Guild Wars 2

The build itself isnt THAT bad. Its more it doesnt really fulfill a role in the current meta. Unfortunately necro does not have the team support/heals to compete with other node holders, and that is the issue at play here. Sure you may be able to survive, but can you offer iutility and deal ok damage- not as well as ele/engi. And running a tankier build obviously reduces your damage output. That said, the quality of most PvP necros is pretty low so there is something to be said about not instadying in the first team fight xD

I like the idea of a tankier necro but IMO you would be more useful to your team committing to damage. Going more mainstream with a selectio of damage amulet, Reaper’s Onslaught, or Chronomancer Rune would give you a pretty standard and solid power necro build. If your feeling brave you could even take the well heal and try your hand at being a rezbot.

As for staff being out of place. That makes little sense to me, staff cant be out of place on a PvP build. The fear, chill, transfer, 1200 range and LF generation means it will always be useful.

Sages Vs Carrion is also a tough choice….

Zefiris.8297:

I don’t think so – the equivalent of the shroud autoattack is the shade attack on ability use. You get less of those than you get autoattacks in shroud, but can activate them at all times, balancing things out.

We already have another trait that causes burn on shade spawn too, that overlap would be strange.

I just cant get my head round the design. It was always going to be too strong.

Flumek.9043:

Passive plague signet VS. fear torment = fear torment proly winner

Contagion VS. Enfeeble = i like the heal yesterday , tho weakness and bigger bomb may be better

Soul mark VS. swiftness = think sou marks more alround, unless you against druids immobing you , so far there isnt a synergy rune so traveler rune is free to take

Scourge T1 Adepts – torch trait is trash, i took the secure lifeforce, cleanse may be viable too

Scourge T2 Masters – id like to take the other but so far I always had 3x punisments, they stunbreak+mobility+do dmg , i find that value hard to beat with other BASE utilitys.
Maybe shouts id take the classic heal+suffer , but base you only get a choice of spectrals and corruptions

Cant take shouts as they are Reaper. So yeh, we’re stuck with the core options, though i think i will still be sticking with consume conditions, then two punishments, with the third changing depending on enemy comp.

Zefiris.8297:

ceejay.2517:

Really, didn’t know this. I guess its a bug fix rather than a balance issue then.

How is Dhuumfire working a bug? o.O

I would imagine it is only supposed to proc when you summon the shade. Not the “Whenever you use a shade ability, you and your sand shades strike nearby foes” part.

Zefiris.8297:

ceejay.2517:

Also i think it is “Demonic Lore”, burn on agony, that procs on the F skills. Dhummfire only procs on the summon i think.

This is false. Demonic Lore has a 3s internal cooldown, and you still get these stacks if you use Sand Savant.

Really, didn’t know this. I guess its a bug fix rather than a balance issue then.

As you know i have been running essentially the same thing. I agree that this is probably optimal at the moment but think there is potentially good scope for variability in the adept and master traits.

We don’t know yet the scale of life force management issues in a real match, but if its not huge the reduced cd on torch + expertise could offer a nice damage boost and quicker access to CC for kiting. In the case of the master trait, it remains to be seen if the barrier from desert empowerment (2k with Sages, with three on short CD) makes it more useful than the reduced cd on the new utilities. I think the burn after Punishement skill is not needed damage wise atm. The life force on boonrip mentioned above could make these pretty spammable.

Also i think it is “Demonic Lore”, burn on agony, that procs on the F skills. Dhummfire only procs on the summon i think.

The playstyle is great. Its obviously overtuned at the moment but even with damage reduction the potential for setting up good condi bursts, along with some team utility (Combat portal. F3+5 Barrier works in gravity well, stun, knockdown), is great. I’m excited for Scourge DPS.

I don’t agree. Considering how much access to barrier we have, and their cooldowns, its not in a terrible place.

I think we should see how it plays out over a few weeks before deciding its too fast.

@Deathok + Meteor

Sniping is the most obvious reason. You could just get someone on teamspeak with you to watch the game and tell you where they are all the time…

NotASmurf.1725:

ceejay.2517:

(…)

You and Sindrener are being naive. The ASP existed since 2013 or 2014, and I think I can count on one hand how many times it was put to good use.

After HoT when the guild leagues started there were a lot of new teams starting out and competing with each other. There were bigger teams too, I think Abjured took 1st place on NA and Bowscope on EU. What did these shoutcasters do? Nothig.

Even if they started streaming them, you think it’d get more views than Sind or Helseth? Then NA is pretty much dead, knowing how shady that region is I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were selling info on enemy movement to the highest bidder if it’s in real-time.

It’ll be used once a month for the monthly, best case scenario, but will probably end up being forgotten in 1-2 months.

I’d much rather have the devs work on something that benefits PvP in general like, you know, a 3v3 gamemode. Instead they work on a pointless feature trying to grow a scene that won’t happen. ASP doesn’t bring in new players, new gamemodes do.

It’s hardly comparable to past phases in GW2 PvP. The point is that this is regular monthly tournament, it is not a massive amount of effort for any streamer who wanted to take the role on. The regular format of the AT system is perfect for an ASP to content create around.

And as for the NA is dead thing this is a nonsense. Sure there aren’t many pro level players left. But this isn’t a pro game. It’s about a competitive community, not an E-Sport. There are plenty of people willing to field teams, try hard, and get better.

And, correct me if I’m wrong Sind, but I’m pretty sure both Sind and Helseth have said they won’t stream the tourneys if someone is casting them or themselves would do some casting. This is what happened with Unity Go Tourney. This doesn’t prohibit PoVs being recorded for layer or some ‘Victory strims’.

NotASmurf.1725:

Ben Phongluangtham.1065:

bluri.2653:

Ben Phongluangtham.1065:

The tech needs some adjusting to work, but it’s something we’re working on.

Will you make it for all or just ASP?

Just ASP. The way the spectate stuff works currently doesn’t make it feasible to open it up to everyone. It would be nice if we were able to change this someday, but it would be quite a ways down the road.

No offense but that sounds like wasted dev time. The top teams are already streaming/recording these tournaments, often multiple players per team and the authorized shoutcasters haven’t really done anything in 3 years.

I undertstand what you’re going for I just don’t think it’ll ever be used more than 1 month after its release.

I disagree. I would be very surprised if someone in the community didnt set up a regular casting stream for this.

Also what about when Helseth/Sind are not streaming, There are not that many big pvp streamers, and if not the coverage would be pretty scarce. And to be honest the games are much closer when these players are not playing, so would be more interesting to watch! Also if there is a clear third party consistently streaming the monthly AT then this would be easier access for people who are not currently familiar with who to watch/ are not part of the current streamers groups of followers (Helseth for example rubs some people up the wrong way).

Its great when these guys stream their perspective and im a big fan. But it is also just one perspective, you dont get to see the different team comps/builds, or splits etc. which will be especially interesting after PoF.

Thanks for the fast response, Ben.

It would be a great feature to help build a competitive scene around the new tourneys, especially with a whole bunch of new theorycraft to be done with PoF. I hope the changes don’t prove too problematic!

What it says above. I am an experienced player (since launch) and looking for a guild/group of people to do some organised roam/havok with in WvW.

I have geared characters and main a Necro/Reaper and Ranger/Druid.

Contact me in game or on here!

With the ATs now being in game and there being no Pro-League anymore, would it not make sense for the monthly ATs to be watchable?

Obviously general spectating couldn’t work due to sniping by opposition unless there was a severe delay. But I know there used to be an Authorised Shoutcaster scheme where members of the community (think Jebro in EU) could spectate on matches, and therefore could stream/cast them. Since the tech already exists i was wondering if there is a reason this is not implemented for ATs?

Kadj.6725:

it’s basically “free” endgame armor with any stat choice I have a hard time complaining about accessibility. I had to work much harder for my original PvE ascended set.

This doesn’t make any sense.

The whole point of this post is that it costs quite a bit more than the PvE equivalent. For both you need a maxed craft, and the ascended materials, which cost more for the PvP version. You then have the required ascended Shards of Glory on top.

I’m not attempting to say it should be more accessible. Only that the costs across gamemodes should be more comparable than they are. Reducing from 4 to 3 marks for leg/chest pieces would achieve this.

It is even worse than i thought. You actually need 4 marks to make the leg piece.

So the ascended legs take 77G 22S to make using normal crafting. And the Grandmaster Tailors Mark cost 27G 09S each. So even without the PvP parts its more expensive.

Both of these are if you buy the ascended mats.

So today i went to craft some more ascended armour, and thought i might aswell do it through the PvP system as i have lots of Ascended Shards of Glory. But i noticed that, in my case (i was making Viper’s), it actually cost more to make 3 Grandmaster Tailor’s Marks, than to make the full piece through the normal system?

Surely this cannot be intended? Why on earth would we use Ascended Shards of Glory AND a higher cost for ascended armour that doesnt even have an exclusive skin?

Perhaps 3 Grandmaster Marks is too high?

EDIT: chest/leg pieces actually require 4 Grandmaster Marks. Which in the case of light viper’s makes the PvP set more than 30G more expensive than PvE crafted.

Ravezaar.4951:

The thing with Shroud tho it was our Invun, Aegis, Block & o-kitten button all rolled up into one cause we lack all those things plus we lack stealth,movement, disengage and any other factors to escape being Focused. And afte yesterday with VP-nerf that took alot of that away from us and Scourge dosent have it at all.

I really hope Scourge will work, and fighting without Shroud does sound intresting but atm without testing I feel we gonna lack that defence we get from Shroud and Barriers seems very un-reliable. Maybe we have better battleground control but I cant see us have any better diengage when focused then we have now… and that meens we still gonna be an easy target.

Hope Iam wrong

I agree it doesnt look like we will have the easiest time. But it is not as bleak as people seem to think, and as you rightly mention, we simply cannot know at the moment.

Flumek.9043:

flesh worm and spectral walk are ancient relics, theyre trash now.

worm = 1200 distance + criple/chill
…. in past that meant something, now even guards can gap close and everybody has cleanses to beat reaper level chills, base is just freekill

specral walk = 0 distance + swiftness + potential port over ledge or cca 900 distance (IF YOU CAN MOVE)
…again like above, everything is so powercreeped that pure kiting with distance doesnt exist anymore. also walk desperately needs superspeed atm to not move 0 distance and then port back

Oh i don’t disagree that these skills are weak and need buffs, especially in comparison to other classes. My point is mainly that our survivaibilty extends beyond shroud, people thinking we are a one trick pony has been a problem in the player base for a while IMO.

There is a lot of talk and criticism in the community regarding expectations that the removal of shroud form the Scourge will make it weak for PvP. And whilst i agree our survivability will take a big hit, i think that the level of fear among the community is unwarranted, and it is also too early to tell.

One key reason for this is that people seem to be viewing Scourge through the lens of our current play style. One of the main reasons reaper shroud is so important is that it is a key damage source, and it is also entirely melee, meaning we need the added health not to die when in close range. This is true to a lesser extent for core shroud as well as skills #4 and #5 are melee range, and a number of traits are proximity based. The point here is that the new spec, it seems to me, should rarely be in melee range. This entirely changes the play style, to a ranged one. In addition to this the absence of Reaper shroud means we will no longer wreck team fights, and as such are unlikely to be the enemies primary target (based on current figures this will be the Holosmith). The idea that we will be focussed more than ever is based in no logic. Bruiser classes have never been a primary target in a fight.
So, when one views the spec in its new role it is not so bad. We will have good kiting utilities available for us (Flesh Worm, Spectral Walk, Sand Swell, Trail of Anguish), in addition to good access to fear, cripple, chill, and now a knockdown. Along with some minor active defence in the form of barrier (which sales, have look at the new stat combinations), condi transfers, not to mention the highest base health in the game (joint with War) and will likely not run a DPS amulet. If, playing as a ranged class, you can’t survive with this then either your kiting gameplay is not up to scratch, or you are simply being focussed too hard without team support (which shouldn’t happen as much anymore). After all no class should be able to solo survive being a 5-man DPS target, that is where team heals/peels should come in.

Perhaps one of the most important things to note is that we don’t know how the expected skill rework at the launch of PoF will affect us. Not to mention how core shroud-based traits will affect sand shades, a good PvP build is grounded in good trait setup, and we simply don’t know enough about this to make a call yet. I for one am excited to the crazy build craft ahead. At least we have a super interesting spec to get in to!

Psy

Lord Velar.1509:

Like no….seriously……I just want a fun balanced game that I can play pvp in, that’s all I want

Necros- Tanky, can dish out ridiculous damage and destroys teams if not pressured (I’m sure most of them would love to trade out damage for mobility, another topic for another day)

Warriors- Can be very op and imo is a very under rated class, they can hit ridiculously hard and god forbid one catches a knockback on you cause 9/10, then next time you see your character get up itll be in your teams spawn. They can endure pain and reduce your damage to…..pretty much kitten like an engi…..but worst because theyre more active

Wut.

Necros have tanky health because they have almost no active defense – no block, evade, invuln, and only limited stunbreak. They also get insta targeted and can be melted quite easily.

Warrior is literally hard countered by kiting. If you stand on a node and facetank their damage, sure they will kill you. But kite and LoS them and you should be fine.

Its a case of knowing about each class, the different styles are what make the game fun, challenging and different. I will grant you that Ranger is annoying as hell if your class has no stability or gap close, but again, if you line of sight/reflect/block they cant do much.

It is a bad idea to have that many unknowns, in almost any game’s pvp you get some info, be that what team they are playing as in sports games, or their class in combat games. The idea this gives an advantage is nonsense as both sides have it, and it is not as if you have access to their traits/amulet/weapons/utilities, it just gives a rough idea and the chance to adapt your build a bit.

The problem with not doing this is that everyone will have to play defensive builds to be prepared for the various possibilities. And if they dont they run the risk of being hard countered. Having such a wide range of potential opposition, with zero clue as to what these are basically removes any tactics or interesting build dynamics.

We already have loads of games that are down to pure luck as to what your team comp is. We don’t want this to be made worse by making it harder to adapt in these situations.

Bezerker.2379:

I dont think they will change it. The entire point is to NOT know what you are against. Otherwise, might as well just broadcast everyones rune/amulet/sigil choices as well.

But if they show you the class they clearly want you to know something. But now the class info is meaningless in some cases.

I think allowing an insight into elite spec would not be damaging and would allow for more dynamic counterplay. I dont think it would give too much away, either. For example right now if i saw a daredevil icon i would have no clue if it was condi or power, the same for tempest, no clue if it was support or fresh air.

Hey,

Myself and other people in HoTM cannot queue for PvP – it says an update is required when it is not.

any news?

Hi there, i am very interested in this. I will contact you in game early next week if that is okay as i am unavailable for the next couple of days.

Edit: Oh i forgot to check, EU or NA?

I think in addition to individual skill changes a blanket change could help spice up the shouts a bit. Firstly i love the change to WHaO but it doesnt seem to fit with a heal skill. It feel it would make more sense for the new change to WHaO to be a trait which applies the effect to all shouts with an ICD of 15/6sec.

My only other suggestion is a simple one, for ‘Protect Me’ to apply protection to the ranger/pet (Dependent on the mechanics of the damage transfer). This not only fits thematically, but would also stop it being just a nuke button for the pet.

Bumperio bump bump.

I know nothing has been stated in regards to solo/teamq split (Anet pls pls pls), but have we heard anything about the way leagues will influence matchmaking?

Ranger also lacked party wide support/healing/ projectile mitigation which we did get. There is no way to fix evertything with one elite specialisation, they are not designed as upgrades, rather as additions. I think it is important to note that the ranger already has the framework for more damage and offensive support this just isn’t tune properly and is more an issue of balance than one to be fixed by adding a new specialisation.

Firstly I want to say I’m happy with the Druid, my only concern is the skill tuning needs to be done very carefully to allow the Druid to be played outside of a pure healer role.

Secondly I think the celestial form charging needs to be clarified, particularly does it have to be fully charged to use? And secondly how efficiently this can be done with other weapons, I have seen some very worrying maths suggesting it well… Can’t really. this is something which needs to be addressed sooner rather than later as an inability to use the profession mechanic properly could damage the ability to provide feedback I’m bwe3

Yes it’s pretty clear that the core focus of the specialisation is support but the whole ‘Druid is a healer, it sucks’ is damaging.

im not claiming the Druid is what I dreamt, and I get that people are instantly turned of by healer play styles if that not their thing. But the Druid is what we have got let’s look at the positives. I for one didn’t struggle to find them.

Firstly lets look at the gw2 system – you take 3 lines, and it is the combination of these with utilities, weapons and runes/sigils which dictate your build. There is no reason you have to spec into Druid as the spine of your build, it is a common feature of builds in the game to have a trait line for sustain. I can think of multiple examples of current builds where you can take the Druid as the third trait line for some substantial selfish sustain.

Secondly let’s look at the staff. There are many weapons in the game which are not viable because they lack the utility. This. cannot be said for staff. Whether you want or not all the skills have heal/cleanse which makes it instantly unique, we then have the cc, unique projectile mitigation and the crazy port skill. Can’t comment on the damage yet but looked okay. As did the heals, and this was with no stats. As long as the damage is well tuned the weapon instantly has viability in a number of game modes.

Even more importantly I think we need to wait until Tuesday to see if the upcoming balance gives anymore synergy. The WHaO change has already made waves and that was just one change.

There is a thread on here or reddit that goes over the new might potential. But WHaO offers great potential.

Companions might is one option. As are axes (maybe even Sword AA and Warhorn), strength runes/sigils, the fire field on new pet with staffsWH blast finisher. It will be important to see how all this works with fortifying bond in NM.

Massively depends on what else gets reworked on Tuesday though.

Hey guys,

As a mainly pvp player I thought I would share my idea for the backbone of a druid pvp build that’s not a healer. Obviously everything we know is very provisional but it seems to me that we have the option for a build similar to the current cele necro and cele ele in playstyle and efficiency.

The playstyle would be similar to that of cele ele, using the staff and general ranger mobility for the ability to get out of fights resetting with cele form and re-entering the fight. For damage the new might stacking with WHAO would bring us up to par, with both condi and power variations being plausible.

For weapons staff would be mandatory I think based on current idea of celestial form charging, this weapon also provides great CC, mobility and not bad damage. The damage of this build would initially seem lackluster however with the changes to We Heal As One the might stacking potential is great. As for the second weapon set I am currently unsure, waiting to see the changes on Tuesday. However we do have some great options, with Longbow if you wanted double range and rapid fire/barrage if you wanted the BM trait of crits giving pets might. Mh Axe would also be a viable option for might stacking and condi pressure. I am also hopeful for some kind of fix for MH sort on Tuesday buy hey, who knows.

In regards to traits I think Druid and Beastmastery would be fundamental to the build.

I have literally written/come up with this now on the train and it’s just an idea. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Bumpety bump….

Zhaitan’s Horde [Orr] is a pvp community/guild based around finding teams and people to pvp with. The guild consists of a number of teams and players who have competed at all levels of GW2 pvp, from the AG weekly to ESL and WTS.

We are currently looking to expand our roster of amateur players to form teams for AG weekly tournaments and for the upcoming leagues.

We operate on a tier system, with tier one being professional/ESL level players, tier two consisting of players who want to get involved at the amateur level, and tier three being for casual pvp players.

We do not reject people based on class, but when forming teams it is important to remember that team comp is important and your role may be already taken or not needed in that particular set up.

So if you’re looking to find a team, or just some great players to have fun playing with get involved!

Please contact the guild leader: Silviomusic.3624

Bump. Can really recommend this guild, whether you’re just a pvp enthusiast, amateur looking for league/AG team, or a pro.

Hey,

Im not sure if this is a bug or if i am just missing something but when i equip this trait which should mean ‘Call of the wild also grants regeneration’ ( Regen 12s), this regen only lasts 5 seconds.

Thanks

Yep not a one time thing. Seems the client has to download some data after each crash also?

Same. This has also been the case for a number of other people i know of.

Bump. Bump. Bump.

Hey i would love an invite if possible.

I have played since launch as a PvX and Hardcore PvP player and want to get more experienced at the top level of PvE- fractals and dungeons and learn as much as possible ready for raids. I am a fractal level 30 and have some experience in most dungeons except arah.

Thanks. EU server.

Hey folks,

I am an experienced player having played gw1 and gw2 since pre-purchase and am looking for a reasonably hardcore PvE guild for the expansion.

I am probably online 30+ hours a week and am experienced across all levels of the game. That been said for almost the last year i have been mainly a PvP player.

Whilst i have never been a hardcore dungeon runner i have strong mechanical skills and game understanding, and I am experienced in Fractals and all dungeons (have only limited experience of Arah). I’m looking to brush up on my skills an get part of a strong community moving forward to masteries and raids.

Feel free to whisper/mail me ingame.

P.S. I would need the guild to not have a 100% rep policy as i intend to still remain part of my current pvp community

Oh and i’m on EU

Does anyone have a recent list of these? i am currently looking for a PvP guild and it would be extremely helpful as it appears many do not advertise on Reddit/Forums.

Thanks

Toxsa.2701:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2DHLgoJiwc

If you can do something like come out of perma stealth + instant 15k damage at the moment you come out, then we can talk about nerf.

Even Warrior got instant chip 75% hp at the moment he comes out of that 20 sec stealth.

Thats mesmer was pre-patch also! But gotta remember only a tiny proportion of mesmers can actually play like that! I think thats one of the problems with rangers though, even at a really high skill level there isnt the potential for insane bunkering or insane damage outside of the current condi imbalance.

Heyyy

I currently play on JQ (WvW Tier 1, Rank 1 Atm) as this was the server my international GW1 guild moved to when the game launched. However I’m getting more in to competitive pvp and WvW and bought an EU account for better pings in PvP and more sociable WvW times. I now cant decide which server to go on! I’m used to high end WvW but am not all about the whole Zerg v Zerg which dominates t1 and was wandering if anyone was familiar with any key differences between the EU US styles and servers! And if any guilds on any particular servers were recruiting.

Thanks!

P.S – Played since launch, number of lvl 80s etc etc. However I’m coming back from a couple of months off of recently for my uni finals.

Thanks for the response. Glad to hear its not just me, i try sword 2 but still coming off worse than them most of the time. Ill keep an eye out for the rotations though.

Definitely a different play style to the other classes!

Hey guys,

I have played thief on and off since launch and have recently got into playing it in pvp. I’ve adopted a S/D high mobility build which is working well, however i am having issues with heavy aoe classes such as some bunker engis… any advice?

thanks.

Hey folks,

I used to main a Mesmer a long time ago then left the game, and came back yet have disregarded my Mesmer somewhat but ant to get back into it. In regards to dungeons i understand S/S & S/F is the most efficient DPS, however i have been having problems with PUGs and was wandering if anyone has a more supporty build, i looked at Fay’s guide and some of the ideas look interesting but many of the builds haven’t been commented on/updated in months.

Cheers.

I find that it’s contextual. Take the jaguar for example, if in a mob with a target it will use it straight away, but if im using my bow it will take a few seconds to get within range.