Guild Wars 2

phokus.8934:

Have you ever thought that you’re the source of your loses? You taking scepter in a power Mesmer build says a lot.

It really just sounds like you’re playing classes you like but aren’t very good at and the results are as such.

You don’t need to play meta builds to win/carry matches, I run staff GS mesmer and win most my matches in plat 2. However the match quality is so lo that some teams have such bad people they are seemingly predetermined to win. I’ve barely played this season because of the boring matches.

Pretty big bug for soulbeast:
If you commune with the orb on spirit watch WHILE in beast mode, you will not have a weapon for the rest of the match. The conflicting mode seems to just get rid of your weapon whatsoever, even if you die you don’t get it back.
Also, another lil’ small bug:
Smokescale smoke assault doesn’t evade, making it not as good as it could be.

I’m having the same problem, I’ve restarted about 5 times

If we could get this in the game that would be a great quality of life change to be honest.
Using the same keybinds for everything can be difficult, especially when certain keys have much more importance on certain specs than others.
If we could have different keybinds per class that would really benefit us. I know loadouts are something Anet doesn’t seem to like for some reason, but I dont see the problem with keybinds.

Have you considered using scepter/sw and scepter/focus? Scepter 3 does a lot of power damage and it looks like you are running the condition damage SIG, so it might be a DPS boost.
Great sword could possibly work better than staff does too.

There isn’t a concrete rotation needed but honestly anything is better than the state they are in right now. The build setup isn’t even the biggest issue, it is the fact that they don’t use their skills.
For example, the elementalist can one shot most players as it has two arcane skills that hit for 7k ish each if they crit but it never uses them.
Guard doesn’t use the pull on its great sword
Most NPCs either have their old ultimates or never use them.

NotASmurf.1725:

Deathok.2914:

Could you maybe update them anyways btw?
Like give them meta builds and update them everytime you update the build emplates? Right now there is not a big difference to the golems.
Might as well get rid of the triple dodge they have?
One npc dodged 3 times in a row and a fourth time 2 secs later. And what’s with the block when they dodge?
As we talk about templates could you pleaseeee give us the ability to save our own builds like why not is that really that much work? qq

It could be even worse like that. Like, giving thief a D/P PI build, the NPC will probably just spam heartseeker on you or drop a blinding powder and stand still doing nothing. Or would the engi swap to elixir gun to heal/cleanse, then swap off? No. It’d sit in the kit and spam its autoattack until one of you dies (if even switches to kits at some point).

They can’t properly do the combos (can’t even weapon swap I think?) so many of the builds just wouldn’t do kitten.

They are fine the way they are because at least we can try stuff against damage.

Nobody’s going to test any real things against them anyway, they are just there so we get to bang on something in que.

Not worth spending dev time at. Maybe bump their HP up, that’s all.

I completely disagree. The npcs provide little to no real help. They are just justified punching bags. Unless you are new to the game they won’t pressure you. I’d rather they run realistic builds one can expect to see in ranked because the current NPCs are completely different than what anyone actually plays. I’d rather we have overpowered NPCs that force players to get better than useless punching bags.

I agree with this, it isn’t fair to anybody that someone has to go through restarting the program to load back in.

Ramoth.9064:

I wish the banker NPC would stop calling everyone a hoe. Its very offensive.

Ikr I cri everytim

The Npcs we currently have in this lobby are useless and barely functional. The Mesmer doesn’t have clones, the necro uses epidemic, the elements list only uses water attunement, and the guard still has the ancient tome elite guard skill.

After you become marginally familiar with the game you gain next to nothing from killing these useless npcs, so it would be amazing if you buffed them.

I’d actually like them to be kind of overpowered to actually pressure people when they are practicing versus the npcs

There should also be a mix of condi and power builds, and they should be able to switch classes. All of this would help a lot of new players, and even seasoned players like me.

Acrisor.8097:

New game modes have been requested, over and over again, for 4.5 years (ever since release). We did not get these. Why do you ask? You probably are a new player in this game.

I’ve been playing for 3 years thank you very much. I ask, because Anet doesn’t seem to understand how to make pvp more enticing.
And technically we have received these game modes but in very badly delivered ways.

I think it would be a good idea for Anet to invest in some new PvP gamemodes, not the crappy courtyard and spirit watch maps, but actual maps that are completely different than conquest. The idea of making a new pvp mode was a good concept with stronghold, it was simply the game itself that failed.
For example: If we had a 1v1 gamemode, many people who don’t play ranked PvP because build diversity is botched, would likely try to compete. Since 1v1 has a much more forgiving meta, I’d predict people would have a lot more fun than the mindless builds they play in ranked.
Or another example: We could have a king of the hill gamomode with one point, so builds would be more centered on teamfights, and aoe damage.
I believe the lack of interest in PvP doesn’t solely lie on class balance, but the way you have to play in pvp that pushes people away.
Conquest just isn’t for everyone.

I usually don’t post, but being in this tourney the last time it happened, I feel like some things ought to be discussed.

1. Beastly Warden AND quickdraw were used in the tournament and allowed EVEN though the regulation didn’t allow it. Compared to many other classes, the buff from beastly warden is negligible at best.
2.Thief honestly isn’t very viable without SA, even though back then you could use it without SA in tourneys, base skills are MUCH different than they were pre-Hot. Non of the thieves got far at all last time, there was either too much condi from the mesmers, or too little sustain from the thieves when they were up against other classes. There is that 3 minute duel rule anyway. How about the thief has to take off SA if the duel lasts too long?
3.Can there be a ban or soft ban on LOS this time around? There was a whole lot of it last time, not just to me but many others, and generally in duels LOS or leaving the general area isn’t permitted.

Now, I realise many people would think it is my fault for this, and that I’m blaming all of my soloQs (partially true), but PvP is a team game. Everyone needs to contribute. One person is not likely to be able to carry a whole team, but one person not doing anything easily dooms the team. I don’t know if it is MMR, because outside of ranked season I only really do dueling and roaming in wvw, but it seems that either my team is a lot less skilled then the other team, or my teamis more skilled. I have only had 10 close/balanced matches, besides that it is either my team destroying, or being destroyed. The chances just are that my teams always tend to be more unlucky. I’m not surprised people have already hit diamond because of how lopsided thing are. I’m just saying, just because it you lose all the time doesn’t mean you are bad. This is a team game. If Lebron James was the only skilled player on the Cavs they still wouldn’t do well, because there is more to just having one decent player. I generally win 1v1s, I rotate quite well, even though sometimes my decisions aren’t the best, I often find myself bossing teams around because they don’t know where to go.
Thinking you are good solely because you win most matches is like a white kid thinking he is black because he can dab.
Thinking someone is bad because they lose many matches is like calling someone unfortunate undeducated person stupid because they can’t afford school.
Now, this is not to say that it is automatically not your fault for losing, you should always try to improve yourself
I might add screenies of my last season and proof.

So I’m doing terrible this season. 48 matches with only 17 wins (All of which are followed up by losses) in sapphire. I’m not even past tier 2 because I don’t win games. I’m almost never at the bottom of the scoreboard, I’m often at the top(Though points aren’t an accurate representation of skill). I win most of my 1v1s even against cheese builds on thief. Last season when i had 48 matches I was nearly ruby. Somehow getting to diamond is hard this time around. I never come close to winning and it seems like all the people I que with tend to be really stupid or just bad(At least that’s my opinion). When I talked to people about this they said I should just “git gud”, am i the one who is pulling down my teams? Should I really be able to carry a team or have such a significant difference, even if my teammates do stuff like go onto points against 4 people and die to beasts in the forest map?
I’m not going to be offended by any mean comments as pvp killed my soul, so be honest.

Yes. I need this badly. Don’t care if it is in a mastery or something.

To explain, I’ll just go through two views:

The QQer: Gives a reason (Could even be a good reason), why a build is overpowered. People either completely agree, or they pull the ‘you don’t know the class, you suck, learn to fight the build’ card.

The Defender: The person defending their OP (Or most likely not OP)build, always gets battered with the ‘You just don’t want to be nerfed, you suck, you want to keep your build so you do well’ card.

I mean, it never ends well, it just ends with it escalating and people being pricks to each other. Why have we been doing the same exact thing for like 2 years? Heck, why do we come here to complain to other people, and not the devs themselves? We could have actual meaningful threads if we could directly contact them about the ‘balance’ issues.

I mean, this part of the forums is just toxic and everywhere is mild.

I fully support the mentor tag, and I think it has a great purpose, but I feel like it is too easy to get, and I really don’t want hundreds of tags flooding the map. We already get commander tags that sometimes pollute maps, I really don’t want these to clog up too. A mentor likely needs experience to actually mentor, so why should it be so easy to get? Put it in the third or fourth tier.

Ascended is such an insignificant boost to your stats (About 5%) that I actually wonder if it would really cripple your team to use exotic armor. If we were talking about FoTM then I’d understand, since they have infusions, but I don’t see how it will be much better unless they plan on making ascended better in some way.

Elan.7523:

Pariah Axisdirge. Revenant of the Axis warband. Like all my Charr, it uses technology to either mimic, stabilize, or augment magical capabilities. In this case, he is a fractal copy of a deceased warband member, and the armor stabilizes him in the ‘real’ world outside of the mists. The only thing his look is missing is the fractal sword, but I should get that soon enough.

Like Taku.6352 above, I’m also excited to finally have a heavy class I enjoy playing.

Full album here:
http://imgur.com/a/3MiQh

Snippets attached

O.o What armor are you using? I gotta have that.

Silvatar.5379:

1. “How long has healing been useless?” – never
2. “How long has healing power had terrible scaling?” – forever

These are two different questions.

Ah, that’s true. I’ll change the OP.

I’m stuck between human and Charr male. I like human more, but I don’t know a lot of god looking heavy armors for humans, and if I go with Charr, I’ll go with the cultural armor.
I know it is kind of irrelevant, by I need fashion advice >.<

The title says it all, I’m not really complaining, but I’m wondering how long healing power has had terrible scaling and why they haven’t bothered with it? I mean, there is a whole elite spec based around it now.

I’ve been thinking for a long time about what I want my revenant to wear for his armor(He would be Asuran or human) , I don’t really know a lot of good looking armors on heavy classes, which is a reason why my guard wears an outfit instead of anything. I really don’t have any armors for a good revenant look. I’m thinking that if i can’t find any good looking armor for a human, I’ll just do asuran t3 cultural.

Could you guys perhaps show me some armor looks you like? Thanks in advance.

I don’t have many problems with DD eles, it just takes a very long time, as it would with any build that isn’t completely flat power. What I do is lure them off point and pressure them, until they switch to water. I then time my cc and interrupts so i interrupt their cleansing wave and 2 skill. That way they only get 2 heals, and I re-apply pressure after which they can’t really do much to survive after that. Thief has always been quite a good counter to elementalist.

Jana.6831:

Timiok.1048:

snip

Don’t know, haven’t tried staff, but I ran without trickery for 1,5 years (except when i was a condi thief for a short time) – the line is just too good to not take it. Because of 4 reasons: exta initiative, swiftness/might/fury, daze, condi remove. Edit: 5 reasons: extra damage per initative.
I would be rather sad if all of this was nerfed just because you want to take other lines

The only thing out of all of those positives that would be taken away is the initiative bonus.

Most, if not all builds need trickery because of the 3 initiative boost. Some builds only have trickery because of the 3 initiative boost on its own. I believe it would make the class better if they made this baseline, or made you not have to trait for it. This problem is almost comparable to an elementalist’s Arcane line, but many builds do completely fine without the traitline. I tried non-trickery builds out on my thief (D/P S/D P/P etc) and it was completely horrendous. Everything was just simply harder, and I died very quickly. Especially in pvp, a thief with no initiative is a dead thief, and if i start with no initiative, aren’t I dead from the start? Some builds would be way better without trickery, some still enjoy it’s uses. Taking away the initiative boost wouldn’t kill the traitline, many of the traits are still great. I honestly don’t see how this could make the class overpowered or easy. This would make other builds better or not as terrible. I know the traitlines of most classes (Besides Mesmer and Warr) and I’m positive none of them need a certain traitline in EVERY ONE OF THEIR BUILDS. For example; for Daredevil, if anyone wants to try, they have to take Daredevil/Trickery/x if they want their build to be decent. That’s one traitline to choose out of 3, regardless of the fact that you might need 2 of those traitlines to make your build viable. I’ve seen people talk about having minor success but they always say it is subpar compared to trickery builds. I’m honestly curious to see how someone could present a strong argument opposing this.

MY EYES MAKE IT STOP

Reaper gives Necro so much dps, that it could actually be meta now in pvp. With gravedigger especially, that can apparently do 26k with gravedigger (That is the one thing that should be nerfed) , Necros will possibly be more of an asset rather than a burden to your team. With the specialization patch alone Necro was given a lot of supportive traits, so this just makes everything better. Maybe if all of your life siphons also went to your allies, and maybe some of your shouts gave their bonuses to allies, we could really see Necros being viable! This is so exciting!!!

Tl;Dr is below, I know that I write too much, >.< Sorry.
I’ve run into quite the problem of having practically no condition cleanse, besides on stance swap, dodge(Both of those cleanses do one condition) and staff 4. I could spec into dwarf/centaur stance, but that has just one conditions cleansing ability, one of which is tied to the tablet that is quite useless in my opinion.

The way I see it is that I can’t deal with conditions unless I have Mallyx, or dwarf stance + all the single condition removal traits, to be able to combat conditions. That is what i was pretty much forced to do, give up a stance (Sorry Shiro) for another stance just because of conditions. I’m not very kittened off, but this really screws with my build considering that I can’t play what i want because of one thing. This doesn’t affect other classes in the same way as it does with this, because in any class you can equip conditions clears without completely butchering your intended build, but since skills come in sets i can’t do that. A simple way to fix this is to change condition removal traits, to 2 conditions removed, and give certain skills the ability to cleanse conditions. I don’t want this to get in the way of how the stances are meant to work, (Shiro is a damage oriented stance, so it wouldn’t make sense for it to be a condition cleansing machine) but I want to be able to survive from conditions without completely changing my build. I don’t want to equip condition dealing stance(Mallyx) when i am running power, in the same way as someone who is running conditions wouldn’t really want to go on a power prioritized stance(Shiro) with no conditions.

I’m definitely having problems with conditions in PvP, but also in PvE, where I am quite confident that the developers intentionally added more condition based enemies so that people would be encouraged to equip condition cleanses, but what is the point of that if I don’t have much condition counter in the first place? In fact, even Mallyx doesn’t cleanse conditions, he just weakens the affect of them.

Tl;Dr: Revenant needs condition cleanse outside of just one stance, and a few ineffective traits.

O.o that would be adorable to have a Quaggan squishable.

This is something that they definitely have to do, especially with new content like raids coming out, switching armor would be a must have for the expansion in my opinion.

Since daredevil is coming out, and me and many others will be using Pistol Pistol because of access to stealth through dodges with daredevil, I have a suggestion on what could make Pistol pistol good for dealing with groups of people, instead of a single target

1. Pistol shots now pierce targets and have an extra 300 range. This could benefit someone for more than ricochet, if they line up shots with the enemy.

2. Pistol critical hits have a 50% chance to explode for big damage and inflict burn (1 stack) and bleed (2 stacks).(This is similar the engineer explosion on pistol auto attack) This would be great for dealing great damage to crowds of enemies, and it would also be good for condi thief, and it would finally give thief burn as a condition.

3. This is the least probable for a rework, but it would be that pistol shots ricochet off crippled enemies. There shouldn’t be any concerns for the devs on what P/P ricochet used to be because since the cripple applied through the ankle shots trait is only 3 seconds, pistol shots would only ricochet for 3 seconds every 8 seconds (That’s the ICD of the trait)

We are setting up music and food at the starting zones to welcome people into the game

With the bounding dodge I might just be able to use my P/P again, since the stealth attack is what I call a good burst. I’ve been looking for a way to use P/P again since I really don’t like shortbow. And bounding dodger could also help my D/P thief, not requiring me to heartseek and thus saves me initiative.
My build will probably be D/P+P/P Daredevil+Trickery+Deadly Arts my utilities would be : Shadow Refuge, distracting daggers, and bandits guard, elite would switch between the physical and basilic venom, and my heal would be withdraw. I’m actually thoroughly impressed with what they did. I’ll most definitely Try Condi thief with 20+ bleed stacks. Can’t wait

Trevor Boyer.6524:

All in all a good start to balancing after the DPS creep.

About updated stealthing mechanics:
The biggest thing screwing the meta after the DPS creep is that team AoE stealthing has become very powerful after the DPS creep for a few reasons:

• Gorilla nuke striking out of stealth ~ Before 6/23/2015 it was very possible to recover from a stealth strike even from 2 stealthed players and maintain yourself in a 1v2 until help arrives but post 6/23/2015 you will usually die immediately, even on a bunker spec. I have done one conquest tourney and two 2v2 tourneys since 6/23/2015 and what I am seeing in the competitive scene is that more AoE stealthing = winning.
• Heightened difficulty cleaving or stomping enemies ~ Thieves, Mesmers, Eles all stealthing when downed, all teleporting or moving while downed in stealth and all reviving each other “with plenty of time to do so mind you” while in elongated stealths. These overly frequent team AoE stealths post 6/23/2015 are contributing heavily to why classes with downed state movement are even more ridiculous to kill than they ever were pre 6/23/2015. Again, the more stealth the better.
• Too much stomping power ~ Most of the CCs in the game that could stomp an enemy stomper require direct targeting to hit. When there are too many frequent team AoE stealths, stomping becomes easy to do so much to the point that these light classes are actually better stompers than heavy control characters with stability. Once again, more stealthing = by far easier kills.
• Plainly too much disengagement ~ When a team with no stealthers would get low on life, be easily targeted and die and have to go on respawn, stealthing classes simply disengage, heal and comeback. Reducing their time spent off point when they would otherwise be staggered. Before 6/23/2015 I felt the amount of stealthing was in a good place. Players needed to be wise with the usage of these stealths but now post 6/23/2015, stealthing is too frequent such to the point that players can actually be sloppy with it and still have stealth left over for the 10s disengage/return to a point with full health. Stealthing = winning

Let’s summarize this:
Post 6/23/2015, with the implementation of essentially 6/6/6 traiting and the overall DPS creep, stealthing has become too powerful of a mechanic in it’s current state. DPS striking from stealth has become a sure fire way to burst down a given player while allowing them little to no counter-play at all. This stealthing allows too much disengagement such to the point that when non-stealth classes would otherwise die on point, a stealth class just disengages, heals and comes back, never needing to go on respawn unless he gets greedy and stays too long in combat. This stealthing also allows a frequent & strong ability to secure stomps that non-stealthing classes cannot keep up with. This overly frequent stealthing also allows to much defensive stature for a team to hide when downed, move with downed movement skills and revive each other, all the while avoiding targeted CCs and cleave.

Suggestions:

• Decrease the durations of AoE team stealths
• Add a mechanic ~ If you are stealthed and then get downed, you are revealed.
• Add a mechanic ~ If you are stealthed and get hit (X) amount of times while in stealth, you are revealed. It could work like intensity stacks with stability. Let’s say SR gives 10 stacks of intensity, which allows you to get hit 10x before being revealed. Where as simply Heart Seeking through a BP Shot grants only 3 stacks of intensity, ect.. ect..

Stealthing needs more defined mechanics.
I would say that stealthing is exploitable in it’s current state post 6/23/2015.

Are you serious? Thief is already the worst class, having one weapon set that is actually reliable, and mesmers already do our job better than us. Please leave us alone, and delete the thread. Stealth is the last thing we have left that we can really rely on. We dont have anynother defense, stealth is our defense, we dont have much health either, we depend on stealth to keep ourselves alive.
Don’t use your hate of a class to ruin it for other people.
This is honestly one of the weirdest things I’ve heard about so called balance.

uglydan.1638:

Timiok.1048:

I’m surprised Anet has actually let this thread go through 7 pages of the same things without saying anything on the matter further. I didn’t know how they thought they could just dismiss countless builds with such a weird statement. Heck, who was even complaining about ricochet? Why are the devs so inconsistent in trying to fix problems?

Because the Dev in charge of thieves doesn’t even play his. He goes upwards to 2 weeks or more without even logging his in, and can’t even remember what some traits do.

Are you serious? Because if you are that would explain a whole lot of things…

Fine then. More popcorn for me.

Forgive me if I didn’t read the thread for info (I didn’t), I’m not at my computer until the 1st of August. Will the deal for the mini still be there?

A bump for my friends

I’m surprised Anet has actually let this thread go through 7 pages of the same things without saying anything on the matter further. I didn’t know how they thought they could just dismiss countless builds with such a weird statement. Heck, who was even complaining about ricochet? Why are the devs so inconsistent in trying to fix problems?

apocom.3172:

They are communicating. At the moment they say: play dp/sb or gtfo.

But seriously, I have no idea why they are introducing a new weapon when they killed everything else for thieves beside dp/sb.

XD I love the people on this subforum.

Popcorn anyone?

Between a thread with nearly all of us asking for a P/P rework, and threads bringing up the valid point of any non-DP builds being jackkitten and several people changing from the thief class for reasons that are actually justified in the first time in forever, how is Anet going to fix this?
Me and many other people who main thief or just like the class are deserved some type of response to these problems, and I don’t see why we should be completely ignored.
Something as simple as, the team is working on this, or the team is busy because of x reasons, any communication would be great at this point. Heck, you don’t even see any threads with the mark saying a GM/Dev posted on it on the front page…

Thank you so much, for a sensible thread.
Yes, this would work very well, and possibly add some build diversity back, (With some easier access to vigor), and make things like S/P and S/D useful again.

Funny how thief is so messed up right now.
In spvp we have become useless and we can’t have any build diversity because of needed trait lines and weapon sets (Remove ricochet entirely and cripple builds because of too much Rng? Really?), we can only use Dagger Pistol and shortbow, as they aren’t useless, but still broken due to the sheer amount of burst you can get. Anet has really messed up my favorite class and for that I am very sad.

That’s awesome! There should be some organised contest every year or something like the Oscars for things like this.

I love music, especially guitar and piano, so i’d support it.

Wow, this thread burned down quickly, so much for a flame shield.

Chokolata.1870:

So, you would rather buff 7 classes and god knows how many builds instead of nerfing 3 builds on 2 classes that are head and shoulders above the rest at the moment. Much logic, such wow!

Yes, in the long run. I never said that we wouldn’t rebalance elementalist first. I find it quite odd that the OP would call me out on this out of all people, because you made this thread to get ideas on how to go about rebalancing elementalist. If I didn’t make myself clear (Which I fail to do sometimes), I was talking on a long-term scale.