Guild Wars 2

Or just make it more recognizable that one siege drop is a troll siege…..and people won’t build it.

I don’t know, make the name more visible, or change the artwork to show the siege half-finished?

The OP does have a point. And put down your torches and pick forks.

It’s not helpful to ask for raw damage values – you can’t factor every single detail. You have crowd control, people dodging, ganks, tactical movement, food buffs, might stacking, boon steals…our knowledge of “what’s OP” has to come from first-person experience.

Condi damage doesn’t need to sacrifice survival. And it doesn’t rely on crit. If you focus direct damage, you either do steady damage and can’t spike, or you’re a glass cannon. If you focus Condi, you don’t sacrifice defense but still do steady damage. (or stack a lot of condi for a really strong spike, and still lose nothing to defense)

There is no backlash on going full dire. It’s very forgiving – maybe too forgiving. And for those that argue that bunker means you can’t insta-down someone…why does that matter? Just hold out a few extra seconds for someone to come to your aid.

I’d remove the reveal debuff, and lengthen the time for thief stealth skills…

Then sit back and laugh evilly.

1. Return Edna’s apple pies, or food buffs in general. I can understand if recipe sheets were removed, as it deals with crafting, and that would take some time to learn, but the pies shouldn’t be a problem.

2. Return bundles, or anything relating to it. It was one of the icings on the cake for this game. I’ve hard golem chess got removed, and goggles are closed off until level 7, etc. that’s going a bit too far in my opinion. If it is confusing, have a little note bubble informing the player they just equipped a bundle, and they can unequipp by using the weapon swap button.

3. Lower the level requirements for skills to stop at 30, when most people will get their elite skills.

4. Return f1-f4 skills, or at least introduce them earlier, perhaps lvl 3-4, with a little explanation of what each class can use the skills for.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Last time was too much, but this season is too little. Maybe next one you can hit it someone in the middle?

What I hope achievements would do, is draw non-WvWers into the tournaments. Give them an incentive to get into the action. Maybe a “10 minutes a day” sort of thing, instead of just 20 mins for a week?

Deniara Devious.3948:

I am mostly a solo roamer in WvWvW. I really dislike the EotM map design, playing EotM is as much “fun” as pulling nose hair out one by one. I have spent thousands of badges on buying traps and siege. Are you telling me I should torture myself and start to play EotM to get more badges? I only got 10k+ badges left, after blowing too many on those new traps.

I never said that, calm down. I’m a havoc roamer and the only way I can get a decent amount of honor badges/world exp is to get a toon and grind it out in EOTM. When I was done with EOTM I never wanted to go back.

My post was directed to people who wanted to completely remove badges from EOTM as an answer to siege trolling. My reply to that: It’s gonna hurt people who need EOTM to grind their badges.

Are you sure it’s that way for all maps, or just newbie experience? I remember someone saying you can’t turn into a Sylvan Wolf anymore in Caledon Forest, but when I went to check I could still get the option.

Only real change was the addition of an (albiet generous) boundary so you couldn’t travel the entire map as a sylvan hound. Although I suppose that would be understandable.

If I could find a way to do pure condi d/d for WvW, I’d do it. But anything I’ve tried to theorycraft doesn’t work well.

Farming dungeons or Fractals has been the most stable source of ingame income for me. Other choices (but not as stable) are EOTM farming, TP flipping, and crafting.

pessimist.7294:

Eda delicious apple pie, asuran golem chess, all these things were removed for no reason. Looks like the dev dont want us to enjoy the game and thsoe small things.

WHAT. THEY REMOVED THE ASURA GOLEM CHESS?!

My guildies and I would sometimes spend afternoons duking it out there!! I had the winning streak!! How could they DO such a thing?!

cries

As much as people despise EOTM for its not-really-WvW karma train, it’s still an aspect of the game.

It’s also the only way certain WvW players, who do not participate in zerg fights (like roamers or havoc squads) can get access to honor badges. That being said, removing badges from EOTM would hurt a percentage of WvW players – unless someone can figure out a way to get more badges available to roamers.

What if you made the labels of the siege build side more easy to recognize? I don’t see this happen in WvW, but in EOTM most people just build whatever drops on the ground. If it was easier to distinguish a treb from a ram, I bet players were more likely to ignore troll siege drops.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

What I don’t understand about some people that they give it the biggen by saying s/d is the best and most fun, or its the most challenging weapon set to play and slate how lame/cheese (what?) p/d is. Instead of working around this nerf by using cnd more often to land LS (I am sure there other tactics too) you give up on this high risk build for the p/d spec. Where is the logic in that?

Sometimes I just think a lot of people don’t try any more tbh.

P/D was cheese before the s/d nerf. Condition damage itself, regardless of class or build, is the meta because it’s powerful – just as before the ferocity nerf, zerker was the meta. If condi damage and direct damage were balanced, I’d be content to go back to s/d or dagger mainhand builds.

S/D is still powerful in evades, escape, and crowd control. On average, an S/D thief can still beat the living daylights out of a P/D thief. S/D requires more knowledge of mechanics than P/D, and with awareness and constant practice, it’s not “press 1 to win”. But if you actually want to roam and kill people without dying yourself? It’s condi or nothing.

Play smart, cheesy, and dirty, or play fair and get your tootsie handed to you. A lot.

If you can’t beat em, join em…-sigh-

I’m about ready to hang up my gorgeous WvW zerker set, the shiny sword, fancy daggers, ascended trinkets, and sneaky stealthy tactics. I’ve done my shopping/farming and got the meta – dire condi p/d.

I do not like P/D – it’s clunky, it’s “skill-less”, it’s slow, and it’s cheese. Dear flippin love, it’s more cheesy than a triple-cheese-lover New Yorker pizza. All I have to do, is press 1 and win? How, who – ok, genius whoever discovered this build, but come on! This is too easy!!

My scariest foes now eat the dirt, and mercy of kittens, how did I not die from that condi-spike? This – this is witchcraft! I am terrified of the possibility that I may forget how to play thief!

Must adaprt to survive, but how far must it go? Is this the future for my poor thief? Accursed to follow the condi meta? Has she no hope of regaining her fluid grace, and must be shackled to this clunky build?

IS THERE NO HOPE?!

…

Melodramatic post, sue me. It was more fun to write it this way! In all seriousness, really…P/D is OP – no, my bad. Condition in general, is OP. P/D is just the only option left for thieves in this crazy World versus World. Sweet love, someone balance this oversight, please!

I’ve never had problems in pug runs, and I sincerely hope it doesn’t revert back to the old system.

I recall one incident where I’m teaching a group of pugs how to run a dungeon, and I swap toons for the last boss fight. Oops, I was the dungeon opener, so everyone got kicked.

What if I play a class, (like say thief) where I link CnD with steal?

*For those that don’t know, you can cast Cloak and Dagger (slot 5) and then immediately steal (slot f1). This will make you shadowstep to your opponent and finish the CnD within range. It’s a very common tactic for thieves.

^Would it be permitted to link those 2 keystrokes into 1?

What is Anet’s policy for macros on gaming keyboards? I recently got a new keyboard, and I’m still programming commands for it. I just want to know if specific multi-keystrokes, that technically do not give an advantage, would be fine. [Ctrl+T] [/supplyinfo] [5+f1] [spam clicking loot bags]

mango.9267:

What’s your build?

I would highly advise playing P/D dire. Not only will you be contributing to the cancerous condition meta, but you also won’t be learning some of the most important thief fundamentals: positioning, bursting, and disengaging. P/D dire is just too forgiving and too easy to play.

This is the build I use, just with a couple of changes since I last posted it: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/WvW-Roaming-Havoc-Build/first#post4254302

I changed some of the sigils, and went back to 20606. But it’s mostly the same.

…I now regret spending all my Badges of Honor on siege. Only gotta farm 500 more badges for a full set of dire armor.

-sigh-

…As if popular condi spam builds needed a reason to be even more cheese.

edit: I digress. WvW has always been about dirty fighting in my eyes, so I shouldn’t hate on these condi spam builds. I’m just frustrated how direct damage builds for thief didn’t get any kind of upgrades, when condi builds were already strong to begin with.

Eric.6109:

You do get actual rewards for leveling (gear, boosters, and such) not just “you unlocked harpoon skill2”. It’s not perfect, but you get more incentive to lvl up, and get the locked skills (that’s the reasoning behind it as I see it). I think it misses the point because people would rush to higher and higher levels instead of actually playing the game (read: having fun) and learning their character’s mechanic, because they have so little to experiment with.

This is true. It’s turned the game into a grind mechanic, the exact thing GW2 wanted to avoid.

…I guess in one sense, before I was grinding kills on my ele to unlock all her skills, so this new system is much better. I dunno, wouldn’t it be better to teach new players what are boons and condi, fields and finishers, instead of “this is a shovel, you can pick it up and whack stuff with it”?

It really is still a great game, no denying that. It’s impossible to satisfy everyone all of the time, and I’ll cut them slack since they managed to fix up past blunders.

Admit it, we ourselves as veteran gamers don’t need tutorials or level-gated skills. But for someone who has never picked up an MMO before, they’d be overwhelmed. The new system has some good points, they just took it way, waaaay too far.

Example: Edna, the NPC famous for her apple pies, no longer sells her recipe, or her pies. Instead, she smacks a pie in your face that gives one stack of might. Come on, really? And a level 2 can’t carry a bucket of water to save the farmer’s bales of hay from burning?

I had to grind hearts on my low level alt to unlock skills. Are you flippin’ kidding me? I don’t think I even remember how to grind (effectively) since I ditched my last MMO for GW2.

I finally accepted that free trial invite for another game, (it starts with World and ends with Craft) and guess what? Running around to do hearts and checking my map to see where it is – oh my gosh, that’s the exact same thing Running around to do quests and checking my map to see where it is…replace quests with hearts, and there you have it!!

Me: “Hey my friend who introduced me to this other game, can I learn crafting?”

Him: “Sorry, that’s not unlocked until other levels..”

Me: “Can I learn new skills then?”

Him: “Only as you level up.”

Me: “I’m bored…where’s all the fun stuff?”

Him: “Sorry, you gotta get to the end game content to do anything fun.”

Me: “Aw, I can’t equip this sword I found and duel wield?”

Him: “Nope, that’s unlocked at a higher level.”

Me: “I finished all the question mark quests in this map! Now what?”

Him: “Now we move on to the next part of the map and grind through the quests there.”

Me: “…at least GW2 still has stunning graphics.”

Him: “Huh?”

Me: “No no, don’t mind me. Let’s go to the next questline.”

ANET. YOU’VE KILLED YOUR OWN CREATION.

I guess I’m lucky, since I got access to insta-leveling tomes/scrolls to cap my new alt to 80 asap. My heart bleeds for those that aren’t as lucky.

Soo….I took my thief out to WvW today. And partly to my shock and dismay..I’m dying in fights I should be winning. Why?!

I’m not the best thief, but I’m not terrible either. I can’t burst with my s/d, or hit anyone, I can’t stunbreak or condi cleanse in time before going down. And my gosh, rangers actually pose a threat now. Where did all this spams of condi come from that I never had trouble with before? I know that’s the meta, but I don’t think every person swapped overnight.

What? Did I just get a bad run, or am I going to have to pick up condi-dire P/D to get anywhere now?

Edit: My comment on rangers is not a jab at the class. I have had some really good fights with rangers, but they were very few of them. Rangers that carried a sword and were just as evasive as myself. Not a ranger that stands in one spot and rapid fires from a distance while his friend goes melee against me.

Does it still work on bridges in EOTM?

To cut Anet some slack, I will admit it’s not that bad. I understand, if someone has never played an MMO before, this new system would be helpful. And I only messed around for about 2 hours on a brand new alt to get to lvl 6. I wasn’t pushing it.

The system removes the confusion of “what to do next?” Fine, that’s great.

But what did that translate to? I have to grind hearts and monster kills to unlock skills and armor. No offense, but how is this supposed to be different from every other MMO where you need to do quests to level up? Kill X amount of enemies. Gain exp. Level up. Dynamic events? Nevermind those, they didn’t give me enough exp to level up.

Um, Anet? You shot yourself in the foot here.

Yesterday, I didn’t have this issue. Today I do.

My FPS is usually 50-60, but now it’s as low as 20-30. Is this on my end? The only change I’ve made to my system is making it more energy friendly.

xivor.8754:

Greetings Everyone,

Here is the official Sanctum of Rall commander tag color guide.

- Red – Roaming – This is an Assault / Aggressive group format that invades all maps as needed to seek and destroy opposition.

- Blue – Dedicated Map Defense – For single map offenses and defenses. This is a unit that locks down a map and keeps it locked down.

- Purple – Havoc Group – This is a small unit designed to disrupt the flow of resource and provide surgical strikes against the opposition. Typically under 10 people.

- Gold – Guild Squad – For use when guilds are roaming the field together.

I like this setup. It means my scout gets to wear a purple tag.

Oh my. All the guild catas. Hehe.

1 more day to the tourny, guys. My only regret this week, is that CD didn’t give YB a good gritty match. I personally stopped taking it seriously after the weekend. And I feel a bit bad being a bully to DR.

Tourny guys! Can’t wait to see you all there.

But…it’s missing something.

I believe I can safely say that the majority of the GW2 community simply adore this work of art. You nailed a lot of good stuff, Anet: Your goal was to make a game fun to play, and you catered as much as possible to what a gamer wants out of an MMO. Pretty impressive feat.

But…it’s lacking…something. I miss how GW2 was back when I first picked up this game. Example: my bartle gamer test score? = explorer/achiever. You know what I did for fun? Explored all of Tyria (literally explore, not just rush from one point to another) soloed difficult champs, and felt awesome when I did it. There was no grind, no farming, no speed-leveling to 80. I didn’t care, and I didn’t have to care. I played the game how I wanted.

Do you know what I did today? Trying to convince myself to finish working on my ascended backpiece, so I can farm fractals more efficiently and make the necessary gold needed to finalize gearing up my guardian with high-end gear, then wondering if I should instead devote that time and resource to another legendary, buy for bolts of damask and get full ascended, or just EOTM speed-level a zerker warrior.

Then I sat back and asked, “Wait, why am I doing this?”

It may be part of the community’s fault. We’re used to the old system, so we try to force a square peg into a round hole. Then when it doesn’t fit, we grumble until it does.

I’ll be honest: The grind isn’t that bad. It’s nice to work toward an accomplishment. And I don’t have to grind if I don’t want to. I don’t need that ascended backpiece. But…I can’t find my favorite old pastimes anymore. What first drew me to this game, is gone. (Kinda doesn’t help that I already explored all of Tyria…heh)

Actually, my mistake: I can still kick back by logging in with my thief, and go roaming in WvW. Buuuuut…that’s mostly because my thief is already decked out in all the gear and equipment she needs, mostly accomplished by…farming.

I’m not gonna demand a change or fix on the current system – I wouldn’t even know what to state as a suggestion. You guys developed this game, and you’d know more of the ins and outs than what myself as a single consumer would know. But I just want you to understand, that as awesome as this product is, it’s lost a bit of its charm. Maybe I just can’t find my niche, and someone needs to put up a big lighted arrow to show where its moved.

Anyway, that ascended backpiece of mine? It’s not gonna get done anytime soon. It’s just kinda too…boring to make.

NiloyBardhan.9170:

Nobody is complaining. CD said they’re taking it easy and yet they’re trying to PPT hard i.e. trying to take structures as quickly as possible. That was the context of us mentioning about 5 guild catas.

//edit: Corrected a typo

Relax, it’s probably just practice or training. XD Tournaments are coming soon, and people are either taking it easy or testing their limits.

Come on, YB and CD have faced off each other enough times to know when the other are being serious or when they’re taking a break. CD is exhausted after the past few weeks, and we need a very much deserved downtime before tournaments begin.

This is my ‘current’ build for my guardian: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNApeWl8ApdoVDxbI8DRBAAkTNYjrBA-TFiEAB5q+TOKxoS5htmgAwEjR7PgqSQS0HAA-w

I want to be a bunker/tanky/support guardian – basically unkillable. I don’t care about doing damage, as much as surviving harsh fights, and keeping allies alive.

1. What traits should I pick? I’m currently liking a meditation build, but if something is more preferable, I’ll try them out.

2. Sigils for weapons? I’m using water, life, and benevolence. What else are good choices?

3. Even if I don’t care for damage, would ~1500 power be enough to pressure opponents off of allies?

I just had to post this other screenshot, with my Norn during the night.

Such glow. <3

I played with power p/d earlier and it still felt pretty strong, so perhaps tossing in some condi damage might make it better. I’d rather not pull off a d/d hybrid, as I’ve yet to see many thieves make good use of that build.

I was theory crafting some burst condi with sigil, hence my interest in precision. (sigil of torment). And my definition of ‘viable’ is: “Can I spike a burst quickly, or at least be an aggravating pain in the neck, and still run away?”

Awhile back, I had one of the best fights ever in WvW. A half hour long fight against a pretty skilled celestial staff ele. I caught them offguard before they could switch to a different weapon, and even if we got each other very low, neither of us could kill the other.

IT would have gone forever, if it didn’t become a 2v1 and the celestial ele choosing to flee. A shame I never got the chance to fight them again.

I want to make a rampager P/D and SB roaming build for WvW. How viable would this be compared to the meta dire?

I just want to know if it’s viable. I already run zerker based builds for my thief, so I’m already used to being a glass cannon.

Aww come on you guys, be nice. The OP is obviously new. XD

…Although that is a funny troll prank. I’m gonna use that myself one of these days…

Let’s share some good ol’ WvW stories. Here’s one of my favorites:

Our server had taken the enemy garrison, and was intent on draining the supplies and hitting Hills next. I was on my thief, and I usually don’t follow the zerg if I play thief. I stuck around for a bit longer than I should have, and the enemy zerg returns, as angry as a hornet’s nest. They flip their keep back, and start hunting out stragglers like myself.

A mesmer gets killed inside the keep, so the commander asks me to stick around and revive the mesmer after the zerg leaves. But, I get stuck in combat, meaning I don’t get the chance to change my traits or swap weapons. I’m doing the best I can to spam all the stealth skills I have, trying to remain hidden. I can’t ‘perma-stealth’ and the zerg is going by ear, listening for my pistol shots to get my location.

Finally another roamer – a warrior – spots me, just as I have run out of stealth skills again. I stood alone, knowing my fate was met. I had no escape, no stealth, trapped in enemy garrison, and an angry zerg nearby. And I was still in combat. I was basically ready to surrender, but instead of rushing my death, the warrior bows. I bow in return, and leap at him, ready to go down fighting. One of the best fights I’ve had, (also trying to avoid every flippin npc’ in that keep) and just when there was a ray of hope…

The enemy zerg steamrolls the duel. I was dead in a split second. But honestly, it wasn’t a total lost. I was such a nasty pain in the neck, I distracted the them long enough to guarantee my server to flip their hills. How I managed to survive that long in the keep, and keep them occupied, (and why they decided to go after a thief instead of a zerg) is a mystery to me…

Here’s my Norn, Aegisha.

US high-times are pretty well populated.

P.S. We’re Crystal Desert, not Dessert. ^^;

I’m from CD, and I play as a havoc roamer, on my thief. Even with the upcoming changes, it’s not gonna deter me away from the class.

If you want to roam in CD, use whatever works best for you. I’ve seen roamers of every class and build go out in groups or solo, and as long as they know what they’re doing, it’s great fun.

Karizee.8076:

If you craft the new vine backpiece it gives you a pet-like item called Mawdrey II (a play on words, Mordremoth + Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors) that you can feed your excess Bloodstone dust to. Will eat up to 200 dusts per day and gives you a gift for every 50 which can be anything from rares and t6 to junk.

Dulfy has a guide on how to make:
http://dulfy.net/2014/08/13/gw2-mawdrey-ascended-backpiece-and-pet-crafting-guide/

Oh sweet, thank you. At least it won’t feel like a total waste of deleting them.

But let me clarify – that vine backpiece is alive?

What am I gonna do with all this bloodstone dust…

I’ve already made all the bricks I’ll ever need. What do I do with the rest? They’re filling up again!

I’ve heard a rumor that they will be useful in the future, so best to save them, but…how many do I really need to save? Fifty three stacks probably too much, eh?

Quite a glass cannon build. It doesn’t have very much survival does it?

mao.9832:

Against an Hambow warrior use their steal when they start using the shortbow or dagger/storm and if you’re d/d it’s easy to kill them. Just be ready to dodge when they switch to hammer and blind them.

D/D? Really? that I want to see.

Wooo! Congrats to the winners!!

I was aiming for a shatter build that can counter condition damage.

To put it simply, I am most familiar with thief pvp, and I was attempting to mimic my thief’s playstyle onto my mesmer. Most of my pvp playstyle is psychological counters. Make an opponent panic, or make them overconfident. Confuse them on my positioning, and then come out and surprise them. I can let my health go low, dance around and bait people away, and let my teammates kill them. Thieves do a lot better job of confusing the opponent than mesmers, sadly.

As a sword/dagger thief, I have sustain, support (by blinds), and crowd control. But my conditon removal was selfish. However, there are not as many methods of turning the heal offensively on a thief. The mesmer’s mantra heal drew me to a lot of offensive capabilities. I’m also at times, too aggressive in combat, and not pulling off in time has been my bane. So I wanted to cushion my aggression with a more defensive build.

I guess what I’m trying to do is create a shatter build that fights like a thief. I’ve relearned that mesmers do not have the same escape ability as thieves, nor have I figured out how to use the stealth offensively.

Hambow war: still trying to learn how to beat those guys. The bow doesn’t give me trouble, but the lockdown hammer does. Use your steal skill (axe whirl) on the bow and dodge around. Hammer, I just go defensive until they take the bow out again. :P

For guardians, you have to anticipate their combos. The minute they are next to you, MOVE. Dodge or shadowstep out of the way. Guardians can pull off bursts very quickly, but afterwards you have a little bit of breathing room. Stunbreak/blind out of their GS pull, and stay away from their aoe. Just like your opponents don’t want to fight in your blinding powder, you don’t want to fight on the guardian’s symbols. I use s/d and d/p against guardians. Wittle away their hp and stun them when they try to heal.

PU is overrated.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAscWl0npRtdqxMNcrNCvxc6UK5FU+TSlMgbB-TpBFwACOBAe2fIyRAYxhAAaZAAPAAA

I’ve been trying to get back into mesmer pvp, and I theory crafted this build in a few minutes. Just by joining soloq, and taking into consideration I haven’t mesmer pvped in ages, it goes far. I want to see what can be tweaked with it to make it stronger. Constructive critique is always appreciated.

What do you fellow mesmers think?

Anakysha, with a crack of lightning at her command!