Guild Wars 2

There isn’t a real PvE set called Soldier’s, but that is the title that PvP amulets & PvE crests use to denote the Power/Toughness/Vitality stat distribution.

Necromancer.

• Tagging stuff in events? You got wells for that.
• Dungeons and fractals? You got a whole 2nd health bar to absorb damage spikes letting you use your gear on more offensive stats.
• WvW? Spreading conditions kills people really fast in groups and when solo you can do really well with a power build.
• Versatile? You got condition builds, power builds, hybrid builds, leeching builds, chill builds, and fear builds.
• Harder than spamming 22222222222? Gotta use a multiple skills to keep the max number of bleeds up and predict enemy movement to land staff ground target spells with any regularlity.
• Looks good? Light armor looks way better than medium does. Not a bloody trenchcoat to be seen.

EasymodeX.4062:

You’re telling me that you don’t try to make your opponent waste their condition removals on more frivolous things like the 4 stacks of confusion from Mind Wrack?

So, the Mesmer has used a full Mind Wrack then used a combo to get 8 stacks of Confusion. That’s something like 75% of their damage output.

So what you’re telling me is that 2 condition removal events will basically neuter this overpowered opponent. Nerf

Two things.

1. If you think that confusion is literally all of a condition mesmers damage you either haven’t played the class or you play it very badly
2. Please stop inserting your own fantasies into my words. I never said the class or spec was overpowered. I said the combo was out of line with other combos. Specifically because of how fast it comes out, which makes it more difficult to avoid and mitigate than is reasonable imo. This goes for all shatter builds. There are other such combos, mostly centered around Mug and its ilk, but we aren’t discussing them here. If Bull’s Rush was a teleport instead of an extremely exaggerated slide across the ground the same bloody thing would apply to the classic Frenzy/Hundred Blades combo. Likewise, if Mirror Images had a extremely obvious and substantial cast time like Churning Earth I would laugh at people who complain about it being OP.

I’m not even going to comment on the idea that Shrug It Off is something to be concerned about.

Off the top of my head there’s something like ~1-2 traits for almost every class that grant completely passive condition removal, as well as a ton of traits that grant it in tandem with another ability.

I just checked this, there are 5 totally passive condition removals: Shrug It Off, Purity, Signet of Resolve, Signet of Water, and Signet of Renewal.

So yeah, I missed a few, but its a far cry from “1-2 traits for almost every class”. Not to mention that only the guardian ones see much use.

Though I would like to see an AoE ability that hits for over 3000 non-crit every 5 seconds.

Given that Confusion cannot crit, you’re not really in a position to demand that the AOE does not crit.

Given that my confusion never hits for less than 3000 if I land all 4 hits (and more often are in the 3500-3800 range) I think it’s valid. Unless you’re rocking 100% crit I guess.

Don’t offer to bring what you can’t supply.

[a bunch of stuff that doesn’t meet the specified criteria]

Zzzz. 3k is not a big deal.

Edit: Most of those are slightly over 5 seconds, but close enough. Glad they’re less than the 3x second Confusion stack example though, phew.

You’re mental if you think a memser requires 30+ seconds to get another full shatter off. FYI for most mesmers Mind Wrack is a 10s cd and Cry of Frustration is 20s.

Not to mention you’re acting like 3k is the most damage you’ll get when really there is the potential for so much more. I like swapping to my scepter after a shatter so I can drop another 4 stacks on some unlucky sod. In an actual combat situation (i.e. outside of duels) it often kills people. Seeing several tics in the 4.5-5k range is not uncommon.

EasymodeX.4062:

Attic.1562:

‘Cause making someone (and all the guys near him) voluntarily stop fighting so your friends can wail on him with impunity isn’t worth anything at all is it?

Or they could just cleanse it. Autocleanses wouldn’t proc the Confusion effect. Ally cleanses wouldn’t proc it. Etcetera.

Using a generic cleanse would only inflict 1 tick, and 1 tick isn’t worth 2 utility cooldowns, an F2, and a dodge.

1 tick of 8stack Confusion is the same damage as when I press “2” on a 5 second cooldown. You’re saying the condition Mesmer had to press 7 8 E F2 on a 3x second cooldown. Shrug. You’re barking up the wrong tree here.

Try going back to the real arguments, or learn more about the Mesmer class to understand what is or is not overpowered about Confusion.

You’re telling me that you don’t try to make your opponent waste their condition removals on more frivolous things like the 4 stacks of confusion from Mind Wrack? And I’m the one who has to go “back to the real arguments”?

I’m not even going to comment on the idea that Shrug It Off is something to be concerned about.

Though I would like to see an AoE ability that hits for over 3000 non-crit every 5 seconds.

EasymodeX.4062:

Attic.1562:

Using multiple skills to try to achieve one powerful effect is the whole bloody point of combos to begin with. It is something inherent in the system.

So mesmers use the same amount of effort and resources that other players use to execute their combos, but for some reason get one that is way harder to avoid because of how fast it happens.

Now if the utilities and cooldowns burned actually dealt 15k damage directly, without requiring that the target use 4 abilities into a Condition that they can witness on their bar …

‘Cause making someone (and all the guys near him) voluntarily stop fighting so your friends can wail on him with impunity isn’t worth anything at all is it?

People keep thinking that confusion is all or nothing. That your opponent is the one that truly decides whether you gain any benefit from its application, but that is false.

Confusion always rewards you. Always. Just like every other condition you can apply. The only question is how much of an reward you’re going to gain.

syv.4372:

okay, guys, you’re all beautiful. but let’s chill, it has been a nice forum thus far. let’s keep it that way and stay on topic! :]

You mean it’s been boring. I welcome this attempt to put the DR back in drama.

EasymodeX.4062:

Attic.1562:

They could probably add confusion back onto the mesmer scepter 1 skill if they removed removed the ability to almost instantaneously crap out 8 stacks of confusion onto any group of people within 900-1220 range every 30 seconds.

Dunno, that’s half an endurance bar, 2 utility skills, and an F2 in order to apply a stack of conditions that doesn’t necessarily do any damage at all.

Seems like a big investment for unreliable payoff.

Using multiple skills to try to achieve one powerful effect is the whole bloody point of combos to begin with. It is something inherent in the system.

So mesmers use the same amount of effort and resources that other players use to execute their combos, but for some reason get one that is way harder to avoid because of how fast it happens.

Tell me, how is that particularly unreliable or unfair to mesmers?

Khenzy.9348:

Yes, I think confusion is too strong in WvW right now. SO strong, to a point that organized guilds are ‘abusing’ it through Epidemic… or without it anyways (Cry of Frustration bombing, it’s AoE remember?). The spike damage of confusion stacks a Mesmer (and only) can do is a little too much.
Also, confusion was created as a counterpart to retaliation, it should only damage the player suffering it if he lands his/her attacks and not with any action like whats the case currently. A Guardian dodge rolling with the trait Selfless Daring and suffering confusion damage I’m pretty sure it’s not intended either; or a Necromancer with Mark of Evasion, and so on.

Suggestions :

Honestly, I don’t even believe that the damage confusion does is the problem. The problem is how confusion is applied applied and how quickly it can be done.

Your standard shatter mesmer relies on several things things in order to get their combo off: Illusionary Persona, Deceptive Evasion, Blink, and Mirror Images. With confusion builds especially taking advantage of Illusionary Retribution as well. Everything else is just icing really.

Now, it’s quite arguable that, taken by themselves, none of these things is an issue, but together they can circumvent one of the games primary design goals.

Look at almost every bursty ability in the game: Hundred Blades, Kill Shot, Eviscerate, Dragon’s Tooth, Fire Grab, Phantasmal Berserker, Blurred Frenzy, Protector’s Strike, Jump Shot, Throw Wrench, etc and you’ll see they tend to have some sort of telegraph, a tell that lets you mitigate the incoming damage either by dodging or some other method. Even Backstab, for all it’s cheesy goodness, is usually telegraphed by the proceeding Cloak and Dagger.

About the only things that aren’t telegraphed in some way are Mug, Electric Discharge. Static Discharge, and Kit Refinement. But those are another topic entirely.

So the question has to be, is it reasonable for mesmers to get so much damage for what is essentially no telegraph? Is asking people to dodge the Blink/Mirror Images/dodge for clone/shatter combo too much in a combat situation? Does Deceptive Evasion and Mirror Images, when combined, allow mesmers to generate clones faster than intended and/or balanced?

I believe that it isn’t reasonable. And I believe ANet will do something about it at some point in the not-too-distant future. At least one of these traits/skills is for the chop imo.

If it were up to me, I would probably remove Illusionary Retribution entirely and give Mirror Images a cast time while removing it’s so often overlooked stun break feature. (And nerf Mental Torment to 10% for giggles)

They could probably add confusion back onto the mesmer scepter 1 skill if they removed removed the ability to almost instantaneously crap out 8 stacks of confusion onto any group of people within 900-1200 range every 30 seconds.

I don’t take too many pics of my characters normally so lets see what I can do.

Since the warrior didn’t really change much (so much stuff looks bloody awful on charr) I’ll throw in a consolation prize with my mesmer and my other 80s.

Except for the JP in EB, which can give up to 20 badges.

Unlike the Borderlands ones though, the amount you get scales with level. Try doing it at level 2 and you’ll get like 2-3 badges tops.

That’s because damage does break it in most games. As does proximity.

There is nothing you can do to break an enemies stealth. You have to wait for it to expire or for them to break it by attacking (and then wait for the server to deign to send you the information that you’re allowed to see them again. A lengthy process that involves much paperwork in quadruplicate and requires the authorization of a federal judge.)

He’s asking about how much 1 percentage point of critical damage is worth in other stats on gear. Or its ratio in other words.

And the answer is that it has no fixed cost. It depends on what piece you’re looking at.

For example, on the exquisite jewels 1% crit dmg is worth 5 stat points, but for the normal orbs 1% crit dmg is worth 7 points.

There’s a chart here that will give you the ratios. Note that these are for exotic gear only. Ascended is different.

EasymodeX.4062:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Title says it all – which 3 races would you most want to see become playable?

High Elves
Dark Elves
Eldar

A pity technical issues rule out some of those.

I mean, High Elves wouldn’t work at all. Dragon Princes are hands down the best looking HE models atm and we can’t have bloody horses in GW for some reason.

Same for Dark Elves. Can’t have Dark Elves without Witch Elves. And Witch Elves deserve huge 80’s hair that I doubt the game’s engine can support

Can’t think of a good reason to not have Eldar though. Hopefully they’d let us make Wraithguard too.

stereoblind.4736:

If we were paying monthly then I could see where people might truly be getting angry at this point but for the most part our experiences in WvW have been free.

Yeah, I don’t get why people are upset that the product they bought has all these little undocumented ‘bonus features’ that prevent them from experiencing the product as advertised. Especially not when ANet has knowingly made such features worse for a significant portion of their playerbase.

Dynnen.6405:

Be back next month.

Fixed that for ya Dyndyn.

Wizardauz.3761:

wait wait wait.

You fought me with a scepter??? But i dont use scepter, and if i was, then i most definitely wasnt serious. (I suck at scepter, too slow for intense pvp, reaction time with D/D is much better) Was it a purple ele with a hood and human tier 3?

I understand your point when you fight specific classes you might alter things. Utilities or some Major Traits. But gear is built around your spec (atleast it is to me). And i always go for Balanced Builds. Im a heavy theorycrafter and number cruncher, i did alot of research into the individual stat values of each piece of armor and tried alot of different ways to mix and match. In the end i made a % comparison of armor stats vs traits vs accessories vs weapons vs sigils to try and find a good maximizing of stats.

But it could just be profession difference. Im not familiar with Necro or Mesmers.

Maybe im just a person who builds a bit more balanced. I tried to consider the fact that if you cant put up a good fight in 1v1 then how much use are you going to be in a team fight without some other purpose like boon support or combo field placement.

But this is all in my own opinion and can very well differ from Profession to Profession. I just would hate to see dueling become something where you switch to your copy/paste cookie cutter build and armor set and ONLY use that for dueling.

That to me seems pointless. Defeats the point of experimentation and skill development.

Btw Attic, tell me a bit more about the time dueling that ele (me??) and a what guild/server your on? Because the last confusion mesmer i fought that won was a mesmer from Maguuma named Zastari.

It just doesnt seem like me to switch from D/D to scepter if im apparently losing (atleast thats what it souneded like? an ele dying to confusion?)

Plus if i see confusion stack up more then 2-3 stacks. I take my hand off my keyboard and wait.

I thought it was you, though I must express some doubt now. It seems likely that my memory may be faulty.

I definitely remember that I lost to a scepter/dagger ele because he caught me entirely by surprise and I didn’t adapt successfully.

As for build philosophy, I always build with a specific group role in mind and I always play for the group. Which I can get away with because I have 5 geared 80s.

For example, my my necro is balls out condition damage. My only concession is using a mix of runes of the lich and runes of lyssa instead of undead runes to hit 100% condition duration so I get my extra fear tics. I also have a good amount of power so that I can be flexible with well and DS usage and not get totally screwed by removal. And while I have enough toughness and HP to not instantly fold to any errant thief or kill shot, I’m pretty reliant on them either giving up quickly or one of my team mates turning them into paste.

Which is why I never solo or duel on my necro without respeccing to my power build, which is a hell of a lot tougher but oh so useless in a group setting. And these days I’d sooner use my thief or mesmer in those settings honestly.

To my way of thinking, if you aren’t changing your play to deal with known issues you’re being silly.

For example, I’d have to be an utter fool to fight your ele with my necro without at the very least swapping in some boon stripping abilities and a focus, stuff I typically don’t run because condition spreading is better in a group environment. Likewise, it would be foolish of me to fight a thief or a warrior without Well of Darkness for the blind spam to augment my somewhat anemic survivability.

I know you know all this man. When you fought my mesmer last week (or maybe it was two weeks ago, I can’t recall exactly) you swapped out your main hand dagger for a scepter and stayed in Air, presumably so you wouldn’t be constantly hitting yourself in the face with confusion.

Adjusting your play on a per opponent basis is a good thing when you can get away with it, and with duels you can.

Wizardauz.3761:

Lol personally i have friends who duel on most of those and get by, if not with good success too.

As far as builds… I only optimize to fit my play style, i dont see the point of switching builds just to duel… I run 1 build, in WvW, in Spvp, and in PvE. Whether im guardian or elementalist.

Switching builds just for a 1v1 seems petty. Just build something balanced so it doesnt matter if its 1v1 or 3v1. Seems too… 1 trick pony too me switching builds, changing into zerk armor and claiming skill.

I always expect people to show up for duels in dueling builds because that’s how it plays out in most games in my experience.

Knowing that most of the people who come out for duels are using builds specifically tuned for dueling (or at least, are not significantly disadvantaged) I personally don’t see much of a point in being at a disadvantage for no real reason.

I’d must rather have an interesting fight than have my prior knowledge reaffirmed (Basilisk Venom, Mug, and C&D/Backstab spam beats my 1300 toughness necro? What a surprise.) If the price of having that good fight is swapping traits/utilities/weapons/armor around and maybe paying 3.5s to change spec I will gladly pay.

Wizardauz.3761:

whats a duelist build.

dont you bring your WvW build to a duel to test it? i thought that was the point

Not really. There are some builds that just aren’t made for 1v1.

I wouldn’t dream of dueling with my glamor mesmer, staff ele, or condition necro because all of those builds are built around being in a specific team environment.

Hell, even bringing them to a 5v5 would be ill-advised. Too easy to focus down. Would have to change the specs around at the very least.

Looks like you’re using mostly cleric’s equipment with 1 berserker ascended ring and 1 other ascended piece, presumably PVT. Pretty standard for a PvE shout healing build. You can’t really get amazing damage without gimping your heals and totally removing the reason to roll with shout heals in the first place.

Though you seem to have about 3k more health and less healing power than I would expect. Plus you even have some even some condition damage. Are you wearing some Shaman’s gear and not specced fully into Defense?

I expect the best you could hope for is to switch to a higher dps main hand weapon, like axe, and trait for Berserker’s Power if you don’t already.

Shadows.9674:

Hi all just wanting to ask if dual axe can perform well in WvW?

Me and a friend are levelling together with a focus on PvP at the end and WvW is great and I will be doing alot of that. I currently LOVE dual axes and just wondering if this build will be viable:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mVRzzm9coRogmoRogmxpf9MMRmcVM

Maybe could even change Turtle’s Defence in the defence traits for Cull the Weak.

Any advice or discussion is helpful

Sadly, offhand axe is in a bit of a pathetic state atm. Feel free to continue using it, just be aware that you would better damage from axe/mace, better survivability with axe/shield, better CC with both of the above, and better survivability & team support from axe/warhorn.

As for your build, I can see a few things that I would change.

• Short Temper is an awful trait. On average you simply do not get blocked enough for it to be a significant source of Might. You would see much greater returns on Berserker’s Power.
• IMO, Arms is not a spectacular tree for axes. You can easily get all the crit chance you need from equipment and Fury and invest those points elsewhere.
• Similarly, the Defense tree gives you little for your investment compared to other choices. Adrenal Health is particularly bad for an axe build because Eviscerate is so good you shouldn’t want to hold your adrenaline.
• Dolyak Signet is….not good. It’s passive is a mere 90 Toughness and if you want Stability you’ll find Balanced stance to be better in almost all ways.
• You have no significant condition managment. This is a huge flaw in any WvW build. Mending and Restorative Strength alone don’t cut it.

With that in mind, here is a revised build. In deference to your original plans I retained the 30 points in Strength and the Longbow; though I personally dislike both.

http://tinyurl.com/bafyaee

There are several advantages here.

• Berserker’s Power, Empowered, & Heightened Focus give you passive damage & crit chance increases that do affect Eviscerate.
• Leg Specialist turns axe #3 into a root so you can smack people with Eviscerate more easily.
• Between the Boon Duration from the Tactics tree and the signet cd reduction trait you can easily maintain perma-Fury and high uptime on Might stacks with SoR & FGJ.
• You get Fast Hands.
• You can easily sub in the Longbow traits for besieging a keep or tower.
• SoS gives you some badly needed conditional removal (and some free endurance regen for more dodges) and Balanced Stance gives you better access to Stability than Dolyak Signet plus a stun break to boot.

If you’re wondering about gear, I would recommend:

• Weapons, Chest, Legs, and Jewelry: Knight

• Helm, Gloves, Boot, Shoulders, and Back Piece: Soldier

• Gems: Berserker

• Runes: pick between Lyssa (for even more condition removal and crit chance) or Air (for more damage)

• Sigils: Some combination of Blood, Force, Bloodlust, and Accuracy

• Consumables: Maintenance Oils and either Omnomberry Pies or Mango Pies

Should give you good damage with decent survivability. Just don’t try to solo with it or use it in sPvP.

Durand.5369:

Despite the post above, I run with dual axes. Most people play with a 2 hander, which is typical of most pvp games. If you are using a horn for your off-hand, you get a 7 second sprint which is all but worthless unless you are doing supply runs only. If you use a sword in the off-hand you might as well hold up a sign and ask the enemy zerg to CC you and burn you down. Sword would be my choice based on looks, but the additional skills are not effective for WvW.

With the dual axe build, it adds a high dps skill that is useful for 2 situations. First, it is much faster to burn down enemy siege. Second, I use it to break the push of an enemy zerg.

That said, I lucked out on an exotic axe drop from a skill challenge which is partly why I’m built around axes.

Three things.

1. If you think that swiftness is the only thing the warhorn offers you are delusional.
2. Taking off-hand axe specifically so you can use Whirling Axe on siege is laughable. Hundred Blades or just plain old axe auto attack will do just as well, if not better.
3. Whirling Axe is about the least threatening skill warriors have, might as well try to zerg bust with bloody emotes.

Edit: bloody spoiler function seems to be broken.

THACO.7021:

… Problem with this voteing … your voteing in the middle of it being changed IT HASNT Changed completely Yet So WHY Should I Vote or why should these Votes Matter What So Ever?

It be like … ok your about to try new food out WE VOTE ITS HORRIBLE BEFORE WE GET A PLATE OF IT

I Mean hasnt this topic been debated to death allready? Most people complaining currently are just complaining over Theroys of how its going to be so on so forth.

No Offince i just see this thread as one big QQ

I guess Thac0 doesn’t keep the riff-raff out after all.

I don’t know if this is your first character or not, but honestly leveling is pretty boring in this game no matter what imo. I say this as someone with 5 80s who’s lowest level alt is a mid-30s ranger.

You could try doing dungeons, they give good exp/hr rates if you can finish them quickly and you get tokens to buy exotics, but there are some dungeons which are just beyond awful even when geared out at 80. I shudder at the idea of bringing someone who is both inexperienced and in blues into Twilight Arbor or Caudecus’s Manor.

WvW can be good exp too, if you’re winning. You’ll be fodder for most natural 80s with any semblance of skill unless you run with the zerg though. But that can still be more fun than running AC for the 10th time or beating your skull against some god forsaken zone that looks exactly like the last 3 you did.

Or, if you have the cash, you can just craft. This is what I’ve done for all my secondary and beyond characters. Screw putting up with chuckleheads who wipe on CoF path 1 or running half way across a zone for an event only to arrive just as it fails. With foreknowledge, patience, and buy orders you can get 30 levels for under 7g by maxing out Cooking, Jeweling, and Artificing. You won’t get karma, coin, or extra skill points but it is easily the fastest way.

Or if you don’t feel the need to play the end game to have fun just make an alt and go muck around with that until it gets boring and you make another one. There’s no need to push yourself to 80 if there is nothing there that grabs you.

Allow me to answer your question with a question; what are you interested in doing? PvE, WvW, or both?

Brutalistik.6473:

Sargonnas.4168:

Raptured.9307:

As someone who has played thief, ele, necro, and warrior on spvp regularly, I’m going to tell you that if you do things right the warrior is just as competitive as the other classes i mentioned, if not more. Play around with your builds!

So True. People who have problems with the warrior really means that they don’t have a decent build and does not understand their mechanics IMO.

Overall result the profession has problems plain and simple. If the developer, high rank top Tpvp players, and Spvp regulars says warriors has problems with something yet the other players still want to deny it. There must be something bad in the air and it reeks.

You can’t trust anecdotes unfortunately. There’s too many variables.

I mean, back in City of Heroes people objected to the Blaster archetype getting buffed back in 2007 even though the devs own datamining showed that Blasters died more often and earned experience and drops slower than every other class in the game at every level of the game.

The power of the human mind to see whatever it wants shouldn’t be underestimated.

Oglaf.1074:

Tomkatt.1684:

Oglaf.1074:

We should get something similar to the Guardian ability. Y’know, the bigass shield that knocks everyone around you back?
.

Trust me, as a guardian main, it’s not as useful as you think. Down skill 3, on the other hand, has saved my life more than once.

It is a lot more useful than a single-target Knockdown, that’s for sure. It would allow you to get a Vengeance in perhaps one out of ten downs or something.

I’d be happy if they got rid of the cast times on Vengeance and Hammer Toss and fixed it so that Hammer Toss worked more often. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve been stomped due to the knockdown failing to hit the dude even though he doesn’t have stability, stealth, or evasion

Oh, it’d also be great if the chance to rally off Vengeance worked 100% of the time when killing a player without the bloody trait.

Still better than the necro downed state though.

fost.9167:

i dont think we are that bad, i think that it all depends on the situation. in wvw its mostly hang back and watch the aoe zerg, which is kind of boring.

In PVP only ever used HB in a cluster or on a downed players, most people know to evade.

I wouldn’t call the warrior bad per se, no matter what hysterics the OP is throwing around, but I would call them limited.

I have 5 80s atm, warrior, necro, mesmer, thief, and ele. My warrior by far feels like the least useful thing I could bring at any one time.

With the warrior all I can really bring to the group, whether it be with rifle, hammer, greatsword, or axe, is assisting the train. Which is quite limited in this game since you can’t share target information with more than 4 people. The damage is good, the CC on hammer is good, even the survivability is pretty bloody good considering we lack protection.

But all my classes bring good damage and so much more to boot. My glamour mesmer has great choke point control and then go on to either Time Warp for quick stomps, quick rezes, or maybe hit Mass Invisibility to help the team get away.

My condition necromancer helps prevent enemy rezes and can ward off stomps on friendlies with fear, spread condition stacks, corrupt boons, and has great access to debilitating conditions like chill, weakness, poison, and blind.

My staff ele has group might stacking, group healing, group condition cleansing, good point control via chill and stun, and destroys otherwise unreachable siege emplacements with GTAoE.

My thief is probably the most similar to my warrior in that it mostly brings damage and little else, but even then I can stealth stomp and use Shadow Refuge to help rez or help my group escape. All while being just as, if not more survivable than the warrior.

My warrior does better burst than all of them, excepting the thief perhaps, but all of them do pretty bloody good damage regardless and just have so much more utility to offer the group.

Something should be done to rectify that imo. Either making the warriors far and away the premier assist train class or strengthening our support roles like healing and group boon spam.

Failing that, I’d at least like to see some of our animations and cast times tightened up. Hammer 1 and 2 are annoyingly slow for what they give you and the wind up and aftercast on Eviscerate constantly annoys me.

Asglarek.8976:

There’s absolutely nothing preventing small man wv3 now if played correctly.

Nothing except sheer numbers having every advantage, from the new affinity culling, to the AoE cap, to linear returns on multiple rezzers, to buff saturation; all while while small groups have no inherent advantages at all.

Khanswrath.1032:

I guess what I was trying to add was changing the game to suit a particular section of player is overall a bad idea.

Depends. If the game was changed so as to not disenfranchise currently happy players but at the same time made currently under served players happier and more liable to stick around for the long term that would be nothing but good for the game.

Population must be maintained in order for MMOs to work and they can only live for so long on churn. Having a core, loyal playerbase is essential.

Khanswrath.1032:

I was assuming something fierce,I will grant you that, but look at ever single post in the forums about any type of change in the gameplay/design and it is filled to the brim with assumptions of how the game “should” be.

It’s a forum on the internet, whats your point?

Khanswrath.1032:

You have to agree with me that most if not all of the complaints center around the fact that WvW is casual PvP. Most if not all the changes (aside from the culling issues) asked for want skill to shine over numbers. The more Anet starts to lean on skill > numbers the less player base you will find in WvW.

I disagree with the notion that WvW is “casual PvP.” Just like most other aspects of the game it has room to contain both dedicated and occasional players.

You’re also presuming that zerg players aren’t dedicated, this is also blatantly false. You’re from DR, you must know about good old Sir “Hitting Stonemist Gates While We Lose the Rest of EB is a Good Tradeoff” Morningstar. Would you call him a casual? With the hours he pulls? I’d call him many, many, insulting things before I got down that far and he only runs with the zerg.

Skill is not the primary differencing factor between “casual” and “hardcore.”

The problem right now is the rewards of skill are few and far between in WvW. It alienates a not insignificant chunk of people. It is an imbalance that should be worked out. Imo, the health of WvW depends on it.

They can also go to far the other way of course. tPvP has this issue atm. The skilled, practiced players get everything and everyone else gets screwed. The result is empty tPvP queues, because nobody who isn’t currently skilled can become skilled enough to be anything but fodder.

Khanswrath.1032:

Attic.1562:

JaironKalach.4938:

Aeneasx.1589:

JaironKalach.4938:

Aeneasx.1589:

Most people shoot down this DAoC stuff without taking into consideration that they might just like it too.

God forbid people want to make guild wars a better game by looking at “the game” that laid some of the best frame work in the genre.

Yeah, but I already know I enjoy WvWvW as is. So why would any sane person risk losing something they enjoy in order to try out something different, because it would make someone they’ve never met happier?

Obviously that “best frame work” is a subjective assessment based on how you enjoy playing a game. Right now, in my limited experience, GW2 has the “best frame work.” My opinion in this matter and yours are equally valid.

Because almost everyone who is good in PvP and doesn’t foolishly Zerg around is leaving the game?

Okay… So I should want to change the game to accommodate a bunch of players who don’t enjoy the game as is, when I do, so that I keep more of those people around, at the expense of potentially not being able to enjoy it myself, and losing the people like myself who enjoy it as is?

You should if the number of people who also like what you like isn’t big enough to be largely self-sustaining. At least then you have a chance to still enjoy it. Otherwise it’ll all fall to pieces real quick.

I have to disagree. I just don’t see the die hard PvP player spending $$$ on gems to customize his/her character. That individual doesn’t give a kitten about BLSK’s, keys, minipets or gold tbh. Yet that player expects the game to cater to his/her desires just as equally as the PvE player. WvW is casual PvP plain and simple. Wanting to make it more hardcore will only cause the casual player to avoid it like the plague. Anet needs to potentially rethink and possibly implement their GvG formats they had in GW1. A different area to PvP with a more hardcore mindset is where they need to focus in future updates. Bending WvW out of it’s current state will only discourage both sides from playing it and open up more complaints.

I think you must have read a completely different post than mine. At no point did I utter any mention of “hardcore” or “casual.”

All I said is that it is in Jairon’s best interest to support change, even though he is perfectly content, if the number of people who are also perfectly content is self-sustaining enough to keep the action going for as long as he is planning on playing.

Because if the population is not self-sustaining the entire system will collapse very quickly once the critical mass has faded.

If he believe that the long-term viability of the population is not in question then he shouldn’t support change, but if he doesn’t believe then he should support change. Because in that case change is the only way to avert disaster.

You’re reading into too much stuff.

P.S. Your generalization of how “hardcore PvPers” act is hilariously off. Remember what happens when you assume.

Personally, I spent $45 on Station Cash cards over the holidays for Planetside 2. Literally the only reason I haven’t spent any money on gems is because either a) the offerings are not appealing to me or b) I do not believe the offerings are a good value.

Nuzt.7894:

Having every keep, tower and camp within spitting distance from one another hinders all but zerg warfare. Maps need to be enlarged so people actually have to make decisions and use tactics.

Many people have said it and I believe it is one of the largest issues, its far to easy for a large force to move from point to point in no time to allow for any tactical attacks. The game should be great for all not just some, regardless of what play style we each like.

They won’t remake the zones. Period. It’s far too expensive resource wise. Very few games ever totally remake zones.

At best they might release new zones at some point in the future alongside the ones we have now, but I wouldn’t bet on them being any bigger. Mike Ferguson is already on record saying that “These are the largest maps we can make in Guild Wars 2.”

JaironKalach.4938:

Aeneasx.1589:

JaironKalach.4938:

Aeneasx.1589:

Most people shoot down this DAoC stuff without taking into consideration that they might just like it too.

God forbid people want to make guild wars a better game by looking at “the game” that laid some of the best frame work in the genre.

Yeah, but I already know I enjoy WvWvW as is. So why would any sane person risk losing something they enjoy in order to try out something different, because it would make someone they’ve never met happier?

Obviously that “best frame work” is a subjective assessment based on how you enjoy playing a game. Right now, in my limited experience, GW2 has the “best frame work.” My opinion in this matter and yours are equally valid.

Because almost everyone who is good in PvP and doesn’t foolishly Zerg around is leaving the game?

Okay… So I should want to change the game to accommodate a bunch of players who don’t enjoy the game as is, when I do, so that I keep more of those people around, at the expense of potentially not being able to enjoy it myself, and losing the people like myself who enjoy it as is?

You should if the number of people who also like what you like isn’t big enough to be largely self-sustaining. At least then you have a chance to still enjoy it. Otherwise it’ll all fall to pieces real quick.

CrassBippy.4619:

how come call of duty isn’t mass effect?

Because Mass Effect became Call of Duty.

Rhyis.7058:

Thrumdi.9216:

This kind of class imbalance in WvW is a bad sign.

I actually can’t remember a RvR style game that had an imbalance this bad. Though, to be fair, the ones I have played have been fairly mature, with imbalances ironed out.

Has anyone else, with experience in RvR games, seen an imbalance this bad?

Unless there is sarcasm, did you not play Warhammer? Everybody played Brightwizard/Sorceress and Disciple of Khaine/Warrior Priest. There was no reason to play any other class except maybe bring 1 Magus/Engineer for an AoE pull. BWs/Sorcs were so overpowered if you played any other another DPS class you were considered gimp. Didn’t even matter what renown rank/gear you had.

You forgot to complain about Chosen/KoBS and Slayers too

I’d much rather see all the existing classes get new weapons than get a new class.

Some ideas.

Warrior:

• Polearm: A cleaving two-handed weapon with a focus on ally defense.
  Sample skill: “Hold Formation; Stand your ground creating a line centered on your position for 5 seconds. Any foes that attempt to cross the line are knocked down & grant Retaliation to nearby allies.”
• Fists: A two-handed, single-target weapon set that focuses on rapid attacks.
  Sample skill: “Uppercut (Burst skill); A mighty blow that sends the target skyward. Damage and knock distance vary with Adrenaline”

Thief

• Fists: A two-handed, single target weapon set focused on debilitating attacks.
  Sample skill: “Touch of Pain; Consumes all remaining Initiative. A single strike to one of your opponent’s vital areas, inflicting weakness & poison plus causing damage after 4 seconds. Damage varies with amount of Initiative used.”
• Greatsword: A two-handed, cleaving weapon suitable for any homicidal maniac or winner of last year’s “Mister Madman” competition.
  Sample skill: Hell, I dunno. I just want my big, red-headed norn thief to become a homicidal maniac in a claymore and a kilt.

Necromancer

• Torch: A ranged offhand weapon, because being able to bleed, poison, & burn on a single class would be pretty awesome.
  Sample skill: I don’t care. So long as it burns people for a good long time.

Elementalist

• Longbow: A long ranged condition damage weapon because the staff is kinda lame at condition damage.
  Sample skill: The usual collection of generic wizard-y skills that Eles normally get. No doubt with their own version of Infiltrator’s Arrow knowing ANet.

I’m too lazy to outline anything else, but I think new weapons, and maybe new utilities, would be less disruptive and more fun than adding new classes

ZudetGambeous.9573:

1. Laurel’s will be gotten from all achievements not just dailies, this is just step 1.
2. I’m not sure where you got the idea that the only method for getting ascended gear will be laurel’s. In fact the devs have specifically said that different pieces will all be gotten from different methods, and that they plan on having multiple methods for each piece. You can already get rings from both fractals and laurels. So your entire calculation is essentially worthless since it doesn’t convey any sense of reality.

He probably got the idea from the devs own posts that say that laurels may or may not be rewarded with other achievements in the future.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Eddie.6701:

I’m sure I read somewhere that the achievement points we already have from previous dailies and monthlies will be taken into account with this update, so some of us will already have some currency to spend?

Laurels are only earned through daily and monthly achievements (starting with the feb monthly) and will not reward for previous daily/monthly achievements completed since folks didn’t know this system was coming.

We will however introduce an expanded/new reward system in the future that will reward for other types of achievements, this system will reward previous achievement points earned. (But may require bringing back into line some infinitely repeatable achievements that would bloat/break this system)

Note the line about a new reward system, separate from laurels, that will be rewarded for non-daily/monthly achievements.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/robert-hrouda-on-upcoming-changes-to-dungeon-mechanics/

So… the same stuff we’ve heard before? I’m afraid I don’t get your point Robby.

Is the price based upon the current population listing in the UI window? Or some other factor like total number of accounts on that server?

‘Cause if it’s the former I worry that they’re too low.

Raif.9507:

30 laurels. Annoyed that I have to rework all my pieces again. For 1 single amulet.

Sigh. Hopefully the monthly will reward 30 laurels on its own. I’ll be very annoyed if it takes me 7 months to get exotic amulets for all my 80s & gear sets.

Why couldn’t they have been aligned to the bloody fractal daily?

No fix for the weird arc on AC path 3 final bosses scream? Or is it intended to be ~270 degrees?

No fix for the final boss of the event to open CoE?

Subject Alpha and the bloody Nightmare Tree still not dropping any bloody silver for seemingly no good reason?

Is it like the daily/zone completion chest that pops up over the minimap or like a physical model in the game world like the loot bags in WvW?

Kyuzo.4675:

We were just kind of going that direction and didn’t know there was a fight club thing going on. But it was pretty obvious that people were just hanging out and dueling (I guess not so obvious to the IoJ groups that periodically would run in the middle of things swinging lol)

Anyway, I had a great time and got a chance to talk with some of the guys from Ebay in party chat. I had not dueled before so it was a great learning experience for me. It was nice and casual and I got to watch and learn a bit about how different classes and players approach controlled 1 v 1.

Btw, anyone know what time the update will happen?

I believe it was all fairly impromptu. We’d wiped a group of what seemed to be mostly FTF at the southern camp twice then got wiped ourselves because we underestimated how fast the main body of their forces would come back and got caught in a bad position.

Next time we arrived near the southern camp there was RegA ele trying (emphasis on that word, ice bow in a duel with a condition mesmer? lolwut) to duel a FTF mesmer and the whole thing kinda grew from there.

And no, nobody knows exactly when the update will hit. Though usually they seem to land at around 5 pm Pacific.

Nuzt.7894:

A comprimise wouldn’t be bad, a small man wiping a zerg with little effort and no cap on AoE would be silly. I’ve played games like this and its rediculous, however, 5 people is to low. I would think 10 people cap would be a happy medium. Its gives small mans a little more bang for their buck, but doesn’t allow for zerg to be wiped by 1 Ele.

I don’t believe many people want small groups to be able to wipe big zergs with no effort. I know for a fact that Dynnen, Oozo, Tiglie, and I don’t.

What we want is to have a fighting chance. We can accept having a disadvantage from having fewer people. Hell, we welcome it.

What we hate is getting wiped by unintended game mechanic failures, oversights, and just plain bad design.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve died because I’ve retreated from a fight to somewhere that seems safe only to get instantly ganked by 10-20 people who suddenly appear all around me.

I’m tired of getting involved in drag out fights that we literally cannot win because the enemy can easily dedicate people to rezzing fully dead players with negligible performance loss.

For some of us this has literally been going on for bloody months. And made all the worse by the constant band wagoning driven by the utterly horrendous free server transfers.

Bloody near everything in the game at the moment encourages and supports zergs, can’t we afford to have just a few things that don’t?

Yes, I especially liked the staff necromancer who refused to move out of her marks and thusly killed herself on confusion and reflects.

You also forgot to thank the occasional IoJ wannabe ganker and the little Ebay group who got trashed when they tried to crash the party.

jkctmc.8754:

This isn’t group vs group, but World vs World!!!

You knew the type of game you paid for, so quit complaining that they’re creating the massive war type atmosphere World vs World was meant to be. They created a group based player vs player atmosphere when they created sPvP.

I run solo in WvW, so save me the childish; “You run in Zerg nonsense”.

Spare me. Small man was explicitly stated to be a supported play style in WvW.

For example: http://www.arena.net/blog/mike-ferguson-on-guild-wars-2-world-vs-world

With players from three different servers fighting each other, we knew that we would need a lot of different areas for them to fight over, and we wanted to have plenty of locations for guilds of all sizes to claim as their own. With this in mind, we created a number of different objectives that are designed to be captured and contested by large groups, small groups, or even just a few players.

Dhampyr.2104:

Attic.1562:

No culling involved, it’s called Veil. Very useful.

Veil is a stealth ability – all stealth abilities involve culling to some degree, especially if you’re talking about a large group of players. It’s the majority of the reason for the myriad of “I hate thieves” posts.

True, but anyone who has issues rendering ~20 character models needs to stop playing on their Gameboy and upgrade their rig.

You can start working on fractals. They give ascended rabid rings and until you get above level 6 they’re quite easy to do on a sub-80. And the patch next week is adding ascended amulets, presumably one will have rabid stats as well.

That will leave you looking for some earrings, but carrion or rampagers sets work well too if you can’t afford to drop 18 gold on the roots.

Or you could start working on a power build. Or go do WvW.

JudgeD.5673:

Now I see why a bunch of DR came out of nowhere and ran me over at the windmill. Guess they saw the RE tag and assumed I was involved. Thing is I literally did not see them until they were right on me. I assume that culling was involved there. I found all this interesting considering I was “visiting” (emotes) a DR asura ranger at the time this was going on. I guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time?

No culling involved, it’s called Veil. Very useful.

You guys were at the north side of the windmill and didn’t even look down the hill and see us streaming up around the east side and around the back. If you’d had scouts posted, or more situational awareness/paranoia, or if the guys we’d just wiped had the courtesy to warn you we were going back to the south you all could have teleported out way ahead of us.

It’s not safe out there; nor is it for the timid.