Guild Wars 2

Your forum search bar only works if you KNOW the exact thread you are looking for – otherwise it is “no match found” or something pops that has nothing to do with the topic. It is time to replace the 8088 era search bar with a industry common standard “word” based search bar.

An old guy, I do not crawl the forums like a stalker. I am just one of the silent majority that finds the forum to be a pain in the…. well, you know what I mean.

Until then, I will probably be creating new duplicate threads all the time.

So it seems like you really wanted to make the Dwarf stance the go to spec for being tanky. However, from what I’ve played around with, it simply doesn’t deliver. The biggest issue I have with it right now are resource cost. Quite frankly, everything just cost too much for what you’re getting.

I mean, sure if we started fights with 100% resource then it would be balanced. But we don’t.

Today I tried to mess around with a Tanky focused build that utilizes Dwarf, it fails on every front.

1. Heal Skill – Probably the only skill I think is in a good position.
2. Forced Engagement – Right now it cost too much, takes too long to cast, and does little in return. With the long cast times, the chances of it getting interrupted in the now CC heavy meta is very high. It Also cost a lot. If you use this on the start of a fight, you basically have to run around auto attacking till you can do anything again. If we were to keep the current amounts of taunt and slow, this skills cast time and resource cost needs to be cut in half. If you want to keep the current cast/resource, then double the slow and taunt. It’s just so…useless. Most players treat it as a small annoyance in PvP.
3. Inspiring Reinforcement – Similar issues to force engagement. The resource cost are too high. Every instance I use this, it doesn’t save me from CC. I still get CC’d or I get pushed out of it. It either needs to pulse a lot more stability and last longer, or that resource cost needs to come down. I think about 20 resource would be a good start.
4. Vengful Hammers – Again, resource cost is too high. When I’m in Jalis, I won’t be dealing a ton of damage. It isn’t a good spec to go into if you want to deal damage. With all the resource cost, I rarely get to use these hammers. By the time I’ve casted my weapon skills or a taunt, I’m spent. I think a resource drain of 3, not 5 is more proper for what this currently does.
5. Rite of the Great Dwarf – I think this is in a slightly good position. I think it should last a little bit longer, considering your’e spending 50 of your resource pool.

Those are my biggest issues. The main pattern is resource cost. For a Legend that is supposed to make you more tanky, the resource cost make the skills not able to keep up with the damage being put out. Both by players and mobs. Right now, its better to just go any other spec, you’d contribute more to your team. If you’re looking to be a tank, most of the other classes outdo the Revenant, by a lot.

The Druid experience…

-Must do damage to generate AF.

-Damage draws aggo and red circles from adds, mobs and bosses.

-Adds, mobs and bosses have different ranged, aoe, area… attacks or they chase you around.

-Everbody, including myself, needs to constantly dodge and “bob and weave” to stay alive because that’s how gw2 was designed.

-Among the dodging, red circle, graphics blur from powers… madness, I notice those barely noticeable health bars going down and proceed to enter CA form to save my team…

-Players then fall one by one because everyone body is running outside of my little heal circles and I can’t catch them because I’m all over the place too getting chewed up by mobs and red ground damage. Alternatively, I can jump in the fray and get chewed up there while some of these animations are taking forever…

Conclusions…

GW2 lacks all the proper design and support mechanics for team healing.

This Druid design is only efficient and helpful when the team is standing still, stacked up tightly and you do not have any aggro on you.

The design of this healer spec has limited viability and effectiveness in any “harder” content.

I’m sure Druids will look like healing gods in Orr while teams are beating up lone champs for their bags, but the nature of “chaotic” combat and necessity to move, random aggo generation, lack of highly visible health bars, needing to aim a reticle while needing to keep myself from wiping… all make for a very unpleasant experience.

I have 15 seconds to make the difference to avoid party wipes, but I’m spending half of those measly 15 seconds dodging, getting knocked and missing heals because everybody needs to move. Most of the cast and effect times take way too long considering I’m forced to work within a timer in the first place.

Playing a serious healer will be infinitely worse in wvw. In spvp, opponents will quickly learn to focus fire Druids. GG healers…

Fixes…

“Real” taunt powers/traits/skills should be given to the heavy armor professions or put into all profession trait lines designed to make for a studier frontline fighter.

Increase radius of all ranged heal skills to 360. That means staff 2 and 3, and CA form 1 and 2.

Staff 5 should be a 360 radius DOME instead of a wall.

Preferred fix- Make CA form a “stance” that is maintained until downed (risk vs reward thing) and adjust timers appropriately.

If you refuse to make CA form a “stance”, then it needs to last 30 seconds at the very least. It also needs innate stability and damage reduction.

Cast times and animation speeds of CA form skills need to be sped up.

Add burning conditions to Druid staff attacks.

Add cold damage and slows to all CA form ranged heals.

Thanks

Also, Please fix up the sword. Allow for axe 5 to be mobile. Give dagger some love. Make short bow bleed from the front as well.

Thanks again

Edit- change vine surge to a 360 aoe so that Staff can be useful for wall combat in wvw.

Edit 2- For a(the) dev(s) reading this… I hate to make comparisons, but I use to play a highly mobile game called city of heroes for years, and their “professions”, power design, power customization, combat mechanics, condition/counter condition systems, stealth/counter stealth mechanics, roles and role diversity among “professions”, a ton of other stuff… were, and still are, far superior to what we have in this game. Those devs really dug deep to create a fun, fast paced, user friendly, sensible and “easy to play-difficult to master” experience all around. There are a lot of things you could learn from that game, a whole lot.

Edit 3- With all due respect to Irenio and the maker of the video, I have to say that this perfectly highlights the Druid healing mess in any zerg or pressure gameplay. A healer role (or any role) should be fun, user friendly to control and really fit into the combat design, but this is not it…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyWtN_9qj7Y

If the above video is what you are aiming for (pun intended), then you will have to make changes and this just reinforces my general/basic ideas of what should be done in addition to the above…

-staff changes as above.

-again, CA form 30 seconds or maintained until downed with skills and timers adjusted appropriately.

-movement friendly animation speed for seeds.

-reduce the self healing (from these powers only, not our regular heal) by 25% and up the healing to others by 25%.

-again, X% damage reduction and built in stability while in CA form.

-CA 1- keep this one a reticle aim heal, but increase radius to 360. This will be our 5 target ranged heal. Add in low damage dot chill damage and slow effect that affects 3 targets.

-CA 2- no aiming reticle. 360 radius pbaoe heal and condition removal seed that lingers for 10 seconds. This way the seed becomes like a timed Ventari tablet players can utilize for a bit of healing and condition removal.

CA 3- no aiming reticle. 360 pbaoe heal and daze. Add a 5 target low damage dot chill so if players break stun they a slowed for a couple seconds. Becomes a good set up for CA 5 if you keep it an immobile skill.

CA 4- 360 radius.

CA 5- I’d prefer it if this skill was mobile, but I’d be satisfied if you implemented a chill/slow to CA 3 if someone breaks stun or you can’t stun the “boss”.

By implementing these changes to staff and CA, it will be infinitely more fun to play and be a better support role. It will give the Druid improved backline support with staff and make CA a more suitable frontline support. This style also fits in thematically to the duality design and work better with the nifty glyphs you created.

So, Druid style gameplay becomes… Back support until needed up front. Ancestral grace to jump into the action when needed. Pop CA form and bunker up the frontline where there is more risk/reward gameplay… These changes purposefully encourage being in the mix more, provides better power design that matches combat designs, and will function more effectively in the chaos so the role of team support will be far more enjoyable to control and play for the end user.

Now onto an easy to follow video the gives a basic example of what I’m talking about with a ranged and frontline design. After watching this video you can then understand how the staff and CA form would function together, and how it gives the user much smoother and sensible control.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7lDETnhPs1o

Using endurance to block with a shield, instead of rolling. Basically just an aesthetic option. Make it a trait, an item, a setting, a gem store purchase, or whatever you want! My armor-clad, shield-wielding, beached whale of a guardian will thank you greatly

Much love <3

Too much gold in the economy? You could have fooled me I barely manage to have 100 gold and I haven’t even bought all the faction armor skins that I want. It’s kind of silly that some people buy legendaries with 2000 gold and then there are people like me that don’t even dream of ascended gear because of the amount of materials needed and not enough money to buy them.

GW2 is the first MMO where I just can’t make money, farming Silverwastes is something I just can’t do because it after doing it for a few times it loses all the fun.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I have to say I don’t understand the forums.

Previously: Everything is too easy! We have nothing to do! Give us something, anything to do!

Now: OMG! You want us to do stuff??? This is uncalled for! Way too much to do!

Poor Devs.

Well.. the devs misunderstood.

→ Players: “Too easy”

• Easy = not hard
• Players: “Hard = challenging!”
• Devs “Hard = timeconsuming!”
• But: timeconsuming =/= hard!
• Timeconsuming = grindy
  → Players: “Too much grind”

Because grinding the mats or the gold together is plain boring and tedious.

Nokaru.7831:

JSmooth.7654:

But when Ascended gear was released, they stated that they had no plans to add another tier of gear. They never said that they would NEVER do it. They stated that Legendary gear will always be top tier.

There is no statistical difference between ascended and legendary, so they didn’t actually break any promises there.

You’re misinterpreting his statement. The devs have promised to make legendary top tier, regardless of what the current “top tier” is. In other words, the stats will always be increased to match the current top tier, which is what happened when ascended weapons were introduced.

So I’ve been playing my warrior for the past two weeks and I’ve discovered a build that is super fun and satisfying to play. I’m currently just using it for map completion, as it is a “for fun” build but I want to get yall’s opinion on it and see what areas I could improve upon and if its worth investing in the gear I would need to make it the best it can be.

Build: http://www.intothemists.com/calc/?build=-x;4NKVM0U4oKkQ0;9;4dfh;0237057158;4noV6E;1bUytbUyt10kZNLw6;3E9F9G9H9I9JeLuVIF310;9;9;9;9;9;9-V6s5F

Its alittle unorthodox I know, but hear me out. Reasons why I like this build:

1) I’m working on my Mace weapon master
2) Its very satisfying using my stuns properly to interrupt an enemy and I am further rewarded by several of the traits
3) Physical skills are alot of fun
4) Near 100% uptime on Weakness and Vulnerability
5) Reflection on block is pretty sweet
6) Between timing blocks and interrupts, it is a very active and engaging playstyle

I’m torn on what gear would be best for this build. Should I stick with the tried and true Zerker stats and treat the confusion as a nice bonus? Should I double down on the confusion since I would get 9 stacks with each interrupt between traits and perplexity runes and go for Sinister? Or should I split the difference and try Celestial?

Like I said in the beginning, this is mainly a build for fun, but I’m hoping that this build could be useful in HoT when we have more enemies with break bars and control could be more useful than it is currently.

ODB.6891:

As far as the OP’s statement goes….“we” said we didn’t want the trinity by our original purchase of GW2….as that was one of the cornerstones of the game…clearly documented by the three roles being listed as damage, support, and control….not damage, tanking, healing. Just because some people couldn’t be bothered to read the game description, or because ANET is back peddling on the product they sold us, does not make that any less of a valid issue.

At launch, I think everyone was open-minded and willing to give a shot to this new type of party mechanics, but you have to be blind to not see how hard it failed. DPS/Control/Support never happened, the reality was DPS/DPS/DPS. That design led the competitive PvE to a dead-end, and a very shallow one at that.

I respect companies that innovate, but something’s only innovation when it’s at least as good as what was there before, and GW2’s party mechanics clearly didn’t improve on the classic trinity of tank/DPS/healer.

I respect Arenanet if they have the guts to throw that design away and replace it with something that is perhaps less innovative but a lot more fun, compelling, strategic and inclusive for the majority of its player base.

That said, I think they’re just trying to make a place for players who like healers and tanks. I don’t think they’re forcing those roles on us. I think they’re just trying to make them playable and useful in groups. ie: You can go without a tank or a healer, but if you use those roles, they won’t be a waste of a group spot.

Can’t they give guardians…. guardian stuff for shield ?
For example a shield skill that transfers 20% of the damage your party members received to yourself.
Or give them a trait that have a chance to blocks attack while wielding a shield.

For PvE? RF Barrage RF, Maul Maul Maul, RF Barrage RF, Maul Maul Maul. S/A is a little better damage than GS though.

For PvP there is no rotation.

Regarding the OP, I don’t feel that this is strictly related to the zerk meta, but rather a lack of experience and/or competence. When things go wrong, people are quick to blame it on something other than admitting their own mistakes. In regards to class composition, this means that those suffering from a lot of prejudice (such as ranger and necro) will likely get blamed before one that is considered “meta” (ele or guard).

In your specific case, you gave them the opening (excuse) they needed through your lb-setup. The effectiveness of that setup has been covered elsewhere and is nothing I wish to address in my post as such.

That said, I wholeheartedly agree with Miku’s post about not joining those “meta-zerk-composition” groups. While I understand the desire for smooth PUG-runs, I do not wish to participate in such a level of class discrimination. Luckily, I have no problems finding competent groups through other ways. I can only add that the mentioned group-composition is by no means required to complete the current instanced content and we often take different picks in our organized guild-runs, which I’m sure make for a better completion time compared to the average tryhard pug run.

Tarasicodissa.7084:

Yup. I too usually ask for a specific class and kick anyone not meeting the criteria. This has nothing to do with tryharding, I’m simply testing people’s basic perceptive abilities. While it’s true that pretty much every dungeon can be completed with any class composition (and when people are competent, the time difference is not even that big), I don’t really wanna run with someone who can’t be even bothered to read and instantly joins random parties in the lfg. Bad people with good builds are still better than bad people with bad builds, hence why I ask for meta setups.
In the end class obviously doesn’t matter much, what matters is people’s abilities to read and do what you say.

Convenient excuse, considering you could add something as simple as pinging a certain part of equipment or whatever in order to check for a players basic perceptive ability. In my experience, a bad player with a good build (aka a meta-build he blindly copied) offers zero advantages, on the contrary, the class-canon nature of many such builds heavily punish lack of skill or coordination in a group. Personally, I would take an average player with an average build who follows directions over a wannabe meta-zerk anytime. But most important of all, I wish people would stop poisoning the lfg-system with class-discrimination.

I think we all agree that shield needs rework of some sort. Not a cooldown reduction, but a rework! 20-35 second cooldowns worked fine for shield, and would be great if the skills were stronger and more impactful. As it stands now, shield comes across as a very niche weapon (when you need extra projectile defence for fractals, supporting a group of 5+, knocking a thief out of SR). Even in these situations, we have other options that compete with shield. For projectile defence we have a spirit weapon, and Wall, for supporting groups of 5+ in, we have staff and hammer and for knocking a thief out of SR, we have binding blades, and banish if you’re lucky. In all other cases, it behooves you to use focus, or torch as an offhand.

I love the animations and concepts behind guardian shield, but we really need some added functionality (group aegis, or a BLOCK!). Additionally the trait for shield is redundant (shields already give bonus toughness, and SiN gives almost the same amount of toughness as it stays with you after a weapon swap). A reworking of the trait which adds interesting functionality to the shield, or perhaps some sort of boon on shield skill use would be most appropriate.

Heya everyone

Just to introduce myself, before gw2 i always played healers, especially in another famous game. I was an arena player with cool experiences and memories. Then i have been leader for the WvW alliance of a big EU server, for release until end of league one.

I stopped for more than one year, and when i came back in 2015, i searched a way to build a guardian like i ever wanted: a sort of Paladin. A true protector with reliable heals and survival tools. I wanted to heal and help other people to stay alive.

When Arenanet made the last big patch live, with the changes in traits, i knew it was the moment to create this !

The synergy in the build is heavy, and everything is linked in order to make the most defensive guardian possible. Heals, tons of regen and aegis make your guardian a tanking and healing machine, an almost classic healer if you fill the downtimes with double energy sigil healing dodges and the heals of the mace hit (1) .

A simple aegis will: heal you for 1k5, trigger a 5k self heal if not on internal cd, trigger Communal Defenses on allies, trigger Invigorated Bulwark, trigger a 2 sec regen.

So here is the “Bodyguard” build:

http://intothemists.com/guides/6410-tromas_bodyguard_build

As you can see, the Defender rune works with Pure of heart, Communal Defenses, Retaliatory Subconscious, Valorous Defenses, and the most important, Protector’s Strike of the mace. Yes, the block of mace trigger Communal Defenses and others effects of the rune and traits !

The new version of Force of Will will scale with your nomad armor, and enhance the heal on allies for 20% ! Same for Invigorated Bulwark, that reduce your mace cd by 20% (so more 3 blocks, and heals) and your heal power.

it’s a guaranteed aegis on allies every 15 second, and no 5 people limit !

The build will also allows you to tank everything in 1v1 but terromancer (because of perma -33% heal and convert boons mainly) in what i call the solomode (shelter and regen food).

It will allows you to heal allies in roam, group or raids very high, with a strong sustain, and a 20k+ burst of heal possible. The key is to rotate between your dodges (2k+ healings), your merciful intervention (3k+), the shout (10k) and others heals tools. With healing power food and max stack, your empower can heal allies for 4k2 too !

Between your high value heals, the many many aegis, you can make survive:

1) yourself in solo
2) your group versus more people in roaming
3) your raid leader and group in a raid

You can also save people in the last second, with merciful intervention + the bump of shield on their body before the stomp. Never hesitate to spam 2 of mace, because of the multiples regens and healpower you have. You will be a nightmare for big dps classes too.

The main difference with others healers build, it that everything is perfectly linked, and that your survival is vastly improved. The more you stay alive, the more you heal hehe.

I did some short records, in order to show you the true might of the character. In this one, on a player “pick-up” i didn’t know (so no vocal, no group), you can see how is it possible to rotate between your heals and aegis to make your dear allies survive:

In this one, you can see the solomode of Bodyguard build (shelter + regen food so) to tank a thief easily:

I hope you enjoyed the build like i enjoyed making it ! Feel free to answer anything

Yeah, honestly it’d just make alot more sense to role the Strength In Numbers and Shield Master trait into one. Have the Trait grant 150 Toughness to the party and reduce Shield CD by 20%, which would be perfect for the party protector playstyle. No need for that selfish 180 Toughness nonsense that that you are never going to take over protecting your allies all with 150 Toughness, if you are attempting to guard them, which is the only time you’d use a Shield instead of a Focus anyway in PvE.

This would open up a Trait spot that could be used to fix some of our other issues instead, too.