Guild Wars 2

Thief, right after HoT came out.

Taxidriver.2043:

anet forgot the class that can stealth and do massive condition dmg while invisible

Lol i wish i could do +10 to this one

Just came back after a while to discover this change.
Just when i thought we started getting to a better place…
You got my vote. This change was terribly wrong imo, and should be changed back asap.
I’m out of pvp until then… :/

(BTW: good to see you guys are still active! )

Turning the tag into a dyeable item could be amazing :P

Btw, patience is the key. It’ll take you a lot of time to actually be good. I have 800~ games behind me and i know i could be much much better (i simply suck, but at least i can see my mistakes :>). As an OK PvP player who started off as a really bad one, here are some things that can make you become better/just feel better with PvPing (keep in mind- your starting point is probably better than mine was. I’m really bad in pvp mostly because that my fingers can’t keep up with my brain, and because i get frightened/stressed too easily :P):

1) Relax. Don’t push/play to win. Just try having fun while analyzing yours and other players’ gameplay. This way you’ll have fun but will gain experience at the same time.
2) Focus on one thing at a time. For example, try learning your class’ and your build’s combos and practice one of them 1st on the golems, then on the NPCs, then in a match. One combo at a time. Don’t push yourself. Believe me, i tried pushing myself. It’s not fun and will just make you to have more mistakes.
It also applies to match tactics- don’t try to get it all done in one go. Give it some time to settle in With time, everything you practiced will become second nature to you.
3) Never give up!! It will be frustrating and discouraging at first, but later things will become much easier, when you’ll be better.
Also, remember that battle has 2 aspects: the physical-practical (performance with your class/role) and the mental-tactical (rotations, mind-games). If you feel like you’ve done bad in the last match- try to understand why. Knowing your mistakes is 1/2 way from making them right
I hope you would find this useful
GL and HF!

kuritsutian.2987:

As an Ele can tell that I am hanging on fine, time to adapt and join the skilled play train.

Skills >> Build.

Wow i waited so much time for someone to say this.
+1kkpinkquaggans

Oh the patch did quite a bit to my d/p build- removing the aftercast on pistol 5 is the best part of this patch for me I don’t like having strong AAs (And btw, it’s not THAT strong imo- compare it to other classes’ AAs). I’d rather have a damage increase on BS or HS, or for god’s sake- some work on d/d and main hand pistol.

Shovel Face.4512:

Played a quite a few now and really the same thing just easier because of the nerfs. And I’m not saying easy as in like I can kill anyone I look at but easy as in things are actually killable now. Other than that idk why ppl are screaming that we got over buffed.

That’s right, stuff are killable now. BUT- it feels like we’re sort of back to the zerker meta, and if i get caught in 1 attack i’m simply done with. The elite specs got too many AOEs and high-damage attacks, so for me it feels like the zerker meta, but worse. I know i have l2p issues, but it is still frustrating to get 1/2 shotted by random stuff that fly around.

Spear on land pleeeeeeeeease!! begs

+1 to 2H axe

I expect an increase in the amout of kittens throughout the forums.

For me it was one hell to diamond. Stopped playing once i got there because i wanted the wings :> Hardest was ruby. Oh god, it was just like playing unranked, but with people who think a little more. Once i got to diamond (and got the wings ofc) i just couldn’t see HotM or any pvp map anymore. I think i’ll have to take a month or so away from pvp, because it was just annoying. I had nearly no fun at all.
(Btw, the wings look adorable on my ele!! It was as if they designed it for her to use lol)

I know you wrote it already, but i just HAD to do this

9. OMGOMG THIEF OP NERF!!!!111

Cynz.9437:

This is comical: you get thief on team, everyone is moaning and asks thief to reroll. Thief gets tiny buff, people are moaning for nerfs…..

rofl

I’d like to join too, if possible I can fill pretty much every role, though i prefer healing/support and condi

I played thief almost to ruby, then used druid a little bit, switched to condi reaper in ruby but ended up playing cele ele and got to diamond

When did they say they’ll release the notes today? (I’m really curious because i don’t remember anything like that, and i’d like to know it already )

Yeah soloQing will be tough with all these rerolling new thieves. I’m afraid it’ll start the the whole cycle of crying “TEEF OP!11” in the forums>attention from the devs>nerfs, all over again. I once read an amazingly true and amusing sentence about thieves (i can’t remember who said it :/). It was like: “thieves are extremely effective against new/low skilled players” I guess this is what mesmers are afraid of jk about mesmers, but i still dunno what they all are crying about. It’s not even patch day, they haven’t even tried playing it yet and they already cry that thief got OP and they’re UP.
Btw one of the things i like in gw2 is that it has micro-communities and in-game politics in it like i’ve never seen in any mmo :P The mesmers-thieves relationship is a perfect example for that It makes the game much more serious and funny at the same time XD

Ummm maybe you all should wait and see how the meta will change before you start crying out loud in the forums? Really guys, pull yourselves together. The patch is in 8 day, and please try to remember the first days before HoT release in the forums: everyone thought warhorn/tempest will be useless, and complained like no tomorrow. But it ended up to be one of the classes that ruled this bunker meta. It sounds pathetic for me, because i still remember all these threads that complained about the uselessness of warhorn and the tempest in general.
Tl:dr
Don’t complain until you play for some days after the new balance patch.

I came up with this build for condi- based mostly on poison+bleeding:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAV4Yn8lCdmiFNBONB0PhlWCTLAcAWAelh2QKa+EuCfhA-TBSAABGcRAEc/BIM/BwTAgWlgQp8LI1fkR3AhAUsGA-e
I’d like to hear what can be done to improve it, because i’m not sure i got this right ^^;
I tried optimizing it while keeping in mind the cost of some materials/sigils, because i can’t afford some stats combinations or other things :/

Ummm actually, i’m not sure about a build… could you give me the most needed role atm? I have no idea about which build to use, so just tell me what we need also, i managed to get to the last phase of the VG a few times, but then got wiped :/ so i basically know all the mechanics of it. I only need a build

Btw: i actually like playing condi, and it also looks like most people don’t like it, so maybe it’d be good for me to go condi? i have dps gear atm (full zerk) but can switch to almost every stat combination needed, because i have lvl 500 leatherworker and enough on weaponsmith/huntsman/artificier

lol i think people got too used to gw2’s gear mechanics that they take it for granted my opinion: no normal mmo, as shiny and new as it’ll be, can be a threat to gw2 in the LONG term. Why? Gear. It’s as simple as that. You farmed to get your shiny endgame gear? No worries! Wait 1/2 months and we’ll release a new set that will rend the old one useless, so you could farm all over again! Fun, right??? one time it’s okay. 2 well, one can live with it. But after a couple of times it’ll just start feeling pathetic. This is why i left TERA, when i realized i have to chase newer and harder to get gear in order to be viable. This is why such games cannot be a long-term threat to gw2.

LOL that “may lyssa confound you” that comes out of nowhere is quite disturbing

+1
Passives need to go.
Edit: especially the ones that make you invulnerable at 25% hp.

Sounds like fun
Might work well with staff imo.
It could possibly give us some survivability to begin with.
I can’t wait to try out the new amulets- they sound really interesting
Oh and what about rune of the wurm? I think i’ll try it on a d/p build, for more crit damage. Also, we gotta wait and see the other changes that might happen- the announced ones were only part of the preview, so i’d expect some more changes (not drastic ones, though).

lol why? Did they have too much fun playing bunkers?

Dakarius.3284:

Gallant Pigeon.5807:

Jana.6831:

Gallant Pigeon.5807:

Jana.6831:

I missed it when using SB in a zerg when I tried to make a build with DrD work <— that failed because I want CiS and need SE.

@ Zero: That was a joke – all good =)

If you are building for WvW zergs…. all I will say is marauders armor and weapons, soldier / cavalier trinkets, double staff, invigorating precision and daredevil runes. The sustain and dps vs grouped enemies is unreal.

Why would I use double staff?

Double energy sigils, quick pockets. Its spammy, sure. But it works horribly well as a brawler.

energy sigil is getting nerfed to only give 5 secs of vigor.

Isn’t it only for pvp?

You forgot 1 thing- when you choose to go for shadow art for the venom share you lose a hell lot of damage. I can’t see why would anyone take it besides venom share builds. Also, mesmers should be the ones with the easiest time dealing with it- stunbreak, use one of your evades/invulns, etc…

Hehe +1
I feel amazing now even though i hope the rest of the changes would be as good, it’s a pretty good start

I think this is gonna be the most interesting meta ever existed… i can already see many builds become viavble again, and new ones that might come in. Imo, we’re gonna experience the meaning of build diversity (to some extent) for the 1st time, but maybe i’m too optimistic

Inb4 the condi meta kicks in

Jokes aside- i can finally see build diversity, even though i think we should wait and see how things will go It is a huuuuge change, and i can’t wait to see what will happen when it’ll come out!! It sounds like there’ll be a very interesting meta, imo… at least one that will allow more builds/professions into it

Why not just buff/rework d/d?

Chaith.8256:

Reem.3578:

@Chaith
Sounds like you want to balance everything around the pro league.
This begs the question: around what should we balance the game?

The answer is, all game modes and all skill levels should be taken into consideration.

If Dragonhunter traps are nerfed to the ground because you can click your whole bar and wipe 5 people out in Amber, that wouldn’t be considering the high skill level, for example.

This specifically is a thread on the PvP forums, pertaining to the state of PvP balance.

My opinion is that the classes should primarily be balanced around being used optimally, in conditions where there’s little or no L2P factor, so apples can be compared to apples.

Balancing things like MinionMancer, Turret Engineer, Dragonhunter, 100Blades Warrior for entry level skilled players should be a consideration too, but as a second priority, and it can’t impact the class potential, after all, it’s admittedly a L2P problem.

When talking theoretically, i think i agree with you. When balancing pvp you should take into consideration what the pro players who got little to no l2p issues would be able to do with the given change, because they are a part of the community as well, and at their level any profession they’d choose to play should be viable in a certain group composition, and do its job just fine due to the game being balanced.

However, if we consider that the majority of players are not pro players and got l2p issues, i’d think that it’s right to balance each profession mostly around the average players. With all due respect, pro players are a very little part of the whole pvp community, so balancing things mostly around them will cause imbalance at the lower tiers and therefore will be unfair to the majority of the pvp community, as i see it.

So in my opinion, balance should be done with all parts of the community in mind, but with the fitting proportion- mostly around the average players (let’s say mid sapphire-ruby), a little around the pro players (legendary) and a little bit around the casuals (amber/emerald).

@Chaith
Sounds like you want to balance everything around the pro league.
This begs the question: around what should Anet balance the game?

Tormentor.2508:

Wolfric.9380:

Definitly. But i fear it will be so good that 80% of tempests will use it.

Reworked:
1 25 Vitality
2 Light aura on heal
3 50 Vitality
4 20% aura duration
5 100 Vitality
6 Remove a condition on aura application

This would be great :-)

But without an internal cooldown…really?

It is only 1 condition.
Think about it- in teamfights you can get vuln, poison, burning, confusion, bleeding, torment, weakness, cripple and i guess i forgot some how fast can you apply 5 auras, to at least try and remove the damaging ones? And let’s say you were lucky and managed to remove it- you’ll get all your auras (shouts, finishers, etc) on CD, and get these condis applied to you again. And if you’d think that removing that many condis is OP, what about the druid’s seeds? Each time you cast a glyph it heals you and removes 2 condis. And when they’re in celestial avatar it is simply like having resistance for 15 sec, because this skill has 1 sec CD in celestial avatar. Oh, and necros can transfer 3 condis with a weapon skill. Excuse me, 2 weapon skills if you use dagger in off hand. We just don’t have enough condi management. And when we decide to get it, it requires us to take 2 trait lines for it and give up a lot of damage.

Valkyriez.6578:

By the time someone is able to do ranked they are PvP level 20.

Pony up the cash if you want to unlock it, you’ve had your free trial.

Yup.
OP, it’s free to try, Not free to play. And this is how it should stay.
Imo, just thank for being able to play at all- i started playing only 7 months ago, when i had the money to pay for it, even though my friend who played it since launch kept telling me about it, and hell i wanted to play it just from the moment he told me about it. It is a buy to play game with the option for a free trial for checking things out. You don’t like it? Don’t play it. Why would someone who paid nothing have exactly what we all paid for? Think about it. Does this sounds fair to you?

We can use traits to make auras remove condis by combining cleansing water (water) and invigorating torrents (tempest), but then you have to take water and give up a lot of dmg, or other useful traits. Which actually makes it useless -_-

OverPowered? i don’t think so. Give it 30-60 sec CD and it’ll be just like any other class’ passive stun break also, we don’t have invulnerability-giving passives- unlike eles, engies, guards, warrs… you name it. I think it might fit us pretty well.

Oh i’ll try that. It makes sense, actually- one of my teammates tried to stomp the same person and failed just like i did. Maybe it is the lag thingie I’ll try checking it out in my next matches.

For a few matches lately, i was sometimes just unable to stomp. I stomped the same guy over and over again, and he kept lying there, ressurecting himself. I tried stability, blind, everything. It seems that sometimes stomping just doesn’t work for me. And please, can i get an answer fast? it almost made me lose a match… thanks in advance!

For a few matches lately, i was sometimes just unable to stomp. I stomped the same guy over and over again, and he keeps lying there. I tried stability, blind, everything. It just seems that sometimes stomping just doesn’t works for me. Am i the only one who experiences it, or are there more people? and please, can i get an answer fast? it almost made me lose a match… thanks in advance!

I think reworking rune of radiance to include this would be awesome

Doggie.3184:

rennlc.7346:

The HoT beta is almost over, guys!

You mean early access.

rofl

By the way, do you think when they said AA they meant to backstab? Since it’s in the AA chain… (if you get what i mean)

PopeUrban.2578:

This thread can outrun a centaur!

LOL THIS!!

Female human when leveling up/achieving something(/viewing vistas ) :
“Is it just me, or… am i AMAZING???”

Jayden Ennok.3687:

Steel Courage.1250:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Steel Courage.1250:

Cynz.9437:

Do we really want to know with which “amazing” balancing ideas they came up this time?

Well, as of today, they seem promising!

Not promising, they are vague as usual

Better than nothing

Thief population has learned that nothing is sometimes the better option.

+1

Josh Davis.6015:

Aside from skill adjustments, another way we can adjust balance in PvP is by looking at the runes/sigils/amulets that are available for use through the customization panel.

I would be interested in hearing thoughts (with the high-level goals from the blog in-mind) on adding/removing various sigils/amulets/runes. In general, our goal for PvP is to be faster-paced with a higher-level of lethality than what we’re seeing in S1.

I know we’ve had this conversation a few times before, but it’s always important to have this discussion with the correct context in mind.

If the goal for elementalists is to make them play more offensively, i’d suggest doing something about the celestial amulet. While having the option to have a little bit from each stat is interesting, it looks like this is the only amulet that is viable to elementalists for getting max efficiency. They have many defensive abilities which benefit from the defensive part of the celestial amulet and at the same time they get some nice bonuses to their offensive abilities through condi dmg, power precision and ferocity. It’s hard for me to ask for its removal, so maybe change it a little to make it into a more defensive amulet, by lowering the offensive stats and upgrading the defensive ones?

It sounds more like they want to make us specialized in melee…

James Quall.6029:

Other professions (mesmer, elementalist, warrior) had specific weapons named that are getting change, and I think thief pistol is worse off than any of theirs and surely worth some kind of mention if they were going to do something about it.

Instead we get an improvement to melee auto attacks meaning they’re leaving pistols out on purpose.

But at least we’ll get a buff to melee.
Right now, our most useful weapon sets are melee and i wouldn’t really mind having them getting stronger especially if it means that D\D is back!

Well they adressed the damage, initiative and acro.
The line of making us “dangerous” sounds too promising…
I wouldn’t get my hopes up, but it actually sounds like a nice opening I’m looking forward to read the patch notes

@Rezzet
Backstab requires a lot of effort- you have to get stealthed and actually position yourself behind the person. Also, about the “no cooldown”- once you landed your backstab you have 4 sec of revealed. What is it if not cooldown?

Edit: lol @Cynz i just posted the same thing at the same time :>

Ragnarox.9601:

Cynz.9437:

Ragnarox.9601:

Wait wha? You are crying bout scrapper hammer dmg? You thieves have nothing to do?right?

If anything you should whine about revenant dmg + condi, chrono survival and dmg, necro invincibility + dmg, dh traps and dmg, druid dmg + heals + pets, tempest survival + dmg…

revs are at least killable
chrono bunker doesn’t do much dmg
i found necro actually easiest target to kill as thief
druid pets are broken, period
tempest does ok dmg

scrapper on other hand…… really high dmg, really high survival…

Cmon, scrappers dont have high dmg (10k backstabs, 8k HS), they have high sustain and they just hard counter stealth classes (especially thieves) with aoe reval plus stealth. Thieves can’t and shouldn’t be able to beat or own anyone. Like DH can’t beat tempests or revenant or reaper. You cant have it all (at least you can 100% escape from fights you can’t win unlike other classes)

Wait wait wait…
10k backstab?
8k HS??
Well… i’ll just leave it as it is.
And wow, “thieves can’t and shouldn’t be able to own anyone”, please think a little bit and try getting what’s wrong with what you just said.

So many painful truths in one thread, i could agree with at least 70% of what was said here As i see it, the 3 main things that hurt balance the most are passives, hard CCs and basic power scaling in elite specs. I tried something with one of my mesmer friends- we stood in a custom arena and they let me AA them while they stood still. For god’s sake, i got damaged down to 75% HP, stunned, dazed and ambushed by clones by only AAing them… not to mention that they got auto stealthed periodically while generating clones like no tomorrow. Ok, this is mesmer. What about revs? (Even just core, i don’t even wanna start talking about glint…) and engies? (Especially the invuln elixir) the amount of passives is just insane, to the point that the build can carry the player. This shouldn’t exist, imo. Yes, i know i would suffer from having less passives because i’m a pretty average~ PvPer, but i think it is just not healthy for the game.