Guild Wars 2

SB is meta for thief in wvw and pvp, and it’s meta for condi ranger for raids, literally one of the best weapons available atm, next to the torch or the scepter.

Coconut.7082:

You don’t know much about Rangers, do you? Let me guess, Necro main?

Scorched Earth deals pretty much the same total damage as Bonefire, and Warriors can spam it 5 times in a row, but somehow you are fine with Warrior damage?

Rangers are NOT focused on Burning, most of their damage comes from Bleeds.

“Not a single raid boss”.. Have you met VG, Gorse (Condi isn’t bad here, but still beaten by tempests), Slothasor, KC, Xera & arguably even Deimos?
Are Condi classes a common tactic on those bosses?

What about Engi getting the same/higher DPS than Condi Ranger, are you ok with that?

Your whole post can be summarized into “I don’t like Rangers, please nerf them”.

Sure the main bulk of the damage comes from bleeding, the extra 3k dps is what makes rangers the top tier choice and outshines every single other condi class.

Condi warrior can spam scorched earth 5 times only under optimal circumstances, but that’s their bulk of DPS, and even then it’s not enough to surpass condi rangers, even if they build completely focused on dps, and thus sacrificing the PS utility.

And no, there is not a single boss that is protected or has any protection against condition damage, VG is not less vulnerable to condi than to power, and in fact power is not the better option for green and blue splits, or even the guardian itself, they are both equally good.

Gorse is not protected against condi, every dps works here, tempests are better but they are also harder to play, once again, rangers are just easier to achieve optimal dps numbers and they don’t risk dying to the retaliation.

Slothasor ’kittenbox is small, condi beats any power build.

KC as I said, might be the only exception due to the exposed mechanikittenerally proving that condi is just superior to power, by introducing a gimmick that only favors power, and even then condi is only slightly worse.

Xera, once again, is neutral to any kind of damage, which makes condi better due to the ease to achieve optimal dps compared to power.

And deimos, now that’s a huge arguable because of the gimmick at the start requiring condi classes to damage the chains over time, while the boss is neutral to any kind of damage. You could bring power to the fight, but that’s just gimping yourself.

And no, I don’t hate rangers, I hate torches, torches alone have made many weapon classes obsolete, torches are the reason condi PS exist and thus why power PS is falling out of favor, which means greatswords are no longer a meta weapon, and so are not shields, maces, axes and almost every other weapon warrior can use.

Torches are the reason power ranger is no longer a thing, torches are the reason necros, thieves, guardians and revenants are not meta classes.

And on top of that, torches look aesthetically, to put it mildly, like ass for a person who goes into battle.

Tornupto.2304:

Pie Flavor.1647:

and yes it’s a problem that condi rangers are basically shining now, there is not a single raid boss that is more vulnerable to power damage than condi damage, with KC being the exception that proves the rule, and because condi rangers are by far the best condi class, it means you will get kicked because you are not running condi ranger.

There will most likely always be one build that is prefered. But saying that other classes aren’t accepted is wrong. I pug alot and have seen plenty thiefes, condi mesmers, warriors (not only PS), engineers, guards, necros and eles. Most groups i’ve seen don’t even search a specific class and just search for dps. Funfact: Ele has still higher damage vs big hitboxes and engi can get higher dps than rangers.

Literally the first sentence on my original post:

Condi Rangers are currently the top choice for dps in raids, not because they have the highest dps numbers (power ele scepter/warhorn or dagger/warhorn can beat those numbers easily)

Also those groups that don’t bring meta classes? they fail 2 times and disband, at least that’s my experience.

Tornupto.2304:

Pie Flavor.1647:

Basically you can apply 9 stacks of burning after 5 seconds every 6.6 seconds (roughly), with a full viper set with nightmare runes you get 15k damage on that skill alone, which is a whooping 3k increase of dps by using it, and thus completely outshine every other condi build currently in the game, especially necros.

Ever heard of Meteor Shower? That single skill is such a huge dps increase on big hitboxes that some people insist on Ele vs big hitboxes.

The problem is that it doesn’t make sense for rangers to have such a powerful skill in a single weapon, there isn’t a single trait or gear piece that boosts burning damage, yet this skill could possibly be the main source of DPS for the build.

All in all it feels like a vestige from the days before condition damage was relevant.

Why it doesn’t make sense?
Oh and warriors have a trait that boosts burning damage? I can only find +33% duration. Thats done by a rangers gear. Rangers have a trait that explicitly boosts torch skills. This thread feels more like: Why can a ranger do good dps now?
Do you want the old days of the dungeons back when someone got kicked for just joining a group before he even could switch char? Atm all classes but rev have a more or less good damage build and you want to see the only good dps build of a ranger nerfed?

Yes and meteor shower got nerfed because it was way out of line, just like bonfire is.

Warrior’s main condi damage comes from burning, but that’s because longbow deals mostly burning damage, and longbow is the main source of damage for warriors, torch and sword only complement it.

In the case of rangers, shortbow and axe deal bleeding damage and a bit of poison damage, but by far you’re focused mainly on the burning of the torch with the rest of the build acting as a complement.

and yes it’s a problem that condi rangers are basically shining now, there is not a single raid boss that is more vulnerable to power damage than condi damage, with KC being the exception that proves the rule, and because condi rangers are by far the best condi class, it means you will get kicked because you are not running condi ranger.

The reason ele was nerfed was precisely the same reason condi ranger will get nerfed eventually.

Sublimatio.6981:

i think this belongs in the lore subforum.

not everyone in the lore subforum does or has any intentions of doing raids, so posting this would be a massive spoiler.

Condi Rangers are currently the top choice for dps in raids, not because they have the highest dps numbers (power ele scepter/warhorn or dagger/warhorn can beat those numbers easily) but because of the ease at which you can reach optimal DPS rotation with this build.

Compared to other classes, condi ranger is nothing special, condi warrior could easily beat condi ranger in terms of raw dps, and be on par with it if using a condi PS build, condi necros and reapers can easily outdps any other condition damage builds, all of this were it not because of this single skill:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bonfire

Set a fire around you, damaging and burning foes.

Damage (9x): 297 (0.9)
9 Burning (3s): 3537 Damage

I do believe this single skill is what breaks condi ranger completely, you can reduce the cooldown by 20% by using the ambidexterity trait which reduces torch and dagger skills cooldowns, and even further by using the quickdraw trait which reduces the next used skill cooldown by 66%

Basically you can apply 9 stacks of burning after 5 seconds every 6.6 seconds (roughly), with a full viper set with nightmare runes you get 15k damage on that skill alone, which is a whooping 3k increase of dps by using it, and thus completely outshine every other condi build currently in the game, especially necros.

The problem is that it doesn’t make sense for rangers to have such a powerful skill in a single weapon, there isn’t a single trait or gear piece that boosts burning damage, yet this skill could possibly be the main source of DPS for the build.

All in all it feels like a vestige from the days before condition damage was relevant.

Fractals

/15char

I don’t understand, I thought this game’s PvP was designed just like how Overwatch was designed? to be able to freely swap between all classes at will/at every death.

Now I hear that they removed the ability to do so after the initial match countdown? I thought they intended for us to be able to swap characters when the match outcome does not look good enough for your current team comp, you’re supposed to learn how to counter and counter-counter in competitive pvp.

It feels like they have no idea how to design a proper pvp mode…

I second raiment of the lich, and other rare outfits like shadow assassin!

The problem ofc being that many stat combination trinkets are very easily accessible via LWS3 maps and that otherwise you are looking at farming the same HoT map over and over for a chance at getting a recipe that allows you to craft an exotic version of such trinket, or going into raiding to obtain these trinkets, the problem being that you need these trinkets to start raiding.

the 1 in 3 item will always cycle seasonally, now it’s the wintersday one, but once they change it it will be something else, so you’re never supposed to get 3 rolls on items.

when sylvari get launched

Lahmia.2193:

Behellagh.1468:

Extrapolate that and would you be okay with 2000 gem armor sets?

inb4 anet does this and everyone complains that the price is extortionate.

if they do it right i.e. make a really complex set with various effects like arcanas in dota 2 and most importantly, make the set always available for purchase from the gem store, they will cash in on them.

go do sPvP, you gain like 1 tome of knowledge every hour of play time and you get to understand the class like nothing else, that is, unless you enjoy losing 60 matches in a row.

every tier of a reward track gives you a tome of knowledge…

don’t gamble, no matter how tempting it is, yes, the prices are raising, but they’re nowhere near the expected value of getting a precursor by gambling.

and yes, I know a lot of people here will start posting how they got 7 precursors with 14 tries on the MF but that’s not the norm.

does the boss of this fractal convert damage into health with his ultimate?

try a game called “Spec Ops: the Line”, you can truly experience how to play as a villain in that game. It’s pretty cheap http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SOTL/spec-ops-the-line

or even watch a let’s play if you can’t afford it.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I believe the Devs are human, like all of us, and can appreciate positive feedback just as much as constructive critical feedback. There is nothing wrong with posting you are in favor of a particular implementation of content or features. When I prepare meals for the family, I receive both kinds of feedback (though not always constructive..lol..kids), and from that feedback I know what to continue to serve, and what isn’t appreciated. If I got no feedback whatsoever, I would be unsure if something was enjoyed, even if it was consumed.

Besides, we all appreciate positive reinforcement, just as we can learn from feedback that is not so positive. Just my personal opinion, of course.

devs are employed by a company, well at least anet devs, since they are not an indie company, that means in order to keep professionalism, they are not allowed to have opinions, and their only focus should be earning money for the company.

Usually most of the feedback in these forums are insightful for them, but they are not allowed to take it into account or at least not fully, unless it matches the interests of the shareholders of NCsoft.

Positive feedback might be appreciated, but it will make absolutely no difference, just like most of the feedback here.

sure why not, but only legendaries that you have crafted (you get the option when combining all 4 components in the MF)

robertul.3679:

Well I want legendaries to be free for everybody when they reach level 80. Why am I forced to grind for a legendary just because some people like it that way? Why doesn’t anet just do what I want?

oh look it took less than 20 posts to reach the first effortless strawman argument

there is one as far as I know

not allowing you to buy items earns anet more money, I know it’s counter intuitive but preventing you from getting the items you want/experiencing the content you want to experience is a good marketing strategy and will earn NCsoft much profit.

mtpelion.4562:

Pie Flavor.1647:

why can’t you use wealth disparity in GW2 when we use things like inflation, supply/demand, etc which have just as many variables as disparity in real life that are not taken into account in GW2?

fact is, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is just no way a new player nowadays is able to compete in this market, because those who already possess a fortune will be making more money out of that market, and the barriers of entry are higher and higher as more gold sources are nerfed and removed.

Rich players are unable to negatively impact poor players in a game because things like sustenance, healthcare, housing, and employment don’t exist. That is why wealth disparity is irrelevant in a game.

of course, technically speaking nobody can negatively impact me because this is just a videogame, not real life. More specifically speaking, rich players cannot negatively impact new players because most of the heavily traded stuff is purely cosmetic (weapon skins, dyes) or not necessary for experiencing the entirety of the game (legendaries, ascended materials and other crafting materials), but that doesn’t mean new players do not desire that, and due to rich players, those so called “luxury items” (luxury items my kitten are harder and harder for new players to acquire, due to how the market has been basically driven by speculation since early life of this game, and how currently Anet has been forced to increase the income from dungeon daily chests just to match inflation.

Samuirai.4561:

Inflation goes up with more gold drops. And we should see deflation with less gold drops. If the price is still rising for an item it’s definitely not inflation.

Another note: you can’t argue with disparity of incomes in gw2 and compare it to the real world. Because of two very important differences. Players play a varied amount of hours a week, compared to almost fixed 40h week in RL. And I think more impact on the disparity of incomes in reallife have depts (and interest rates), which doesn’t exist in gw2.

why can’t you use wealth disparity in GW2 when we use things like inflation, supply/demand, etc which have just as many variables as disparity in real life that are not taken into account in GW2?

fact is, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is just no way a new player nowadays is able to compete in this market, because those who already possess a fortune will be making more money out of that market, and the barriers of entry are higher and higher as more gold sources are nerfed and removed.

Stooperdale.3560:

It might just be a me thing. I don’t care that your game experience is bad. I am not going to waste my time to improve it. If other people make the game good for me then I am happy. That is because it is all about me. I write the rules and everyone must follow my rules or I will kick you. I suggest you write your own rules but I’d never follow anyone else’s rules as that’s for losers. It’s your fault that I don’t think you’re good enough to spend time with me.

Bye.

that’s… exactly how it works, even in real life, and in fact, there is not even a morally wrong thing about it.

Borghal.1635:

Just a heads up on how the matter ended – I mistakenly listed it at 350g when I started this thread, then the buy offer started rising steadily from 220 to 275 – this was when I decided to cut my fee losses and sell. As soon as I did that, the second 350g offer vanished. So I totaled about 230g net profit. Coulda been 15 more if I hadn’t been dumb.

Just wondering though – as soon as I retracted my offer from the TP, the other 350g offer also vanished… matter of seconds. Bots? And with the steadily rising sell orders today, makes me wonder if someone wasn’t coercing me to sell it as to keep the sell offer price closer to 400 again. Wouldn’t they lose a lot on listing fees this way? I suppose I’m too paranoid :-)

Trust me: you are not being overly paranoid, nobody knows what really happens in the markets, but there’s always someone smarter than you.

bunny ears…….

Chase.8415:

Prefect.3681:

You totally wrong about this. Just go into map and hit nr “1” awhile when healt lil low, dodge hit number “6” and start spamming skill nr “1” again. Isnt that hard?

Open World PvE content, just about anything works as there are so many players and scaling is terrible.

You can’t really do this in high level fractals.

have you ever been to high level fractals? the builds from players are the most unimaginative builds I’ve seen in any game. Full berserker gear (damage, + crit chance and + crit damage) with berserker weapons and berserker trinkets, filled with runes of the scholar (damage, + crit change, + crit damage and +10% damage when HP is above 90%), sigils of more damage and embellished ornate ruby orbs (berserker jewels, either that or straight up ascended berserker trinkets)

you don’t need to learn a lot of stuff when the only viable thing in end game PvE is pure damage, disregard everything else (that being defense, health, condition damage, healing power, etc…) because you can avoid all attacks by dodging, blocking, negating damage and evading.

To be honest, the only reason why the build variety is so small is because of the dodge mechanic, if we weren’t allowed to evade all damage by pressing V, toughness and vitality equipment would have some kind of value, but alas, they became obsolete the moment skill rewards more than facetanking.

“discovering builds by yourself” lost its meaning around 2004 when World of Warcraft released and got popular in the west, popular enough for people to realize a game cannot have infinite combinations and that there will always be an optimal combination, that it will be discovered, and that anyone running anything that is not that combination will be suboptimal.

Colard.6189:

Oh I see so that’s what “roll” means.

Sean.8274:

Don’t forget Engineer is medium as well

Yep, just equipped the set on another character which is an Engineer XD.

I just realized that the set is “Account-Bound” so I managed to transfer it to another one. I thought it is “Soul-Bound” so I got quite in a panic. Anyways thank you to all who replied and for setting me up in the right direction. Much appreciated. ;P

don’t worry, even if it was not account bound, it’s as easy as right clicking on the skin part and pressing on “unlock skin” or “store in vault”, press H and go to “hero wardrobe”.

Granted, you require a “transmutation charge” but that skin now becomes available to all of your medium armor characters and can be applied to your armor anywhere any time as long as you’re not in combat.

Besides, transmutation charges are very easy to acquire, just play PvP or complete all the areas in 1 capital city.

NA only for those wondering

okay let’s see:

1. Start doing fractals, at a chance for rare prizes and better gear, while also dominating the PvE aspect of the game.

2. Gear up and speed run dungeons to earn massive amounts of gold, buy shinies and be very happy.

3. Start your “epic” journey towards a legendary weapon, a true test of perseverance, endurance and patience, as well as luck and wealth.

4. Start an alt.

dietzero.3514:

Chicks named Alex look hot in school uniforms.

you forgot to say they weigh 200kg and have beard

Well, first of all, you can’t “move up in the ranks”, the matchmaking, while it takes into account rank, does not take into account anything else, the matches you get vary wildly, and you end up at rank 70 still playing against brand new players.

That being said, such a gimmicky class like Thief in GW2 was bound to have this happen to it: extremely dreadful to new players that do not know the ins and outs of the class, thus completely destroying by them, but completely useless at higher levels.

It happens in the best of the multiplayer games, the best of the tactics and strategies and the best of the classes.

Do you ever see anyone doing a 6 pool or a cannon rush on diamond level Starcraft 2 games? no because it just doesn’t work anymore. Do you see people playing Axe in high level competitive matches in Dota 2? no, because while Axe is a very solid hero on lower levels, and even if you like him a lot and play him exclusively, there will always be better choices at higher levels, the hero will always unavoidably fall behind, because it’s just a gimmick, it’s not meant to be viable at high level competitive games.

And this extends not only to videogames, many chess strategies are just useless against veteran players, etc…

This “wall” you talk about is nothing more than hitting the maximum attainable with a thief in PvP.

The metagame involves sacrificing all survivability in favor of damage, meaning ALMOST NOBODY builds to “not die”, most people build to do damage.

What does it mean? if you’re dying a lot, you need to learn to play, and that means using dodge more frequently, using damage negation skills and not just facetanking PvE mobs, but avoiding their damage altogether, while dishing out as much DPS as possible.

With that being said, you can gear up quite easily if you spend a few days simply doing edge of the mists or WvWvW, gather around 1700 badges of honor (not very hard) and head over to the armor masters in the WvW areas to buy a full set of any affix armor you want with exotic stats (second to best stats in the game right now)

again, another thread in which cognitive bias makes people think everyone has spare $600 to throw into a virtual item or that almost 99% of the playerbase already went through the painstaking grind that is to create a legendary weapon.

Yes, legendaries lost some value because of the possibility of freely transmuting the skin with the wardrobe system, but I reckon still only 1% of the GW2 playerbase actually has a legendary.

Maugetarr.6823:

Thief mechanics can carry you to a certain extent at lower skill levels vs. lower skill levels, the problem is that once you hit a certain point (where your enemies have played/understand the thief) the difficulty spike is dramatic. People know how to build against/react to/mitigate burst damage and and don’t panic or flail anymore. The don’t even guess with AoE, they just use attacks and that are (almost) guaranteed to hit you in stealth (guard GS pull> whirling wrath or necro deathshroud 4&5 are good examples).

I have experienced that “wall” it was the moment I met a warrior who didn’t have a GS and was not using 100b against me, had dolyak signet and endure pain…

it will be advantageous once the unidentified dyes skyrocket in price due to low supply of them.

In the meantime it’s not since the materials used to create 4 rare colored dyes cost much more than 1 single Unid in the market.

Kalarchis.8635:

My effective damage and my survivability have gone up.

how so?

Hayashi.3416:

Yes, you have to activate the world boss event now.

Actually killing Taidha isn’t needed though. Just activate, run the heck past while she’s still talking then go downstairs for the skill point.

Frankly, I find it a very, very bad update.

this is not from this new update, it has been like this for a while. I finished my map completion a while ago and I can assure you I came across this restriction when trying to get that SP

silvermember.8941:

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Well with the removal of Town Clothing, they probably will never introduce Swimsuits or the School Outfit.

Seeing as if they do release them now, they will be armor skins since we no longer have Town Clothing. And they don’t want people running around in Swimsuits or School Outfits cause it might “break immersion” (you know, the immersion that Anet already broke?)…

So expect them never.

this is an example of someone who doesn’t know anything. if this person did, he would havr realize that all the crap he just said is the exact opposite of what anet said a few weeks ago.

so ignore this guy.

and how did your comment add anything to the discussion?

Fact is that the wardrobe system will change the way town clothing works, not removed, but changed in a way that it’s not called “town clothing” anymore.

And also fact is that anet has already broke the immersion of this game (if it ever had any). Bitfrost, The Dreamer were totally uncalled for, animated wings backpieces are completely unfitting, overall the artstyle of the game is a complete mess and you don’t know what the heck you’re playing.

vaporized.4612:

Ahh really? I need something red/black and fiery and that backpiece was just perfect

play PvP, the new rewards system sounds very engaging in my opinion

Vol.7601:

Umut.5471:

Legendary is a luxury, but not a prestige item as it can be directly bought from tp with real money in a minute.

You know people keep thowing this phrase around without fully understanding how expensive buying a legendary with real $ is, let alone the # of people who are willing to do so.

but hey! apparently literally EVERYONE has a twilight.

tolunart.2095:

The forums are not a market.

these forums are not a forums.

PvP unidentified dyes are account bound, if I recall correctly

Twinny.9304:

I think if we werent all categorized in bronze/silver gold and could still move up the ranking through the tourney whilst still earn 5 for win, 3 second, 1 point for last place it would work better and even if ur server stacked u still wouldn’t stay in a silver league position and get to fight servers around ur balance.

That would be a solution, if matches didn’t last for a week and were decided in the first day anyways

Pokecenter.3548:

3. Can you active it at anytime or it starts automatically on your b-day/as soon as you log in?
<- curious as well.

it’s activated at will, you can gather several boosters by just making a ton of characters and waiting 1 year

Diablo III removed part of its auction house, look how kittenty the game is now

a goddarned quaggan, again……………….