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I miss tomes!

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Azoqu.8917

Visually the skills were rly interesting.

I’d say they were probably the coolest skills in the entire game. Pacify looked amazing and Judgement was extremely powerful and looked powerful too. The only problem with those skills were being locked behind an atrocious cooldown. I still remember carrying groups in Fractal 50 against Shaman with Tome of Courage and using pacify followed by #5 (forgetting name…), looked amazing, felt powerful, sad that the only reason it was viable to use was that people sucked and I had basically 3 minutes between phases so it was refreshed.

A Plea for a Raid Story Mode

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Azoqu.8917

everyone has a chance to play anything, you choose not to.

They choose not to because they do not enjoy how that content is designed in game.

When that is the case, people can either accept it and move on – or they can bring it to the attention of the developers and make the argument for change.

At some time group of players did the latter – and thus we’ve got raids. Now they somehow think former should be better. Funny how that works.

Go back and read how hard dungeons were supposed to be before the game came out. That is what raids are. The only viable complaint is needing 10 people over 5. This game was never supposed to be the care bear MMO it became.

legendary armor

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Azoqu.8917

When they initially said the recipe to get legendary armour would be inside raids, I thought you needed raid to unlock the recipe and then could proceed as usual for the legendary. The other legendaries, even the new ones, offered a lot more variety in currencies requirement and ways to get them.

While I can understand the frustration with having to do the raids for ~2.5 months in order to get enough insights to make a full set, it is about one of the only ways to make it require actual skill to aquire. Very few people will be willing to buy up 150 insights in order to make a full set but buying 1 kill per boss is totally doable. If anything, the very last heart should have been rewarded for unlocking every skin/mini from the raids and then the armor would truly be just for the raiders.

Beside, the raids ended-up being something I was not expecting at all: a boss chain. It is not fun to everyone at all, nor as accessible for all since dependent on other players hugely favoring ppl who can commit to fixed schedules.

Compared to other games, GW2 raids are amazing because they have very little trash mobs. There is a reason they are called trash by the way, and it’s not because they are fun to kill.

I understand giving a unique skin to a game content, but not the legendary functionality.

I can understand this complaint if you are a WvW player, and I totally agree that when another set rolls around to give it to them. If you are a PvP player, why do you actually need armor to begin with? If you are a PvE player, raids are PvE by the way and pretty much the only place you’d have to swap stats anyhow.

I miss tomes!

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Azoqu.8917

But when you take Tomes and slap a 180sec cooldown on them, of course they suck.

Ok to clarify. They should “tome” all the elite forms.

Or they could actually balance all forms properly by giving them appropriate cooldowns. So something like going into the coding and changing “180” to like “120” or something, instead of pressing delete on them.

Except all forms have always had the same problems, no matter the cooldown they will either me OP or UP since you only pay the opportunity cost at the end. The reason people use any form currently is for 1-2 skills and that is it. For lich form it was the jaggies, for shroud it is the 5 → 4 wombo combo, for CA you still have all your utilities as well as being probably the only form that is not pure trash beyond 1 skill. Forms need a lot of work.

If the rumors of tomes coming back is true, I really do hope they don’t replace the utility skills and function way closer to kits than anything (kits are “forms” but since they don’t replace utilities I don’t count them as forms).

Last Collection Item for Armor

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Azoqu.8917

It would be a nightmare if people had to grind that much to get the last item. Even “true raiders” don’t have the luck or magnetite shards to unlock everything like that in a reasonable amount of time.

There is more than enough magnetite shards, just most people went with buying ghostly infusions. I’m sitting on 14.5k of the bloody things and unlocking all the skins I need I believe would cost ~6k.

Last Collection Item for Armor

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Azoqu.8917

Is anyone else sad that the final step for Legendary armor is just talking to something in a cleared Wing 4? I personally was really hoping for a collection to be added for getting all skins/minis from the raids and completing it would give you the final heart. Mainly wanting that so that anyone with the armor would be truly a raider and not just a 3 months and done person.

Torch on Rangers seems a bit overpowered.

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Azoqu.8917

Bosses condi ranger isn’t top dps on: cairn, overseer, samarog, deimos, sloth, kc, xera, vg, gorseval, sabetha.

How is this top dps again?

Nike, I totally agree with you on the fact that condi ranger isn’t top DPS on anything and in top guilds it doesn’t matter. But in pugs and lesser groups, the output of a condi ranger laughs at any other class because the damage scales up very quickly compared to the effort put in compared to other DPS classes.

Oh how this has shifted. Previously for PUGs it was tempest or go home, when in reality very few pugs have any idea how to play tempest. Now a build is pretty strong and have a relatively low skill ceiling and that is the new problem!

Over the past year one thing I’ve learned in both PVE and PVP is the builds only go so far. At the meta level (i.e. meta for ele/necro/ranger/engi, etc), no build is bad, players are. The highest dps for your group (pending buffs) is likely the comp where people play the classes that they actually know how to play…not when they default to condi ranger.

I’d say the main component it has shifted from Tempest to Cranger is because of DPS meters getting the go ahead. This has allowed many groups to finally see what is pulling the weight and what classes are not, basically based on how easy the rotation is. Why would I, as a raid leader, want to take a tempest or engi when I can take a cranger and watch it get 20k+ without worrying about how good the player is.

My problem with Ranger is the fact that it is the only healer you can take because of the buffs it provides, and the fact that it is practically the best DPS you can take as well in pugs because the easy of the rotation and how much damage it pulls. The other day I quickly geared a ranger and did Samarog. Screwing up the rotation so many times and still pulling 18k for a class I had never played before is a little over the top.

Deimos Tears no longer strip aegis CM, why?

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Azoqu.8917

This is the very first thing I thought of when I saw the change as well. Hello “Retreat!” my old friend. This change is a tiny step on removing some OPness of chronos in raids.

This change isn’t a tiny step on removing powerful abilities of chronos at all.

It’s called a boss nerf. Chrono will still use precog and distort during the fight. Tears are pretty useless on CM now, unless you run with an auramancer kiter instead of a rev. Tears does already more damage on CM but it’s not enough to be painfull in my opinion.
In normal mode, it seems they are more important to remove because they can target Saul. As far as I know, tears in CM mode don’t make any damage to Saul but to the kiter or players near them.

Hey I never said it was a super effective against chronos. It’s just the fact that you can now get by with a Guardian and his aegis if you wanted the chrono’s to bring something else. The bigger change is more the fact that the kiter no longer gets targetted for teleport.

Torch on Rangers seems a bit overpowered.

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Azoqu.8917

Bosses condi ranger isn’t top dps on: cairn, overseer, samarog, deimos, sloth, kc, xera, vg, gorseval, sabetha.

How is this top dps again?

Nike, I totally agree with you on the fact that condi ranger isn’t top DPS on anything and in top guilds it doesn’t matter. But in pugs and lesser groups, the output of a condi ranger laughs at any other class because the damage scales up very quickly compared to the effort put in compared to other DPS classes.

Deimos Tears no longer strip aegis CM, why?

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Azoqu.8917

This has nothing to do with precog. It has to do with Aegis in general. Before this change Precog was the ONLY reliable way to do CM. Now, you could use 2 guardians in your DPS slot and dont need Precog at all.

This is the very first thing I thought of when I saw the change as well. Hello “Retreat!” my old friend. This change is a tiny step on removing some OPness of chronos in raids.

Balance Changes That Would Improve Raids

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Azoqu.8917

I agree on the profession buffs affecting 10 people. Anet has said that they want to avoid doing this because its taxing on the server in larger zergs (WvW and world bosses), but couldn’t they just have it apply in Raid maps? This would really open up class diversity by reducing the amount of players needed for buffing.

As for guards elite, I think 10 seconds is way too much considering that its only a 36sec CD when traited. 55% uptime (assuming no alacrity) on quickness from a single skill is absolutely huge! 8 sec of quickness is still a huge amount, especially for the low cooldown of this skill, and provides much more fair quickness uptime. I mean seriously, if you want to run without a chrono but still have good quickness uptime, it should be much harder than just using 1 skill and getting over 50% uptime. Maybe if the CD in PvE was increased a bit 10sec of quickness would be fine, but if the CD stays the same as it is now, 10sec quickness is way too much for FmW

I think it’s quite fair. Both chrono and guard provide quickness for 5 ppl. One has to work his magic, but gets 100% uptime on quickness (with ethereal combo fields + putting them where party is side effects).

Other would get simple, effective, no strings attached 66% uptime solution. Chrono still has his invulnies and alacrity to boot. But at least chronopoly on quickness (after alacrity) would go away and allow off meta comps to get their faces outta dirt. No chrono? No problem, let’s get a boon guard and healer rev!

Exactly…. Chrono has to work hard to provide quickness uptime. Guard would literally have to cast his elite off CD, and 2 guards could provide more than 100% quickness uptime.

10 seconds on a 36sec CD is way too kittening much for a single skill. I mean look at TW. Its on a 180 kittening second CD and provides 24 seconds of quickness max, and to get that it limits where you can move. I mean even using it during CS and use CS off CD, it still only has around 30% uptime on quickness, and you are proposing giving guards a 600 radius skill (that’s 60% bigger than TW btw) that would literally hand out ~60% uptime on quickness, without limiting the area people can move around in. If you can’t see why that’s too much then I don’t know what else to tell you. Because that’s not at all balanced, not even close.

TLDR: Don’t take my chrono’s OPness away.

Balance Changes That Would Improve Raids

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Azoqu.8917

“Feel my Wrath!” should have it’s cooldown reduced back to the 30s that it was when it came out. It was only increased because quickness affected stomping in PvP so the cooldown was increased. Then Anet made quickness and slow no longer affect stomp speeds but never undid the nerf to “Feel my Wrath!”.

New player- class question

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Azoqu.8917

Warrior Viper gear charr blood legion phalanx strenght ftw

There, fixed that for you. I’d go farther about female human meta or sylvari take root, but eh.

For a new player,? I don’t think a new player can afford a full asc viper set :P
edit:or even a exo one

We’re also looking at raids here, which a new player shouldn’t be worrying about to start with either. For getting into groups of all kinds except raids, playing whatever is the best way. If you’re looking at getting into raids, viper warrior is the type of warrior you’d want to make. Though making a ranger and being viper is probably better because you can run both condi ranger for dps or condi druid to help heal a bit and make a super cheap exotic magi set for actual healing because ascended for healing is not really needed.

New player- class question

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Azoqu.8917

Warrior Viper gear charr blood legion phalanx strenght ftw

There, fixed that for you. I’d go farther about female human meta or sylvari take root, but eh.

Another Demonic Heart thread

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Azoqu.8917

I have only ever killed this boss while kiting. When I got my heart I was helping a group with their kill (even though I already killed him that week), and told them I was not going to kite hands sub 10%. It might be not getting credit because you don’t deal damage to the sub 10% boss and not the actual boss prior. I think this might be the case because when I got my heart I didn’t attack Deimos until sub 10% and I was a heal ele so damage is near nothing to start.

Edit: P.S. Kiting Deimos is aids, let your kiter do something else in the fight for once.

Torch on Rangers seems a bit overpowered.

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Azoqu.8917

The problem with condi ranger isn’t the fact that they do good damage. The problem with condi ranger is that they do good damage with barely any effort. By putting in 50% of the effort that someone needs to in order to achieve the max dps (~30k), you end up doing ~22k in raids. Meanwhile an elementalist that only puts in 50% of the effort you end up pulling ~10k. Playing with condi rangers allows bad players to pad their DPS because you don’t actually have to be good with the class to pull good numbers.

Changes to distort.

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Azoqu.8917

Oh man, I just remembered concerning reflects: Cairn gives no kittens and if you try to reflect him it destroys everyone in melee range.

Though back on topic, I think Mesmers do way to much at the moment. They only give up damage in order to: buff the group beyond belief, provide heals (it’s totally passive and not to much, but still there when minstrel), able to tank better than any other class, can invuln the group so they can ignore certain mechanics, and provide awesome break bar damage in emergencies (ya last one is a stretch but no less true). I still feel sorry for Mesmers in the future when they are all stuck in the buffing roll and never allowed to play their new spec unless huge changes occur.

Balance Changes That Would Improve Raids

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Azoqu.8917

Or remove the ICD on crit might stack from guards… either way really.

Sure, I guess I just think Revenant needs the love a lot more than Guardians right now.

Except that stupid trait for Guardian has existed since this game has come out and it triggers me every time I see it. Originally when I saw that trait I thought of making a build using sword (auto hits more than other autos and #3 hits 8 times very quickly) and that trait before I know about the cooldown. It would have provided might to the group as well as a lot of blinds to keep people alive. Then I find out about the cooldown and that build went down the drain. For the buffing support class, Guardian doesn’t do a whole lot of buffing or support.

Changes to distort.

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Azoqu.8917

And Apparently, all projectiles are now unblockable and can’t be absorbed nor reflected!

Hey don’t joke about that one. That basically happened for a while with lots of new encounters all having un-reflectable projectiles because Anet didn’t know what to do with Wall of Reflection and Feedback.

Why is renewed focus interruptible ?

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They should return it to how it was in the Beta, 2 second cast followed by 8 seconds of invulnerability. Though joking aside, you should refresh the virtues as soon as you cast it so that you never get that cooldown without refreshing. Though it should just be instant cast while giving the immunity and refresh, I don’t understand how other classes can be immune and attacking but Guardians need to have a banacing factor attached to theirs.

Balance Changes That Would Improve Raids

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Azoqu.8917

I know balance ain’t easy, especially in raid scenario, but right now it is out of whack. If not for damage numbers (save some exceptions), then definitely for how some professions don’t exist in any role at all, while others are the “golden child” that has the sole and exclusive right to hold a given position (mostly healer/tank), and all else is blasphemy…

Rangers, Warriors, and Mesmers all need a huge reduction in how much they are needed to be brought. It is so silly that 6 of the 10 spots in a raid are locked up by those 3 classes with only 4 spots left for the other 6 classes. It gets even worse when you realize with how easy it is for condi ranger to do damage that you could lock in 6 spots for ranger alone. Anet needs to get off of their kitten with balance and do some of the following:
1) Make multiple classes be able to might stack. Like maybe remove the 1 second cooldown on Empowering Might for Guardians to start? (always kittenes me off since the Beta)
2) Make class specific buffs hit all 10 people. It’s great that warrior banners now hit all 10, but all that did was let warriors bring a different utility because banners are still needed and they still stack might the best. Ranger spirits didn’t get changed like banners so thanks Anet.
3) Give those same specific buffs to other classes or remove them. 150 power from warrior is amazing, but you’ll always need to bring a warrior because they are the only class that brings it. Guardians have 150 toughness, but lol toughness.
4) Same goes for GotL. Yes it hits 10 people now, but Ranger is still the only one to provide it thus solving nothing, especially with the spirits still needing to be brought.
5) I feel sorry for Mesmers because Chrono is so over powered. Unless it is nerfed hard chronos will never be anything besides a buff bot unless there is more that 3 in a raid. I don’t know about you, but try finding 3 people who want to play mesmer for a raid without one of them wanted to go a different class because one of them is DPSing.
6) Even with the rumors that the next Guardian spec is being a healer/condi/quickness spec, you’ll still take mesmers for quickness because it has 100% uptime (the guardian might as well) and it also brings alacrity. Look at Rev alacrity, it’s a joke. It’s easier to just stay with the Mesmer then it will be to bring a Rev/Guardian combo x2 (cause 5 man cap).

There are many other problems but the main things are the specific class buffs. With how it is now Anet should just bring back enchantments and hexes from GW1 so that we can have even more unique, unbalanced junk. I thought the whole idea for boons was to keep it simple. Just remove the class specific stuff and put might back to 35 power per stack I guess.

Changes to distort.

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Azoqu.8917

I find that telling Mesmers they are ridiculously OP in PvE is a futile attempt. Yes you don’t have insane damage like every other class, but congratulations on being a required 2 spots in a raid. All DPS classes wish they could be required over other classes so they could more easily get groups. The only class more ridiculous are Rangers.

I have friends who, every time they play their Mesmer, find something new that is completely OP for what they have and they admit it. They are also not Mesmer mains, I have yet to meet someone who mains Mesmer admit that they have some pretty BS abilities (my favorite is still how OP well of precognition is compared to what Guardian, the aegis class, has for aegis granting).

Edit: I still remember when “Feel my Wrath” was added to the game and Mesmers complained constantly on these very forums how it invalidated them because Time Warp was outclassed by it. Now look at the upkeep of Quickness… not to mention FmW got a 15s cooldown increase because of PvP quickness ressing but when quickness was removed from effecting ressing the cooldown was never changed back.

(edited by Azoqu.8917)

Changes to distort.

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Azoqu.8917

Man, how the world would cry bloody murder if Aegis blocked everything for 1 second instead of getting spent in one hit. But no, pure immunity to all but 1 mechanic is fine and having a better aegis applier than Guardian is also fine.

Lvl 40 fractal farm meta toxicity

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Azoqu.8917

I know for a pre-made organized group, mesmer, warrior, and three eles is probably the best way but in a PuG you’d probably get more out of five DH all rocking scepter, zealous scepter, permeating wrath, and feel my wrath. They’d all have 25 might, only need to use #2, #4, and PoB on cooldown and pull 20k+ DPS each. It’d probably be way quicker than the current PuG meta but then again current PuGs are terrible players being behind by two patches.

dps in raids?

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Azoqu.8917

If you can average 20k while using BGDM on any boss, then you’re better than the vast majority of pugs.

Agony and conditions

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Azoqu.8917

If condi is a problem in zergs, it either needs rebalancing or (more likely) people need to bring more condi removal

Man if only that was possible. With the way classes kitten out conditions there would never be enough condi removal in this game to deal with it all.

The rebalancing needs to happen at the source of conditions where each class has 1 damaging condition and 2 covers max. If you’ve ever played condi Guardian, it’s probably the most balanced condi class when it comes to this. You have burning as your damage and if you spec into DH you can gain cripple and vulnerability as covers, unlike other condi classes that just look at you and you gain 5 conditions really. Though if the rumors are true, Guardian will be joining the other classes and probably kitten out conditions like no tomorrow come next expansion.

Though the true rebalancing that should happen are with stats in general. All stats, even condi damage and expertise, should start at 1000 and have a base value. Then all condis should all have a scaling factor with no base value to them, so that when you gain 1000 condi damage the damage of the condition doubles just like how 1000 power doubles your power damage. This would solve the problem that occurs currently where when you gear 1000 condi damage bleeds increase by ~250% damage while burning only increases by ~180%. There is a true failure in the stat system when Anet added stats beyond power, precision, vitality, and toughness, but didn’t decide to overhaul it completely.

If they added something like this they could relook at vitality and toughness (as well as maybe adding a resistance stat, cause you resist conditions), where at 2000 toughness you’d reduce damage by 50% and at 2000 resistance you’d resist 50% condition damage as an example. At the same time 2000 vitality should make you have double the health (aka base health scaling x vitality = current health, since Guardians have ~12k health at no extra vitality they’d have a scaling factor of 1.2 x vitality, while warriors would have 1.8 x vitality to get their 18k, and at 2000 vitality you’d have 24k and 36k). In a system where all stats start at 1000 and everything is a scaling factor healing power would become more powerful as well doubling the output for certain terribly scaling abilities.

Yes I know this post took a total tangent, but the problem with condis stems from the core stat system not being universal across the stats and their usefulness.

Healing druid vs healing ele

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Azoqu.8917

I love how everyone skips over Guardian as a healer. Not like it matters because GotL and spirits overshadows everyone but they do exist.

guard is a diff kind of healer the aegis spam and protection make it more of a dmg midigation healer rather than a straight healer

Almost like they are Protection Monks, but sadly no where near as good. WTB reversal of fortune from Guild Wars 1 as well as Protective Spirit.

Healing druid vs healing ele

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Azoqu.8917

Sorry but what’s GotL? I just returned to the game and I don’t know what that is.

GotL = Grace of the Land.

It is a buff that druids give out when they heal that stacks up to 5 times. Each stack gives 2% increased damage so at 5 stacks it’s a 10% damage increase for everyone else.

Healing druid vs healing ele

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Azoqu.8917

I love how everyone skips over Guardian as a healer. Not like it matters because GotL and spirits overshadows everyone but they do exist.

Thoughts?

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I’d say if you play with hammer, getting bored is pretty much your own fault.

I agree and in open world, hammer hardly makes sense anyway. GS or sword+torch/focus will kill standard enemies faster with their burst and have much more interactive gameplay. Hammer has just one niche where it’s superior: mobs that require CC. But I think those are rather rare while leveling.

And if you just want to absolutely blow up everything in PvE rock scepter with zealous scepter and permeating wrath traits. You will have 25 might permanently, and take down hordes like no tomorrow. Pretty much do insane damage from range unlike most other classes that have to be melee to do great damage. Off-hand as a shield is nice for the CC or torch for even more damage, I prefer shield for the utility while in open PvE. This is all for open world and dungeons/fractals.

For raids if you rock a guardian you are pretty much only a DPS class. Though since you have a mesmer, you can guarantee an easy spot if you’re willing to be a buff bot.

Edit: Another nice thing about Guardian that no one has said is that Anet basically balances around it (at times things veer off terribly but mostly it’s good), and since that is the case Guardian has always been viable and in a solid place even if it lags behind at times.

Healing druid vs healing ele

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Azoqu.8917

The reason that Druid is so popular (particularly in pubs) is that even when running full healer it brings a plethora of damage boosting buffs to the team that mitigates its substantially reduced DPS.

And this is why no other healer in the history of this game will ever be viable unless one of the following happens:
- A huge nerf to what druid brings for buffs
- All class specific buffs affect all 10 people
- All healers bring equal damage buffing effects

I personally would prefer both 2 and 3 as things that occur in order to increase raid diversity. It is pretty stupid that before you build a raid you already have 6 spots locked in for 2 each or 3 different classes.

Suggestions for Hammer and Staff

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Azoqu.8917

It more has to do with Guardian actually being one of the only balanced classes in this game. As much as “Guardian is in a good spot” is a pretty good joke at times, there is a ton of truth in that statement. All skills Guardian has makes sense in a non-spamming game that GW2 used to be, and all are fairly useful as well.

The problem arises from the power creep that occurred and the ridiculousness that ensued. Hammer #3? Pre-Hot it was a balanced skill that had quite the reward for hitting it and, because stability wasn’t everywhere, it allowed someone the time to dodge it because that was pretty much the only defense against being hit by it. Now though it seems bad because there are other skills that seem pretty powerful in comparison to it. It is just the fact that hammer was forgotten about.

Though I am of the opinion that Anet is going through all of the Guardian weapons/skills and slowly updating them to HoT standards because Guardian is their “balanced around” class. It is easier to bring one class to a standard that you want and then slightly move everyone around it then to greatly move 8 classes to be around that one. We already had had the following reworks:
1) scepter/sword rework with the addition of symbols (though yes, the #3 skills on both could use a little love, especially sword #3)
2) mace got a huge update with the changes to #3 rewarding a block with aegis and protection and the auto cleaving
3) greatsword got a huge buff and is now apart of the DPS rotation like it deserves
4) shield has received so many buffs and is now usable in multiple situations.

The weapons still needing reworking are the following:
1) Hammer needs some TLC and will probably get some. I love the utility this weapon brings but in the fast pace of PvP it is a little to slow so it needs a bigger payoff.
2) Staff was a range support weapon but is so outclassed by using shield offhand with scepter (IMO), that there is almost no point to use it.
3) Focus has always been in a relatively good spot though a CD reduction wouldn’t go amiss to keep it in line with everything else nowadays. I don’t remember the last time I used this in PvE except as a fight opener.
4) Torch needs to stop being Stormtrooper role play and needs something added to #5. Self condi clear maybe? Or how about boon removal? Even 1/2s of burning per pulse would help. The cast time and usability of #5 makes it had to actually do anything useful with it (besides cleaving downed with Permeating Wrath, but that’s more PW scaling ridiculously than anything).

I have a feeling that on April 20th (patch after SAB and probably episode 5) another weapon will get an update.

Is theif really that bad DPS in raids?

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Azoqu.8917

The only reason I could understand for kicking a thief (or any class) for a DPS spot is if you need a certain amount of utility to be filled like having someone to clear orbs on gorse. I was going to say xera shard clear, but thieves can 2 shot the shards with vault. Thief DPS is also easier to accomplish than some other classes because you could just auto attack and have good numbers.

I guess if you were trying to get into a cairn group I can also understand a kick because if you get agony then thief damage goes to near nothing.

Give your ice bows to necros

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

I love people saying Necros have no DPS. When I did Samarog CM I played my necro. Pulling 22k using the old scepter/dagger + staff with curses/blood/reaper was great fun. And now there is another build that does even more damage using GS and soul reaping?

On the topic of the Ice Bow, I too would love to see the damage numbers for how much the elementalist loses and how much each different class gains from grabbing it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are certain classes that should grab it over the elementalist (probably only necro really but there could be others). I don’t have the latency to pull off perfect rotations like qT does so it’d be better for them to do it because I wouldn’t come close to the same damage they do (and honestly, golem DPS means nothing because you don’t pull anywhere close in raids, golem 30k while in raids 20k is amazing).

[Suggestion] Staff Changes

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

Disclaimer: The following is based off of a PvE raiding perspective.

While I like the idea of Guardian staff getting buffed (practically anything is an improvement), the ideas here would barely help. The change to #1 and #2 are great ideas, and I have even thought of the exact same changes, the problem for #1 lies in the scaling. Under 0.05 scaling it is pretty pitiful healing, just look at Elementalist staff scaling and how it heals upwards for 1.2k on autos. Yes it doesn’t hit 5 targets for damage but it does have 1200 range and can be ground targeted to heal others.

The suggestion for the symbol is an awesome idea that I can get behind. Would be sweet if it did a secondary effect like all of our newer symbols are doing now (blind on sword, extra hits on scepter, burn on bow). I’d suggest making it cleanse 1 condition on drop or heal per pulse baseline (which with writ would increase the healing farther).

For ability #4, the reason healing Guardian is now brought to heal for raids is because Grace of the Land is way to powerful. Yes the increase to affect all 10 people was a great change, but you will always have to bring at least 1 druid, though probably 2 for spirits. I am of the opinion to remove might from the ability and make it pulse healing and at the end explode for 5 stacks of Grace of the Land or something equivalent. The main problem with this ability is two-fold. The first you did identify which is lack of movement in a game based on moving constantly. The second problem is that the might is mostly useless because you will over cap it.

I believe #5 can use a secondary effect for allies. Against enemies it is fine, for allies this is where you could place a swiftness buff just like the mesmer curtain or make it heal those who pass through.

Another problem with the staff, and healing Guardian in general, is that you need to spend a trait on aegis healing instead of getting it as a minor (like in place of might on blocking maybe? I know, different tree but Honor’s minors are in a good spot). This means if you want to take empowering or the staff trait you reduce your healing by a significant amount so you never have a choice IMO.

TLDR: The ideas are good but there needs to be some ground breaking changes to make it viable in most formats.

Current PVE meta

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

So in fractals I would say ele edges out into being best dps role, with guardian a solid second.

Until you run a scepter build with Permeating Wrath. Then the Guardian out DPSs everyone with no input from the rest of the group because they can provide permanent 25 might to themselves while dishing out huge amounts of AoE. If the Guardian is burn say hello to 25k burn ticks while still providing Aegis and other defensive buffs.

This is just how different fractals are to raids, crazy builds can work in fractals but fail horribly in raids because in raids you are guaranteed certain buffs while in fractals it’s completely random what you’ll have.

Questions about Deimos Hand kiting

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

I believe the hands do count as Deimos hitting you. My evidence is that retaliation will hit Deimos when you get hit with hands.

Season 6 Ranked PVP Builds you are using

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

Thieves are a hit or miss. Thieves like Anonymous will counter you (or anyone..) while other bad thieves can simply be ignored as they’ll die from aoe.

I can not count how many times a bad thief has +1 against me and been downed before the person i was fighting got downed. Normally they help down the other person because you can cleave and increase your damage exponentially. Permeating Wrath is such an awkward trait, being both awesome and horrible at the same time, that your killing power fluctuates throughout the match. 1v1 you can easily get stomped, but in team fights or even being outnumbered your damage goes through the roof and you can just destroy people in seconds.

Season 6 Ranked PVP Builds you are using

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

condi guard is useful for 1 situation and 1 situation only:

cleaving vs a downed body or vs cleaving enemies grouped around a downed teammate.

And since a lot of games are practically decided in the first opening skirmish at middle, the amount of burn cleave a guardian puts out can decide a match-up against some opponents. And burn DH does have 2 cover conditions: vulnerability and cripple.

Casual perspective: S5 great, S6 no thanks

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

  • class stacking still exists

You can thank matchmaking itself as one of the greatest culprits of this. If PvP was set so that only one of any given class could occupy any given spot on any given team, class-stacking would never be an issue.

And then the players would log into other classes because they can. The player base voted to allow class stacking, so that’s what they will get.

Guardian DPS/Support (more PVP less PVE)

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

Lets start off with build/weapon suggestions. Concerning the weapons, you may want to think of using scepter with torch over using a hammer because it allows you to have some range in the build for when you need it. The hammer does have lots of CC but when it comes to PvP/WvW it is really hard to land any of the CC with it on other players because the cast times take a long time to go off and others can see it coming from a long ways off. If you do decide to go double 1-handers, consider taking right hand strength in radiance, even though it is only 15% crit instead of the 20% from fury, it stacks with the fury that you might receive from other players as well as from “Feel My Wrath.”

For utilities all shouts is a helpful build if you don’t have access to DH, and some of the best you can do without it (Burn Guard doesn’t use DH and does lots of damage but it doesn’t have much support). Of the shouts I’d use “Stand Your Ground” over using “Save Yourselves”. This is because stability is awesome and “Save Yourselves” is normally a death sentence. If you’re not finding “Stand Your Ground” to your liking than taking Purging Flames is a good substitute since it removes conditions and deals damage. Taking Writ of Persistence over Pure of Voice is a good idea if you find you have way to much condi removal or if there are no condis being thrown around.

For traits, Right Hand Strength is better than Inner Fire but the rest of Radiance looks great. In honor, Pure of Heart is a good trait for defensive support, while Empowering Might lets you give off might for offensive support. If your friends are relatively good at staying alive without needing that heal then taking Empowering will help kill stuff quicker.

In virtures, Indomitable Courage is a better trait to take than Battle Presence because it lets you break stuns off of other players (few things can do this), while giving them stability to be able to act just after you use it. If you end up taking Purging Flames (as mentioned earlier), take Master of Concentration over Unscathed in Virtues.

Most of this is from a PvE perspective. In sPvP it is better to take a damage build since Guardian doesn’t have to best support builds in PvP compared to other classes. For WvW, I sadly don’t play it.

Casual perspective: S5 great, S6 no thanks

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

missed that yes on no class switching, Can only blame Anet not telling what would be the consequenses.

It was blatantly obvious what that poll was about. The only way to stop class stacking is to prevent class swapping otherwise people could queue up on a class that had quick queue times then swap to stack. IMO Anet should stop asking the player base about changes they are going to implement, just implement them and then ask afterwards if people liked it that way or the previous way. At least the WvW community is willing to try out new things while the PvP community complains that things suck but refuses to let anything change.

Edit: And to keep to the topic, I doubt I am going to play during this season even though I kept a 60% win rate last season. I just find the fact that there is only one mode for PvP boring, certain classes stack to well, other classes are pretty faceroll powerful (not looking at DH btw, that class is easy to counter), and there are also no rewards worth the time.

I can play 2 games in 30 minutes and get meh rewards or I could play fractals and get guaranteed rewards.

(edited by Azoqu.8917)

[Spirit Weapons] Upgrade suggestion

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

I truly hate that spirit weapons are just stupid pets now like any other classes’. It’s irritating to see how un-unique they are.

What do you mean un-unique? The are totally unique in the fact that they are necro minions that are on a timer! aka totally sucking balls are a complete kitten show compared to necro minions (which they are but are on a timer, everything else is the same).

Blocking dps meters

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

On the last few replies, I am personally a little bothered by the fact that warriors are only welcomed for their PS abilities. I mean, the very defenition of a berserker is that they should have top class DPS, and not mediocre DPS, thats what bothers me a little

They do have top DPS, if I remember correct a pure DPS warrior pulls 31k. The problem is that it is yet another instance of 3 classes ruling raids (warrior, ranger, mesmer, you can just bring a party of those 3 classes and pretty much kill anything because the other classes bring nothing). I find that most people hate playing warrior so the reason you only see them brought in for PS is because you need 2 warriors rocking PS and finding more people that are willing to play warrior over another DPS class gets thin.

Does Longbow need an update/buff?

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

Yeah its not like guardian has its own class stuff like warrior right?

You compare a 4sec cooldown weapon utility to a complete class mechanic skill.

its basically the same if i say this:
gunflame does 9k dmg but guardian does 6k dmg + unblockable pull + leap and heal + 4sec block.

Ok warrior has 1.5k/sec regen, 2x no dmg traited, 9k axe f1, 9k GS f1, block on shield, 25% passive movement trait, 5sec swap on weapons, full bers gear with 250% crit dmg, 18k base HP + shall I continue?

It’s so true, when you look at what the warrior has compared to the hoops Guardian has to jump through to survive, it is pretty funny.

Does Longbow need an update/buff?

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

The only real point to ever use LB is to trait for the knockback, and even then only if you need double knockback because shield does it just as well (pretty much kitty kat golems at the top of uncategorized). Scepter is just a better weapon since you can combine it with any of the three offhands while putting out better sustained damage than LB. The one thing LB has is higher burst, but lets to honest, what doesn’t die to a good procession of blades? If it’s not dead by the end of PoB then the scepter sustained damage will have you farther along than the LB damage.

This isn’t to say that LB has a bad set of skills, more saying that what it has isn’t worth the loss of damage.

Blocking dps meters

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

How about installing a DPS metre and self improving yourself?

You are not being kicked cause a DPS meter ISVs running – it’s because they believe you are running sub par to their exp group. It’s often an eye opener to see what you believe and what’s going on.

A good commander will look at DPS, buff uptime and situational awareness before recommending to kick. They may only give one of the reasons why they kicked – if your running at 50% of the DPS you should – why should they carry you?
You could secretly be running nomads armor or dying after 30s into an encounter (yes – I’ve had people who often die repeatedly 30s into a8 min fight- may only give them low DPS as a reason : however the real reason is more obvious – you don’t understand or have enough experience with this boss or lag preventing the whole group from achieving the goal of completing this encounter).

If it’s a training run they may address what’s going wrong to help you get the numbers you would expect so the whole group has a much easier time.

DPS meters running them yourself would at least allow you to compare yourself to others and see if how good you think you are vs others is really true. These encounters are not a static punching golem which will ensure the numbers are much lower.

Take the opportunity to learn how to get better – if you can’t beat them join them. They have decided to improve and so can you.

I totally agree that running a DPS meter can improve one’s game by a ton, especially if you are in a raid. I dunno how many people I’ve seen that think they were great and are only pulling in 10k during a raid. That is a pitiful number and should be around 16k in a raid scenario imo. I dunno what qT gets during a raid but in PUGs you should get 16k, some classes pull 20-24k easily (stupid condi ranger, dumb class be dumb).

I’ve also been in groups where I pull in over 50% of the damage in 5-mans (using BGDM so can’t see specifics just how much I’ve done to the overall HP of the boss) and ponder how others are doing so little. Using a DPS meter might help the others realize that they are actually being carried more than they will admit. Almost reminds me of dungeons runs of old where the soldier player thinks they are better than the zerker player because they were the only one up with 10% remaining and they finished the boss, meanwhile if they were zerker themselves the boss would of been dead that much quicker and no one would have died.

Though so long as you aren’t a detriment in non-raid environments, you can be carried so meh on the kicking. I have never kicked someone because of DPS, though I have kicked people for lying more than anything (joining an exp group and not being exp and not saying anything). Man do I hate liars more than I hate bad DPS.

TLDR: I find DPS meters to be a tool that can help improve ones game play (BGDM does track boons/scholar/seaweed salad uptime so useful for supports as well).

Season 6 Ranked PVP Builds you are using

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

Thank you for both of your absolutely pointless replies. Burn DH in ranked lol….

Well I almost made top 250 with it (was going to push the last 50 points on the Monday but Anet ended the season super early that day). So you can laugh all you want but I was only 2 wins off making leader board. But I’m a lazy scrubby PvEer who only got the last chest once and then only PvP’d once every 3 days to keep my rating.

Can we kindly fix this horrible design?

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

best strategy, play a couple games and stop when and if it annoys and return later. If you drop below your true skill level you can look forward to easier games where you get to rampage

No, I’m pretty sure he has the best solution, it’s the same solution I’m using. That is to stop playing PvP because the rewards are horrible, the matchmaking is horrible, it’s great fun getting countered comped because the entire other team swaps to counter (not everyone wants to spend time making sure all 9 classes are ready to be swapped to before playing), and there is only one game type where everyone just votes for foefire anyhow (imo one of the worst maps to vote for unless you are a bunker because that mid point is huge). And losing games to below your true skill level is frustrating because then you just spiral downwards because terrible teammates be terrible.

True Shot needs love

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Posted by: Azoqu.8917

Azoqu.8917

DH that doesn’t want to invest in crit complains about hitting 2k on ranged attack on heavy golem? Really now? Good joke.

I think us DH are more frustrated with the RNG on its damage. The rng is so big that I can’t hardly distinguish a damage increase on an 10% or 20% dmg modifier; the damage range of numbers are often inconsistent.

Trueshot is good for its crit… If I were to use it knowing it wouldn’t crit, I would just auto.

Btw.. all meta DH builds in high tier pvp are “optimized crit builds.”

No way AA hits as hard as True Shot when it doesn’t crit. Besides, everyone loses lots of damage when you don’t crit, especially with abilities that have an even longer CD (looking at you rifle engi/fresh air ele).

It’s not the fact that AA hits as hard, it’s the fact that you can keep moving instead of standing still waiting to die.