shattering.

We’ve gone from having around six build choices, with two to three having questionable viability, to having three builds, all of which are pretty good, but homogeneous in play-style. Am I alone in feeling this way?

Hey Osci,

For some reason I’m not able to open the links to your build. Would you mind copying the build into a post? Just trait points, traits and the armor/weapons/sigils/runes would do. Thanks.

I think it looks good on characters who are built to look like statues, because that’s the effect it takes. Like many armors, it looks horrible on really any type of Asura.

This is such an absolute non-issue. PU Mesmers, blackwater builds especially, are only a threat if you insist on fighting them and there’s always a choice not to. They have no ability to lock down a target and most of their damage (Confusion, Torment from scepter 2, conditions from killed clones) can be avoided by simply not attacking them. Their damage contribution, when not attacked, are noticeably less than other bunker build. I know everyone wants to win every fight they get into. Just keep in mind that you don’t lose the fights you don’t take.

In PvP PU Mesmers are a liability and in PvE they’re like any other bunker class, not super useful. PU is not the god spec everyone wants it to be. The next time a PU mesmer jumps you on the field feel free to say “I know your game and I’m not playing it, guy” because you can and it’s the easiest thing in the world.

I feel like a goal of getting three of a single phantasm on the board at any given time, during PvP, will always be a flawed strategy. These days, roaming solo or small group, I’ll more often than not have just one phantasm on the field seconds before the end of the fight, regardless of the outcome.

The torch has long suffered from polarizing opinions within the community. At launch, I recall most players outright dismissing it in favor of the more powerful pistol/sword or the superior utility of the focus. All three of these alternatives have worthwhile skills that can be made to work in most situations.

The torch, while it has increased in usage with the rise of stealth builds, suffers from the longstanding weaknesses of the phantasmal mage. As far as I can tell, the phantasmal mage is never weighed into a build’s usefulness, rather it is a liability one must take for the privilege of using the torch 5 skill, the prestige.

In every calculation, estimation, guess and guesstimation I have come across, the mage is ranked far at the bottom in terms of damage, not even reaching a level of damage comparable to the next highest, which is usually recognized as being the phantasmal warlock. Because unlike the warlock, there is no devisable build to make the Mage strong, not even confusion builds. The mage will seemingly be weak independent of player choice.

I’d like to use this thread to talk about just why the mage is so weak (if it is at all) and what could be done to fix or change it.

I figure it could be re-designed completely, either moving toward becoming a fully fledged utility phantasm, in the vein of phantasmal defender or phantasmal disenchanter, or become a hybrid damage phantasm that would retain its ability to apply retaliation to nearby allies. The former would work toward solidifying the weapon as a choice for utility, not outright damage and the latter would give it diversity from the condition applying mechanics of the prestige.

I personally like the torch a lot. Stylistically, the prestige is a super cool ability and amazing with stealth builds. I would really love the mage to come into its own and make the torch a more popular choice in a greater number of builds.