Guild Wars 2

Aberrant.6749:

Alarox.4590:

Aberrant.6749:

GS is far from OP… other than vs trash mobs…. and that’s just trash anyways, so I don’t count that for very much. Gs is in need of some tweaking to improve it imo.

Hammer is the opposite… I would be against removing/changing any of the current skills on the hammer. Especially mighty blow. Dealing with a slower attack speed seems like a l2p issue more than anything.

Edit: Maybe the problem is what perspective you’re coming from. In PvE the Hammer is fine, but in PvP it’s a whole different ballgame.

L2P to partially compensate yeah, but any Guardian who has spent a couple dozen hours with it knows all the tricks and tactics. It doesn’t change the fact that you have to compensate in many situations due to the design.

I played with the Hammer from 2-80 and for about 1-2 months after, constantly. After mastering all the other weapons I realized that I learned to deal with the ‘1’ chain rather than actually enjoying it like I do with the rest of the weapon.

And yeah, GS isn’t OP, just effective.

I play WvW more than any other game mode… and use Hammer the vast majority of the time. From 1-80 I used a gs to level with… and in PvP I used to use a GS for the AH + Vigor heals but that’s rubbish now.

Hammer is great in PvP and PvE once you learn to compensate for the slow 3rd attack. The 3rd (which as others have stated) puts down the symbol regardless if you hit or not… and is easy access to aoe retal… retal is one of the best buffs in PvP… Hammer just gives you so many tatical options.

I’m leaning towards it being opinion for the most part, for or against the Hammer design.

Aberrant.6749:

GS is far from OP… other than vs trash mobs…. and that’s just trash anyways, so I don’t count that for very much. Gs is in need of some tweaking to improve it imo.

Hammer is the opposite… I would be against removing/changing any of the current skills on the hammer. Especially mighty blow. Dealing with a slower attack speed seems like a l2p issue more than anything.

Edit: Maybe the problem is what perspectives we’re coming from. In PvE the Hammer is fine (in fact it’s amazing), but in PvP it’s different.

L2P to partially compensate yeah, but any Guardian who has spent a couple dozen hours with it knows all the tricks and tactics. It doesn’t change the fact that you have to compensate in many situations due to the design.

I played with the Hammer from 2-80 and for about 1-2 months after, constantly. After mastering all the other weapons I realized that I learned to deal with the ‘1’ chain rather than actually enjoying it like I do with the rest of the weapon.

And yeah, GS isn’t OP, just effective.

Post your favorite weapon and why it’s so awesome below!

For me, I’ve played the Guardian for about 900 hours in beta + post-release. I’ve tried every possible combination, and I can’t decide which one is my favorite.

Aberrant.6749:

Alarox.4590:

Make the 3rd hit trigger faster and reduce damage to compensate proportionately.

Same DPS, more effectiveness.

Wouldn’t keep it balanced as you would have more protection + aoe retaliation (mighty blow) uptime.

Seriously just leave it alone. It’s our best 2h weapon. Yea it’s a little slow to balance it out… but it’s nothing you can’t compensate for with practice. This is very much a l2p issue.

Not really, you can’t make something that isn’t useful for the situation into something useful for the situation by “learning to play”. You can learn to somewhat compensate, yeah, but you can’t magically make something better than it is. The truth about Symbol of Protection is that it is an obvious animation that makes it easy to avoid, and to be worth the cast time (important) your enemy has to be willing to stand in the Symbol with you. In PvE it is by far the best Auto-attack. For point defense it’s also very useful. However, outside of situations like those, the ‘1’ chain is more trouble than it’s worth, as a short auto attack with less damage would do MORE damage due to the Symbol needing time to deal it’s damage while a quick one is instant. Plus, too often you’re presented with the choice of either completing the chain or casting Might Blow, and more often than not Mighty Blow is the better option.

Show me your statistics and conclusive proof showing that many people are leaving GW2. You’ll also have to define many. Until that happens, anything else is null.

Until that time comes, the only thing for an objective person to conclude is that you wanted to voice your complaints about GW2 under the guise of explaining why “many” people left GW2.

Thread title should be “I’m not satisfied with WvW so I’m going to make a blanket statement addressing 1/3 the game across all servers to make my thread sound alarming!”

Although, it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.

Make the 3rd hit trigger faster and reduce damage to compensate proportionately.

Same DPS, more effectiveness.

My guild currently uses a tactic like this with multiple Guardians, in conjunction with our Necromancers to mass strip boons (no stability). It can stop a zerg of 100 in it’s tracks.

We have ourselves trained up so that we’re in groups for easy identification, and we break into a line at a moment’s notice. Ring of Warding + Wall of Reflection into Staff ‘1’ spam + Line of Warding at RoW’s end.

1.) There’s plenty of competition. If you really think there isn’t, then define what WvW competition is/should be.

2.) I can’t believe people are still upset over server transfers. First of all, people should be able to play on whatever server they want. Just because it would benefit you if someone was on your server, it doesn’t mean that you should have a stranglehold over that person. It’s the same exact concept of slavery that you’re advocating. “Force people to do what I want them to do because I want them to”. Secondly, I’m rather sick of the elitist attitude people have. Apparently if you transfer off of your server, you must have done it because you just want an easy win. If you stay on your server, you must be a holy saint because of your collectivist attitude. How about this. Maybe people transfer because they want to truly enjoy WvW and your server isn’t cutting it.

Balidore.2790:

Server hopping has gotten so common, and completely out hand, it’s truly ruining this game.
*Especially for the lower tiers with small populations…

1.) Show me evidence that there’s so much server hopping. Your feelings do not count.

2.) Those poor low tier servers… how dare those high tier servers have people who like to WvW! This has to be put to a stop. I think we should force people who like to WvW to be put on lower tier servers and have to pay money to leave! After all, those PvE dominated servers deserve to have WvW players work for them by PvDoor for eternity. Unless everybody is a winner, we should force everyone to lose!

Off-hand focus. Don’t equip two weapon sets, or a main hand weapon. You don’t need to, the Focus is the best.

I’ve lost an Omega Golem because some random troll decided to spam ‘F’ as I built it with another guild. He then decided to log out and delete the Omega.

You should be able to walk up to them and channel a corpse burning/burying, forcing them to only have a map view to respawn.

1.) Eliminates no-effort spying that is 10x more effective in most cases.

2.) Allows smaller more coordinated and more skillful groups to fight larger groups.

If I have a team of 30 and we bait/bleed and strafing run through a group of 80, it’s still very difficult to win. Not because they’re countering us on the field or using superior tactics, but because the second we run through and kill a chunk of them, we’re at low health and need to regroup but they can just rez everyone up. Nothing like killing a group of 80 players 3x over and still losing.

If you take X% damage to your total health pool while stealthed, you become unstealthed for Y seconds.

As it is now, everyone is biased. We’re currently discussing two extremes, current OP or underpowered. Most Thieves would prefer to be OP, almost everyone else would prefer Thieves to be underpowered if those were the only two options. IMO we should all just want balance.

The problem with Thieves is that Stealth is the ultimate defense and the ultimate offense. It allows you to engage any fight on your terms and suffer no penalty for failure. Stealth in, burst someone by mashing buttons, if they’re a good player they will go 110% to counter that burst. If that burst fails, the Thief stealths and waits for initiative, then tries again.

Thieves currently have the advantage against ranged characters by being able to easily stay in melee, and have the advantage against melee characters by being able to easily stay at range.

I don’t believe the Stealth mechanic should be removed, but it needs to be BALANCED. I pity good Thieves atm since it’s relatively faceroll with the perma-stealth builds. When anyone can do well with little effort, the good players don’t stand out and aren’t rewarded for their skill.

nerva.7940:

5. Reduce bunker effectiveness. Hit the guard with the nerf bat one more time. In the knee cap. Engie, ranger and necro are in a decent spot.

This is coming from a Guardian who hates playing bunker, and refuses to do so.

If you’re going to (again) nerf the ONLY thing Guardians have over any other Profession, and that we can do competitively, fix the numerous problems we already have. The reason you see so much bunker is that we’re not great at much else.

leman.7682:

You have created a [Mesmer, Guardian, Thief/Ele] Holy Trinity.

If you like bunker, then yes Guardian. The only reason you see so much bunker is because we can’t do anything else better than anyone else, and even then this new D/D Elementalist bunker seems to be more effective with more damage and CC.

-Portal Bombs mixed with other tactics against forces larger than yours
-Sieges on Garrison or an EB Keep against an enemy with queues on that map
-Keep ninja-ing (when you rush in, kill both servers inside, and take it for your own)

Post things like the above for your guild, those are the things that will ‘wow’ people.

Catisa.6507:

Golem rushes LOL, that’s not a real tactic, that’s how people/guilds without tactics buy their way into fortifications.

Note: Following is not for my guild, just proving a point to this guy.

How about break through one gate in Garrison and have your guys attack the inner gate, then portal your golems into a blitz on a different outer gate, then portal all your guys into the lord room?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TIzyGDVEeXI#!

I agree with this as well, and for another very important reason.

In February new things will be added to WvW, hopefully gear and rewards for badges.

However, to get the items it will be balanced around the assumption that we do jumping puzzles for the badges. This is because if it’s balanced around us getting badges from enemy drops, then it’ll be very easy to get the items with the jumping puzzles.

Meaning, if you’re someone who just WvWs all day long and goes for the win, you’ll be screwed over. If you’re someone who doesn’t like WvW but just goes there for the JP, then you’ll be in good shape.

That’s the wrong way to handle it.

Good luck to everyone tonight, let’s have some good fights!

I should have read this thread first!

Sorry if I ended up making your job harder. The temptation to sate your need to feel like you’ve done everything possible is tough to resist.

Leap of Faith is bugged currently. It’s very powerful, since you can effectively get +15% damage every engagement.

Regarding Guardians: How much of that is non-bunker? Minus bunker, it seems to be a different story, sadly.

There are 2 prominent D/D builds. There’s the tanky one with CC that kills you over time, and there’s the bursty one with CC that tries to kill you quickly and usually fails against competent players. The first one is very good, the second one is rather easy to counter.

Tarsius.3170:

Since the last patch, the GS Leap of Faith’s vulnerability stack is multiplied by the number of enemies it hits. So if you manage to catch a whole group, you apply 18 stacks of vulnerability to them all in one hit.

I can’t imagine that doesn’t get changed at some point though.

^ Tested and confirmed. It’s pretty nice if you’re into the Greatsword and want burst damage.

Aberrant.6749:

I have few problems with people running away while using a hammer as my main weapon. JI + RoW is amazing… and hillarious to watch people go kitten " as they try to cross it and fall down. The only class I have issues with some times are eles… that mist form…

Only problem is if they’re smart enough to counter it. A teleport, invulnerability, or Stability will get right passed it. There’s also the issue of people getting lucky and bouncing out of the ring. (However, I’ve seen cases where people bounce into the ring.

I agree with you that people do have trouble escaping when I use the Hammer, but a 2s immobilize and a 5s ring aren’t enough to hold down any kind of mobility build, especially when that person is skilled and/or using perma-swiftness. That’s why I use Scepter/Hammer with Signet of Wrath and Superior Sigil of Ice.

(To view the builds, copy/paste the link)

Since the latest patch I’ve been working on a new build. I’ve tried a lot of things, but I think this build is the ideal:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNArdSlYgKCnEyKEfIFRuAbGAkg1HwHODNCfA;TIA7CmJA

It’s a build that seems to be pretty good at dealing damage, CC, buffing, and decent survival. It’s not a glass cannon, but it’s not a buffing machine. It’s not bunker either. So far I’ve used it in PvE and WvW with great results. I’m not sure exactly how it would function in sPvP

Other than the high base damage stats this gives, the damage comes from maintaining multiple stacks of Vulnerability on enemies, plus the 10% increased damage you receive from hitting an enemy that has conditions (which they always will, 100% of the time). There’s also the 10% increased damage from not having 100% Endurace, so it’s effectively +20% damage plus any amount of vulnerability on a target (can spike to 25 stacks if needed).

Note: Empowering Might on this build can maintain at least 3x Might with bursts to 6 from VoJ. The effect of Might is calculated as a standard Power/Cond damage increase, meaning it’s effect is calculated before Vulnerability and other passive % increases in damage. Might will be anywhere from 20-45% more effective because of this.

The three main traits giving Vulnerability are Blinding Jeopardy (5vuln for 8s on Immobilize), Blind Exposure (3vuln for 5s on Blind), and Symbolic Exposure (1vuln per symbol tick).

In the build you have 3 Immobilizes: Chains of Light, Signet of Wrath, and Zealot’s Embrace, all on an average CD of 20s. Chains of light inflicts 3vuln base in addition to the 5vuln from the trait. Chained, this can be 18vuln for 10s at 900-1200 range in a matter of seconds. Also, Zealot’s Embrace hits multiple targets, and therefore inflicts 5vuln to multiple enemies.

In the build you have 2 sources of Blind: VoJ activation and Ray of Judgement (focus). VoJ is an AoE blind and is therefore an AoE Vulnerability. Same goes for Ray of Light, except it can trigger multiple times on a single enemy. If you’re fighting multiple enemies, you can essentially spam VoJ as they die and reach high stacks of vuln on multiple enemies.

In the build there are only 2 Symbols, Symbol of Wrath (25% health) and Symbol of Protection (hammer chain). Symbol of Protection actually triggers 2 stacks of Vulnerability on the initial hit due to the swing, and ticks for 1vuln every hit thereafter. This Symbol can hit 5 enemies and is traited for a large radius in Honor.

With regards to support/survival, it has a large amount of Retaliation. The Hammer will constantly trigger Retaliation due to the Blast finisher (in addition to the symbol’s Protection), and the two Utility skills (Signet of Judgement and Hold the Line) synergize well and also grant Retaliation. This build can easily have traits swapped for a shout build, or symbol healing as well.

Using this build so far, I’ve noticed I’m able to fight in small group fights (including 1v1) while dealing a significant amount of damage all the while not being the easiest guy to take down. The build may seem to lack survival stats, but I normally run in almost full Knight’s, so toughness isn’t an issue. In group oriented battles, the Vulnerability plays a significant support aspect. Being able to single handedly boost your groups damage by a constant 13-25% is nothing to be taken lightly.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Evalia.7103:

While thats true allright, It’s the same as saying communism is better. It is theoretically better,

Not really.

SiNoS.2147:

A guardian’s best tool is the fact we are a pain to kill if built right.

(If) built right. Assuming you aren’t built right, you won’t be as tanky as people tend to believe Guardians are. Every class has survival builds, it’s just that Guardian ones are more popular due to less viability in other areas and because of “holy warrior” archetype being seen as innately tanky.

Hammer, Scepter/Shield, and Staff are the best.

Hammer gives you a nice 5s ward that can block as many enemies as you need to block. It also has an immobilize that can hit an unlimited number of targets (as long as they are lined up.) Assuming you get jumped by a larger enemy, you can also rely on banish.

Scepter/Shield gives you ranged damage, a single target Immobilize, and an AoE knockback. Not the best for multiple enemies, but it’s a good off-set.

Staff gives you a decent amount of swiftness that can be frequently applied, and a nice 5s Ward like the Hammer. It also allows you to keep hitting enemies with an AoE auto-attack from a distance.

Using Sigil of Hydromancy helps as well, since it AoE chills enemies on swap.

Rustypipes.6238:

Darkinub.6781:

Don’t get me wrong I am grateful for these buffs to underwater combat. But every other class is getting their slowest weapons (long bows) velocity buffs and it just makes me wonder why won’t they increase scepters velocity speed. :-(

To directly answer your question, did you read the description of the scepter’s 1 attack?

Fire a slow-moving orb at your foe

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Orb_of_Wrath

It’s designed that way.

And for our 1200 range weapon, it’s poor design.

Only two possible options:
1.) The Scepter is our ranged weapon and is broken
2.) The Scepter is meant to be a close range weapon, and therefore Guardians lack a 1200 range weapon.

Not indicating you, but many people try to say it’s okay that Guardians can’t fight at 1200 range since the Scepter wasn’t mean to be a 1200 range weapon, which is an illogical statement.

The Scepter not being made for 1200 range =/= Guardians shouldn’t have an effective ranged weapon.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

I don’t think our mobility is terrible, but it’s certainly not as good as other professions. I’d absolutely love lower teleport cooldowns, for one.

That means comparatively, our mobility is terrible though.

And also comparatively, we rely on melee combat the most of any Profession. More so than the Warrior who also apparently relies on melee combat (according to the descriptions from ANet), except they have very powerful and viable ranged options.

I’m primarily a WvW player with some PvE on the side. I would play sPvP, but it seems the only valid builds are bunker.

I just want to hit stuff and be kind of useful. As it stands, I can’t stay in range to hit stuff and the only way I can be useful is by being a buff kitten or a bunker Guardian, which I will never want to be.

Exedore.6320:

TLDR: If you’re trying to use the scepter against players at 1200 range and complaining, you’re doing it wrong.

Except… what else are we supposed to try to use at a range? We either:

1.) Stand there and do nothing
2.) Rush in to melee combat and drop dead because being at a range is CLEARLY the best option (those times when even a Warrior or Thief switch to range).
3.) Try to use the Scepter at a long range and get frustrated.

We all know the Scepter wasn’t designed as a 1200 range weapon. I remember the day it was changed for z-axis capabilities and a range increase from 900 to 1200.

However, ArenaNet can’t have it both ways. They can’t say we have a 1200 ranged weapon, and also say it doesn’t need to be effective at 1200 range because it’s made for close range effectiveness.

Either give us a 1200 range weapon, or make the Scepter one. Not having one in addition to not having the tools to stay in melee range is broken.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

Warriors aren’t going to survive trying to break a small zerg’s lines as well as a Guardian is going to. I also firmly believe that no Warrior is going to be able to survive and make as big of a difference in smaller group skirmishes as a good Guardian can.

I’m still of the opinion that we’re the strongest profession in the game in terms of solo and small-medium group combat. We’re also extremely useful if played correctly for zerg support, but I admit that there are professions with better zerg utility.

A Guardian goes in to break a front line:
-Jump in with Judge’s Intervention/Leap of Faith/Flashing Blade
-Use Shield of Absorption
-Use Whirling Wrath for ~4k to 5 enemies.
-Try to use Renewed Focus + Protection and not die from focus fire (Aegis won’t help when you’re hit by 10 attacks per second)
-Has 11k+ health

A Warrior goes in to break a front line:
-Jump in with Axe/Sword/Hammer/GS or bull rush.
-Use Stomp
-Use Fear Me
-Use Endure Pain for 10s immunity to damage while still being able to attack
-Use Shield Block for 3s more immunity
-Use 100b for 12k+ to 5 enemies/Hammer CCs/Whirlwind for 6k to 5 enemies/Flurry for 7k+ to 5 enemies
-Has 18k+ health

Unless you build bunker, the Guardian’s survival is OVER TIME. They are the counter to attrition due to regenerative abilities and condition removal. The Warrior is the one who can survive burst from multiple enemies and dish it out quickly; that is NOT what the Guardian is. The Guardian is slow and steady.

Utilities are generally situational, so slot the ones that you think may help in those situations.

In combat, it’s best to be evasive like you might be on your Engineer. Keep your enemy chasing you and slowly take them down. The Guardian has the tools to last a long time due to all our forms of healing, so take your time in a fight and try to control your enemy.

With the greatsword for example, you might Leap of Faith at an enemy blinding them, do an auto-attack, dodge behind them and use Whirling Wrath, then dodge out and hit them here and there until your cooldowns are back up.

You might try something like placing Symbol of Wrath and then Binding Blade into Whirling Wrath, then dodging out and letting enemies chase you, then Leap of Faith for an AoE blind and dodge out again.

Every time you burst and then get out of the fire, you keep regaining health while your enemies drop health in chunks and can’t regain that.

You need a Staff, or take reduced Shout cooldowns and take Retreat and Save Yourselves. If you do the latter, you’ll have about 38s/48s. If you take the Staff you’ll have about 8/12 or 8/15, but you won’t be able to use this in combat without sacrificing your melee since it doesn’t last long enough for you to switch back to a melee weapon.

Using Judge’s Intervention on critters helps. Find a bunny really far away and go 1200.

Overall, it’s asinine. We’re bad at giving ourselves swiftness because 2/3 of our methods are balanced around those skills affecting allies, and the 3rd is balanced around all those other boons it gives.

KensaiZen.3740:

400+ hours on guardian and decided to make an engineer grenadeer alt. Thanks for making such an OP class such as the engineers crap too.

I just made an Engineer alt too, and got him to lv 40 in the last few days. I used Grenades originally until the nerf, but now I actually melee with the Engineer.

The Tool Kit is surprisingly effective. Traited, you get 3 skills that inflict cripple all on low cooldowns, a 3s block, a 1200 range pull, a powerful auto-attack as strong as the Greatsword’s, and a very powerful 1v1 burst attack (that also inflicts 3x confusion). Paired with the Rifle you gain a gap closer, an immobilize on a 10s cooldown, and another powerful close range attack. They can also achieve perma-swiftness with 10 points in a trait line.

Engineers don’t need to be in melee range, and yet they have a much easier time of staying there than Guardians.

Wards: One line on a 45s cooldown with a 5 seconds duration, a ring on a 45s cooldown with a 5 second duration, and a dome on a 120s cooldown with a 6s duration. The line and the ring tend to be impractical because they immobilize you when you cast, so actually trapping enemies becomes a problem. There is also an issue where enemies can bounce through the ward, rendering it useless. There is another problem of where enemies who receive the knockdown from running into the ward become temporarily unhittable. The dome can be useful in the right situations, especially if traited for ground casting. Overall they are subpar until they have bugs fixed and become more practical by allowing movement while cast.

Swiftness: Most Professions can now have passive +25% movement speed, and most have access to easy swiftness. For example, the Engineer can gain permanent swiftness by 10 points in a trait line and having 1 kit equipped. The Warrior can gain 50% swiftness uptime by one skill on an off-hand. The Guardian can only achieve a similar level by sacrificing melee or by sacrificing 2 utility skills. This poses a significant problem for Guardians in PvP unless they can also have as much movement speed, since they are designed to be melee-dependent.

They can either switch to Staff and gain 8s swiftness and be stuck using a staff (which is not a powerful combat weapon), or by taking the shouts Retreat and Save Yourselves, which barely meet 50% duration (and both are on a 60s cooldown). If the boon is stripped, this effectively nullifies the sole reason for taking 2 long cooldown utilities.

Edit: Retreat traited with 10 points in Honor can reach close to 50% swiftness duration, but it still suffers from the same issues mentioned above (in addition to also requiring a trait).

Pull: The pull affects 5 enemies at 600 range and is on a 30s cooldown. It’s the best AoE pull in the game and pairs well with the rest of the Greatsword. However, it is the Guardian’s only pull.

Overall, the Guardian is dependent on melee combat, but has few tools to stay in melee combat. They have 3 ways to quickly close the gap, but the Utility is usually a one-use skill due to the cooldown, which leaves 2 melee weapons with no gap closer. If the Guardian can manage to effectively close the gap, they still can not reliably keep the enemy from moving away due to lack of cripples/chills and only a handful of short duration immobilizes, and the Guardian lacks the speed to keep up with the enemy in the first place.

IMO: The base of the profession is solid, but it is incomplete. The supportive mechanics are there, as are the survival mechanics. The damaging mechanics are also solid. However, the mechanics aren’t functional due to “the need to be in melee range” not being supported, in any adequate way. There are numerous small changes that can, and in my opinion, should be made to address this issue.

That’s my view of the problem, what’s yours?

“The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health. They focus on area control and punishing enemies for the position on the battlefield. We want them to feel very powerful when their boons are active, but if those boons are removed, they will start to feel pressure. They can remove conditions more easily than the Warrior, but share the Warrior’s need to be in melee range to dole out maximum damage.”

-Survival is from boons + armor
-Focus on area control and positioning
-Rely on boons
-Need to be in melee range

This essentially defines what the Guardian is; I think ArenaNet has mostly achieved this vision of the Guardian. However, the design itself has one glaring flaw. ‘Need to be in melee range’; this is the Guardian’s paradox.

Guardians don’t have comparatively powerful burst. Guardians don’t have powerful ranged weaponry (or effective long-range weaponry). Guardians don’t have massive health pools. But, they are the anti-attrition Profession and can stay in a fight for a long time, and they have reliable melee damage. Their ranged capacity is not reliable at anywhere beyond 600 range or so, and to be effective, as ArenaNet indicates and as any Guardian knows, you have to be in melee range. This is the contradiction.

Guardians are by far the most dependent on melee combat in the game, and yet they lack the tools to stay within melee range.

The following is the entire arsenal the Guardian has to stay in melee range (which they are designed to rely on):

3 Immobilizes
1 Chill
3 Gap closers (1 leap; 2 teleports)
3 Wards
3 Swiftness Abilities
1 Pull

Immobilizes: There are 2 at 900 and 1200 range, and a projectile that goes to 1200 range. They are on the Scepter, Utility Skill, and Hammer respectively. They tend to be quite reliable and effective.

Chill: It is a 2nd tier Major trait in Valor that lasts 4s/45s and requires the Hammer and critical hit activation. It’s useful only if you have a Hammer with a critical build, and is only reliable at the start of battle.

Gap Closers: There are two teleports, a Utility on a 45s cooldown and a Sword skill on a 10s cooldown. The Leap is 15s on the Greatsword. They are good at bad. The Utility has a 1200 range, but requires a target and has a long cooldown. The Sword is on a short cooldown but also requires a target. The Leap has a moderate cooldown and can be used in a variety of ways. The problem with the teleports is that you need a target, so they can’t be used for movement or evasion; only gap closing. Overall they are adequate at the very least.

For their vision to work, Guardians need more ways to stay in melee range.

As it sits now, this is what we have:
3 Immobilizes
1 Chill
2 Wards
3 Swiftness

-The Chill is 4s every 45 and requires a 2nd tier trait, and a specific weapon, and a critical chance build; not worth the points.
-The immobilizes on the Guardian are great.
-The Swiftness comes from 2 shouts (both 60s cooldowns) and from the Staff, but the staff is a very niche weapon and requires you to stop melee for 10s for only 8s of swiftness.
-The wards are nice, but the Line of Warding is impractical to use with melee in almost every case. Ring of Warding is nice, but it currently can be dodged out of.

If you go full melee, you lack the tools to keep any competent enemy in melee range long enough to kill them, and get easily beaten. It’s almost a necessity to use the Scepter, even though it’s rather unpopular.

Compare this to other melee, like a Thief, Warrior, Engineer Tool kit, or Ranger.

Look at a Warrior for comparison. On the GS they have 2 gap closers and a ranged cripple. On the Hammer they have a gap closer, a cripple, 2 knockdowns, and a stun. On the 1h axe they have a leap. On the 1h mace they have a stun and on the offhand they have a daze. On the 1h main hand sword alone they have a leap, an AoE immobilize, and a cripple. The warhorn can give 50% duration on Swiftness; we can only achieve this while fighting in melee if we take 2 shouts as 2/3 utilities, both on 60s cooldowns (switching to staff and then getting 8s swiftness while using the staff =/= fighting in melee with swifntess). These, in addition to other utility skills which close gaps, immobilize, cripple, grant reliable swiftness (and traits).

I’ve got about 700 hours in-game so far, and I’ve completed almost every path in every dungeon in PvE. I have full exotics and I’m far into getting my Legendary. I’m in a WvW guild on a t1 server and I’m out there every day.

But, I haven’t played PvP much at all since beta. Why? I can’t play with friends easily.

I have two options:
1.) Have my friends and I join random tournaments
2.) Have my friends and I join pick-up matches

Tournaments: I’m a skilled player, but coordinated 5v5 isn’t about my own skill, it’s about coordination for builds and tactics between a 5 man team. I just want to get used to sPvP in general and playing with certain people before I’m thrown into coordinated matches and get rolled.

Pick-Up Matches: If I join these, the chances are I get separated from friends constantly. If they’re on my team, I also can’t see their blue icon and easily fight along side them like in beta.

Overall it’s just a needlessly frustrating experience.

Work on this, and sPvP will never die. As it is now, it’s mostly a separate game that you either go deep into, or dabble every once in a while out of boredom.

I’m not sure I can explain this well but I’ll try.

You’re angry because there isn’t change for the sake of change. There are some areas of WvW that could use improvements, but it’s not broken and it’s not like PvE.

WvW is almost sandbox; the content is player driven. I don’t understand what you want. WvW doesn’t really need an expansion, WvW is WvW. The essence of WvW is going out there, fighting other servers, and taking and defending locations. That is not broken and doesn’t need improvement.

Why does WvW need updates? It’s working just fine.

It seems most people get upset because there’s not change for the sake of change. Change for the sake of change is what ruins good games, not what improves them.

Azariah.8420:

you left out our nefarious night-capping

You forget, we’re also day-cappers now.

DJZephyr.4921:

Server transfers are killing WvW. After two weeks of being hammered by Tarnished Coast zergs, I was hoping Crystal Desert could have some actual fun. But barely one night in, and it feels hopeless. It’s no fun being in one of the only guilds left on the server that does organized WvW. All because the sore losers can just wander on over to a winning realm every week.

It’s been long enough for people to get to the same server as their friends. Kill the free transfers NOW.

That’s not people transferring that’s your problem. That’s your server overwhelmingly not being interested in WvW.

Even so, I don’t see how you can feel you have the right to tell anyone what server they can play on. People transferring aren’t transferring to negatively affect you, they’re doing it to help themselves. They’re independent of you. You on the other hand, are desperately dependent on them and want to force them to do what they don’t want to do. You’re basically advocating the concepts of slavery and looting.

There doesn’t have to be a rift between native guilds and transferring guilds.

Jedahs.2713:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have done it. Today, Sea of Sorrows has finally reached Tier 1 in WvW Rankings.

Being in the server’s first WvW focused guild, I have had the privilege to watch our server rise from the biggest joke in the WvW scene to where we stand now. Our rise in the past few weeks was swift, but I want to remind everyone of all the painstaking setbacks we had to endure to get here.

August 25th, Sea of Sorrows was born. It was the unofficial home to Oceanics. Almost immediately we were labeled a care-bear PVE Server with no competitiveness in WvW. Our only advantage was that we were dirty night cappers who were amazing at PvDooring ghost towns.

But we fight on.

September 17th, guilds from another server wiped us out in WvW and spawn camped us for 5 days in a row. They entered our server and convinced many that SoS was a lost cause in WvW and the only way to succeed was to leave, and many did.

But we fight on.

October 1st, another 2 weeks of losing disheartened many WvW players on our server. Several WvW guilds and key commanders left our server to find an easier time elsewhere. The outlook of our server was at its grimmest.

But we fight on.

October 10th For the we barely held our ground in tier 5 rankings, our first WvW Oceanic-USA Alliance broke down and the few USA WvW guilds we had left our server. Even Oceanic guild leaders received server transfer invitations left and right, it seemed the SOS goal of WvW success was forever a dream.

But we fight on.

October 20th A major turning point. Major guild alliances disband across servers. Major hardcore USA time zone guilds began to move into Sea of Sorrows seeing the potential of having more Oceanic partners. They came, and they promised to stay.

We fight on.

October 29th Playing into our rising momentum, we begin recruitment efforts of European guilds to join SOS. Although it is still a work in progress, the number of European time zone players continues to rise to this day. Everyday our numbers swell, more and more WvW veterans join our call to battle from all over the world.

We fight strong.

And here we are, today. November 16th 2012 will mark the day when Sea of Sorrows officially enters into Tier 1 WvW Matchup. We don’t know if we are ready, most likely it will be an uphill struggle to the bitter end.

But it is in the uphill struggle where we thrive. This is where to will be conditioned through the bloodiest of battles.

I am proud of every single Sea of Sorrowrian who has stepped up over the last 80 days and pulled our server together. Together, we have proven that not a single minute of our time was wasted. Not a single piece of gold was ill spent. No matter how many times we wipe, we will keep smashing our tired bodies against the gates of our enemies. I also want to thank the guilds who have transferred to SOS. Thank you for training us and putting up with our lack of experience and discipline, we swear to continue improving, as a server together.

Tomorrow will be a challenging day. It just so happens that SoS’s ascension into Tier One falls onto the day of the Lost Shore major patch. The lure of the evil PVE is great, but we will hold the line regardless. Remember that your gear or shiney new toys is just a passing phase and any benefits will be wiped out within a week, but stepping up to tier 1 the day we rise is an event forever marked in your legacy. We need you to hold the line.

Sea of Sorrows. Make history today.

I really want a copy without vocals, or a piano rendition of it without vocals, like is played in The Source of Orr.

There is currently a version of it used in an old trailer, but they’re quite different. The current version in the game and the version in one of the old trailers have a very similar theme, but are in completely different keys with different tempos and overall they’re basically two different songs.

This is the version from the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YzWlxbg34Y

Mines and cannons.

Possibly movable catapults/balistae that move slowly and cost double supply.

Walnuts.

We will see.

I agree completely. Take the really high price items for example, say precursors.

Let’s say the bottom price for X precursor is 350g and the lowest buy order is 200g, so you put yours up for 300g. An extended period of time goes by and nobody is buying. You would like to change the value you’re selling at to 250g, but in doing so your previous 5% listing fee of 15g is wasted, and you have to lose another 12.5g from an additional listing fee. The precursor prices stay high, and those that are selling are stuck.

Or look at a more common example. Let’s say you have a few stacks of X and you put them up for sale for 28c each. Let’s say through some method it took you 22c to get each of X item. In selling you would pay about 4c in tax per item, so buying for 22c and selling for 24c; net profit of 2c per X.

Let’s say the market fluctuates and 28c is simply too high, instead the common is 25-27c and nobody every buys your X for 28c. If you tried to remove all your stacks and sell for 27c, you would end up losing money. You would lose 1.4c per X from your first listing of 28c, plus an additional 4.1c per X from your next listing and selling at 27c. You’re forced to take a loss or leave your item up and wait.

If you were able to shift the price of the item you’re selling down without another listing fee, you would still be able to make a profit, and there would be more supply at a lower cost for buyers; everyone wins. You would take that 1.4c per X from your original 28c listing fee, and a selling fee of 2.7c from your 27c selling, and make 23c per X. A 1c profit is better than losing 1c per X.

LFk.1408:

Sorry, I only skimmed this thread, and what caught my eye was Angry Loner’s post on seeing gear.

I was always interested in this myself.

Has ANet ever stated some philosophical reason for not being able to view gear of other players? Maybe it’s because my mommy always advised me against talking to strangers, but I do prefer to just bring up a menu instead of asking a person what skin that is (which may or may not even get a response).

I would definitely push harder for it in suggestions if there’s been nothing said about it, as I do want the feature.

However I generally respect game designer’s philosophical choices (for instance the separation of sPvP and PvE in this game) and wouldn’t post about it if that was the case.

Which should win: your desire to see their gear, or their desire to having their gear private?

Many of us like the dungeons. Most of us who do are playing the game.