Guild Wars 2

Don’t take advice from the forum seriously. I have come away from this forum many many times just discouraged at the information I got. I, like you, re-roll all the time (haven’t made it past 35 yet due to re-rolling). I think if I were to have done 0 research and just picked something I thought looked fun from the beginning, I’d be rolling as a lv80 engineer right now, happy.

Thief is easier than engineer but both are more complex than others (warrior/guardian come to mind). I wouldn’t say engineer sucks. Some things need work but you can work around them if you want to.

I would pick whatever you think looks fun. Create the character and never return to the forums, otherwise you might change your mind.

We can all rez by pressing F and many professions have utilities for instant rez.

I’m sure this is obvious, but I just don’t see the need for another slot for a mechanic every profession can handle just fine.

I honestly like the response time on minions. Place 2-3 marks on the ground, get a few auto attacks in with staff, by the time they hit the marks the minions swarm in and I can start the combat 5 ft away from me rather than 50.

If they changed it, the position of the fight would be based around where the minion intercepted the target rather than where I preferred … but it’s not a big deal.

HiSaZuL.2843:

Mhm formatting is over rated.

It’s not. It’s really .. REALLY not.

@OP – I didn’t go into minions from the start, swapped over to them at 15 or so. I was never really into pet stuff (hated the ranger’s pet) but Necro pets are fun. I use staff almost exclusively and staff 2 tends to keep the little guys alive enough.

Honestly though.. I almost never look at their health. I use them and their abilities (really just the shadow’s blind and the little guy’s self detonation) when they’re off cooldown, re-summon as needed. I’m currently running with 5 minions and it is fun to command an army of them. Just watch the skill bar. Red = minion is summoned, not red = re-summon! Maybe it’s not the ideal way to play, but I enjoy not worrying myself about it.

Some heavy AoE’s will wipe out all my minions, sure.. but staff is such a great weapon I can often deal with them even if all my minions are gone.

I never planned on using minions on necro, but now that I’m using them I’m not sure I’ll ever look back.

Thanks for the responses guys. Hopefully this will get some attention from ANet in the future.

Seems silly that siphon wouldn’t gain anything from healing power, especially when all the siphon traits are in the +healing power tree.

Oh well.

Thanks

Title says it all. I’ve searched the forums and the wiki and have not found any conclusive answer. Will you gain more health from Life Leech if you have more healing power?

EDIT: A followup related question, the Death Master trait Spiteful Vigor (Gain retaliation for 5 seconds when you heal) .. is life stealing considered a “heal”? I feel like it is, since it’s listed that way on the tooltip.

Spear (1h or 2h?) – Warrior + Ranger
>> Quick attacks, probably a focus on vulnerability for warriors, maybe poison for rangers.

2H Axe – Warrior exclusive (seems too big/slow for a ranger. Greatsword I think is the biggest thing a ranger would carry)
>> Heavy, devastating attacks, probably a focus on bleed. Might be hard to distinguish it from hammer.

Staff – Add to Ranger
>> Nature magic focus

Fist (Claw, brass knuckles. Possibly 2handed? Having it be mainhand or offhand would lead to some silly combos) – Warrior + Thief
>> Probably a focus on stuns, daze

Tome (offhand) – Guardian, Elementalist, Necromancer

Cannon – Engineer Exclusive
>> Maybe it should be a cannon kit instead…

Whip – Warriors + Mesmers + Rangers
>> I feel like Mesmer is the only magic profession that could effectively use a whip and have it make sense.

Having a tough time coming up with more weapons for Guardians, Elementalists, and Necromancers. Also it seems like every non-magic oriented weapons should be available to warriors.

Why do you feel the need for a massive staff? I’ve heard smaller staves work just as well if you know how to use them.

I ended up going through all the ranger and mesmer skills and traits and tallying up all the ones I liked (not necessarily in terms of damage but liking the mechanics). Mesmer got 58, Ranger for 59. So I’m gonna stick with ranger.

Thanks for all the input guys. With any luck I’ll stick with ranger for .. at least a couple days before re-considering haha.

Edit: I realize this makes me sound quite insane. And I will not argue against that.

Yeah, it bugs me that warriors get traits that boost damage for unused adrenaline.. why can’t rangers get traits that boost damage for unused pets? Well, whatever.

I’m leaning towards rangers, I’ll try out a raven and devourer or something rather than the drake/bear, maybe it will help downplay it.

Raf.1078:

I’d go for the Ranger in that case. Pets aren’t that hard to manage. If you don’t like them, set it up so all they do is run at your side and not draw aggro or help out. The owl or eagles are pretty inconspicous.

Hmm, that’s true. I am using a pretty massive drake currently. The only part I like about it is it seems to do this spin once in a while in my fire trap which gives area might but .. yeah, maybe I just need to change out my pets. I think I could also tolerate a devourer who will just sit back and ping enemies from afar.

Raf.1078:

I don’t think you can truly evaluate any profession by level 20. Why not just play both of them as your mood dictates. The playstyles of each are different enough that you shouldn’t get too bored.

While there may be a lot of mesmers in pve….there is a definite shortage of them in WvW.

Well I’m playing with a friend who has no issues sticking with his elementalist. Up to level 20 I’ve been able to find enough time here and there to keep them both leveled, but I’m working more hours and I’m not going to have that option shortly. I gotta pick one and leave the other in the dust (for now).

Ok, so I’m incredibly contested when it comes to picking (and STICKING with) a profession. I have played every profession to at least 20, but it seems shortly after 20 I either become disappointed with some aspects of my profession or interested in aspects of another profession.

So I’m down to two .. the Ranger and the Mesmer.

Ranger

Why it appeals to me –
> Ranger feels like a warrior that’s slightly offset from the standard.
> The shouts are great and I love the ability to use both melee and ranged weapons.
> The greatsword feels powerful and the axe is fun and useful.
> Bows are pretty neat as well although I find myself not using them as much.
> I love the traps.. they add some nice utility and on-command combo fields.
> I haven’t really used the spirits to much extent, but the idea of building a spirit build later in the game appeals to me.

Why I’m conflicted –
> That pet. I don’t know why, but that pet REALLY bugs the hell out of me. I know I don’t really need to manage it. I could theoretically just let it die all the time and it wouldn’t be much different… but there’s something about it that bothers me. Imagine you’re playing as a warrior. You go out and start killing stuff but no matter where you go, there’s a little creature following you and attacking your stuff. You just wanna go solo and do your own damage, get your own kills but this thing just keeps FOLLOWING you. There’s nothing you can do about it. It is so annoying that it actually makes me hate the ranger. But I love the other aspects so much that I keep coming back. Also, so many of the traits are focused around the pet if you were to ignore them your trait choices are much more limited. There’s also a few utility skills that ONLY affect the pet.
> Ranger’s aren’t really desirable late game.

Mesmer

Why it appeals to me –
> I like the concept of it. It’s not a straightforward “mage” profession.
> I like that the clones can perform as a ‘ramp up’ before exploding them for good effect.
> There’s lots of damage, control, and support.
> Mesmer can use a wide variety of weapons, although I usually find myself sticking with staff/gs.
> They have a lot of utility skills that can benefit the group and make them pretty desirable later in the game (so I hear).

Why I’m conflicted –
> Firstly.. there’s quite a few mesmers out there. This could be said of every profession, I’m sure, but .. there’s a lot of mesmers. I know I shouldn’t let that bother me, but it does a little.
>I do tend to find some of the weapons to be flat out un-interesting to the point where I end up staying in staff all the time because it’s such a well done weapon.
>I find managing illusions to be tedious at times.
>The F skills.. I really only use F1. F2 for confusion almost never seems worth it (better to use 3 clones as 3 free blocks than get 3 stacks of confusion, it seems), F3 for daze is in the same boat, and F4 for invulnerability for a couple seconds.. well if I leave the clones up that’s 3 free blocks so I’m not getting hit anyways. I realize some of these mechanics will change with traits.
> Many of the utility skills are just plain boring for PvE. I feel like I just use the 2-clone one and put signets on the rest. The phantasms aren’t worth using for PvE. The glamours aren’t really PvE focused… or the manipulations, for that matter. The mantras are kinda neat, but I feel like I just try to use them to put SOMETHING different on my bar because.. I don’t really have anything else.
> Ties in with the one above, mesmer seems very PvP focused.. and I enjoy PvE as much if not more than PvP.. so it’s nice to have some neat stuff to do there.

Overall, I like many aspects of both, but I’m unsure of which one I should continue with. I tend to like professions that are an offshoot or derivation of another profession. I tried Guardian for the same reason, I’ll probably play it more later but it got kinda dull.

If you could perhaps counter some of my points, point out mistakes, try to push me one way or the other, I would greatly appreciate it. As stated above, I enjoy both PvP and PvE, but probably more PvE. Both professions are about 20 now, and I just keep going back and forth.

I realize the futility in “What should I do?” threads, but .. what should I do?

Thanks for reading
Mongo

I’m all for that elite. I love rangers in EVERY way cept pet… anything that allows me to stow it away all the time is fine byyyy me. Even if we have to lose an elite skill slot for it.

Kanto.1659:

I dislike how condition damage is in such a sad state of affairs months and months after the game has been released. The easy fix of upping the cap to 50 has been ignored, so we languish.

My last group had a necro, an engineer and a condition ranger. Any mob went to 25 bleeds/Vulnerability and stayed glued there within the first seconds. I excused myself and went to get my guardian instead.

Is that how it works? I don’t have much experience in large group settings so I haven’t come across this yet. Why are there caps at all? If you can maintain the upkeep on adding more stacks, why is there a cap?

I don’t know the exact mechanics behind it, but isn’t it like.. the enemy loses 1 stack a second? Something like that? Why not make it a percentage per second.. so the more stacks an enemy has, the harder the group needs to work to keep those stacks up. Seems like it would be a pretty good ‘soft cap’ that’s actually skill based instead of a flat hard cap that doesn’t add ANYTHING to the game.

fadeaway.2807:

I’d like to see some evidence of staff #1 being better dps than greatsword as mentioned above..

The problem with staff is that if you swap from sword to staff, your dps will suffer by a huge amount.

If we’re talking about wvw or pvp… then things are different.

Even with all the conditions applied to your enemy and boons applied to yourself? It seems like you can stack some might and fury pretty easily with staff as well as inflict burn/bleed/vuln to your enemies.

It absolutely seems like if you’re going for some burst damage, greatsword is a good way to deal some strong damage fast.. but it also seems like if you’re looking for sustained DPS, staff can hold it’s own.

Let me re-iterate.. “SEEMS”. I have done no calculations or controlled testing.

@Nretep: Yeah, it makes sense to get them to attack the clone… but missing out on those boons seems like it’s not worth it.

@Zumi: Generally what I’ve been doing is popping the 2 clones, throwing down Chaos Storm, then using staff #2 for a third clone. At this point I have 4 (including myself) sets of WoC getting thrown at the target. Meanwhile, chaos storm is popping up aegis on the clones, basically negating 2-3 attacks. It’s a really awesome combination of skills and it’s saved me many times.

That being said .. my swap weapon set really should dish out some damage. It seems kind of silly that we have 2 main hand and 3 off hand weapons.

Nretep.2564:

• GS#2 is a great opener for fights. It also deals conditions/ boons for those in range.

Well considering your skill 1 deals the most damage when at max range, I’d usually open with skill 1 to get their attention and follow up with the phantasm for damage + cripple. If you initiate at max range with skill 2, you’re not going to get the might .. too far to bounce.

I’ve only played a ranger to about 20 or so, never in PvP. However, Lick Woulds was simply amazing when it worked. Much better than other profession’s downed #3. I play a mesmer mostly and our downed 3 is just meh.. unpredictable teleport and stealth. Good to prevent a stomp but does little in the way of helping you rally.

That being said, I think rangers get the short end of the stick in enough places that it’s OK if one of their skills is above average. In PvE, there’s been enough times where lick wounds has been interrupted and I’ve died. It happens.

Long story short, if you’re fighting a ranger, make sure you get a CC ready for the pet when they inevitably use lick wounds.. because they will.

(Pet me preface with saying I am currently doing strictly PvE leveling at the moment)

I do enjoy the sword mainhand, although the #3 clone skill always seems ‘eh’ to me. Seems like 90% of the time the clone doesn’t charge.. just drops at my feet and runs to attack. Then I swap with him for the root and I’m like.. I could have just ran to the target and started this fight 3 seconds sooner.

I am bad with focus offhand. I just don’t .. I don’t get it I guess. I put the wall down to get a cripple/swiftness.. after that I can press the button again to move them slightly toward the wall but it doesn’t seem worth it to use (obviously I’m missing something there).

And the warden .. Seems to do “OK” damage but is forced to stay in place. I find he usually dies much faster than the other phantasms due to his short range.

I’ve used Sword/Sword a bit, some solid damage, blur and block are pretty good for defense, the phantasmal swordsman isn’t bad and can generally avoid dying too quickly.

Scepter/Sword is kinda fun.. scepter can pump clones out fast, plus it has a block of it’s own (so two blocks on scepter sword)

Scepter/Torch is pretty fun for confusion.. that scepter 2 is pretty darn powerful. Although scepter is a ranged weapon, I use it almost as a melee due to the clone generating ability on skill 1 is great at close range. The phantasm on torch supplies some decent confusion and The Prestige gives a reliable blind, so you’ll almost always get them to swing, miss, and hurt themselves.

I want to like greatsword, but I feel like it’s just not versatile enough… especially when compared to staff.

fadeaway.2807:

If you don’t mind doing poor dps then it’s great..

Yeah.. I’ve never been about just trying to find the one thing that does the most damage. The fact is, I can take on more with a staff than any other weapon. Sure, maybe I did 20% less DPS, but I survived that fight against 8 centuars and the elite that roamed in.

Is it just me or is staff really just the absolute tops? Not in terms of it being over-powered, but it’s just so versatile.

I mean.. it has a #1 skill that gives conditions to enemies and boons to allies. This is incredible in itself especially for a 0 cooldown skill. On top of this.. your clone attacks will have the same effect! This is the only weapon skill that transfers to the clones, right?

This plus the escape, chaos storm and the great phantasm.. it makes it hard for me to ever swap weapons because I don’t want to!

Has anyone else found a weapon combo they enjoy more or feel is as “complete” as staff is?

Yeah, my feel about it is Death Shroud could be an amazing skill. I feel like it should be affected more strongly by traits and really could provide a creative platform for ANet to do some neat stuff.. but right now it just seems OK.

Blood Magic Master trait
Vampiric – Siphon health whenever you hit a foe.

Blood Magic Adept trait
Siphon health whenever you critical hit

I just want to confirm.. if you hit a critical, you will trigger BOTH of these? Or will one override the other?

Well, not just for PvP, actually referring more to PvE

The second health bar is amazing. I would like to talk specifically about the skills you have access to.

For the most part, I find myself going into DS pretty much to use skill 4 for some heavy AoE then canceling it .. the other skills just don’t seem worth it to use.

What do you guys think about the skills?

This is absolutely fantastic advice. Reading what people have to say about professions on the forums is the best way to get discouraged.

Just say no. Pick something you think you’ll like and roll with it.

And how did you deal with ground-targeted skills? (BTW Your link isn’t working for me, but it may be because I’m at work)

Stealth + Magic = Mesmer. No heavy armor but that doesn’t mean you’ll be squishy!

Don’t forget, you also get to blink!

Edit: Also, what Curunen said, I found the Signet of Inspiration to be a great source of swiftness. It’s like.. every 10 seconds you have a 14% chance for 10 seconds of swiftness.. although it seems higher than 14%!

Well, this topic got away from me. My gripe is the concept of a ranger doesn’t have to be pet-centric.. but it’s ANet’s call how they implement it and they’re not gonna change that. So.. whatever.

Embolism.8106:

Instead of parroting the Wiki (which is very often wrong), test it yourself. In any case it’s not important, functionally it is identical to stealth.

I’m at work, otherwise I would. No need to be rude.

The wiki says “Gain stealth and summon an illusion to attack your foe.”, doesn’t indicate there should be anything else with a different name…

@Obscure One: Makes sense. I don’t like it, but it makes sense. I guess it feels like rangers are given the option to not be pet focused, but they’re .. really not. So it drives people to the profession that normally wouldn’t like pets (ie: me) and then leads them to be disappointed at the level of involvement.

ceejay.2517:

yet it does not grant the stealth mechanic that the elite ’mass stealth ’, the utility field stealth skill,and the thief skills produce

What do you mean by this?

As far as I’m aware, there are only two types of invisibility: Stealth and Camouflage… and mesmer only uses Stealth.

Every time I have used the stealth+decoy, it has properly provided me stealth. Same with The Prestige torch skill. Could you be more specific in why you think it is not functioning properly?

Fair enough. In response to your last post, yea.. I’m aware ANet will never do this. That’s why I put in my first post “But this is a discussion, not a suggestion”.

I understand pets can do well in both a pet-focused build and not. If you’re not traited into pets, your pet can still add some damage, add some utility, heal yourself, pull enemies, etc. If you’re traited into pets, you’ll see a big damage increase, plus allow you to focus on bunkering yourself to prevent deaths.

I guess my first point isn’t incredibly valid… pets aren’t super intrusive and the small number of problems they have I’m sure are being worked on.

My disappointment is in the direction they decided to take the profession. It’s odd, especially if you compare it to .. thief, for example. Thief has shadowstep + skill steal. It’s a nice little skill they can use whenever it’s beneficial to them and their trait tree isn’t bombarded with traits to boost it and their skills don’t have a bunch of ways to alter and enhance it. I would say that a thief could avoid ever using their profession mechanic and be just fine. One might argue that initiative is also their mechanic, but really it’s just an alternative to cooldowns.

I will take your word that a BM ranger and a conceptual petless ranger would do marginally equal damage.

If you’re using a ranger, you can expect to use a pet. I just think they could have taken this in a different direction that would satisfy both current satisfied and disappointed rangers .. not only that, but it would fit better with the profession.

Does anyone know the specifics on what happens with each illusion when you use a shatter skill?

It looks like each illusion will run to the location that the enemy was at when you activated the shatter instead of actually running up to them before self-detonating, but it’s hard to tell.

Often on moving enemies it seems like they do this, but it could just be them stopping to explode and they lag behind.

Also, I’ve noticed a couple times, my phantasm (duelist, specifically) will simply shatter at its current location without moving at all.

Can anyone speak to how these mechanics function (or are supposed to function), specifically?

solrik.6028:

Please provide examples for each

So, starting with point 1. Rangers are forced to use pets 100% of the time. Pets
- Force micromanagement, even in simple situations
>>> Maybe “Force” wasn’t the right word, but telling your pet to back off a target you decide you’re not interested in attacking is one part. Watching your pets health and using heals to the pets beneft. These are situations you get yourself in should you actually decide to use the pet.
- Often perform unwanted actions
>>> Same as above. Press 1 on a target too far away accidentally, doesn’t matter because you’re not close enough anyways. Pet charges in, need to cancel action.
- Will often maneuver in un-desirable ways
>>> Take ineffective routes to get to locations that should have been straightforward (or never make it there at all)
- Provide additional damage at the cost of ranger’s damage
>>> I don’t really think an example is needed here, do you?
- Perform actions in un-timely manners
>>> F2 skills, although they’ve improved the response time, tend to lag behind to the point where many times they’re un-needed by the time they’re used.

solrik.6028:

How so? I am not forced to command the pet to attack. I can just ignore it and let it die each time, can’t I?

Yes. You have the option to ignore the pet 100% of the time. In doing so, there are repercussions. Your pet may attack un-wanted targets. Many bounce skills can now hit you multiple times as your pet is an additional target. If you leave your pet dead, your damage suffers.

solrik.6028:

Spend a minute or less looking it up instead of ‘believing’. They got rid of it because this game is not a remake.

Ah, it’s called “Charm Animal”, not charm. Ya got me.

solrik.6028:

Aren’t you arguing for the fact that pets have horrible AI?

Edit: Pet’s can be great. Man you really pick the most minute things to argue about ..

solrik.6028:

*Why not just do this with every profession? Oh right, because it wouldn’t make them unique. What makes Rangers unique are the pet. The damage difference between pure ranger (no pet) and other prof are not huge enough to think that rangers are underpowered without the pet. A ranger has methods that helps both the pet and himself.

One more thing, don’t use the guardian virtues as an example of “good mechanics” if you complain about them!*

You clearly came here after someone stomped your favorite turtle or something. Don’t take your rage out on me. This is a discussion. Did you even read the rest of that first suggestion? Obviously not because then your argument wouldn’t make sense. I’ll give you time to do that now. Go ahead, scroll up.

…

Good. Now, about guardians, why is it I need to either be 100% for or against the mechanics? It’s not an all or nothing situation. I maintain my stance that although they are boring, they only provide positive effects.

<Edited for readability>

So I had a post I was almost done with, spent about 20 minutes on it, but I had so many tabs open looking for references that when I tried to switch back to this one I pressed the “x” and lost it all. So this post is going to be much more brief and less well written. Oh well.

There have been many threads complaining about this, mostly specifically to pet mechanics and not the profession mechanic as a whole.

I have 2 points to make.

1) Why do rangers have the most invasive profession mechanic?

2) Why are rangers even pet-centric in the first place?

So, starting with point 1. Rangers are forced to use pets 100% of the time. Pets
- Force micromanagement, even in simple situations
- Often perform unwanted actions
- Will often maneuver in un-desirable ways
- Provide additional damage at the cost of ranger’s damage
- Perform actions in un-timely manners

They’re not all bad, for sure. Specced into beastmaster, you can get some great damage from pets, but I’ll talk more about that with point 2.

It is a mechanic you’re forced to use 100% of the time, whether you have any interest in it or not. The only other mechanic you’re forced to use 100% of the time are Guardian’s virtues .. and those are not invasive in the slightest. Passive buffs. They can’t mess you up, really. Mesmer comes close to being invasive.. illusions can be kind of tough to deal with at times, but overall doesn’t provoke the level of stress pets do. Even if you don’t spec into illusions, illusions are basically a free aegis and can cause confusion (actual confusion, not just the condition) in both PvE and PvP.

Point #2: Ranger does not equal Beastmaster. At least, it shouldn’t. If the profession was called Beastmaster, I would understand most/many skills and traits also giving boosts to the pet. But being a ranger in general should not mean “Pet Profession”.

It’s been a while, but I believe in Guild Wars 1 if you wanted a pet, you could put the “Charm” skill on your bar and use a pet if you wanted. Why would they get rid of that? It should be the same way here. Give us the OPTION to use pets and don’t make it the profession mechanic.

The F skills should be wilderness / nature / survival skills. Tracking and RANGING skills. Give us a utility skill to summon/charm a pet.

Pet’s are great, for sure. Beastmasters can make great use of them and even those not traited into pets can find ways to make them useful. I just don’t think they should be a requirement of the profession. Not only does it make us feel cumbersome, but it doesn’t make sense.

My thoughts for a resolution:
1) Stop pets from automatically deploying when stowed. Add a signet that gives the ranger +X% damage while the pet is stowed. This is kind of a ‘band-aid’ fix and .. overall, it’s lazy. It makes the profession un-appealing as now your main mechanic basically can be useless. Which leads me to the more appealing solution ..
2) Change pets from the F skills to be a utility skill. Take a page from Guild Wars 1. A “Charm” skill. If it’s on your bar, a pet will be available. Pressing the button swaps the pets.. or uses the pet skill, I’m not sure. The details would need to be worked out, but I think it could be done. Re-work the F buttons to be “nature” oriented skills. Some ideas are tracking, foraging and wilderness survival. The Beastmaster traits tree would also need to be re-worked. Change the tree to “Wilderness Survival” and distribute beastmaster traits throughout the entirely of the ranger traits. I think this is how rangers should have been implemented in the first place, although I doubt anything like this would ever be considered.

Ok, that’s about it. I realize there are those of you who love rangers and their pet-centric mechanics and you guys will probably just respond with “Rangers are fine, don’t change them, gtfo” and the like. But this is a discussion, not a suggestion. I just want to hear input and feedback. I doubt ANet would ever consider anything like changing an entire profession mechanic, especially when so many of you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading,
Mongo

Unfortunately what your suggesting is a massive undertaking. Not only would it take a long time to implement (design issues, implementation, UI) but the amount of balancing needed for this would be absolutely astounding.

To balance, pets without equipment would need to be substantially weaker. Or.. even worse.. they will make the RANGER even weaker to compensate for the fact that pets can use equipment.

I would rather see it go into another direction like
1) Pets will not automatically deploy when entering combat
2) A signet that passively gives +X% damage while a pet is stowed
etc.

I realize it’s a profession mechanic, but pets are very .. obtrusive and we’re forced to use them 100% of the time whether we’re specced for it or not.

I really hate that people are OK with the sword. I wish everyone was on board with changing it so ANet might listen.

I hate hate HATE the animations and effects (leap on 3). It’s like if a game had a graphics overhaul, converting all old textures to new HD textures.. but they left one out.

The 1H sword is the glaring old and ugly version that never got updated.

Maybe the damage is good, but it FEELS AWFUL. And it looks awful (the animations).

I found this page a while back and it’s helped quite a bit

http://gw2census.com/charts.php

Granted, it’s not OFFICIAL by any means, but it’s a large sample size and quite a few arrangements of data. From this site:

Elementalist (13.7%)
Warrior (13.6%)
Guardian (13.4%)
Mesmer (12.9%)
Thief (12.3%)
Ranger (12.2%)
Necromancer (11%)
Engineer (10.9%)

From what I’ve seen, it looks more like

Guardians
Warriors
Elementalists
Rangers
Thieves
Mesmer
Necromancers
Engineer

Not too much different.

Overall, even the difference from lowest to highest is probably under 5%.

Back at release I was all gung-ho about engineers. It didn’t take too long before I found engineers to be much more lackluster than I had hoped. One part was their mechanics (which this thread is not about). The other was on appearance.

Every other profession gets to wield awesome weapons with customization appearances. Engineer gets to do that with 1 weapon .. but kits are a huge part of the profession. And everyone has an identical flamethrower.

Also.. mammoth backpack with grenade kit looks just awful.

Also.. mammoth backpack with grenade kit looks just awful.Now, back when I took a break in November, it didn’t look like any changes were on the horizon. A few patches came and went, no mention of bringing light to engineers. I skimmed through the patch notes between then and now but didn’t see anything.

Also.. mammoth backpack with grenade kit looks just awful.Now, back when I took a break in November, it didn’t look like any changes were on the horizon. A few patches came and went, no mention of bringing light to engineers. I skimmed through the patch notes between then and now but didn’t see anything.Has there been any mention by the devs about “fixing” engineer appearances? Customizing kit appearance, etc? Although it’s not technically a fix, I think the word applies as appearance is a pretty big thing in this game with engineers being the only ones not able to affect it.

Also.. mammoth backpack with grenade kit looks just awful.Now, back when I took a break in November, it didn’t look like any changes were on the horizon. A few patches came and went, no mention of bringing light to engineers. I skimmed through the patch notes between then and now but didn’t see anything.Has there been any mention by the devs about “fixing” engineer appearances? Customizing kit appearance, etc? Although it’s not technically a fix, I think the word applies as appearance is a pretty big thing in this game with engineers being the only ones not able to affect it.Edit: Not sure whats going on with this post. It seems to be duplicating lines and stuff.. but when I press “edit” it all looks fine. Please ignore the weirdness.

Yes, please keep in mind, I am not trying to say they’re bad by any means. The passive effects are great. And this is all said without having any traits to help them.

Just compared to the other professions’ F skills, they’re incredibly bland. The F skills usually define the gameplay of the profession.. elements, illusions, pets, tools.. but I’m going on lv35 or so having never touched em.

Maybe they are much more than passive effects once traited, but currently it just makes the guardian feel flat.

Chaos.3579:

Gosh more than 60 % of the players want dueling. Piece of advice: GIVE IT TO THEM ALREADY!!!!

I’m sure 60% of players would take free gold too, but it would not improve the game. Players will kitten and whine for anything without really thinking it through. The devs would do good to ignore most of the crap that comes out of this suggestions subforum.

Abraxius.6429:

I dont understand ppl complain when ppl want a rifle on a ranger, but no one mentions the fact that we can wield a GREATSWORD wtf is with that? we wied what Gaurdian/Warrior heavy armor wearing, melee based classes, but its illogical to want a rifle i dont simply ‘want’ a rifle. I would simply suffice for a trade between the 2. —-———————>(Insert kitten Remarks Here)

But then there’s Mesmers that can use a Greatsword that acts like a sniper rifle ..

[[After re-reading this post, I realize I’m basing most of this on very limited PvP experience and request that the contents be taken with a grain (or a pile) of salt]]

Honestly, I don’t know why people have issues with stealth. Most professions have a ‘block’ mechanic. If you’re fighting a thief and they stealth, 9 times out of 10 they’re probably gonna position themselves behind you for a strong opener. Block. Either they will avoid hitting you to prevent the block repercussions or they’ll hit you anyways, you’ll block and probably damage/knockback/daze/stun/whatever your profession does.

As far as thieves stealthing to run away … yeah, it’s annoying. It’s basically a waste of time if they get a free escape whenever they like.

There’s a possible solution which hopefully doesn’t break the mechanic too much. Apply a 1 second cripple if damaged while stealthed. I think un-stealthing someone when they get damaged is too much. Spam AoE and stealth is worthless. Cripple allows them to keep moving and stay hidden, but it adds a risk to stealth, primarily while fleeing.

Another option would be to do to stealth what they did to Ride the Lightning. If you attack a player out of stealth, your cooldown is normal. If you do not attack a player out of stealth, your cooldown is doubled. This forces players to use stealth more as a combat mechanic instead of a mobility/escape mechanic.

Another possible solution might be to make the stealthed player give indications as to where they are. Maybe footsteps on the ground appear, so players paying close attention could still figure out where they are (just like players fighting VS a mesmer can still find the real one if they’re looking close).

The concept of a 1-button complete removal from combat has always bugged me, however after WoW I don’t have much to complain about here. Stealth here is short and bursty, it’s not a permanent invisibility. If they make no changes, I will be fine with it.

I know exactly how you feel. Honestly, I would REALLY suggest deleting a DIFFERENT character and creating a second mesmer. I had a sylvari mesmer.. that I deleted to make a human mesmer.. that I deleted to make ANOTHER SYLVARI MESMER. I’m quite insane, you see.

I agree completely about asura. They’re neat little guys but you really have a harder time appreciating the equipment.

For me.. the choice was easy. I don’t like how he looks so I’m gonna re-roll.

As far as the choice goes, I feel sylvari better embodies the ‘essence’ of mesmer. Humans and norns tend to just look like pompous fancy-lads, at least with the more common armors.

So.. I think you should delete a different character (or purchase another slot.. it’s worth it), roll a sylvari, and enjoy the leafy spellcasting goodness.

I can’t imagine ArenaNet is ignorant to what is happening, but I doubt it’s an easy fix. They’re constantly making tweaks here and there, watching how it affects gameplay and desirability of professions and continuing to tweak as needed. Kinda seems like that’s the way to do it. It will take time, some professions will be FotM and some will be sitting in the corner with dunce hats for a while.

I would much rather ANet make small tweaks in an attempt to reach their goal rather than giant nerfs/buffs to every profession every other patch. I seem to recall some other snow-oriented game company that was quite “good” at that.

Ah, I see. Yeah I’m only ~30 right now and I haven’t put anything into the virtues line. I guess for now it’s OK that I’m not activating them.. or really even debating activating them. Honestly, I barely even activate my heal signet.. usually I just pop a “Hold the Line” and it’s enough regen to keep me alive.