Guild Wars 2

I guess this thread must be stickied or something, seing people create similar threads to complain about the same issue.
ArenaNet, please acknowledge the issue and fix this! We need to see dem enemies to pvp with dem!

There should be a forced return to start waypoint after some time. You should get like 10 minutes max you can lay dead, and gain 1 more minute every 10 minutes you spend alive or something. This way if you die and someone is coming, you can lay and wait, but you cannot abuse it like currently.

TRON this has to be a joke. 100 badges per 500 kills is ridiculous grind, getting one item would be worth 2000 player kills, its nonsence….

As it is now, commander needs serious upgrade. 30 people in squad is ridiculously low. Either increase that to ~100 or allow commander’s goals, map drawings and waypoints be shown to anybody.

Only blue icon is useful as of now, everything else is just… not.

However, yes, leadership does not come from farming 100g, but from knowing how to lead.

Melee has its niche. I have absolutely no problem with the balance, even though i’m what you’d call “melee” class. It is perfectly fine that melee does more damage but is more vulnerable to enemy attacks. I think the balance is pretty well done, really.
Keep 1 set of melee and 1 set of ranged weapons and youre fine.

ANet are fine with night capping, read their posts. After all, this IS subjective, as some people (especially those who benefit from it) do like the idea. I guess we have to wait for it to turn into diaster, then ANet will listen.

Good i almost bought all i want for badges. Feel sorry for those who didnt though, if they indeed nerfed it. Stupid really – you can only get vit/tough gear through pvp (except specific items available for karma from orr, but not all slots), and it was already slow to get, now even worser… Stupid change, really. If anything, they should have BUFFED drop rates of badges, because 1badge=1silver already was nonsense (1 badge was worth much more than 1 silver) and now even worser.

However, one thing is certain – in previous badge droprate, 500 for the gift was pretty cheap.

Shows how ridiculous it is an idea of 24/7 battleground with no mechanics to balance the imbalance in population at off times. I bet the “top” servers will end up being those servers who have most time covered by queues.

2 Hrist.8972
Wait, so you’d rather not see enemy at all, than see “crap” model?

2 Pherenice.8124
Actually, ANet intention was for servers to go into dimplomacy, for losing servers to band together against winning server, so that the one dominated would get downed by combined power of other two.
And imho, the 24/7 coverage idea is very flawed. Its forcing servers to look for guilds from another side of the earth, playing with delay, for the sake of beating other server in an unfair battle (150v10 isnt fair, yep). But so far ANet seems to be okay with it. I hope they change their mind when they see it fails over and over.

And btw, of course it must be optional. Noone is going to force this on you. But this must be in, so that those who want it can play with it without fearing a ban.

Tera was awful because of the animation lock, not an ability to have locked camera.

2 Aussie.7069 Xandax.1753
And, with any system, you can never keep it even for the topmost part. If someone plays better and is at first place, there is nothing you can do to change that. “Even” means that weaker servers fall down and get pitted against weaker servers, while stronger servers rise and get pitted against stronger servers, but if one server is the best there is, what can you do to find better opponents for it?

2 gingertree.5062
They win in points yes, but in prime time, when majority of population is playing, they would get their kittens handled to them, if your two servers play well. Thus they both never sink from their first place (so they could tackle lesser servers), and get owned every day. A nice punishment, no?

PLEASE ANET IMPLEMENT THIS.

I 100% agree you cannot allow such mods because this would open a huge hole for all botting and game automation software to come through, but please, implement this on your own, its simple yet it will add so much to this game.

2 Vehementi.1094
This. I didnt knew Darkfall supported that many people on screen, but it did. It came out WAY before GW2 and it had more complex combat system, in a sense that weapon collision was true (not like in GW2 where its part reallistic collision, part still direct targeting like WoW does) for both melee and ranged weapons, magic had complex effects (drag you towards a black hole, kick you upwards, knock you back, levitate you and hold you in place, etc) and so on. And yet, no limit on amount of people, and huge zergs clearly supported without disappearance.

And btw, Darkfall: UW (aka Darkfall 2010 aka Darkfall 2.0) is releasing 20 november this year, and i doubt it will intoduce ridiculous “culling”, you can bet your money it will display all players on screen. It features rich 3 faction pvp too, btw. Wink wink

Its obvious, if two other servers do not ally and beat them, then they keep winning. Its three sided pvp, and not two sided pvp, for a reason.

2 Hrist.8972
Woot? What do you mean “impossible”? Why “flawess”? Noone needs flawless (well, some do but majority does not). What we need is
- acceptable response time (in GW2 mechanic that must be pretty low, like no longer than 100ms ping)
- acceptable frame rate (anything above 20 fps in huge battles is fine)
- acceptable sound quality (not an issue, when the woooOOOOooooOOOOooo bug gets fixed)
- actually seing every meaningful object (actor, siege weapon,…) at least up to twice our ability range (2400)

Now what does make it impossible to achieve? There are hardware limits, but then, you dont make a fully 3d shooter with reallistic graphics and surround sound if the year is 1990. I dont see how modern hardware cannot support 500 players on one map, or 200 characters on one screen.

And once again, you can leave this throttling in place for people with poor connection/computer. So both can be happy – no need to screw it for some in order for it to work for others.

It doesnt matter what your computer hardware is Pwnr, you will not see enemies just as everybody else because the game server will not transfer data about said enemies to your client. This is the worst part of this “feature” – not only their client was “optimised” (or rather, not optimised) knowing it will NEVER had to draw more than X actors on the screen, but their server too! Their server also relies on everybody only getting sent X actors update per tick. If you, say, remove this limit right now, not only game client will probably drop below 1fps for some people, but server will just hang up, making game outright unplayable. Not only they have to change client code now, but also rework server code or upgrade server hardware as well…

And yes I agree that having 5sec lag and finding yourself dead is worse than having enemies be invisible but retain at least control of your character. But both are unacceptable, and “at least its not like that” is not an excuse. At the current state of WvW, you can only play it in hopes of it changing, because “every other game has problems at release”.

I think we, as customers, players and fans of ANet, still have to make a clear position. We, players who play for WvW or like doing WvW, love this game and we want to continue playing it and supporting developers, but if this “culling” is not removed (at least as an option for users with high-end pc’s and good connection to turn it off or allow more actors to be shown on screen), then eventually, we will stop playing WvW (and for those who play for WvW mainly, stop playing this game), because frustration from all the problems this “culling” introduces will overcome any pleasure we get from participating in WvW.

1) If you’re in a guild, and this continues, you can offer your guild to put higher tax on players who play dps’es and lower on thos who play support. Like, supports do not provide siege weapons. Issue solved – dps has to pay (with bages and coin) and you dont, so it kinda evens out.

2) You shouldnt be dedicated healer/supporter in WvW a lot, except when sieging castles – there you dont get much bages, since you only kill single idiots who like to get aoe’d on towers. Yes you have to have sword/horn to buff, but you have second weapon set to deal damage. In the moments when you advance or retreat, a player dealing (preferably aoe) damage is more imporant than one that is JUST supporting. I dont say you should not support – but support is secondary here. More damage you deal – faster you start killing them – less likely they will raise their downed teammates – win for your team. I’m in a very organised guild and we dont have any class run full support (aka mostly hit friendlies, not enemies). Some classes just have to bring one weapon set for buffs, and some utilities for buffs, but all classes take part in AOE’ing enemy or attacking enemy.

3) To get credit for a kill, you only need to deal some damage to him. This means that when you see someone going down, one or two 1’s is enough. When you’re massively owning someone, you’d better aoe enemy, not support, since that will make you gain advantage faster – then you get more loot too. When you have tough battle with little casualties – you can afford throwing one offensive aoe or spell or two autoattacks on an enemy that is going down.

So it doesnt matter, if someone deals most damage to player and someone deals only 1000. In DE’s i can agree classes w/o aoe’s are kittened, but here each player has two health bars, and you generally have time to stick in your 1k dmg in eihter first or second of his health bars before he goes down.

2 Thrashbarg.9820
Yeah, that too. At least give us naked people without textures running around (as a togglable option) rather than invisbile enemies. Hell, even names and a red box would do! I’d rather have an indication of “somenone there” than nothing.

2 SteepledHat.1345
Its not a thieves bug, but rather with Thief its most obvious, because when warrior runs up to you, charges you and 100blades you, your client has more time to “load” him, or for him to get into that spot amongst things rendered on screen. Thief can appear the moment he de-stealths, by stealthing beyond 1200 range, dodge in, firing immobilizing arrow, then shaodwstepping to you by stealing. So, he will appear “near” you the moment he starts attacking you in melee.

Btw, i was thinking and I now understood why this problem is even worser in GW2 than other games.

1) If you played WoW, you know GW2 combat is WAY faster. In WoW you are limited to basically 1 ability per 1/1.5 seconds, your gameplay in PVP revolves around positioning yourself (while having constant running speed) and using correct cooldowns in correct situations. In GW2, you take way more actions per second with all the dodging/swapping weapons and class weapon sets/actions usable while doing other actions/some abilities taking half a second to cast. The combat is much faster and much less “forgiving” to delays (for example, in WoW, when rogue stunlocks you, you have 4 seconds to think “What am i going to do when stun ends” but in GW2 when thief jumps on you, you have to react immediately by either CCing and nuking him or going defensive and evading him, or you lose, in that very first second… same goes for elemenatlist nuke combo or warrior nuke combo, didnt dodge bola/rush – gg, down in 1 second under his haste)

2) GW2 is a lot more about reacting instantly to animations of enemy player model. For example, in WoW (again, i’ll reference WoW since thats an MMO i played most) you react to cast timers that appear on screen, you can make them look like you want and position them where you see fit, or even have warnings on screen like “Player X is casting Hex on Ally Y” with a bell sound, so you can react to that. This both gave you more time to react and you had to watch some simple UI element.
In GW2, you have faster casts, and you have NO cast bars whatsoever. Its great! However, it is totally screwed by this “invisible enemy” thing. How am i supposed to dodge a warrior’s bull rush, shield bash or bola, when i have to actually watch him turn around (or his shield to disappear) in order to react to that? And if i do not, i get 100bladed and eviscerated and dead in 1 or 2 seconds – not because Warrior is op – but because the pvp revolves around me dodging his initiation move, so that he cannot do full 100blades on me (since that locks him in place).
And there is a LOT of stuff like this. GW2 is basically built on it. If i’m finishing a guardian, i need to dodge his aoe knockback – for that i must see his HAND! His whole body animating with hand rising and making this aoe! When i’m finishing necro, i must see his model and his hand rising and fearing me. And so on. If i dont, then i get hit by ability i should not get hit by if i’d play it right.
And how do i see where thief blinked with his 2 in downed state if i do not see his model? And thief’s downed state is BUILT around the fact that if he can slow you by 2 seconds or so, he will have his 3 avilable to deny you second stomp.

Yes, you may argue, that in large scale WvW it doesnt matter much that you dodge specific abilities of specific enemies, but then this dumbs down the game significantly. This would work in WoW where you just heal by nameplates, and aoe into enemy crowd, and it did in AV 40v40’s, but it dumbs GW2 down significantly with all its mechanics based around fast paced action, RE-action and quick reflexes.

There is no reason for such system to exist, because other games show entities on screen without “culling” of sort and no problems. Seriously, i’d rather have more latency and less FPS but see my enemies, than good latency and fps and die from invisible Thief jumping on me.

Your main competitor, WoW, could render 40v40 battles on one screen just fine in my days when i still played it, and i bet it can do even better now. Yes, the more people there were, the more lag / less fps, but i didnt get invisible people sneak behind my back and kill me without me understanding what happened. I saw exactly what happened and could react accordingly.

Problem is even worsened by the fact that this system is not about being “far” from the character, but being “far” from the camera. If you look forward, you’ll see the allowed amount of units that are in front of you, close to you and far from you, but then you turn around, and you see NOBODY at all. Like, you need to run now, you turn around, and you wont see anything until all enemies and friends behind you get unloaded and whatever is in front of you starts loading.

This is a stupid system that has to go, period. No excuse. Maybe it can remain as an OPTION for player to limit amount of objects loaded, like “view distance” etc, but the mandatory “culling” system has to go.

If it doesnt, you will lose a lot of people because of simple frustration. People will stop WvWing because it is NOT FUN to get owned by invisible enemies, it is NOT FUN to have to blindly fire foward in hopes of hitting someone, it is not fun going down with full endurance bar and all defensive cooldowns on and THEN seeing that someone was attacking you all along. Even PVE is becoming ridiculous because until i memorize DE by heart, i cant get loot. Best example is Grenth temple – if i dont know by heart when spiders come at the back of the room (with skillpoint), i will not be there in time to tag them! Sometimes even waves i know are coming will not draw on my screen in time- they’re already dead by the time i see them. And i do have 8gb ram and SSD.

The further i play this game, the more i’m getting frustrated rather than enjoying the game because of this one feature. And i know i’m NOT the minority, everyone in our whole server Alliance is disgusted with this.

I dont know what you do to resolve it, you can rework your netcode, you can reduce amount of effects or detail dymaically when more people are on screen, whatever. But this way, WvW game is hardly playable, and people are still playing it ONLY because they hope you will fix it, not because they are content with fighting invisible foes.

Try it yourself. Start grenth event (the one where they descend from dropship on the shore). Use some AOE ability to tag every mob in every pack. At first, you’ll gather lots of loot. Like every monster out of pack has a drop, and most have items in them. And then suddenly, one out of ten has a drop, and its mostly nothing, or a single fine craft item.

So, got to Orr. Anti-Bot code in this game is really insane. I stop getting ANY kind of loot after spending like 20 minutes of time on one DE chain! For example, on Grenth temple, i stop getting loot before we even get inside!

So, how do you farm in this game? Do you have to move from zone to zone, or from DE chain to DE chain? How long is the “lockout”, has anyone tried to find that out?

This is getting ridiculous really, i cant even get worth out of that onmonberry bar because mobs stop dropping before 30 minutes run out!

I dont know much about how to overclock a processor, but i’ve checked an online shop, and there’s like hardly many intel processors over 3.3 Ghz. And theyre very expensive and stuff. Reasonable top you can get is 3.5Ghz. And i’m not even getting close to 30 fps to warrant 3.1 to 3.5 switch.

This cant be serious, it cant be that you need to overclock in order to have more than 30 fps in this game… can it? I mean, some people with inferior setups are getting good fps in WvW. There must be some way to change it, obviously, so my PC can get it too, without changing processor?

I got good coolermaster cooler, should i boot into bios and overclock mine to 4ghz?

Up, still looking for help

Yeah i get it people get this problem, but i have reports of people having graphics card of near mine level, and having no problem in heart of WvW (25 fps). And i’m having problems (15-17 fps)

I have i5-2400 @ 3.1Ghz 4 core processor.
And sorry i was wrong its 560 Ti, not 580.
So, is the processor here to blame? 4 cores of 3.1 Ghz not enough for it?
Can i do something to make it better?

I’m using 304 beta drivers, as those were advertised as being more productive than lastest release drivers. should i switch to older ones you’re using? I’ll definetly try windowed mode, i’m @1900x1200. I know how to see my processor i just aint home and dont remember by heart what processor do i have.

Greetings.

I have GeForce 560Ti, 8gb ram, i5-2400 3.1Ghz 4 core processor, SSD for my Windows 7 64bit and Guild Wars 2, sound blaster x-fi titanium audio card. I have stable fps in PVE (around 60) but in WvW when i enter big battle, it drops to ~17. I play on best appearance settings. Dropping to best performance DOES NOT help (adds ~2 fps tops). I have clean PC, i revert to clean backup of system drive i made right after clean install, i have no viruses or spyware or stuff, i regularily clean my autorun with msconfig and other utilities.

What do i have to upgrade to have flawless (at least 30) fps in WvW in the heart of battle? Is that even possible?

Add better fast cast of ground – targeting spells

Please change it so fast-cast works not like it does now, but instead when you push down associated button, ground targeting circle is shown at your mouse, and when you release the associated button, ability is used at the point where the cursor was at the time of release. This will both allow a single-click ground targeting spell activation, and show the range and raidus of the aoe to the user.

Well, people mostly report it in PVE. I just happened to notice its effect in PVP because i PVP more. I dont think its a coincidence, i just dont farm PVE so i cannot confirm it being present in PVE (and, PVE drops people farm for – T6 mats – are rare drops so you really CAN be unlucky and get nothing in 1 hour – so i would have to farm for a LONG time to confirm it)

There is either such code or severe problem with game’s RNG. It is very easy to notice in WvW.

Proof:
I farmed first 300 badges for my Invader Bow by getting 1000 WvW kills. (Remainder came from jumping puzzles i think) Drop rate on a big sample was ~3 badges per 10 kills. Next time, i hit 1500 WvW kills and… I’ve not even reached ~50 badges! Drop rate cut down like thrice, wtf? I waited for a day, and next day, i’m getting badges at higher rates again.

Yesterday my guildie compained in TS that for whole day (we raided WvW for 4 hours) he got lots of kills but barely any bags. He was pvping all day. Obviously the system “kicked in” for him and penaltised him for WvWing to much.

I understand you must fight bots, and you cannot announce such stuff (because then bots would work around it) but this exact way to combat bots is ridiculous. That is because a lot of times in MMO, you know its a good idea to find a good “farm spot” and farm it. Breaking this is like breaking one of the pillars MMO stand on. Especially if this is hidden (and you have items that drop very rarely, so its not obvious wether you’re unlucky or were lucky previously)

Greetings.

I must start with expressing how much i am LOVING the PVE aspect of GW2, even though i’m PVPer. I hated PVE in every game i played except Darkfall. PVE was always easy, boring grind, you could do it with pinky finger of your left foot. In GW2 i really enjoy PVE, even basic simple mobs (well, Darkfall is still superior in that aspect, but unfortunately inferior in many others…)

That said, DE system is even more awesome. Each location has a story, and that story often leads to a big kitten boss that you have to take down with ~50 to 100 people. And its huge, and its great.

That said, GW2 offers a termendous improvement over other games. While in WAR you are turned into 1hp 1dmg dealing turkey if you try to enter location of a lower level, and in WoW you just oneshot everything in lower level locations, GW2’s downscaling means you actually can enjoy every single content in the game when you’re max level, instead of being tied to your narrowed “max level content”. So, at max level you could fight all those cool bosses in the world, that are awesome, huge and give nice loot chests when down…

Except, you can’t. Because you have no idea where the event is currently up, and where it isnt. This, in my opinion, is a HUGE PROBLEM. I can’t stress enough how huge. It feels like you have all that stuff but you can’t get it because… its too pricey to jump around locations looking for bosses to be up! Waypoint cost (if used like that – jumping from locaton to location unti an event is found) will be way too much, even gold contribution chest wont cover it. This means that the game has all sort of great content, but you cannot enjoy it. You are missing it!

Guild Wars 2 desperately needs some sort of Dynamic Event finder system. I can see several ways of implementing it:

1) When you complete location to 100%, or maybe when you discover whole location, you can always see all event markers on it from any point in the world.
2) Rift style event finder, where you have a list of world bosses that are now up and can instantly (for a waypoint cost of course) teleport to the event, or can teleport to a random event (for lesser cost, probably)
3) World-wide chat channel
4) World-wide LFDE system, where people can browse a list of people who willingfully marked themselves as “seeking an event” and whisper them where their help is needed

I know some people think LFD (dungeon) system is really needed, but this one is needed even more! Because, in case of dungeon, its not going anwyhere. Its always available there for you! Just find a group, no hassle. In case of dungeons, you can afford to spend time grouping. DE will be finished by the time you learn about it that way.

Please add spectating to sPVP matches.

Don’t really know what to add. We want it. It will do GW2’s sPVP so much good. Please!

up, still need help

Thief is OP. Play Thief. If you listen about how you should “go full crit” and “spam 2” and how Thief oneshots people, then you will be totally useless in PVP, and i will gladly farm you in WvW if our servers ever meet.

If you dont have a clue how to play your class, you wont succeed. Unlike games like WoW, here you can’t get away with just being OP. Your class must compliment your weaknesses and your strengths, it must fit your playstyle. Every class feels very different.

Depends whether you want to play PVP or PVE too. Wether its sPVP or WvW.

Best bet i’d say – try everything. Play with every class, try every weapon setup. You can do it in sPVP, or you can level yourself to lvl 10 in PVE and go to WvW. Try to FEEL the class. How does it play. What is the idea. Etc.

I am a Thief. I chose it not because i can “oneshot” because I cant. Thieves do not oneshot! They burst down their target, and it doesnt happen with a press of a single button, you must set up your kills. But anyway, I’m a Thief after I tried Mesmer, Guardian, Ranger, Elementalist and watched my friend try Guardian, Engineer and Necromancer. Because the class feels like i do. I dont like to have every basic offensive ability on cooldown – thats why i play Thief with initiative system. I do like to have stuff that gives me advantage on demand and then goes into cooldown (not an attack, but a kind of buff) – thats why i play Thief with signets. I do like to have mobility over being a tank, since I have more ways to improve, and potential of mobility is always bigger than simple damage absorbtion. Thats why I play Thief, with Shortbow as one of the weapon choices.

My friend, for example, even though he loves tinkering and stuff, totally disliked Engineer, he said “i’m clueless, i stand doing nothing and i dont like it”, and totally loved his Necro (he also loves Warlock in WoW) and Guardian. Those classes felt like he wanted it to. He loved to consume his pets, to summon a pet only to eat it for HP right away. He loved to fear enemies, to have AOE on every skill. He loved to go dark and spooky with different abilities. In Guardian he loved to troll people with multiple spirit weapons knocking them around, going full tank build. He loved to smash things, stun, knockback etc. He loved the “book” that heals everyone to full health after a huge channel.

Don’t listen to OP cries. Don’t fear, its not WoW, you wont be a feral druid in vanilla which had no attack scaling whatsoever, you wont be a rogue of vanilla too. You wont be resto druid of WoTLK, nor you would be Frost Mage of… any time really, they always were OP. In GW2 its different.

I am a Thief and I mostly play WvW and I can burst people down from full HP to defeated state (not downed, defeated!) in 3 seconds. Thats not because I’m OP, but because i know my strong points, and my opponent doesnt know them / doesnt expect me to attack / doesnt know how to counter them / is undergeared. There is nothing OP in your opponent allowing you to faceroll them. There is nothing OP in your opponent not willing to learn to play this game.

up, still need help

Lol. People who say “spam 2” have no clue how 2 works. Neither do they have clue about how to get a lot of bags. Heh.

up! please, need help

Greetings.

I am in process of gearing my level 80 Thief. I want to have Power, Precision, Crit% and Vitality. I definetly do not want Condition Damage and Healing Power.

In sPVP, i can get Berserker amulet/gem that gives main stat Power, secondary stat Precision and CritDmg/Vitality split in half. However, in game, i cannot find an item that would give me Power/Precision/Vitality. There is either Power/Precision/Toughness, and usually Toughness is the main stat, or there is Power/Vitality/CritDmg. Latter is very underwhelming because you get very little crit dmg (it seems to be rounding down thus you lose it on some items), and because at usual crit dmg to precision rate, precision gives you more damage AND more procs AND counters fumble at the same time.

So, there is no way to get such stats on your gear in normal game mode? (Get main Power, secondary Precision and half of that in vitality, half in crit)

Use both Spear and Harpoon. Know how to use them.

With Spear:
You are basically invincible in 1v1. You have a skill that blocks for 3 intiative and counterattacks on hit or restores initiative if not. You have a skill that makes you invulnerable for a prolonged time, while you deal medicore damage to the enemy that you can use three times before running out of initiative. Those two combined make you unbeatable by any mob in 1v1. Find an easier mob and train. Use your block, learn how it works. Basically you can use block only and win. Mob just cannot deal damage to you because you can block its every attack. But using 5 as well speeds up the process.
I didnt try to fight with spear vs multiple enemies, but it might work as well. Would be just harder, since you’d need to interrupt your counterattack if you see another blow incoming, you would probably have to use dodge and that means you cant comfortably sit in one place, etc etc. More hassle.

Harpoon gun:
Basically it WILL deal more damage than spear. Because spear has no way to buff your damage with initiative, really. Speargun has it, and its the 2 ability. Basically with speargun you just circle-strafe your enemies (however big are their numbers) and keep hitting 2. You’ll fire 2 when you got initiative and 1 when you havent. Circle strafing means you’re holding your right strafe and constantly turn left, so that you are doing circles and mob follows you in a circle. This allows you to win vs any number of melee enemies (like drakes, turtles) or even ranged ones. If this simple tactic doesnt work, you may need to either use 4 to slow enemies, or dodge their attacks (like sharks that when they get close charge and stun you). When against multiple ranged opponents, you should really use your dodge timed with the projectile approaching you, and use heal on cooldown, and you can usually beat 3 of them at once. Use stealth to drop aggro and pick them one by one if going against all at the same time doesnt work. I didnt find real use for 3, and 5 is more about travelling than combat (however if you need to blind a power attack – use it).

Also, 1v1 ranged enemy with harpoon gun when you cannot melee it for any reason is very easy. Most underwater projectiles are not very fast. This means, you dont even need dodge to avoid them. Be on the move constantly (strafing). Learn the moment when the projectile is actually launched, and just turn the other way as soon as it does. Projectile will fly on an intercept course to your previous heading, its usually wide enough hitbox to hit you if you’d come to a dead stop the moment it launched, but it isnt if you’re going the other way! Harder to do with multiple ranged but still possible (use dodge when you see multiple projectiles incoming).

Sword/Dagger unfortunately is inferior to Dagger/Dagger in every way.

Start with PVE.
What Dagger/Dagger gives you in PVE? You can burst targets down very fast with Chain → Cloak → Backstab → Heartseeker, and you can AOE farm with Death Blossom. What Sword/Dagger gives you in PVE? Your Cloak doesnt give you much, yes it disables enemy (daze) but its one second only and you generally dont need that in 1v1 in PVE. No real way to burst a single target. Your AOE is your chain, but it doesnt make you invulnerable like Dagger/Dagger one does, you have to be close to the enemies to attack them and some enemies cannot be circlestrafed safely (like wolves or some risen), they hit you and you cant let yourself be hit, while with Death Blossom you just run away from them while they tick down. Dagger/Dagger better both on single and multiple targets in PVE.

PVP. In PVP as Thief you may think Sword gives you two very powerful benefits. One is 1 second Daze (you can disable key ability or just generally prevent enemy from healing/stomping). Second is shadowstep (condition removal, gap closer with 1200 range), stun removal. Unfortunately 3 is useless in PVP since it relies on enemy standing still and noone stands still in PVP except noobs who you can beat with bare hands anyways. And now you look at Dagger/Dagger and see it gives you MUCH more. You can nuke your target with heartseeker spam. You can deal big damage from stealth. You can evade attacks while still dealing damage (in AOE, not on single foe). And your gap closer, even if less range, is spammable, so if you are in range, you’ll stay on target while spamming, while with Sword, you got on target, and you cant continue jumping – need to wait for skill to “cooldown”. And overall, you need nuking in PVP. You dont have that in Sword/Dagger, you have one of the best nukes (if not THE best) in the game with Dagger/Dagger. End of story.

If you want Sword in mainhand, take pistol in offhand. You get a very powerful aoe blind for PVE (and PVP somewhat). You get a daze on demand. You get a super powerful 3 ability (use it with Haste in PVP and you basically have a stunlock, the only class in the game that can have a stunlock – meaning, keep reapplying stuns, so even breaking stun doesnt help since you get stunned again and again), so you can actually nuke in this build. But you need Haste for that, otherwise target runs away. Plus you’ll need some extra initiative (from stealing, just extra initiative, from extra regen) meaning you need specific traits to hit the pistol whip more than two times in a row.

Still, Dagger/Dagger seems to be THE melee Thief choice. Maybe Dagger/Pistol could be viable too, but main hand Dagger is without question.

Well, ANet’s stance is “you use it you get permaban”, look what happened to those who used cayene poppers (or whatever it was) exploit (buying cheap karma items, crafting and selling to vendor for a lot of gold, it was a very efficient karma→gold conversion). All permabanned (well, they were given chance to repent and destroy all earned gold, in order to get unbanned, but its one time action by ANet as they clearly stated).

Greetings.

I just happened to gain 9 silver in what i consider an unfair way. I think it might be exploitable. ArenaNet says “report exploits by sending mail to … but we wont respond back”.

But what if i have to get a response? Because obviously, i want to know, wether i should “destroy” those 9 silver in order not to get banned for exploiting, or wether i’m fine, or wether its was not an exploit at all, but something else happened that i didnt notice that awarded me with said 9 silver?

(obviously i cannot describe the exploit in question here in forum post)