Guild Wars 2

Well, I shouldnt say boss fights. More like boss prefights. Example: Traverse the marsh. Not hard, provided you are with a coordinated and communicative group. However, you lfg that stuff and there is at least ten minutes constantly going back and forth. It’s not rewarding or challenging, it’s just frustrating.

I think that these kinda things are good to keep in game, but I think they should offer alternative ways to dungeon/raid as well. Almost every endgame I pug we always get stuck doing something that just breaks the group cause we can’t coordinate our jenga pulls.

Any chance Anet will answer my prayers and stay away from the “screw this, just google it” puzzles and minigames? Not that that doesn’t appeal to alot of ppl, but I think at least a few dungeons should be just hard yet straightforward boss fights, not enviro puzzles and the like. I want to beat something cause we’re stronger than it not because we can outwit it at tetris. I thoroughly dislike these and it really turns me away from trying to dungeon.

Hi. I’m Vin. Personally, I’ve always loved GW. I just hit a point in GW2 where I couldn’t feel like it was fun to play. I take this with a grain of salt as I have no friends really capable of playing with me, nor do I really wish to be a social butterfly. I quit for a long time, but I want to play again, it’s just I don’t know what people do at my level to really get into it. I’m not big on pvp, I prefer to avoid group activities unless it’s like dungeon pick ups (and with the difficulty of the dungeons that I remember, PUGs were in large part unsuccessful), and I am not big on completion-ism. I just want to get on and fight big monsters and immerse myself in my character, but I’m having trouble getting there when I can’t find anything to really get the feel of life in Tyria. I really wish that this games professions had like, actual activities to them or like there was some kind of gimmick to help us cool down from just constantly fighting things.

Has anybody else felt similar before? If so, how did you cure the mundane? Any and all suggestions (besides just hopping into “totally huge super guild name here”) are welcome.

Thank you.

MaXi.3642:

we all know there are cheesy builds with tons of dmg, but be serious, they are not viable… not even need to talk about how Dragons Tooth is easy to evade, Phoenix is close behind it and Fire Grab dont stay too far behind them… and before you land this combo, you will be probably already dead with that build (well, maybe right after Mist Form)

well, the “cheesy” super damage builds are from what I’ve seen almost always more suitable for PvE. Seeing as I’m an entirely PvE player, I can’t really agree with your point in disrespecting them. We do need PvE builds because to some people that IS more important that jackknifing somebody in the arena. However, I do agree that they are still too squishy to be useful when fully specced damage.

oh and don’t forget to take into consideration that you can’t base a classes mechanics soley on the assumption we’ll be in a group 100% of the time. That part bothers me seeing as a good 60% or more of my time is spent solo and ele’s are kinda hard to pull that stuff off solo. Unshakable whoops us

Agreed. Elementalists in general are such a funderful class to play, up until your giant ball of death flame bounces off of the 4 foot tall kindergartner you’re shooting at and he runs up and kills you with a crayon(something I think could literally do the trick). Though with their mechanics it would be a pain cause they would either get OP real quick from overbuffing or just become the glory hogging artillery cannons from GW1. At this point I think it’s best ANet just man up and say “yes, some of these classes are garbage compared to Warrs/Guards.” That way they can move on and maybe start beefing up other classes to compete. We don’t need to nerf melee, we need to buff everything else.

preciate it. Been playing staff ele and being punished repeatedly for it. solo ecploration is just not a strong suit. Warriors and Guards only have a problem with running out of stuff to fight, meanwhile I’m struggling to take down a simple veteran. Perhaps D/D will be better. RP died when they made this game tho

So I have 2 level 80’s at this point and am trying really kitten leveling another character. Problem is, those characters are both a guardian and a Warrior. Being accustomed to solo OP brokeness I’ve been spoiled and hate playing the very interesting but very difficult classes. I’m looking for my next lvl 80 and I could use some help deciding on one I can build that, while complexity may go up, can be nearly as successful as those two. I get very sad when I can’t solo vets 3-4 levels higher…

yea, champ runs are cool though the higher level ones are kinda few and far between. I’m just looking for a good solid reward for my time. The token requirement hurts my soul cause not only am I limited in reward over time, but I’m also forced to pug cause my friends don’t play nearly as much as I do. 4-5 hours straight can get boring when you’re just standing in LA…

I have a lot of time to devote, but I don’t have the ability to consistently group up. Anybody got some suggestions on cool stuff that can be solo farmed? Skins, items, Moot Loot for crafting, etc. I wanted legendaries, but the ridiculous number of tokens made me Q.Q and so I came here.

Kittens… I do believe that’s either a typo or the forums just censored me. Either way, hilarious.

It’s good to hear feedback, especially from such hardened fans of the game. I do appreciate you all sticking by it. I myself often defend it in arguments with my friends. Thank you. Problem being, that all sounded more like simply trying to tear my post apart rather than showing genuine interest in game improvement. There has to be something out there that could make this game better in your opinions, otherwise that would imply this game is perfect. I fear I’ve just offended rather than gauge public opinion.

A few counterpoints to consider:
Living story is GREAT. Again, never had a problem with it. However I wouldn’t mind dropping $60 on a large pack that adds new classes/skills/etc. At it’s core this game could stand to be a bit more immersive.

Since I was never part of a huge guild and only played mostly for my ragtag group of chums, most of my leveling was done solo. As such, I did almost every lower level zone completion over and over again. Crafting helped slightly, but in the end it was always the same. Then once I got to 80 and 90% of the “endgame” required an hour of sitting outside a dungeon waiting to pair up with players incapable of performing and getting a group breakdown on the first boss. It really soured me on the late game content. It doesn’t do the story justice when it’s cramming the same section down our gullets, so to preserve the exceptional content involved, I was merely suggesting a revamp to leveling so that we aren’t dragged through that repeatedly. Perhaps making it easier since there’s a large player base now and apparently a good sum of endgame as you’ve said.

The PvP stuff… I may actually be wrong in being so critical. It’s just that in other mmo’s you say "I’m bored of dungeoneering, let’s go (fishing/exploring/mount riding/etc etc.) When I get bored it’s either farm or queue up. There’s probably less focus on PvP, but the lore can only get us so far as well. I just can’t spend 5 hours a day on this game getting completely sucked in like you can on others without hitting the arena or dungeon crawling (exception being farming, which oddly enough, I found to be incredibly fun)

As mentioned above, I was mostly solo. GW1 worked great with solo. GW2 not so much. While I don’t like the idea of centering a game completely around the ability to find other players, this is an MMO, so it’s kinda already in the name. No big deal. I can live with it. It would be easier if there were more comprehensive ways for the loners to occasionally find each other and group up though. Dungeon finders are a wonderful thing. Probably one of the only things Blizzard did right.

In conclusion, I apologize if there was any misunderstandings as to the message I was trying to put across. ANet watches their forums closely and listens to their loyal players. I’m glad people are still very satisfied with the game and it is my intent merely to discuss possible kittens in this giant’s armor, so to speak. There’s always room for improvement.

Hey there. I’d like to take a moment to point out some things, so bear with me and we’ll all survive this.

Alright, first:
Kudos to ANet for being awesome on the FREE expansions. Seriously, that’s some customer service if I’ve ever seen it. I can’t complain too much about these. However…
These new pseudo “expansions” are seriously lacking in content comparative to actual add-ons. Again, it’s free so not bad but it’d be nice to see some new classes and new skills to go along with all the new ground to cover. cough cough Dervish cough cough

Second:
Anet really needs to re re revamp the leveling. I get on only occasionally now because solo leveling is comparable to a drill in the eye once you’ve leveled a couple chars. The grouping system isn’t quite there yet in terms of general usability (such is to be expected of a newer system). I won’t pretend to know how to fix it, but it does need to be given thought.

Third:
Ah, player v. player, the pinnacle of GW2 gameplay and probably one of the most refined competitive modes in the mmo genre as of now. Never big on it myself, but I can at least respect it’s splendor. That said, this is supposed to be a dynamic story driven game, not a murder simulator. These updates as of late have always delivered on the lore portion, but as far as actual gameplay goes they are focusing their endgame content with the assumption that all players will PvP at some point. It’s given GW2 a HUGE edge with the arena lovers but has crippled it in alot of other ways. Crafting, dungeons, classes; as I mentioned above, there are a lot of points that should be given a second thought.

What’s my story? Why do I bring these things up? Am I mad, bro?
Kind of, yea. Like many others I was on the GW2 band wagon since announcement. I am proud to have played it as long as I did and I still occasionally log on to see what’s new. But with fierce competition like ESO and Wildstar on the horizon, ANet is going to get trampled if they don’t strengthen the core of this game (Which has been almost completely combat oriented until now). Linearity and restriction made GW1 a “one-or-two-play-through” game and I don’t want GW2 to see such an unimpressive fate. I love GW2, I just can’t commit to it like I did with other epic MMO’s. At this point I’m practically begging ANet to make it more immerse so that I can get sucked in once more.

Go ahead and reflect. I’d love to hear more opinions, be they contrary or compliment.

I’ve tried making the Rifle my primary weapon, but I seem to be falling back on my melee weapons so often that I may as well use those. Though honestly never tried a primary longbow. The only problem I have with that is the lack of Trait power behind them. Aside from a few traits that amplify CD and piercing, there aren’t any for say, might stacking or other procs. I’ll play with it a bit more, but Im still not certain.

I love the GW1 rangers for their versatility and style, and I think ANet did a great job allowing them to maintain that flexibility, excepting that now every build I come up with myself has some crippling dependency on my little furry animal friends. Don’t get me wrong, the look old snuggles gives me tugs right there at the heart strings, but I do not like the pets in this game at all. It’s almost like their just another “tool” in your damage and less a separate entity. That’s a story for another time, though, so for now I’d appreciate some help with mitigating the need for pets while retaining good combat capabilities. Preferred Weapon of choice is the Longbow, but at this point I’m verging on deleting him altogether so I’ll take what I can get.

The Flamethrower seems to be almost incapable of hitting targets in a kiting situation, regardless of the fact they are clearly in flames. If it’s a bug, it needs to be fixed because it makes aggro while flaming almost unable to be handled without CC’s, which shouldn’t be necessary for me to hit with the auto attack. If it’s intentional, then I just need to lay the kit to rest and go play another class.

Great guide. I love that you actually showed up in game and ran me through the guide personally. This guy knows his stuff gentlemen.

Right now I’m currently trying to reinvent the greatsword build I was running (based on Noxxic’s dps focused warrior) and I want to figure out what gear to use. I have Rampager’s gear (the runes I have are fine for right now, all about might stacking) with berserker’s Greatsword/Rifle and berserker’s trinkets. Rampager’s gear has higher precision on it, but should I run berserker’s armor for the extra crit damage? I worry that the condition damage on the gear is taking away from the overall dps in a fight. And there’s also Knight’s gear that has lower stats but adds quite a bit of toughness so I can stay in the fights longer. It feels like I’m just not quite getting the impact that I want on the battlefield, the subtle ticks of bleeds and other sources of damage just don’t feel as satisfying as consistent big numbers, but that doesnt mean they still aren’t doing good damage.

I was talking with my friend the other day about classes in MMOs. You know, the ones we miss, he ones we loved, etc. I mentioned Dervish and we got on the fact that only Humans could really be dervishes lore-wise (based on their devotion to the six. Other races could follow similar paths and it would fit, but it wouldn’t be the same.) Then he got me into talking about a scenario where (in order to spice up this games lacking cultural barriers, since all races have very little difference) each of the races was given a class based on it’s own culture. I wanted to whip up something on the subject and see if I couldn’t get some other people in on the discussion, despite the fact it probably isn’t ever actually going to happen.

Human:
Dervish- Solemn acolytes of the six, whom paired with prayer and scythe in hand, become a mystic force raging about the battlefield.
Weapons: Scythe, Greatsword, Sword, Focus, Staff, Scepter
Skillset: Prayers and Magical Augmentations.
Class Mechanic: Piety; Gain damage output through the increase of a pious meter which grows based on various skills used by the set. Certain moves drain piety to increase effect. Similar to Adrenaline.

Norn:
Brawler- When a man does with his hand what you can’t do with a mace, stay out of his way.
Weapons: Knuckles (Brass, Duster, etc.), Maces, Hammers, Shield, Torch
Skillset: Brawler Moves (cause we all miss them, don’t deny it) and various close quarters combat techniques.
Class Mechanic: Drunkard; A good Norn fights, a GREAT one fights drunk. Similar to elementalist, move sets change based on which form of drink your character is set to be inebriated by.

Asura:
Specialist-Where engineers can build the guns, sometimes a trigger man is required. They specialize in the operation of firearms on an ingenious level.
Weapons: Rifle, Pistol, Rocket Launcher
Skillset: Limited, but effective, Specialists focus on firearms to get the job done. They lack the gadgets of their engineer cousins, but they how to use their weapons of choice to deadly efficiency.
Class Mechanic: Lock On; By targeting an enemy with this ability they receive a passive buff (be it critical chance, damage output, I haven’t worked that out yet) against that target, but a reduction against anything else. (Minor cooldown for balance issues)

Sylvari:
Druid- An unusually gifted and magical friend of the forest, Druids aren’t always peaceful, especially on the battlefield.
Weapons: Staff, Scepter, Focus, Sword, Dagger, Warhorn.
Skillset: Plant based physical magic and nature based ethereal magic are both tools in a druids arsenal.
Class Mechanic: Lush; Build life energy as you deal damage or heal allies. Once bar reaches maximum automatically enter a state of natural serenity, increasing the potency of attacks and heals for a short period. Also each two handed weapon and off hand weapon has a spell that normally has an unusually large cast time that now becomes an instant cast durin the duration.

Charr:
Bladestorm- A master of the impossible, the legendary Bladestorm is the backbone of any Blood Legion massacre. They excel in the arts of swordplay.
Weapons: Sword, Greatsword, Blade on a Chain (needs a better name)
Skillset: The Bladestorm is defined by his ability to use multiple swords at a time, resulting in skills that assist and improve weapon swap and even combo set ups based on those abilities, which lets a Bladestorm flurry about the field.
Class Mechanic: Impalement; Certain strikes leave stacks of “Impaled” (also may need renaming) that, once they reach a certain point, cause the Bladestorm to flash about while striking the target and surrounding individuals for massive damage. Direct hits will not effect a Bladestorm during this, but AoE damage and conditions already applied will still take their toll.

Well, that’s it for now. Feel free to come up with your own and post, I like hearing all the ideas from other people. Seeing these new classes would be a big boost in the game for me and, at the very least, prompt more people to buy character slot expansions.

Again, I don’t have any unreasonable fantasy that anybody will care about what I’ve said here. This is just on behalf of myself and a few of my friends who all kinda “do our own thing” and are tired of having to back away from what would seem like a fun event, just because we see that ever-menacing gold crest. Not all champs are OP, in fact, some actually need to have things buffed or fixed. I am referring to the ones that hit like cruise missiles and seem to always park themselves right were we want to be.

And on another side note, I’d like to explain that the “character development” portion of my findings are fueled by the philosophy that the journey to 80 is mostly mine to bear, what comes after is where I show off everything I’ve built. When I’m just meandering about in zones, it isn’t about playing with people, it’s about finding my character’s balance. In dungeons or WvW is where I’m going to try and shine. Knowing that you may be able to understand better that it isn’t simply a matter of “getting a group” for me. Perhaps there is only a small minority of players that feel this way, but after having spent almost $400 on this game over the course of a year, I feel that anybody who paid to play the game deserves a little bit of fairness, especially since even after this there would still plenty of areas for those punishment gluttons to get their beatings from. I feel I need that time to really get into my character; and with GW2 being as story driven as it is, I have enjoyed a lot of man hours alone in some random map discovering myself.

I appreciate any input, positive or negative, and more than welcome solutions of your own design.

Alright, before we get focused on the “That’s the way the game works” cliche, I just want to point out that sometimes changing the way the game works is a good thing.

Ever been just roaming around in an obscure zone on an underpopulated server during the wee hours of the player scarce night only to be jumped randomly by some kind of Mega Champion speed-balling some kind of mix of PCP and electrostatic steroids? What do you do in that scenario? Call for help and just accept that no matter how hard you try you’ll never be as cool as that guy? Give up and head back to lions arch and just wait for it to be over? Attempt to deal with him yourself and get murdered over and over and over?

I have been running into these scenarios just more and more lately. With the crafting experience lowered and the dwindling player base in some of the more obscure regions, sometimes a random champ is just too much for the solo player (and consequently smaller grouped players) to sometimes deal with. I can understand from a challenging dynamic standpoint that having an impossible task here or there breeds flavor, but perhaps its time to take the impossible down to just improbable.

I could rattle off a huge list of “unfair” scenarios and whine about how ANet didn’t hold my hand while I was leveling, but that is genuinely not what I’m here to do. I just REALLY want to see this happen less, because I feel it is a detriment to personal character growth. Dungeons and longer or more sizeable event chains are still fair game, but that’s because a larger group is implied, otherwise the scenario at hand would never have arisen. So as little chance there is of them actually following any of the suggestions on this thread, I feel it is my obligation to present them.

First Option:
Champions (unless involved in an over-arching chain of quests) are now veterans. A simple fix, probably leading to some initial balance issues and lessened reward from events but possibly resulting in an overall better experience that’s a bit more fair to players lacking a social conscience. Could also lead to the “Catering to the Casuals” argument popping up more often in discussion, so it may not be worth it.

Second Option:
Quit being so loose with defiant and unshakeable. I can understand the giant chain event “dragon lord king of the underworld’s waffle house” having the ability to take a hit and keep trucking, but why is the bandit lieutenant of backwater county eating my CC’s like popcorn chicken? Maybe making the less important champs less brickhouse would allow roaming players to deal with them. Their massive health and rather incredible damage output alone will make it a long and clenched battle, thus still having a fun factor, but the lack of defiant may give the player a better edge to actually stand a chance.

Third Option:
Buff Friendly NPC’s related to missions with impossible odds. Perhaps if that Guard wasn’t a kindergartner wearing his daddy’s platemail, it wouldn’t be so bad. This buff could even be game-wide if they so chose, seeing as there’s more than plenty instances where we find ourselves begging the six for a competent story character. If they made the NPC’s weak to show us how truly incredible our heroes are, they are doing a poor job of it by then turning around and pitting us against something that is going to be picking it’s teeth with our bones in the next few minutes.

Alright, I’d like to start this off by saying that I absolutely loved Shiro Tagachi in GW1. His dual sword spectacular made me so badly wish for a dual wielder build. Now that I can have that, I’d like to start working on one for PvE. My level 80 Charr warrior has tried builds from the great-sword to the sword and board, but never dual swords. I think it’d probably go something like this:

20/25/15/0/10
Berserker’s power, Dual Wielding
Deep Cuts, Blade Master
Embrace The Pain
n/a
Heightened Focus

I learned that the sword has a good crit chance and good uptime on the bleeds so focusing crit and either condition damage for the extensive bleeds or critical dmg on gear is probably a good idea. I am not sure about embrace the pain, but I figure that even dps builds need some toughness and it was the only one I could really get into. I’d bring sure footed, but I don’t often use stances as is and I don’t imagine changing that for this build. I’m not aiming for MASSIVE damage, just at least good damage with a bit of survivability and conditions so I don’t drop chart the second I retreat from melee hate.

Again, I have never made my own builds, just modified others to better suit my play style so I may have overlooked quite a bit and could use some second, third, maybe even fifteenth opinions. I’m just tired of having to fit into the “optimal groove” and wanted to see if I could play my own way and still pull my own weight.

That, as obvious as it should have been, honestly never occurred to me, thanks guys I’ll start trying ti.

In reference specifically to the penitent and plinx areas, but I suppose also a valid question for other ares, we often get masterwork items as loot. I can understand just vendoring most of the garbage weapons and such, but it seems like a waste to just vendor the masterworks. I was doing the salvage method for a while, but silk and leather and mithril are hardly ever even worth the vendor price of what I just salvaged. Anybody got any creative tips out there for using these poor discarded masterwork items that were so kindly “donated” to us for various NPC genocides?

Thanks for the advice! I love the community for these kind of helpful attitudes. Recycle actually offered quite a bit of information that I was unaware of and Dasorine helped reinforce what I already was thinking. Thanks guys.

So, just re stylized my Warrior from glass cannon greatsword to big meaty “Tank.” Got the healing shouts going and now my deaths are absolutely rare except in the bleakest of scenarios, but I lack almost any damage output. It’s gotten to the point where sometimes I can’t even attract the attention of the big guys mid fight to get them off of my comrades in dungeons or world events. So I was wondering if the mace stuns were worth the absolutely limp-wristed damage (which isn’t all that bad still, but it swings so slowly and a lot of the dungeon bosses barely seem to notice the stuns) or if for PvE encounters I should switch to an axe or sword for some extra damage and/or mobility? I am very afraid that any gear changes could mess up my nice little “living mountain” thing I have going.

Before you go asking for every little detail down to the pajamas I wear on Thursday for my morning tea, I am in full exotic Cleric’s armor with 6 superior runes of the soldier and Cleric’s Mace/Shield with a Cleric’s Warhammer for the knockdowns. The only thing is that my Trinkets are all lvl 80 Masterwork Emerald [insert slot piece] of the Knight. No sigils on my weapons yet either, the remake was a drain on what little money I had.

Current traits:
10/0/30/30/0
Strength: V
Defense: V, VII, IX
Tactics: II, VIII, XII

Any input appreciated, thank you.

Now, I don’t know about structured pvp, but in WvW I have a serious problem with the name display of enemies. Showing me (or them, as most cases happen) a big red sign saying “Here’s an enemy!” is a bit much. There’s no hiding in the bushes, or any of that. Maybe it would be a bit more organic if player signs only appeared as the player was being highlighted in WvW. Case and point, taking my level 4 ranger (I know, whole problem right there) just to harass some control points and caravans, when I notice a bunch of enemies going the other way. They didn’t see me, so I tried to hide behind a big boulder with my little asura body and wait for them to pass. Nope. A ranger picked out my name plate and came by to tell me how much she hated my face. With Arrows. There’s just little nuances like this that would make WvW so much more than just harass, zerg, rinse, repeat.