Guild Wars 2

Thanks for the information. I had hoped I’d be able to get away from the full glkittenter I was using. Oh well, back to the assassin ammy.

My hope was to get some strong direct pressure from the crits in direct shatter (can get 3-5k crits depending on stacks) and then at the same time apply condis with the shatter while switching to staff to start applying more condis and follow a constant switching between damage types to maximize the damage done with the build. Is there a better way to do this?

So I decided to be creative and try and celestial hybrid shatter build, which in theory was a pretty cool concept imo but when I take it into pvp, it does absolutely nothing to other people. Every single person I fight pretty much just roflstomps me any time I try to fight them. (I’m not having trouble dealing with condis btw) Seems that even with all the damage potential (I’ve measured it getting up to 20 might stacks on it’s own before) this build and others I’ve tried can’t do jack- squat against other players. So please tell me: Does Mesmer suck that much? Is it just the build sucks? Do I really need THAT much more practice to do something? HELP PLEASE!

Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpMtNqxINcrNCrBh6rslfSyBEgSWhrB-TJRGwAAuEAJeCAg2fYZZAA

Thanks for all input, I really love the idea of Mesmer but it’s just not giving me results anywhere

I took the strider’s defense for wvw, everywhere else you can change for whatever purposes you want but in wvw it helps a ton in outnumbered situations where some melee you while others try to range you to death.

Love the other suggestions, thanks for the input

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fREQNBmQDbkjmabLuxyG2bTgLUTmENBkvZAQdbEHPLA-T1BGABEp8LhnAAAXEgy0NEz+DBq+zUKBDAgAszbmObzghO0hO0hO025Q35Q35QLEg5tA-w

May not be the most optimal at first but when you get used to it it can be pretty darn strong. I’ve been able to fight 1v3 with it at times.

There we go The lighting may not be very good but that’s my first one so yeah…

But if you want to do a life steal build for power necro there are some pretty nice options. I’ve been looking into that recently and I’ve actually managed to build a power necro with really strong sustain through life steal I can post it if you want.

Mine looks like the dude from Assassin’s creed. Is that too meta? I’d post a picture but I don’t know how to do screenshots.

Especially when you have condi removal, destroys 95% of builds you’ll fight.

I haven’t had a ton of time to test this but I thought it’d be cool to do as a full melee ranger. Hey, it could potentially be rather strong and the off hand axe can be changed to dag or warhorn depending on preference.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQNAR8XjEq0yaDLGsQ1agEhq9IkufA7zNAaaX/QBreA-T1BFABC8EAQS53hq/kmuha2fAgLCwVKBDAgAczbmNbzghO0hO0hO0u5Qv5Qv5QLFgFLjA-w

Let me know what ya think. I put it together really quick so there is probably room for improvement.

Dags got some cleave, sword/dag got nerfed a bit with initiative costs and screwing with burst potential. P/P got a dmg buff and most other things are the same. P/D is still cheese and D/D is still underplayed but it is what it is.

Hope that helped, I haven’t memorized the changes so I did what I could in the time that it took me to write this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdEQFAUlUUpErlcxvLseNCbBFyZcRR2xq85IEgkC-T1RIwAf1BA4CAE4BAsX9nkK/irEE0+DBAQAm5MDADdoDdoDdoNzhOzhOzhWKgFVWB-w

I enjoy this build for engi. Highly versatile with it’s ability to easily apply high damaging conditions and direct damage (hitting up to 5k crits on some skills). Condi cleanse comes from turret (along with high healing if you do the heal rotation of place, overcharge, then detonate in the water field). Rifle and tool kit have high direct damage and tool kit with grenades gives high condi damage.

Takes a while to learn and master but in my opinion it’s probably the most versatile build the engineer has because it works for pvp, wvw, and pve plus it is extremely powerful. And has 25% movement speed increase from traits.

Oh and, rocket boots can be switched with elixir S depending on preference. Good luck on finding a build, hope this helps.

If they reduce the cast time of dagger #2 significantly and buff vampiric precision and the minor one that siphons with every hit to like 100 health for each one I will be completely satisfied. The cast time on dag #2 is just way too long to get any benefit from because 9 times out of 10 you will be interrupted or just take more damage than you heal in the channel time. Shortening it to like 1.5 seconds would do wonders for that skill.

I have no idea if it is bug or something but in pvp I have encountered quite a few rangers who would be stomping me but when I used my #2 on my necro’s downed state it said they were immune. Wasn’t sure where to put this topic, just wanted to know if anybody else was experiencing this. And yes, before you all ask, I did in fact make sure they had no stability or anything like that. I just couldn’t fear them at all, just said they were immune every time.

Thanks for any information people can provide me with as this is a rather frustrating thing to deal with when I don’t understand what is going on.

Leveling itself is easy, like I and others have pointed out, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the lockout from parts of your character is frustrating. That’s what I am trying to address. I’d be all for the option during character selection to play with “introductory setting” like the lockouts that help introduce you to the game slower but not make it a forced lockout. Again, gaining levels is easy, lockouts are the frustrating part.

I apologize, I don’t believe I made the intent of my post clear (mostly because I worded it wrong). My intent was to look at the amount of things you get locked out of now compared to before they started messing with skill lockouts and trait lockouts. I did not mean that actually getting levels was bad, cause like we all have pointed out (including myself) levels are very easily found. I would be okay with getting the levels if I wasn’t being locked out of everything but my AA and forced to level to unlock my weapon skills rather than getting them by killing so I have access to all of my weapon skills early on. And rasimir, thanks for informing me that I get Deathshroud at 5. I was wondering about that.

I do not have the money to craft and unlike some I do not find it the least it enjoyable to run around looking for waypoints and poi’s. Once was enough for me and I know I am not the only player who feels like this. I do not enjoy being locked out of content I want to participate in because I am being help back by a system that I already dislike.

While I agree it’s fairly easy if you have the money for crafting and the patience for running around from place to place with absolutely no competitive side to your gameplay, I still am going to assert my position that there needs to be an alternative to just grinding boring things over and over again when you get nothing but frustration from a system that has been unnecessarily messed with for no real purpose that was already unenjoyable for me, and others, in the beginning.

I have no idea how much sense I am making so I hope I have made a clear point.

So I started a new necro today cause I decided I don’t like the asura race and I found out that I get absolutely no skills but my auto and I have no deathshroud until god knows what level. What I’d like first is an explanation from a dev as to how they find that to be easier to help people level and why an experienced player like myself has to endure all that nonsense when I really just wanted to jump back into my necro’s competitive gameplay.
Next, I would like to make a request that there be a way to make the leveling process less of a bore/ introduction for a player who is, again, already experienced and just wants to jump into high level gameplay instead of grinding levels for all eternity.
I mean, the trait changes were annoying enough but the skill lockout is where I draw the line with tolerance. Anet, why in the name of the eternal alchemy did you find this the least bit necessary? I honestly don’t see how this helps anyone and it makes leveling even more frustrating to the people who already hate leveling after the first character (like myself).

I apologize for the rage but I needed to get the point across somehow. Any explanations anet can give me I’d be happy to listen to and consider next time I want to say something.

I don’t know exact numbers but if it helps I was able to play each up to level needed to get on the pvp leaderboards before I explored other games for a few weeks. I apologize if that doesn’t help but right now it’s the best I can give.

Before we start I would appreciate it if you did not troll this thread or leave a rude comment. If you disagree state why as that will promote discussion which can potentially help this game. Now that that’s over, let’s begin:

I have taken some time since the patch to play around a bit with each class and try some different builds out to see what each class felt like (so trust me I have at least a basic level of understanding with what I am talking about) and there are some things that definitely need to be changed while others are fine the way they are. Cleave for necro and thief daggers was a great change and I’m very happy they did that. But then there are the changes to FS which I don’t agree with at all considering it is easily countered and basically makes that set almost unplayable. So changing that would be nice but that’s not the main point of this thread, the main point is: Looking at the changes in general, it is now more profitable than ever to run a condition build. First idea i would have for that is make it more like GW1’ s condi system so it can still be usable but ends up being more of an effect of combat rather than a spammable playstyle that is OP in some areas while being completely ineffective in others. This also, if you have not noticed already, removes the need of condi damage as a stat. I know it sounds ridiculous, but condi could still be somewhat playable as condi damage could be replaced with condi duration as an armor stat and then you eliminate the condi spam issue that plagues many game modes right now. Second thing that needs to be looked at is the effectiveness of might as a boon. I propose it stack in duration rather than intensity and give a 200 power bonus. With that change it will still be a strong buff but it will not allow pure bunker builds to hit like a zerker because of might stacking ability.

That’s part 1, which was meant to talk about combat mechanics, now for part 2 which is skills/ traits:

Ranger:
This class has been talked about a ton since the implementation of the buffs, do I think it is op? Not really, people just need time to find the right counterplay which will cause this whole fuss to settle down.

Mesmer:
First the implantation of my previous suggestions will start the balance as condi bunkers will no longer be a full playstyle, but become a more manageable consequence of fighting a certain spec. Mesmer needs more access to mobility on weapon sets other than staff to compensate for their lack of sustain outside of the ether signet.

Necromancer:
The necro, imo, should have the unholy sanctuary trait built into ds, giving necro an actual form of legitimate sustain. The ability to receive heals in ds would also be a nice addition to make necros feel less clunky. Unholy sanctuary could then be remade to keep the move into ds mechanic but also grant a full life force bar upon entry when the trait activates. (just to keep it gm worthy)

Elementalist:
With the proposed might changes this class will pretty much balance itself out. There are some other things that I’m probably not aware of but that can be changed as needed.

Thief:
Needs bug fixes and with the proposed condi changes p/d will lose it’s domination over 1v1s. Shortbow should have cluster bomb range increased to 1200 to give thief a better form of keep defense in wvw. (that can be discussed but that’s how I feel at the present time)

Guardian:
Needs a movement speed increase either through traits or skills. Mostly balanced from what I have seen so far so that’s that.

Engineer:
Proposed condi and might changes will balance engi. Nothing else significant that i can think of at the present time.

Warrior:
Might changes will fix hambow being op in some settings, CI needs to be changed with it’s interaction on LB to only proc when an enemy is hit. Adrenaline should have a 5-10 second period before it starts decaying out of combat to give warriors some choice in adrenaline usage.

Feel free to discuss the proposed changes as others may have a different view of how this should be done. I main thief so if you all have experience on other classes that make you see these differently I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for your time and patience, let’s get A-nets attention and actually start balancing this game

Great idea, love the storyline so great job Anet for doing that. It’s been pretty interesting so far

But, I’m not gonna lie the mechanics of some of this stuff is complete bullkitten. When we ask for more advanced gameplay we want the 1 shotting giant-kitten hp pool to leave not stay AND give dodges and other things. That by itself is bearable so I don’t really think that’s too terribly bad. Next thing, whose idea was it to tie in real world events to the story? I’ m not going to even count how many times I have been stopped from continuing my story because I have to do some bullkitten event that I can’t solo. I would rather just have this all instanced truth be told and if I want to do this with a group I will make a party. Please for the love of tyria stop making this zerging content. It is not entertaining/not fun and is WAY more stress right now than it is worth.

Again, I absolutely love the implementation of another dragon and the idea behind the storyline but the creativeness is losing it’s appeal because of the other stuff that gets in the way of just being able to play through the story at whatever pace you feel like taking it.

Sorry for the little rage part in there but it needed to be voiced.

Your last skill could be rocket boots, good for the blast combo and its a great escape when you need it.

I just go static discharge power build with a knights amulet+rifle and say gg to those who try to kill me. (hint: never works out so well for them) Got rocket boots for escape, heal turret because its awesome and rifle turret for not only the toolbelt skill but also getting use from accelerant packed turrets for some extra cc, and… toolkit because I love it, great utility to bring to any fight!

Title says it all, I will start by sharing mine:
Took a test build (dps engi) into soloq and got ganked by a thief and an ele. Thief thought he was better than me so he kept coming after me to 1v1 me and prove he was better, only I killed him every time. End of the match comes and he decides to start rage whispering me “try-hard cheese player!” (note: I was using a build that I made to specifically not use cheese setups)

Idk, I thought it was hysterical at the time but I want to hear what you guys have!

Avead,
The reason I suggested that is BECAUSE there are builds that only have super good dmg because they can stack so much might while specing to be super tanky at the same time. Imo, builds in this game should be about making sacrifices to get something (i.e sacrifice tankiness for damage or vice versa) I believe it is wrong for a build to be able to have as much damage as a full zerker while still being as tanky as a full pvt build. Traits can also be reworked to give bonuses while under the effect of might.

This is probably not going to be the most loved potential solution but it would help the issue a ton: (note: I am not exactly saying this is the only solution nor am I saying that it is the most optimal, I am only providing potential things to look at for future reference)
Instead of making might a huge intensity stack of 35 pwr and condi dmg per stack, just change it to a 150 pwr and condi dmg buff with a duration stack. It is enough to give a significant buff without making it so strong you can get all your dmg off of it. Voila, might stacking issue solved.

It doesn’t affect me much because when I s/d for pvp I don’t pre load it so my playstyle will remain unchanged for the most part.

Basically, dag aa can cleave 2 targets, fs and ls on sword had an ini rework (fs costs 4 and no longer switches to ls unless you hit something and ls was reduced to 1) that was not really as bad as we thought it would be, sb poison skill has a hit on impact so people cant spam it from stealth, venoms now use your condi stats when shared and pp had unload cast time shortened so thieves now have what feels like a machine gun set There was probably some more but that’s what I got.

I agree with the bp in pvp only. That’s definitely reasonable to me.

We finally have a small cleave for our daggers! This made me happy, plus d/p is getting nerfed a little so I’m happy. D/D main was getting tired of D/P being an infinite blind bot making it an annoying fight.

How do you all feel about the changes?

I don’t feel like I have too much trouble hitting hard with this. I mean, I can’t open by melting people in 2 seconds but in the first few seconds they will suddenly realize that most of their hp is gone because even though it doesn’t look like it, the build I use hits like a truck and still remains rather tanky and viable against almost any spec. It makes me so happy when someone asks me how I can tank them and still hit them for 7-8k using fire grab.

Actually invigorating precision is worse… Well, that’s my opinion.

@Arikyali. Your post has restored my faith that some people actually understand the point of making a build (for those who don’t know: you make it to give you an advantage over people.) People need to stop hating others for playing smart.

Cool trick when fighting another s/d thief, when they go for a flanking strike activate yours right after they use theirs as you’ll avoid their damage and instead out yours into them. Like I said earlier, if you use an opening combo (mine for example) Then because you have gone through a burst (effectiveness depends on what the enemy did, most just end up taking it completely cause they have no stun breaks or if they do you can immediately steal to them to interrupt whatever actions they are doing and gain the upper hand again)

I tend to avoid using the #5 as stealth doesn’t really fit into an s/d build unless you spec for it (my spread is normally 2/0/2/4/6 so I get lots of condi removal and still keep all my benefits) I would say generally you want to be auto attacking until your enemy goes for a burst (you’ll pick up more of what that looks like with experience) then you can dodge or pop #3 to evade their attack.

Now another awesome tip: When facing any build that stacks might, use boon strips as much as possible without spamming 3 (so what that means is pop the #3 twice to get a boon strip off and then dance around a bit while auto attacking for a bit then go for a strip again. (also remember to be using steal as much as possible for more boon strips) What generally happens is you’ll rip off their 20+ might stacks and then be able to burst them down in a few seconds when you follow that approach.

Is there’s anything else I can do to help let me know!

Only change to #3 that I would really make a push for is not to have to be rooted while casting, however quick the cast time I prefer to be able to constantly move unless I have distortion on my Mesmer so the rooting is kinda annoying imo.

I’ve never really paid attention to strict rotations as I feel it relies too much on you getting every hit off to be effective cause most people just panic if it doesn’t work. I have a opening combo that gets me in a great position (meaning I start with the advantage) for fighting.

The combo I use is 1) precast elite 2) sword #2 once to get to foe 3) use #3 for both it’s skills (meaning the evade and Ls) 4) steal and pop stolen skill (works really well on guards as the stolen ability is another cc) 5) AA to get hp low and keep pressure saving evades for when the enemy attacks and improvise everything else.

Curunen, most of the time I do not really have these issues and I have fun pvping with my shatter and work around the normal bugs. It may be skill lag but lately I have been pressing a skill only to see no effect on my character and see the skill is now on a full cd. I’m trying to figure out if others have ever had this happen. I probably should’ve emphasized the point of my skills not activating as for some reason my post has now convinced people that I am complaining about the Mesmer class because I get beat sometimes. That was not my intention. the reason I included the getting beat was to show the effect that this is having on me. All I am asking is the question of is it skill lag or have other people had this happen to them making it a new kind of bug?

Sticker, normally yes it would be a L2p issue but I’m convinced it’s rather difficult to win any sort of fight when say I press 2 and nothing happens, it just goes on cd and I cant use my burst because of it. I’m better than the average player but even though I’m not the best I at least can face most issues by learning a new tactic but again, if my skills wont actually activate but instead go on full CD I tend to have quite a bit of trouble in a fight.

Understandable, though I do not think a player should be getting killed because their stuff doesn’t work properly I see where you are coming from. The issue I have is that the way I want to play the Mesmer (gs+sword/torch shatter) is the way that unfortunately has to use a lot of bugged skills to play. Again, I am not the best mesmer player out there but I’m good enough to be able to at least put up a fight in most cases but these bugs are making me completely useless to the point of I can only get my heal and auto to actually function right (this is not an exaggeration, literally none of my skills worked other than my heal and auto attack)

Just because a few classes have had to suffer through a down point does not justify in the slightest forcing every class to have to have a down point too. In fact, it should encourage anet to make sure the other professions don’t have that because the more professions in a down point the less balance we have.

Now to clear stuff up:
Are we going to have a little more trouble with revealed after this? probably yes.
Can we deal with this? As a thief main since release, I say yes we can.
@Valtarius:
Surprisingly few thieves who play competitively actually complain over this, they just get over it so your assumption that thief mains do nothing but QQ over little things is wrong, don’t even bother arguing it.

To other people:
Yes Anet doesn’t have the best record for thief balancing but it was the same with ranger. They finally got something right on the ranger, they can do the same with thief.

This class has always been and always will be playable it just may require more adaptation to a build than some other classes.

And finally, to those who say we should just burst people down:
I hope all of you realize the amount of tanky dps/condi builds emerging because of might stacking is pretty insane. It’s actually gotten to the point where one burst rotation may not be enough to take down an opponent completely and if there is more revealed given to classes it may pose a bigger threat. We are not a god class so please do not treat us as if we have no problems. This class takes a large amount of skill to play (with the exception of 2 builds) and gives a good reward for being good at it. So stop abusing the players and trying to force them into a bad state and just practice fighting them more so you learn to fight them without having to get them nerfed to nothing to do it.

That will be all
sincerely,
Ario

Get on a Mesmer because you’re like me and you love the class to death and decide to go pvp for a bit
1st game: Join in and kill people who aren’t expecting you and get a good win and score
2nd game: Still killing a few people who are getting used to you and winning fights despite a few little skill bugs
3rd game: Get killed by most people you beat and experience more bugs, stress level starts rising.
4th game: Get facerolled by everyone in game because none of your skills work properly do to insane bugs and quit to go play on a class that doesn’t do this.

Am I the only one constantly having this issue? It’s not really about getting killed by good players (That can help you learn) it’s about getting killed by players you are better than purely because none of your skills either activate or function the way they are supposed to. Please, let me know if I am not the only victim of this.

Well speaking by anets intention the ranger should be the best archer but people don’t really want them in dungeon cause they assume the ranger sucks (for the record it does not suck, it can easily defeat other players when in the hands of a skilled player who understands how the class can be highly effective) though the ranger is getting some huge buffs in the patch that anet has been advertising their “ready up” episodes for so if you are willing to wait a while you may be able to have a ranger for an archer.

Thief isn’t really an archer kind of class, but they do have a shortbow. Warrior has a longbow but it also doesn’t have much of an archer feel either. Note: this is only my opinion, nothing more.

I think it really comes down to what do you want to be able to do. Mine is more defensive but still packs a punch. Hacks will just melt people like crazy but will be less forgiving so it will come down to how you want to play.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!! I WANT IT!!!!!

Honestly, I don’t get we have downed state if someone stomping can just get the stomp eventually. (this is disregarding zerg fights where you tend to rally)

If we get our bugs fixed and some buffs we will be mostly happy. There are some things that have to be addressed like other builds need to be more effective than PU when they are actually played well.

New pyromaniac build All traits are assuming nothing but the mentioned things are being changed

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdEQFAUlUUptr9dxWLseRSdBN6vElmEqdCyAUgP1PA-TVCFABls/QTKNA4CAUoKOXpEEJlZC8AASTHQiqHEAAB4m3MAM0hO0hO0h2NH6NH6NHapAsYLA-w

This is mine for wvw roaming and pve. This will be so fun to play after the changes are implemented. High damage, tankiness (relative to dps output) evades (gs and vigor), and high range advantage (allows for more positioning in a fight). (Also it starts fights with a 32% damage bonus)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJATRjEqUwaDLusQ1ag9gadAUAnd7f4G2BXbRBLeA-TVCFABAt/AAXCgCVx5KlgIp87RVCE4JAkmugEVHIAACwNvZ28mBG6QH6QH6Q7mD9mD9mDtMA5bB-w

I have also been hit by eviscerates mid dodge. There may be a dodge bug out there…

Flamethrower damage boost new pyrotank coming soon!

But on a serious note, I am way beyond excited for all the coming changes as There will finally be a shift in the meta. So far I have been very pleased and impressed by anet’s balancing. Can’t wait to see whats next! PLEASE BE MESMER!