Guild Wars 2

For top builds right now I’d say they’re chrono, scrapper and maybe bunker druid.

I think scrapper is an all round very strong being tanky and might stacks allow it to do good damage too. It’s a ton of fun as well. I haven’t got the hang of it but trying to get there

Chrono is very powerful as it’s very easy and forgiving to play with the cooldown reductions giving high uptime on invulnerability and strong burst damage. The current game modes aren’t too much in the chronos favour though which keeps it in check competitively.

Druid feels very durable but I haven’t played it since the recent changes so I guess I’ll have to try it out to learn it’s weaknesses.

While balance still has ups and downs as always I have to say a lot of the elite specialisations are a lot of fun to play! Favourite so far are chronomancer and reaper.

In the story mission strange observations if you rescue Taimi and finish the mission with the buff of qualifying for Avoid Traps you don’t get anything. I’ve tried this two times now. I think the achievement is bugged.

Chronomancer feels far too strong in PvP. Worse than 100% duration PU mesmer. Most unfair part is that they get too high uptime of invulnerability while they can attack. Then they go to stealth and wait for cooldowns to come back up which is quicker than other classes can get theirs back and repeat. It’s too obnoxious and they’re far too hard to lock down as they’re invulnerable while attacking. There seems to be little counter play due to long duration invulnerability.

I think once you get more experience in dungeons and fractals and try to run them quicker you’ll realise that classes do have roles although they are subtle. The idea behind support is to either improve damage directly by providing vulnerability/might/fury/unique buffs or letting your team get higher uptime on a boss by using the appropriate skill.

An example would be the flame effigy in Citadel of Flame path 1 where guardians can give stability or pop a wall to stop the knockdown or cleanse burn immediately so people can keep dpsing without losing scholar buffs. I would argue that everyone has to support in addition to dps to make full use of their profession even if its out of combat ones like stealthing past mobs in speed runs.

You can play the game in many ways and tanking is also viable but takes much longer. Personally I prefer lack of tanking and healing since it makes bosses take too long and if sustain was mandatory by making bosses with undodgeable sustained damage most people would go nomads to guarantee a successful run which would make runs 3 hour long snoozefests. If you want to support in PvE try guardian or elementalist but you’ll need to understand that it is possible to support and be high dps at the same time which is why berserker is the meta build. Support in GW2 is about active mitigation and buffing rather than stat based passive support.

I don’t see how the better and more fun bits of this can’t be incorporated into mesmer. I also don’t like the thought of new classes since it will just complicate balance problems more. I’d rather have development time spent on balancing existing skills to make them useful (list most utilities).

Agreed. I think the best example is ranger. The meta is bearbow which really sets rangers back. Even though they have good damage and group utility with frost spirit, spotter and sword most rangers stay at range with longbow and use point blank shot ruining the dps of party members like causing 100 blades to miss. I think it’s a good reason why many groups say no rangers and even prefer necros to rangers because the class is played so badly due to terrible meta builds. There are so many guides showing good builds and how to play them but the ranger meta has never shifted to group oriented builds.

Mmm… yummy deso tears

Sounds like you just need more practice. My main is an engi and I was really frustrated with them. Then I decided to play one and realised they aren’t that good and playing one well was tough. But in the process I learned a lot of their tricks and how to counter them. So now I’m back on my engi and do well against mesmers I play warrior, necro and thief too and the only profession I find it very tough to kill mesmers is with warriors but that’s because of warriors being fairly weak in PvP overall and not because of mesmers being overpowered.

Why not try just come back and try it again. if you like it then play some more and take a break again. No game will appeal to everyone so you just have to find the one that is to your tastes

I think yellows and fine unless you’re doing high level fractals or speed runs. You can experience most things in yellows easily. And guardian is a strong class overall. Stuff I recommend doing is play each dungeon path once and repeat any you enjoy, try fractals of the mists, get involved with the living story and explore what’s happening, do jumping puzzles, find a guild and do some of the group stuff, I don’t like guild bounties and guild treks but guild puzzles are so much fun. Requires voice communication to some bits or else commutation can become cumbersome.

Funset.7893:

Quartz.3462:

I don’t like fan boys like you

I really like the game but it’s not perfect. there’s still many boots around, boys health remain to high and there’s a lack of interesting boys mechanics, pvp balance needs improving along with more game modes. the game is to resource heavy and can result in a lot of lag in wvw and large events. So I think it’s far from perfect. But I think the positives far outweigh the bad which is why I play. Very fun game but I don’t agree that it is perfect.

Oh my…I hope you realise that the Op has been sarcastic.

XD I am clearly very silly :p I fell hook line and sinker

LFG tool and less lag in large scale content with lots of people.

I don’t like fan boys like you

I really like the game but it’s not perfect. there’s still many boots around, boys health remain to high and there’s a lack of interesting boys mechanics, pvp balance needs improving along with more game modes. the game is to resource heavy and can result in a lot of lag in wvw and large events. So I think it’s far from perfect. But I think the positives far outweigh the bad which is why I play. Very fun game but I don’t agree that it is perfect.

there’s fractals which is a new dungeon that increases with difficulty. but if you’re after. end game content this really isn’t the mmo for you. gw2 is still much more focused on exploration and the changing world. Orr is much less popular with the new patch and people are doing the evolving storyline in South sun cove. really pretty place with fun stuff to do. if you plan on playing hardcore or a looking for a endgame treadmill mmo this really isn’t for you. it’s much more focused to casuals and those after adventure.

I love the zone too. incredible visual style and great for exploration. my third favourite place after Queens dale and Divinity Reach.

I really hate long term grind content so I’m glad they’ve kept it out of the game. much prefer living story since it feels the world is changing and won’t wait for you. I loved doing fractals the first few times but can’t stand to grind it. Same with CoF1. some new fractals would be nice though. I’m loving the emphasis on exploration in the new living story making me explore south sun cove. I never realised how pretty it was. might be because of the lag back last year when it was released.

Please don’t introduce raiding and other long term things that forces me to pay to experience more content. it’s the biggest reason I don’t play Mmos and the casual friendly exploration, adventure emphasis that keeps me playing GW2.

Personally I don’t feel that rangers are S tier. I’d say they are A tier and in a pretty good spot overall.

And I think necromancer is better than thief. But warrior still bottom.

I couldn’t stand the GW1 skill system. far too many useless skills. prophecies was manageable but factions got silly. never played the others though. the combat system is what put me off GW1. I much prefer the GW2 system because there are less useless options. While there are still many things that need a buff but on my mesmer main I still cycle between at least half my utilities. And I use most of the weapons (just not torch and sceptre). To me that’s excellent.

I don’t know why all these GW1 and Wow famous keep coming on thus forum and requesting the game be turned into GW1 or Wow etc. Just go play that game instead and let us enjoy ours.

yes I think this game is a lot of fun

the best part is that I have never felt the need to grind to experience content. I didn’t like some of the dailies and monthlies… so I didn’t do then but I still got to experience flame and frost. the new characters seem good

combat is really fun, artwork is excellent and my guild is a great laugh! and wvw has some epic battles. overall if you treat thus game as something you play for entertainment it’s incredible. if you’re a traditional hardcore mmo player who is looking for a game to dedicate their life to and repeat things over and over to experience the next upcoming content on release then look away.

solo queue would be great and I would happily join more games!

these forum posts get more ridiculous all the time. you’re grinding for a rank that just gives skins. it does not give you better stats at all in spvp. please explain to me where the grind for stats is?

getting better skins is perfectly reasonable for time spent. I’m low ranked but I don’t mind not having the perfect look. it doesn’t impact my game play at all.

I’m 21. I didn’t experience those commercials but I still found it funny and I love the new updates. The living story and the new super adventure box. I think GW2 is the best mmorpg I have played to date the little extras really add a lot of fun to an already epic game.

But I really don’t think this game appeals to the grindcore or raiders like WoW does though. Neither do I think it’s an esport like Dota2 but it’s just such a fun game that I can enjoy in my spare time when I want a social gaming experience. The best is having my friends round to play Mario games on the Wii together but since they can’t be around all the time I’ll happily settle for this

Oh, and my background is from playing WoW from vanilla to Cataclysm. I don’t regret giving that up for GW2 one bit Not that WoW is bad. I just prefer this game.

I’m always amused by the amount of crying optional content brings. I’ve been playing since beta weekends and I still have lots to do. I have yet to experience most if the game which I like. more content is great haven’t had the chance to try it yet but looking forward to getting back home to try. I find it hard to to see how people get the time to do all the content :/ don’t people have work, school, university, family, friends, other hobbies, sports, TV, music, books etc.

I wish I had more time to play to see all the content lol. I guess I’d only have time if I dropped some of my other activities :/

Still playing mesmer. Still finding them effective. Still finding them fun. Still not bothered about nerfs. I agree with most of the balancing done so far by ANet. The only change I would do now is buff scepter a bit and change some of the traits which rarely get used.

I think this change was overdue for PvE and PvP. It was the best group elite of all professions and it needed a balance change. I’ll now switch elites depending on the situation instead of keeping time warp there all the time. Mind you, I still find I’m using it more than moa and mass invis.

I’m happy about the quickness nerf overall.

My most played characters are engineer and mesmer and the spatial surge change is easy for me to get used to as engineer has piercing shots on rifle. I think it takes practice but once you know how to safely line targets up its fine. I think the tears about this buff are unnecessary.

Next Friday.

Silly questions deserve silly answers.

I like the new dailies. They give variation each day and iI haven’t had to grind them either. iI was just playing and by the end of my 90 play session iI had finished them all without trying. Great new system for me

Zyk.3597:

Patch seems fine for Mez. I’d like to see some changes to encourage build variety – I do feel like shatter builds are too good compared to condition/phantasm. Mantras might need a rework too. Trident changes are sensible, and it’s nice to see bug fixes – hope to see them systematically fixing all broken skills/traits over the next few months.

Oh, good to see venoms get the “phantasm philosophy” of block/blind/invuln applied to them. Consistency in skill mechanics is good.

(To be clear, I don’t think shatter should be nerfed, at least not by much. I’d just like to see Mez builds be balanced against each other better.)

Minor error. Thief venoms actually got buffed because they used to lose a charge if you attacked in combat even if you were swinging your weapon at nothing. now they only lose charges if someone avoids the attack. They always lost a charge on block, dodge etc. It’s a quality of life change.

I honestly think mesmers are in a good spot now. The change to shattered strength was a bug fix and not a nerf. As a phantasm mesmer there was no way my build could match shatter mesmers before so I’m glad they did not buff it this patch. I’m glad the iduellest trait has been fixed and there have been no huge changes to any profession this patch. on the whole I like this change. I would like more weapon options for all professions though.

I would hate the idea of level scaling being removed because it would just have a lot of griefers destroying low level events and stop my playing low level zones. you already get more powerful by getting more traits, exotics etc. I’m truly worried that GW2 will become another WoW clone with the number of people whining to get the trinity back in and now level scaling.

Hey everyone.

So I’ve been playing MMORPGs for ten years now and I’ve played Guild Wars 2 since the headstart. Unfortunately I used the mindset that I did for other MMOs when leveling my characters by rushing from heart to heart, tagging every DE I could to try to level as fast as possible to hit ‘end game’. I’ve never been a hardcore raider in any MMO but in all the ones I’ve played the real game was essentially a dungeon crawler at max level and the leveling process was to get you used to game mechanics.

So now I created a new sylvari mesmer and I’m slowly taking my time through it and exploring little things and I have to say that the game feels very fresh to me! It really brings me nostasgaic feelings of my first MMO as I just want to discover things just because they’re fun! I love the vistas, randomly finding jumping puzzles, looking at the beautiful, painted art style (especially Divinity’s Reach!) and hearing little conversations around me. There are some pretty funny ones in The Grove and rather emotional ones too. The world feels alive! It felt cramped when I first started as the population density was far too big! But now on my server (Seafarer’s Rest) small events have 2-3 people doing them and it feels right for me. People are friendly and I’m just loving taking my time and playing the game.

If you haven’t already I’d highly recommend that you try to forget the end game gear/money grab mentality (harder than it sounds – it was for me anyway) and just play the game slowly and explore little things that add a surprising amount to the game. I was disappointed with Guild Wars 2 but honestly now I find it incredible. It has it’s flaws but those are far outweighed by the positives

I love GW2 so far and I see myself playing for several months at the least. I’m only a casual player so I have lots of the game to experience still but I can’t say I’m bored with it. If I do get bored I’ll just stop playing, wait for some content patch to arrive and play that That’s the thing I like about GW2 – it’s very casual friendly and I don’t feel like I’m forced to keep playing to keep up. I can just play a little bit when I want and then stop playing if I get bored.

I wish some zones were more populated though. The best bit about PvE for me are the dynamic events and at launch they were just too busy and far too easy with the HUGE zergs! By the time I hit later levels it was the right density. Now it’s a little too low for me as I’m leveling my second character. Maybe merge low populated areas together in a single overflow to increase player density?

As a casual player who plays GW2 for fun and has never played any game in an esports/serious way I like this game! It gives me a good bit of quick fun and I don’t feel that I have to keep up with other players in terms of gear. I just join and server and relax

I can see why matchmaking and ladders are important for esports but for me it doesn’t bother me since I only play hotjoin for 30 minutes a couple times a week for some fun and stress relief – which I find it excellent for

And when I’m not in the mood for sPvP I’ll just do some PvE. I’ve done world completion and personal story but I find there’s still so much to do! All the story mode dungeons, getting cool looking gear, explorables and jumping puzzles. There’s probably some more stuff I missed too. In general there is so much content for a casual player I feel kinda overwhelmed XD But that was what I was looking for in an MMO and I certainly feel like I could spend several months on this game

And if sPvP becomes boring I’ll just find something else to do. This isn’t my life after all and I like trying new things be that video games, cooking new yummy meals, sports, visiting places, cycling to new places (will have to wait till summer though)! I’ve completely gone off track but my point is:

As someone who plays this game casually with the aim of having fun I am 100% satisfied.

I like JPs and I like how ANet change the monthly achievements about all the time. If anything I don’t like the Fractal monthly. Didn’t do the November one because I didn’t like fractals. Not because the dungeon itself is bad – I actually liked loads of the fights but boss fights last too long and if someone disconnects its a massive pain. If and when they change those I’ll be happy with fractal monthly

JP monthly sounds cool to me. Gives me the extra nudge to go find all the JPs. I really don’y understand why people on this forum are so negative and complain all the time! I can understand people needing a moan now and then but there is so much venomous and hyperbolic language aimed at other players and ANet that it is quite disappointing to see the community like this.

On the bright side I’ll enjoy doing the JPs and have some fun ^^

I really didn’t like the trinity and I’m very happy with the current system. People have various things to do while being DPS be that buffs, minor healing, combo fields, finishers, conditions etc. On the whole I would HATE to see the trinity come to GW2. I really hope ANet build on what they have. If I wanted the trinity I’d play a different MMO.

I still haven’t done dungeons yet as I’m playing my way to map completion first – slowly though! I have done a lot of hot join sPvP and I really can’t see how a warrior hs better survivability than an engineer. I’ve played zerker glass cannon on both warrior and engineer with rifles and warriors will simply die much quicker. Passive defense is weak in this game. You’ll have to actively dodge, remove conditions, block and invul to reduce meaningful damage. I haven’t been able to make elixir glass cannon builds anywhere near as well as static discharge ones. I use rifle turret, grenades and tool kit. The burst is huge from all the toolbelt skills and it’s much easier to land than kill shot. I also get access to block, chill, blind, knock back, cripple, permanent swiftness, either vigor or 50% higher regeneration depending on build.

I find kit builds better for pvp than all elixir builds and rifle warriors.

On balance GW2 will still be a fantastic game and I will continue to play it I am annoyed that Arena Net are moving towards gear treadmilling – there’s far too many MMOs that have this already. Even if GW2 will be less popular than WoW and its clones I’d rather play a less popular MMO I enjoy than a highly popular gear treadmill.

Arbor have some very well organised guilds. I got smashed by lots of them XD Just personal experience but it seems to me that Viz have the bigger groups but they don’t seem to be as good as Arbor. Still excellent fights though I really can’t see a French alliance this week though.

as a desolation player from head start I will have you admit that Viz were the strongest server thus week. They had great coordination and excellent time coverage. arbor were also fantastic. iI think allsides deserve their place in T1. It’s far more challenging than FS. im glad all three servers are willing to keep fighting even when the outcome for the week was decided. its great to see such fighting spirit.

I really wish there will be less Q.Q from everyone. If it’s by the rules then find the sneakiest tactic. If you can pull off such an effective tactic then good for your server. It just means your server/guild/zerg has better communication, teamwork and organisation to beat the 1337 1v1 skillz of FS.

I only play on EU afternoons and evenings but I like the coordination and communication in desolation. I rarely see any RUIN about (maybe since it’s not their evenings?) and I don’t think that desolation players are innately skilled that any other servers. But I like the community as the vast majority are friendly and cooperative. I’m glad desolation lost those weeks ago and all the raging whiners left the server. The community is great to WvW to with and I have fun even if I lose a camp/keep etc. I just worry that those raging whiners will transfer back again so I hope that Anet stops free transfers soon or else deso will be filled by players like the whiners from FS the minute they lose.

As an EU player on an EU server I welcome players from all over the world to play on my server. I like the 24/7 fighting of WvW and I have never encountered reduced frames from foreign guilds but I do get drops when there are huge amounts of people. But I’m not complaining since my graphics card handles most things fine and I could spend more on a graphics card if I really wanted high frames in WvWvW.

It’s an MMORPG so I welcome a wide variety of people to play.

you can slot gems to armor but not the exquisite gems. So its best to slot in runes instead. I’d recommend Eagle or Ogre but since you’re already quite squishy maybe consider dolyak?

I think you should experiment and be more creative with the kits. I initially tried only using one kit and sticking to it but then they really are mediocre except for the grenade kit. But when used in combination with your normal weapon or other kits and you swap regularly they are fantastic. Engineers do not have a cooldown on kit swaps like weapon swaps do. Once I had gotten used to the bindings and could somewhat keep an idea of the cooldowns on various abilities in my head I started to shine with kits.

Elixir gun is great with kit refinement to drop the water (I think??) combo field and had some nice utility for PvP and dungeons. It’s not meant to make you a ‘healer’. But applying a permanent weakness can be very useful and condition removal will really save a lot of health for your party.

Tool kit – I thought this was useless but it’s quickly becoming one of my favourites in PvE and PvP. The gear shield is brilliant at stopping predictable burst damage and magnet is useful for pulling ranged from some ledges in sPvP. Scatter nails is weak but is ok for running away – especially if you hit speedy kits and drop the nails. Pry bar has some nice damage to it but I’ll never intentionally get into melee against another melee just to use this. And throw wrench is brilliant with static discharge for those who like bursty engineers (I’ve only had mixed results though)

Flamethrower – I agree the first two skills can be annoying in that they are difficult to hit. But the low cooldown knockdown is really handy and so is the instant blind. I rarely drop the firefield in the middle of a fight but if I see the enemy coming at me I’ll drop it beforehand and combo fields are always useful in groups.

I still need to experiment with bomb kit. I consider myself to be an average engineer but I still see kits as being great things to switch to depending on the situation and then switch back. I would never stick with a kit just to spam (except grenades underwater). I switch to a kit to use an ability or two that the situation calls for, and switch to another kit or back to my standard weapon.

I still have a lot to learn with the kits but I’m having fun doing so and the depth to the engineer is both challenging and rewarding. I highly recommend trying more creative approaches with kits.

I think the razer Naga is overkill. I prefer my G700 but I’d like to try the Naga Hex as that seems to be a good amount of buttons if they’re bigger than the naga. I hate tiny buttons. But I have to agree that a gaming mouse really does in PvP. Engineer does have to use their utilities more often than other professions as they need to swap kits.