Guild Wars 2

darkace.8925:

As a GW player, here’s my take.

I enjoyed GW’s “deck building” skill system. I loved the lower level cap, and all of the tightly-focused balance that brought. I liked the “less is more” approach of runes, again they were tightly focused and balanced. For some masochistic reason, I kind of (not wholly) miss Vanquishing. And I greatly miss heroes. Heroes gave me a chance to play around with classes I never intended to play.

I prefer the sideways progression of gear in GW, but I dislike the vast number of useless or redundant skills. The writing I find equally bad in both, but I like the little touches and the presentation more in GW2 more than in GW.

In everything else, from the combat mechanics to world exploration, I think GW2 trumps GW. For me, and this is of course just my opinion, I think GW2 is the better game by a great many miles.

This right here, until we jump the shark there at the end…

Title grind crept into GW1, but very few of them had any impact at all—IN ANY WAY—with the character. Elite armor skins were just that, skins, with no inherent bonus, just bragging rights.

Its what drew me into GW1. The idea that legendaries were a meh buff compared to exotic armor let me comfortably gear every toon in the game. he introduction of ascended weapons, armor and all this other stuff is a clear indication of grind over skill that made WoW number 1…for people who already play WoW.

But if they already play WoW the chhances they are going to give up the grinded toons they already made to come play THIS game are slim to the point of stupidity. Anet has a history of this “we changed our minds because we think this will be better” when it comes to policies that actually drew me—and people like me—to them.

Decent damage? And high condoi removal.

You want 30 in Honor, spec II, IX, and XI. Shouts for sure. Beyond that is a question of how twitchy (dmg) or tanky (tgh) you want to be.

Most AH builds are x-x-30-30-10 or x-5-30-30-5. they give you more hammer play, but GS is fine as well. PTV for body and legs+Knights smattered in there.For trinkets do the same, and toss in a few celestials when you get comfy.

If you want a GS build though…
20-15-x-30-5
II-VII
II
II-IX-XI
All Clerics/Celest
2 swords, 1 with bloodlust, 1 with energy for more dodgerolls. Staff: I always have energy on it.

Shield 4 AoE instead of in front (seriously. You’re protecting people “in front of you”? Active combat skills are best as fire and forget. Dodgeroll back to get a quick heal, you’re in the backline so pop 4 and dodgeroll back into facetanking. Instead of dodgeroll back to prot the backline and heal, fiddle with your wasd and mouse for 2-5 seconds and hit 4—dangit! camera was pointed in the right direction but the character wasn’t! WTF-KITTEN!) Aegis 20 seconds + 5 seconds prot. then its a very good skill. SoA though…I actually wouldn’t touch. We’ve got WoR and Shelter to boot, messing with its cooldown or buff would make shields OP.

I can’t for the life of me understand why a commander would be suppressed to his squad. It makes as much sense as suppressing party chat.

S/D tank build is probably your best bet for soloing if you just want to roam and get POIs. Zerk for combat. Keep your head on a swivel (err, camera) so you don’t get ganked, and I advise the Tornado Elite in most situations you’ll find.

Ele is a current cornerstone for the meta WvW teams. the Blasting Staff trait gives you some sick support abilities. Outside a group though (and inside0 you’re one squishy lil thang.

Good luck on your 100%

Yes. I think its a good idea. Gives me a bit of badge farming while I wait to enter real WvWvW but from what I understand it will have no actual impact on ranks and score.

Vote: On the fence.

Season 1 was a success in that it got people who probably never played WvWvW interested in it. this is a good thing if more people have found the fun that WvWvW can be, and maybe they will stay and play more, get better and overall improve the performance of their server.

Season 1 was a failure in that it got people who were not interested in WvWvW into playing there. This is a bad thing because we ended up with uplevels all over the place on peak hours, wasting supply on repair walls when it was tactically unfeasible to do so, and generally not caring what they were doing as long as they get their chest and title.

I’m not giving you his build Xsorus. Its server proprietary. Call me a liar all day long. Stop fishing.

Xsorus.2507:

Melody Cross.8465:

this goes into the discussion i had with a guardian on our private forums recently. he’s a zerker running around with 20k health, and none of us could figure out how he got the numbers he quoted until he confirmed that all his laurels went into ascended trinkets and celestial ascended greatsword.

He’s got a difference of almost 4k HP compared to us, 20k with only food buffs to our 16-17. And his crit chance is higher thn anyone running exotics.

thats not 4 percent thats 3 to 4 thousand HP. thats an extra 1-4 hits that he can take before he’s down. Thats a BIG deal outside of the farming zerg.

And I’m still workin on Wup wup…

And people still saying its not going to be a big increase when armor hits the scene. I say thats already bull kitten and theres plenty of proof out there already.

If he’s running zerker gear, it doesn’t matter if he’s using ascended or not, You don’t get extra vitality from exotic zerker vs ascended zerker.

Now he could be using some celestial gear, that’s perfectly possible.. and will increase his HP, which you could do also, But it won’t make up for 4k you’re talking about.

The trinkets were’t zerker, nor the GS ans mentioned…

I believe the guardian in question when he said he has 20k health. He had no reason to lie about his build, armor or anything else. i know the best we could do to duplicate without ascended gears was almost 17k. Almost.

Protoavis.9107:

lordkrall.7241:

Ascended gear will not make you win a fight unless you were good enough to win it anyway.
The extra stats (5% or something like that) won’t really make much of a difference.

Another thing to keep in mind is that WvW was never meant to be fair or balanced.

the 5% is inaccurate. with full ascended armor it’ll be closer to 20% (and on top of that will be the base defense increase making exo weapons do even less damage)

Thank you for an exercise in sanity.

My biggest grief with this whole situation is and has been how much effort it took to gear out all the toons I use in this game. I have every class geared and most with exotic PVT/Knights gear. We have NO PVT crafting options and it hurts my head to think I’m going to need to get 500 in all weapons and armor crafts to regear my characters for optimal play.

Badges are fine. I can farm those every day. laurels are grind fest and annoying, as is crafting in general—especially with the once a day restrictions in place. And we can’t just up and buy any of this stuff either with the restrictions all ascended has atm.

If this isn’t grind I don’t know what word would better define it. bullkitten?

sminkiottone.6972:

In my opinion escorting dolyaks is almost useless, I’ve never been killed by an escorter and I was always able to kill the dolyak.

head of nail? meet hammer. Defending Doylaks is just tossing a run buff on them. The HP they have is too low for serious defense as you guard against a dedicated opponent. You’re stuck almost stationary with that yak if you defend it so even if you have the advantage in combat your opponent needs only regroup away from the yak and come back in.

I’d actually like to see an active buff to yak+ players when escorting. Something that makes it hard to kill the things. If they’re roaming without support=no buff, easy kill as always. But if someone is taking the time to escort, its depressing to see how fast they drop.

this goes into the discussion i had with a guardian on our private forums recently. he’s a zerker running around with 20k health, and none of us could figure out how he got the numbers he quoted until he confirmed that all his laurels went into ascended trinkets and celestial ascended greatsword.

He’s got a difference of almost 4k HP compared to us, 20k with only food buffs to our 16-17. And his crit chance is higher thn anyone running exotics.

thats not 4 percent thats 3 to 4 thousand HP. thats an extra 1-4 hits that he can take before he’s down. Thats a BIG deal outside of the farming zerg.

And I’m still workin on Wup wup…

And people still saying its not going to be a big increase when armor hits the scene. I say thats already bull kitten and theres plenty of proof out there already.

legendary yak? Oo oo oo! yes yes! ledgendary yaks with super exp and kick players around like in fractals where it shoots you WAAAAAAaaaaY up int he air and you fall down and need a rez and and a zerg and they have SLOBBER skill that give you poison and special aromor and and mini pets and they run faster for each condition and frenzy and suuuuuper fight when the are upgraded to that

yes yes sign1

But on the other hand, we haz to kill the Yaks. And I like the Yaks and it makes me sad. I don’t think i could kill a yak with a name! YOU EVER NAME A CHICKEN AFORE YOU EAT IT!?!

lordkrall.7241:

Ascended gear will not make you win a fight unless you were good enough to win it anyway.
The extra stats (5% or something like that) won’t really make much of a difference.

Another thing to keep in mind is that WvW was never meant to be fair or balanced.

And if 2 groups of equal skill are fighting each other, only one of them has a crackton of ascended because they can farm out in fractals )and actually enjoy fractals, crafting, mat grinding, ie, they have too much time on their hands) then…

“Not much of a difference” is like saying “not much a bullet wound” to the knife fighter after his opponent was handed a gun.

Movement of exotic gear to a sub-level armor/weapon set is a legitimate concern to people who believed anet when they said no grind. I’d like to see some legitimate replies to this kind of topic.

Server lag is becoming an issue in PvE and not just WvW. In instanced play last night several times skills did not cast in appropriate time and the gaem teleported me after several seconds of inactivity, usually right into the middle of a furball.

As i haven’t seen a recent complaint, I want to ensure this is at the forefront of Anets attention. WvWvW has been increasingly buggy in EB and other maps, sometimes taking minutes in a zerg to get a healing skill off, and teleporting is rampant. its not unusual to be bunkered 1 seconds, double downed the next with no indication what hit you until the train has rolled past.

these are not PC issues. There is a connection to the texas backbone that is being throttled or its the server itself not properly updating players. teamspeak is awash with complaints about server lag. But if its creeping into PvE now, I have problems blaming Anets ISP backbone. This appears more internally systemic.

On completing thee 8 games for Lunatic Inquisition I did not recieve a loot bag. I got the achievement points and it showed up in recently completed, but when I zoned out the counter reset.

I am curious if others would be interested in this as an upgrade.
Adding food and buff items to the hero panel seems more natural to me than pulling them from the inventory. In fact I have an odd habit of hitting H now when I want to apply food or sharpening stones.

If my sharpening stones were with my armor and weapons in the H panel, they’d be easier to find instead of hunting through my rapidly filling inventory in the middle of a dungeon or WvW match.

Even better might be a small consumable bag off to the side somewhere simular to the wallet but—again—added to the hero panel.

I’m interested in the forums thoughts. Also, what do others do with their food to make it easy to get to?

Spoilers incoming:

It is possible but not recommended to kill the Prince with lifesteal. However if you do then the quest does not progress and you will not get the golem. Rezoning will not restart the quest and you cannot re-enter for the reward.

Necros beware. The Thorn family has a nasty joke this year. If you kill them, they take their bags of treats and go home.

Nick.6972:

Is full cleric guardian viable in high level fractals and WvW?

Currently, I’m running full cleric gear (power/toughness/heal) with cleric ascended rings/amulets, have heal over 900 and toughness 3200 something.

I’m wondering whether I made the right decision to run this kind of setup, it’s quite common to hear that Healing Power is useless stat.

spoj.9672:

I love farming zergs on my zerker necro. Holy lootbags batman! Not hard to survive at all.

Anyway we were talking about pve. Obviously things like cleric gear and whatever are viable in wvw and pvp….

So you’re telling me that the last three pages pf flame hate from ozzy coley et al is just one massive misread on their part? They just don’t know how to read past the word “fractals”?

Well that just makes everything all better now don’kitten Shucks I’m sorry fellas. I didn’t realize ya’ll was on the short bus.

Wukunlin.8461:

Melody Cross.8465:

With Clerics gear most of my damage is coming (and I do mean most in a team) from perma-retaliation on me and almost perma on my teammates. Runes I run on it are 2 Monk 2 Water and 2 Travelers. Lets me keep my buffs up for crazy long times…and one of those buffs also happens to be regen too :p

what if I tell you retaliation damage scales with your power?

I’d say Might stacks then take off the kid gloves and tell you Ozzy and Coley—and anyone else—that I roll up and smoke zerkers like a cheap blunt. bring your PvE junk into WvW and anyone who plays more than once a week knows just how long you’ll last against a havoc or a zerg. Frak: in a havoc or a zerg you’re glass cannon crud gets you dead at the gate cuz you’re over-reliant on dodges and no one’s going to waste time ressing a guardian that explodes in 15 seconds. Someone hits you and realizes just how soft you are, their mission in life becomes making sure you down ASAP if you don’t drop from AoE in the first place which you probably did because you are zerker thus you are leet.

So yes, please bring your zerk on in. I love farming you scrubs. You guys make me skill points and loot bags snaps fingers all day long and I laugh when you roll in here on a BnW about skill balance.

Just like all the other PvE scrubs we’ve been rolling over the last couple months. One of the best Commanders in our server is an AH guardian. He’s a hardass but he knows how to drop the hammer. And he also knows why high HP is important.

Do you? Sorry, redundant question. Actually, not sorry. Stopped being sorry halfway through reading page two. And as for redundant: You folk really need to think about why high HP is important and strong healing from a guardian is useful. But you guys don’t seem to understand that dirty word “think”. You just know how to spike AI and troll forums until you kitten others off.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Well apparently the devs are going to open up more weapon types to all classes at some point, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them get a bow.

My only hope is that we get an offhand sword.

I want axe

Nick.6972:

I love being tanky “healer” – Monk was my main in GW1 for years, however I’m starting to doubt whether healers/supporters are really needed in GW2, DPS > Everything else, which is really saddening.

Not to mention, when I’m playing FOTM, most pugs ignore my healing symbols (Staff #3) and run pass them.

If you monked a bit in GW1 then you know most PuGs WILL ignore your heals—and too often their own HP, err, orb—and run right into the next mess. Are you running in a zerker group and trying to speedclear high levels? I doubt it as you mention staff.

One of the reasons I specifically mentioned Battle Presence and regen as examples is their improved Heal Over Time. Spot heals are nice, but you’ve confirmed my suspicion: you prefer to build for “the duration” with this armor set. And I’m restating that it is a good set, but one of several you’ll end up with if this remains one of your main professions.

Sighs and sticks hand directly into hornets nest
@Ozzy: I’m not trolling you. I was doing my level best to ignore you.
Back to Nick: You will see, and have seen, several people demanding that zerker is king for you, everyone, et al, and don’t run anything else but DPS DPS and more DPS. They’re following their own team’s/guild’s abilities and applying them to the PuGs that you’re playing with. They haven’t stopped to even consider your situation; only 1 of many facets of the game which we play. If you look through the posts and count the actual people responding I think you’ll find them to be quite vocal but also somewhat in the minority.

They most likely consider that makes them elite. I would suggest that it might mean something else entirely. But I try to avoid the word “kitten” on this forum unless I intentionally type it. (There. Now I’ve trolled. I feel dirty…)

It’s your character Nick. Do YOU like running Clerics? Do YOU enjoy how the profession feels when you spec with PTH? Its a good armor set if you play to its strengths, build to its strengths, and play with those that will enjoy playing with you WHEN you play to your strengths.

Fortunately for you and those like you cosey, I don’t PuG my Guardian. Just like I stopped PuGing my monk in GW1 once I got a decent guild, I roll her at team(read ‘guild’) request as I’m currently working on the other classes of the game.

Yes, I’d say most of my damage when I roll tanky is from retaliation. Since when I roll support guardian its always up, and something is always getting hit.

If I just wanted burst healing, I’d stick to water ele. My supports come from proper placement/pull, proper use of my Virtues, Heal Over Time, solid symbol placement and a—dare I restate it—high boon duration in team play.

Your team support comes from—reading your posts; and not just in this thread—trying to down the enemy as fast as you can and praying to Dwayna that you do without downing. And that type of play works very well…when you have someone like me backing your behind with heavy boon builds and the HoT you doubtless don’t carry.

PVT—not zerkers—provides plenty of power for me, but also some defense. Which i like. I prefer to revive people more often than…the other way around.

to the OP: Clerics is fine but when you put it on, expect to run more supporty (which, if you picked guardian, you probably prefer to start). Take all of this with a grain of salt. The worst mistake you can make is to accept anyone’s view as gospel. That makes the profession less fun, running it the way others insist instead of the way you enjoy and have proven to yourself to be effective at.

I use clerics when running supports/tanky builds. The HoT makes me feel more viable to the team as a support toon. Particularly like the higher numbers with Battle Presence.

For more solo play or dungeons, I still fall back on my PVT karma set.

I see a lotta folk sing Knights praises. I didn’t go that way for a “paladin”. I try to roll for group support or damage. Haven’t heard many complaints.

Nick.6972:

So. Should I go PVT and completely ignore Healing power altogether?
Should I be focusing more or Toughness/Armor?

I mean, There have been times were I literally have saved my team in FOTM from dying with my heals, or maybe we souldn’t have trouble in the first place if I was doing more DPS>=.

Though, I admittedly I hate the fact I can’t kill anything fast enough.
Whirl GS skill deals 3000-3500.

With Clerics gear most of my damage is coming (and I do mean most in a team) from perma-retaliation on me and almost perma on my teammates. Runes I run on it are 2 Monk 2 Water and 2 Travelers. Lets me keep my buffs up for crazy long times…and one of those buffs also happens to be regen too :p

I’m just not gonna go over the whole thread because after a quick skim this is what all the stealth hate boils down to:

What other class can kill a class just using the same attack over and over and over.

Stealth is WAY to much reward and no risk, if you are losing you can just stealth, run and reset…

Solo play?

Warriors. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCVmfL3eJIY
Guardians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVqzKMTHvU
Mesmers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqcDx4Tu0_U
Engineers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r-Nx-NJukw
Rangers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESl4njj4xxY
Necromancers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xORNg_wOIv8

Those are just quick google searches. I make no statements about the player skill only that I wanted to state that every class can solo roam in WvW effectively.

One could argue that swiftness is too much reward for the risk taken. It would be an equally bad argument however.

Funny how easy it is to run from a stealth spammer if the skill causes you discomfort or you feel the player is above your level. Would anyone like to enlighten these folks as to why? Personally, I want them to research it on their own, maybe even play a thief (more).

Between Lunarain.8430 and KazNaka.4718 I’d say case solved. Or proof shown: two excellent eles have video proof (not just the “I canz do it so canz” you we often see said but not backed up) that this is doable. Both dropped in under a minute for both players in fact.

Dunno where the OP is atm, but I would argue someone owes someone some gold.

Excuses…that’s all I’m hearing. I was handicapping myself by using only weapon skills (no heals, no dodges, no utilities, no elites).

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzOcDrsXmeQ&feature=youtu.be and I STILL did not use any dodges or elites.

I believe the rule was kill Svanir 1st then Chieftain 2nd. Please don’t say I got out-of-combat healing this time.

I’m just showing how to use main-hand dagger effectively through smart usage of attunements. Sure, my cc were on cooldown, but once I finish going through all the attunements, it would almost be up again. This brings a second point: a good ele would know instinctively all the cooldown timers.

Regarding your slow reflexes, normally I would say practice makes perfect, but you know….maybe it’s not as easy to develop muscle memory when you’re older.

Actually its age and this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetic_neuropathy
since you showed interest. Fortunately i did take some care of myself before I was diagnosed and i make an effort to control my sugar now so theres no talk of cutting any feet off. Thats probably TMI.

Thank you both for proving my point though. D/X is viable and quite effective in the right hands; downright scary if you know what you’re doing.

When comparing this game to the original guild wars PvP, this game is checkers opposed to chess. Ele is one of the few classes that makes me think about what I’m doing to play it even remotely well.

KazNaka.4718:

Melody Cross.8465:

So an ele remains either a support character where something stands up in the front and you blas away (or heal) while you stand off—even just a little) and let it take the brunt or a kiting machine where range and HOLDING that range is king.

I see you conveniently ignored my vid >:]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L21ZqGgc3A

Not intentionally. thank you for making it. Unfortunately, its not me we’re trying to impress. I know there are other eles out there better at the game than I and make no such suggestions that I’m “leet” anymore (the fact that I use the term probably dates me as “yee old fart” :P ). Also, we missed the chieftan in this vid, with so much of your shutdown on recycle how did you plan to handle him?

I’m not singling you out. Miz missed the staff restriction. I’m simply citing the rules the OP has requested be followed. Rules i can’t see myself performing to expectation under…unless you wanna see me take them with 25 stacks of bloodlust or cooruption with tanky armor after a half hour farming the ghosts. that would provide the power to performance. probably.

It can be done with an ele. You proved facetanking can be done on the svanir with proper use of kd and stun, Miz proved a good staff build can down them both as he kited them through his AoE drops while he kited. The restrictions now in place are more rigid than the original post though. which, I think now, was made to a: get a chuckle and b: to get a few eles talking about this and posting vids. It obviously had the desired effect in those regards.

If its insisted i will throw up a vid of me soloing the chief with D/D or D/F. But again I state that it would be a FLUKE were I do to so. 1 in 10 or even higher that I succeed rather than drop. And i wouldnt have the interest to go after the svanir after what i know would be a hard won victory over that chief. we’re talking 1 in 20 to 1 in 50 chance to tackle both with my reflexes and capabilities as they are. I’m just not as good as (as fast) I used to be. I quit monking in GvG in the first place because I couldn’t catch spikes with infusions anymore. Once your reflexes start to go, you’ll understand, and I pray to all of you that it isn’t due to something as…debilitating as diabetes is turning out to be for me.

The premise I’ve been laboring under is that the OP believes that dagger mainhand is underpowered for the close quarters it requires. My counterargument is that other eles can handle both chief and svanir but i can’t do so easily. It is utilities that I think need a buff if we want to see improved play in pve pvp and wvw. I dont want to see attribute swapping mechanics changed, I think it would be a bad idea. I wouldn’t be upset with a buff to damage or recharge times for a dagger mainhand, but most who enjoy a class would enjoy it more if anet catered to our choices.

i dont think that would be in our or anets interest though. this reminds me of when anet changed hall of heroes to make it easier for casual gamers to “jump into” the pvp of the original guild wars. as I and many other players lamented at the time, it would and did kill the entire playstyle which, of course, invited all the other pvps that replaced it.

if you prefer something more recent in the online rpg communities (puts on flamer-proof jacket) look at the reaction to Mists of Pandora on the OG WoW community. many have been vocal about their dislike for the change.

To this topic: Decrying ele capabilities because “its too hard” would lead to the same issue(s); eles for more casual players. Being a casual player, myself, I can’t get behind that. I have a pretty good idea what it would do to the class. I dont want the players who have ammassed such skill to be hampered by may poor performance. I’ll just keep tweeking macros on my deathstalker and hope I come off alright.

To those who insist on major sweeping changes to the ele: be careful what you wish for from a company that has built its model on casual play. You may very well get what you wish for. And you more than likely will not enjoy the aftertaste.

Miz.2761:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL2wkrIV5MA

I could’ve done a lot better, but that’s both of them. It’s not as faceroll as a the warrior, but an ele is never going to kill mobs as well as a warrior or necro and it’s a fundamental part of the class.

1 (for one post Miz, dont get greedy :P) and a good job Miz but thats staff and the OP specified Dagger mainhand. Look at all the kiting you did. You were always hitting them, but you were always moving away from them too. I’d estimate your range for much of the fight was 700, which was easy to keep with the chills and the freeze you pulled off.

So an ele remains either a support character where something stands up in the front and you blas away (or heal) while you stand off—even just a little) and let it take the brunt or a kiting machine where range and HOLDING that range is king.

Miz.2761:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL2wkrIV5MA

I could’ve done a lot better, but that’s both of them. It’s not as faceroll as a the warrior, but an ele is never going to kill mobs as well as a warrior or necro and it’s a fundamental part of the class.

1 (for one post Miz, dont get greedy :P) and a good job Miz but thats staff and the OP specified Dagger mainhand. Look at all the kiting you did. You were always hitting them, but you were always moving away from them too. I’d estimate your range for much of the fight was 700, which was easy to keep with the chills and the freeze you pulled off.

So an ele remains either a support character where something stands up in the front and you blas away (or heal) while you stand off—even just a little) and let it take the brunt or a kiting machine where range and HOLDING that range is king.

Faith Riven

Google it.

On a lark ImProVocateur I made a few passes at this without the use of conjurs. I didn’t try very hard however because you’re asking us to run counter intuitive to the class makeup. You’ve basically asked us to facetank a pair of melee mobs with glass cannons. The only way to drop them that quickly is to blow them apart with high power/precision. At least, thats the only way I can think of. And relegation to dagger mainhand means we’re at 600 range when we start up and have to stay that close to be effective.

Someone can do this, but I won’t be able to with regularity. Any success of mine will be a fluke.
to put things in perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWxMFqRip9E
Thats a Guardian. He’s meant to be up front. I’m a squishy ele. I’m not meant to be up front.

So while I don’t understand denial of scepters and staffs as they are 900 and1200 range weps, I do understand why you denied the use of summons. But therein lies the problem with you wanting a “fix” to dagger skills. I can guess when you watched that vid you were thinking “Melody cheated and healed the golem so IT facetanked the damage while the ele sat back and spammed. How CHEAP!”

No. How it should have been. I’ll explain later.

If we want to complain about a skill setup, lets start right there. Eles are the ONLY castor class that doesn’t have a perma combat summon. mesmers have their clones. They’re up, all the time, in your face, whirling through your line, driving the NPCs nuts before running into a ball and exploding in flashy fashion so you can make more of them. Lather, rinse repeat. The whole class’s special abilities are built around the things, they are so integral.

Necromancers have minions; that ball of stinkily exploding, blinding, bull’s charging fury that always seems to reappear faster than you can kill the necro and heaven help you if they have lifestealing NPCs because if they do you’re going to be chasing a mark spamming life stealer while her horde is eating your behinds for breakfast.

Eles have…60 seconds of help (max) followed by 45 to 120 seconds of cooldown. Now if you want to complain about something complain about that. i don’t have a real problem with 120 and 45 second cooldowns. I do have a problem with 180 second and 105 second cooldowns though, which is what you actually get when one of our summons can go the distance.

Now, someone can handle your challenge. I managed to down the Chief a couple times with a x\10\x\30\30 but didnt have my camera running. It was also, frankly, as much luck as skill. I couldn’t reliably duplicate the performance every time, so it would be unfair to post as a proof. Someone with a lot more time on their hands and faster reflexes than aged old me can pick up the gauntlet. But doing so would not prove whats wrong with eles to Anet. They don’t WANT eles facetanking melee characters. They want us as support classes, and that’s how I play my ele. I support. Either my summons or my team. And I have to give up those summons to go into a PvP area, even though many pvps scoff at the idea of WvW as player verusus player. i don’t see a balance issue with buffing ele glyph of lesser and glyph of ele to remove the “60 second duration” completely. At the very least. i think designing a character that cant facetank only to remove their best tool for damage control in PvE solo play is foolish.

When I solo in WvW, I D/D and kite like crazy because it drives the other side to detraction. The moment I get anywhere near a team or a zerg, I’m on staff.

So I don’t want eles facetanking melees either. If I want to facetank anything, I’ll run a guardian or a warrior.

Hmm…I want to make certain I add this proviso before you read further. I am not a commander nor have I commanded in GW2. It’s a “read at your own risk” but this is what I’ve seen the better Commanders (seem to) run when they were guardians.

That said: Hammer/Staff warrior or even a Sword/Shield (maybe even mace but I like the teleports; seems to keep the action moving more swiftly in the scrub) with Staff AH using PoV. You want to be tanky, the folks following you will carry more than enough run buff (or they should) to give you perma uptime on the runbuff.

Whatever you run, DON’T ask others to roll tank. I’ll explain why.

You’re the tank of any group, because once the other side knows you’re the commander, they will be on your face. One thing you need to get into the habit of is team tactical build construction; something I’ve seen little of in this and other forums (if anyone knows a place to check such setups, please post). I’ve actually seen commanders endorse multi AH tanks for other group guardians. I consider this in error on their part. They understand the ability of their build, but not how several in conjunction can actually prove less than beneficial to team play. I’d suggest that you don’t turn your commander tag on without a group backing you up. Ever.

Build your team based on strengths and weaknesses. Off the top of my head: Ask other guardians you trust to spec ret builds so they can keep that on you and your other frontlines all the time, ask eles to run water spammer so they can keep the gate constantly healthy when capping an area. Necro well spamming is FTW. I have seen Fear Me warriors do some nasty things, especially near an overhang

Rangers have proven effective really annoying wall defenders and crippling the occasional poor soul who gets near your team before a zerg merges onto you. Engis…I’m a fan of Bomb builds with turret support but others who have more extensive use of engis in WvW play should tell you more. I can’t think of any other reason for a thief to be in your team save to spike stragglers solo and mesmer GS builds are…well, I still like them. But the mesmer’s greatest asset would be timewarp and portals for golems.

Thats why you’re building your build according to your team. The zerg is a fickle thing. I’d say the most important thing to take away would be to never command without a group you trust as your core. You’re commanding them. The zerg is following a jewel over your head. That may sound jaded but it is proven, by and large, to be accurate.

Lastly: http://mos.millenium.org/na or something similar for your second monitor and a keyboard with macros that auto-type commands to the zerg (don’t trust them to get onto teamspeak. It’s not fair for you to demand such, and is the reason I suggested a team in the first place.. the page I link remains well updated for the match up in choice. Click livemap to view it. A quick glance during play and those macro commands mentions can give you the quick decision making and relay capability that I’ve found makes me more willing to follow a commander for more than one tower.

Again, this is what I have found more appealing in Guardian commanders I’ve run with, either in team or zerg play. As someone who would enjoy commander status one day, I’m also quite interested in what other experienced Commanders would have to say about this issue and specifically about my reply. Without derailing Helios’s thread, of course

Hope this helped

Mel

Daecollo.9578:

This just proves the fact that Elementalist needs to be easier to play

How, citing specific examples, does this video test prove that eles are underpowered? I just skill spammed a little faster than the OP with default equipment. If you need proof then, well, watch the silly low res vid :P

How are eles underdowered when we can easily down the test in question in under a minute without actually thinking about what we’re doing? It took EFFORT to not think about what I was doing, and I admit I switched to water because i knew the golem was on its way down—that was a “tactical decision”—but I just 12345’d for most of the test per the OPs request.

I’ve seen this message spamreplied across multiple threads. Are you reading the discussions in question or just using the forum as an advertising board for your personal idea of what an ele should be? In the interest of clarity, I do NOT share your view. Eles need some love, more attention than I feel they’re getting, but not an overhaul as you propose. Utilities need work. Out of combat weapon swapping should be reassessed. There’s a host of things that could be done without completely changing the class.

@Nikkinella.8254:
A few corrections.

Eles do NOT have the lowest health pool. Guardians do
Eles Do have the lowest armor rate. This is a fact they share with Mesmer and Necromancer. I fail to see the point except that you point out that eles are casters.
Eles do NOT have the lowest single point DOT in the game. I would argue that is the engineer. they also do not have the lowest AoE DOT. I would again argue engi.

My two cents: I do not believe it is the first 5 skills on any ele bar that require more than a few tweaks. Its the utility skills that need love. Or, more specifically, its the utility skills that haven’t GOTTEN any love that need some love. If everyone is running 30 in Arcana, it should say something to Anet when few arcana spells regularly make it on an ele’s bar. Sigil passives are…unimpressive, and the cost of activating them largely negates the benefits of using them in the first place…

I’ll reserve judgment on weapon skills until I see what is in store for the next update. healing skills, however…does anyone actually carry Glyph for anything other than the run buff.

Fortus.6175:

I just cant get away from it though, regardless of how inneffective and powerless I feel, the gameplay, the flashiness, it is so catchy, so good for the eye! If only knowing im not a drag to my team could mend it!

Okay, Melody Smash.

Anyone complaining of me “dragging my team down” had better site SPECIFIC examples of how when I roll an ele and if you get the feeling others are treating you this way, you better ask them why. It is the closest character to the GW2 monk of any class I’ve played. With proper situation awareness, the high heal over time (when specced for it) or considerable damage over time mean this character is one of the three main characters I play out of all the maxed characters I have. Yes, it could use more love and less nerfhammer from Anet. I have hope they plan to do just that in coming updates in the form of updates to traits and utility skills. But NOT to make the class more powerful. To make it more versatile.

Since you insisted, I couldn’t resist a chance to play with Overwolf.

I posted this because people complained about using buffs for the ele. This is a stock character with no special runes, NO upgrades on the weapons.

I had intended to not use ANY of the cantrips, but I number 7 by habit. Still, It didn’t actually do anything…

And yes I know my PC sux. Accepting donations if anyone wants higher resolutions :P

Thank you for the replies and reading my OP. I will not cite any specific comments at this time. I get the feeling that doing so would be jumping on a merry-go-round that I have little wish to ride. I’m not going to complain about skill nerfs, etc. But Izzy? You still can’t smite

However, in the interest of keeping the discussion on track I decided to return and post an example of how I find this play mechanic annoying, more annoying than most mechanics in the game I might dislike at this time.

Last night in WvW I was soling with D/D spec. Eventually I rolled in with a small group and we started capping towers. The D/D spec did fine for most of the work required of me until we started needing water on the gates. I threw on my staff for greater effect. And a quick respec for greater area of effect and water skill spam.

It became obvious from teamspeak that the commander’s goals eventually shifted (though I will highlight one point because I feel a need to. If anyone from Anvil Rock is reading this, I apologize but…stun breaks. 9v30+ and we were wiping you that many times that close to your WP? Stun breaks. Really). As is my way, and attention span, I decided to return to solo play. So I had to STOP playing. Open the hero panel, find my daggers amongst the loot I had acquired, equip them, reset those two traits and NOW I can continue (again, sorry for the derail. Those two thieves in AR borderlands. Stun breaks. REALLY). Admittedly, re-equipping my daggers did not take terrible time. But it took a lot longer than hitting ` would have. Long enough that I decided it was prudent to waypoint to a safe location to do so. Long enough that I lost that sense of urgency. That feeling of “go go go”. It felt like a task. A chore.

I don’t want to do chores in a video game. If I want to do chores, I’ll mop my bathroom floor. Actually, I should do that today…ew.

This is not relegated to WvW. Feel simularly in certain PvE situations. But, i’ll leave it at the one example for brevity.

Moral of the story: I feel that Anet was correct in preventing eles from weapon swapping in combat. I believe that most prudent players would agree that giving eles 45 skills at their disposal in combat as opposed to other characters 15 (20 for necros if you wish to count deathshroud) would be imbalanced to hellangone. However, this makes us the only class that is prevented from swapping from midrange/frontrange playstyles to backline without stopping play completly. Perhaps I err’d on the side of caution with my timer suggestions as the longest cooldown of any of our weapon skills is 60 seconds and the longest buff I can think of is 30 from a guardian blast finishing through a field combo. Such a question would be best answered by an Anet employee or group thereof when deciding how to properly balance the introduction of this mechanic to what is still a relativly fun class.

But. Every other class has this dynamic (and that’s the operative word for my “rant”. Dynamic. The ability to change to meet the circumstance presented to you or that you find yourself running toward). It was even a selling point in some of the reviews I watched during the beta. I think it should be revisited. I think it should be revisited sooner rather than later, and I don’t think such a simple mechanic as a timer addon is unacceptable for the sake of balance.

Darn. That wasn’t very brief at all…

Thank you again for reading. I look forward to more discussion and constructive critique.

Mel

Does anyone else feel this way?

Weapon swapping. I’m sure by now its been dragged through the mud enough times that this thread is superfluous. However, getting back into GW2 after a long hiatus has given me a chance to step back and think about what really was annoying me about this game when I left.

Elementalists can’t weapon swap in combat. And they never should be allowed to. The power such an ability would give to a character that basically has FOUR weapon swaps would make the class so imbalanced that play would be unfair, or skill nerfs would have to be extreme.

Outside of combat, however, is a different matter entirely. The ability to swap from Dagger/Dagger to Staff should not be relegated to the Hero Panel for only one reason. IT’S ANNOYING. You have to stop playing, breaking your emersion in game, and ask your team to hold up, to respec a weapon that they can just hit ` and be done.

The argument that I came up against weapon swapping out of combat is speedbuffing. An ele could swap weapons drop a massive ammount of buffs outside combat, and then the team steamrolls another, or an NPC. To prevent this i would like to propose a compromise to the system.

1: Eles can weapon swap, but only once per minute and thirty seconds
2: Eles cannot weapon swap for more than 1 minute and thirty after casting any spell.

The game already allows for simular mechincs as part 1. Part 2 should be a simple binding in the code to force the weapon swap cooldown on any ele skillbar. By adding these restrictions, it removes the combat benefits an ele might have for weapon swapping but still allows the class to become more dynamic and play it its strengths depending on the situation without opening the hero panel to stop play while they respec.

I want to stress that its not a game breaker. But it is an annoying mechanic that I feel was never fleshed out. I would hope that Anet will revisit this topic and adopt a similar solution.

Thank you for reading my little rant :P

Mel

I’m sorry if this has been posted elsewhere. I’ve leveled 6 of the available classes and am currently on mesmer. I’ve run bunker builds and high damage characters, team support and just good old goofy stuff. I have never had an issue in the story mode if I played at the suggested level until now.

Once I made my way into Orr content, the NPCs on my side seem to be destroyed. No matter what I do. Currently on Through the Looking Glass and this is the first time story mode has gone from fun to “oh my gawd what on earth have they done!” The risen respawn faster than I can kill them, and I can drop them pretty quick. I tried it at 72, 75 and now at 79.

If you blew up in story mode previously (keep in mind, this is character 7. I’ve done this six times myself—solo—and helped many a guildie with personal story when they asked) you did not have to re-fight the entire ZONE from checkpoint to point of failure. Now you do. They spawn so fast that there is no getting clear of them beyond running.

It’s made the game—not challenging—tedious. And defiantly not fun.

I’d like to know if others have recognized/realized this, and hope I can get an answer to why ArenaNet has made this decision. Was it a mistake in coding to put in-world respawn speed into instanced play? Was this intentional? Are they trying to force players to beg others to help with a mode of play that has very little incentive to assist? Did someone actually complain it was too easy so they ramped it up to GW1s Hard Mode???

If my tone sounds frustrated, that’s because I am. I’ve enjoyed story mode in the past on all of my characters. Until tonight. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t challenging. It was kill this one, and this one, and these three—res your NPCs! Times up! Kill them ALL again!

Does anyone else think that sounds like fun?

Coo! I love Quaggans! I have a special place in my heart for Hylek too because of their close resemblance to Froglok’s in Evrequest. Your times of play currently sync with mine as well.

A note on Dungeons. I have had…limited experience in dungeons and found them to be not so much fun. This could be an issue with group makeup or my own inexperience when I tried them. I have thought about farming Arah. I hear the armor is quite pretty. Karma farming a set of Whispering at this time. It has the stats I need.

Mwari, I actually agree to a considerable extent with what you said about current zerg “tactics”. It has the feel of a karma farm when they are followed, even when there is a commander in the group. Just today I saw some questionable decisions, but held my tongue. It was my belief that, had we taken Bravost instead of skirting it, we could have built the treb, held said treb, and completely overrun Kaineng Valley. We did not, blue rallied AT Bravost and destroyed 2 trebs before the commander logged to go to sleep…

Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

Updated post for times of day/play. My work hours dictate my times of course. Currently Tuesday-Saturday I am online 9PM-12PM Eastern Standard. My weekends are Sunday and Monday. Schedule changes are every 3 months so these times and days will likely change in January.

A note on server hopping and whispers: I have had several whispers in game for guilds requesting I leave DR. Most have been quite polite but…I would kindly ask future recruitment be performed from this forum. Even inactive, leaving my guild is not a decision I take lightly. I appreciate all parties understanding if I wish to take some time to decide.

To be honest, I have been considering leaving DR, as much for a chance to complete my explorer titles in WvW recently as because of my poor success in finding a good fit in this world.

Per several requests for sPvP and more information about my “injury”. I am not disabled I was diagnosed with diabetes and, as a result of failing to diagnose or treat it for several years, my hand/eye coordination is not what it was. For this reason, I could not and cannot catch spikes as an infuser was required in the previous game’s PvP dynamic. In short, i do not have the reflexes of a teenager anymore. Of course, I’m not one and wasn’t when I played GW1. Part of getting old I suppose.

I do not know how well I would perform in this current Structured PvP because I have yet to test myself. Yes, I have played other games for cash prizes (FPS, fighting games and some RTS). No, I do not consider myself a “professional” as the money was never enough for me to live off of by itself.

I have a different job now and do not seek to turn this leisure activity into one. Please respect this decision.

Ming Dara and Zooey, I want to thank you both for your interest in me. I will continue to review your websites as I contemplate this not too inconsequential decision. I think I’m worth waiting for

Play Fair and Good Gaming
Melody Cross

Hello,

I am a new player to Guild Wars and am seeking an active guild for WvW and PvE. I have had little success in finding a guild that enjoys these things on my own and am seeking assistance or submissions.

Who am I:

PvE background: Former GW1 player HoM completed except the God Walking title. All expansions 100%, all explorer titles, etc. I still play sometimes, but not since buying GW2. My Main was a monk/healer.

In GW2: Divinty’s Reach Server; currently have level 80 guardian built for hybrid support and damage. I do re-spec stats at the request of a team if the reason is good.
level 32 necro: still getting used to her. I miss my horde :p
level 17 ele: Is a bit squishy. I know she would be awesome in a group though
level x Ranger: Currently in process of rebuilding it. Got her to 80…could not stand her hair so she went bye bye.
level x Assassin, to follow Ranger once i have that type back to 80 again.

Times of play: varied. My work hours dictate my times of course. Currently Tuesday-Saturday I am online 9PM-12PM Eastern Standard. My weekends are Sunday and Monday. Schedule changes are every 3 months.

Still working on 100% explorer title. Once completed on my Guardian, I do intend to work on it with other characters.

PvP background

Former member of We Card [ID]. Our highest ranking in GvG was in the top 40s, we averaged 50-60s until a medical issue forced me into other arenas. I was our backline support/infuser, but I cannot do that anymore.
Other roles performed: Spike caller, general build/team construction and map strategist, sometimes ran flags. We shared these duties dependant on build and team makeup.

In GW2: Currently enjoying WvWvW with PuGs or just jumping into a zerg. I have not had a chance for structured play but look forward to the challenge.

What else do I bring:

Level 400 Armorsmith
Level 400 Cook
Level 384 Tailor—that will probably go up to 400 soon…like tonight
I’m working on Jeweler and Artificing. Huntsman and leather working will grow with my Ranger when I rebuild her (or him).

What am I looking for:

PvE: A guild that helps each other. The guilds/alliances that most impressed me when I played in GW1 were the ones where someone would call out in Guild Chat “I need help with X quest” and 3 people replied in next to no time. That reply may have been “give me 10 minutes to finish what I’m doing” but it was a response for aid and always appreciated. That’s the kind of player I intend to be, that’s the kind of people I want to play with in PvE. I enjoy roleplay as well. This is an RPG after all.

PvP situations, I tend to take more seriously. While much of my experience in structured play is support oriented, I expect a fair fight or a short fight. I do not condone the use of map exploits, game mechanic bugs or other cheating as outlined by Anet and NCSoft. I was vehemently opposed to such action in GW1 and do not tolerate it now. That said, I understand the gray area that we live in, and strive to use game mechanics to the razor’s edge.

As to temperament, I try to maintain control of the situation and myself. Swearing into vent does nothing to help my team. Yes, I will admit to jumping on a few ranged players corpses after UTTERLY MURDERING THEIR SQUISHY LITTLE BODIES—MELODY SMASH WITH BIG HAMMER—eh hem, excuse me; after defeating them when they tried a protracted fight with my guardian. I do not gloat often, but if you give me reason boy howdy will you hear it.

I’m not a great “leader”. I’m too analytical in my thinking for the lightning decisions that often come with structured play. When given commands, I follow them, when situations change, I adapt as best I can, but when forced to command, I do so with some reluctance and relinquish it when the time is passed.

I hope that’s enough info.

Play Fair and Good Gaming

Melody Cross

Thank you very much both of you for confirming that. i did not know if i had to mystic forge something or…well, it was driving me batty. Has this not come up before/ Those are pretty standard stats and the only way I’ve found to get them is karma farming armor…which I don’t like the look of. I wanted the crafted set because of the “I made it” aspect. Like i said, is disheartening to find i can’t make what I wanted to is what this is about.

Hello

I only just got to level 400 recently in armor smith and I made my first set of exotics. But I did so reluctantly. After some time searching online and in the world, I could not find an insignia that applied Power, Toughness, and Vitality to my exotic.

I was hoping this is an oversight on my part, but the answers I’ve found online and with other players is that such an insignia does not exist.

I would like to know if I simply was misled or if this is true. If it is true, I think it is an error on anets’ part or is it intentional. If an error, I would be happy to see such an insignia from a karma vendor. If it was intended, I would like to know why.

Its just a bit of a let down to get all the way to level 80, make all those materials and then realize that i can’t actually make the armor I wanted to :P

Thanks for any replies. Sorry if this has been posted before.

Mel