Guild Wars 2

Faereilos.5106:

You can keep the skin but you need to use transmutation stones/crystals.

Okay, so skins I buy from the store can be carried over to other items via their originally skinned item as long as I have the stones?

If so that’s a lot better than it sounded. I understood the skins could only be used once but wondered if they were also limited on the very item they skin over—as in its original appearance would be on a newly merged item rather than the skin itself.

Which of course, makes buying that skin a bit ridiculous if you have to buy it multiple times each time you have new gear to swap out. .-.

Simple question.

Do the skins you place upon an item carry over if said item is used as a skin for a second item?

For instance; I put a skin on my chest piece. I get a new chest piece with better stats, decide I’d like to swap it out. Can I use the prior chest piece, with the skin on it, and merge it with the new one so that the skin on the prior is how it appears?

I hope so, I’d rather not have another grudge against free-to-play games. =.=

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

they wont need to patch the server for dx11(what it sounds like your saying) yes the server needs work but, IMHO that should have its own team.

I think what anet really need to do is hire a team to either work on bugs with the current client so the current team can work on optimization and dx11 or they need to hire a new team to rebuild the client optimized better with dx11 support.

i mean, its clear from anets own posts that they dont recommend using XP32bit so….why are they supporting it?

funniest part to me though, is that they put all this effort into a game that appears to be clearly targeted for a console port, then no port…….

should have just built for dx11 based pc’s(with dx9 and 10 profiles) required vista/7 rather then support XP…..cuts down on the legacy hardware and software support alot….and is ready to port when the next gen consoles hit.

Your MMO market is not NEARLY as strong on the consoles for obvious reasons and your base to begin with is firmly entrenched on the PC. So why, in the unholy hell, would you waste your time developing for a dying generation considering such?

You build it for the PC first and plan on a potential console release for the next-generation of consoles, as they will likely be able to handle it without any real drastic adjustment made to the core engine.

This is one of those critical junctures where you may just need to cull your house of sheer stupid. I am utterly baffled by what developers are doing these days, at times practically self-destructing for no apparent reason all in the name of grabbing cheap and short-lived market bases.

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

RampQB then you got ripped off, the K series cpu’s only point in existing is to overclock…..

go over to overclockers.net and ask for some starter advice, if you got a decent board, 4.5 should be cake, and overclocking is alot of fun, i just dont think you should be forced to oc to get a game to run worth a kitten

And not to mention it probably won’t do you a whole lot of good, especially on an i5-i7.

GW2 really isn’t that high-end, it just poorly utilizes resources especially on higher-end rigs.

Better usage of the GPU and better support for i5-i7(especially i7’s) processors and you’ll see a lot less issues. I mean come on, my processor is an i7 3.5Ghz with 3.9Ghz turbo… and you really think any amount of OC is going to improve the 30fps I get in large scale battles?

I have a friend with a nearly identical rig and guess what? She gets crappy frames in WvW battles—surprise, surprise.

Jazhara Knightmage.4389:

omino.4302:

Why the hell is there no official comment on this pathetic problem? please just a yes we are on it or no we are happy it wont change would do me so i can quit coming back and checking jeeeeez, really getting on my nerves the lack of an official comment, trust me your expansion sales will take a bigger hit than a hulk smash in the jaw if it stays like this.

I love Guildwars and have since day 1 i just want it to be made ‘good and playable’ without feeling ill from the lousy fps

anet are taking the “ignore the problem and it will go away” approach to support in this case……after all, if you dont acknowledge a problem, it dosnt exist does it?

Kelliak.9152:

I notice that the game doesn’t EVER take 90-100% use of my GPU. It’ll cap out at 80% at its best and drop down to 30% usage at its worst.

This is with increased voltage amounts to the card to ensure its not getting choked on power and with an 3.5GHZ i7(3.9 turbo) I somehow doubt the CPU is at all bottle-necking my GPU.

So what’s the deal here? Is this still poorly optimized for the 680 cards?

you would be wrong, due to the design of gw2 you would need a 7-8ghz tricore to to avoid your cpu bottlenecking your gpu, even a mid range gaming gpu will be bottlenekcled by your 3.9ghz turbo.

note: you cant see this with task manager its polling cycles are to slow, when these threads hit a wall its for nano seconds or milliseconds, in that instant your fps are comprimised as the other heavy threads wait for the one thats hit the wall, if they each hit the wall regularly or one hits the wall over and over, your going to see a hit in fps thats pretty constant, that gets worse the more people who are around.

Its not about your videocard, you could be using a 650 or 660ti and still be seeing problems, or a 5770/5870/5850/6850/6870/exct, Anet have admited this and even explained it themselves…..they just wont do anything to fix it because, stuff like Quagan Backpacks make money where perf fixes wouldnt mean more sales or gem shop sales.

spacecraft.4968:

And what ever happened to DX11? They said it would be coming out later on down the road? Is it going to be YEARS? We have no idea since there is zero communication with the community.

I and many others have come to the conclusion that we will see dx11 and perf fixes when the xbox720 comes out and anet start working to port the game to that platform, till then, the game wont get anything but more gem shop items and “content”……

dont expect anet to do anything that would require real work like fixing the perf of the game or adding dx11 support till theres the carrot of more sales dangling in front of them.

So in other words, we’re SoL until they utilize multi-core and GPU more efficiently, and not only that, but switch to DX11. I have to be honest, I am a little sickened, a game released very recently, did not come with DX11 out of the box. Even WoW provides a DX11 option.

Nice to spend so much money on building my rig and my most desired game, the one that really shouldn’t cause me so much grief, takes very little advantage of it. Guess I’ll have to suck up the 30fps in large fights. It’s so hard go from a crisp 60 to 30 just because you got in the middle of a large skirmish. :\

Stormcrow.7513:

Kelliak my gtx 680 oc will get in the 90s with supersampling.

Good for you. -_-;

SS does jack to me, off or on. So that doesn’t mean much to me.

I notice that the game doesn’t EVER take 90-100% use of my GPU. It’ll cap out at 80% at its best and drop down to 30% usage at its worst.

This is with increased voltage amounts to the card to ensure its not getting choked on power and with an 3.5GHZ i7(3.9 turbo) I somehow doubt the CPU is at all bottle-necking my GPU.

So what’s the deal here? Is this still poorly optimized for the 680 cards?

Decided to delete my thread and contribute to this one, I’ve grown weary of dealing with this problem and have essentially ceased playing GW2 as a result.

System specs:
i7-3770K 3.5GHZ(3.9GHZ Turbo) Ivy Bridge Processor
16GB 1900Mhz G.Skill Trident Series RAM
Asus Sabertooth z77 Motherboard
EVGA 680GTX FTW 4GB Video Card(updated drivers)
360GB Corsair SSD

I can run the game 90% of the time at ultra, shadows n’ all(except reflections they seem horrendously bugged and drained an insane amount of frames) with the exception of given spots—which to me reveal this game’s poorly designed engine. That one intense area can run 60+ frames and the other sit around 40+ frames at very specific locations.

That I can live with though.

What I can’t live with is getting into the middle of major battles and watching my frames plummet from a cool 60+ to a stomach churning 30+. Am I to expect this with my load-out or is this game really that badly done in the technical department? Even Tera, which in my opinion looks much prettier, gives me more bang for my buck.

Hell, I can run the horrendously optimized PS2 free-to-play(in other words made for cheap kitten people and their cheap kitten rigs) MMO at 40-60fps consistently! I would’ve expected a lot more from a game I paid sixty-five dollars to get into to begin with.

If I do not see significant improvements to the engine that better utilizes the GPU and spreads itself out more equally over my many cores, then I am not buying anything Arenanet has to offer. That includes expansions. I’ve got many other products to choose from, not to mention ESO and Wildstar in the future.

And… now I am feeling the same about PvP as I did PvE.

I’m really just as a whole not enjoying this game anymore. So much of it is backwards from what I’ve learned and it’s making the entire experience feel like a trudge through quicksand. Figure out one detail, another one slaps you in the face in the most obnoxious way possible. New is nice, different is nice, but they went overboard with it.

Basically I’m finding out that even though I already moved my traits away from damage focus, I also have to do the same with my gear to do any good in PvP. Otherwise I just die on a dime to anything and everything. I’ve grown bored of searching for answer after answer and quite frankly; I’m ready to give up MMOs entirely.

I just want to get back to my shooters. I love competition, not spending hours upon hours trying to figure out how to even be competitive to begin with—often by working out a cookie cutter build/style(oh how original Arenanet) only to realize this whole mess has grown exhausting for me.

Even the social aspect, which drew me originally to MMO titles, has gone to hell across the board no matter what game it is.

Really, thanks everyone, but that’s it for me. When a game becomes a job, it’s no longer a hobby. At least I’ve got my CE Halo 4 Xbox coming down the pipe. There is nothing wrong with that.

Sirgen’s build has helped me tremendously in my potential, I quickly cut through Orr, got to Lvl. 80 through the evening, and even got a full set of “Mad King’s” exotic gear to throw on top of it all—so now I am a sexy lil’ thiefy.

Apparently I’ve done a complete 180, I’m surprised. Combining most of my damage output with avoidance is excellent. Of course I altered his build a bit, not so much in traits but in skills. I’m sure I’ll tinker more as time goes on but I honestly see no reason to really touch the two pure damage trees at this point.

Did a build similar to Sirgen’s… doing much better. Just need some time to get it down but I did kill three ranged orrians without dying. Considering I had issue with more than just one, period, prior—that’s something.

Tulisin.6945:

Kelliak.9152:

Tulisin.6945:

Kelliak.9152:

I don’t get why no one accounts for the many ranged mobs in Orr. .-.

There aren’t really that many, and thieves are well-equipped to close range with them when there are.

…I’ve dealt with entire groups of them, why do I feel like at times the experiences in this game are so vastly different it is literally impossible to really outline how to deal with situations?

Not to mention, I do not want to close range. I lose health and burn endurance like it’s going out of fashion when I do that. It seems like no matter how well I time myself, if one thing hits me, it’s kitten near over right there.

I also, STILL, don’t get where you’re getting your damage from. Full glass-cannon and it took forever to kill anything without the p/p spamming “3” setup. You guys act like closing distance magically causes things to die and I’ve actually noted daggers seem to do far worse compared to their ranged counterparts.

Definitely vastly different experiences here. Since P/P #3 (Unload) is one of our lowest DPS abilities, lower than most of our auto attacks, and you seem to be perceiving it as your best DPS option. For closing I use Infiltrator’s Strike, pretty much risk free and instant, or Steal for the same reasons. Dodging towards your opponent is also viable and very much recommended with Acrobatics, but may not be as good of an idea without dodge traits.

No idea why you’re having DPS issues. I run 5~ might stacks on average, with mostly offensive gear (berserker), most Orr and Frostgorge trash dies in a few auto attack chains (3 at a time, since they’re sword autos). Optionally, vs. 2 enemies burning my initiative bar on Dancing Dagger will kill them in a couple seconds, always good for some quick burst.

One of my favorite things to do is go to Frostgorge where the wolves hang out and grab the veteran wolf with its 3 pups, + 3 other wandering wolves, smack them around until they call their buddies (10 mobs total), and then drop caltrops and burn them all down.

Yes, see, somehow my damage doesn’t work out like it should. Spamming “3” on p/p has been the only way to burn anything, reliably. Unless of course I use the s/p combo and spam it’s “3” instead. Daggers have always proven to hit very softly for me and only expose me to some severe retaliation.

Tulisin.6945:

Kelliak.9152:

I don’t get why no one accounts for the many ranged mobs in Orr. .-.

There aren’t really that many, and thieves are well-equipped to close range with them when there are.

…I’ve dealt with entire groups of them, why do I feel like at times the experiences in this game are so vastly different it is literally impossible to really outline how to deal with situations?

Not to mention, I do not want to close range. I lose health and burn endurance like it’s going out of fashion when I do that. It seems like no matter how well I time myself, if one thing hits me, it’s kitten near over right there.

I also, STILL, don’t get where you’re getting your damage from. Full glass-cannon and it took forever to kill anything without the p/p spamming “3” setup. You guys act like closing distance magically causes things to die and I’ve actually noted daggers seem to do far worse compared to their ranged counterparts.

I don’t get why no one accounts for the many ranged mobs in Orr. .-.

Jack of Tears.9458:

rogerwilko.6895:

It`s called ‘Sunk Cost’.

Wow, that’s the biggest load ah b-s I heard all mornin’, and I’ve been on the internet for hours.

I play a Thief because it’s Fun for me, I Enjoy the mechanics, I Love steal like it was my baby, I adore the fact that I gotta be on my toes ta play the class instead ah cake walkin’ through everything. Sure, it ain’ for everyone … that’s okay – I ain’ judgin’ ya because ya don’ like the class … but don’ come in here an’ tell me my class is garbage an’ I’m only havin’ fun with it because I’m brainwashed.

Um, all he did was point out that playing something due to “sunk costs” is irrational ultimately as you continue investing into those losses rather than cutting them and going to something else. He wasn’t making a remark against the thief class at all and was entirely accurate really. I’ve often gotten too caught up in the “sunk costs” issue, unable to give up something that I ultimately did not enjoy because of time spent.

The class is garbage, but one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. As much as I’d like to rip into you and question your thinking, it isn’t worth it nor sensible. I don’t mind difficulty but I want it to be rewarding—the thief failed to reward me for my efforts, instead seemed intent on punishing me for every possible mistake like it was an epic blunder.

Either way, my 74 thief isn’t going anywhere. She’s not a wasted effort, she’s still there, perhaps one day I can appreciate her better. Just not now.

Edit: Let me add, that I enjoy being Asura better than a Human too. I’m all about style and presentation, the engineer/Asura combo seems to give me that. x) <3

I’ve got a lot invested into it but I can’t be hassled into trying to make it work for me. Some people seem to have success with it. Don’t know how, why, it could be a matter of viewpoint but I personally think it is garbage. A lot of work and effort for one of the most lackluster, clunky classes I’ve thus far encountered in a game.

I wish I could say otherwise. I am having fun mowing down things with grenades right now though. XD

BabelFish.7234:

To be honest thieves are typically bad in PvE. You either go P/D, D/D (which starts to fail at higher levels and in dungeons) or S/P and if you go S/P you have to use weird builds or you end up being to fragile to survive in dungeons.

Yes, dungeons are just a problem in general, figured that how when I grabbed aggro without doing much of anything.

S/P is probably, in my opinion, the only real viable option for PvE though as it can allow you to surmount obstacles that otherwise would’ve been impossible or incredibly annoying to get around with other weapon sets. Only problem is again, like the rest of the thief, it is extremely boring and dull.

I got this game for a more interactive combat system, not to wish I had cruise control as I cut my way through thousands of Orrians screaming, “Death. Good!” Ho, ho, ho…. indeed, death is preferable to the thief profession.

I’ve already swapped to an engineer and quite frankly already see a lot more viable options and fun utility to be found in this class. I don’t even mind switching kits/weapons because all of my abilities feel far more useful with a great deal of synergy between them. You don’t realize how giddy I got when I realized I could switch into kits like medic and grenades—I love them grenades, abuse ’em.

This is more of what I am looking for, clever design with loads of fun to be had. I don’t care about lethality, lethality means squat to me when it’s wrapped up in crappy packaging and you’re pulling tricks out your behind just to make it all happen in this clumsy styling.

Also, I still don’t know where you guys are getting your damage from. I kind of thinking you live in a fantasy world where you think your sub-par output is somehow good for all the effort you put into it. Back-stab spamming might work, sure, however it’s not only a ridiculously stupid build/emphasis but how often will that be successful once your stealth is fixed and its overall damage still nerfed?

I really think some of you are too positive and not enough realist. The thief got boned. It needs to be redone quite frankly and actually given some love rather than literally the most boring, underachieving kit in the game. You have to abuse a single move half the time just to get anything out of it!

BrianCushing.5304:

Here is my opinion for whatever its worth:

I find soloing 3-5 lvl 80 mobs as a thief quite easy. AE damage skills/caltrops etc with pistol whip best I can tell is about as good as it gets in game for pve trash. Managing initiative for me seems fine. Stamina for our class seems under par however, especially in harder group content or fighting bosses…

Doing events like COE for the thief class I find pretty brutal. You have to work VERY hard to constantly drop aggro, evade and position. I get that this is a “characteristic” they have deliberately built into the class … but after taking my thief to 80, maxing all skills and putting on top gear … I am still struggling more on my thief then other classes. I have played with some PHENOMINAL thiefs who have really mastered game positioning and movement, much better than I have. I will tell you, that makes a huge difference in PVE hard content. If stam was about double current amount, it would help.

Overall I am not as negative about the class as you are. I would like to see the class have more upside for what I see as more challenging play style.

In general, I have found GW2 to be incredibly well done. Graphics, game mechanics, story line are all excellent. I have never played a game where class balance and builds werent always a big debate.

I do think you should try another class. My mechanic is pretty fun, and I had never really played a class similiar … but I still find myself coming back to the thief. What really improved my thief was playing an elementalist for a while lol

The thief is really just a bore and I honestly don’t know how you’re getting any damage out of it. I can go all 30-30-15 into the damage branches, wear nothing but pow, con, and prec gear and it feels like I am throwing pebbles at enemies. This is glaringly frustrating using daggers which require you to get close—yet don’t make up for it in burst.

Seriously, my Mesmer can burn down targets much more efficiently, several in fact, without even getting touched. A class that requires skill but rewards it well. The thief feels opposite of that, it requires skill still, yes, but completely fails to deliver reward. In fact most of the time I don’t feel like a thief or rogue-like class. Just some ’ kitten unloading shots from pistols all day.

Again, how you’re getting any kind of damage worth noting is beyond me and how you’re enjoying it is even more perplexing considering there is no synergy there.

FWB.1704:

No you’re right, the only way to build a viable thief in PvE is to go glass cannon and hope you don’t get hit. Thanks to many of the nerfs called for by the PvP community, the PvE thief is extremely frail and cannot hold a candle to most of the other classes at higher levels. This is what happens when ANET decides to favor the PvP players with all their complaints while basically ignoring what they already figured out in GW1…. separate PvP and PvE skills and abilities.
Unfortunately there’s not much hope for us. All the “balancing” Anet has done so far are by and large nerfs so that balancing is easier on them. The problem is, by nerfing everything into oblivion the game becomes more boring and bland by the week. It may be more difficult to make weapons and abilities fun, versatile and fluid (a.k.a. the old Guardian GS) but bringing all the fun / dynamic abilities down to the level of the bland ones that don’t change the flow of combat at all…. that’s never the way to go. I had faith in this game, but the way it’s being tweaked is in the complete opposite direction of what a fun game would be. Hate to say this but i’m really looking forward to a new mmo soon.

I think this game could be excellent if they’re willing to go the extra mile. Just nerfing stuff rather than reinventing a given spell or two isn’t the way to go. I can tell you right now, the thief is probably going to be the most unpopular class in this game because it is so dull and unrewarding. You don’t accomplish improving upon it by nerfing it further.

Was so excited for the earlier premise of the thief funny enough. “Oh, a more immersive, evasion-based rogue, that’ll be nice!” Come to find out it’s all gimmicks and a nightmare at best. Half the time I fight someone in PvP they just spam the same two moves and try to keep distance.

I’m utilizing everything in my arsenal just to survive! X)

Tulisin.6945:

I think the profession might just not be for you. You found it unfun and limited in PvE and PvP, whereas many people have found a multitude of fun and viable builds in both.

You’re the first I’ve seen say this thus far. I find it humorous that rogue-like classes have been a favorite of mine for many MMO titles and this one completely mutilated them for me.

I don’t think it’s me that has the problem quite frankly. Not trying to be snooty but I am pissed off.

Tulisin.6945:

Ichishi

Basically, farthest you can go as a thief in pve is full glass cannon d/d or p/p.

D/D and P/P are, in my experience, probably the weakest possible PvE setups just due to their lack of AE capability.

Thief PvE is as easy as gathering tons of mobs, using Signet of Malice, and using AE abilities.

The OP is right on the money here though:

You’re taking down mobs slower than most people as a heavy damage build, then if you try to balance into defense more for further survival it just goes to waste as you tend to burn all of your tricks rapidly with a very low rate of return damage.

This is why you shouldn’t spec heavy defense in open-world PvE as a thief. Build heavy offense, play actively, and kill enemies before they have much of a chance to do anything to you. The average fight for me at 80 with S/D consists of jumping into a group of mobs and walking around spamming #1 + dodge until they’re all dead. Veterans get C&D+daze, and C&D is used for a quick aggro wipe whenever things look bleak. With S/P it is even easier. Grab mobs, kite them into a ball, and use pistol whip 2-3 times. Either way takes a few seconds and is relatively risk-free. Thief PvE is not hard unless you make it hard by trying to bring PvP tactics into PvE.

I actually already brought your point up and disregarded as enormously boring and dull. The fact that it is the only real reliable means by which to PvE gives credit to the idea the thief was poorly designed from the get-go.

In all honesty, what PvP I did do didn’t feel much better either to boot. Very limited scope of operations, just a REALLY goofy design philosophy behind it with virtually no options beyond a given path or two. Thief PvP’ing strategy; work harder than everyone else only to still get little reward for it—brilliant.

If it was originally up to me I wouldn’t have brought any kind of a “rogue” class to the game unless I was willing to HEAVILY emphasize certain build concepts—such as poisons, evasion, and crit damage to the extreme. Instead every route is a weak, fumbling mess. Support wouldn’t have even been a desired build therefore focus could be put more into damage/personal mitigation making the thief a more “rogue-ish” class as it should be.

The lack of a trinity in this game seems to have done as much damage to it as its benefited from it. It looks like the developers didn’t even know how to entirely approach this new concept. It is literally impossible to blend the support/damage/tank concept into every class because then you either end up homogenizing them or having massive headaches like the thief.

…By which could have been solved by simply making it the rare class that emphasizes damage with virtually no support and only personal mitigation/evasions. Boohoo, we can’t fit multiple roles, big deal—most people who roll thief anticipated a more damage, self-serving focus to begin with. At least we’d be good at SOMETHING!

A lack of emphasis on the “holy trinity” does not mean every class needs to have the defense/offense/support branches—you can have exceptions.

Well, reading further through the forum and seeing a couple of reactions to this post—re-rolling might be a good idea.

Anyone familiar with the engineer? I’m not looking for the most “OP” class in the game, I just want something fun and versatile for a change. You don’t know how close I was to quitting until I came to the theory that it might have more to do with my profession choice than anything else.

Ichishi.9613:

Downside of thief pve is that you either need to be much more active (because mistakes go harder on thieves) than most other classes or have a very specialized build for some purpose with good gear to be able to do it with some degree of easiness.
Sadly it is more about the design of the weapon skills and other limitations introduced in gw2 than just a thief problem. I suggest shortbowing your way through everything until you can be confident in your understanding of other weapon sets such as d/d 3rd skill, s/p 3rd and 5th skill.
Until then shortbow + caltrops + speed signet and maybe shadow refuge or ambush trap is the easiest way. If you can avoid fighting much ranged mobs.

Here is the problem, I can us the d/d setup fine but it’s never enough. Things attack me too rapidly at this point, I burn through my initiative even with initiative returning traits. This includes dodging and every other method to avoid/mitigate damage. Then to boot when I do get hit, even as a tankier build, it’s like getting hit by a freight train.

The entire time my damage, regardless of focus, is piss poor and doesn’t output enough to make for the tiring attempt of survival each and every basic fight.

So far two weapon setups are all that I see as somewhat viable in PvE. P/P with constant strafing and back-pedaling(it outputs decent damage compared to the bow which takes eons) and s/p—the ability to nearly consistently spam your evade/multi-attack move along with decent damage actually makes it pretty effective.

Here is the problem with both builds, they’re still kitteny and boring as hell. I honestly don’t mind having to think through things and be quick on my feet. It just feels as if there are no returns for the effort—do you get what I mean? Other classes, when I observe them, seem to be much more diverse and capable of handling themselves.

The thief on the other hand seems to be designed for the masochist.

I’m unfortunately not enjoying my thief in terms of PvE, I mean, at all. I actually loathe it and it’s probably the most miserable class design I’ve ever come across. This maybe due to me, maybe not, let’s iron this out and perhaps I can come away from this thread with some ideas going forward…

None of the builds feel very strong or give a true sense of focus to a given aspect of the thief. This makes me feel like a “jack-of-all-trades” type of character however rather than being good at anything, I’m poor at all with success involving a very careful approach of multiple styles.

This brings me to another argument; I find the thief incredibly boring as a result. It’s just bland as could be with very little reward for the effort you put into it. You’re taking down mobs slower than most people as a heavy damage build, then if you try to balance into defense more for further survival it just goes to waste as you tend to burn all of your tricks rapidly with a very low rate of return damage.

So, here are my questions to the thieving community.

• Are my feelings by and large the same for many?

• Is it a kitteny class, does it lack in flare versus the other profession choices in the game?

• Am I better off jumping ship until overhauls can be made?

• Perhaps I am just not getting the gist of the entire design of the character and therefore it feels clunky and frustrating?

Looking at re-rolling unfortunately as it stands. First high-level(74) and I feel completely underwhelmed by what I am seeing out of this profession. Basically looking for other thoughts to help me make the final decision on the matter. :\

Turtlemilk.1064:

1. Agreed – the story was great at first but it started to go downhill the moment Traeherne got involved. I actually thought the story was very interesting until then.
2. Doesn’t that just mean that you’re in a crappy guild? Perhaps you should consider joining another. Remember that you can be in multiple guilds at the same time.
3. Many skill points are guarded by veteran mobs, hence why they are called “skill challenges.” Shameful if the mob is bugged, though.
4. It’s common knowledge that something like Hundred Blades Warriors or Shatter Mesmers are far more like glass cannons than, say, a confusion-based Mesmer. Try experimenting with popular builds from websites like:
   http://www.gw2builds.org/
   http://www.gw2build.com/
5. Underwater combat was intended to add another combat layer but it can definitely be frustrating for some classes. Remember, though, that you can change your skills to a different set solely for underwater combat. Also remember that level-appropriate underwater weapons are extremely important.
6. WvW can be confusing at first, but once you figure it out it’s very simple to understand. Remember that you can speak with the tutorial guide the moment you zone in. You can also check out: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World
7. I’m not sure what you mean by “worth” completing. There’s no subscription fee and little vertical progression at the maximum level. You can stop playing for several months and not have to worry about falling behind or feeling obligated to play.

THESE are the kinds of posts I love. They’re respectfully opinionated but more than that, helpful. That’s how you grow a community and grow your game, not by trying to run people off that don’t immediately agree with your viewpoints.

I’ll take a gander at the builds and see if anythings trikes me as profitable.

By the way, your name is unusual and familiar. Were you a WoW player on Lightninghoof sometime before you went to GW2? I could swear that is exactly the name of the warlock that used to harass the unholy hell out of us during BC.

Completion wise I was referring to the story more than anything—and level-capping.

Banewrath.5107:

Well there is all kinds of challenges and skins you can try to get. The game don`t lack that. Once you hit 80 and play it for awhile after you get the stat gear you need or want, you will probably find youself playing it less and less if you are more into games that focus on raiding or developing you character further like aa points in eq. It`s not bad game. I`m glad I bought it. But I didn`t expect it feel like it was over this soon.

I actually LOVE collecting skins, doing challenges, especially on the PvE front. Sans that though if it requires me trudging through Orr alone—that place has literally become my own personal hell in the gaming world.

I even like PvP generally speaking, I just don’t understand the disparity—getting killed in a few shots, not denting people, etc. It kind of irks me when Arenanet said that wouldn’t really be the case. How do you complete with that, you know? Granted I don’t know all the details probably when prepping for PvP.

Ageia.5843:

I sincerely don’t mean to troll you OP, but if you are unhappy with the game, find a new one. There are so many out there. Personally, I love the experience. That said, I have to agree about some of the end game story voice acting. The female Norn after Fort Trinity …its almost as if they changed voice actresses at that point, and if the voice didn’t sound the same, I’d swear they had! Instead of thinking critically about it though, I’ve decided to find it entertaining!

I loved the(leveling)experience until they killed off the only character I liked and the story/difficulty spiked all over the place in a nonsensical manner. It went downhill WAY too fast for my taste, sort of like getting slapped out of a nice buzz.

I might be able to enjoy this game if I’d bite the bullet, get this leveling done, and forget the story ever happened—oh and stay clear away from water. However there are other complaints, concerns that haven’t bee really addressed yet noted in this thread.

Banquetto.9521:

Kelliak.9152:

5) Water combat is god awful and makes you wonder why it was implemented in the first place if you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities.

Water combat does indeed suck.

But when you say “you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities”.. it makes me wonder if you’re not aware that you can assign a set of utility & elite skills for underwater combat? It’s a separate set, so your bar is empty when you go underwater until you do assign skills.

I didn’t realize this myself until last week.. after playing through several beta stages and two months since release (/facepalm)

Yeah I know of it, unfortunately 90%(probably less than that but the majority no doubt are)of my abilities are barred off. Again, I’m thinking maybe the Thief is just a crummy class for someone’s first experience.

Banewrath.5107:

You can always go back to orr and finish the map or do activities there when you are in the mood for it. I only go there now to make a quick sweep to mine for ori. I will go to frostgorge which I like despite all the bots everywhere you turn or fireheart rise. I like the fireheart map alot, I feel that map catches the feel of the original game the most out of all of them.

I`m allready 80, allready have my gear I need, finally saved up enough to buy my protectors cultural set and now I`m finding it hard to remain ingame longer then 20-30 minutes before logging. I know it`s a huge gameworld with numerous activities, but I feel like I have experienced all there is to offer at this point. Not really into pvp anymore so I don`t mess with that. So just take your time and milk it for what it`s worth until you get to the point I am or stop beforehand.

I see… kind of disappointing. I really like games I can invest my time in. Didn’t expect your typical gear progression grind or anything like that. However I did hope there was a lot of challenges to be done, skins to be grabbed. I’m guessing there’s not much of that if many are already burning out on it.

Banewrath.5107:

I think if you got this far you should just go ahead and finish it. Or you can play something else for a few weeks and then return and finish it. There really is no rush, the game doesn`t change and you don`t really get anything for completing the story anyway. The rest of your time in the game will be just the same as your previous time in the game.

I agree with you on the orr map. It took me a month to get a certain skillpoint because it was impossible with the respawns being so fast if you didn`t have a group. I notice that for difficulty, Anet likes to put the most annoying abilites on mobs and group them in packs and litter the landscape with them and call that challenging. Was kindof neat at first , but after the millionth time, it isn`t fun anymore. It makes you want to avoid that area because it`s not enjoyable to be running and hear from behind you, " DEATH! GOOD!" then get slingshotted back a few times.

Try exploring other parts of the map you haven`t been to yet. Not really any of them are even close to annoying as orr is. You might find an area you like. The frostgorge map is pretty fun.

Probably will detour from Orr should I continue, it’s been a traumatizing experience. I also agree that difficulty via extreme annoyance is not a good way of going about things—and come on man, you can only dodge so much crap at once! Give us a break.

(No thoughts on PvP? This was another area I was underwhelmed by despite actually liking it in GW1)

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

The part about people helping is only going to get worse as more zones become empty. Right now at least 4 to 5 maps are empty. Doing anything group related is out of the question, unless you bring your own group.

With the upcoming patch they are adding yet another area, meaning that the little population left will become even more spread out. Meaning that there will be fewer people around to do group content.

For anyone that thinks I am wrong, please go fraps running through straits, or brisban, or blazeridge. Then post it telling us how those zones are just so full.

Yes, this is another point I wanted to touch on in more detail. There was many zones where I could do very little in the way of events or grand battles because there was like virtually no one else there and this is shortly after its release!

They designed this game in such a way that it was great for the first flow of people and boring/miserable for those coming up behind them. I’m actually dreading the idea of rolling another class—even though I’d like to because I’m thinking part of my disliking of this game originates with being a thief.

Now if you have an active guild(which appears to be few and far between), friends, yeah, that alleviates this problem, no doubt. However, what about the rest of us? Is this game going to really be that picky and focused that it only caters to a very specific market group?

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Posting here is a bad idea, for two reasons.

1. You aren’t alone, but most of those threads like yours are deleted very quickly.

2. Anet already knows how people feel. Their behavior so far should give you a hint how much they care.

I do like some of the game, but most of the points you brought up are valid.

I figured as much, hope it wouldn’t be that way. It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t feel like putting up a “you could fix or improve it like this!” thread. Seems like they’re not interested in working with the community at large, as long as people support what they’re doing currently—why listen to any dissenting arguments?

I’m actually terribly confused by a lot of the directions they went with things. Innovation is great, yes, but innovation for the sake of innovation can be outright destructive to your overall efforts.

chocomamma.1539:

The story is lacking yes
Guilds, I joined 2 and both rarely ever had any one on. Joined another and for the first time had guild members chatting
Orr in general is a pain, even trying to run away I get my behind kicked. Would be better with more people which happens every now and then.
I have also noticed a lack of wanting to help. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t but it is frustrating when you need help and no one wants to.

Regardless I still enjoy the game, maybe my Asura is helping in that she is just too cute and the stuff she says is so funny
I am also easily amused and that helps

Trust me friend, I wish I was too. I think I might be a bit too much of a critic these days.

I’ve been playing this game a bit now, sitting at about Lvl. 73(almost 74) and I am rapidly becoming less and less excited to finish it up.

1) The story continues to get worse and less cohesive. Voice acting at given parts doesn’t help, some of it is horrendous and would be better in mere text. Honestly, for a game touting a more “RPG” experience it’s failing horrendously on this front—WoW does better quite frankly.

2) Guilds are utterly worthless. I can rarely ever get a group going, assistance, or even a conversation much of the time. This appears to be a reoccurring theme among friends who also played(keyword here). Are people just joining them for perks or just ’cause with little desire to actually mingle?

Been in several, not much luck it would seem.

3) Some of the content in this game is downright INFURIATING. Take one of the skill-point locales in the Straits of Devastation; can’t get to it because a veteran mob is spawned there along with a couple of regulars. The veteran is not only buggy and easily reset(very problematic as a thief relying heavily on stealth to survive) but him and his companions have this neat trick of dragging you down and paralyzing you the entire duration for 3 seconds or so.

Why they thought this was a clever component, for such a random moment in someone’s leveling career, is beyond me. You’ll see this sort of thing throughout the game and Orr LOVES to dump it on you in heaping doses. Guess they didn’t count on the community being lifeless knuckleheads unwilling to assist unless there is a clear objective stamped out on their map.

Again, if you’re going to suddenly throw some amount of difficulty at people at least make it not such a buggy NIGHTMARE!

4) I really, REALLY do not like the scaling in this game. Thought I would, find it makes my progress feel utterly worthless and doesn’t give enough appreciation to how you build your character either. Shifting from a raw damage character to a more tanky, crafty one seems to have very little difference save in perhaps the game-play itself.

This makes no sense and brings to question why we even bother to do anything besides a more evasive or defensive character? My defenseless, glass-cannon killed things about as fast as a more defensive orientated design! The only difference was she couldn’t stand for very long…

5) Water combat is god awful and makes you wonder why it was implemented in the first place if you can’t even use your character’s carefully selected abilities. It’ll often outright undo the benefits you had on land making it a living hell. Then they jam pack it, almost consistently, with an abnormal amount of mobs to take on.

Not cool.

6) PvP is just confusing, especially in WvW I really don’t know what’s going on half the time. It does a poor job of ushering you into things and not only that, but regardless of what Arenanet says, the disparity between levels/time spent can be an enormous factor.

Getting killed in a few shots while I couldn’t dent my target kind of gave that away. It’s just another layer of frustration and disappointment—lot of broken promises and what they did adhere to, wasn’t that great of an idea to begin with.

7) Now a question; Is this game even worth completing the story? To continue collecting and completing for whatever bizarre reason? It went from one of my most anticipated, most hopeful titles since like… EVER to being nothing more than a pain in my behind. I’m serious when I say most of what this game offers is done better elsewhere and what it does uniquely just drags it down generally speaking.

Hate to rip on a game people likely enjoy a great deal but I’m pretty sick of it at this point. Ready to drop MMOs entirely, as I am not going back to you know what, and find my place in another genre instead

All thoughts, feelings, suggestions on improving my experience are welcome. Just don’t expect me to be too happy-go-lucky obviously.