Guild Wars 2

sinject.4607:

roelvanesch.2817:

Almost every single one of OP’s points will influence meta PvE as well. As long as they don’t split the numbers (which they should) this is a no-go imho.

This the pvp forum, not the PvE. I don’t care what happens to mesmer in PvE, I don’t care what happens to anything in PvE including thief. Please stop trying to defend a broken build while playing dumb to the fact that PvP/PvE trait and skill splits exist. If this seriously every bunker chrono’s defense as to why you shouldn’t get nerfed, you can expect one; it’s a laughable attempt.

Not defending it at all, just saying these changes will be too harsh if Anet stubbornly keeps the numbers even. Changes ARE definately needed.

Solid Gold.9310:

Rauderi.8706:

roelvanesch.2817:

But even then, the real argument here is if they are necessary or not, which in my honest opinion they are not.

Try fact, then? While you may not have to get gold on all of them, in order to unlock all the HoT masteries, you need to get at least Silver on all of them. There aren’t enough points to go around, otherwise.

Adventures are required.

Yes they are required, and at least silver, I can’t even get bronze on some of them, and others I gave up on altogether.

How can they even call this stuff “Adventures”, because it’s not an adventure, it’s torture.

Give us some other way to make these mastery points, not these crummy so called “Adventures”.

“In order to unlock all HoT masteries” they are required. However, unlocking all masteries is not.

Zlater.6789:

But I wanna fight!

How do you do high burst and is it enough to kill someone? I couldnt find anyway to burst someone hard enough to down them.

I don’t really need a short bow to get around the map in pvp, and it really annoys me having useless abilities on my bar, with shadow step at 1200 range and unhindered combatant I tried and have I can move from one to the other in almost half the time it takes my to get there with infiltrators arrow, which is about as far as I need to go in any short period. I also use the dodge for the condition removal, if I bump into a tanky player I usually dodge around them a lot, maybe a bit too much at times xD So the hits don’t usually bug me, but its all of the little bits of damage I cant avoid which usually kills me. What do you use instead for condition removal? I really think that black powder and bounding dodger is a really cool combo that I never thought of.

I was using the physical elite for quite some time, I found it was real good when I could land it, otherwise it gave me so many of those “gotcha… ohh nevermind moments.” What I loved about thieves guild is that they persist even if I get downed, its a really strong elite, but you’re right its on a very long cooldown. Is it only because of the cooldown that thieves don’t use it?
If it is, its only in situational times I use it, when I’m “backcapping” or I’m in a 1v1 I dont really need it; unless I know that I’m about to get into a tough fight. I think I will continue using it.

You want to fight? Winning fair fights with thieves is a matter of outplaying your opponent. When your skill level is equal to your opponent’s, he will win. Unhindered combatant makes you move faster but kittens you over in fights imo, you get out of melee range everytime you dodge. Short bow 5 is the best weapon skills thiefs have, you are missing out. The physical elite van be used on downed opponents for safe stomping (doesnt work against all classes) because of the blowout. I don’t think thieves guild is too strong of a skill in pvp, when I am up against a Thief who uses is, I never even notice too much of it.

For meta (good) builds, check out metabattle.com

Some traps you seem to fall in making your choises:
-Too many passives; this is pvp, burst is better than sustain on thieves. For sigils: air + fire give you better burst. Crit signet is good on daredevil since both its passieve and its active are welcome.
- Double melee: If there is one weapon that is absolutely required for pvp it is shortbow. Both the damage and range are mediocre and most skills you’ll never even use. However: infiltrator’s arrow. Since thieves have a disadvantage in both teamfights and 1v1, their main role in the meta is to +1 (search for ‘unfair’ fights) and backcap (they leave a capture point, get to it!).
- Long cooldowns: Since you are running d/p, I can recommend blinding power over refugee (both skills are good, this is mainly preference). The blast in #5 smoke field gives quite some instant-stealth around you. Also, thieves guild is a really long cd. Might I reccomend the physical ult, or elsewise basilisk venom.
Unhindered combattant: It might put you out of stealth if you use it at the wrong time, but it also puts you IN stealth with the use of pistol #5. This combo alone gives very easy stealth acces.

The Thief’s role is kinda weird right now. It is not a role focussed around combat at all, but rather focussed on objectives. Also, its somewhere on the bottom of this meta, sadly enough…

I think the challenge itself is meant to be the greatest reward at first. The rewards are balanced around ‘farming’ them (1 hour per wing?), not around spending your first ours of training failing them. Also, this is but the first wing, there will be more wings to farm in the future. The magnitide shard drops from the bosses does seem a bit low.

HtFde.3856:

Coulter.2315:

Again if you’re struggling to get silver go to google type in “gw2 name of adventure” and watch the video or read the “how to.”

You too, don’t get it

As I wrote in my example about a tune and a piano (and listening to wintersday’s bell choir, haha) – it’s dead easy to transform a tune from radio to a piano. No need for Youtube at all – just hit the black and white keys, memorize their pitch, start the radio and off you go … or, perhaps, not quite so easy …?!

I, for example, am not a shooter person – my left hand is used to playing guitar, bass, drums and piano (among other things) – I NEVER felt comfortable with steering via w,a,s,d,x – I get cramps after a few seconds and it feels completely alien, detached and wrong.

Now – for a couple of those adventures you HAVE to use wasd steering because you need the mouse free to aim. If you use the mouse buttons for movement, like I am, the muouse cursor is invisible and in order to aim I have to stop moving so that it re-appears. The first time I noticed how much this is hurting my performance was during the adventure where you are zapping around as a spark – there’s 3 locations where you have to jump to in a smooth way. Mouse moving, stopping, finding the mouse pointer, aiming, jumping, re-rotating, mouse-moving again just takes too much time.

Fortunately that spark adventure is sub 2 minutes and I managed to do it the wasd way and after those 2 minutes (and about 5 attempts) my left hand hurt all day – I did it, but was it fun? No!

And now we get to Sanctum Sprint – I KNOW I could probably get silver at least with wasd movement – but I’d need weeks to fine tune my hand so that the movement was smooth enough to not fall down at the two critical locations (like the extra long beam). Will I go through weeks of pain for that? Hardly …

And while Youtube does show me HOW to do it, it cannot make my hand stop hurting using wasd and it won’t improve the time I need to rotate and align when using mouse-movement.

The game combat system is made with using Keys to move in mind. Movement using the Mouse is more of a convenience-travel option. Not using the movement keys (wasd or however you bind them) is perfectly fine, do whatever you like. However, do not expect Anet to desing the content around or concerning players who play this way. I can understand why you find some adventures to be too hard / not-fun unregarding this argument however. But even then, the real argument here is if they are nessiccary or not, which in my honest opinion they are not.

Almost every single one of OP’s points will influence meta PvE as well. As long as they don’t split the numbers (which they should) this is a no-go imho.

This seems not so much to be a ‘best strat’, but it could be valid. I’d mainly consider this if you want to carry people who are worse than you are.

How are they forcing you? For the spec collection, you need 1 completed with silver, that’s nothing. So the only situation in which you are forcing yourself to complete them is FULL HoT mastery completion. Aside from Nuhoch alchemy, adrenal mushrooms and some other not-so-needed tracks, legendary collections stand out. To craft a HoT legendary, you have to grind a kittenton of materials, and are forced to do tremendous amounts of other content. But somehow, doing these adventures for them is not-done? I apolagize, I do not quite understand…

Maybe prevent doubling up on amulets?

I could hardly call this an exploit if the explanation above is indeed how it works. If you are ok with waiting somewhat longer to get into fairer matches thats perfectly fine imho.

Here’s my Rick Rollover. He looks like a cute anime samurai or something :’)

Havent even heard of this. It sounds like mesmer portal-stomping, hope that one is still valid?

I have bunkered on my ele with clerics. If that bullkitten is going to see play, you’d wish for cele to return I promise.

Also, as said above, bunkers get 0 points while roamers get most.

So now, how does one get top stats? Take capturing an uncontested node. It takes a single person to cap a point, any more are a waste of time. If all players on a team are batteling among themselves to get top stats, people will stubbornly stay on modes with the whole team only to get stats. This is just one situational that could occur. What im trying to say is: not only does top stats NOT nessicarily mean you were the best player, but making your stats influence pip gain will cause some childish gameplay.

I use hoelbrak runes, sigils of air+strength. Switch Diamond skin with stone hearth imo, saying above 90 on marauder seems a bit too hard.

Hawke.1094:

Gewd.8125:

The problem is that raids call for specific classes and builds that you might not have ready.

For example, condi warrior wasn’t even a thing until now. And now in order to get an ascended condi war you have to do 20 hours worth of living story achievements and spend 1000+g on the armor and weapons not to mention the vision crystals.

Who knows what other oddball classes that future raids will require?

Or…you can change the stats of your ascended gear in 5 min with only a couple of gold? I’m pretty sure you can do that.

Mortifer.2946:

roelvanesch.2817:

I have my full ascended armor only over half complete now, and let me tell you, it took some kittening time. Why? Because I don’t enjoy braindead content. I’ve explored the world of Tyria, witnessed all the big events, tried dungeons and fractals. And then I grew bored. Some people just don’t like running dungeons or doin silverwastes events to farm gold. Unlike raids, its just not challenging. What makes you think someone who spend more time in the silverwastes pressing F will be better at raids then say a PvP player thats actually experienced in combat?

This

It doesnt work that way, sadly. Sometimes you cant just do what you think is fun, ignore what you dont like and expect other people to slow down for you. Yes, you dont have to get any ascended, but that doesnt mean other people have to put of with taking you into their raid.

You’re not entitled to such thing without working for it. Online games is like a society, and that’s how it works.

Sure, you paid for the game, you can do whatever you want with it. But others did too, and they can exclude you from their group if they want to. That’s the whole point, they have the right to ask for ascended only, and if you’re excluded, that’s your fault for not working/playing hard enough.

I am not saying everyone should allow full exotics. Just that the armor is way to expensive and the price should be lowered. Unlike before raids, ascended stats are needed in parts of the game that arent supposed to be a grind fest. Just put the gold sink into infusions.

Engi condi best condi

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

Samnang.1879:

Nobody wants necro or thieves in raids. You will be heavily discriminated.

I killed Gorseval today with a group that had a condi reaper.

@OP: Herald is probably the best class for VG and Sabetha, for Gorseval the best class is condi warrior.

Woodenpotatoes was talking about a epedemic strat that seemed to work quite well.

Hawke.1094:

ferdi.1452:

Hawke.1094:

Raids aren’t designed for people who’re satisfied with the normal standards. Raids are for those who want to face the challenges. And those are the people who actually work to improve themselves, and their gears.

Agreed, raids need to be a challenge. I just don’t see why getting gear for raids should also be a challenge.

Actually, getting gear for raid is not a challenge. Yes, if you look at it, making ascended is really complicated, but once you start working toward it bit by bit, it’s simple.

There are 2 things that make crafting ascended stuff seems complicated.

• The crafting system in this game looks confusing. Instead of getting the mats and craft the armor straight up, you have to get the mats, craft it into other mats, which is used to craft another component for the armor. So while it looks confusing, it’s actually not if you just see what material are needed and write them down somewhere.

• The people who look at it and thought it’s complicated then go and tell others how complicated it is. After that, the idea just spread like wild fire.

Who has ever said the confusing crafting system is the problem? The ridiculous amount of mats needed is.

If you are getting ascended armor, maybe ele and chrono are your best bets. This way, you can share everything between them.

I have my full ascended armor only over half complete now, and let me tell you, it took some kittening time. Why? Because I don’t enjoy braindead content. I’ve explored the world of Tyria, witnessed all the big events, tried dungeons and fractals. And then I grew bored. Some people just don’t like running dungeons or doin silverwastes events to farm gold. Unlike raids, its just not challenging. What makes you think someone who spend more time in the silverwastes pressing F will be better at raids then say a PvP player thats actually experienced in combat?

Even if DH is not op, its just 0 fun. I don’t think that lockdown like that of DH should be in the game. I never liked moa as well, and not because its op or anything. Any stun that requires more than an instant stunbreak+dodge out to get rid of is just too kitten annoying imho.

Ele has the highest power dps against everything standing still. Viper engineer against health sponges (raid bosses). Rev and mesmer give dps + group utility.

Alekt.5803:

roelvanesch.2817:

It gives a bit more. At 60% crit: 5 on dagger aa and 6 on scepter aa average.

Probably in PvE. I was talking to sPvP mostly without thinking too much about PvE.

I was testing pvp, ofc you have to keep hitting.

Not entirely true. Tempest is more that an auramancer, air and fire overloads do good damage. I prefer focus for breakbars over warhorn. For HiT content, if you mean raids only go earth if you tank. For other HoT content, whateverthekitten you feel like.

I prefer a swiftness enhancement of 7%, like Hardy conduit does with protection.

It gives a bit more. At 60% crit: 5 on dagger aa and 6 on scepter aa average.

Scepter needs a lot of buffs. These? Absolutely not. Dragons tooth van be a bit faster, but it should be easily evadable if not srunned (huge dmg, low cd). Phoenix direct target will miss sometimes and reduce its damage otherwise (cast it just behind the target for 3 damage instances). Water 2, that one needs way more than a speed up. Id suggest a reveal +radius increase. Water 3 targetable?! What if I want to heal myself or an ally??

ArthurDent.9538:

What is amazing is how all the insane visual clutter from dragon hunter traps and longbow 5 are left unchanged, not to mention all the petting zoo builds.

Those never bothered me. Why, they are completely invisible

Mattmatt.4962:

+1 to op

and as respect for his job, i’ll just leave this here to stya a bit respectfull:

“We test our game” – Anet

PS:
But i disagree on one thing, GW2 could perfectly be an e-sport game. But what people (what companies (here Anet), and some playe) fail to understand is that it’s the COMMUNITY that can create E-sport.

Just check what happenned to Starcraft1
quick sum up: Korea’s league of starcraft 1 all switched to SC2, but the huge fan base managed to make it back to E-sport scene by creating new organisation of SC1 tournament

Which is very much the reason Gw2 is NOT an Esport, the community doesnt see it as such.

Different tactics are legit.

1 area healing
2 knockback
3 going in late/dodging into the green circles to avoid them stacking up there, kiting.

Aoe dot fields would do the job most likely.

Would you be able to tank the vale guardian with this build? Yes, definitely. Is this build effective in beating the Vale Guardian? Not really imho.

Traits:
The traits seem to be pretty ok. Tempest trait line is the best choice by far, and earth fits the tank role 100%. Then, depending on your preference, fire air or water cone in third. Air will keep up your damage, fire enables you to build into condi and water would enable you to double up as a healer. For a power build, I absolutely agree with your choice of dagger/focus. The utilities seem ok as well. You might want to swap out “Flash-Freeze” to something else, like glyph of storms.

Now for the stats:
Since the damage from the Vale Guardian fight mainly DOES NOT derive from the Vale Guardian himself, but rather from area pressure (seekers, green circles, glowing pizza parts), the tank only needs as much takiness as is absolutely necessary. Therfore, I must advise against soldiers. With all the flat reduction the build has (40% protection, frost aura etc) staying alive in mostly zerk with some knights mixed in should be possible. The runes and the food also provide toughness, and as long as you have the most of the group, you should be fine.

Sigils and runes:
Damage sigils (air, force) would be preferable if it is within the budget. The same goes for scolar runes. Scrapper runes fit the tempest tank well, and should most definitely be taken into consideration if survivability is a problem. However, remember that even as a tank survivability should NOT be overdone.

Food:
Food is probably the best way for a tank to bring in toughness. However, if you really want to go crazy on the flat damage reduction, try out mussel food

This is all the advise I can give you with the experience I have with raids. I never tanked myself, since there always was someone stacking up toughness. Remember, try to lose as least damage as possible, surviving is NOT your only role as a tank!

emendez.3705:

think a swap would be a bit overpowered but like engineer that has no swap we access to only 2 sigils which hurts

You don’t mean weapon swap sigils? These work on element swap and kit swap, making them even more viable on ele/engi because of the low cd.

tetrodoxin.2134:

Can’t wait to see what tooltips they fixed this time

This, the last ‘balance’ patch didn’t adress any problems :’(

As pure dps, staff DD’s will probably have to complete with staff eles. Since Gorseval doesnt move much and has a big hitbox, ele will do considerably better. Maybe dd is good at the Sebatha fight?

invoker.3509:

I was definitely one of the people using this xp trick, lol. I knew it would get nerfed eventually I had the whole thing down to a science and I was making about a million xp an hour. But, in my defense, the other events that I worked to do hint hint metas… always disconnected me, its not bad having a nice bug for a change. Sorry for those that need it. I’m sure the solution involves having XP nerfed or entirely removed for repeated users. Or at the least, made more difficult as sad before.

Does that mean you spend over an hour eating virtual poisoned bacon? :’)

MashMash.1645:

roelvanesch.2817:

Did you try HP’s or MP’s? (Mastery Points don’t work)

Your answer in the other post helped :-D

As long as you got your answer

Did you try HP’s or MP’s? (Mastery Points don’t work)

MashMash.1645:

Did anyone find where to charge these?

I have the crafted component, but every place of power in the HoT maps I go to doesn’t give me the option to charge it.

I charged mine in the south-east most HP of Verdant Brink. Any channeling HP should work though, MPs don’t.

Saiyan.1704:

DS is a Hard Counter to ALL condi build variant, with the exception of hybrid builds and I guess Necros.

Necros too. Viper is a hybrid amulet (both power and condition damage are equal).

Viper is by no means a hybrid amulet, it invests only in the stats that boost condi damage in one way or another

I could find raids with a shout dps Tempest np (no meta staff), weird

Blade.8497:

FlashGamer.4017:

I find Herald rather strong, if not op, even with full zerk I have much sustain than I ever had on warrior. You just have use your skill strategically. Use Glint heal when you are about to get a big hit incomming, use Shiro heal when you are about to burst. Use Staff 5 and Sword 3 for Evades, pretty easy.

Pretty easy? Thats long rotation involved timing. With Dragon Hunter you just spam all traps and Guardian all meditations when you need heal.

Thats because Guardian is one of, if not the easiest spec out there. Maybe herald actually requires skill compared with Guardian

I don’t really see gw2 as a f2p game. You can get a ‘trail’ account with little restrictions for free. If you want more, you buy the game. They did advertise gw2 as going f2p, and I think they made some slight error there.

Azure.8670:

Verificus.4320:

To be honest that’s all true. Once raids go on farm mode people would rather run more of the better classes like revs than use Tempest. The DPS is high but thats about it. All the previous roles Ele has had in vanilla PvE have now been taken by other classes, and they are doing it better. DPS is all they have left and such I could only see Ele being brought if a guild doesn’t have access to a third rev.

on this point,

you only need 10 engis

condi/power/tank 2-4 take scrapper line for ranged res easy might stacking highest dps easy tanking

this will def be meta, MAYBE one warrior for banners

How ’bout boonstripping? Better bring a single chrono as well

This is the first raid. Of course it doesnt include every single mechanic gw2 gives you. Quite some things already found their use that weren’t used too much before.

Condi, hard CC (breakbar) , boonstrip, blinks (green circles), soft CC (Gorseval)

Snap ground target. You probably shouldnt…

Thoughness under x, where x is the thoughness of the raid’s tank, really has nothing to do with this. You’ll draw aggro if you have a higher amount. That being said, as long as the content remains difficult, meta-builds will be required from most people. You don’t want to spend hours on trying the rate to find out you are lacking the dps to make it. The only way to prevent this is frequent balance patches to make more stuff viable. Remains to be de en if Anet will ever do that.