Guild Wars 2

@DeceiverX

As you say, PvP players don’t need as much development. In fact, too much change often upsets the balance and subsequently the players participating in PvP.

But GW2 is not a PvP-focused game. Approaching development from a PvP perspective would kill the game. Sure, your PvP players might stick around for some time afterward, but who wants to play a dying game? Just look at how many threads exist asking about the state of the game, the population, whether or not the game is “dying”, etc.

I’m not suggesting they should ignore PvP. But again, your suggestion seems to be that they should cut back on development and focus primarily on fine-tuning class balance. That’s all PvP dev right there. It would be a complete disaster for this game.

Obtena.7952:

AliamRationem.5172:

Obtena.7952:

So the complaint is that your XP bar doesn’t move … and that not getting shards from XP just happens to be a insignificant side effect of that? You don’t think we are that naive do you? Is that yellow line so offensive? Please.

Let’s be honest here … it has nothing to do with XP bars not moving or whatever and Anet has no ‘policy’ of promoting modes of play because you don’t need to raid to get spirit shards … people just want shards with XP and don’t like that they have to unlock with raids to do that now. Don’t pretend this discussion is about ANYTHING other than this. It’s simply obtuse to insist Anet is forcing players to do something they don’t even need to do to get a specific reward.

I know you aren’t replying to me, but I just wanted to point out that for some of us the issue is that, ideally experience should always provide some benefit to a character. Or else why even have it?

That’s not an issue though … the XP you gain after 80 is used for mastery progression; it still has a purpose, even if the bar doesn’t reward spirit shards. There is a problem with the starting assumption that you should get something for your gained experience, even once you hit 80, done masteries, etc…. that’s not necessarily true. It’s not really relevant if it’s right or wrong. There is no morality attached to rewards beyond leveling with XP.

The whole problem with this thread is that it poses the context of obtaining shards in a completely disingenuous manner. Unlocking raids and gaining shards through XP gain is the ADDITIONAL way Anet introduced to obtain them, not the only way. The people complaining in this thread have completely ignored the fact you get them randomly from just killing stuff now and make it sound like they will never get another shard as long as they don’t unlock through raids. That’s just ignorant.

Well, I don’t really care what anyone else is putting forth in this thread. I was just sharing my own perspective, which is that adding spirit shards as a way to give just a little something back for experience post-cap is a good idea that could (and should!) be applied to all characters regardless of mastery system progress.

Does it “need” to be this way? Of course not. I’m new as of HoT, but my understanding is that the mastery system was added as part of the expansion and that previously nothing existed for post-cap experience. Obviously, they thought it was a good idea to start adding a purpose for those earned points that previously went to waste.

That’s the reason experience is linked to the mastery system – as a form of progression and to add purpose to experience post-cap. Spirit shards serve the same function: adding a purpose to experience post-cap.

So what I’m saying is that it was a good idea and they should expand upon it. Perhaps they could even consider a slight rework of the way masteries work and tackle more than one problem at once.

Suggestion: Unlink experience from masteries. There is already progression in earning the required points. Instead, create a long-term reward track of sorts entirely based upon post-cap experience. Expand upon the rewards to create a progression. The more exp you gain, the bigger the rewards.

Just a thought. I realize nothing has to be anyway. It’s just a game after all. But I do think it’s poor design to have players gaining experience for absolutely no reason at any point in a game.

Obtena.7952:

So the complaint is that your XP bar doesn’t move … and that not getting shards from XP just happens to be a insignificant side effect of that? You don’t think we are that naive do you? Is that yellow line so offensive? Please.

Let’s be honest here … it has nothing to do with XP bars not moving or whatever and Anet has no ‘policy’ of promoting modes of play because you don’t need to raid to get spirit shards … people just want shards with XP and don’t like that they have to unlock with raids to do that now. Don’t pretend this discussion is about ANYTHING other than this. It’s simply obtuse to insist Anet is forcing players to do something they don’t even need to do to get a specific reward.

I know you aren’t replying to me, but I just wanted to point out that for some of us the issue is that, ideally experience should always provide some benefit to a character. Or else why even have it?

I’m fine with spirit shards after mastery points if that’s considered an attractive reward in exchange for experience. And if that reward is specifically intended for post-mastery, could we at least get SOMETHING for those who are stuck with no intention of doing anymore masteries and have all XP bars maxxed?

Or, if it’s a fairly minor reward in either case, then just allow spirit shard gain for experience regardless. The moment you hit 80, every so much XP you gain a spirit shard. Just as it is now for players post-mastery. The masteries themselves should be necessary for their own reasons (and they are), but I see no need to create this situation where players who don’t care for more masteries feel compelled to do them anyway just to get anything at all out of the XP they earn.

Game of Bones.8975:

I have found Reaper/Necro to be fun. I don’t have a favorite weapon/skills combo. Daredevil/Thief is too hard for me to get close to do damage and not die on a regular basis. Rangers are definitely good as a supporting cast member; their wildcard is the pet.

This just goes to show how class design in this game has a lot to do with player preferences. The playstyles are vastly different from class to class and sometimes even within the same class! And not every playstyle is for everyone.

Case in point, daredevil is my strongest class for solo work in HoT. Kill faster, move faster, avoid most of the damage and go on offense to heal whatever damage you do take. It’s a fast, aggressive playstyle that I really enjoy and do well with in open world.

Clearly, that isn’t the case for everyone. But that’s why classes like necromancer are designed the way they are: moderate damage, but huge and largely passive survivability between siphoning life, minions, death shroud, top tier baseline health, traited access to a ton of toughness, and so on.

Mesmer isn’t a high damage class. So that’s part of the problem. Another issue may be that you aren’t fully utilizing the class. For instance, you mention that your phantasm is on CD when a second enemy comes at you. Remember that you have a weapon swap with another phantasm on it. You also have utilities and traits which can spawn phantasms.

By the time you unlock Chronomancer, you should have no trouble keeping up a rotation of phantasms. It still won’t produce great damage, but mesmer is actually one of the more survivable classes for solo open world content.

But you wanted an alternative, so this is my suggestion:

Daredevil. It’s perhaps the most simplistic playstyle in the game, requiring only quick thinking, accurate timing, and constant movement to thrive. In contrast to most of the other classes, thieves have a lot fewer abilities to work with. I think this lends itself well to players who are experienced with MMOs, but new to GW2 (or at least, that was my experience when I signed up for GW2 7 months ago).

It’s also one of the strongest solo open world classes, in my opinion. You deal insane burst with a glass build (berserker stats), frequently taking down non-veterans almost instantly. And once you get the evasion timing down, you’re nearly impossible to kill and can escape tricky situations better than any other class. As long as you’re paying attention, you should be able to walk away from almost any fight via stealth and/or pure speed.

As a bonus, if you’re anything like me the class is tons of fun to play!

Well, for me personally I enjoy helping other players, but I don’t have access to the commander tag because I don’t particularly enjoy core Tyria content. I could use the mentor tag, but it seems to be party-only and while I recognize that you don’t really need a formal squad to lead in this context, it seems strongly preferred by other players to the point where some of them will get nasty with you for using a mentor tag in this way.

I’m not sure I have any suggestion to work around that. If you’re going to have two tags, they need to be different, right? But the problem with the mentor tag appears to be that it isn’t the commander tag.

If you want high damage and fast kills, elementalist is the way to go. They can also do well defensively, but it requires knowing the class well and fully utilizing the skills available. You have bottom-tier base health and armor, limited access to pets, and perhaps the most complex playstyle of any class. It’s a very fun, versatile, and powerful class – but generally not recommended when trying to learn the ropes in the game!

Necro is much more forgiving. They have pets, death shroud, easy access to a significant amount of toughness via traits, and top tier base health. You can afford to make mistakes with this class and still survive easily. Not so much with the elementalist.

If you want high damage with a much more simplistic playstyle, yet don’t mind living on the edge with low health/armor, I recommend thief. It plays fast and the defensive strategy is almost entirely based upon dodging (daredevil) and heals on offense. But you do have to be comfortable with constant movement and fast play or this class won’t survive any better than the elementalist. Stealth is also very useful for bypassing enemies, if that’s more your style (looting chests from under the nose of a champion is always fun!).

As mentioned previously, any pet class is more forgiving. Ranger, necro, mesmer. They’re all easy mode for open world. But they aren’t as high damage as some of the other classes.

I don’t think there’s a setting that allows you to bypass the ground-targeting circle completely and simply drop the area effect centered upon your current target. There might be one that would allow you to place the circle on your current target by default. I’m not sure. Have you taken a look at the checkboxes in the options tabs?

I wouldn’t count on it, though. GW2 is all about “action” combat. The design is intended to be a move away from simply selecting a target and attacking. It involves more movement, positioning, timing, and active avoidance than say a game like WoW. Automatically dropping area effects on a selected target runs counter to that.

Alex Shatter.7956:

I liked the expansion packs in GW1 because they let you really focus on a whole different story… a lot of the criticism of HoT was that it wasn’t welcoming for new players in the slightest. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I’d like to see something similar to nightfall where the focus is intense story telling

I signed on to this game after HoT. I’m not a huge storyline buff, so maybe it wasn’t a big deal to me. I had more fun exploring the HoT maps than playing through the storyline (typical for me). So having to go out into the jungle was the fun part for me.

Then again, I never played GW1 and I don’t know what “Nightfall” is all about. Maybe I would like it? I really liked the WotLK WoW xpac, for instance. As WoW goes, that was a very story-centric expansion. But that’s sort of a different animal as they don’t have a “storyline” as we know it.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

(If XP was the sole source of spirit shards, I might feel differently about this particular point. However, now, it’s just one of many sources.)

So you understand that mastery points are optional to some extent and that spirit shards may be obtained in other ways. But is it necessary to force players to complete all masteries to receive any reward at all for the experience they gain?

That doesn’t add up to me. The argument could certainly be made that spirit shards for XP are the reward for completing all masteries. But that isn’t a good argument for why players who do not complete these “optional” masteries get absolutely nothing for their experience.

If spirit shards are such a great reward, then give something else for XP along the way and switch over to spirit shards upon mastery completion. But leaving it so that a large portion of the playerbase gets nothing for their XP is a low-value option, in my opinion. We can do better than that, don’t you think?

J envy.5270:

you get so little ley line crystals from doing TD meta event compared to doing VB night or AB octo…..this needs to change. And half the time the meta even fails…or no one wants to do it which makes your token rewards cut by 75%…GG

wait for another 2 hours…..only to fail the meta again….which is not even hard, but alot of people don’t get it, either they are new, or their just plain bad.

I always have about 3x more tokens from the other 2 maps than TD tokens. And thats only from doing the meta’s. Ain’t nobody got time to do the little events….

The only thing I can think of is they thought the chak caches that appear in mass quantities in the lanes upon completing the events would be the reward? I mean, you certainly are a lot better off completely ignoring the chak gerent, completing events, and then heading down into the lanes to loot chak caches. You’ll have leyline crystals coming out of your ears and plenty of loot to salvage.

It’s just a shame you’ll get what? A mastery strongbox and 6 chak caches for a T5 completion on chak gerent? Hmm, let’s see. 100 chak caches or 6 chak caches? Does anyone else see a problem here?

Keep these threads coming. Maybe they’ll bump up the priority on this one before they completely wreck this map.

It might also help if ANet would fix the Tarir exploit so other activities are relatively more attractive. Regardless, TD meta gives horrible rewards, has a much higher chance of failure, and the rewards are all-or-nothing. Even without the multi-map exploit, TD loot is still far worse than a Tarir assault completion.

Poor design. It’s time to fix it, ANet. You’re letting some of the best content in the expansion go to waste here!

Ayrilana.1396:

Elric Of Melnibone.4781:

Ayrilana.1396:

Most do not scale down? I’ve done pretty much all events that don’t have a champ so yes they can be done solo.

I have not done to much HoT since the Spring Update, but before that there where many events in AB and TD, without champs that where WAY to difficult due mostly to spawn rates. I could certainly survive and kill things, but more would spawn to fast to keep up with, and I have been playing since Beta. Granted I am not the strongest player, but certainly at least above average.

As an example, what about the event on the east side of AB where you have to kill the vine tenders that continuously spawn and kill off the all the other stuff that spawns down below and kill off the big vine thing that is the event? How can you possible solo that?

A couple other examples in TD where your supposed to guard things while a gazilion chak spawn constantly. I can kill tons and tons of chak, but not enough to eventually be overwhelmed. With a person or two to help, it’s quite doable however.

True. Events that require coordination for two or more things would be difficult to do. I remember trying to do that event once in AB and being unable to as I could keep both down long enough.

I can’t think of anywhere in TD where a defend even could not be done solo. I’ve done Ogre chain up to the fight with the vine in the tree. I’ve done Rata Novus up to where the Chak boss spawns when you complete the console event. I’ve done the Nuhoch chain up to when you escort them in their first patrol and encounter the boss. I haven’t really done Scar lane from start to finish in one sitting but I don’t recall any of the event having been that difficult until you escort the NPC down into the lane.

I find defending that robot in Rata Novus lane solo pretty obnoxious. It can be done, but whenever the robot falls it usually takes me at least a couple of waves of chak before I can get it back on its feet again. So while it’s technically doable solo, I think it’s clearly designed for a small group.

SCAR is similar. If you’re pretty handy in combat you can complete most of the events. I find the cannon escort the most difficult to solo. Surviving and defeating the enemies is fairly challenging, but the tough part is keeping the cannon alive! I find this one extremely difficult to solo for that reason.

I think you’re all correct. AB multi-loot is obviously a factor as players will spend time on events they find rewarding and participate less in events that are unrewarding. The TD boss meta is horribly unrewarding. You don’t even have to compare it to AB multi-loot. Just consider the fact that you’d get far more loot by looting chak caches in the lanes than by beating the chak gerent – which for some reason just gives you a handful of normal chak caches and the usual Hero chest or whatever it’s called.

Does that seem a bit off? I mean AB clearly doesn’t have that problem. They added exalted chests to the events in the cycle but they are nowhere near the amount of loot you gain for a full Tarir assault completion (especially multi-map!).

Well, do you just hate it? Or was it simply not what you expected? In the latter case, you could potentially adapt to the new environment.

But it sounds to me like you’re a lot more interested in the storyline than running around exploring the jungle or you wouldn’t be in such a rush. I think somebody else in this thread suggested simply exploring VB, first.

That happens to be what I did and you know what? It’s only 3 mastery points. That is all you need to complete the storyline, unlock your elite spec, and navigate nearly every location on all of the maps. Unlocking more masteries will allow 100% map completion and several QoL upgrades.

These maps are not supposed to be explored in an hour or two like core Tyria maps. You’re supposed to go out and explore them, unlocking masteries along the way that expand upon your ability to explore.

I completely understand your frustration if all you wanted to do was complete the storyline. But it’s 3 MPs. Three. I really wouldn’t have a problem with moving those masteries to baseline as a suggestion, but it seems to me that these complaints are a whole lot of complaining about a few hours of effort in a game you’ve been playing for years.

I don’t understand this issue with players moving on from HoT content. We’re on megaservers, right? So unless 100% of the population has moved on and there are insufficient players to fill up even a single instance, there shouldn’t be an observable issue.

What am I missing here? I keep hearing this mentioned how HoT is going to be a real nightmare when players start moving on. But what I haven’t seen explained is why that should be a problem? I can find players on every single map in this game. Why will this be any different?

What is the map capacity anyway? 50 players? 100? And how many simultaneous players does GW2 have logged in at any given time? Tens or perhaps even hundreds of thousands?

I haven’t tried guardian yet, but engineer was my latest to 80 and it’s been a lot of fun so far. Right now I’m trying out a solo build that does some pretty incredible boon stacking. It’s pretty fun and feels like a nice balance between damage output and survivability. Plus I just like seeing nearly every boon up and a 25 stack of might in combat. I didn’t get to do that on my other characters with solo builds!

SolarDragon.7063:

All I can say is wow. Just wow. That player is insane. In the amazing way.

Definitely. I love helping other players in HoT and do so regularly, but this is so far beyond that. It’s pretty impressive!

If all you want is to run it at acceptable FPS and moderate-to-high settings, I expect that laptop will handle it no problem.

I run the game off of the integrated GPU on an older core i3. I don’t get good framerates (rarely above 30 fps) and I have to run on lowest settings (I do set the character models and limit to low, however).

The system you have there is MUCH better, although you would obviously get a lot better bang for your buck on a desktop system for gaming.

I’m also jealous of the SSD. You don’t even want to know what my load times are when entering Lion’s Arch! I accidentally clicked back to the aerodrome in raid one night. I think my guild was ready to kill me by the time I got back!

Yeah, while I’m a fan of HoT in general, DS is my least favorite map. Still, I think it’s unique and worth having. Plenty of players seem to really enjoy it. Personally, I feel like I’m not contributing much in the zerg and the event chain is non-stop and far too long. I can barely keep my eyes open through the whole thing.

I think I just prefer the smaller scale event chains like most of the other HoT maps feature. I can show up, start working on it by myself, and maybe other players show up. Maybe not. If I get stuck I can just go to a different point on the map and work on those events.

It also seems far more difficult to join a DS map in progress than it is for any of the other maps. I can only seem to manage it if I enter the map just before the reset and start fresh.

Well, I can’t say it’s uncommon to find a low population map, but I don’t seem to have as much trouble finding a populated map as you do. Do you know what time you’re arriving on the map in relation to the boss event?

The chak gerent comes around every 2 hours at the half-hour mark. For whatever reason, there are not really sufficient events in the zone to keep players busy in that time. My best guess is that it gives players time to loot the lanes before the boss event begins? In any case, I do find that there’s a bit of a lull in that first hour usually.

KingClash.3186:

I’d like to think many people prefer quality over quantity but that’s just a wild generalization right?

No. People aren’t that reasonable. We may say we prefer quality over quantity, but what we really want is an endless quantity of quality!

DeceiverX.8361:

Just saying now, I told you so, to all the people who kept screaming for an expansion for years, and the white knights claiming HoT would be a huge boon for profits and the number of active players.

Expansions, unless in widely-popular subscription games, do not make money. Microtransactions for cosmetics do, and focusing on important things like gameplay make any content droughts much more enjoyable. Games like League, which has an astrononical budget know this; almost all profit comes from skins and their tight gameplay mechanics and good balance, with a very occasional new champion/content release.

ANet has failed repeatedly to provide us with a quality, detail-driven gameplay experience as a whole for well over a year, now. Most aspects of the game which were once great selling points have been stymied, while an excess of attention has been put in all the wrong places in hopes to expand their bleeding playerbase via niche markets. Unfortunately, the real, hard truth is that the existing greatness of the game is being continuously tarnished through negligence, and in many respects, blatant ineptitude of maintaining such a great experience.

If every MMO has a failing, it’s lack of content. The fact is the model is designed for players to spend a lot of time at it, but in the process they rapidly burn through content and find themselves wondering what to do next. It’s the big content patches/expansions players look forward to at that point.

You seem to be suggesting that instead of developing the HoT expansion, ANet should have focused on class balance. In other words, the game was almost perfect and should have been left that way (more or less).

Are you primarily a PvP player? Because that actually makes a lot of sense in the PvP realm. PvP players are far more sensitive to balance issues. New content is great, but ultimately you’re there to compete against other players and you can’t do that very well when they drop a bunch of overpowered elite specs that only half the players have access to into the mix.

However, on the PvE side of the coin, these forums are full of players who dislike HoT and probably wish it had never happened. But do you think before HoT released they were looking forward to nothing but minor balance tweaks and the odd content release every now and then? Not likely!

PvE players want content. They always want content. Balance is great, but they play the game cooperatively or by themselves rather than competitively (for the most part). They aren’t sensitive to the razor’s edge on balance issues the way PvP players are and they don’t get as much replay value out of the combat itself as AI is far less dynamic.

You referenced “League” (I assume league of legends?). I’ve never played that one, but is it primarily a PvP game? If so, do you think perhaps their model of maintaining and refining class balance with only minor content upgrades would be a good fit in a heavy PvE game like GW2?

slashlizardy.9167:

15 million a quarter is not good news for a staff of 300, when Pokemon Go makes 10 million a day —- it’s cause of games like Pokemon Go, we will see more and more of these and less of traditional mmos in the future.

Pokemon Go is based upon an IP with a built-in global following, did a full on media blitz, and introduced a novel use of technology in the process. It is hardly indicative of smart phone game releases.

But can we talk about this later? “Malcontent Avians 63” just released! I gotta go download it right away!

I’m curious what the intended release schedule for future expansions will be under this new direction? I can’t really think of anything that gets me interested in an MMO again like a new expansion. But bumping up the schedule also runs the risk of failing to deliver a worthy expansion.

I don’t necessarily agree with those who say HoT is just such an unworthy expansion. I think it added a lot of great things, not least of which gliding and the incredible maps that really allow it to shine. But it was only the 4 maps and now Bloodstone Fen.

Basically, I want their best work, but I want it sooner rather than later. And I have no problem paying for it. That’s just the kind of MMO player I am. I put way too much time into these games to worry about spending $50 on them now and then. What kills it for me is losing interest because the next big content release isn’t even visible on the horizon and I’ve already done the things I enjoy doing to the point where I’m ready for something new!

This question comes up all the time. Not surprisingly, as players have vastly different opinions on HoT.

First, I would ask if you’re easily frustrated by exploration challenges. The HoT maps are very vertical to accommodate gliding, but for that reason walking in a straight line to objectives after viewing them on the map isn’t feasible in most cases. Players like myself really enjoy this aspect of HoT, but many players find it a confusing and frustrating experience.

As for the combat, the monsters are tougher in general and there tend to be more of them. The HP challenges are probably 50/50 solo content, but you’ll need to complete about half of the available challenges to unlock your elite spec. Events are a mixed bag as well. Many can be completed solo and many cannot.

So will you need some help in HoT? Definitely. Whether or not it qualifies as “solo” content is a matter of perspective. Certainly not from a strict interpretation, but then by that measure core Tyria doesn’t qualify as “solo” content either – and we know that’s not true!

Anyway, if you end up purchasing the expansion and would like some help getting around, I’m usually up for it. You can contact me in game. Or, if you prefer to go it alone, I recommend dulfy.net for easy-to-follow video guides to reach various objectives.

And one more piece of advice: When it comes to HoT masteries, unlock bounce mushrooms and updrafts first. There are other masteries you’ll want to unlock as well, but those two in addition to basic gliding are the big ones for general navigation in HoT. Nuhoch wallows and Exalted markings are also cheap skills recommended for navigation (wallows are especially useful in navigating the Tangled Depths map, which is considered the most difficult map for navigation by far).

Straegen.2938:

NuhDah.9812:

I’m not sure if pistol whip is the hardest attack on thief, but I can tell you that for killing groups of mobs Staff does the best job with it’s high dps, cleave, aoe, mobility and evades, it’s perfect for killing brainless mobs even if you don’t manage to group them up perfectly.

PW has a 3.5 coefficient vs Vault at 2.25. PW hits are 33% stronger for the same init. More importantly Scout Blinding Power doesn’t mess up their attack like Vault. As I noted PW also has a stun which is great for stopping the Supervisor heal.

I have run both for a long period of time and S/P is a superior weapon set for camp clears and for fighting in general.

Vault hits 5 targets and the staff AA is stronger, though. I like staff for fighting groups of enemies.

Thief is actually a very simplistic playstyle. It has its share of situational utilities like any class, but the major challenge with thief is speed and timing, not juggling a vast array of skills like engi or ele. Not all players are as active as you want to be to really do well with thief.

Once you unlock the elite spec (daredevil) you will be able to dodge more or less whenever you want. But because you don’t take hits well as a thief, you’ll need to abuse this ability to the maximum in order to survive. Constant movement in combat is recommended and you’ll also want to be quick on exploiting openings as you can’t afford to take a lot of damage.

But if that’s just your speed then thief actually becomes remarkably difficult to kill. They cover ground faster than any other class. They also hit the hardest (depending on the scenario). Where they are quite lacking is group utility, however. I would rank them dead last in that category.

So, if you like a lot of solo play (open world PvE, WvW roaming) I think thief is one of the strongest and most enjoyable classes (provided you don’t mind the speed of play). But I hear for a lot of the group-oriented content other classes are preferred as they bring both damage and group utility to the table.

I like it. The gliding navigation and the addition of glider combat are its best features. I also like the unusual look and the way the events are timed in contrast to the other HoT maps.

However, the events seem fairly generic and repetitive (although I do like the open world version of VG at the end), the map is small, and there aren’t a lot of rewards to go for after the handful on offer.

bearshaman.3421:

AliamRationem.5172:

New to engineer. Was looking for a critique on a potential build I’ve been thinking about trying once I unlock scrapper. But I’m still leveling, so it’s sort of theoretical at the moment as I haven’t been able to try a lot of these skills or traits yet.

I was hoping for a critique that might give me some ideas. I intend to start out in open world HoT for awhile, so this was my thought for a build that would be fun and effective for that…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASnUUB1ahVXBGpC0ehl7ii+2j9cXsg+hQEcBjwAA-ThSDQBez0Hc0B4QlBM4CAAD1fAgZgF+AA6hSvEoEkH7PQKgLWGB-e

You may want to play around with switching between Iron-blooded and HGH. If you find that you have enough survivability, go with HGH.

Aside from Flamethrower and Bulwark Gyro, all of your utility, healing, and elite skills are pretty interchangeable, so you have flexibility there too.

Overall, I think you should do decently well with this. Your mix of Berserker, soldier, and wanderer stats should do ok, though you may find you have too much survivability lol. As you feel more comfortable with the class and the playstyle, you may start swapping out some of the more defensive pieces for zerker. Also check out Marauder if you want a good mix of offense and defense.

It’s difficult for me to anticipate ahead of time how much survivability I’ll need. But I’ll definitely go with more offensive stats if it appears the survival traits would be overkill.

HGH I would only take if I can’t hit the expected boon uptime. That’s a bit of a guess at this point as well, but I should be stacking might very quickly swapping between hammer and flamethrower primarily.

Another possibility I was considering was a pistol/pistol condi build. The mortar and grenade kit paired with pistols seems to offer access to a ton of conditions on demand. Swapping between more kits could be fun, since my current concept is more limited. I expect it’ll be almost all hammer/flamethrower, with mortar there just to offer a range option and combo field support. I also noticed condi is the recommended build for group PvE.

Thanks for the feedback!

New to engineer. Was looking for a critique on a potential build I’ve been thinking about trying once I unlock scrapper. But I’m still leveling, so it’s sort of theoretical at the moment as I haven’t been able to try a lot of these skills or traits yet.

I was hoping for a critique that might give me some ideas. I intend to start out in open world HoT for awhile, so this was my thought for a build that would be fun and effective for that…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASnUUB1ahVXBGpC0ehl7ii+2j9cXsg+hQEcBjwAA-ThSDQBez0Hc0B4QlBM4CAAD1fAgZgF+AA6hSvEoEkH7PQKgLWGB-e

Well, since we’re doing another one of these, I might as well throw my opinion into the mix.

I prefer the HoT-style maps. I don’t get easily frustrated by exploration. Looking for that POI that ends up being on another level is just an excuse to find out where it is and how to reach it. That’s part of why TD and VB are my favorite maps.

The new map is pretty small, but I like the unusual look and the reliance on gliding. The addition of glider combat was a great idea, too. I hope they expand on its use.

The core maps are okay. They all look great, but after doing world completion I really can’t look at those maps as being on the same level as HoT. They start to have the same feel after awhile. Not in HoT, where there are definitely too few maps, but each one has a distinctive feel.

Maybe if I had been around when the core maps were new and played through a current storyline in them I would feel differently. But I signed on after HoT, and the core game to me seems like a beautiful, but fairly generic environment. Whereas HoT maps are like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

I wouldn’t mind flat maps for the people who just can’t stand HoT, but I would be very disappointed if they abandoned the drive to create more vertical maps.

SolarDragon.7063:

You’re all acting like levelling masteries in the wrong order is easy to avoid. For gliding and mushrooms, sure. But for the later mastery gates (like investing in Wallows for TD), you can already be in a position of being low on MP’s, especially if you don’t use dulfy for the achievements. THIS IS NOT MY PERSONAL POSITION. But I have seen it happen to guildies and pubs.

It is easy to avoid because only basic gliding, updrafts, and bounce mushrooms are critical for simply getting around in HoT. Not training wallows before you go to TD might slow you down, but it wouldn’t prevent you from reaching nearly every objective on the map.

I don’t doubt that some people have the impression that they must have wallows to explore TD. That doesn’t mean they’re correct in that assumption.

Gehenna.3625:

Well, you get the bounce mushrooms from the start but you need gliding first. Also you need to get your elite specialization done and for that you need HP points especially if you have an instant level 80 character that still needs a lot of them. That is currently my issues with my Mesmer. I have to go to other maps to get the HP and I need to grind a lot of events to get enough xp for the masteries. I have over 20 points of masteries currently waiting but I have to do a lot of repeat events to get the xp so I can actually spend the mastery points.

And I like exploring so when I run into a portal to another area I go through it. Call it curiosity, but I have to do a lot of xp grinding before I can do ley flight and I still have to get other stuff for the story continuation. I am not a natural grinder and I am not in a guild so just with a basic xp boost doing some events and exploring it still takes me two nights of gameplay to get enough xp for the next mastery unlock.

This might also surprise you but not everybody likes to redo the same events 20 times in one evening. I try to enjoy the game as I go along and sometimes I just spend 20 minutes trying to get somewhere on the map that I have to figure out how to get there because the map has multiple levels. I find that interesting but it takes time, so I am not just focused on my xp bar. It does get me into trouble though because it takes me longer to get the xp needed but to be honest, if I would play the game the way some of you do I’d get burnt out on it in no time. That doesn’t help me.

So yeh, people can be very different. I suppose it’s good that you realise that, but it really shouldn’t be a surprise.

The question is whether or not 3 mastery points represent an unreasonable barrier to exploration in HoT. Did they need to paint the guy a sign to tell him that he probably wants to get up to those impossible-to-reach places by using those updrafts and bounce mushrooms?

I guess it didn’t occur to me that anyone would try to navigate VB and the other maps before trying the storyline or, well, just looking around at the terrain. Really? You fully mastered exalted lore before you realized that you needed updrafts or bounce mushrooms? It just seems…unlikely, given the way bounce mushrooms and updrafts are literally everywhere you go in every single map of HoT and not having them unlocked heavily impedes your progress in a very obvious way.

In any event, I don’t think a mastery point “do-over” is unreasonable, even if I’m not clear on how you ended up in the position to require one. The only problem I’d have with it is that it needs to have some cost or restriction (one-time use?) or it essentially lets you have access to multiple mastery lines by only unlocking one.

SolarDragon.7063:

While HoT is theoretically possible to easily do without adventure HPs (I need to make some rageposts on that subject, however), if you don’t do the “ideal” progression of mastery points (and look up guides for strongboxes) you can easily find yourself in a position where traversing maps to get further mastery points becomes a nightmare. Tangled depths is the best example of this-if someone takes gliding heavily to help them with VB, then works on anything that isn’t Nuhoch, they can hit TD with no mastery points and no reliable way of getting round the map.

Perhaps allowing respec of mastery points should be allowed?

If a player can’t manage to follow the road to Teku Nuhoch or Ogre camp when they’re clearly marked on the map complete with cave entrances/exits, why should we expect that same player to notice the wallows marked on the map or be able to reach them? The map is useless. Or so I’ve heard from plenty of “experts” who hate TD.

It’s an exploration challenge. Wallows help, but they’re a lot more useful to players who know their way around TD than they are to players who don’t. They are not in any way required to navigate this map.

ZerotheFang.5890:

leveling is not really the problem i have with mastery system most my hate is directed towards how you get the points some things like adventures are not easy to do or are in areas where the meta kinda ramps up the fps and makes lag during the challenge, or my favorite an npc frog goes attacks me while i do the mastery challenge. if they want to fix some of them like add a 30 sec-min for silver or change the skills not to have a freaking cooldown (fungus among us worst adventure ever created it can just be removed for all i care).

I’m with you there. I can’t stand adventures! For that reason I’m totally for adding more mastery points so the system offers greater flexibility to players. I like that the mastery system gives us nice perks to work toward. I don’t think it necessarily needs to be so restrictive, however. The effort is enough.

I think they did a good job of minimizing the true barriers. But if you want to earn all of the masteries it does force you to really play every single one of those adventures out. I think it’s more GW2’s style to give players a choice in how they achieve their goals, where possible. This is probably one of those areas it wouldn’t cause any great harm to do so.

Nethod.7068:

I solved my issue with the mastery system. I watched a youtube to see the story this time instead of playing through the trash to get the masteries points and mastery xp required to finish it. /winning.

To each their own. If it’s trash to you, then it’s trash. Personally, I’m a big fan of HoT, but my concern in this case is the mastery system. I think a certain amount of gating is acceptable (e.g. 4 mastery points for story completion and 90%+ map completion) and contrary to your position, the requirements for general exploration and storyline completion are minimal.

The masteries gave me some serious QoL upgrades that I felt were worth the effort. It gave me a reason to play in maps I enjoyed anyway. That’s solid game design. But obviously, since you don’t enjoy HoT, what was a great reason for me to explore these maps to the fullest was your reason for resorting to youtube.

Your trash is my treasure on this one. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find an agreeable solution. Toward that end, I suggest the following:

Grant gliding, updrafts, and bounce mushrooms as baseline via the personal storyline. Reduce the number of tiers and respective costs for the remaining masteries. This would result in a reduction of 32 mastery points and about 2.8 million experience from the total cost of earning all of the Itzel lore and Gliding masteries. Alternatively, the lost tiers could be replaced with new skills that don’t present a critical barrier to exploration or personal storyline completion.

In either case, players would be free to complete their personal storyline and explore the vast majority of the jungle while leaving the mastery system mostly intact.

Nethod.7068:

Mastery system blocks progress.

Totally not playing Gw2 because of said blocked progress.

Oh Anet you want me to collect X more mastery points to level up whatever just to get through the story? Nope. lol. Story isn’t that good and there’s youtube to see what happens. You’re not making me play through the trash this time.

Edit: And done watching spoiler video. Yay. This why you bad anet, I’d rather watch someone else play the story instead playing catch up masteries to see it myself.

How is this a mastery system design issue? The underlying cause of your particular complaint is that you clearly dislike HoT gameplay.

Just to put it in perspective, to unlock the critical masteries you need to explore the jungle and complete the storyline, only 2 million experience (about the equivalent of leveling from 70-80) is required along with 4 MPs. That really isn’t a lot of time/effort. If you had any interest at all in trying the new maps you would earn that much just in the process of exploring and trying out the events for a few hours.

I know players in this game are used to doing things on their own terms, but even the core game didn’t allow you 100% freedom in this sense. You still had to put in effort to achieve objectives, frequently in game modes that might not be your cup of tea. For instance, I’m not a huge fan of JPs. I still have to do them now and then if I want the rewards. But as long as the entire game isn’t one big JP, I don’t consider that unreasonable.

Adventures are lame. I appreciate the ability to earn mastery points in other ways. I’m sure everyone has their own preferences. This should add some flexibility in terms of how players choose to approach earning the mastery points they want. Keep them coming, I say!

Khisanth.2948:

Paulytnz.7619:

Dawn Wulven.1485:

I feel the gliding battle now likes playing Kraken of Evolve Stage 2.XD
Maybe remove gliding skill 4(skill 5 owned dodge effect) , and add a new skill that have stun effect will be fine.

Better yet, add a skill to keep us in the air longer – almost no dropping. Air combat in Perfectworld was pretty good, It was basically just the same as land being that you could hover.

I was hoping the #5 would go in the direction you aim with your character.

There is a nice little trick where you can hit an updraft, then execute glider 5 while it’s lifting you. The dash turns vertical and you can get extra lift.

It is pretty amazing so far. The glider skills are quite powerful. In fact, I’ve noticed they seem to do much more than their tooltip indicates.

For instance, the tooltip for glider skill 2 indicates that it strikes 3 times and causes a 2s knockdown within a small (200) radius. But in practice I believe the target circle is significantly larger than indicated, and when I tested it out yesterday it cycled 5 times (and it could be more than that because it was critting for over 5k per hit and all of the enemies died from just this attack).

Glider 5 simply says it’s a 4s evade. It says nothing about the high-speed dash or the fact that it grants stability that lingers after the evade.

Glider 3 seems to work as indicated and is very nice for group play or any time you’re about to land in a pile of enemies. Why not drop a massive 6s water field that pulses regen, right?

I agree on glider skill 4, but the tooltip is misleading. It indicates a rather useless 1s evade. What it doesn’t tell you is that it’s also a decent heal. Still, I would prefer to see this ability reworked into something more useful. Either remove the evade and increase the heal or, better yet, give us a reflect instead of another evade.

In any event, turning the glider into a proper weapon set was a brilliant move. Especially since the way it works you can actually get quite a bit of use out of these skills on the ground by utilizing the terrain. You only need a brief moment of glider deployment to activate a glider skill. For instance, you can begin initiating a skill channel while the glider is briefly deployed, then finish the channel on foot! Or use glider 5 as a long range evade dash across the ground. You just have to have a slight elevation difference enough to get that glider out for a split second.

You’d be surprised the kind of damage the AA does, too. It’s variable, causing more damage the closer you are. A single brief pulse of AA just in the half-second of glider deployment was landing for 15k crits on the treasure mushroom I tested it out on yesterday. That’s pretty solid!

Sounds like a debate about the definition of the word “solo”. To me, solo play is not about shutting all other players out and participating in the game purely by myself. It’s about being able to log in and go off on my own doing whatever it is I want to do.

In the context of open world PvE (HoT specifically), I don’t need to be able to literally solo every single event on every map to consider it “solo friendly”. This game has a seamless group combat system where players can easily cooperate without coordinating. The fact that I don’t need to join a group or ask other players for help because it’s in their best interest to just join in makes the game that much more “solo friendly” to me.

The issue then becomes skill/comfort level. So maybe I find it “solo friendly” because I can complete a larger portion of the events on my own than some players and hold out long enough on events I can’t complete on my own, that other players usually happen along to lend a hand. I can understand why the game would appear unfriendly to solo players if that’s the case.

In my experience, MMO dungeon runs are always “speed” runs except when the dungeon is new (or the entire group happens to be new to the dungeon!) or if the dungeon is particularly difficult, such as the original release of WoW heroic dungeons in BC, if anyone remembers those prior to raid gear trivializing them. Once you’ve conquered them enough times, it’s natural to just plow through them as quickly as possible. So that’s still going to be an issue, I’m afraid.

“Grind” is subjective. All the term means is that it takes time/effort involving some repetition to achieve objectives. So what it really comes down to is whether or not repeating the required content to achieve the objective you want happens to consist of tasks you personally find enjoyable. Welcome to MMOs!

So, it sounds like dungeons will still disappoint, but it’s impossible to predict whether the “grind” will be a grind for you or not. I expect that if you like the expansion, it will not feel so grind-y, but after some time you will have exhausted most of the low-hanging fruit and objectives you find most appealing and find yourself left with expensive upgrades that you don’t find worthwhile.

For instance, I’m at 102 mastery levels. I’ve been around that level for some time now. Why? I just don’t like the HoT adventure content that has many of the remaining mastery points built into it and the handful of masteries I have left to unlock aren’t required for anything. So I don’t feel motivated to get them just yet. I imagine at the point where I would be forced to acquire them to achieve something of interest to me, I might suddenly view that part of HoT as an excessive grind!

MasterKaon.4027:

In hindsight, you are somewhat correct. With experience it’s easy to see the paths and options HoT presented to a fresh player, despite how limited they were. However this was all but drowned by a tidal wave of negative reinforcement for trying to do anything BUT those couple of options, either by constantly pointing to the mastery page in the most obnoxious fashion or outright killing the player with no warning and then pointing to the mastery page anyways.

HoT stopped being about things I could do and became about everything i couldn’t do and the mastery system wasn’t about unlocking cool abilities to open up the world, but about removing unnecessary barriers to actually playing the game. Luckilly once completed, those masteries stay on my account forever and I never have to bother with it ever again, which is one of the only reasons I sat through it.

Let’s just call it what it is. The HoT maps were too much for you. The exploration, the combat. It was too difficult and frustrating for your tastes. The complaints about masteries being a barrier are all in your head. You need only 3 masteries to explore the vast majority of locations in all of the HoT maps: gliding, bounce mushrooms, and updrafts.

Yes, you need expensive masteries like Itzel poison lore and leyline gliding to reach a handful of locations and achieve 100% map completion, among other things. But there is no reason you need to have 100% map completion the moment you enter HoT. There is no reason you need to complete every single objective from the moment you walk in. That was an expectation you had which was not met, but you were not in fact prevented from exploring these maps by the mastery system.

When I did HoT, I actually loved VB and the intro to the jungle that I just stuck around there until I had that map figured out. Then I went to AB, played around a bit, wasn’t really feeling it and went on to TD. 6 months later I have 102 mastery level, all of the more relevant masteries unlocked, 100% map completion on all maps, but I did it my way. I love VB and TD more than DS and AB, so those are the maps I spent most of my time on.

You have freedom in HoT. It sounds like you simply chose not to use it. Perhaps you listened a bit too much to the whining on the forums? A lot of the complaints here are very similar, but seem to originate from players who never liked HoT to begin with and don’t know what they’re talking about.

Talraekk.7613:

Well, I’ve played the game for awhile. Currently have two 80 rangers, 1 80 Thief.
I only solo (no party).
I’ve always had difficulty with every profession except the ranger. Always close to death/ can’t fight more than 1 mob at a time.
I’ve tried all professions.
Recent patches have diminished my ranger fun, and somehow I can’t kill with any efficiency.
My issue is warrior, ele, mes, guardian, engi, necro, I cannot sustain properly. All fights are intense, and I cannot stand certain weapons/skills (I hate you greatsword).
I have tried a ton of skill and wep variations and just can’t find anything that is even remotely decent.
My question is am I just terribad and am sol, or is there some way for me to have a modicum of damage and survivability. Any profession, I don’t care. I’d like to play and not eat dirt (ie, have fun).
Thanks for any help.

So I’m a little unclear. You mention a bunch of classes, but apparently the only one you actually play that you have difficulty with is thief. So are you asking how you can improve your solo open world PvE performance on thief?

Try this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFYCbOEOCbhaJgAQGYLQtc6QA

The heal and agility signet grant endurance along with stealing, using weapon skills, or using utility skills. Translation: You can dodge forever.

Unhindered combat means you break movement impairing effects and grant yourself perma swiftness just by dodging.

Invigorating precision is your big healing trait. 15% of crit damage returned as health. The more damage you deal, the more it heals. The idea being you kill quicker and are forced to evade less often. This lets you hang in there just that second longer you need to close the deal, then you’re off to the next kill.

Give it a go and look me up in game if you need a hand figuring it out.

I think you can do well with any of those classes. Which is best for you really depends on what content you’re interested in and how you like to play. To put it in general terms:

Thief plays FAST. You deal high bursts of damage and use frequent evasion, leaps, stealth, and/or teleports to move around the field and avoid damage. The “rotations” are among the most straightforward of any class, but thief is played with a lot more movement than other classes. It’s also less forgiving.

You have the tools to survive as well or better than any class in many scenarios, but you don’t have the health or armor to take a lot of hits if you make mistakes. So although the playstyle is fairly simple, the speed at which the class is played may force some additional errors if you aren’t comfortable with it.

Ele is another high damage class with a fast playstyle, but for different reasons. Elementalists essentially have twice as many abilities to work with as thief, even though they don’t have a combat weapon swap. To play this class well you need to know all of your abilities, when to use them, and be quick enough on the draw to execute when it counts. Being a little sluggish on ele will cost you just like it will on thief, but you have a lot more to learn before you get it down.

Guardian is a class I haven’t tried yet. From what I hear, it has solid healing and group support as well as access to damage mitigation (aegis, protection, etc.). I get the impression that it’s a slower, tankier class than thief or ele. It might make a better option for players easing back into the game. But that’s just speculation.

Count me in the category of players who has no interest in completing all of the masteries (dislike adventures). I wouldn’t mind if the spirit shards were rewarded for experience at level 80 regardless of mastery status.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

It’s interesting that various projectiles like rocks and fireballs are also homing. I’ve seen them turn angles to hit me if I try to avoid them, even in stealth. Wish my magic was as good as theirs.

They probably intended Bloodstone Fen to showcase the new glider mechanics and felt that too short a range would trivialize the new skills. They want you to be in danger and use your new skills to avoid it. They don’t want you to be able to bypass aerial combat too easily. Your opponents (for the moment) are land-locked. They need to be able to engage you somehow.

Having said that, I think the range could be toned down a bit and still serve its purpose. It’s also problematic when you actually intend to land in an area with high enemy density. The new skills allow you to approach safely and perhaps even clear a small landing area, but the aggro radius means that by the time you land every white mantle within a mile is on to you and you’re fighting for your life a lot worse than you would if you had been able to approach on foot (which is rarely a possibility in Bloodstone Fen!).

I’m sure they’ll have to make some adjustments to get it right.

Cerby.1069:

Vindicus.2130:

I was reading reviews on metacritic, but they’re from a year ago. Most of the negative reviews cite the complete lack of ability to play solo, requiring “elite skills” or something that are behind a paywall (p2w game now??), and being unable to even progress really unless lots of people are around.
…..
BTW I don’t intend to partake in PvP/WvW, I’m only interested in the PvE side. Can I play and enjoy the game solo in PvE or is there a bunch of stuff gated behind PvP as well?

Dont need any of the hot content to play the pve of the base game effectively. I mean all of it was there before hot came….if ur playing solo pve of the base game there is absolutely no reason to buy hot to get the most out of it. infact id argue u get a much better experience doing the base game without any of the expansion’s content. buy hot if u want a bit more pve content (its a very small amount of new pve content compared to the base game that u have access to)….otherwise avoid it.

Yeah. It’s not like HoT brings anything new to the table for PvE. It’s just something you buy if you want a bit more of the same, right? Really? I think that’s a little misleading.

There are only 4 maps. Well, 5ish, depending upon whether you consider Bloodstone Fen a proper map. Personally, I’d call it about a third of a map that’s like nothing I’ve seen before. But, if you look at the full package, you see that Bloodstone Fen is like HoT in general: It’s small and it isn’t for everyone, but unlike yet another core Tyria map, it brings some big ideas with it.

I’m talking about the vertical maps, the exploration challenge, the masteries, gliding, and now turning the glider into a legitimate weapon set (loving this so far! You can even incorporate it into ground combat easily by utilizing the terrain!). HoT brings so many new ideas to the table. To refer to it as “just a bit more PvE content” as if they had done nothing more than add 4 new versions of Queensdale with slightly different shades of grass really doesn’t do it justice.