Guild Wars 2

Asmodal.6489:

“People can no longer take refuge in my Symbols and my ability to withstand a beating has been nearly cut in half.”

You said you have mace focus equipped as a second set. mace still provides a nearly permamnet symbol that gives reggen and heals. with ability three you are able to put protection on top. throw i Hammer as weapon swap and you have more symbols up then before. i do not see the how your playstyle is broken now.

I think you misunderstood me, or perhaps I worded myself incorrectly. I have a Mace/Focus that I use for certain encounters (a lot more now since the nerf) but my actual Weapon Swap setup was Greatsword/Staff. If I knew the encounter was going to be very damage intensive I would go into the encounter running a Mace/Focus as primary and Staff as Secondary, replacing the Greatsword entirely.

@ Shieldbreaker

Unfortunately, I think you would be hard-pressed to make a case that the change to SoW warrants an increase in base HP. It simply isn’t enough damage to warrant a change on that scale.

However, your line of thinking is exactly correct. Where is the compensation? This was an out and out nerf. No two ways about it. The problem is that it is simply the byproduct of reducing the effectiveness of retaliation. A nerf intended to decrease the effectiveness of a specific boon, not even an ability, a boon, should never impact other builds and other aspects of the profession.

@ Green

1. I do not want to come across as confrontational, but I am going to have to disagree with you. The GS Guardian was only on par with other DPS assuming you built all out glass cannon. With our base HP being as intrinsically low as it is, you are hindering your group with the amount of times you will be downed, if not killed, running a glass cannon GS Guardian. Assuming you do run that way and it works for you, your damage is now on par with other damage dealing classes that are either able to withstand more of a beating due to mechanics or hard coded statistics such as higher base HP. Even if it is the case that the damage was too high, which I doubt, it is a trade-off: damage for survivability.

2. I just came up with that on the fly and honestly I don’t think that would be the right choice upon reflection. Perhaps Symbol of Wrath isn’t the right ability to gain retaliation from…I really don’t know. All I know is that I made the Symbol work for me independent of the perk of on demand retaliation. I would like to see ANet come up with a way to give that back without infringing upon their views of the tactical decision to pop retaliation.

3. I don’t mean that you should literally be able to play however you want and still be as effective as other people who are min/maxing, but when you find something that works and it isn’t game breaking, you should be able to play that way if you want to. This build was a lot of fun and I was playing the way I wanted; now I have to switch to a style that I don’t really enjoy as much to get the same benefit out of my character.

4. Prior to the patch I would completely disagree with you. Take the Writ traits and you have larger symbols, symbols that heal, and symbols that last longer. Take 5 points in Zeal and you have another Symbol that will definitely be proccing a fair amount if you run a GS build in dungeons. So that is 3 Symbols, two of which can be put up every 8-10 seconds and last for roughly 5-6 seconds. The Mace and Hammer (particularly) Symbols don’t last nearly as long, although the defensive qualities of those weapons are nothing to scoff at.

Post patch, I’m very inclined to agree with #4. The Greatsword no longer makes sense to use in a Symbol build and you are much better off with a Mace/Focus or what have you. That is really the cornerstone of my argument. I simply disagree with the change based upon the impact it has had on build diversity.

My Greatsword Guardian was SO much more fun than running a Mace/Focus setup. For 90% (made up statistic, of course) of my dungeon encounters, I was able to run the Greatsword. It was hands on and very difficult to play, but like I said earlier, it was fun and it worked. On really damage intensive fights, I still swapped in my Mace/Focus if I really needed it, but I can only think of a few encounters off the top of my head that required the swap. Since the nerf, I have not been able to run the Greatsword effectively in dungeons as a support role. People can no longer take refuge in my Symbols and my ability to withstand a beating has been nearly cut in half.

It still gets the job done to some extent, but the support role has really been taken out of the picture, even though I’m still traited for support. I am now a lackluster damage dealer with the occasional mini group heal here and there (if my group can actually afford to run into my Symbol during its uptime). If I really want to play this role effectively again, I have to switch back to the Mace/Focus and start chasing enemies down again. There isn’t too much point to a tank that can take any beating if the enemies don’t even want to dish it out on me.

So there are my frustrations, now I’ll get down to the essence of my argument. ANet told us we would be able to play the way we wanted to play. Already we have seen that this just isn’t the case, as “glass cannons” who wanted to play that way are having a nearly impossible time in dungeons. I thought I found something unique here that I wanted to focus on, and now this build doesn’t work either. Retaliation builds? Dead. I understand ANet has their own vision, and it does seem to be an evolving (to put it lightly) one. However, this new vision is crippling build diversity even further. I guess if there had to be a TL;DR, that would be it.

To me it seems like a major developmental aspect was completely overlooked in this patch. When a change is made to an ability, even a fairly vanilla seeming ability such as Symbol of Wrath, it sends reverberations throughout the rest of the game that need to be completely understood before the change is made. Now, I realize that my particular build probably wasn’t very mainstream and there probably wasn’t too much data on it, but it worked and it was fun. It is now tedious and painstaking to make it work, if it does at all.

Instead of flaming ANet for not considering the impact this would have on other builds (I wholeheartedly believe the only reason ANet made this change was to cripple PvP Retaliation Guardians), I will simply propose one more change. Return the symbol to its previous recharge rate and lower the amount of procs of retaliation it provides. Promote build diversity, don’t hamper it.

Thank you all for the read and I apologize for the lengthiness and long-winded explanations. I hope some of you out there agree with me.

Animus

I’m not sure how others feel about the recent GS nerf, but what bothers me isn’t the lack of a reliable source of retaliation, or the reordering of the skills (albeit annoying as heck). What really bothers me is the 50% damage nerf to our symbol’s uptime. I’ll break down the reasons why.

Sure, nerfs always suck when they hit your class hard, but this nerf is a game changer for some Guardians, including myself. Symbol of Wrath used to provide a serious source of damage output, ignoring retaliation entirely. That damage has now been cut in half over the course of a long fight. OK so a straight up dps nerf…that’s fine, if it is well reasoned. Was this well reasoned? Was Guardian dps in dungeons and DE’s so high that it needed to be nerfed to this extent? I don’t have large-scale metrics but something tells me we weren’t exactly on the top of the totem pole when it comes to damage output.

Alright, so I can make my peace with the damage nerf, at least eventually I will. What I don’t think I can come to terms with is that a build that I have been working on perfecting for quite some time is now essentially no longer viable. I created a support build on the Guardian that relied on symbols providing a constant source of healing to my group. I won’t go into a full discussion of which traits I selected (they should be obvious for those who have delved into this sort of build), but my setup was 0/5/30/30/5.

At first, I was running this build with a Mace/Focus as primary weapons and then a Staff for my secondary set. The “healing” and “tanking” was unbelievable for a game that “did away” with the so-called Holy Trinity. I was doing both consistent healing and tanking for my groups and having fun with it for a while. However, once I started grouping up with more…“competent” players, I found myself unable to keep enemies on me because the damage output of the Mace/Focus was too low to “hold aggro” and enemies would endlessly chase after our squishies while I helplessly ran after them holding down 3 on the mace trying to soak up a hit or two (mostly to no avail, because I wouldn’t ever be targeted).

Then the Greatsword idea dawned on me. I replaced the Mace/Focus with the Greatsword and kept the Staff as my secondary weapon. My damage output was actually high enough to ensure that at least some enemies focused on me, and I was able to “tank” again, albeit without as many defensive abilities or as much healing. So I got my full Exotic Clerics set crafted and I was able to withstand just about any beating with my “Altruistic Healing” and Symbol build providing relatively constant healing to me and my group. Sure, any damage dealing oriented player would out damage me, but the point was to play support, and it worked.

I realize this should go in the suggestions sub-forum, but I feel like it will get the most attention in this sub-forum (perhaps another issue entirely in itself, or I might be incorrect in assuming that). In any case, I think it would greatly improve the Dev Tracker feature of these forums if it filtered out the ever popular responses: “Thank you and your post has been moved/edited/censored” or the “Keep it respectful, friendly, and on-topic”.

These posts help people understand why certain moderation tactics are utilized, and I encourage the CM’s and moderators to keep posting them, but it would be fantastic if they were removed from the Dev Tracker posts. I believe the real reason a person clicks on the Dev Tracker button is to garner new information about the community and the actual game that is GW2. It is somewhat of a burden to scroll through the dross of moderation explanations.

Thanks for the read.

I unfortunately don’t have actual numbers because I’m at work, but if it helps you decide, you should consider which weapon setup you are running. If you are using two weapons that you frequently swap between in combat that both contain access to symbols, you should be running Writ.

That being said, I like taking both of them when in a group, as well as Writ of Exaltation to make sure that my group has an easier time not only seeing my symbols, but staying inside of them as well (not to mention your AoE will be larger).

Ugh, I just got infracted and had my post deleted for defending exactly what you wrote.

I really don’t want to see this thread die and I’m sure there are other people who agree with some of my points. I’m surprised this topic has not encouraged more discussion. In any case, last shameless bump.

To clarify why I believe the focus outshines the shield for dungeons, I’ll provide a few extra bits of information. The 4 skill on the focus not only causes blind, but bounces to your nearby allies and gives them the regeneration boon. Consequently, this is healing for them, and healing for you through Altruistic Healing. To explain why the 5 skill is a better group utility than anything the shield offers, I need to go into a bit of strategy here.

Although tanking as we knew it in previous MMO’s is gone, it is not altogether removed from GW2. If you are running a mace/focus build, you can actually provide your group with quite a bit of damage soaking to begin a particularly rough encounter.

Aggro mechanics in GW2 are still somewhat of a mystery, but one thing is certain, enemies will definitely attack the first player that engages on them. So, tell your group to hang back a moment as you charge in first (this is assuming you have traited heavily into Honor and Valor) and as you are engaging the group, start channeling Mace ability 2 in order to have your symbol land just as you reach the enemies. Pop focus 5 and your next three incoming attacks are blocked. At this point, your team should engage, and then you throw out focus 4 and you have now blinded and healed up quite a bit of targets.

At this point, whatever you have managed to “hold aggro” on will not be able to take you down with the appropriate level of dodging and healing up/buffing and the rest of your group can clean up the mess as usual. I have found this incredibly effective on packs of enemies as well as on bosses. Obviously, it must be supported by skilled play on your part, as well as your group’s.

Give it a shot and let me know if you still prefer the shield. I would be interested to see the comparison as I haven’t really tried the shield much since AC story mode.

If i may, I would suggest that you take 5 points out of Radiance and put them into Virtues. You will be amazed by how much more healing you produce through Altruistic healing when you pop any of your Virtues. It can be a life saver.

As for your major trait selections. I would use a focus instead of the shield and get rid of the shield centered traits. Take Purity to remove conditions and take the trait that grants 5% of your toughness as precision to make you crit more often and consequently, heal more often through your dodge roll and the buff of vigor.

In the Honor line, you should pick up Writ of Exaltation and Writ of the Merciful and Battle Presence. Your group healing will be through the roof, as much as GW2 permits, in any case. The shouts are fine, although I would recommend taking save yourselves over Hold the Line or Stand Your Ground. Again, terrific healing and you can really help your group out if they are taking a beating via conditions. You may also want to run with your healing signet in this case so you have two conditions removed every ten seconds (stacking with purity).

Hope this helps and good luck with your build.

I go to the Grove if I want peace and quiet while crafting or just using the TP sometimes. Lion’s Arch is pretty hectic and can sometimes stress me out, believe it or not. It is really simple to get to your home city (for free) from LA as well.

That being said, sometimes I prefer LA just because I want to feel like the game has life and ironically enough, you don’t really feel that in the Grove, even though everything is technically alive there.

In conclusion, it is nice for people who want to get away from LA to have their home cities but also have the choice of going to LA to interact with others as well.

Doesn’t look like your character feels that way hahaha

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Nah, if anything WW needs to aggro things better. It takes too long to clear out a large group of mobs because they don’t necessary aggro on you from 1200 range and the projectiles are unreliable.

Guardians already tear through large groups with no effort so aggroing more almost always = better since it gives more xp and loot in less time.

I am primarily concerned from a PvP perspective, rather than PvE. I don’t think a melee-centric weapon should be your go to long range AoE aggro device. It even has Binding Blade for that purpose, albeit not 1200 range.

To whoever mentioned it, I also wasn’t aware that the move used to be stationary. If that is the case, it seems ANet’s current philosophy on the ability is to be able to track after your target, since we can move while channeling it now. So why slow us down? In PvE, this serves no pivotal purpose. I can only assume the reasoning is to keep us from chasing a target down effectively in PvP.

To that end, I ask why? I think the GS should be a truly viable weapon in a PvP setting (whether it be WvW or sPvP). To those who use the GS in PvP with success, I’m not saying it isn’t possible, but there are, without question, better options to suit the same purpose. I would like to see the GS be brought up to those standards and I think a change to WW would be a good first step.

AlphaDuck.7592:

How ww works is it makes a pulsing aoe around you which constantly ticks for damage, as well as the projectiles. If you stand inside your target and land every single projectile (there are 7 of them I believe) then the projectiles still only count for about 1/3 of the total damage, with the pulsing aoe damage counting for about 2/3. It would be nice if you could move at normal move speed while channeling it, but the projectiles really arent that big of an issue, they are kinda like a bonus

1/3 is quite a bit. Imagine if you had a trait option that said “increases your Whirling Wrath damage by 33%”. I’m no math wiz but tell me you wouldn’t pick that up in a heartbeat.

Dietzen.6127:

Jep, I noticed as well, and yes it bothers me too. Some of his “jokes/punchlines” almost fell through due to bad English.

Almost?

Was hoping to see some more support behind this idea. Shameless bump.

Raap.9065:

Animus.6073:

Epicness in books/movies most certainly is not the same as epicness in games. For an MMO, there really is no higher achievement than defeating the primary villain in a raid setting. Nothing feels quite as powerful.

Oooh no you didn’t. I’m not going to go into a discussion on this subject, but I will just say you are terribly wrong. I’m actually rather shocked, and hope this is not the modern day mentality more people share.

I’m not sure which part of my post you are referring to, but I’ll assume from your tone that it was in regards to my first sentence. To that, let me state that you are inferring that I’m implying one is greater than the other. I’m not. I love my epicness in all mediums equally.

I simply meant that in a movie, it is epic when a character or a duo (as in LotR) accomplish an astounding world saving feat. Whereas in an MMO, for example, a group of people working together against seemingly insurmountable odds is the true epicness of the game.

If you were referring to the latter part of my post in which I claimed that defeating the primary villain was the highest achievement, perhaps I phrased that incorrectly. I simply meant that I don’t think you will get the same “wow” feeling (not WoW, but wow) from doing anything else.

Echo.7634:

Raids do not make events epic.
Frodo and Sam saved middle earth and it was just the 2 of them. THAT was Epic.

Epicness in books/movies most certainly is not the same as epicness in games. For an MMO, there really is no higher achievement than defeating the primary villain in a raid setting. Nothing feels quite as powerful.

I don’t think anyone can truly claim they felt the “epic moment” at the close of their personal story line in GW2. It just isn’t there yet.

I will definitely miss some aspects of raiding, but not all of them. I know that the amount of time required to raid is not something I will miss. The downside of that is that I don’t think GW2 will ever give me goosebumps like I got when I downed Arthas for the first time (before all the nerfs). Granted that was the only expansion I “fully beat” PvE-wise, and I don’t doubt that other raid bosses prior to Arthas created similar feelings.

GW2 is a wonderful game, and thoroughly enjoyable at that, but as it currently stands, there is no truly epic moment in PvE content. I think that is something that only raiding could bring to the table. It will be very interesting to see how ANet works around this factor if they don’t intend on implementing raiding. I’m anxiously awaiting.

Legendary weapons should take a long time to acquire. In case you haven’t noticed, and I don’t mean to sound condescending, ANet frowns upon “speed clearing” content.

That is why there are no mounts, dungeons have diminishing returns, there are constant fixes to exploits that allow speed clearing, despite the dire need to fix other aspects of the game; their priorities are crystal clear.

Diminishing returns don’t simply exist to stop gold farmers. They are in place to stop people from getting legendary weapons too quickly. The game has been out for a month and people are already acquiring them.

Think back to vanilla WoW. I know it was well over a month (probably over 3-4 but my memory is hazy) before I got my first set of epics from Molten Core. It felt epic because it took a really long time. I imagine ANet is aiming to create that same feeling in their game.

There are technically only two. Sunrise and Twilight. Eternity is the combination of the two swords. It has the same stats, but I believe its graphic alternates between the two swords as day becomes night and so forth.

When your girlfriend tells you to “befoul this locale no more”

It is never a bad idea to get a piece or two with some vitality on it since our HP pool is so low compared to other classes (with the exceptions of the thief and elementalist). You don’t want to detract away from your healing power too much because your healing over time will equate to much more effective hp than stacking vitality.

Ideally, you want to get just enough vitality to survive a burst comfortably and then rely on your healing power to sustain you through the rest of the encounter. So, as others have said, do not spread yourself thin, but make sure not to skimp on at least some vitality.

@ ShadowbaneX: I agree that the Hammer paired with GS can be deadly, but you are relying on two different weapon sets and a utility skill or two just to make one ability land effectively. If WW pulled off the kind of numbers that HB did, I could see this making a bit more sense. As it stands currently, its damage is too low to justify that amount of synergy and opportunity costs.

@ Morelia: Then why does it slow you at all? If an enemy dodges out of a WW and you are slowed by doing it, you are essentially crippling yourself. Any ranged enemy will thank you kindly. If an enemy is going to dodge the WW, so be it, that is why dodging is in the game. Having the slow tied to it makes the WW almost more of a hindrance than a weapon in most cases.

I realize the ability is the staple of the Great Sword and is in a very good place as it is for PvE, but I feel like it is supremely lackluster in PvP. The problem here is two-fold.

First of all, the Whirl causes you to slow down, almost spinning in place, so your target has time to avoid a majority if not all of your damage. The second issue is the projectiles, and to be honest, I’m not really sure why these are even part of the ability. These projectiles are completely random and are more likely to hit secondary and tertiary targets rather than your primary target. In PvE that can aggro additional mobs that you may not have intended to pull, and in PvP you are losing valuable damage.

I know that in order to maximize WW’s damage, you can stand “inside” of your target, but this opportunity is next to impossible to capitalize on in PvP and in PvE it just feels somewhat gimmicky. The Whirl is a melee ability for all intents and purposes, so it should be able to attain maximum damage without having to rely on the completely random component of its projectiles.

Obviously there are ways to trait and skill in order to improve your chances of landing a full WW on a target in PvP, but the sacrifices in utility that you have to make in order to fully utilize the potential of a weapon’s staple are simply not worth it.

So, perhaps two suggestions for Whirling Wrath:

Since we have no intrinsic snares to keep our targets in place (outside of, I believe, a signet), it seems logical to me that WW should not slow your movement speed. It is hard enough to keep a target in range with the GS, especially considering how easy it is for other players to dodge roll away from BB or a leap. I don’t believe this would lead to any imbalances.

Second suggestion, remove the projectiles from WW entirely, but keep the Whirl finisher. You still get that random “fiery bolt” or “condition removal” finisher from it, but you don’t have to worry about connecting with (random) projectiles from a melee focused ability. In order to compensate for the missing damage of a full WW “inside” the target, simply fold the projectile damage into the base damage of the whirl. If this damage proves to be too high, then reduce it by an appropriate percentage.

I personally love the GS and would love to see it get more PvP viability. I find myself wanting to use the Hammer in its stead, simply because you can keep a target in melee range, which after all is said and done, is what you need to do to be an efficient melee profession. Using the Hammer as your second weapon set is an “ok” fix for this problem, but it seems silly to have to use an entirely separate weapon to actually land a WW against a skilled opponent.

I am completely open to criticism here and I hope this sparks some constructive conversation. Thank you all for the read.

Animus

Edit: Adding in a lore factor here, if it helps.

The Guardian is a stalwart defender or a zealous persecutor (or maybe a few other archetypes, but those are the two that come immediately to my mind). They strike with precision and focused minds. They do not have the mindset of a Warrior who strikes brashly and recklessly, chaotically leaping into the fray. The Guardian does not embody the random nature of the Mesmer, a profession that relies on illusions and the random nature of reality to defeat its opponents.

For the Guardian to have an ability that is somewhat random in nature goes against the core philosophy of the profession. Randomness and burst are not aspects of the Guardian, steady and reliable damage from consistent sources serve the Guardian’s purpose much better.

@ Moon

Thank you, good sir. Sorry my first post came across as inflammatory. It was uncalled for and I was in the mood to pick a fight for some reason.

In any case, your post has some merit to it. I think ANet needs to find a balance between the current system they have now and the typical “WoW” gear treadmill. There is something that I can’t quite put my finger on that irks me every time I log in.

I definitely enjoy the game and think some of the innovations are fantastic, but there is a wow factor missing (no pun intended). I think the core issue is that leveling up has no “oomph” to it. You level and your character does a mini-celebration and glows with light for a moment, but there is no tangible progression.

By tangible, I mean to say that there aren’t “true” perks to leveling up and being able to equip new levels of gear since all content can be completed with abysmal gear, assuming the player is skilled. There are no gear checks that I could see or remember and I think that is a bit of an issue.

Sure, you don’t want to keep people from experiencing content, but then again, how do you truly reward those who have worked harder or put more time into deserving to see or attain the content. Skins are nice, and probably enough for some people, but in this new age of “reward me for playing” games, some (most) people want more than a little extra flavor.

I don’t really have a solution other than “go play another game,” but I really enjoy the style and overall feel of GW2. I just want to have that longing to play when I’m at work that I used to have back in high school with WoW. I log on when I get home and it is fun, but I don’t find myself counting the seconds until I can start playing again.

I think that, combined with the hype, is why so many people are disappointed with the current state of the game. There is a fix out there and I’m sure that it will be found eventually. It may not be ANet that finds it, but it might be. Hang in there.

@ Moon

This is the last thing I’ll say on the matter since it is already off-topic.

If you were to stretch out “guess what” into a full sentence, you would get something like this: “Guess what I am doing.” In this scenario, you are not posing a question, you are stating a demand. You are, in essence, telling the person you are speaking or typing to that you wish for them to pose a conjecture as to what you are doing.

In your post, you say “guess what?” This means one of two things. The first being, you made a typo and really meant to type out “guess ‘what?’”. In this instance, you are effectively using the phrase to evoke the same reaction that a rhetorical question would. “What,” in this case, is being used as a question, but it is in the context of a request or demand, since it is paired with the action dictating “guess.” Since you are arguing against this possibility by insisting that you have, in fact, posed a question, I will assume this is not the case.

The other possibility is that you are pulling the Ron Burgundy here. “I’m Ron Burgundy?” should be a statement, but due to the “?” it becomes a question of realization. To the audience, Ron Burgundy appears shocked at the realization that he is Ron Burgundy. It sounds awkward because we know he is, and in spite of the comedic factor, he knows as well. By saying “guess what?” you are creating the same problem. You are asking the question as if you disbelieve what you have just learned or heard.

I don’t think the second option is what you meant, either. So, if it wasn’t option one (typo) and it wasn’t option two (a question rather than a rhetorical question), then you have most certainly misused the “?”, and the phrase “guess what?”, in your case, is not a question.

You can private message me if you want further explanations, so as to keep the thread on topic.

(I kind of miss the gear grind, too.)

@ SamTheGuardian

“What kind of rewards were given out for this? It seems to me the play mechanics are there, the reward system is what needs work…”

“i had ALOT of fun all night.”

1. Read Post
2. Understand Post
3. ????
4. Profit

Arcain.9106:

My best bet is update all your drivers. The latest nVidia driver is 602.#Beta. I could be wrong, but thats what mine is.
Also check the nVidia control panel. (Control Panel > nVidia Control Panel) and check the ‘Manage 3D settings’. There could be something there that might be causing your low framerates. This happened to me with GW2.

I plan to update to that driver when I get home, but would you mind elaborating on what might be causing low fps in the 3D settings?

When I have the game client running, I am not running any other programs. I make sure I have no browsers open and the only things running in the background wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary.

I hope I’m not misunderstanding what it is you have said. I will take a look at the Alienware forums and see if I can dig up anything over there. Thanks for your response.

Also, not sure if this would help in determining the cause, but I did update my driver to the most current version and the GW2 launcher informed me that there was a hardware issue.

Once I reverted back to the original driver that was installed on the computer the prompt went back to normal.

I don’t play in Windowed Mode, so it would seem the Nvidia card is the problem then. That’s really unfortunate. If that is the case, do we have an ETA on when it will be supported properly by GW2?

(Posted this originally in the “Players Helping Players” section but I think I might get more assistance here)

Hey all,

I was just wondering if any of you could assist me in understanding why my FPS is where it currently is. I play on maxed settings and typically get between 40-50 FPS in non-stressed zones.

However, when I move into a zone that has even remotely taxing environmental or graphical displays, my FPS drops to 20-30 and can even go as low as 10-15 in highly populated WvW or DE’s. This is especially prevalent in areas with a lot of water.

This normally wouldn’t concern me all that much, as playing on maxed settings should put quite a strain on a computer. However, I recently purchased a new computer that I thought would be able to play just about any game on the market with completely maxed settings, without sacrificing any FPS.

Here are the specs:
Alienware Aurora-R4
Alienware Aurora X79 with ALX Chassis
Intel Core i7-3960X (Six Core Extreme, 15MB Cache) Overclocked up to 4.2Ghz
32GB Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
512GB SSD 6Gb/s MAIN + 1TB 7200RPM Storage
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, English, w/Media

Please avoid commenting on the fact that I purchased an Alienware. I am aware of the stereotype and would prefer if the focus was on the issue, rather than the brand I chose. I’m not all that tech savvy, didn’t have the expertise to build my own rig, and had the money available.

That being said, any help would be much appreciated. Thank you all for your consideration and time.

Oh and the Overclock is factory settings, I have not manually Overclocked.

Hey all,

I was just wondering if any of you could assist me in understanding why my FPS is where it currently is. I play on maxed settings and typically get between 40-50 FPS in non-stressed zones.

However, when I move into a zone that has even remotely taxing environmental or graphical displays, my FPS drops to 20-30 and can even go as low as 10-15 in highly populated WvW or DE’s. This is especially prevalent in areas with a lot of water.

This normally wouldn’t concern me all that much, as playing on maxed settings should put quite a strain on a computer. However, I recently purchased a new computer that I thought would be able to play just about any game on the market with completely maxed settings, without sacrificing any FPS.

Here are the specs:
Alienware Aurora-R4
Alienware Aurora X79 with ALX Chassis
Intel Core i7-3960X (Six Core Extreme, 15MB Cache) Overclocked up to 4.2Ghz
32GB Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 690
512GB SSD 6Gb/s MAIN + 1TB 7200RPM Storage
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, English, w/Media

Please avoid commenting on the fact that I purchased an Alienware. I am aware of the stereotype and would prefer if the focus was on the issue, rather than the brand I chose. I’m not all that tech savvy, didn’t have the expertise to build my own rig, and had the money available.

That being said, any help would be much appreciated. Thank you all for your consideration and time.

Oh and the Overclock is factory settings, I have not manually Overclocked.

Mrbig.8019:

Snort.3698:

@mrbig

Go 30 radiance, pick up your + 15 % crit with main hand sword, get pow-vit-tough gear.
I hit like a truck, heal with shouts, 3.2 k toughness.

err 3.2k toughness?

screenshot it.

No need to screenshot, this is my build ( the tooltip is a little wrong, since i have less critical chance and power, and more armor, but whatever it can give you the overall idea.).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUAQRAse7dlYgaDnGyKEm4Eh1DCeQ/hVgjXPgIFbIA;TwAA1CnoqxUjoGbNuak1siYExWkpIA

Hit like a truck, 45 % crit chance, 3k+ toughness.

You can remove valor traits and put them into zeal and virtues to make it a spirit weapon build with 2.8k+ toughness.

The guardian is like the most OP class currently along with the mesmer. SERIOUSLY.

Armor =/= Toughness. Major difference. Using a shield instead of a Focus or a Torch is also hurting you. That said, your build is fairly solid if you support it with the right gear. I wouldn’t use this as an example of why the “Guardian is OP,” which I disagree with in any case. Versatile is a better word in my opinion.

Ah, I wasn’t aware that level 80 armor required a different transmutation stone (I just hit 80 a day or so ago). I will have to try that when I get home. Thanks for the reply.

Hey all,

I didn’t want to post this as a bug report because I’m not entirely sure that it is. However, the problem is frustrating all the same. I just purchased the Sylvari cultural tier 1 chest armor with the intention of transmuting its appearance onto my current level 80 masterwork chest armor.

The problem is that whenever I drag the level 80 armor into the transmutation window, the window appears red and will not let me even start the transmute process. It does not matter if I put the Sylvari armor in first or the level 80 armor in first; the window goes red for the level 80 armor regardless.

I have successfully transmuted many different pieces of armor, so I am confident that I understand the process and can’t seem to figure out why this particular transmutation is not working.

If anyone has any input on the issue, I would greatly appreciate it. If this is indeed a bug, and a CM notices this post, please move the post to the bug report sub-forum.

Thank you all for your consideration.