Guild Wars 2

Serophous.9085:

On another note, who here misses the porous bones?

mm… hmm.. nope.

New loot system is nice.
Anything that isn’t an event mob still drops loot.

Also I’m finding the events for killing the lone vets seems to drop loot too. Possibly a few other event mobs, like the yak escorts – though they may be regular spawns.

Removes DR essentially, though I’m pretty sure event medals are still affected.

All in all I’m reasonably impressed at the balance of skill/reward here. Modrem being a little less face-rolly than most CS mobs is nice.

Paulytnz.7619:

Those notes on the lowered costs are incorrect too……they said lowered from 80 copper to 60? It never cost 80 it used to cost 8, so they should have meant lowered to 6. However when I looked at it in game the tool tip on the item said 3 so they have all sorts of issues with this part of the update lol….

I could swear the notes said "reduced cost from 1 silver to 60 copper.

This would stand to reason since the original cost was 1 silver IDK where you got 8 from, it never cost 8 anything. Well 800 gems to buy I think, but that is obviously not silver/copper

Clearly anet dropped the ball with the maize balm.

ToT bag drops need removal.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2l21xk/actually_game_master_can_ban_for_preventing_maize/

Stuff like this happens.

Counter arguements like this happen:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Weapon-Mastery/first#post4533504

Another:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Is-the-maize-balm-rat-farm-an-exploit/page/4#post4532881

Honestly.. What the hell were you thinking anet?

The RNG is clearly broken. Rare items are clustered very badly.
My buildy got two account bound ToT minis from <2k bags.

Its about time we got precursor crafting/scavenger hunt of some kind.

Banned (temporary or otherwise) for killing ambients. Frankly don’t care if the farmers reserved" those ambients. If i wish to kill ambient creatures, I will.

Anet made its own grave with that balm by making those mobs drop ToTs.

Lack of foresight from anet here, not realizing this would happen.

Nerf the ToT drops from the transformed ambients and this problem ceases to be a problem.

Anet,
any chance we can get at least some of the 1.8k karma we used to get per path back?
Even if its just a few hundred.

fotm and teq is the only way to get any decent supply of karma.
What happened to being able to get what I want by playing the content I want?

GazaKnight.8206:

I do understand you guys, but what Im saying is that these days in this game there is not holy Trinity but there is only DPS trinity (from my own experience) most all dungeons require player to have a DPS build or Else, they get kicked, and that is because the dungeons dont require a tank, healer or support players in the party because most of the time speed runs will skip most parts of a dungeon or keep stacking in a corner, and these 2 tactics dont require to have a tank healer or Condtion AOE, which is why its a bad gameplay design, what Im trying to say is ArenaNet still have a the chance to fix this by making the dungeons as hard as its for level 35 or 65 players (regardless of experienced or not), so we wont see the “80s, ZERKERS, EXPERIENCED” trinity anymore, specially in the lower level dungeons

So.. You want things to be as hard for a level 80 who could has full asc, as a level 35, in level 20 greens, no traits, hardly any utilities unlocked?

You also want SKILL (gained by experience) to not matter?

So I can join your pug, and then go semi-afk watch tv, and just hold W and tab-1 constantly? Since you know.. skill shouldn’t matter?

Q: did you think about what you were saying before posting?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Carried-Players/first#post4476334

“tank-healer” is precisely what guardians are not. They can be treated as such, but so can every other class (oddly, warriors are better at both).

guardian is closer to a prot/smite hybrid from gw1. However they are actually strong DPS contenders, and can reduce damage taken from a single attack to 0 (repeatedly at that).

Take your pre-conceived ideas of what an mmo should be, and stick it in a sandwich.

Also. Dungeons are balanced. Zerker = hardest to play gear. Zerker = highest dps.
Traits/utilities (and for several classses weapon set) vary from foe to foe.

Realistically, the majority of " QQ zerker meta sux" comes from players who aren’t good enough to wear it without dying in 2s.

The OP felt like “QQ Good players get more money than me” OR “QQ those who play more get more loot than me”.

So If I play guitar for 5 minutes a week, I should be as good as a professional?
Or if I exercise 5 minutes a week I should be able to enter the Olympics?

I may be a bit cynical here, but that’s how it sounded to me.

Few things I’m picking up on:

Seems pretty clear most want raids to be less than 20 people, but more than 5.
8 (gw1 party size) up to 15 (good number to not run into too many logistical headaches) seems like the happy medium here.

So 8-15 party size.
Or perhaps 3 parties, and the raid starter (whoever clicks the button) can invite 2 others to join the instance (like the tpvp invite system), which then allows those 3 (or 2) to invite 4 party members (thus allowing up to 15). Maybe make it scale from 8-15.
Next there seems to be a split in desires for raids between:

[*]Open world farming zerg blobby raids

Pros:
Easy access to content.
Easy access to loot.

Cons:
mindless and boring for anyone who’s played for a few months.
Too easy access to loot.
We already have world bosses for this type/level of play/skill.

[*]Challenging High end PvE

Pros:
Content for the veteran players.
Large enough that 5 good players could train 3 less skilled players (assuming party size.

Cons:
Requires players to learn to play more effectively (not a con in my opinion, but this is contestable), thus restricted to experienced players only.

Balancing time – Not everyone can spend hours at a time in a raid, and so they would have to be completable in shortish times, or allow for smaller chunks of progress ( for the slower/lesser skilled teams).

My personal opinion goes to the DnT proposal for design schema. Nike even suggested a way in which existing dungeon instances could be reused (with new foes), reducing the dev work tremendously. A lot of players who left because they got bored may well return with the introduction of that type of content (provided there is enough of it).

IP 64.25.38.161

Lagtastic sparky map.

Pretty sure you just need to go fetch a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

Leo G.4501:

Basaltface.2786:

well.. might have aswell a granpa aged, transsexual, cat ogre, apple addicted, spy engineer in the game…. wow that came out even weirder then i imagined

Don’t forget, he enjoys human boob-eerrr apples too. Would that make him slightly a perv?

To me, that just confirms he is a he quite honestly.

Anything with choices will inevitably have a best choice.
continue to whine about there being a best choice, and anet just might listen, and remove your ability to make that choice at all.

I wonder how many forum rage threads would pop up then?

VodCom.6924:

Kasima.8143:

Did you all skip the part where the guy said he was doing defence?

Yes, yes you did.

AFAIK, def is not about killing mobs, def is about keeping turrets alive and working. You can keep turrets alive by kiting away mobs from the turret (I did it, was quite fun actually). It is one of the possible ways to handle tequatl and tanky gear is better for this.

And btw, mobs in def are no stronger than open world mobs (i.e the one you kill by spamming 1), you can manage them no matter what gear you wear. As far as I can see, killing a krait in def in 30 sec instead of 45 sec won’t get tequatl killed faster. Just saying.
You’re just bothering ppl for nothing.

Difference comes in when you get people trying to “help” somewhere causing vet/elite/champ spawns. Being able to put those down before the next wave is pretty much key to not wiping, regardless of gear. You wipe = turrets will get aggro. Defense failed.

In a “perfect teq” you could run any build with a modicum of dps and be fine. However that rarely happens, So often you will be carrying others with terrible builds etc.
(eg, correctly spec’d zerk ele will be doing 14k+ dps. A badly spec’d one may only get 2k dps). A defense group probably needs average dps of around 6k+ per person to have a smooth time.

Ragnarox.9601:

Omg are you reading what I wrote or just judging LOL. I am not in PVT gear. MG so many ignorant ppl.

And I dont care what you think of my build or anything. I’m just saying, too many stupid zerkers around thinking they are good.

Too many stupid baddies around thinking they are better

hybrid.5027:

Mesket.5728:

hybrid.5027:

What does wearing tanky gear have to do with speccing for support? Does Sentinel’s gear make your Wall of Reflect last longer?

Speaking conceptually, the faster you divorce yourself from the gear = playstyle mindset the better you’ll be. I mean it’s only been two years and I still have to put this fire out on a weekly basis so maybe I’m hoping for people to learn something they never will.

Maybe after 2 years you will realize that you are wrong? Its an MMORPG after all, gearing, stat/trait/perk/talent (w/e it’s called in dif. games) build and play-style goes hand by hand. It is defined by genre and its not like ANet wanted to changed that, they designed the game wrong and ended up where we are. The fact we all use the same dps gear is not a design feature, it’s a symptom of a badly designed game. You can’t blame players for playing an MMORPG like an MMORPG.

The problem for you is that I am not wrong at all. I am describing the game as it is, based on the mechanics that actually exist within the real game. You’re describing a fantasy scenario based on other games and other mechanics and philosophies that do not exist in Guild Wars 2.

So I’ll say it again, the faster you can divorce yourself from the concept that gear informs your playstyle the happily you’ll be and the more you’ll enjoy this game. Until then, you’ll be spitting into the wind.

GW2 was designed with gear being independent of role within a group.
Always has been. (Hopefully) always will be.

GW2 was never meant to be a traditional mmorpg.

Anet decided they didnt like (traditional) trinity.
Why?
Because everyone wants to dish out the big damage.
Only a minority truly enjoy being forced to tank or heal only.

Whats this? gw2 makes you responsible for your own healing!?

It gives you dodges, blinds, aegis, amongst other mechanics (referred to as support – affecting your allies, and crowd control – affecting foes). These still require coordination and skill (or at least knowledge and reflexes) to use in place of traditional tanking.

As a pure dps-er you are forced to rely on your team to help you stay alive.
As a support class, you still dish out respectable damage, but you are under heavy pressure to keep your team alive.
Crowd Control (CC) is pretty much the same, must have skill to utilize properly.

Best of all? You can (theoretically) do this is any gear stat you like.
It just happens that berserker provides the highest dps, but requires the best utilization of support and control. Because this also makes things fastest (best time:Reward ratio) the best players want this.

The average player should be in a mixture of stats including knights;Valkyrie;celestial;cavaliers etc, in addition to some zerker gear.
Sadly conditions suck for the most part, and even a condi build can get more dps using direct damage stats).

Seems people are just mad because they can’t run full zerk without dying (shame. l2p).

Gear =/= play style.

Nomads is basically a troll stat.
As outlined previously, it is bad for wvw. Many reasons, like you hit like a wet noodle and the enemy can completely disregard your presence. for commanders, you lose any ability to gauge how much health your zerg is at (I have a tendency to pugmand on a zerker staff ele, for the simple reason: If I’m still alive, there is no way on tyria you died). This keeps the pugs inclined to stay close. Guild groups aren’t much different tbh, but they want more zerker heavy people for the bulldozing with active defenses style play. That, and they know how to not stand in front of a melee train then wonder why they died.

PvE.. Dead mob = no threat
Kited/tanked mob = can still hit you.

I tend to die more in pug groups with zerker than guild groups simply because I end up carrying pugs. Not enough damage across the team, not enough active defenses or might stacking. Tend to burn extra active defense skills because pugs can’t dodge (too used to sitting there in their nomads gear saying “lol what damage?”).

also zerk meta, for 99% of dungeon fights means bosses dead <10s. Even 30s is slow for most fights. Let alone the 5-10 minutes that seems to be acceptable for the majority. Its hardly surprising you run out of <insert defensive ability here>.

10seconds vs 10 minutes. Yet people wonder why those who know how to play are “elitist” and expect you to learn to play your class too..

To anyone about to retort with " zerk is easy, no skill just 111 dead boss insta win!" Or similar arguments, see this thread (then feel free to learn to play):

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Carried-Players/first#post4476334

Phadde.7362:

Artemis Thuras.8795:

In other news.. This would still end up as dps race. Kill wave before it can kill you.
Rallies ftw.

Although ANet seem unwilling to do so, it’s not all that hard to make the combat move away from the extreme dps focus that currently exists.

… and as the waves gets tougher, the only way of slaying them is likely to be through focusing on survival and support. (Multiple sets of equipment might become more useful than ever)

You seem to misunderstand.
There is still the use of support and CC skills in dps meta.

A wave will still be easier to survive with high dps. As I said: Rallies ftw.

OH yeah, most people think hard res > rallies. That is just a lack of understanding of down state and rally mechanics. Its quite annoying actually. especially when a boss is at 5% or less.

fact remains: full glass zerkers are the hardest builds to play because you have to know when to use certain skills and dodges.

see this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Carried-Players/first#post4476334

This will still be a DPS race. Granted a DPS race where the higher skilled and more experienced players will go further, but it will still be full zerk+scholar teams who go furthest.

Only occurs on skyhammer.
I use my steal. ~1s later, I rubber band back to where i started.

Happening with shadow step and infiltrators strike also.

Seriously cripples playing thief.

Edit:
seems like others have experienced it on multiple maps. So far it’s happened every time I’m on skyhammer.

Black cat XIII.3576:

Taku.6352:

Did you just use your alt account comment on your own post?

Nope that’s my girlfriends account.

sounds very handy. Both playing gw2 and all..

In other news.. This would still end up as dps race. Kill wave before it can kill you.
Rallies ftw.

petrocksteve.8653:

I found that even with PUGs, if a guardian/mesmer/etc has enough absorbs/reflects, it is faster to melee the carrier. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is faster even without projectile defense, just go until you die then respawn and continue.

Don’t wreck all the adds with aoes (aim off adds, but on the back/ doorway of the carrier). Then carrier won’t dig down and pop up again if you don’t kill them too quickly.
Also, with smokescreen, wall of reflection, sheild of the avenger, sanctuary, another smoke, then another wall of reflect. Guard could also go shield offhand to buy extra time for skill CD. Carrier should be dead. If in a pug with low dps, try to bring a mesmer or focus ele for temporal/feedback or swirling winds. That’ll typically buy enough time for smoke/wor/shield to be off cooldown.

That being said, we train newbies up for dungeons, and they typically dont have full exo zerk gear right away so.. We occasionally quite often have a wipe/respawn. It is still far faster than ranging. Just make sure everyone is on the same page, full dps (aside from projectile stoppers), even in downed. Trying to heal would actually slow things down tbh.

DonQuack.9025:

Nothing well of corruption/null field and a few ice bows cant handle.

@Artemis and that is a problem because at the end of the day
anti-stacking is essentially anti-melee (except when you stack ranged)

Plenty of times in an fotm 50 I would consider range over melee. OR alternate as best I can.

It’s just a matter of skill of the player and the team to be able to melee (therefore stack) or not. I don’t have any issue with skilled players being able to melee stack.

sometimes it seems easier to melee stack, EG bloom/molten boss duo. But that is still only possible because of a team that knows how to avoid the aoes, throw up reflects, execute very high damage bursts (which in my experience, very few do). Its easier when people play well. Working as intended?

Just need more content to keep the veterans occupied as well as the new players.

We’ve had the NPE patch.
GOGO EPE (existing expert player experience) patch?

maha.7902:

Iris Ng.9845:

Power-Toughness-Boon Duration would be really really OP in zerg wars.

Anyhow, I really like to see a new dungeon based on the new mobs in Dry Top. They have interesting anti-stacking mechanics.

I think five people in a dungeon guild should get together and try LoSing large groups of mordrem in open world or an LS instance or whatever, and see how it goes. I don’t actually know if they’re anti-stacking, they hurt when soloing but I feel like the firepower of five players would just melt them.

Agreed, mordrem dungeon would be awesome fun!
Apart from reward balance, and a fair number of bug fixes, existing dungeons aren’t bad. Just need variety!

As for LoS-ing mordrem. Might be easier to do in an LS instance, since there will be fewer randoms coming up and grabbing aggro etc. Can’t say as I noticed anything like this though. Then again i wasnt watching for it

As for anti-stacking.. Thats basically anti-melee. stacking is just the result of 5 people melee-ing..

wauwi.9162:

I also like people stacking at Kohler, who do never dodge or block his spinning move.
3 runs in a row…
“Sorry to break it to you guys, but we still don’t have a guardian.”
Well, only half the guardians, i run AC with, use aegis there at the right time, so i just dodge anyways.

or just WoR/smokescreen/temporal curtain(traited)/whirling defenses/ some other projectile stopper i’ve overlooked.

Stop the scorpion wires, and he doesn’t spin.
Reflects for 0×3 times btw. don’t even need to time aegis.. lol

frifox.5283:

. I am numb but not from running same thing over and over, I’m numb from watching all you pugs running inside the dungeon like headless chickens (or stacking thinking it will solve everything) thinking you are making it easier where in fact you’re only making it unnecessarily harder for yourself.

I now want a headless chicken tonic. SOO badly!
Then I will go into every pug group I can find, transform, and leyroy.
This would be so much fun, and so rewarding

Also dungeons should award skilled play, not bad play.

EG ac p1:
<6 minutes: 3g
<8 minutes 2g
<10 minutes 1.5g
<15 minutes 1g + free headless chicken tonic.
>15 minutes 1 spike, and 1 pile of phantasmal residue (and headless chicken tonic).

Maybe start timer when path is chosen, for those with slow computers. Exploitable, with spider, but timer could lose 1m if spider is already dead with path chosen?

Sure I don’t expect this any time soon. But headless chicken tonic!

Would be cool.
Problem would be if a warrior had GS + hammer, or guardian GS + sword/shield. Clipping problems and where to visibly stow the weapons?

Similar experience in SE with dredge bombers. Bearing in mind this guy had 15k ap, and was a self proclaimed pro.
my guildy: “guardian, wheres the condi removal? it’s there on the build we asked you to use”
guard:“na man just chill.”
my guildy: “guardian, wheres the WoR?”
guard:" Enjoy the game"
my guildy:" but we need that or we die/take a lot longer. For us that isn’t fun. Using WoR isn’t difficult."
guard: " ok whatever, i’ll just leave then to make your run quicker"

Funny thing, we swapped to our “mains” (as much as you can call them mains when you have multiple toons in full asc, that you play equally well) which meant i’m on guardian.

We 4 manned the next part of the path waiting for another guildy to port over.

We had a pug PS warrior with us.
This person what like “wow wtf just happened?” (directly after dredge boss died in seconds).
We reply: " yeah.. thats how it goes when people know how to play their kitten class."

Even funnier, I later remembered my accessories were on my alt, so my guardian was running without accessories..

This is the problem with the majority of skilled players having quit the game because there is kitten all to do. Resulting in the “average” players having very few people to learn from, and very few examples to strive for.

WTB hard content that is justified in its difficulty. (cause lets be honest, SE is hardly difficult.. but is still more lucrative than say arah).

Rebound.3409:

They are willing to add anything as long as people buy it. Soon u will see death stars and lightsabers.

Is this a good time to point out:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Super_Greatsword_Skin

:)

uberkingkong.8041:

Skyrim? You want giants that toss people thousands of feet in the air across the map too?

across the map into enemy keep? Works for me
But only if my server gets to do it

Dream In A Dream.7213:

T1 queues are dropping below 2k, please remove the cap, so everyone can stack into T1!

They had the wvw meeting tonight. I think all those stacked in t1 felt its time to get them caps removed.

I doubt JQ is getting 2k players total on reset night. Let alone a 2k queue. O.o

Edit: I’m not even sure we get 2k distinct players logging into wvw on a given day.

Particularly frost bows.
Sit there spamming F 4-5 times to actually end up picking it up.

I believe there may also be something to do with being mid attack animation here.

Either way its extremely annoying.

so what your suggesting is warrior should beat every class?

Resulting balance would be everyone playing warrior.

Do I need to explain this further?

Enaretos.8079:

Zaxares.5419:

Tsk. Full Nomad’s with Mercy runes is the meta now.

Bu-but Dolyak runes make you even tankier !

but mercy is for 24/7 spam res. Because somehow people still die in nomads, even 5 wars run our of battle standards

Zaxares.5419:

Tsk. Full Nomad’s with Mercy runes is the meta now.

The sad part.. I just had a guildy come back after trying to take on a project of training pugs. What he described sounds like this might actually be true..

Rentapest.6503:

salvaged using the Silver-fed o-matic

You understand this is more expensive per use than the same quality kit from the merchant?
You realize the mystic kit has 250 uses (all convenience you need, since you get 1 rare per fractal And is even cheaper per use?

You paid 800 gems, to pay more per use.
Ask for refund or abandon it in bank ( in case anet’s gemstore team grows a brain and reduces per use cost).

Edit:
Diminishing returns.
Quite a few theories floating.
General rules:
mix up the content you do.
Mix up the toon you do it on.

I’m starting to wonder if its class or racially weighed too, but that’s wild speculation

Anet wants to open up the API to allow this.
Most players would love this.

The problem is the security. I believe they are waiting for a fully completed implementation of OAuth2 before allowing open-source devs to produce such things.

Your highest toon is level 32, and your complaining you aren’t an expert in the game?

lol.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

SPECULATION:

with the recent news of a new AI contractor being recruited into the team as well as new raid designers we may see further dissolving of said “zerker meta” in isolated PvE.

Let’s take tequatl for example. Its no secret that the most optimal setup for speed kills on him is PVT front line with zerkers in the back helping cannons not get destroyed. We may see raid content that may dictate healing/support setups to be something wanting on top of damage builds and bunker builds.

Get what I’m saying?

bunker builds to assist in controlling main targets, zerker builds for required optimal damage, and support builds to make everyone’s life easier.

what dissolving of zerker? Even teq can be done in zerker just fine these days, if you are experienced with the encounter.

As for the rest of it. bunker (you mean tank) /damage/support (you mean healing). No. Thankyou for your input. We do not want that holy trinity in gw2.

We already have active defense for support, Control, and Damage.
The gw2 party roles are far more engaging and entertaining.

many players asked for that stat set since launch.

it’s kinda pointless given your damage would be terrible.
But hey, some people think they should be traditional mmo tank – no damage, just meat shield.

lore-wise, it could be a moa leg?

RedStar.4218:

In fact, they could even lie to us and tell us they did that no one would notice.

This^

I’d like to see the drop rate (of asc) be a bit better in fotm first.
Maybe add to (new) level 80 exp dungeon paths like ta:ae, with prettier versions of dungeon skins.

The problem I find, is very few are willing to learn. We had someone ragequit the other day because we asked him (repeatedly, including explanation as to why) to run a phalanx strength over sword/axe. He would run it for the first 1-2 fights, then revert to some weird low dps setup. Thinking he was so smart and we wouldn’t notice anyway. Basically saying “kitten you, you don’t know kitten”.

Very few have the patience to teach/train because this is how the majority reacts to being asked to run certain builds.

I’m getting kinda tired of teaching the same (to me very) basic strategies and we’re in the process of making videos explaining some of the stuff we do/use. Basically so we can be like “here, go watch this <link>”.

We tend to encourage people to play other classes too, so that it keeps things fresh and interesting for <player>. It also helps <player> to understand how/why things work.

Seems like there might be a few in the thread interested in this sort of thing.. So heres our current in-game recruitment spam..

??[MYTH]The Mythical Dragons ? JQ based, all servers welcome. 400+ ?International members?Guild Missions?Buffs?PvX?TS3?99% Rep Req? – Whisp me or join at http://mythdragons.enjin.com/recruitment ??

It seems like not only are the skilled players a minority, those interested in becoming skilled are a minority also.

rapthorne.7345:

I don’t think it’s a case of few people wanting challenging content, it’s a case of how trivial content becomes once a method has been established (stack her, run here, do this to lose aggro, etc)

Most dungeon groups that I have experienced do everything in their power to skip as much dungeon content as possible to get at the rewards.

ANet: please give an incentive for 100% clearing dungeons

The dungeons are a lot of fun, but get a little stale. Need more to do. It’s purely there isn’t enough to keep things fresh. Add 8 more dungeons with the same depth/difficulty as arah/ta:ae and the high end-ers will be happy for a few months.

Give us new mobs to fight. Like a grawl/ogre/harpie/elemental/destroyer themed dungeons. By which time the existing dungeons wont have been repeated so intensely and will be less boring.

better loot from mobs (with publicity and proof of improvement) would help with incentive to clear. Probably need exp modes to me level 80 so t6 mats drop more. Gotta balance this with the cost of the t2-4 mats for asc gear though.

Astralporing.1957:

/snip

True, the whole “spamming autoattack while afk” argument is (and has always been) a strawman – but it’s the hardcores, not casuals, that come closest to it in this game.

Incorrect. This is what “casuals” do when they are lucky enough to be in a “hardcore” as you say group, where the important roles, like aegis, might stacking, CCing is already taken care of.

“hardcore” groups when having to post an lfg for a pug, they deliberately make sure the ONLY thing that pug needs to know how to do is dps. This is because pugs are randoms and may not have the foggiest idea how to actually play their class, or know what the boss may do.

edit:
Though casual can be taken to mean “bad” not “limited time to play”
and hardcore can be taken to mean “good” rather than “lots of time to play”
Typically people tend to get better with experience, but talent and ability to learn/improve comes into play here.

Dub.1273:

Artemis Thuras.8795

Many people aren’t good enough to time active defenses (which usually have quite long durations too.
Many use ping as an excuse, but with practice you can compensate for this, unless its over about 1/2-1s. In which case I would whine to my isp or get a new router.

You tell me? :/

tell you what?

dlonie.6547:

What gear stats do you use?

Alpha is one fight that I’ve really noticed the difference between zerk/non-zerk gear. If everyone is dealing high damage, the fight goes quickly and smoothly — he dies before anyone has a chance to screw up.

Tankier parties have more trouble with him, at least when trying to stack. The fight will take quite a bit longer and there are just more chances for things to go wrong.

For instance: I remember one particular back-to-back CoE run with two different parties. One was tanky, the other was zerk. We spend, no kidding, 3 hours with the tanky party, and Alpha was taking 3-6 attempts each time. In the zerk party, he just melted in about 20 seconds (I’m exaggerating, but it felt like it…).

full zerk team will melt alpha in under 20 seconds. So it probably felt like 20s for a reason

no idea if this was bought up yet.
Testing dummies. I’m bored of having to test in the heart of the mists, where there is so many people competing for a spot on a dummy.

Also, ability to hotswap gear as in heart of the mists, for testing. Perhaps an option to toggle?

even in PvE it is often to fast paced, and to many variables for one to get comparisons of builds/gear/rotations etc.
Or mobs die to fast, and one cant mindlessly bash while watching combat log vs a champ (unless full nomads or something, but this kinda defeats the purpose).

@ shadowpuppet,
I know man. Ive seen so many hardline “NO ZERKERS” its funny. Its simply because they can’t dodge, or CC, or do damage, or support.. They just want everyone else to do it for them.. And think that is perfectly fun for everyone else too.

I personally prefer maul for the aoe on it, + swoop isn’t bad damage. + the #5 can get rid of some defiant for a frost bow #5, or as an “oh kitten, ele doesn’t know how to use frost bow” skill. For me its mostly the cleaving.

not to mention every phlunt going hits point blank shot to knock enemies out of lava fonts. Then wonders why they get kicked from.. FuGs?

I can see sword/axe being a good option. #4 is pretty good. #5 is tricky to use, because you cant move. Who doesn’t want more reflect options though really?

Edit:
I just had a play in heart of the mists.
Yes LB AA does more damage point blank than GS.
GS attacks faster compensating for this. + epic evade.
I can see how one might prefer rapid fire over maul for vuln stacking, but in a dungeon team i dont see this being a problem. war/thief/cat pet/guard can easily maintain 6 vuln each + whirling defense + opening strikes.

All in all I’d go with GS. Unless a ranged weapon is needed. in which case – no brainer.

you get down scaled.
seems like a waste of dev time to implement this tbh.

Though idk if they explained down scaling to new players.