Guild Wars 2

I don’t play anymore – am now just a washed up hack. Wife banned me.

I made these a while ago. Fun combos using ds

Use them for me

http://youtu.be/ADbDFhkV6Hw

http://youtu.be/Bk00eCsmNfE

I used to love playing a full berserker build. I haven’t played in a while so I don’t know if it is still viable, but check my sig for a couple videos. One is a build video. Build is very fun but can be frustrating at times, like any build

I haven’t played in a while, but when I did I tried to use both axe and dagger as mainhands, switching when the right situation presented itself

Here’s an old build/strategy video I made. Not the most amazing thing ever but I found the build to be effective:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jy25688ruLg

It wasn’t funny at the time but looking back, I realized what a “doh” moment this was:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=stXZPVB_az4

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

What? I enjoyed the post, and that’s it. I’m not going to roam around the forum spamming “ALL IS VAIN” or “mightymeak is a god omg”. That is stupid and very imature.

It’s like twitch.tv chat is leaking to the forums.

The post was something that remoralized the forum community to some degree when people were kitten ed off. Even though it wasn’t a solution, it lightened the mood.

People continue to talk about it because now there is the chance that they will laugh when they are facing an indestructible build or get feared off skyhammer for the 100000th time

So no, it is not stupid and immature. Plus, you can ignore the thread

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

yay circlejerk!! don’t we all love circlejerk? it’s like we’re on reddit!!!

Just cut this crap.

Huh?

Haha I have never heard healmancer hate

If anything,, whenever I have played that spec, groups love when I drop a well of blood and transfusion

It hits like a wet mop which kind of sucks but is very decent healing support

Personally, I think he was one of the devs on an alt account

What do you guys think?

Awesome, thanks guys. Appreciate the suggestions. Now back to leveling up…. :/

Hey all.

My name is Sepreh and I have been playing a power necromancer for a while now. I love the berserker build that I am running and like the high risk/reward gameplay of the power build. Some people have told me that I am playing my necromancer like a thief and I have finally decided to level up a thief and try it out for a while.

In general, I have enjoyed playing slightly harder to play builds in order to learn how to play the class and hopefully grow as a player. I plan to primarily roam in WvW and play PvP.

What is the most MANMODE thief build out there that I can learn to play the class on?

Thanks ahead of time guys

azuzephyr.7280:

Oh good God, another thread dominated by Deimos clutching at straws to defend Godmode warrior skills, is it that time of the day already?

The signet has zero active play, zero reliance on gear stats, zero universal counter, zero differentiation by skill, zero casting time. And to you this is fine because, shockingly, you are riding this wave for all it’s worth in hotjoins.

I thank the stars that you are nowhere near the balance team, it gives me at least some hope that there could be a future for engaging skills being added rather than just slapping on massive regen to take away the bad feels.

He is trolling almost every thread in this subforum. Just stop responding to his posts and he will get bored and go away

Separate conditions into damage dealing conditions and non-damage dealing conditions

Make condition cleanses apply only to the damage dealing conditions (or give cleanse priority to the damage dealing conditions)

Reduce the number of condition cleanses in the game

Acandis.3250:

RonSwanson.5769:

Elementalist with a 0/0/0/0/0 build. Naked. Happy New Year!

with the good ol’ dagger/fist

kitten that, he’d be running dual fists

Best profession community in the game!

Thanks for the initial post and looking forward to seeing what happens to our class this year

Thank you for providing maths to support your changes

Mrbig.8019:

HOW THIS ENDED IN THE SECOND PAGE, I DON’T EVEN

It just needs to be stickied…

JohnnyZero.5619:

Chill by itself is fine. Chill when stacked with 3-4 other conditions is a nightmare.

Condi bombing and bursting is out of control, and needs to be fixed.

I am trying to get a sense of what other conditions chill is a nightmare with

Again, there are damage dealing conditions and non damage dealing conditions. My guess is that you are not saying that the combination of chilled, weakness, blind and cripple is a nightmare but are instead saying that the combination of chilled, burning, bleeding and torment is a nightmare.

When people are discussing conditions, it is useful to separate the damage dealing ones from the non damage dealing ones. Personally, I think it would make sense for condi cleanses to be less available and apply only to the former.

It is currently popular to bash conditions and I agree that the damage dealing conditions in certain builds can be over the top. The non damage dealing conditions are currently the aspect of conditions that are not broken, other than spammable blind fields and chain immobilize, as I have previously mentioned

Bhawb.7408:

There really isn’t a lack of attention, there is a lack of resources. We really do see a comparable amount of attention (the quality of it will be questioned, so will every other class), the problem is that they just plain don’t have the resources to fix things as quickly as we’d like.

I can see that, but it is just sad. I am no theorycrafter but 5% vs 90 power seems like a pretty decent difference in a berserker build :/

If there is a PvP story mode, it should be the story of mighty meak

All is vain

Bhawb.7408:

Its just 90 power, which is half of what it should be, anyway.

I never realized that. What the kitten is the deal with the lack of attention to our class?

These may be broad statements, but in my experience, all classes can be viable roamers

Generally, builds that are optimized for running with the Zerg are not optimized for solo roaming. You can’t get the best of both worlds.

Some builds are absolutely not fun to fight in a 1v1, for example permastealth thieves and PU condition mesmers

Some builds have better disengage. These builds can be less frustration for the player playing them while roaming because if the fight goes bad, there is a better chance to get away and reset

I am playing a power necro and imagine that you have some if the same frustrations while solo roaming, mainly lack of disengage and difficulty in outnumbered situations. It is likely that we will always have those disadvantages but the more you play and solo roam, the more you learn to adapt to those things. I am no expert at it, but can see a huge difference from when I first started roaming

Keep with it and play the class you like. Try to not pick a FOTM build just because it is easier to roam with .

I know we are talking about dungeon runs with optimized groups here but have you found any way to work the 30/25 or 20/25 builds into PvP/WvW and if so, what is the general play style?

garethh.3518:

Anyways, condis as a whole are utterly kittened up in this game.

The damage dealing condis in this game are kittened up. Being able to burst with bleeding, burning, torment and poison (and confusion) in rabid or dire gear more quickly than direct damage bursting in a full berserker set up is kittened up.

The non-damage dealing conditions are what is not currently kittened up in the game right now. Again, chill is one of the conditions that people have to lock down their opponents. It also does not completely disable skill use. In certain professions/builds without access to blinks, evades, stealths, etc, it also acts as a defense and way to disengage from a fight.

The non-damage-dealing conditions in the game are:
1. Cripple
2. Blind
3. Chilled
4. Immobilized
5. Vulnerability
6. Weakness
7. Fear (if not traited with terror)

Of these, there are two which people generally consider to be kittened up. Blind, when a smoke field can be spammed (blinding powder) and Immobilized when stacked to max duration. The other conditions are only considered over the top because they are usually preventing the damage dealing conditions from being cleansed.

Chilled is powerful but as others have said, unless the spec is fully traited for chill, the number of applications and duration are not that impressive and the build is losing out on damage. A chill build is a lockdown build meant to be played with a damage dealing teammate who can take advantage of the opponent’s lock down.

Acandis.3250:

Sepreh.5924:

A better question that I have posed in the past is why do thieves get an inherent passive immunity to one aspect of chilled (cooldowns on 1-5 skills)

That’s a really good point, if anything it should decrease initiative regeneration by some amount.

I asked about it on here a while ago and a dev replied. It looks like it will not happen any time soon

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Chilled-and-initiative/first

Ah, great thanks for the clarification

I will have to learn to stop wasting my daze then

I know that this is a very dumb and basic question and playing this game since launch I should know the answer, but does daze affect downed players?

The reason I ask is that I am often in situations where a teammate is about to stomp an enemy and is CCed to prevent that stomp. I have been using WH4 (offhand on necro) for the daze to prevent the CC reflexively but have not payed enough attention to see if it is my daze that prevents the CC, if the downed enemy didnt use the CC skill on time or if my teammate has stability, stealth, etc.

Thanks ahead of time!

Chill acts as a defense for some classes that do not have other good defenses. In particular, I am talking about necromancers and in particular, I am talking about builds other than the dumb dhuumfire build.

For power builds, weakening shroud has already been nerfed to the point that it is almost useless. Blind is another option for defense in power builds but the only access is a well on a base 50s cooldown and one blind on OH dagger which is something not every power build takes. (EDIT: or an active skill on a minion). Deathshroud is a crappy defense if there is any degree of focus fire.

With the necromancer, death shroud + conditions are supposed to act as a defense. Builds that are able to do insane damage using rabid gear may not need that, but for the sake of build diversity, it would be a mistake to nerf chilled.

EDIT: Additionally, as a power necromancer there are few gap closers and it has been implied that we will not be getting gap closers because our playstyle should be to “keep them in the pocket” using conditions. In a power build, get rid of chilled and you are basically letting your enemy disengage whenever they want to and have no way to catch up to them.

A better question that I have posed in the past is why do thieves get an inherent passive immunity to one aspect of chilled (cooldowns on 1-5 skills)

Spoj, just a general question about going into Curses vs. going into Soul Reaping. I am not a theorycrafter so have not done the calculations.

Going 30,25,0,0,15 you clearly get more precision (for crit chance) as well as the damage modifier from Target the Weak

Going 30,10,0,0,30 you get 15% more crit damage as well as the damage modifier from Strength of Undeath

Given the same food, banners, stacks, etc, how much of a difference does the 30/25 build make vs the 30/10 if you dont use life blast in the 30/10? It seems like the higher crit damage and Strength of Undeath modifier would make up somewhat for the loss of precision and Target the Weak.

The reason I ask is that in PvP and WvW, the 30,10,0,0,30 build tends to perform better due to the fact that targets don’t just stand there and you really need to life blast if you want to take someone down. For those situations, deathly perception is invaluable. I am lazy and do not like switching my build when I run a dungeon with guildies, so if the DPS of 30/10 is comparable to 30/25 given the same buffs and using dagger auto, it would make sense to just keep the same build.

flow.6043:

Literally everyone made this suggestion, not just nemesis.

You could actually combine both approaches:

• Torment instead of burning.
• Move that trait to gm Curses together with Terror.
• Keep JonPeters’ “burning on Life Blast” trait in Spite.

Haha, I wish that everyone included the devs

With regards to the “burning on Life Blast” trait in Spite, I still think any burning trait should go into curses. The reason for this would be to open up build diversity for power based necromancers. I know I have a vested interest in saying that as I play a power necromancer, but in general I think binary, so I envision two different types of power builds.

(1) Is the prototypical power based build that we have. Kill the enemy as quick as possible. Go full berserker, get the best power, precision and crit damage that you can, use life blast and dagger one to get your target down before they can get you down.

(2) Is a more attrition based build. I might be missing something, but I do not think it currently exists for power builds. It is more of a “lockdown” build where you disable your opponent as much as possible to keep them in combat while dealing a fair amount of direct damage, although nothing like what a berserker build can do.

Now, looking at the Spite grandmaster traits, Close to Death is a perfect trait for (1). There is nothing currently for (2) in the grandmaster line. Chill of death is a (2)-type trait. The second grandmaster should allow the player to “lock down” an enemy somehow. I am not sure what the best way to do that is, but I know that it is not through burning.

Also, putting a “lock down” type trait in Spite opens up build diversity. Just thinking off the cusp (and ignoring minion based builds), several build types could exist.

1. Tanky conditions: Tend to go 30 deep into curses with nothing in spite and the other 40 trait points are split among death magic and soul reaping

2. Hybrid: Tend to go 30 into spite and 30 into curses. Take Close to Death and Dhuumfire or Terror.

3. Glass Cannon: 30 deep into spite taking close to death, 10 curses for a little precision, 30 into soul reaping for the crit damage

4. Tanky direct damage: 30 deep into spite for damage and the “lockdown” grandmaster. Rest is put into death magic for toughness and blood magic for siphons

5. Condition lockdown: More fragile than the tanky conditions build but goes 30 into Spite for the lockdown grandmaster and condition duration and 30 into Curses for Dhuumfire or Terror

This is just a poorly thought out list, but the necromancer has so much potential and by putting a trait that doesn’t involve damage-dealing conditions into Spite, build diversity could open up.

I know I have posted this a lot because I think it would begin to solve the problem of dhuumfire. It was nemesis idea and posted months ago.

Move dhuumfire from spite 30 to curses 30. Move terror from curses 20 to curses 30. Now you can’t have both dhuumfire and terror in the same build.

Roll back some of the nerfs to necro bleeds so condi necros are not up.

Add a trait that is useful for power builds in spite (the power line)

I played around with both and they’re both good

PvP and solo/small group roaming WvW I take chill of death. It is great for locking someone down, the boon removal is amazing, they don’t see it coming and in my build it hits for about 2k

PvE and blobbing in wvw I take axe training. More damage from the axe just does more in PvE than the utility of chill if death. In blobs, I like having axe3 on shorter cd

Axe training affects your life blast which is awesome but roaming in wvw I have just found chill of death to be more useful

Condition damage

Have No Faith In Me.1840:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

LMAO, assuming all Necros and all Engis are condition builds, neither my Engi or my Necro is condition, hell my Necro doesnt even have ANY condition damage ZERO. So there goes that idea.

As for “L2P” It is so funny people still try to excuse a class being overpowered by blaming it on the player. I am thinking, maybe just maybe if its MORE people saying its too strong than those that are saying its fine (who ARE going to be warriors fearful of the incoming nerf hammer) then maybe it is not a “L2P” thing at all….

It is entirely L2P. If you can’t kite or use your kiting/dodging skills properly instead of wasting them, or even gear up properly, then it is an L2P issue.

More often than not, complaining about a class is L2P. This is L2p. L2p.

Inb4 you use turn keys.

Constructive feedback bro. Good discussion.

Just ignore him man. Anyone who uses l2p as an argument and makes as many condescending comments in a post as possible isn’t worth the effort. When people start using those arguments it is because someone is challenging the status quo of their precious build and they are throwing a fit

Straegen.2938:

This buff is earned from WvW play which makes it both rare and worthwhile. A player cannot lazy or PvE their way to this which I suspect is the real complaint here. It is also very attainable by casual players. Log around 100 hours of WvW game play and they can attain AF. Another 100 hours will give them GL. The buffs are even class neutral so everyone gets mileage from them.

Your suspicion is wrong. I have been playing primarily wvw for months now, so not being able to obtain these buffs through PvE had nothing to do with it

And you very much can “lazy” your way to it. Run with a blob, pvdoor and flip towers. Eventually you will have both

I agree with you that removing them completely would be the best option. I am proposing this system because I imagine there would be too much backlash to just removing it without offering anything in its place.

Hey all. Just wanted to start a discussion about the problematic nature of guard leech (GL) and applied fortitude (AF) and propose potential solutions to this problem.

There are several problems with GL and AF

1. The number of stat points given with full stacks: Guard Leech gives a maximum of 100 power and 100 condition damage. That is a total of 200 stat points. Pretty impressive but even more impressive is applied fortitude which can give a total of 250 stat points. With full sacks of both, you have a total of 450 additional stat points. That is a little absurd.

2. The ease of getting stacks of GL and AF: one of the arguments I have heard in favor of GL and AF is the fact that they are not totally passive, in that you have to do something in order to get them (kill guards, lords or supervisors). This task is much too easy for the benefit you get from full stacks of each. Running with a zerg and taking a camp and a tower you can easily get full stacks. Lets say theres no blob on your map. There are many guards on the map and it takes all of 10 seconds to kill the NPC who barely fights back

3. The generalization of GL and AF to every enemy in WvW: if we look at all other WvW WxP upgrades, we see that upgrades in the individual trait line benefit the player in particular situations unique to that trait line. For example, flame ram mastery’s Iron Hide applies only when using a flame ram. Cannon mastery only applies to skills used when using a cannon. Just like that, the benefits of GL and AF should apply only when fighting guards, lords or supervisors, not when fighting other things in WvW.

So, this thread is not meant to complain. It is meant to point out a problem and propose solutions. One potential solution would look like this:

1. Take guard leech and applied fortitude out of the 10 spot in both trait lines, respectively. For the 10 spot bonus in “defense against guards”, make the player immune to CC and perhaps conditions from guards, lords and supervisors. For the 10 spot bonus in “guard killer”, deal 20% more damage when a guard, lord or supervisor has less than 50% health. These are both bonuses that apply only to the particular enemies that are part of the trait line and are not generalizable to every enemy in WvW.

2. As much as I disagree with it, I understand that some people want very high stat bonuses over other players. For this, there should be two new WxP lines: Applied Fortitude and Rampager. The bonuses of the lines would look something like this:

Rampager: Gain power and condition damage as you kill enemies
(1) Gain access to stacks of Rampager (1 total). For each enemy that you kill, gain x stacks of Rampager equal to the number of stacks of Rampager they had when killed. For each stack of Rampager, you gain 20 power and 20 condition damage. Stacks are lost on death.
(2) Increases potential total stacks of Rampager by 1 (2 total).
(3) Increases potential total stacks of Rampager by 1 (3 total)
(4) Increases potential total stacks of Rampager by 1 (4 total)
(5) Increases potential total stacks of Rampager by 1 (5 total)

So, what would this do? It would allow for players who still want to have high stat advantages to do so but in a way that requires more skill and is more difficult than killing some guards. Since getting stacks requires that you kill someone with stacks, it prevents people from just ganking uplevels. Also, there is some risk vs reward. Since you get x stacks equal to your enemy’s number of stacks (capped by your total potential stacks, 5 at max), if you start with 0 stacks and defeat someone with 5 stacks, with that one kill you get the full bonus.

I think that this would be a solution to the current unbalanced nature of GL and AF. Again, I am personally of the mindset that they should just not exist, but since I know that people are very attached to these bonuses, this alternative way to get the stat bonuses might make more sense.

They’re not fun to play against because the counter is basically spamming skills smartly

Good thieves will be very difficult to beat. Some tips for berserker necro:

1. Axe 3 / WH 5 can be initial “thief detectors”. If you haven’t engaged with them yet, use one of the skills and if you slow down they are near

2. As others have said, DS 4 and 5 will hit even when the thief is stealthed. DS4 will do a ton of damage.

3. After using DS 5, there is a good chance the thief will be immobilized. Try to guess about where they are and drop a well of suffering

4. Dagger 3 is one of the most powerful counters to stealth thieves. If they don’t cleanse it, they will be in the same spot even when stealthed. Get the dark pact off and dagger auto where they were before they stealthed

5. Damage deing wells can also be used defensively. If you need a couple seconds before your heal is up, sometimes standing in a well can give you those couple seconds

EDIT: sorry if I mentioned things people already talked about. I was too lazy to read through the whole thread first

Tibstrike.2974:

So I take it you were an uplevel who got killed by a PU mesmer with full stacks? Cry for me some more. I’m still thirsty.

Not at all. Nice attempt to troll though

Just thought I would start a little list of things that make us have no respect for players in WvW. This may come off as arrogant but I think that some people might agree with the cursory list I have.

1. Anyone who has 5 stacks of guard leech and 5 stacks of applied fortitude: are you really that bad of a player that you need an extra 350 stat points? Common.

2. Anyone who gets stacks of bloodlust/corruption/etc killing animals: you are already trying to give yourself a huge stat advantage. Don’t be a kitten by getting those stat points by killing things that barely fight back

3. Anyone who ganks uplevels: They are uplevels. Do you really think ganking them shows any skill on your part? Let them live. Fight them if they attack you but dont stomp

4. Anyone who plays a PU mesmer: This is the cancer of WvW right now. I am not going to provide all the reasons why I do not respect people who play this build but in short, it encompasses the features of GW2 that non-trolls despise – condition stacking, passive play through AI, invisibility, cowardly play and a counter that involves spamming AOE (conditions if possible)

This is a short list of the people who I respect least in WvW but I am sure there are other lame things people do that I havent thought of. What do you have no respect for in WvW?

Kiriakulos.1690:

Have the rangers ever tried to bribe ANet with cake so they fixed their bugs?

This was pretty epic :-p

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

Sepreh.5924:

I think what people are missing when he is talking about lowering the base hp/s on healing signet is the fact that it is just the base. If the scaling with healing power is good enough, it allows for as much if not more hp/s when speced for it.

Current: 392+0.05HP per sec
Proposed: 200+0.175HP per sec
392+0.05HP=200+0.125HP
192=0.120HP
1600 HP

So it breaks even with the old healing signet at 1600 healing power.

Cleric’s Amulet gives 923 healing power. You can get 300 from traits, 250 from Life sigils, and 165 from runes. If you go fully into healing power to an insane degree, then you barely cross that at 1638. Even on my bunker warrior I don’t go for that much healing power, plus it relies on those Life stacks to get that. The proposed change is a flat out nerf.

Perfect, that’s why I asked about the numbers. The scaling would probably need to be better

OneManArmy.9732:

lol.

Epic picture

I am kind of lazy today so will just comment on 2 traits:

1. Dark Armor: gain x toughness while in death shroud

Rationale: Death shroud is supposed to be one of our primary defense mechanics because we do not have evades, vigor, etc. This increases our attrition and is applicable to all builds, regardless of weapon choice.

2. Foot in the Grave: gain stability while in death shroud

Again, if death shroud is one of our primary defense mechanics, being thrown around like a ping pong ball while in it negates that. This change clearly buffs necros while they are in death shroud. Also, however, it prevents you from flashing DS and having stability while still having access to all your utilities/heal which is in some ways a nerf to particular play styles.

The necromancer, in particular a power based build using axe/focus and dagger/warhorn. Although you could play the build by spamming DS1, over time you learn that there are more effective ways to play the build and overall, it feels much less “spammy” than other builds I have played.

Plus, there is nothing more fulfilling than getting a dark pact off and dropping dual wells

That skin was epic and I wish I had bought it while I had the chance. I have no clue why there were so many complaints about it. I have a full set of T3 light human armor already and had no issue with this skin. The overall look is different.

He posted similar suggestions in the Necromancer forums a little while back. The post here does not include the “functional make over” to fear that he included there and he has modified some of his ideas.

I will not comment on most of these ideas as this was already done in his previous thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-Balance-Suggestions/first#post3315372

There is one thing I cannot avoid commenting on, however. Is the animation for spinal shivers really so unreadable that it requires a projectile? It is one of the more obvious animations in the game and using an offhand focus regularly, I constantly see players recognize the animation and dodge accordingly.

Bear, what would the numbers on healing signet look like with decent amounts of healing power?

I think what people are missing when he is talking about lowering the base hp/s on healing signet is the fact that it is just the base. If the scaling with healing power is good enough, it allows for as much if not more hp/s when speced for it.

It is a perfect example of a healing skill being useful in certain situations and other healing skills being useful in other situation. Lets say a change like this occurred. If you want to run a berserker amulet warrior, you probably would not take healing signet because the hp/s would not keep you alive long enough. You probably would take healing surge for the burst heal plus ability to use an extra f1 skill. If you want to play a bunker warrior, you could run clerics. The power scaling on warrior weapons would still allow for some damage but more importantly, if healing signet scaled properly with healing power, you could create a bunker that is good at what it is meant to do – stay alive.

Rickster.8752:

Your necro changes are horrendus. If you were in charge of this game you would actually kill it faster than anet. Reduce physical damage on scepter? You must of plucked that one out your kitten as it literally makes no sense. And moving terror to gm just makes necro bad as you lose so much damage and survivability.

Moving terror to gm would make sense if you moved dhuumfire from spite to curses gm. That way, you cannot take both dhuumfire and terror. Build diversity ensues.

Then, spite gm can be replaced with something that is good for non-condition-based-damage builds

Can I just say that every time I see the epic title of this thread I laugh

I wonder what usain bolt would think about it :p

Dawdler.8521:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I dont even play my Mesmer much anymore, Until the class gets some proper balance that make them more than a TW Veil bot in group/zerg situations it is kinda pointless as i would get messages from people just kittening and moaning saying the only reason i killed them was because i wa “Overpowered” this coming from (at the time) interrupt spamming pre-nerf Perplexity Hammer warriors and jump into stealth every 4second thieves….

I play Power necro now (NO! not the Dhuumfire one) I play my own 20/0/20/0/30 build and love it got no stealth so it cant be blamed on that if i win, no phantasms or Dhuumfire, no condition damage mine is at ZERO and i have alot of fun with it

Yes, because Necro power builds arent at all OP.

Ummm I think we must have missed the memo on that one