Showing Posts For Ryuujin.8236:

Hot in the gem store

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns—Digital Deluxe Upgrade is an account upgrade and requires a standard edition of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.

Bold for emphasis

EDIT: Weird, original post has been deleted but mine remains in it’s place

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

Forced to exploit.

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

For those talking about “safespotting”, the term “safe” is a misnomer. The fractal vets don’t “safespot” for safety, they do it for speed.

The mossman moves between players on the ground, particularly when invisible. The most efficient way to take him out therefore is to all stack up, so that he has no reason to move about, and he stays put in your fields (optimum DPS, especially given that condi engineers and rangers are now the meta DPS choice). But, most PUGs won’t stack they’ll try kite him about and dodge and roll.

However, what you CAN do quite easily, is point out the safe spot and say “hey, hop up here with us where it’s safer”. So everyone stacks up naturally to fit into the safe spot, and thus everyone spams their attacks and fields til he dies a swift and painless death.

It’s nothing to do with veteran fractal players mysteriously sucking. It’s that if you’ve done hundreds and hundreds of fractals successful completion isn’t the challenge, it’s speed and efficiency.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Champion Pocket Raptors

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Champion Pocket Raptors with little champion snipers riding on their backs.

Now I have the mental image of a sniper crowd-surfing an army of pocket raptors. It is literally the sum of all fears :p

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

is it worth creating a ranger now

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

I’ve been wanting to main a ranger since release but I haven’t seen them actually ‘fixed’ ever.

Just wondering is it worth, or mainly viable, to make a ranger after HoT to run Condi w/shortbow.

They’ve never been broken. It’s a good class that attracts bad players. For some, the checklist looks like this:

  • Has big fluffy pet
  • Shoots bows and arrows
  • HAS A BIG FLUFFY PET
  • In in tune with nature
  • OMG THAT PET IS SO FLUFFY I’M GONNA DIE!

And thus another bearbow is born, and eventually they’ll write a concern thread about how rubbish their DPS and survivability is when they just sit on longbow trying to make their pet tank.

But if you’re looking for a class that is fun, mobile, flexible, has solid damage output, brings, is survivable and brings some buffs to the table with it, you’re in the right place. If you’re here for pets and bows, you’ll probably be disappointed

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

I want to see more druids

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

It reduces the cooldown of the next skill used by 66% after weapon swap. That is a huge bonus for any skill but makes skills like Path of Scars, Rapid Fire, and Bonfire that much better. Not taking quick draw is throwing away a huge amount of damage in either damage form.

I know that but, wait… go back a step. Conditions and longbows are now the PvE DPS meta? O,o

I guess I was out of the loop a long time.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

I want to see more druids

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Skirmishing is definitely our weaker bread-and-butter trait line.

Skirmishing houses Quick Draw which is inarguably our most powerful trait in pve right now in both zerk and viper/sinister builds

Alright, can you explain what is so powerful about it? – I have trouble seeing what is so great about it, I can only think of a few niche uses for it and most of those are not tied to DPS

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

I want to see more druids

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

…Skirmishing (Spotter, Quick-draw, 10% crit flanking, fury)? Not in any non-raid pve content.

Actually… possibly;

Spotter is 150 precision to the whole team. Which is nice but only translates into a few percent more DPS for the party, I know this one might be hard to shake because “spotter = why you invite a ranger to the party” in the minds of many.

10% personal crit damage certainly helps you make bigger numbers but again this is less than a few percent in terms of the party’s total DPS, and is reliant on being able to flank your target. Quick-draw is nice, no doubt, I can’t criticise that, but if squeezing DPS was your goal, it’s not going to shake the foundations of tyria.

Skirmishing is definitely our weaker bread-and-butter trait line.

I’m fairly confident that the DPS gains from druid (via grace of the land and glyph of empowerment) provides comparable net DPS gains across the entire party while also providing the clutch heals of avatar form.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

I want to see more druids

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

People talking about “healbots” in PvE content I believe are over-thinking, or perhaps under-thinking the role druids can fill.

I personally have been experimenting with druid in Dungeon content with PUGs; I don’t use the staff at all. From the druid line I take Cultivated Synergy, Grace of the land and Verdant Etching .

Combined with Resounding Timbre, Cultivated Synergy. Heal as One means I heal my allies for something like 30-40% health every time I use my own heal (16 second cooldown). Glyph of Empowerment provides 10% damage boost for the entire party timed well, and combined with Verdant Etching means I also heal the party a small amount, and remove conditions. For fights where conditions are a concern I bring an extra glyph so I can cleanse the party frequently and often. Finally, when my bar fills (And it does frequently), I can quickly pop into avatar state and stack Grace of the land on the party, for a party-wide 15% damage boost for 8 seconds.

All this adds up to a constant and significant amount of ambient healing, while I’m still going at the enemy with conventional weapons (Usually a GS or 1H sword) with pretty much no appreciable DPS loss (Possibly even a gain with so many party-wide damage bonuses); and, of course – if kitten DOES hit fan, I can enter avatar form, and heal the balls off the party until the situation is stabilised.

The argument is that a perfect team can run full zerker in any content, and never die. But the reality nobody seems to want to admit is that most people are NOT perfect. Speedrunning isn’t fast if it takes you three attempts to a clear a boss you could’ve done in one attempt, if you’d had the tools to salvage it.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

Healing design- real talk updated

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Just to play the devil’s advocate here, but this is pretty much how healing works in Wildstar, a very similar genre of MMO with twitchy combat mechanics and manual aiming elements.

As seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VWrRxgOKus

The “problem” is less to do with the functionality of the heals and more to do with the system used for telegraphing attacks and buffs.; arenanet is very fond of keeping telegraph visuals to an absolute minimum, it can be extremely hard to tell that an enemy is telegraphing an attack at all, let alone what sort of attack.

This leads to people having to be much twitchier in their dodging and evasion; trying to pre-empt what the enemy is about to do.

Clearer visuals for telegraphed attacks; and for the trajectory of heals, would resolve most these issues (The final issue to resolve of course the lack of proper interface support for a healer, like making people’s health bars readily visible), though it’d also interfere with Arenanet’s insistence on providing an “artisimal” (but deeply user unfriendly) interface.

These problems need to be addressed before you can really begin to tweak the balance of skills and trait lines.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

best pve instances build after HoT?

in Thief

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Bump, I’d like to know this too. I’ve been out the loop for well over 6 months and curious what the current Thief PvE options and metas are; (Especially since the change to conditions) but all anyone wants to discuss is PvP builds.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Objectively the worst pet system ever made

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

So…. you want to have a hawk that can solo a champion or so?
The fact that some pets are more DPS oriented than others (who are more utility oriented) is nothing more than (in my opinion) logic..

It’s fallacious to say that pets must be hard linked to attributes.

Guild Wars 1, this game’s very own precursor had a very different system, pet attributes in GW1 were derived from training, depending how you used your pet (Not even stats assignment off a screen, actual gameplay), it would develop to be more tanky, or more aggressive.

The species of a pet was almost purely aesthetic. Because your pet actually “developed” under you, how you could name them and pick a species you liked aestheticlly, it felt like there was a much closer relationship between ranger and pet , than in GW2, where pets are just an extra utility spot, and a lacklustre minion (Not to mention GW1 rangers had DIRECT control of their pet’s special attacks, and those attacks wern’t just attacks, but actual formed combo chains in tandem with the ranger)

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Marjory's bone bridge skill

in Living World

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Look at it this way from an in-world angle – there is probably some skills your character routinely uses, that the NPCs look at and say “How the hell did they do that, that isn’t actually a [class] spell is it?”

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Lightning jump. Fix your bugs.

in Living World

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Tell them what’s causing it and they’ll be pleased to fix it, I’m sure.

We’ve been telling them since the day the bazaar was first introduced.

It’s likely a combination of their anti cheating netcode, and latency. If you lag during a jump, the anti cheat part kicks in and says “How did you move so fast, so far, through the air? – I call hax” and it rubber bands you and arrests your movement causing you to fall.

Given that for many of us the new content is unplayable laggy ANYWAY, having us keep falling to our deaths because of sloppy netcode, and even sloppier bug fixing (Which is to say: No fix for it in a full YEAR), it’s proving to be a real turn off. I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to actually play the LS before it ends.

ps.: just for the record. ANet servers have a problem to manage incoming and outcoming data packages since the beginning, but they often try to say the problem is entirely on your connection. As the game population increase this is getting more clear, they can’t handle their increasing public. I just hope they stop putting the blame on players and try to also upgrade their hardware and not only the game LS.

Better netcode would fix many of these issues. If the servers were less stringent in how they treat the packets they’re being sent it wouldn’t be an issue. Yes it’d allow increased exploitation, fly and sprint hacks might become a thing again – but it’d stop the game thrashing the kitten of us EU players for living on the “wrong” side of the Atlantic ocean

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

Racial Back Pieces

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

yes please. maybe throw in racial mounts too.

for example

humans can griffon,
asura get a spaceship
charr get a mechanical rhino/hippo
sylvari get a treant
norn get all sorts of animals

All of which can combine to create a giant mecha if you get all 5 races in the same party.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Having lag issues?

in Living World

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Last night I did notice that anytime I used an aspect crystal there was a “hitch” in the animation…nothing really major, but noticeable. Could that be part of this?

Unlikely. The lag we’re experienced is similar to 5k+ latency. The game stalling for long periods, everyone rubber banding to a new location, and then another pause for 5 or 6 seconds before your skills activate and everything updates position.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Having lag issues?

in Living World

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

It’s utterly unplayable for me in Dry Top, a lot of other users were having the same trouble yet others were having none at all.

I’m an EU player (though on NA servers)

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

ranger need more sources for stability

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

And mesmer have 1 stability skill, that lasts for ~2 seconds :/

Honestly if you step back and get some perspective, Rangers are one of the best classes in the game for stability. Rampage as one is a phenomenal elite skill, yet neither is it the ranger’s only stability skill. Chaining both skills together can get you ~40 seconds of uninterrupted stability, I’d wager that’s by far the longest of any class.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Hornet Sting+Monarch Leap targeting

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

It’d certainly be much more useful in my eyes as long as it properly connects when driven towards a target.

Since there is a few very different uses for the skill but often they backfire if you have auto targeting enabled (or do not), for example you can’t use it to make a double jump and escape if you have a target/auto target selected, and sometimes it’ll randomyl target a nearby mob and attack them when you wanted to use it to cover distance quickly.

I know this is largely user error, that I should learn to play without auto target but, it’s an annoyance nonetheless. Finer controls, rather than reliance on clunky targetting would be optimum

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Precursor Talk

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

^ this.

I’ve logged about 2.5k hours, had two precursors drop, crafted the one legendary I want

Then you’re in a lucky minority.

Just the other day me and some guildies were chatting in a dungeon run (With around 10,000-15,000 hours between us), and concluded we’d only seen 3 precursors drop between us, of which only one of those dropped for a member of our little group. Ironically the guy who had gotten the drop was also the newest of the players with the least hours clocked.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Wind Catcher Skin & co

in Festival of the Four Winds

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

I’ve opened maybe 500 boxes, and I obtained 1 sun catcher. Though I also know folks who opened a thousand and got none, read into that what you will. Such a small and biased sample is hardly representative of a drop rate.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Chaos of Lyssa Drop Increase

in Festival of the Four Winds

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Is it bad I dont feel very bad for the people who tried to flip the Chaos of Lyssa and now are stuck with it and gotta eat the loss?

No.

There is a reason why in economics investments like this are referred to as “risk”. Sometimes an investment like this falls through unexpectedly, but that is simply a matter of course and a wise investor won’t place all his funds into a single venture.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

Your Signature Weaponset?

in Mesmer

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

At this stage I’m pretty adaptable. I have little trouble swapping fluidly between sets and traits in the space of a single dungeon.

The only one that occasionally throws me is with GS, where I’ll hit GS5 instead of GS4 for my phatasm (Given 5 is phantasm on focus/sword, but 4 on pistol and greatsword), which can be pretty embarrasing if you end up scattering the mobs out of the party’s killzone <.<

I guess mainhand sword is the thing I’m never seen without, but what mesmer isn’t?

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Pets are good thread

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Even if we negate the mechanical aspects of pets (like how they utterly melt when exposed to a zerg in WvW, or pathing up and down mountainsides the long way given their inability to jump over low ground cover).

Pet’s still come out lack-lustre compared to GW1, simply because each pet species has a distinct role, which means there is a relatively narrow band of “useful” pets. Your “pet” isn’t really your own, in a way that can can become attached to it. In GW1, I loved my moa, in a way it looked a little like kmy ranger, and i had a matching minipet, and it clicked.

But in GW2, i have a few pets I’ll use depending on situation, but none suit my aesthetic preference, i have no attachment, i use them as a utility, not a companion.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Ranger is smelly solid waste

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Major problems:
1) Extraordinary physical damage cannot be achieved without becoming completely glass. When a Ranger specs for highest possible damage, they are still going to lose to to others that also spec for max damage. They have no damage mitigation, and no escape tool in this build.

Stopped reading here. Ranger’s have some of the best access to evasion in the game. Sword/dagger managed to pack 3 evades into just the 5 weapon slots, it’s quite evident you didn’t play the class for more than a level or two.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Gold find since champ changes.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

I have a quick question. We still have infusions, banners and food buffs for “gold find”. But since dungeon rewards were changed to a daily chest, and champs now drop boxes and money bags, do these buffs still serve any real use?

As I understand gold from bags and rewards is not affected, just direct gold drops, and gold “drops” are now nearly non existent (And extremely small). Or, am i mistaken? – Do gold “drops” add up to any meaningful amount still?

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

Highest DPS PvE build?

in Mesmer

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

I generally agree, Ryu, with the one caveat that shatter won’t be very good against dungeon trash (which are usually elite, etc.).

True. I mean in the context of open PVE, where you may want to spec in a way that eats trash for the purpose of getting loot or completing events.

In a dungeon obviously you don’t want to spec around trash fights, but boss fights, as the trash takes care of itself.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

The Fastest Gauntlet Chances farm

in Festival of the Four Winds

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

thief is still the best, while every other class has to wait for their cooldowns, thief can just enter again right after the kill. i kill hammerfell about 3 times a minute when i have a solo arena

I think you gravely over-estimate how long other class’ cooldowns are :p

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

The Fastest Gauntlet Chances farm

in Festival of the Four Winds

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Tyre Ragemaw (5 gambits) I like using on Mesmer

Full zerker.
Greatsword + Sword/Sword
6/4/0/0/4

Chain:

  • Swordsman -> Signet of Ether -> Swordsman -> Berserker
  • Kite him, sitting on GS. Use GS, and/or signets to knock him away if he gest to close.
  • Usually dies in 10-15 seconds.
The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Fastest way to get skill points?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Fractals are another option, you can turn in fractal tokens for skill points (I think fractal champs can also drop skill point scrolls right?)

I would sooner have my brain physically damaged from running the champ train too much than to use fractals as a source of skill points.

Then it sounds rather like you want to obtain skill points, without actually playing the game. It’s pretty rare that “fun and varied” and “quickest” overlap, indeed, the “quickest” option invariably becomes a chore, simply because you would need to grind said “quickest” option and once you’re grinding something it gets dull fast.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Highest DPS PvE build?

in Mesmer

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

People gave excellent advice above regarding dungeons, but if you are in open world PvE shatter is hardly that bad. I tend to scratch that itch when farming or whatnot.

This is true. OP only asked about PVE, not specifically dungeons – in open PvE, shatter builds can be quite excellent, since they provide strong burst and a large AoE, enabling you to explode swarms of trash in the blink of an eye; faster than a phantasm build in fact.

It’s just important to clarify the differences:

Shatter:

  • Large area of effect
  • Strong burst damage
  • Great for killing swarms of trash mobs

Phantasm:

  • The less targets, the stronger the DPS potential
  • Excellent sustain DPS
  • Perfect for boss fights
The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

A Designer's viewpoint: Condition Caps

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

A lot of people’s rejections of this suggestion are coming from a position of assuming no other changes are made to the system. That a lone mesmer can still stack 20+ bleeds by accident for example.

Obviously, with a change in condition mechanics, you’d go back and change how conditions are applied, so that it wouldn’t create any ridiculously unbalanced new metas.

OP’s post is interesting, however, I doubt it’ll do any good, people have been telling them PvE condition handling must change since beta, and not once has anet addressed our concerns. Not once

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Fastest way to get skill points?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Fractals are another option, you can turn in fractal tokens for skill points (I think fractal champs can also drop skill point scrolls right?)

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Help! Bows and arrows against the lightning?

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Looking at your stats I can tell right off that part your problem is using a shortbow with a power set. Shortbow is is more orientated towards condition damage but your condi damage is rather low – a longbow would serve you better as a ranged weapon with power high.

You also need to consider your role in WvW. There is a significant difference between surviving and being effective in a zerg, and being effective as a roamer (Different gear stats, different weapons). Using the wrong set for the wrong role will have inferior results

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Sliders for cat-like ears?

in Asura

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

A few ear types work, the general rule is to use a short style, keep the length slider short, thickness slider relatively high and to keep the tip shape up/out.

Funnily enough, Zojja’s ears follow the same format if you get a good look or see her without her headgear.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

An Open Letter to the Orders of Tyria.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

But after playing the personal story where I got Caladbolg for fight, I like that he could do that. It’s the sword’s power, and anyone can do that.

I wasn’t even aware you could obtain the weapon :o – it appears the game puts far too many assumptions on the player character being a sylvari, as all the stuff about Treesus and the mystical sword Saladbowl appear to come out of nowhere if you’re any other race.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Important TP Reminders (for traders only)

in Black Lion Trading Co

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Remember folks. BLTC is the epitomy of PvP – you are competing against hundreds of thousands of other players in a single, cross-server arena, and the stakes are your very gold. (Those so called PvP’rs in the arenas, fighting a dozen other players, for nothing but ‘glory’ are mere pretenders to us)

The odds of you being the only player with his eye on a deal is low, so you better be ruthless if you want to come out on top

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

An Open Letter to the Orders of Tyria.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

He’s also trained up to be a powerful necromancer, AND traveled Orr (before the Pact was there to help, don’t forget) to study it and the dragon until he’s considered THE expert on it.

Let’s not forget that once he gets his “sword of legend”, he also starts using Mesmer and Guardian skills, which seems to make him Tyria first triple-class character (exceeding even the dual class ascended of GW1)

Edit: On closer inspection his post-upgrade skill set has it’s own skill list, they just happen to look exactly like other class skills. ie. “Twlight Crash” is identical to “Illusory Wave”, “Maelstrom Strike” is identical to “Whirling Wrath”.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

An Open Letter to the Orders of Tyria.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

To the Generals of the Orders of Tyria, I come to you with great regret, that I have grave suspicions that Marshall Trahearne is in fact in league with the minions of Zhaitan, and is deceiving the Orders of Tyria.

My suspicions began at Claw Island, the largest incursion of Orrian undead in recent history. While Trahearne claimed to be there to warn the Lionguard of the impending attack, I could not help notice he took no active part in the combat. A self professed necromancer, he made little attempt to destroy the undead, or provide minions – instead preferring to watch his fellow man die and reap their souls as is the Necromancer’s way.

While it is true that he “attacked” the undead, the eerie bolts of darkness he threw appeared to have no effect at all, and the undead ignored his presence entirely.

But the most truly kitten ing evidence came recently during the ambush at the ruins of Fort Rankor. Again, while Trehearne was present the Orrians launched a massive incursion, headed by a lich no less, deep into the Shiverpeaks.

I observed early on that there was a bone wall behind the fort, a structure that by Trahearne’s own words some days earlier, implied the presence of a lich, and therefore a field commander to direct the Orrians. Despite this observation Trehearne insisted on treating the incursion as mere random undead and to push ahead against the hordes. Upon rescuing a second squad from the caves (and with some casualties), we retreated to safety via the path of original ingress.

However Trahearne insisted we return to the caves, despite the area being full of hostile undead, and exit via a different entrance. Upon reaching the second entrance, and exposing the civilian team and their cargo to significant danger Trehearne expressed “shock” that the exit was barred by a bone wall and there might be a Lich present – something I already ascertained before we even rescued the scholars. Whereupon we were ambushed and Trehearne ordered us to once again, leave via the main entrance.

The close proximity of hostiles meant area-effect arcane fire was extremely effective in destroying massed groupings of them, however, whenever we had a kill zone established, Trehearne would utilise what appeared to be a mesmer spell (despite his “necromancer” training) to deflect the enemies away from our fire and spare their un-lives.

Eventually we exited for a second time, back through our original path – only now, finding ourselves ambushed by a Lich and his entourage. Trahearne traded some weak insults but promptly ran away and was not seen for the remainder of the engagement. Despite the odds stacked against us, we were able to destroy the ambush force and the commanding Lich. Whereupon Trahearne was welcomed with open arms by the survivors who heralded his “excellent leadership”.

Field Marshall Trehearne is at the very least, a woefully incompetent leader. But I believe the reality is far more sinister; his attempts to save Orrian lives, his personal experience amongst the Orrians, his persistent attempts to lead our forces into ambushes, his mesmer abilities and the way he commands unwarranted respect from those around me, leads me to suspect he in fact an Orrian mesmer seeking to destroy the Orders of Tyria from within and may even be controlling the minds of his operatives. It’s plausible, that he even used mind control to establish his dominance the pact in the first place, his leadership or tactical credentials do not appear to be adequate for the task.

- Warmaster Zizi, Vigil 1st Support Division.

(You have to admit, it’s not a good sign where the main character is so aggressively bad at his job, that you’re not sure if they’re setting up for a plot twist, or if he is simply badly written)

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

"Too many here: GTFO" = bad design

in Festival of the Four Winds

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Ideally, scaling should be done so that if a player has the same skill level as the average skill of the group, then the boss is killed in the same amount of time with or without that player. What we have now is way too far from the ideal, IMO.

Unfortunatly, GW2’s game mechanics reward skill and knowledge a fair bit. There is a significant gulf between the DPS attainable by a veteran player, and a relative newbie.

If you balance the HP for the lowest common denominator, than a small group of full zerker veterans will rip through the mobs like a chainsaw through wet tissue paper. But if you balance the HP for a middle ground or upper limit, then each newbie in the group will actually be slowing down the fight, because they do not pull enough weight to compensate for the increase – leading to people telling them to stop trying to swarm it.

The problem then, is working out whether to cater to the lower common denominator and encourage brainless zerging. Or whether to encourage players to split into groups and try self organise (Which admittedly is like herding cats; though is attainable if you take charge ), either way is not ideal because at the end of the day players prefer either zerging or co-ordination and never the twain shall meet on which is the “right” way to play GW2

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

The Temple of Grenth event needs a rework

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

There actually is some highly effective counterplay against the shades and their stacks: blinds. .

The shades don’t physically strike you to stack corruption. Simply standing in proximity to a shade when it “ticks” will add corruption. The only defence against corruption is to kill the shades as fast as possible, blinds even invulns don’t work

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

The Temple of Grenth event needs a rework

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

There is a lack of information presented to the players about what is going on. Even if you make it clear that everyone’s priority is to cull the shades (Which is a good strategy, the NPCs and players not listening will finish the boss for you), a large portion of the players will fail to get the buff.

This is made worse by the fact there is little visual distinction between the teleport-into-the-sky vortices, and the domain buff vortices – I have known newbie players told to “jump into the vortex for the buff” to accuse me of being a troll when they have fallen to their death jumping into the wrong vortex and refused to get the buff thereafter.

The Grenth fight is a good one – it has multiple mechanics at play. It’s probably is that the mechanics are: A: completely opaque without someone taking the time to explain it to you in advance. and B: Can result in an unwinnable situation developing.

I think 1 SINGLE change would be adequate – and that is to place a cap on how many shades can spawn simultaneously. Maybe 5-8, so stacks are still a threat if ignored, but don’t acrue so fast that they wipe you before you even reach the vortex

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Is there any hope?

in Ranger

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

I am of the opinion though that a ranger player has to work their kitten off, to achieve what some classes’ can do just by rolling their face on the keyboard.

While it’s true rangers can keep up with the best of them, not all classes were made equal and ranger is less equal than others.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

The Bring back your favourite Pet thread

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

The Rainbow Phoenix was of course pretty neat, but I also really liked my black moa in GW1. Of course, As a GW1 player, I do have access to a black moa in GW2, but, they’re just not the same (Not to mention, C)MPLETELY sub-par as a pet, and never something you’d use)

The GW1 moas were speedy and lithe looking, whereas the new ones are dopey and cartoony.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Assistance with a "Newb" Ele

in Elementalist

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

As someone who’s mained mesmer since beta and recently picked up elementalist, I can tell you ele feels more like engineer than mesmer, since you will be constantly swapping between attunements, and probably weapon bundles in order to capitalise on skills that suit the situation.

For me, the first game changers when leveling were access to conjured weapons which comes much sooner – ice bow 4 and lightning hammer 1 are devastating and should become close friends. In terms of painless leveling, I can’t speak authoritatively, but all end-game weapon sets seem to be viable from the outset. As a mesmer, D/D will probably be the most familiar to you assuming you made extensive use of swords as a mez. But the ele meta sees a lot of use of conjured weapons, and lightning hammer will get you a lot of mileage whatever weapon set you run with (As will ice bow 4 when dealing with massed enemies, or bosses)

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

GS Shatter in a WvW Zerg?

in Mesmer

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

As someone mentioned, playing as a pseudo-thief is one option I find quite effective. Equip a bunch of stealth skills and maybe a torch, running shatters and stalk the edges of the enemy zerg picking off targets and disrupting things.

Given mesmer are considerably less squishy, can hit multiple targets easily, and can generate much more havoc than a thief, diving into the enemy backlines and flanks with such a setup can cause considerable disruption and damage to the enemy force. Especially in places liek EotM where you can use GS5 and Focus4 to throw handfuls people into the mists removing them permanently from the enemy force.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

GW2's most "prestigious" outfit

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Still – you have to admit, people’s fashion choice in GW2 is a net improvement on GW1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTLe_ZR4dEo

(Where people really did dress purely on the basis of what was most expensive far too frequently, which egnerally meant Obsidian armour + Glowy kitten gloves + Collectible headgear + Black dye)

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Item Prestige: Not being respected?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

Secondly, obtaining 1 skin is realistic, but obtaining the back-catalogue for the entire season would be nigh impossible. I don’t really see the problem, at the end of the season giving everyone a chance to obtain 1 or 2 of the skins they may have otherwise missed.

I’ve been playing an average of 1-2 hours a day since the update came out and I’m on 3400 tokens so far, consider also people can buy more tokens with gold (z boxes) and that the event is on for at least another week possibly 3 a determined person could easily purchase every item from the first two tabs.

Fair enough, perhaps the implementation this time around was questionable.

Nonetheless I think it’d be greatly appreciated, wise and fair if at the end of each future season they give everyone a chance to obtain a single item out of that season that they may have missed, simply as a goodwill gesture to the players who have for whatever reason ended up missing out – maybe they are new players whoever never had the chance, or maybe they’re veteran players who due to extenuating circumstances could not attend. But it seems like a better attitude to have than mocking them with the gap in the wardrobe for reasons beyond their control.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

lightning doing my head in

in Festival of the Four Winds

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

You never really need to use it in any situation were overshooting is a big deal. If it really gives you that much trouble just don’t use it, and use a jump/sun combo.

There’s many situations.

Many if not MOST the lightning pull nodes are situated on small platforms – overshooting means falling to your doom, or at least failing the jump in most situations. Only a small minority have backstops to prevent overshooting (Worst example being the highest master crystal on the rock pillar which takes considerable time and 3 lightning pulls to reach, and the final step is a huge targeted leap onto a tiny rocky tip), it took several tries before i finally landed on it without over or undershooting.

There is also absolutely no way in the world for you to get in the top 3 in sanctum sprint if you cannot use lightning pulls to cross the faster paths.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

Item Prestige: Not being respected?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

I personally don’t feel item prestige should be put before the happiness of the players. I was extremely sad when i missed the twisted watchwork shoulder because I was travelling across Europe that week, that skin looked amazing.

So you can imagine my happiness to be given a second chance to obtain it, and I doubt I’m the only one who got jipped out of things they really wanted due to real life having to come before video games

I’ve barely seen anyone even USING the watchwork shoulder skin, so all those people who’s being smug in their “prestige” didn’t seem to care about the skin anyway,wh tais the point of “prestige” if it’s just languishing in your wardrobe, while the people who would actually use the skin, can’t obtain it, because real life clashed with an arbitrary in-game timer?

Secondly, obtaining 1 skin is realistic, but obtaining the back-catalogue for the entire season would be nigh impossible. I don’t really see the problem, at the end of the season giving everyone a chance to obtain 1 or 2 of the skins they may have otherwise missed.

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast

(edited by Ryuujin.8236)

[Guide] How To Mesmer in Dungeons

in Mesmer

Posted by: Ryuujin.8236

Ryuujin.8236

I see a lot of people discussing ranger runes, but looking on the wiki it seems to say that ranger runes are NOT affected by illusions. So which is right?

The Ashwalker – Ranger
Garnished Toast