Guild Wars 2

New Content; New Outfit!

Divinity.3641:

My friend bought the HOT several days ago according to my recommendation and he decide to quit this game already. We tried to unlock the elite specialization by collecting hero points on new map and failed. The two hours we spent only gave us 3 hero points and 20+ times of death. The jumping puzzle like map is trash, so don’t force ppl to play it!

It should be difficult. They’re called “Elite” Specializations… they should take a certain level of skill. If you are not good enough to unlock the content, then you shouldn’t get to unlock the content.

Also, if he quit the game because he couldn’t unlock “Elite” content mere days after starting the game, then that is really, really sad. Sad as in “Pathetic”

I loved the masteries I was able to unlock (Gliding and Bouncy shrooms), and I can’t wait to do more! I’d rather work towards goals that let me do things instead of just grinding gold/gear/skins…

You guys do know that pvp is a team sport, right?

Anyway, I only solo queue, and I rarely run into problems with this…

I’m going to do something completely out of the ordinary here…

I just played a few matches across multiple classes (Power Ranger, HGH Flamethrower Condi Engineer, Power/Signet Necro) and I had fun with each one! The games seemed pretty well balanced without a ton of swing one way or the other.

If there’s an early zerg attempt, shutting it down early usually means a win, from what I’ve seen

Yeah, if your guild doesn’t let you play a perfectly viable profession “’cuz GWEN”, then you should probably find a new guild.

BTW, I run a front-line condi bomber, and I love it! I can usually outsurvive most comps in wvwvw… cuz Engineer.

I got sick of reading the QQ posts, but here’s an exhaustive list of my responses.

• Reaper Shroud 2 https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death%27s_Charge is a gap closer. It is available no matter what weapon you are using. Why does GS need a closer?
• I had none of the issues you reported using GS5 in PvE. In fact, GS5 to cluster enemies, GS3 to apply vuln, then GS2 to finish was absurdly powerful, even in Soldiers/Knights
• Necros have lots of access to cripple, and Dagger 3 is a pretty strong immob. Control is a great way to close the gap.
• Necro is not really designed to be highly mobile. Deal.
• Necro is incredibly tanky, and Reaper just adds to that.

Rebound.3409:

Tried several classes and their specs and i am very unimpressed. They seem lackluster, gimiky, have skill lag and some of them are so slow i could fall asleep (guardian)

I played 4 of the Elite Specializations over the weekend (Guardian, Revenant, Necromancer, Warrior) and had very little, if any, skill lag (Necro and Warrior were my faves, btw)—and that was on crappy hotel wifi.

If you’re having significant skill lag issues, then it’s probably on your end.

Danikat.8537:

MattyP.6954:

I don’t think that you would be able to do the HoT story without the Personal Story completed, because of how the Personal Story/Living World UI works, but you should be able to go to the zones without doing the personal story just like you could go to Orr without getting to that point in the base game (or, for that matter, going to the SilverWastes).

That being said, I actually enjoy the personal story for the most part (except the Zhaitan fight, which is still a buggy mess), and it flows better when you do the whole thing at once, in my humble opinion.

Tome your guy to 80 and have fun.

You didn’t need to complete the personal story to do either Season 1 or Season 2 of the living story.

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘because of how the Personal Story/Living World UI works’. You can only have 1 story chapter of any kind active at one time, but you can switch between them freely any time you’re not in an instance. (And possibly when you’re in one, I’ve never tried.)

Huh, I did not know that. I’ve never actually tried to do the living world on a character that hadn’t finished the Personal Story. I do know that the indicator on the screen defaults to your next-unlocked story step.

Agemnon.4608:

Anyone use mouse movement here? If you keyboard turn then I can see why underwater combat would be a problem. Mouse turning is simply superior anyway. If you manage your space and positioning correctly you’ll have a better time. Also avoiding underwater in Orr and wherever you see lots of krait.

^^ This

I only use mouse movement underwater, but it’s almost required. I still like keyboard movement in combat on land, since it frees up my cursor.

http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_US/html/pbPage.heartofthorns?cid=91:5::::Global:166:::

Minimum specs are for 35GB available on your HDD. This probably includes the base game, since they are bundling it for new players, so you can infer the size of the xpac by subtracting the current .dat file size from this amount (35-22.3 ~ 13GB). It probably won’t be that big, since they want extra space for patching and all of the additional info they want to save to your machine (like screen shots).

That being said:

1. Rightly or wrongly, ANet isn’t going to take this into account when designing the game. If you are able to consistently play an MMO, something that is per se data intensive, they are going to assume that, if you are capped, the cap won’t meaningfully impact your experience.
2. Sadly, capping isn’t just a third world issue. I live in the SouthEastern US and Comcast caps my data (but it’s just so they can nickel and dime streamers and people who work from home). That being said, I usually just bite the bullet.

Underwater combat is probably the least fun part of this game for me, but, if I’m being completely honest here, it’s one of the best underwater implementations in a game recently.

I don’t think that you would be able to do the HoT story without the Personal Story completed, because of how the Personal Story/Living World UI works, but you should be able to go to the zones without doing the personal story just like you could go to Orr without getting to that point in the base game (or, for that matter, going to the SilverWastes).

That being said, I actually enjoy the personal story for the most part (except the Zhaitan fight, which is still a buggy mess), and it flows better when you do the whole thing at once, in my humble opinion.

Tome your guy to 80 and have fun.

Raven.9603:

counter question:

does it really matter when or if they even have a prestige class for Ranger at all?

The problems with ranger and engineer are way bigger than 1 trait line and a few utility skills could ever fix.

Druid by itself is not going to fix Spirits, which are terrible but if brought up to the level of Warrior Banners or Rev Facets would bring us into GWEN. It’s not going to fix the lack of utility on traps, its not going to fix trooper runes not working on shouts or fix the fact that most of our shouts are pointless garbage and one of them just gives us the control over our pet we should’ve always had anyway. It’s not going to fix the fact that our best DPS weapon removes our ability to control our character.

The only positive change druid might bring is removing the handicap that pets are to rangers within a dungeon, raid or zerg (aka instantly deadpet game modes); but even that is a long shot, and by doing that, then Druid becomes a mandatory specline for those game modes because it bandaids a massive problem rather than actually fixing it for the core class.

So again, who really cares what the druid brings?

• “Fix Spirits”: Are they buggy or do you just not like them? I don’t use Spirits, but it seems to me that all of the rage concerning Spirits is that you have to place them strategically now, since they don’t mindlessly follow you around anymore.
• “Lack of Utility on Traps”: Do traps no longer provide combo fields? Do they no longer inflict conditions and crowd control? Or are you just upset that you can’t throw them like grenades anymore? Once again, it makes you place things strategically, rather than “IMMA THROW A TRAP AT YOU!!!11!1!”
• The Rune of the Trooper thing is a bug that needs to be fixed.

I run WvWvW (usually roaming, but sometimes in zergs) on a Zerker (+some vit) Marksmanship/Survival/BeastMastery Ranger most of the time, with the occasional dungeon, SW, or World Boss train thrown in for good measure. I never have pet insta-death problems. In fact, the only times I find my pet “worthless” is when I am on a wall in WvWvW (I’ll take it for ~1,800 range from the high-ground, btw). In that case, I switch to Bear/Cat so I can have additional condi cleanse and might on demand (I usually use Bird/Bird for swiftness in combat and low cds on F2 or Dog/Dog for crowd control).

See, you actually have a fair amount of pet control in this game. Could there be more? Of course! But you should very, very rarely be in a situation where your pet instantly dies. If it happens to you frequently, then it’s probably a learn to play issue.

Btw: Here’s WoodenPotatoes completely wrecking people in WvWvW on a condi trapper build. https://youtu.be/dDYH__25snI

Quarktastic.1027:

WindGodGirl.6405:

Stop facetanking bosses. They are bosses. If it’s facing you, you back up. They don’t give two thoughts about how much armor you have, they will still kick your teeth in. If there’s a twelve foot tall fat frog with a hammer the size of a motorcycle, and he hits you with it, it’s gonna hurt no matter how tanky you are.

Armor makes surviving skirmishes with groups of trash mobs easier, but it’s effect diminishes in the face of monsters where your only hope is evasion, not mitigation [ex. Diarmid]. Higher armor lets you wade through trash and veterans with more impunity and leeway. That’s fine, that’s mostly what it’s for.

Bosses in HoT, however, more than anywhere else, are designed specifically to tear through large zergs without mercy. If you’re in the zerg, you’re gonna go down if you can’t keep up. You sink or swim. You learn fast, or you die a lot. That’s how it goes.

I was playing a valkyrie reaper with zerker trinkets, and even in scaled up zergs, I was able to facetank a lot of the champs. Does that mean reaper is OP?

I definitely think that Reaper is the most survivable of the Elite Specializations—at least out of the ones that I spent time with. Berzerker is glassy even in Dire/Rabid gear.

Xillllix.3485:

Devildoc.6721:

Sort of, but you want people to be excited for the elite specs and at least see them as a good option. A few of the elite specs (DH, Tempest are the usual suspects) many people just don’t see them as worth it at all. Others like berserker and reaper are such direct upgrades that virtually nobody who has the option available will pass it up.

Something like Chronomancer is actually a good balance because it focuses on a new playstyle rather than a direct upgrade. There are Mesmers that will go Chrono and mesmers who won’t go Chrono for various reasons. Nobody really feels pressured to go Chrono or feel left in the dust, but people are excited to play Chrono because it enables new playstyles.

That’s pretty much it right there.
Every necros will run Reaper, almost every warriors will run berserker.

Chronomancer and Dare Devil are Meta changing professions. These will be really important for the new boons/condi and instant stomp.

Tempest however is something barely any ele will touch once they’ve tried it for a while, specially because it only works with dagger mainhand and isn’t really rewarding. Same with DH, the gameplay potential is too limited to certain situations.

Revenant is epic across the board, amazing versatility and the elite spec is really strong. Many people will leave their guardian and ele main for this class because of their lackluster elites.

I’d be careful to write off any particular Elite Specialization because they aren’t fun in Open World or sPvP. I think it’s fair to say that the Devs probably had raids in mind when they were designing these specializations, and I can definitely see something like the Tempest really shining in a larger group support setting (like raids or WvWvW). Maybe it’s just because I tend to like playing support-type roles in MMOs (when I played WoW, my mains were a Druid Healer and a Paladin Tank—though I did have a kitten), but I can’t wait to see how my Elementalist does as a Tempest in Raids.

Edit: A certain derogatory term for the Hunter Class in WoW hit the kitten-filter… that’s kind of funny.

I played a full condi yolo berzerker (Dire/Rabid) and had a blast, even if I got downed quite a bit (hey, YOLO! I’m a Berzerker—also, Krait Runes FTW)

I played a supportish Blood Magic + Soul Reaper Reaper with Knight’s and Soldiers and had a blast (not kidding, this build was actually super effective for large events, including the occasional facetanking a hit for your bros).

Dragon Hunter was kind of meh, but I’m not that used to Guardian anyways.

So yeah, I’m planning on using at least 2. If you’re not, that’s your choice. Roll with it.

From playing the beta (this past weekend was my first experience with it), I found that I was getting wrecked on many occasions. Part of it was L2P, but I did find that my full condi Berzerker (gotta love the gimmick, amIrite?) only had the slightest amount of increased survivability when switching from full Rampager to Dire/Rabid. Most of the time, I focused on spamming out conditions at such a rate that I would usually rally almost immediately (oddly effective)—I played more conservatively for a while, but it was just more fun to go YOLO with that skill-set.

So no, I don’t think that they should tune down mob damage. Hits should still be strong and impactful. I do think that Defensive stats, Healing Power in particular, need to be tuned up—just to make them compete better with offensive stats from a balance perspective.

An important thing to keep in mind: Defensive stats are an allowance for some latency issues. I wouldn’t have thought about this if I had not played what I played of the beta on crappy hotel wifi (I was on a trip with my wife—also means I only got to play if I woke up before her and while she did makeup and such), but with some of those mobs (snipers in particular), a 2 second skill lag can literally kill you. Allowing for some forgiveness for this would definitely make it more fun for people who either have a crappy ISP or live far away from ANet’s servers.

Also, there’s the whole “gear choice” vs “illusion of gear choice” argument that has been played to death in the forums….

Yeah, I remember the last stronghold beta… I was really strong on defense with a Power Ranger.

I think they just need to buff defensive stats. This game has been lopsided stat-balance wise for a long time

I’m sorry Expansion Content is locked behind the Expansion. That must be hard for you—I can’t think of a possible solution…

Belenwyn.8674:

Say bye-bye to build locking.

Build roles are what you do at a character level. Things like what weapons, utility skills, traits, and even armor you choose to bring to a fight. Some encounters are going to push you to try different weapons you rarely use, some are going to challenge you to select traits you haven’t considered equipping before, and some encounters may even require a member of your group to dust off that toughness gear to bulk up and tank some heavy hits to protect the condition-build players in the back. This is just a tiny sample of the types of build roles we want to push as a core part of Guild Wars 2 dynamic combat.

https://www.guildwars2.com/de/news/designing-challenging-content/

Technically, this doesn’t explicitly say there won’t be build locking, just that some encounters might require you to build differently. You could still be locked within the raid.

Here is my freshly-minted Guardian!!

(Carapace armor, Dwayna Staff)

Here is my Fire-Themed (Yay Forge!) Engineer. I know P/P isn’t ideal, but it’s fun!

(CoF Chest, Magitech Boots and Legs, SE Helm, Hellfire Gauntlets, Molten Pistols)

It didn’t change that much, but I took a new picture on “Best Appearance”, and I’m really happy with the results!

(Koda chest, shoulder, legs, boots; Falconer helm and gloves, Roxx’s quiver, Bandit Longbow)

I wholeheartedly support build-locking. Decisions in games should have consequences.

Guild Wars 2 has provided so many free content patches that I’m perfectly fine with fewer skins being available at the launch of HoT. I’m confident that more will be released for free with LS3-4

I’ve found decent success against condi builds with a condi bomber build. Essentially, if you keep them cced, they can’t condi you.

You can use blinds and knockdowns to your advantage.

Eh, the blindfolded warrior is a pretty common fantasy trope. Also, Illidan Stormrage (and Demon Hunters in general) from the Warcraft series. If anything Mortal Kombat, Warcraft, and HoT are all drawing from the fantasy well for their takes on the trope.

I’m not sure as if Shortbow Zerk was ever a great option… I mean, it’s a condi weapon…

MikaHR.1978:

MattyP.6954:

How does Anet Justify Raids? We need group content that isn’t just Fractals or Dungeons (which have just turned into Zerker speed farms), that’s how.

We have tons of different stat sets to play with—let’s hope we get PvE content that actually rewards gear diversity.

Who is “we”?

…all of the OPs and others on the forum who have been asking for “Challenging Group Content”? You’re a Forum QQ Warrior, I’ve sure you’ve seen the posts.

So much kitten…

You guys realized that, no matter how it was going to go, two classes were going to be last, right? Ranger makes sense because we already knew we were getting Druid, and Engineer makes sense because it’s consistently been the hardest for them to develop for (considering how complicated the gameplay can be).

Stop whining and just wait for the content to come out…

How does Anet Justify Raids? We need group content that isn’t just Fractals or Dungeons (which have just turned into Zerker speed farms), that’s how.

We have tons of different stat sets to play with—let’s hope we get PvE content that actually rewards gear diversity.

Bryzy.2719:

Please tell me what part of my thread is QQing? I’m not expressing personal opinion over the “make-or-break” case, I’m presenting the vibe from the Ranger community. At worst I’m putting forward a pessimistic outlook for what could be the case upon the release of the Druid, and the less-than-optimal conditions leading to its reveal. I have nowhere in this thread moaned about it though.

Firstly, you’re entire OP was generic Ranger-whine. Secondly, the forums are a great place to get an outsized view of the QQ segment of any given profession playerbase.

What you conveniently leave out of your OP is the fact that, for every QQ post on the Ranger subs, there are a sizeable number of posts that, eloquently or not, refute the QQ. Of course there are bugs—there are bugs in every profession. That doesn’t mean that Ranger is “broken” or not fun.

My guess is that confirmation bias lead you to believe that the Ranger subs are all in agreement with your opinion, enabling you to appoint yourself their representative.

Too little, too late, for you?

Good for you. Leave the game if it’s not worth playing for you. If you still like playing it, then quit it with the hyperbole.

Heaven forbid we have to complete in-game content to unlock Elite Content… yeesh…

Bryzy.2719:

It’s currently being acknowledged within the Ranger community (perhaps not by all, but certainly by a noticeable number) that this could be the make-or-break for the Ranger. For me, I think even if Druid is underwhelming I’ll still play it just because it’s always been my favourite archetype in MMOs.

This perfectly illustrates my issue surrounding how Rangers are discussed on the forums. The class isn’t ideal, but it is fun, at least for me. If it isn’t fun, then why are you playing it? Are you some kind of sick gaming masochist?

You see all of this hyperbolic rhetoric about how “broken” the profession is (there are bugs, and pet AI can be improved, but it is far from “broken”), with some even complaining that it is unplayable, but these people still play (and presumably have fun with) it.

So no, if you are going to continue to play Ranger if you don’t like Druid, it’s not make-or-break. It could be a disappointment to you based on your expectations, but you’ve already indicated that it is still worth playing despite an underwhelming Druid.

So stop QQing and just play the kitten game…

It’s not my favorite, but it doesn’t impact gameplay at all…so I don’t really care either.

Don’t be too worried about it. The forum warriors aren’t representative of most of the playerbase.

In game, there is quite a lot less QQ and more enjoyment.

I’m sorry that you can’t group heal by spamming your autoattack. Times must be hard. I’ll see if I can find you guys a Zima.

This is something that I am playing around in for Silverwastes and WvWvW roaming. It’s an HGH Condi-Burst build centering around the flamethrower.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalcThatY5Vw+KQ+FL3FFYDGhBQ4EGQZm4B9D5AA-T1hAABXcCAgZ/hwU+loegTV/BgHAAbKBDAgAMzyMAAA-w

My main strat is to find someone, toss elixer b, jump right on them and immob->burning stacks (Incendiary Rounds + P4)->Moa->P2->Flamethrower.

When I pull it off, it’s pretty satisfying. Also… so much might… In zergs and tower sieges, the longer I stay alive, the more damage I do (the dire/rabid combo helps alot)

wasted.6817:

Totally agreed, looks horrible, goofy. Should be either how caster’s currently hold staves or maybe some fancy kungkittenstance, partially behind or something like that.

If the forum censored “Kungfu”, that’s hilarious

Belzebu.3912:

Besides all that was said above, there are a few skills that are simply unblockable.

Building on this, I think that Fear and Taunt are unblockable, and there is a warrior signet that makes you unblockable for x duration, I think.

Derenek.8931:

Sometimes my engineer gets up t 100K damage in a single hit!

You mean a single autoattack chain?

GrandHaven.1052:

Adjust.6903:

I have to admit my only 80 is my engi and I benched it awhile ago to level a warrior and elementalist both of whom I greatly enjoy.

I am curious however how well engi does in general now as I’m itching to play it again. Solo queue, wvw and dungeons Are my thing, so how are we guys?

PvP :
Annoyed.

I feel like rolling any other class (except Ranger) is just better.
And I have 10x more engi games than any other class.

WvW Roaming :
Limited but okay.

Feels like only Zerker/Knights spec works for decent duelling and roaming.

WvW Zerging :
Better than prepatch! Much better!
But I don’t enjoy zerging.

Dungeons :
Meh feel outclassed by the usual. Especially now that vuln is so common.

I roam in WvWvW on a Dire/Rabid engineer and duel pretty effectively (If I do say so myself). In PvE I switched to Firearms/Inventions/Alchemy, but for WvWvW roaming Dire/Rabid with Explosives, Firearms, and Tools is a powerful combination.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Wondrouswall.7169:

Pets gaining distortion/evade frames while being allowed to keep doing what they are can be abused with F2s. It’ll be just another thing to add to the complaint list on the class and be nerfed. No thanks.

And that would be the reason to add such an ability to F3.

Bugger that. I don’t want to have to press an additional key every time I want the pet to dodge too and keep track of its endurance etc.

So… you want a class mechanic that is more tied to AI and provides less opportunity for active play? That’s… rather odd, imho.

Well, as I see it, Rev has most of the major weapon roles filled:

• “Power” DPS mainhand: Sword
• “Power” DPS offhand: Sword
• Condi DPS mainhand: Mace
• Condi DPS offhand: Axe
• Ranged DPS/Control: Hammer
• Melee Support: Staff

You can make the case for more ranged pure dps, ranged condi, or ranged support weapon sets, but I don’t think it’s necessary. They pretty much have all of their bases covered.

I don’t typically have the massive skill-lag issues that are being reported. Perhaps during gigantic blob-on-blob fights.

I did have mucho culling issues on my old laptop that caused me to only WvWvW during off-hours. Got a new machine and that’s pretty much over.

I kind of doubt it, and I don’t mind.

I would rather them get the balancing and mechanics on-point earlier than animations (assuming they both get done on time)

I see some issues with this… say you’re facing an opponent with a channeled attack (Ranger LB2 comes to mind) that you’re trying to mitigate. A way that I do this on my ranger is to dodge and use F2 to trigger a blind/taunt combo. This mitigates all of the damage from the channeled attack assuming I hit the dodge at the right time.

With the change you’re proposing, the pet dodge would override or delay the F2 and ruin the combo.