Guild Wars 2

Considering Druids start with full Celestial Force during PvP matches, it hardly seems fair for a Necromancer to start with 0 Life Force.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/review/guild-wars-2-heart-thorns-review

Just gone live.

SlayerSixx.5763:

You can focus a druid since they’ve got only one escape. I rarely have problems downing non-bunker druids 1v1. Bunker druids can be killed 2v1 if you wait out the stability, but they usually get help by the time that happens.

What? 1 escape? We have staff #3, Entangle, Signet of Stone, stealth from Smokescale + Staff #3, Longbow #3 stealth, Quickening Zephir, Lightning Reflexes…

I use the following build (http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQFATjEqQDLWyCusAVLWyEM4baPdo6c4SANumkVA4AUyzSD-TpwVABfWGAg9HAA) and can quite comfortably survive against 2 and kill them. It’s rather silly, especially with clever use of stealth + mitigation.

Class or Profession balance is largely perception. There are so many variables that affect ones perceived ideas on balance:

1. Your skill versus your enemies
2. Their skill versus yours
3. What build you or they use
4. Your profession versus theirs
5. The map and its layout – does it favor your profession?
6. The team composition
7. Are you being supported by your team when needed?
8. What cooldowns did you or your enemy have available when the fight started?
9. What weapon sets were you using against theirs?

My only balance concerns for PvP right now are:

1. There are too few means of reducing a players health (ala Mortal Strike) outside of just using damage. This results in bunker builds, in 1 on 1 situations, being far too strong. On Druid I can quite comfortably survive against 3 players attacking me – that shouldn’t be possible and the end result is a too greater ability to contest points or push lanes.

2. Boon stacking (type and duration) is too prevalent to the point that it’s artificially inflating the damage, survivability and power of certain professions. Fundamentally, if you can permanently maintain 25 stacks of might, fury, swiftness, regeneration and protection – it’s no longer a Boon, is it? You might as well, at that point, just make it standard for all professions. Scrapper, Tempest (Elementalist), Herald and even Druid, to some respects, have it so easy that

3. Some skills I think could be tweaked, slightly:

> Slick Shoes is still too strong in its current form – you should be able to stun break out of it.
> I would add a slightly longer cast time on traps to ensure they can’t be used as teleport bombs.
> I would fix the graphical bug with primed traps so you can clearly see their radius on the floor (including the graphics of Dragons Maw when its jaw closes)
> I would slightly reduce the damage and increase the cooldown on Unrelenting Assault.

Other than the above, I actually think sPvP in Guild Wars 2 is in a good place but sadly, many fail to consider the variables of a fight when it starts (or ends).

Dolt.2731:

And druid counters DH quite well in my exp.

When I play DH, I can honestly say they don’t. They can survive a DH but will eventually die unless they run.

glaphen.5230:

Ragnarox.9601:

glaphen.5230:

Ragnarox.9601:

Chingiz.6481:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SubOQjSHQ_c

second dodge when you saw trap animation coming?…Its your fault. I can just quote that DH : “l2p or l2dodge”

He would probably be inside the Maw at that point and his dodge would be interrupted if he wasn’t already being pulled.

Nah, he just got owned. DH is not to blame, he had 1 dodge left, could use it but he didn’t. Simple as that. No dodge = you die. Stop complaining and learn to play.

Please learn your class, you can’t dodge while trapped inside a barrier because it gets interrupted. If he is already being pulled at the end of the dodge then he would have to stun break and then dodge with an inhuman reaction time but he still might be already hitting the barrier wall at that point since he dodged into the middle of the Maw.

There’s a delay before the Maw closes. It’s plenty of time to dodge out of it, really.

Bllade.1029:

Just put a longer cast time on the traps and make them blockable. Damage can remain high with all the benefits too. But this instant damage in one place that cant be blocked nor dodged out of without stability is overpowered and embarrassing to see in a competitive spvp environment.

There is no counterplay to an instant teleport on top of you and all of that laid at your feet in less than 3 seconds. That’s not competitive play, that’s cheese; and even the most damage oriented profession in full zerk couldn’t achieve the things a DH can in the wettest of dreams.

People aren’t playing DH to be competitive, they’re playing it because it’s easy. If Arena Net really wants to create a competitive environment; counter play has to exist.

All traps can be dodged or stun broken. Even Dragon’s Maw you can trigger and avoid with a dodge.

I fail to see the issue if you can’t be bothered to learn such a thing. Players such as yourself deserve to die if you’re just standing in them.

glaphen.5230:

No point in making this thread, DH players don’t know, they just don’t want their class nerfed.

Well I play revenant and scrapper and have to say the dragonhunter is easy to deal with: it’s predictable what they’ll do so just save your dodges/stun breaks and avoid their true shot. It’s rather easy, really.

It’s actually rather easy:

Dodge the True Shot
Use Staff > Marks on the Dragonhunter repeatedly
Rinse and repeat

Reaper handles Dragonhunter very easily, actually.

Dragonhunter’s are surprisingly easy to deal with. Their “pull” can be dodged or blocked, and their traps you can avoid or dodge out of. I think it’s relatively clear that if a Dragonhunter is on a point, he has placed traps down. With that in mind, just attack him from range and dodge his true shot. Alternatively, use conditions as their condi-cleanse is limited.

Most trap-heavy Dragonhunter builds (if they take more than one utility version) are rather vulernable to a variety of things. Unfortunately, most people want to attack them as they always do – head first, without thought.

I don’t think I’ve ever had its F2 land on a player – its projectile is so slow you can just side step out of it.

Came across a Scrapper yesterday using Bulwark + Sneak Gyro in Stronghold. I literally couldn’t kill him.

As a Dragonhunter just load us up with conditions from staff. Works every time.

In all honesty, 99% of the “Dragonhunter is terrible!” is perception, not reality. Personally, I love it. I’ve played a Ranger for over 3,000 hours, loathed Druid and adore Dragonhunter.

I use Traveller Runes on my Dragonhunter. It’s not ideal in terms of maximising damage or competing with Trapper Runes, but it’s valuable and useful. It’s a 25% increase to my movement speed – permanently. That alone gives a lot of flexibility.

I’m so glad to see a well skilled player champion the Dragonhunter. I have for some time and yet many friends still think it’s a poor elite specialization.

Weirdly, you use a similar build to me, Phantaram. Here is mine: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAsdTn8cCdDhddCWdC8DhlGi6aY3yAQe4T+nPL+uv8D-TpBFwAIOCAy3fo9JAYxDAoaZAAHCAA

My variable is sometimes swapping in Dragon’s Maw, simply because it allows me to 1-shot a lot of players, especially with all 3 traps triggering. Very good on Stronghold when defending. I also use Sigil of Intelligence of Bow to gaurentee #2 crit’s every time. Works wonders.

Enjoyed the video

I really adore it – its saved my life so many times already. The issue with it, is that it takes skill to use properly.

Ahh yes, that’s why I’m 1-shotting players in WvW and sPvP. 3 traps + daze + pull = dead.

Ayalet.4970:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Just messaged Roy on Twitter and he confirmed the staff animation has been changed. See my Tweet.

https://twitter.com/RoyCronacher/status/656530892244979712

Sneak Peak Please ~ ea ea ea xD That sounds awesome, now the waiting game to see this New stance.

Check the link on the Tweet, it shows the Druid stance is the same as all casters.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Can we get a radius on the Spirits like Banners?

You mean reduce the 1000 range of Spirits to 600 range like Banners or change “range” to “radius” on the tooltip description?

No, I meant when you place a banner down you get a blue circle showing the radius of its buff. When you place a spirit, I’d like to see a similar circle showing the range of the buff.

Can we get a radius on the Spirits like Banners?

Just messaged Roy on Twitter and he confirmed the staff animation has been changed. See my Tweet.

https://twitter.com/RoyCronacher/status/656530892244979712

Dahkeus.8243:

Safari Tank.6238:

Just to clarify, you mention minions, spirits, and turrets, but this does NOT include Ranger pets, correct?

Yea, I’m curious on this too. Are Ranger pets considered ‘minions’?

Yes. This change affects pets.

I have always liked traps, but really wanted more utility from them, especially when sacrificing Meditation skills. I think this video highlights their potential at the very least, though I wouldn’t take 4 traps (I think 2 are fine).

Lily.1935:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I love LOVE that staff. It’s beautiful and has a wonderful name: Nevermore. Excited about that.

Silverkey.2078:

I see it more as a ranger (druid) weapon, with a branch and a crow, this screams “nature magic” to me…

Agree. And I will try to get it for my new Druid.

A dead enchanted branch with spectral lights floating around it and a prominent symbol of death hanging around it? Sure… Nature magic.. Not ritualist or necromancery at all. RIIIIIIIGGGHHHT……

I’m totally getting this for my necro.

It’s a branch, with wisps, actually. And yes, it has a crow on it but all the accompanying animations are bright and vibrant. The wisps blue, the bird animation bright blue. It’s not necromancy in anyway, unless you want to shoe-horn in the thought that it is. If the orbs were dark, or green and the branch black, I’d see it. As it stands, definitely for Druid.

Prophet.1584:

Druid needs to be about Hybrid damage and healing. that being said they can’t make dps too over the top or we slide right back into the zerk meta, which they have said is bad for the game. The heals on druid need to be far more valuable than the blasts on a water field, or even multiple blasts. If they want Druids to be raid healers then they need to go all in on healing. let our CA skills have a much greater strength with healing power.

In all honesty I think it’s too late in development to change anything on the druid besides minor skill functionality such as tweaking healing numbers or adding a boon or two

Varezenem.2813:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Varezenem.2813:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Varezenem.2813:

You can influence who gets healed by being placed in the same sub-squad as your priority target.

Sadly, even in a squad it still failed multiple times to acknowledge the one person who needed healing.

Please read my comment again I said sub-squad you guys probab!ly were in a single sub-squad with all squad members.

And I’m referring to being in a sub-squad. We split our raid party in 3 squads, with me in squad 1 with our “tank”. It still didn’t register.

Then it’s a bug =p.

Unfortunately it’s a wider issue than that. A single Druid is incapable of reliably healing specific targets, especially those who fight in melee, because the game – in its current form – has a strange way of targeting. The inability to directly select and heal an individual on low health leaves you with no choice but to hope your AOE attacks on the individual heals them. Sadly it often doesn’t and unless you play a dedicated healer in each party, there will always be moments when someone dies as a result of the heal priority and restriction to 5.

Varezenem.2813:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Varezenem.2813:

You can influence who gets healed by being placed in the same sub-squad as your priority target.

Sadly, even in a squad it still failed multiple times to acknowledge the one person who needed healing.

Please read my comment again I said sub-squad you guys probab!ly were in a single sub-squad with all squad members.

And I’m referring to being in a sub-squad. We split our raid party in 3 squads, with me in squad 1 with our “tank”. It still didn’t register.

Knighthonor.4061:

Honestly, i have to wonder, if many of the people here who are crying that Druid is useless outside of Raids, ever even played the Druid as a Healer at all.

because at the same time during the BWE3 as the Ranger forum was yelling about how bad and useless Druids are outside of Raids, people were on the PvP and WvW forum yelling about how strong Druids are.

lol. I played healer druid and it was awesome. Just need better self defense because as people figured it out, they started to do the “Target the Ranger” tactic which left me screwed since Toughness stat is pretty lacking on Cleric gear and the heals cant counter full target of the Druid from dps heavy enemies.

but the class was great. I left the beta with a nice memory in WvW when it was a three side zerg war ground in which I managed to heal my outnumbered team zerg and keep them alive far longer than they would without my heals. Was a great feeling of Support actually matters for once instead of it just being a byproduct of DPS zerker builds.

Unfortunately no one is currently questioning the heal values of the druid. That isn’t the issue here ~:)

Sandzibar.5134:

If they don’t tone them down (reaper/chrono/herald/scrapper) then this game will never be able to have another expansion without perpetuating a never ending power creep cycle.

The base classes will just fall further and further behind.

Maybe that’s the idea though, now the base game is free2play. From a marketing perspective they need to drive sales on the new content, and new stuff being superior to old is the age old way of doing it.

I do agree, but I also know that if they tone them down, there would be riots. It’s a bad situation to be in and in all honesty, undermines all elite specializations as a concept. I believe ArenaNet should have just improved on what we have and implemented a new weapon set and skills for each profession and left it at that.

Varezenem.2813:

You can influence who gets healed by being placed in the same sub-squad as your priority target.

Sadly, even in a squad it still failed multiple times to acknowledge the one person who needed healing.

Hammerguard.9834:

If this game needed healers, it’d need Druids. Do you think that’s what Anet wants? No, they want players to play what they want. Druids may not be mandatory but they’re a fun and different way to play just like 80% of the builds in this game. Anet can make Druids more desirable but they’re never going to make them a requirement so stop thinking that’s what they’re suppose to be.

I don’t think the majority of druid players want our healing to be mandatory. Quite the opposite. They want the druid to have flexibility based on which armor you have or which playstyle you prefer.

In all honesty, I’d like two things:

1. Have Solar Beam and all Druid skills scale entirely based off your armor so that each skill can either off some damage and lots of healing (Clerics) or lots of damage and some healing (Berserker).

2. It would be nice if Solar Beam provided some form of boon, whether regeneration or protection to whomever passes through it.

At the moment the ranger doesn’t really need another weapon that has a weird mix of power and conditions.

Very lengthy!

http://www.tentonhammer.com/preview/guild-wars-2-druid-hands-impressions

The only thing that I find truly strange about this “fix” is that it inadvertently acknowledges that the boon durations on Engineer, Elementalist and Warrior are fine. I find that particularly strange, especially considering that as an Elementalist it’s incredibly easy to maintain near permanent swiftness, might, regeneration, fury and protection. That doesn’t include the ease of access to stability, condition cleansing, raw damage from burning, mobility and control.

It’s bizarre.

On a side note, the bigger issue here is the fact that Boons are out of control and as long as some professions have ease of access to them, others will feel left out. Limiting Boons to 30 seconds maximum for all professions would be a good thing.

nagymbear.5280:

jcbroe.4329:

I don’t have any information on it and this will be pure speculation:

ANet got criticized by somebody who had something constructive to say about their practices that was more than the pay-it-foward circle stroke they normally receive, and the higher ups of TTH got worried that because of not saying nice things, somebody said real things, so they had the article pulled so they can still be in the running for exclusive information access and early reveal article rights.

Because why hold devs to a respectable standard and pay for a job well done when you can cup their juevos for them and throw money at the screen as they continue to do a poor job?

You forget the part where 2 weeks before the same writer praised Anet for their communication with the player base.

The article in question was specifically praising their communication with elite specializations, not base professions. Base profession communication is non existent. It’s a distinct difference

I’ve absolutely no idea why people love the shield. It’s protection is short, the heal small and its 5 a liability. Any other weapon set offers so much more.

Personally I run Herald/Shiro with sinister gear, Mace/Axe and Hammer or Staff. Works exceptionally well with ridiculous power and condition damage. It’s incredibly easy to maintain 20 might stacks with plenty of crit chance.

yktpower.4590:

up.

we are still lookin for nearly all classses

The Black Cartel are looking for just 6 more individuals for Fractals and Raids so maybe a merge could be possible, based on our shared similarities

www.theblackcartel.co.uk

Only 6 remaining places. If anyone is interested, please contact me in game.

Hi Zeta, have you tried www.theblackcartel.co.uk ?

Two spaces have been filled, with only 8 more spots available

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/EU-Raid-Fractal-Focused-The-Black-Cartel/first#post5446514

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/EU-Raid-Fractal-Focused-The-Black-Cartel/first#post5446514

Guild Name: The Black Cartel

About Us: The Black Cartel is specifically focused on Fractal’s and when it arrives, Raiding. We are a small group of experienced players who formed The Black Cartel as a means of ensuring there are others like us online who are able to participate in two areas of the game we enjoy. We believe that a guild doesn’t have to be huge and as such, we are only recruiting around 6 more individuals who regularly play Guild Wars 2. Even though we enjoy and complete Fractal’s often, we have no profession restrictions and although we respect the “Meta” we do not believe in ostracizing other professions for the sake of shaving off a few minutes from a Fractal run. All professions are welcome.

Contact Information:

You can visit our new website which went live today or alternatively:

Tweet: PersistentWorld *Email:* PersistentWorldergmail.com
In Game: lewis burnell.2493
Reply Below

Other Details:

All members must have Ascended equipment
All members must be at least Fractal level 30
All members must have a microphone or at least have one for when Raiding arrives

We hope to hear from you

theblackcartel.co.uk

Really want to make a Charr but not sure I can find a backpiece to work properly.

If the Druid isn’t what I hope, I will be. Without a doubt. Just love Mace/Axe so much.

Mine

http://i.imgur.com/2buE9zA.png

Guys, we were talking this Beta weekend Revenant, not with Glint, the shield and herald. Thanks to the Herald and changes Roy has made it’s in a fantastic position right now. The only issue is, certainly in sPvP, energy is often a problem and you’re forced to take Mallyx.

Recursivision.2367:

If you’re casually throwing jade winds into your rotation after using every single weapon skill, that’s your problem. Also, you could switch legends at that point and be right back at 50. I’m not seeing a problem.

I had a lot of success in PvP last beta, personally, and I can admit I’m nowhere near hitting the skill cap for the profession.

Revenant actually has pretty kitten solid defenses at the moment. Running staff sword/sword you have a 2 second block on a 10 second cooldown, a 2 second block on a 15 second cooldown, a high damage skill with built in evade on a 10 second cooldown, and another on a 20 second cooldown. That’s just the weapon skills. We can talk about how mallyx hard counters melee builds and Condi’s too if you’d like.

The recent changes are going to be pretty huge by themselves. Energy doesn’t need to be touched.

Why would I be “casually” throwing Jade Wind’s into the mix when it offers an enormous burn, combined with the root? I use it because the burst I described is huge damage. Did I state somewhere that I did poorly in sPvP? (quite the opposite) but that doesn’t change the fact that the revenant can – and does – run out of energy regularly, without too much skill use.

I would also argue heavily against the fact the revenant has “solid defences” he doesn’t. In fact, one of the poorest in the game.

The sword block is fine, but only provides the briefest of defences.
The same for the staff deflect.
His evades are incredibly short.

He lacks:

A total immunity skill (Signet of Stone/Endure Pain)
Has little or no access to Protection
Has no spike-self healing (ala Medi Guardian) though he does have some reasonable passive healing through traits
Has little mobility to avoid damage entirely
Has no access to regeneration outside of Ventari (even then it’s small)
Little if any access to Vigor

All of these things make Warriors, Guardians, Elementalists and heck, even Ranger’s incredibly tanky without compromising on damage.

I love the revenant as much as the next person, but lets not peddle the fact it’s a profession that has lots of solid defences when it can barely cleanse conditions outside of Mallyx. ;D

Xernth.8561:

Lewis Burnell.2493

In sPvP my typical rotation is:

Frigid Blitz > Searing Fissure > Echoing Eruption > Jade Winds > Temporal Rift.

Within a few seconds I’m out of energy with no means of making it increase quicker. The only thing to do is slow the burst down so much, it’s no longer a burst.

If you land all that you’re supposed to be out of energy. If you could do all of those things and then do a bunch more it wouldn’t be a burst, it would be sustained.

Working as intended.

I’m not suggesting it isn’t working as intended. All I was highlighting was the fact that you’re instantly out of energy and unable to use any additional skills for a lengthy period of time. Unlike the thief, the revenant has no means to gain additional energy, which is what the original poster was talking about.

As a side point, I love the fact that people are objecting to his idea of allowing the revenant to gain some additional energy (through skills or traits) which is proven to have worked well on the thief and yet you’re resisting it for…what?

Sylent.3165:

Energy is just fine as is.

Let me give you an example how I plan to play in pve at least.

I will keep up facet of light, elements, and strength. That’s still +1 gain so I’ll remain at 50 out of combat. Entering a fight cast elemental blast. I now have +2.

I can use Unrelenting Assault right away, drop to 40,by the time it finishes have 43 energy about. Do an auto attack chain, be over 50. Unrelenting Assault will still be on cd so I can do precesion strike. Then another Unrelenting Assault and still have left overs to use shield skill 5 if I need a heal at this point.

I am not sure if everyone just plans on hitting 2 through 9 on there keyboard as fast as possible or what. But energy in my opinion is in a great place. Plus if you drain it way to fast legend swap for a free 50 again

Like I said, it’s super easy in PvE because the game mode is pedestrian and mobs are slow and unintelligent.

In sPvP my typical rotation is:

Frigid Blitz > Searing Fissure > Echoing Eruption > Jade Winds > Temporal Rift.

Within a few seconds I’m out of energy with no means of making it increase quicker. The only thing to do is slow the burst down so much, it’s no longer a burst.