Showing Posts For Feanor.2358:

Absolutely dislike the new fractal.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

But you DO get them. Hence in the end it’s the same. It doesn’t matter if it’s harder if you don’t use what’s available. Which is true, but irrelevant.

Absolutely dislike the new fractal.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

You don’t need a healer for cm99.

You should nevertheless get one. It makes the run smoother and faster, not just because of the heals but also the considerable group-wide damage boosts.

However I digress, because the “experience” argument is vacuous and requires no due diligence in order to make, I’ll counter it with my own story. I haven’t been doing nightmare challenge mode for months. I only recently got back into the game. I have far less experience with those mechanics than anyone else here. Likewise, since I form groups accepting newbies, a group of new players always learns nightmare much faster than fractal assault. Each boss usually only requires 2 attempts, maybe 3. But I can loiter at Arkk for 6 hours at a time trying to get newbies through it.

Each attack is simple. There are simply far more in cm100, and more = more difficult.

That you personally didn’t have the experience isn’t that relevant. The thing is, the player base at large does. It is always easier to clear content with one inexperienced player than with 5 ones. Please don’t take this as a personal attack, I’m merely explaining why you can’t disregard the common knowledge and experience accumulated over the months and why your perception of difficulty is skewed.

And again – yes, there are more attacks to deal with in 100 cm but there’s also a new powerful (and quite universal) tool at your disposal. Pretty much everything Arkk throws at you can be countered by Hypernova Launch.

[PvE] Plasma Weaver

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Fury is assumed to have 100% uptime, so I’m already counting that.

Absolutely dislike the new fractal.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

100cm is longer and tougher than nightmare by a considerable margin.

No it isn’t.

You’re comparing your experience with a fractal that has been around for almost an year with one that has been around for about a month. Give people time to master it. They already started doing it, by the way. I remember my own first try at Shattered CM, which seemed impossibly hard. Last night the group I was in cleared it in a comparable time to the 99 cm we played just after it. Give it a few more months so more people can learn the mechanics and the gameplay experience in an average group will become much smoother and quicker, just like it did with Nightmare CM.

Going to have to strongly disagree here. CM100 has a lot more going for it than just a lack of familiarity. The amount of ambient damage that Artsariiv puts out is incredible, the amount of unavoidable damage Arkk has is substantial, and the variety of instant death mechanics you have to juggle means a single misstep quickly snowballs into full blown failure. In the Nightmare fractal, there is nothing harder than dodging the massively telegraphed single attacks one at a time.

Sure, at Artsariiv there are a lot of AOEs around, but if you cleave the adds and stack on the boss they don’t really amount to anything. The druid will easily outheal these.

Snowballing at Arkk is also a failure to do mechanics, not something that always happens. Eat the balls properly, focus the anomaly, use Hypernova Launch when needed and there really is nothing to snowball. I can agree that if you don’t control the encounter it gets chaotic much quicker. But if you do – and you can – it’s pretty much the same. Massively telegraphed attacks that you can easily dodge. True, sometimes they overlap. But you get the completely overpowered Hypernova Launch in exchange, so I’d say it’s not really any different in terms of overall difficulty. You’re free to disagree with me, but let’s wait a couple more months and see, shall we?

[PvE] Plasma Weaver

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Pyromancer’s Training > Power Overwhelming and Master’s Fortitude is not necessary for PvE. You end up with low crit chance which will hurt your power damage a lot, but you don’t have enough burn duration to offset that… if offsetting it is even possible on a hybrid build.

[PvE] Plasma Weaver

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Feanor.2358

I think you’ll need at least the Accuracy sigil to account for the loss of Precision from Griever stats.

Absolutely dislike the new fractal.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

100cm is longer and tougher than nightmare by a considerable margin.

No it isn’t.

You’re comparing your experience with a fractal that has been around for almost an year with one that has been around for about a month. Give people time to master it. They already started doing it, by the way. I remember my own first try at Shattered CM, which seemed impossibly hard. Last night the group I was in cleared it in a comparable time to the 99 cm we played just after it. Give it a few more months so more people can learn the mechanics and the gameplay experience in an average group will become much smoother and quicker, just like it did with Nightmare CM.

Theorycrafting fresh air weaver

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

It’s not a PvE build, just see the utilities.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Your referring to meta, you have constantly related that to dps and efficiency and that’s was not what he was referring to, that’s all your type of raider ever thinks about – as evidenced clearly in this thread. Have the courage of your convictions and stop playing with words.

I’m referring to meta because that’s what the post I’m replying to talks about – a meta vs non-meta comparison. Note that my reply was addressing the actual post and its contents. While your own reply to my post was generic criticism of my views and had nothing to do with either the point I was making or the original comparison. So, let me ask again – who’s tunnel-visioning now? Who’s showing personal bias and fails to adapt?

@AliamRationem:
Yeah, I never understood why people were having troubles with pocket raptors until I decided to map-complete HoT on other classes as well. Just Overloading Air has always been enough for me to deal with them. If the pack is unusually large they could get me downed, but I’d rally almost immediately, thanks to the ongoing Overload and the automatic Lava Font from Persisting Flames. The HPs in Maguuma are another story though.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

I’d feel better about supporting the meta if every meta team succeeded and every non-meta team failed. Tons of meta teams fail and tons of non-meta teams succeed, so the meta build requirement just isn’t that relevant. Builds are way down the list of factors why raids are won or lost.

Oh, because everything must be either black or white. And every chance ever is 50-50. Degrees and shades do not exist.

Talk all you want. Meta increases your chances, and not by a small amount. I know it, because I’ve experienced it.

Did you even read what he said? No-one is saying the meta builds are not the most efficient, efficiency is important in your head, not everyone’s head, were not all obsessed with dps. Poor players playing meta is worse than good players playing non meta.

Now read carefully the post you just quoted. And find where I used the term “dps”, or even referred to it.

My reply was in response to a statement about success and failure. However, said statement is flawed and I pointed out how and why. Who’s tunnel visioning now? You’re not even reading what I wrote, you’re knee-jerking.

Exactly because groups can fail and succeed regardless of their builds and compositions the point made is irrelevant

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

I’d feel better about supporting the meta if every meta team succeeded and every non-meta team failed. Tons of meta teams fail and tons of non-meta teams succeed, so the meta build requirement just isn’t that relevant. Builds are way down the list of factors why raids are won or lost.

Oh, because everything must be either black or white. And every chance ever is 50-50. Degrees and shades do not exist.

Talk all you want. Meta increases your chances, and not by a small amount. I know it, because I’ve experienced it.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

If raid meta is the only/best/safest way to do anything in GW2, why do so many teams complete raids without it? Teams complete them shorthanded, carrying buyers, without the raid meta comp, without the raid meta gear, and without the raid meta rotation in plenty of time. Teams even disagree on what the meta is.

Because they are just that good, that’s why. Meta varies from encounter to encounter, however the roles are pretty set in stone in the current balance. There’s the druid which heals, there’s the chrono which tanks and buffs, there’s the PS which supplies with might and deals damage and there are the pure damage dealers. You won’t see teams deviate from that, except for doing a specific challenge.

Now, the dps slots are pretty flexible, however one thing can be said for sure – they are supposed to be fully offensive. Their survivability is ensured by the healer so any sacrifices made for the sake of their own survival become not just pointless, but counter-productive. You won’t see a team disagree on that either.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

Lets recap what you want:

-You want 4 other players in a group to match your internal monologue and interprotation of that they should be doing.
-You will automagically asess personalities and skills with people you have never met before in a pug run that is often over in less than 30 minuts(?) before you can ‘trust’ them.
-You get annoyed at people if you peceive that you are ‘carrying’ them
-You want everyone to follow your personal strategy preference – ball up on the boss and iterate through your rote patterns.
-You think everyone should follow the raiding model – fast as possible > diverse gameplay.
-Dynamic changeable play is ‘chaotic’ to you.
-You think people should play meta even if its painful and not enjoyable for them because ‘thats how they will learn’
-You think its ok for your guildies to play with builds because you trust them (contradicts last point)
-You will sneer at people if they dare use a weak skill (e.g signet of Air) because clearly thats important to group dynamics and risks the entire run failing.

Imagine all 5 players in a pug acted this way…

Quite skewed perception.

What I want is to clear the instance without wasting orders of magnitude more time than needed. I like dynamic gameplay, so long as it is readable. Encounter mechanics offer a lot of that. Beating it with good teamwork I find fun. Having my teammates running around like headless chicken, without any means to know what they are doing now or what they are going to do next, makes in completely unreadable. It’s textbook chaos and I find it no fun at all.

On a related topic, I don’t mind carrying people, as long as the group as a whole can do it. Once the group starts failing because someone is doing their task poorly, it becomes annoying.

On a different related topic “my interpretation” isn’t mine and it isn’t an interpretation. This is a game and it runs on math. You have objective measures of efficiency and meta is the objectively more efficient way. Hence I would recommend it to any new players who are still learning. You can subjectively like something else but it makes meta neither subjective nor an interpretation. That’s not to say it’s the only way. But when you’re trying out something or just fooling around, it should be with the consent of the rest of your team (and while keeping in mind meta is there for a reason). This is why playing around with guildies fits – we all know and agree in advance, in return the player fooling around agrees in advance to revert back should his new build fail.

I will kitten people’s skill based on poor skill choices, because a skilled player knows his class and values his skills enough to not waste a very limited resource (skill slot) on a skill that is completely irrelevant for the fight. There will always be optimal choices and less than optimal, but still good choices. They are all fine. But extremely bad choices usually show the player isn’t familiar with the game mechanics as a whole, let alone the mechanics of the specific encounter. Mind you, we did give this pug ele a shot. And of course, his performance was abysmal.

Personalities have nothing to do with anything and I never said anything about personalities or assessing them based on gameplay performance.

Lastly, I don’t have to imagine what a pug is like when all the players have similar attitude to my own. I’ve been in a fair number of these and I still seek groups like that when pugging. What does that tell you about the quality and the behavior of these groups? Some of the players I’ve met in such groups ended up in my friend list and I keep playing with them to this day.

P.S. Assessing the skill only works in one direction by the way. Poor skill choices are indicative, but good skill choices really aren’t.

(edited by Feanor.2358)

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

No, if you don’t want to research anything and want to deny things out of hand with ad hominem that’s your lookout. Ever heard of the trust experiments?

That aside even if it was in my head then I would rather have trust and see what happens good or bad then somehow have 5 people automatigically kitten each others skills an personalities in a 30 minute pug run in a game with small scope for true interation.

I have a feeling you’re not entirely objecting to what I say. If you trust someone there would be no need to “wait and see”. If you’re waiting to see, you’re not really trusting, you’re giving someone a shot. Which is what I do, and which is what I consider the normal thing to do.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Science? Since when a bunch of statements on a blog is considered science? Where’s the data? Where are the peer reviews? You’re not talking about science at all. You’re talking about faith. I, however, am not the believer type.

P.S. It’s not your words, it’s your belief. Which doesn’t make it true. One might argue universal truth on this topic doesn’t even exist, as trust is a form of belief, too, and as such is subjective.

(edited by Feanor.2358)

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

ps you are risk adverse because of your bias formed from your experience, thats your mindset and responsibility, not others.

I simply choose my risks instead of taking each and every one blindly. Based on my experience. It’s what everybody does, really.

Also you might want to note this group behavior is observable everywhere. In games, and also in real life. So perhaps my “misinterpretation” is actually the correct one. And what you preach is just wishful thinking.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

You’re basically saying I should trust blindly each and every player I encounter. No. It’s unreasonable and it won’t work. I give everything you can reasonably give – chances to earn my trust. Some people do, some people don’t. Just like in real life.

Also note I’ve taken a lot of risks. It’s not about being risk-averse. It’s just a bias formed by experience.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

Trust is not something you give, trust is something you earn. And no, not all pugs are the same. There are some which are skilled players. Some of them are active raiders, some of them aren’t, but they are skilled and they know what they’re doing. Some don’t have a clue. This isn’t some prejudice, it’s experience.

On the topic of joining pugs you’re not entirely correct. If you assume you have zero knowledge about the group prior to joining it, it would be true. But I can see the group description and its current composition. Nowadays I usually stay away from groups with random composition. It’s not that all of them are bad. And of course a group being meta isn’t a guarantee for anything either. But in my experience meta comp groups have considerably higher chances of being decent.

And please stop trying to imply some blame on me. It’s my free time, it’s my decision how to spend it and who to play with. I have zero obligation to spend it annoying myself because someone else decided he’s too special and can’t be bothered to play what is known to be beneficial for the other members of his group. These aren’t my standards, by the way. These are objective facts.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

There’s a difference between judging someone and externalizing that judgement. Nobody said anyone wants to enter an instance without clearing it and that “play your way average Joe” defines the spirit of Guild wars games and players (the majority of players)

Citation needed.

if you are comfortable with your fellow guildies experimenting then that’s no different to what I was arguing about earlier, people should be free to play with builds. Which ofc contradicts the statements and attitudes that are demonstrated towards pug players in instances i.e ‘carrying’ people etc.

There’s a difference. With my guildies, I know they are putting the effort and they have the skills. I also know if their build fails, they’ll simply revert to what is proven to work time and again. With pugs, you know nothing of the sort. Imagine having a pug ele on KC. You don’t know the player, you only know what you see. You see he’s running Signet of Air and you see his dps is terrible (true story by the way). It’s even worse when you’re playing for the actual clear and aren’t just fooling around having fun.

Survival title for nightmare cm

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Nah, 99 cms without deaths is harder than 100cm. I saw 100cm without deaths several times since its recent introduction. Havent seen a 99cm without deaths for a long time. There is literally at least one death per bullet hell part, not to mention other random deaths.
Overall I would say 99cm is easier to finish, but doing it with no deaths is harder than 100cm.

Nah, not really. There isn’t much that can kill you on 99cm with a good group.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

It is impossible not to judge people. It’s how human interaction works – your mind creates fictions about people you have contact with, based on what happened when you interacted. It is not possible for these images of people to be entirely one-sided, unless perhaps when you’re falling in love. So we are judging. Every time you see something you dislike, you’re judging. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s part of what makes us individuals. Or the result of it, depending how you prefer to look at it. So I really am in no fault. I’m just being sincere.

The subjectivity you imply about the results is a stretch. It’s how game work – they give you objectives and they reward you for completing them. Sure, there’s always “the journey”, yada-yada, but let’s be realistic. Nobody (statistically speaking) enters an instance without wanting to clear it. Ironically, active raiders are probably much closer to the mindset you imply here than the “play-your-way Average Joe” you’re defending here. I spent good two hours raiding today with my guild, doing encounters that give virtually no rewards because we’ve already cleared everything earlier in the week. We just do it for fun. But rest assured, we still want to kill the bosses. We experiment with builds, but we don’t stubbornly stick with something that works poorly. It’d be selfish.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

It’s not about what I think they should do. It’s about the results. I’ve seen enough groups struggle and wipe on the same encounters I’ve breezed through with a meta comp. Failing something you know for a fact is easy isn’t particularly enjoyable. And if the choices of a particular player are ruining the enjoyment for 4 or 9 others, I’m sorry but I can’t find any respect for that.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

I know what confirmation bias is, thank you. Support is fine and all, but when the trainee is actively refusing to learn your patience eventually runs out.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

How very poetic. If only being poetic made an argument true. Would you say a player tasked with a specific primary goal, and doing a poor job at it, is a good teamplayer?

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

You’re talking in extremes again. There are those who would behave differently for small differences and it’s a crappy behavior, I agree. Most of the skilled players won’t. However, when the presence of the player doesn’t make significant difference in the performance of the party, he’s being carried. It doesn’t matter if you word it differently, it’s just a fact. It doesn’t matter if the other players will behave differently or not, it remains a fact.

Whether or not this is a problem (it often isn’t), is a different story which is beside my point. I’m not trying to justify a behavior, be it my own or someone else’s, toward a third party. I’m only saying how a particular MY behavior would look in MY own eyes.

Finally, I prefer to put ‘viable’ in context. Something can be viable in one context and not really in another. You can have an off-meta build which is viable in a random pug party, but you end up carried in a meta party. Is it still viable? I wouldn’t say so.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

yes, and that level is ‘viable’ not ‘optimal’ in everything apart from raids.

Wrong. Half a raid squad is the optimal – and most enjoyable, really – composition for any 5-man content. For me, at least. I somehow don’t enjoy fights where half the team hugs the floor half the time, the positioning is non-existent and we can’t finish trivial mechanics because of that. I wonder why…

The other issue with the off-meta play is when you end up in a meta comp, you get carried. There, all the choices you make for the sake of your own sustain are literally, objectively wasted. Because you get sustained by the healer. You deal 2-3x less damage than you should (it’s not an exaggeration sadly, I’ve seen it), and you drag your whole team back. Here “you” doesn’t refer to you personally. It should be clear, but at this point I prefer to state it explicitly. Of course, there are people who are fine or simply don’t care they get carried on a regular basis. I’m not one of them. I find no fun in someone else doing everything for me.

Do me a favor and let this one die

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Feanor.2358

Every content punishes you for not being flawless, that’s what games do. The only difference is the actual margin of error you get. Raids do have lower margin, but that’s not a bad thing.

Actually this isn’t true for all players in a Raid. There is only a limited number of players in a Raid encounter that must be flawless in order for the team to succeed, the others don’t have such a hard job to do.

You seem to misunderstand me. Nobody really has to be flawless, even in raids. There is always a tolerance toward mistakes. Sometimes greater (like in the open world), sometimes smaller (like in fractal cms or raids). But that’s how games work – they present you challenges, they punish you if you fail them and they reward you if you beat them.

Perhaps this is the key in making Raids more accessible. Once the group fills the essential slots of a Raid, they could fill the rest without any harsh requirements. Stack on tag, do your rotation, circle strafe during flame wall, is all the rest need to do at Sabetha, and occasionally go kick a bomb. Not really a higher difficulty than most dungeons or fractals.

The problem is, every player you pug is a risk. Sure, it’s not that hard. But you still don’t know if they aren’t going to do something stupid. Miss a bomb throw on Sab, get interrupted 24/7 on Gorse and end up with abysmal dps or whatnot. I don’t encourage high requirements for raiding (my group leader doesn’t use any aside from class/role requirement when we pug to fill the group), but I understand why people who raid pugging resort to them. It’s just an attempt to reduce that risk.

(edited by Feanor.2358)

Do me a favor and let this one die

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Blatant exaggerations don’t make your point any more valid.

Do me a favor and let this one die

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Feanor.2358

The key difference is how they’re replacing old content with mechanics that punish you for not being flawless. If you don’t like the new Fractal-Raids or Raids, then your only option for group content is dungeons, which aren’t exactly popular these days.

Every content punishes you for not being flawless, that’s what games do. The only difference is the actual margin of error you get. Raids do have lower margin, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s simply a choice the game offers to its players. Do you like to be challenged? Then go raid. Do you not like it? Then don’t. Simple as that.

You also imply the new fractals have raid-like margins, which is only true for their Challenge Mode. Which is kind of suggested by the name, right? And it offers exactly the same choice, right?

Last, but not least, raids do not “replace” any content. You might argue dungeons got abandoned, but they got abandoned before raids were released and their own difficulty overlaps with that of the fractals. So the game didn’t actually lose any difficulty tiers, it only gained an additional one.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

What matters is (Enemy Adjusted DPS/Player Health) / (Player Adjusted DPS/Enemy Health). By “Adjusted DPS” I mean DPS adjusted for any healing and loss to evades, blocks, protection, etc. As long as that number is less than 1, you’re golden. If that number is 1 or higher, then you’re going down. The closer it gets to 1 on either side, the longer the fight takes.

Now do the same analysis in a party scenario. Here’s some additional food for thought

Complex encounters require teams to perform at a certain level to win and teams discriminate to raise that level even higher.”

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

For instance, when you say that you don’t want to switch gear constantly because it’s unnecessary. What you’re saying is that while you could take on certain challenges easily with a more defensive set, it isn’t worth carrying that set around for the relatively few challenges where you would find it worthwhile.

I was actually saying this in the context of changing between Assassin and Berserker gear, which have exactly the same amount of defensive stats.

You’re correct to point out different players may have different priorities, however there are those priorities which are shared among more players and those who are shared by less. Soloing group events falls in the second category. And you can do many of these in full glass regardless. But whatever, nevermind me. Run whatever you want and justify your choices in your own eyes however you like. Like I said, I’ve been there and I’ve done that.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

Of course my way is the right way. My posts are, by definition, my own opinion. “For me” is implied. That being said, I’ve also seen both sides of the coin. I’ve used Marauder and Celestial. I’ve played in groups that adhere to the meta and I’ve played in groups that don’t. I see where the others are coming from, because I’ve been there myself. And I chose to move on, because it wasn’t how I’d like to spent my free time.

Open world pve weapons

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Feanor.2358

Tag all the mobs with air auto. Overload Air while they charge at me, switch to fire, Lava Font, Meteor Shower (if off CD) on myself. Everything’s dead, move on.

If facing tougher enemies, swap back to Air while channeling Meteor Shower (assuming Fresh Air build) and Overload again.

If you don’t have Tempest, you might want to start in a different attunement so you can throw some more damage on your location (Earth 2, Water 2) and finish off the remaning stragglers with fire auto.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

Gaming is not all about min-maxing, gaming is about emotional and intellectual pleasure.

Which (pleasure) is subjective. So gaming can be about min-maxing. It’s just as valid as being about everything else.

You seem to have a problem with people expressing strong opinions different than your own. Why? It’s my way of play, it’s my perspective. To me, these are wasted stats. They give me zero benefit and they cost me stats which would give me non-zero one. It’s my own perception of the game, which I’m entitled to. As I am entitled to voicing my opinion, should I see fit. You may agree or disagree with it, but criticizing me for doing so can’t possibly be justified.

Your extreme example serves no purpose either. This would only be the case if the game designers in charge of balance were astonishingly incompetent. It would make the gameplay dull and the players would get bored and quit. Since none of this is true, I see no point in bringing it up at all. Yes, it could happen, in theory. Yes, it would be dull, again, in theory. However it doesn’t and it isn’t. It’s a pleasant experience, which I can’t say for playing with groups that wipe over and over again, spending literal hours on encounters which can be cleared in five minutes.

PVE Supports?

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Hello there,

If I want to play as support in the new expansion (PVE) and I want to LEAVE MY DRUID which do you think would be the best second option??

Necros and their new elite class

Guardians and their new elite class??

Thanks

Go chrono?

Staff autoattacks

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Feanor.2358

Yes, because the thing this game needs the most is MORE condi damage…

dps meater

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Currently, only one popular DPS meter is considered to be “safe”:

  • ArcDPS by DeltaConnected

There are other meters out there, some less popular, some almost certainly violating one or more aspects of the ToS (Terms of Service).

PS there’s no guarantee that Arc will remain compliant. Clearly, its developer intends to stay on the “acceptable” side of the line, but they might not always be around or ANet might change requirements or… who knows. As with any 3rd party tool: use it with caution.

I would expect if ANet decide to change their rules, they’ll give a fair warning and enough time for the authors to change their code.

Staff autoattacks

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Feanor.2358

On core ele it’s pretty much like that. On a Tempest you dip in Air for Overload, as it’s still quite strong.

eles need buffed

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Feanor.2358

@AliamRationem:
I agree with in the context of generic PvE and mostly solo play. Defensive stats can be a useful crutch there until you’re comfortable enough with the class to not need them anymore.

But I’m talking about group scenarios in the context of meta group composition and tactics. Having defenses doesn’t really make much difference in this case. You’ll make mistakes, everyone does. But you’re stacked with the group and the Druid is spamming heals on top of you to keep your GotL stacks up. This can outheal a LOT of damage. Depending on the exact comp and tactic you may have high Protection uptime, get Aegis from the DH in party or a well-timed Distortion from the mesmer so you don’t even have to dodge a particular attack. It really is more beneficial, for both you and your party, to have the full glass spec here. Of course this, too, assumes some level of competence from all the players. But it’s not nearly as high as you may think.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

1. Incoming damage is almost entirely mechanics-based. You avoid damage by moving into or out of a specific location. If you don’t move into or out of the location in question, you probably die instantly. It’s entirely different from standard PvE.

There’s “standard” PvE? It’s pretty much the same everywhere in PvE where you can’t complete the content by rolling your face on the keyboard.

2. Because damage is mechanics-based, any attention to toughness or vitality is wasted. This is why raids run glass cannon builds across the board. Even the “tank” runs just enough toughness to prioritize them over a PS Warrior rezzing someone. Any additional toughness is wasted in raids.

Toughness and vitality are wasted stats in PvE as a whole, not just in raids. Again, the only difference is difficulty. Easy content you can beat using whatever stats and build, difficult content you can’t. It doesn’t make the stats any less wasted in the easy content, though.

3. The raid meta assumes that you’ll have a Chronomancer, a PS Warrior, and a Druid covering a ton of boons for you with near-perfect uptime. All gearing decisions for the meta are made with that assumption and leave massive gaps in performance if you lack those boons or if any member of the boon trinity can’t keep them up consistently and perfectly.

The massive gaps in performance are only massive compared to the optimal raid setup (which by the way is realistic in any 5-man content as well, since the mirror comp meta). Compared to an off-meta build? You’ll still blow it away. Because you don’t waste your stats, for instance.

4. The top raid teams are made of truly outstanding players. They have perfected their rotations with hours of practice. They know how every second of every raid will play out. Unless you’re at that level, their builds and rotations may not work for you.

Flattering. But no. You don’t have to be outstanding to raid successfully. Also nobody is born good. It’s a skill which is trained like any other – by usage.

5. The raid meta is built for speed and speed alone. Safety has no place in it. You use the minimum possible support and maximum possible DPS to get the fastest possible time. When you know the raids like the top guilds do, this is the best option. If you don’t, then you can make some less-speedy choices that will be much more safe for your team.

Not quite true, especially in the content of the Elementalist class. Remember, the raid meta is not just your own build, it’s also the builds of 9 other people. When you need safety, you get Magi druids, you don’t change your gear to valk stats and ruin your dps. You also overlook the fact that speed is safety in challenging content. Less time the enemies are alive = less damage they deal to you.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Mate, it’s not just raids. It’s the same in fractals. Non-meta pug groups in general are so much worse. Lack of supports means less buffs and less dps. Lack of stacking means even less buffs and less healing (assuming you even have a healer). Having to heal yourself means less dps, assuming you can outheal the incoming damage at all. Low dps in turn means more time needed to kill the boss, meaning more damage taken, more downs and more wipes. It’s not rubbish, it’s hard facts. I’ve seen it, and I keep seeing it.

“Chaotic” is a loose term I use to describe encounters which do not run smoothly. Players downing all the time, the proverbial dodging out of heals, etc. Stacking gets rid of this, too. Someone downs? Everyone else can just press “F”, because they don’t need to run through half the room for it. Someone low? AOE heals are guaranteed to hit them.

Sure, in low-tier fractals, open world or dungeons just play whatever. It doesn’t matter there, because there is no actual challenge. When there is, being off-meta is just taking a lot more unnecessary risks.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

The speed and stacking aren’t just to be fast. Being faster means less chances for mistake. Knowing where your teammates are mean less chances for mistake. Otherwise you end up with fights getting progressively more chaotic, which to me is more annoying than fun. If you’re good enough to not play meta and have fun carrying chaotic encounters – good for you. I’m not. I like to experiment with builds, too. But I do it in the open world, where I can pull it off.

(edited by Feanor.2358)

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

For a “glass cannon” setups:

Scholar, Strength or Flame Legion for power builds.
Balthazar for condi builds.

Scholar is the best choice (gives the largest dps increase). Its drawback is, it loses efficiency if you get hit often (you lose the 10% damage modifier).

Strength is nice for soloing but not really useful in groups.

Flame Legion is a cheaper alternative. Weaker modifier than Scholar, but much more reliable. Stronger than Strength, but only if you get supplied with Might externally.

Playing a toon of the opposite gender?

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

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.

Nah. Honestly male characters wearing skirts made me feel more uneasy. I switched to Human Female Meta and I don’t regret it.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

I have a great example, its blatantly obvious when you do instances with raiders, they invariably want to stack up on a corner and stack on boss. This is the most efficient way ofc, but its dull as hell, and new players learn absolutely nothing apart from spamming their face off in a big graphical blob. Now in raids its critical you control placement, but outside its a lot more enjoyable to loosen up a bit and flex your abilities and placement awareness.

It’s not just raids. Stacking on corners were the meta in dungeons long ago, and it is still a thing in fractals despite the Social Awkwardness instability. It is just incredibly beneficial to keep the enemy in your damage AOEs, hence this way of playing. Especially if your group can outheal or otherwise negate the damage (mesmer distortion is fantastic in this respect, I’d say it’s a larger group dps improvement on some bosses than GotL).

Keep in mind this, again, is drive toward perfection. Only on a different scale, this time it’s about the group rather than just yourself. It’s not very interactive, meaning you often flat out ignore the incoming attacks and you fully rely on your team to mitigate them. But I’d say it is nevertheless quite satisfying. Of course, if you have the mentality for it.

I also do not agree players do not learn anything from it. I became a much better player once I started raiding. Unlike dungeons, raid encounters throw mechanics in your face all the time. Raiding improved immensely my positioning, dodging and timing skills. My attacks now get interrupted less often and the mobs rarely move out of their areas.

Ironically, the meta also taught me to not be afraid of tweaking my build or utilities depending on the situation. For many bosses the optimal traits, utilities and even the weapon choices, are different. This improved my understanding of the class. I now don’t hesitate to change build, using completely off-meta traits and utilities for a particular fight because I can now better kitten their value in this situation. Ironically again, these improvements are best seen in the open world. But the changes are real.

Now, of course, this is only my experience. But I believe you’ll find many players, especially new/less skilled ones, to share it. I think, as one of those players, you either go through something like it or you stop raiding. I don’t think there’s a middle way here. You either enjoy the process or you don’t, and if you do, you’ll keep improving because it adds to the fun.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

There’s a good reason why you should play the meta in the endgame. It’s not because you get the loot faster, it’s because it helps your group make less mistakes and increases your chances to succeed. Now of course there are degrees to that. Insisting a dps to change from his main to another class because qT do 5% more dps on the other one is silly. Chances are this will result in a net loss of dps for the group anyway, as you’re losing a proficient (if technically suboptimal) character and gaining a non-proficient, if optimal one.

That being said, if you want to experiment, do so. Open your own group and invite like-minded people. I’m sure there will be those who’d join. If you’re good enough, you can make it. If you aren’t, you can hone your skills and still make it. It just takes effort and dedication.

From this perspective, I can’t agree there is a design issue at all. Games like this, especially MMOs, need their endgame to keep their players. Role-playing is fun, but one can only enjoy massacring helpless monsters for so long. It gets dull and players leave dull games. It’s just a necessary choice.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Speed runs and ‘efficiency’ wasn’t a thing until it was promoted as a way to prolong the value of raids in late 2000’s where the only reason people played is loot as fast as possible. Its all good if you want to min-max, but min-max also means pick 1 build that is optimal, and that’s restrictive gameplay. if there was no requirement to min-max then just as you say many will still do it, but the peer pressure will be gone on others to follow suit, everyone is free to experiment with their own builds, which derives from the RPG board game roots – enjoying the gameplay for the sake of gameplay.

Imagine a game of Descent or another classic RPG Board game with a group of close friends at home; efficiency and min-maxing is not a goal of the group. Same deal with good PVE. Now compare that to raiding, the differences are crystal clear.

Speed runs existed even before MMOs became a thing. People used to speedrun Mephisto back in D2, over and over again for the loot. And to claim raids brought this mentality to GW2 is simply false. We had dungeon speed runs long before we had HoT.

And believe it or not, you can have fun min-maxing in a pen’n’paper session, or a board game. You cannot disregard the mentality of the min-max gamers because you don’t share it or you don’t understand it. For many players this is just part of the fun. You cannot tell people what should be fun for them. It’s up to them to decide. By the way, it’s not about the loot. It’s about perfection. That’s what makes it fun. You don’t have to find it fun. But you have to acknowledge the others who do.

Ranger class kicked from WvW and PvE

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Hi!

I constantly see Rangers being kicked by leaders in WvW squads, they openly say reason: “rangers are useless in WvW”. Happened a lot with me and with many other rangers, sometimes 4-5+ people at once kicked from squad to make room for useful classes like Templest (ele).

Also seeing same trend in PvE, for example Fractal 40lvl farm. They need only chrono+warr+3 ele for farm. Yesterday i saw in LFM “No rangers” in one of fractal groups (classes were not stated, was not usual Chrono+Elle PvE farm group).

Being locked out of WvW and PvE activities as certain class, what are options except changing class?

Thanks for advice.

Fractal 40 is a very, VERY small fraction of PvE. Druids are highly valued pretty much everywhere else, and condi rangers are still a fine dps class.

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

You have no kittening clue what raids are. “Insane events”? “Benchmarks”? Please…

There’s zero difference between raids and the rest of the PvE in terms of general roles and classes that can do them. You want to heal as shout warrior? You can. You want to dps as a power rev? You can. None of these would prevent you from successfully clearing the raid, as none of these would prevent you from completing any other PvE activity.

The raid meta isn’t something required, it is something efficient. And the thing is, it is efficient not just in raids. Like I said, remove the raids, nothing changes. Ele will still be used as dps, because this is where Ele fits best in a PvE group comp. And I do mean, nothing changes. Since the 5-5 mirror meta became a thing, not even the 10-man group size is a factor.

What you’re trying to blame on existence of raids is really just a people phenomenon. There will always be those who prefer efficiency. They were in the game long before raids, doing speed-clear dungeon runs. If ANet tomorrow decides to remove raids from the game, these same players will still be in the game and they will still be going for the efficient thing. That’s their way of playing. That’s what they like, that’s what they will keep on doing. And the thing is, their way tends to be more influential, because they make it look easy and this makes players want to play the same way.

Balance doesn’t matter, content doesn’t matter, there will always be meta, there will always be those who will find it and there will always be those who follow. That’s just how these games are played. And there’s nothing wrong with it. Who are you to say how other people are supposed to have their fun?

eles need buffed

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Posted by: Feanor.2358

Feanor.2358

Your blinding your self badly not seeing the pediment your putting your self into with your point of view on this game and the world. If you have nothing to define what is good and your best argument is only to attk the argument it self then you get no where and nothing new or a fix comes of it.

That’s my point. I see no problem.

Raids are not part of GW2 they where added in for HoT and may end up dying with HoT. To try to keep pushing the game and Ele to raids only set of stander and game play is to cut the class off at its knees for real imaginative game play. Ele is dps so that all it should do is the WORST mind set. This dose not fit with GW2 and makes things like raids toxic to the game it self. In effect THIS mind set is why GW2 was made even GW1 was made to get over this mind set of one class one game play and only the best classes are usable.

GW2 needs a buff the separation of raids from all of the rest of gw2.

Raids are completely, utterly irrelevant to the topic. Remove the raids, the role of ele in PvE remains unchanged. Also I never said ele should only do dps. All I said, in this current topic, is that even a full glass ele can survive the content just fine. It just takes practice to develop the necessary skills. But your irrational hatred for raids makes you misunderstand everything PvE-related.