Guild Wars 2

Um… Thief does this job better, and doesn’t need to rely on an awkward bounce mechanic after blowing utilities.

Also thief can delay it’s burst much longer than the few lengthy stealth cooldowns power shatter has, which by comparison forcibly pressures responses with little risk.

Domination power mesmer has better range damage, and access to stuns, but it’s still pretty bad by comparison. Even Guardian/DH Meditation builds are more reliable.

But Mesmer is the problem? I’m fine with nerfs, but lets not start by nerfing the worst and already questionably viable one.

Just as an FYI regarding Macros, packet loss lag does often look like macros are being used against you.

megilandil.7506:

Hirasaki.6208:

An equally skilled meta DH > equally skilled meta (insert any other non-dh class) > lesser skilled DH > lesser skilled (insert any other non-dh class).

Why even bother playing any other class. Sword+Focus/Bow meditation meta DH for days.

DH’s blocks are so OP they even blocked the nerf bat.

blocks arent OP, blocks block one, two, thre… attaks, during a short time gate, invuln blocks all incoming attacks in the same timegate

guardians are the heavy class whith less HP pool , their true hp pool is hidden in blocks amd heals and guards are designed for being a front line tank, without blocks and heals guardians are a glass cannon whith weet powder

Go play a non-dh toon and go find a meta dh (sword/focus + Longbow meditation DH) who knows how to play and try to take his point or defend a point from him. Preferably someone in the Legendary League. IF you cant find one there is one hanging out in server 001 hotjoin at some time with initials A.E. Norn DH. No he’s not the best but he’s the easiest to find and can show you how OP DH is.

I’m going to kick this post off by admitting that I am fully away that I was never in any way important in the GW2 PvP scene. Also, I tend to ramble on. What I was however – was someone that was fairly active on these forums. This was because despite all of the flaws the basic mechanics of the game were super fun and unlike anything else I had played. There are plenty of character action games, but none with this level of variety and customization in a 3rd person perspective.

After putting up with parts of the game that bugged me, mostly balance, I eventually just stopped playing PvP altogether. These day, I only sign on to do solo PvE content. THe main reason I ended up leaving was simple, there was so much power creep and bloat that the gameplay became a huge mess.

Go look at PvP from the launch of the game and compare it to now. The pacing is almost absurdly fast now. This is mostly due to the design of the Elite Specializations. Rather than being simply a new playstyle, many were just flat out upgrades. Berserker feels like Warrior+, Chronomancer adds a new ability, Dragon Hunter gets WAAAAY better virtues, etc. The only Elite Spec that felt truly like a different playstyle to me was Reaper. Instead of carefully using your skills, you’re almost constantly throwing skills around now. You see many players just using rotations regardless of what the enemy is doing.

Now, the Elite Specs weren’t the only reason for power creep, there was the merging of many different traits in the original Specialization update. It’s a system I like conceptually, but it may have been better if certain traits had just just disappeared or receive more significant nerfs before being merged together. Almost every class got a huge boost in overall power and then HoT came and added even more must-use traits.

I’m sure some players prefer this faster pace, but I for one can’t even be bothered to watch GW2 PvP anymore because the screen is just a mess of skills and particle effects – which is funny since that was a complaint you saw a lot at launch. Even with me knowing what is going on it can still be hard to make any sense out of it.

My other major issue that has also been present since launch is the overall class balance. We all know balancing a game like is is impossible, but GW2 has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Warriors started off at the ultimate noob killers, then were useless, then were dominating as Hambow, then they did nothing well, then Shoutbow became a thing, then it became weak again, and now they seem to be OK but are lacking much of the variety the class used to have. Ele also had a fairly similar experience of up-and-down balance.

My timeframe may be a little off but I believe that the time of the Hambow Warrior was one of best in terms of balance we have ever seen, with the exception of the Hambow build itself. Warrior could do pretty much any role you wanted. It may not have been the best at it, but it was at the very least viable. You could do CC on Hammer, stack a crazy number of bleeds on Sword/Sword, provide support with Shouts, and straight up DPS with Axe and GS. That kind of variety is what I think all classes should aspire to. They can all fill a Support, Physical Damage, Condition Damage, or Control role, but in different ways. For example, Warrior being really good at stacking one condition but Necromancer applies a moderate amount of many different condis.

The framework for this seems to be present in most classes, and is probably what the Devs originally wanted. They were killing the holy trinity by making every class able to fulfill every role. The problem is that now most “meta” classes are able to do a bunch of different roles in one build instead of having to focus on one primary role and maybe one or two lesser roles. Again, I think this is because many traits have too many different effects. Simplifying the trait system would hopefully allow for more defined roles with less bloat.

I posted this stuff 2 years ago before anyone realised it happened and I got silenced by community members who just wanted buffs for their classes. Look at the game now. It is dead and I was right all along.

Spam a rotation is what this game is now. Used to be you would have a bunker guardian at mid who would pop stab when the warrior switched to hammer and use protection when a spike was coming onto a team mate. No more. Now its just spam and 24/7 boons.

Some great developers made this game but they must have left after launch. They cant go back now. Its a PvE game at its core. They cant nerf everything because all pve players would quit. The result is a game which can only get worse. Once power creep starts it cannot be stopped. GW2 is a case study in how to ruin a game imo.

Food that adds power / precision / ferocity / % modifier are never able to make up what you lose by using so much commander gear.

It’s strongly suggest you use 20% or even 30% boon duration food. It’s a bit expensive I know, but you can also get those 10% utilities cheaper if you buy the recipe and craft ’em yourself.

Until your leadership set, juse use 4 times these and 2 platinum doubloons.

I’m in a hurry, I’ll help you out with more detailed information once I’m back home in ~5 hourse, maybe more :< see ya!

Thing is, ANY class that is stacked and the players team up is inherently OP.

Enough is enough. I’ve just come from a game in which I was on a side that was all light and medium against 2 DH, 2 Eles and a War. That kind of unfun game is killing PvP.

It would lengthen queues you say? Who cares I say. People would have to branch out and not just play the flavor of the month. Overall game quality would improve. Then population might return.

Allow people to see how many of each class are in the queues. It doesn’t have to be exact, just a bar chart.

So, there are too many dh playing at the moment. This leads to nerf calls which inevitably will eventually allow the rise of a new flavor of the month and the cycle repeats. This is not balance and it will never settle to a good place.

tl;dr

Im playing DH since its very rewarding. Never had any intentions to play Guard before HoT came out because it was too defensive. Traps were a massive problem since the beginning and is (imo) the worst game design this game has ever had.

Test of Faith’s damage was down patched 2 (!!) times in order get some kind of balance here.
I still think the guy in charge for that should not be allowed to design any game mechanic ever again. Heck, I will not buy another addon if the next will end with the same unbalanced desaster like we had on HoT.

However, Im currently playing condi Warrior as well and Ive noticed that one of my biggest problems is the insane amount of blindness application. I looks like the Guard blocks so often but in fact you simply often miss because of blindness state.
That would be my first intention to rebalance because you dont need to touch the DH core mechanic that much then.

Been having ridiculous fun the past couple of days with this…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8fnsICNqhNoBmpBMrhFVjiMAGhirsDOutpuZj2qF-TpBCwAYOIAAuAAhLDQd/hMHBAGPAAA

I dunno, maybe I’ve just been lucky with the PuGs, but overall I am having more fun with this then the condie meta build. The burst damage output is very nice, but it is of course very squishy, so expect to die a bit more than in the meta condie build.

The jist of it is “lockdowns” with the 3.9s Stuns and Moas, with the burst damage to kill people before the effect wears off. Otherwise I stay off to the sides in point fights, crapping out iZerkers and/or controlling targets for my team.

I tried this with Shield too ofc, but Torch is working better for me defensively in this kinda Thief-like play style.

Just thought I’d share, because I’m a bit tired of the condie meta myself, so maybe someone else will enjoy it as well. This is not to say it trumps the meta build, but I’m having a blast and I personally feel like I’m doing better as well, for whatever reason that may be. (Bad enemies? Other current meta builds being poorly equipped to deal with this? Or just plain luck. ;-) )

It’s probably just a fun pug build and not meta worthy…oh well!

iZerker->SoD->MS->F1->MB->respawned iZerker hits again [->optional F2]

P.S. Sorry, I don’t record videos. Just try it if you’re in the mood for a Power based build to break the monotony of condie shatter.

Tiny Doom.4380:

Is it dying? No.

Are there fewer people playing WvW than there used to be? I would definitely say so from my experience, and in all four tiers too, but I don’t play NA Prime so can’t speak for that.

Is WvW lacking direction at the moment? It seems so.

Is it still fun? It is for me although it varies match to match.

I don’t know how people can say this with a straight face. Obviously it’s dying, it’s obvious it has way less players than even 6 months ago, nevermind what it was before hot or at release. They’ve had to fold the servers in half with links to get it back to pre hot level, and even now it feels like it could use another fold.

Please stop trying to hide that fact, call it like it is.

People come in here to complain because the current format will not sustain itself, and there’s barely anything to get new players into the game mode. While some of you might see a lot of qq and salt, a lot of changes that made it into the game were born from these forums.

A loud minority may be in here, but at least there’s someone to say something, than the other silent half that just packed their bags and left never to come back to the game.

You know that you can’t compare solo q necros and esl necros right?

Solo q necro → none support or care about you. Dead necro to any focus.
ESL necro → the best known teamplayers support their necro.

Solo players problem with necromancer: Its weak target on his own without good defenses. Can’t do nothing if your team don’t have good dps pressure / you don’t get any support.

Solo players will complain a lot about necromancer because its very hard and sometimes painful to play it with pugs that dont care about you and far from as viable as other classes for solo play. Players see this as they are not stuped so they make topic here.
This probably isn’t the last necro complain topic.

In the Name of the Eternal Alchemy*

Xenesis.6389:

There isn’t even anything major to look forward to for wvw, nothing, nada.

Wish ANet would realize that the “End Game” product that was driving their GW2 gems sales in the Long Term was Player Communities.

Players return to play daily because they want to see their friends & family.

Providing lots of “surface areas” for Communities to be born, grow, die…and then be re-born again…is what will allow ANet to keep the embers burning & gems sales going strong in the future based on a Long Term strategy…imho

To your first point of sarcasm, you can be kitten if you want.

Melee builds were viable. I don’t follow esports and care little for pre-made teams. But as a solo queuer pvp and solo roamer it was definitely competitive choice to play. Maybe not in your world where anything that’s not meta is invalid. Even now it’s not a terrible choice to be melee, though it needs some improvements. Viability isn’t based on popularity.

To your third point, it evades while dealing damage. When more mesmers were power shatter builds, it was mostly paired with shatters for bigger burst. It’s a dps weapon and the reason it evades is because it roots the player while they’re doing damage. But that could also be used defensively. It has the highest damage out of auto attack out of all weapons available to us. It just so happens it’s hard to keep it up with cripple. It is a dps weapon for melee players. I’m gonna assume you’re basing your judgement on what is most popular, then it is a defensive weapon for people who only bring it for the evasion.

The meta is dynamic. It always flip flops. It’s always changing. Maybe you don’t remember there was an era of most people running bunker. Before that most people were running zerker sets but thieves were causing too much havoc at the time. the flow of the meta goes by what people are trying to counter most. Therefore it changes with every balance patch.

Telling someone to play another class is trolling. There’s no exchange in that kind of discussion. It’s simply, “don’t like it, leave”. I was telling my friend that the forums function a lot like society. In society they stress individualism, but if you stand out, they want you to conform. In this game, people want build diversity, but then only the single most popular build is the only one that’s viable, though there can be success with many others for people willing to experiment and go against the grain.

All classes, for the most part, have the potential to be all things. Warriors used to have a shout healing build. Who would have thought you could play a healing warrior? Mesmers have a healing build, and a tank build. It has a dps build, it just so happens the damage sucks, because it’s totally outshined by maximizing boonshare. Eles used to run bunkers. The potential is there. I once saw a video of vale guardian tanked by a thief. You’re mistaken on this point.

It’s true that other classes have a variety of melee weapons instead of just one. that’s just my unfortunate luck that I fell in love with the class that only has one, so I make it work. sword/sword and sword/x is a viable set up. Like i said before, i don’t follow professonal gamers and copy their builds. I play in unranked as a solo queuer and after 4200 matches as melee mesmer, my winrate is more than my losses.

And I agree, the game is intended for wep swap. It’s worth it to me to keep sword in main hand on both wep sets. I actually thought it would be ridiculous, but realized i play much better this way. I have much more success. With demolisher’s amulet i can participate in group fights, and still be an asset to the team.

And I’m a reasonable guy. But I don’t take advice from people who doesn’t have anything to add to the discussion but play another class if you don’t like it. There’s no exchange of ideas in that kind of discussion.

Let me explain then. Shatters are burst. Sustain is how you maintain damage when your burst skills are on cd. The reason mesmers dps is so low is because they have a lot of burst in pvp, that’s supposed to justify their lack of sustain dps in pve and pvp. The issue in PvE is mostly issues with scaling. In PvP, the issue is extremely limited access to slows that a melee mesmer would need. I don’t have superiority complex. But people on the forums are too quick to tell someone they’re playing wrong. The thread isn’t even about my skills as a player. It’s about petitioning for more access to cripple for melee builds.

RodOfDeath.5247:

Wish I could find the video, but a veteran live steamer player came back for fun and played his warrior. He basically did nothing, hasn’t practiced roaming in awhile, and was clicking random buttons taking on multiple players at once just laughing at how broken the game has become.

I’ll post if I can find, but it pointed out how OP warrior is and takes zero skill to play.

To add, I think it was evidence of how ridiculous some of these HoT classes/builds are currently. Super healing, toughness, resistance while hitting like a mac truck with little skill needed to master a class along with super speed escapes and now more stealth as I’m seeing with nearly every class. Things that use to be unique to a class now everyone has access to.

The game is becoming very vanilla and less diverse by the update.

It just makes for uninteresting fights where one player is forced to run away. Pre-HoT, you could get into single combat with most classes and expect that it would end with one of you dead. It was exciting. Now, you have to contend with too much invuln and stab and resistance. These are all good things in moderation, but you can’t fight them. You have to run. If your opponent gets 8 seconds of invuln while still being able to damage you, you have to run away. If you’re a condi class and your opponent gets 15 seconds of resistance, you have to run away. If your class relies on landing CC and your opponent has 15s of stability, you have to run.

This is boring. It’s not just a problem with Warrior, but Warrior is the most obvious example because the class seems to be designed to use stances, then run until they’re up again.

coro.3176:

Pre-HoT, dueling a Warrior with my Engi used to be a really fun fight. It was like playing Street Fighter. You both go at each other with attacks. Whoever landed their big hits while dodging their opponent’s would win.

I miss that.

Now, it’s more like “Aw kitten they’ve got stab and invuln and alltheboons, better run away and break combat … phew. made it, okay their stances are done. Time to turn around and fight .. aaaand they’re running away. sigh.. Oh no! Their stances are up again? better run away and break combat”

Sadly that counts for the entire hot spec across all classes.Less skill,more spammable skils ( burst when it coms to warri ),invulns,lotta regen…lotta ways to mess up and still be allright.The skill floor dropped massively when hot released IMO.

coro.3176:

… lots of good stuff…

At the end of the day, that warrior is a hard-counter to rifle engi. The problem is that warrior is a hard counter/play for many players no matter the class.
I have a real hard time against warriors to the point where I just refuse to engage them (1v1) most times. It’s not a fun fight. Period.

@Jim Hunter, no, one stun break will not be the difference in that fight.

And the engi that can keep pace with the runaway warrior has a severely kitten build.

That wasn’t a problem before HoT though. I could run without a stunbreak because I could dodge the cc or otherwise avoid it through skilled play.
That’s not possible any more no matter what I do. The taunt is unblockable, undodgeable, instant. If I’m ever in melee range and the warrior activates berserk mode, I lose. From there, they can chain stuns until I’m dead. There’s no counterplay to it aside from staying at range the entire fight (IMO, makes for boring duels and Rifle engi was designed to get in melee range for Jump Shot and Blunderbuss).

As a rifle engi, (toolkit, nades, rocket boots) I find fighting warriors really frustrating.

Before HoT powercreep, I used to have no problem getting in close with a warrior and trading hits. Now, I have to kite like my life depends on it and pray they never get within 300 range or so.

• If they get close to me and manage to get a taunt combo off, I lose. That instantly takes me from full health to below 25%. They’re faster than me and have stability, so I can’t cc them or escape.
• If they land any one of their stuns, I lose. Rocket boots isn’t a stun-break.
• If I land any of my cc’s, they just break stun and continue fighting.
• They have stability and resistance for a good portion of the fight, so I can’t use my cc’s. Overcharged Shot, Net shot, Magnet
• They have more sustain – They regen health faster than I can deal damage, considering I have to spend a lot of time kiting and maintaining distance.

If at any time I make one mistake (fail to dodge a stun, be too close and get hit by the unblockable undodgeable taunt, use Overcharged Shot when war has stab, Net shot when they have resistance) I lose the fight right there.

If I do everything right and kite perfectly for 2 minutes while still dealing more damage than their regen, .. they just run away until their stances recharge again, and I can’t catch them because they’re faster than me.

I am getting sick and tired of the warrior roamers in WvW. Every time I come up against these guys there nearly impossible to beat in solo combat, and anytime they realize there not going to win they run away heal and run back.

Here are the biggest issues with the build.
Outrage – breaks stuns with a ten second recharge. I don’t even know a CC with a 10 second recharge.
8 seconds of invulnerability – with Endure Pain/Defy Pain this also has no downside as they can attack while invulnerable.
Last Stand – Instant stun-breaker and 8 seconds of Stability
1.5k toughness and 20k health
Berserk + Eternal Champion – Berserk effects and stability, fury, Quickness, Swiftness. Plus might when you stun-break.
Healing Signet – No need to even stop to heal.

and the big issue.
3 leaps – allowing to move 2,250 units away in 3.75 seconds. With recharges in 8s, 10s, 20s.

I have seen the warrior win 3:1 I have seen the warrior escape chasing zergs by running half way across the map and back into a tower. This warrior build is pretty much broken in all aspects. I don’t know why this has been allowed to go on for so long.

???
_________
80 30m Bowl of Lemongrass Mussel Pasta.png Bowl of Lemongrass Mussel Pasta +10% Damage Reduction
+70 Toughness
80 30m Bowl of Mussel Soup.png Bowl of Mussel Soup +10% Damage Reduction
+70 Vitality
80 30m Plate of Mussels Gnashblade.png Plate of Mussels Gnashblade +10% Damage Reduction
+15% Boon Duration
80 30m Bowl of Curry Mussel Soup.png Bowl of Curry Mussel Soup +10% Damage Reduction
+5% Condition-Damage Reduction
_________

Like what in the actual kitten? Closest we have in offense is a 10% damage WHILE MOVING, and its paired with a ‘chance’ to get swiftness. And that while moving thing is skill specific, so many won’t work with it. Condition x Condition.
While these damage reduction foods get what…..no conditions to them, and a SECOND tank stat! GENIUS!

Like why the meta is horrid……cause stuff like this exists all over the game, in every nook and cranny. You just said cranny.

The fact they cost a bit more doesn’t make it okay. Seaweed salad used to be 50s before ember bay came…..thats the same pricing as these defensive foods, yet its so limited.

While were on the topic, the most powerful foods and the cheapest ones are defensive stat’d. Most of the unique stat’d food have defensive secondary stats. There is just so much variation if you are looking for defensive stats. Yet so little if you look at offensive.

Needs a fix. The only thing offensive foods have going for them are writs. But THOSE REALLY actually cost an arm and a leg to use..,like seriously they are not viable for anyone unless you have boosters or run very large guild/event runs (i mean they gotta be verryyyyyyy large (30+ min) to justify 25gold per 1 hour feast)
I mean by the time they fix this and lower the cost I’m sure they will have defensive writs. 200 healing while above 90% health……20% boon duration while above 90% health…..oh gawddd its gonna be horrible.
+200 vitality while above 90% hp….lmao
+200 toughness while above 90% hp…..nahhh

Nerve Hurter Lasagna:
+10% damage
+70 power
There I just made my dream food.

Lemon Juice:
+10% condition damage
+10% condition duration
Does that sound too bad to be a reality? Well there’s already something even worse ingame already: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prickly_Pear_Stuffed_Nopal

Infact boon duration and condi durations far outstrip % damage increases in most situations for most classes. Food is so messy atm.

Here ill make some more that have existing ridiculous equivalents already ingame:
Mr Noodle noodles:
+15% damage
+10% exp from kills

Salted Lemon Juice:
+30% condition duration
+10% exp from kills

WEll ur right that 2nd one is probably overpowered compared to what we currently have in options…..make it +25% condition duration and noone can complain lol…..since something similar already exists SO ITS OKAY TO ADD MORE.
And mr noodle nooodles is wayyyy better than my supposed dream food from before. 5% damage is what….about 150 power for most people. So i mean its only 450 power….i we can get 300 power from on kill foods but who cares HoT meta says conditions are for loser foods. So it creates new ones that are better and have no conditions, and says the old ones are just for the lulz.
There are literally 3 giant sets of foods that are worthless cause of this idealogy. +15%poison/burning/chill…….like why in the kitten do these even exist when you offer a +20% condition duration food that covers all condition types and gives you an extra +5%…..what in the kitten?!?!?!

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fancy_Veggie_Pizza
its a level 50 food that far outstrips 3 differnt level 80 foods with the same stats….lol. Ya I’d definitely say 1% condition duration is better than 10 condi damage. Ya I’d definitely say +15% condi duration is better than just +15% chill duration…..lol

% damage is multiplicative stacking, so we can’t put it in unless its defensive oriented? Maybe thats anets line of thinking…..lol. even though stacking all kinds of those % damages only nets a few extra %’s at most.

Hoaxintelligence.4628:

It does not need a fix. Foodbuffs are oke. Wvw in unbalanced anyway.

Food buffs are now all balanced. Hoax has cleared the floor. Its all fixed now.

+10% damage reduction while standing still = +10% damage
+10% damage reduction while moving = +10% damage
+10% damage while moving = +10% damage
+20% condition duration = +15% poison duration
+15% burning duration = +20% condition duration.
…

Hoax you fixed everything, by adding equal signs we have solved all the problems. Ty, plz return to the university at once you are needed there to solve more problems for humanity.

I’m too busy dodging cannon balls to know if druids are balanced or not.

Something to finally love me, 46 is lonely without every feeling the warmth of a woman. I’m ok with male or female now just someone to love me.

Xenesis.6389:

Time to introduce the Asuran Gundams that went missing a millennia ago in one of the long forgotten lost wars.

You mean this thing?

It has a Turbo Laser that kills everything.