Guild Wars 2

I also find it kind of interesting that might stacking/rune of str/battle sigil aren’t used on ANY of the current meta zerker builds. Only on the bunker builds that lack dmg but get carried by might stacking.

A lot of people will even say double engi is even bad.

Okay before this goes to where all other arguments on these forums go, ima just stop here. I respect your opinion but I do not agree.

SobeSoul.6910:

You’re comparing Apples to Oranges.

It isn’t by sheer coincidence that TCG lost two matches in a week’s time to teams sporting two engineers. Engineers might have less sustain than eles, but they bring a whole lot of team fights that other classes do not.

Maybe TCG is just worse then those teams?gasp and maybe they need to update their comp. Atleast the engis die tho, ask any other pro player, they will say the same thing.

PS: They also both have 2 cele eles that peel for the engis.

Simon.3794:

Maybe you can give suggestions.

some changes are inevitable to affect other builds.
in order to nerf warrior meta build, anet touched a lot of non meta warrior builds in the process.

Did they really tho, I think the main problem with warriors is just the simple fact that D/D cele eles exist.

Roe.3679:

If this was in response to my post, I just said look at, not nerf. I just don’t want them nerfing classes willy nilly. Their track record with that isn’t the best and I don’t want elementalists ruined when it’s perhaps not the only issue, or even the main issue.

P.s. I don’t play elementalist.

Naw, It’s just the common complaint and just wanted to get my opinion out there before people come in and say “nerf cele problm fixt”

I can kinda understand how they might seem OP at lower levels of play, but they are just sooo susceptible to damage. First of all they get hard countered by condis, they have 1 stunbreaker on a very long CD, and they just die soooo quickly. If i’m in a teamfight and I want to down someone really quick 90% of the time i’ll pick the engi because of their limited disengage, 1 stunbreaker, and long cast time. Unlike cele D/d where they can GTFO instantly, out-sustain two people no problem, they have two stunbreakers, and do all this w/o even having to worry about their heal getting interrupted.

Booms.2594:

buffing medi guard in turn buffs s/f ele.. somehow

Explain?

Well first of all the problem is not the Cele amulet, if you nerf the Cele amulet too much it will make other builds not viable. The problem is the combination of everything just adds up to mass destruction. Let me paint a picture, no other class benefit as much as ele’s do to the cele amulet, they simple don’t use EVERY single stat to their advantage like D/D ele’s. On top of that there might stacking abilities in combination with Battle Sigils and Str/Hoel Runes just basically make it so they are zerker amulet, and condi main stat amulet at the same time. This allows them to not have to trait into ANY offensive trait or traitline, let me repeat NOT ONE offensive trait line or even single trait, EVERY single one of their traits are used to keep them alive. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I know the answer to the problem but I can definitely add suggestions if you guys are willing to hear me out. It’s simply that they just mesh SO well with what’s at their disposal. If you guys are interested I can tell you “MY OPINION” on how to fix this. Oh and cele rifle engi is not OP just strong, I can go into that too if anyone is wondering why.

A future nerf to D/D Elementalists is inevitable, something needs to change and I (sorta) trust ANET to eventually make the move to do so. However, please please please keep in mind that there are other builds for ele’s like my fresh air ele which i’ve played for more than a year now straight. It’s already in a tough enough spot and making certain changes to traits could really make us even less viable. All I ask is that y’all know that my fresh air build is more important then anything else in this game and my needs always need to come first, kthxbye
- “THE” Shnicky (also known as Shnickey Mouse)

PLEASE DON’T RUIN MY S/F ELE THROUGH NERFS OF CELE D/D. please

Sincerely,
Shnicky

I’m pretty known for my S/F Ele! Maybe because i’m like the only person who plays it but yea. – Shnicky

http://twitch.tv/nicky404

Well I am not the person you are looking for, but from what I can tell Blackgate seems extremely organized when it comes to zerging and has great commanders. Keep in mind i’m from Blackgate and I don’t know the situation on JQ.

Are you a zerger or a roamer?

Scepter Ele is life.
-Shnicky

My main for as long as I can remember is my S/F ele, and after playing that for so long I find it hard to find another build/class that even compares to the amount of options/combos I have with S/F ele. S/D Engi tho I can honestly say is a build other than S/F ele that i actually enjoy playing, lots of options for burst, very fast combos. The only problem with it is how vulnerable it is to condis, and CC.
-Shnicky

Eurantien is right guys, don’t be so rude he is just stating his opinion anymore. All the SPvP is when it comes to Ranked play is rotations, sure running meta builds make it easier, but if you are always in the right place, you will win.

What they could do is simply just add an easily accessible Major/minor trait for builds that struggle with building LF. I believe that is the condi builds? Correct me if i’m wrong as I do not play Necro. But the trait would make it so the necro would spawn with 15%-20% base LF.

This is a response to the people upset that you can’t swap skills in the 10s countdown before the game starts (for the people unaware, Necro’s would equip minions and summon them, and then swap the skill killing the minion and giving the Necro some LF).
-Shnicky

Evan Lesh.3295:

There was a reason for this, but now I can’t remember! (There was a ton of stuff in this update) I’ll respond if I remember. But I do remember making this change intentionally with reason.

Maybe you could make it toggleable? Granted, I don’t know the reasoning behind it.
-Shnicky

Thinker.8410:

I think my friend was kittened after I beat him 5 times in a row.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj7x84IGr_8

Wrong sub-forum bud, head over to “Profession Balance” or the “Engineer” Sub-forums located below this one.
- Shnicky

Justin ODell.9517:

I’m really curious as to how you guys are figuring out if the other team is a pre-made. We don’t tell you, and looking at the data there are very few party rosters compared to solo.

Is it just match quality being bad? Are you just recognizing player names?

Again, I said this already, but i’ve been asking people(when I duo queue) and i’ve yet to get anywhere close to a 5 man team queued against me, not even a 4 man team. I feel like people are just assuming things.

Justin ODell.9517:

style.6173:

1. The matchmaking. It is not good. Teams are unbalanced in terms of skill level.
2. Team vs pug. This seems to be happening a lot more than the past. I thought the whole intent of this was for solo people to play together and team people to play together.
3. Lack of solo only play. I’ve yet to see 5 pugs vs 5 pugs. In the old system, I saw that all of the time in solo queue (obviously) and probably 50-75% of the time in team queue.
4. Courtyard. Due to the team vs pug issue I mentioned before, it just snowballs quickly
5. Spirit watch/skyhammer. I did team queue in the past just so that I never saw those maps. Now they are forced on me. I have 2 options: play something that isn’t fun or get dishonor. Bad choices
6. Integrated leaderboards. Will benefit team players more than solo players. There is no way to avoid that. Integrated = bad.
7. On some characters (this one for example), I can’t even queue for maps. I need to log into a different account to even play. I get some error code

Hope that helps.

Thanks. Follow up questions. Anyone else feel free to answer as well.

1) Is this something you’ve noticed primarily in one arena vs the other?
2, 3) Are you willing to wait longer for a match if it greatly reduced the odds of this happening?
7) Does it only happen on just one account, or does it just happen more frequently on that account?

1) Well yea, it’s going to be unbalanced on the occasion because there is no leader board system out right now, but you as 1/5 of the team can really make a huge impact pushing the chance of winning into your favor.

2,3) I have yet to have a bad experience with this yet so I wont comment.

4) I personally like courtyard, although I can understand why some people wouldn’t.

5) I don’t really like either of them as well, but hey at least now are voting has some impact (I have noticed that the lower number of votes always seem to win? Has anyone else experienced this?)

6) Find friends, or carry your team, you have to remember.. it is relatively balanced when you enter a game, play your part.
- Shnicky

was it korean knight haha, definitely sounds like him. I play fresh air S/F ele and he always says that i’m a “D/D ele noob” then I always say “I’m playing S/F….” then he goes on to say, “Ele – noob”. He really just makes me laugh, don’t let him get to you and don’t listen to anything he says.
-Shnicky

No, i’m kinda confused on what you are complaining about, are you just assuming they are 5 man teams? Or have you bothered asking them if they are in fact a 5 man team, because from my experience of queuing by myself or with one other friend consisted of Solo queuers, Duo’s and the occasional trio queuers. I found this out because I asked every time. Yea, queuing by yourself might at times put you at a slight disadvantage, but then again it opens you up to the possibility of getting on the same team of maybe a 3man or 2man team. I hope that you aren’t losing and just blaming it on the slight chance that they are premade.

I queued with my friend probably about 5-10 games, and every game I asked in map and team chat seeing how many were queuing together. There was maybe one or two 3 man team, and the rest were either 2 mans or solos. For me it worked great, and I love this feature because now I don’t have to find 4 other people to queue with efficiently. Not sure if this feedback helps Justin, but I really appreciate you putting yourself out there on the forums, really means a lot.
-Shnicky

I know this games different, but I remember in GW1 your elites were such a big part of your build, in this game it doesn’t seem to be the case at all. I guess that’s just the way the game was designed, so i can’t really complain.

How about an elite that’s not on a 120s+ CD, like a cantrip, Arcane skill, etc. I honestly almost never use my elite, other than for mobility, i’d like an elite that can actually be used in combat. I’m not to creative but I’d really like something that doesnt summon something, or morph me into a giant tornado.

Although 1v1’s aren’t the most important thing in conquest, in the video i will spend a majority of the time going over fighting against each class. This includes what do watch out for, what rotation you should do and why and certain tricks i’ve picked up from my many hours on S/F ele. Understanding how to fight each class will help you perform a lot better in actual games. It’s going to be hard though haha, I’ve been playing this spec for so long that putting what i do into words might be difficult but i’ll do my best!

Also for y’all looking for an S/F video that’s already out i’d recommend Zoose’s guide :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXjGXYXSwek
Zoose and I both play almost the same spec(A few changes here and there) but our play styles are totally different from what I’ve noticed at least.

I will agree with you in terms of Celestial D/D Eles, their sustain is next to none and have some of the most consistent condi removal. When a class has almost 0 counters, that’s when balancing needs to be implemented. Even small changes would help out a lot, for example, fixing the air auto cancel(Maybe put the heal at the end of the cast and not at the middle? idk). I honestly think the problem is simply that D/D eles benefit way to much from Celestial, every single stat is a core part to their build. Other classes simply don’t benefit as much as Ele’s do.

In Terms of Engineers, I really don’t think they are in that bad of a spot. When you refer to AI I assume that you are talking about turret Engineers, as annoying as they are if you just ignore them the other team is at a number disadvantage. Those engineers are NOTHING without their turrets. Turret engineers really only effect the “newer” players though, they aren’t viable for a reason. In terms of the meta Cele Rifle Engi, this is very similar to a Cele D/D ele except for one major point, they can be shutdown. The problem with engi’s is that they have very limited escape-ability, and can only ever afford to carry one stunbreak at a time with a substantial CD. Along with that they are extremely vulnerable to condis, their only condi removal being their Healing Turret leaves them with almost nothing to do against necro’s and other condi classes. Yes, the cc is annoying but I think that’s just the “role” they play.
-Shnicky

Haha okay looks like i’m gonna make one

Hey fellas, the names Shnicky (Aka that dude with the tophat) I’m relatively known for my S/F play in PvP and I was wondering if any of y’all would like a tutorial video on it? I’m kinda bored lately and looking for something to do haha.

I was thinking the Video would include Builds and basics, Combos, Rotations, Counters, and just certain things I’ve picked up from the many hours I’ve played S/F ele.

Just let me known if any of y’all would be interested.

Narcarsis.5739:

I have no issue with Reaper’s Protection due to the counterplay behind it. You can dodge it, blind it, aegis it, or proc it from range. What I do have an issue with is Nightmare runes. There is no counterplay, it interrupts dodges, and there is no avoiding it

Okay, so what you all are saying about Necros is a better way of describing my quarrels with them. I hate mechanics that have no counter-play, and you’re right at least with Reapers Protection you can tell that it potentially might hit you.

Narcarsis.5739:

2. Cele D/D ele: Yes I do think this is OP at its core, because really any player can come on it and spam their buttons and survive, but to play it at it’s full potential is not easy (Just like any other build really). Honestly I don’t know how to fix this, y’all say the problem is that they can stack WAY to much might, but the amount of damage they do isn’t the problem for me rather the amount of survivability. My first instinct would be to just remove the cele Amulet but i’m sure this would have it’s own repercussions.

Yea certain exploits like the air auto cancel are mechanics I really don’t like being in the game, but my biggest problem with the build is that you can literally cycle through your attunements pressing “1,2,3,4,5” and do extremely well. At a competitive level i’d agree that it’s balanced, I just don’t like how poor players are given such a break with the amount of sustain.

Narcarsis.5739:

I feel like this is more of a solo queue issue. I don’t really think AI should do that much but it’s not unbeatable and fairly useless in team queue.

-Exactly, there is a reason why it’s not seen at a high level, I was more just trying to tell people how to play against it because it’s really not good. I just don’t like how I can barely 1v1 a turret lolol

Thank you for your input.

NeXeD.3042:

Don’t forget necros have to trait for one, and there is counterplay for it, whether or not people decide to accept there is counterplay to it is another issue. IF your going to CC the condi necro expect him to have reapers protection…

You’re right, I guess i’m more referring to the rune. Fear is just such a powerful CC for necros with their duration increase and having it proc without them doing anything I think is just too RNG, PvP shouldn’t have RNG.

ghaleon.2861:

Bitty.1409:

ghaleon.2861:

8. Nice joke…… I can’t believe you’re crying about mes. Mesmer is by far the weakest class in game and has been the weakest for a long time. Everybody in this game can shut down a mesmer. Reason #1 Everybody runs celestial, which means everybody is doing condi dmg. Mesmer has 0 condi removal and we’re forced to take decoy and blink because without those 2, [Reason #2]a thief will literally destroy the mesmer. You did good from 1-7, but when it came to mes you lacked the knowledge of the class and you didn’t provided any facts.

Bro, I was trolling calm down. I thought it was obvious with the bad spelling, and the post that was complaining about shatter Mesmer that was posted like a week ago as a reference. I guess my sarcasm wasn’t obvious, my bad.

Sorry that I got too defensive, but everybody at the top lvl knows that mesmer is really weak atm. We have to outplay pretty much everybody to win. Also, our survivability is so bad, the only good thing we have atm is boon removal and portal. Those people saying mes is op clearly don’t know the mes class and are having a hard time spotting the real one. Clearly a L2P issue…

Yea, i’m aware of the state of Mesmer, but it’s not as bad as you’re making it sound.

Neptune.2570:

Whooosh.
That’s the sound of Bitty’s joke going way over your head.

Pretty sure him listing Shatter Mesmer last and as “Plz remov frum gaime” means “Is a problem for idiots, baddies and forum trolls”

Edit: Also nice post, would like to hear your thoughts on Guard too.

The thing with guards is that there really isn’t a spot with them with this meta. They do a bit more support then a cele ele with no dmg and less survivability. Of course that’s just with our meta though, they are popular in Europe because they run a shatter mesmer and a thief to compensate for the loss of damage. I’m not mentioning Medi Guards because they really just aren’t great in TPvP.

ghaleon.2861:

8. Nice joke…… I can’t believe you’re crying about mes. Mesmer is by far the weakest class in game and has been the weakest for a long time. Everybody in this game can shut down a mesmer. Reason #1 Everybody runs celestial, which means everybody is doing condi dmg. Mesmer has 0 condi removal and we’re forced to take decoy and blink because without those 2, [Reason #2]a thief will literally destroy the mesmer. You did good from 1-7, but when it came to mes you lacked the knowledge of the class and you didn’t provided any facts.

Bro, I was trolling calm down. I thought it was obvious with the bad spelling, and the post that was complaining about shatter Mesmer that was posted like a week ago as a reference. I guess my sarcasm wasn’t obvious, my bad.

GUYS WE JUST NEED TO ACCEPT THAT COUNTERPLAY NEEDS TO EXSIST
but also note that just because something counters you, instead of complaining and believing there is no way you can beat it, try to fight it a bunch and find certain techniques that give you a much better shot. That’s how I learned S/F ele, I literally tried to duel every spec and eventually I knew what I had to do to have the best chance to win said fight in almost any scenario. It’s all about experience, or being a medi guard BECAUSE YALL ARE WAY TOO HARD TO KILL…. but counter play is an important part of the game friends.

Overall I think the balance is really not in that bad of a spot, I honestly don’t like the concept behind the meta in NA (outliving your opponent, rather than out damaging. It sounds like the same thing but it’s not). I really like the meta in EU though, much more skill based.
The purpose behind me writing this is that I want to know how my opinions sit with y’all so please comment saying what you agree and don’t agree with. I really would love to hear. It’s also because i’m at work and have way to much time too think.

Hey everyone, the name that some of you might know me as is “Shnicky.” I play S/F Ele on NA and I have had a lot of experience with PvP. Hopefully y’all won’t think that I’m writing this because I think I’m better than you or anything of the sort, I just really want to vent my opinions on certain topics and hopefully clear some of them up. I am going to try to be as unbiased as possible, but let me know if I slip up on that. Feel free to voice your opinion below, just make sure to be civil about it.

Okay first of all, I play a good amount of solo queues and team queues and I very rarely get angry, but one thing that gets me going more than anything is how people handle the down-state. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really like this mechanic it’s just that some people are either never paying attention or just simply don’t understand how to manage it. For example, knowing when you should res your teammate rather than stomp an enemy, or knowing when you should cleave rather than stomp. I think the main problem is that people just don’t realize how crucial this part of the game is and totally overlook it, they were so focused on the fight prior to people going down that when it comes to the downstate they don’t think. If I had one key point of advice for people that want to win more Solo Queues; pay attention to the fight, look at who is about to go down whether it’s a teammate or an enemy, be ready to either res, stomp, or cleave that Player. Also bring skills that will help you do those more efficiently whether it’s stability, CC, stealth, cleave, etc. I can’t stress enough how important the down-state is.

Okay i’m only vaguely going to go into class balance in terms of saying something is completely BS or OP because it’s where some of y’all might start flexing those fingers. I don’t want that so i’m going to keep it simple. I’ll cover certain builds and or classes that show up on the forums very often and just say how I feel about them.

1. Terrormancer: Personally my main problem with terrormancers is how much they benefit from passive procs. With the rune of nightmare (correct me if i’m wrong) they have 3 fears that proc without that player even pressing a button and I just really hate that mechanic. I’m not going into skills because again, it’s not like a necro can’t be shut down they just happen to counter a lot of what’s in the meta right now. It’s their time to shine.

2. Cele D/D ele: Yes I do think this is OP at its core, because really any player can come on it and spam their buttons and survive, but to play it at it’s full potential is not easy (Just like any other build really). Honestly I don’t know how to fix this, y’all say the problem is that they can stack WAY to much might, but the amount of damage they do isn’t the problem for me rather the amount of survivability. My first instinct would be to just remove the cele Amulet but i’m sure this would have it’s own repercussions.

3. Cele rifle engi: I honestly don’t think this is OP, maybe it’s because I play S/F ele but I just think this build has way to much counter play to be considered OP.

4. Turret Engis: Okay, the amount of HP turrets have is really quite ridiculous and once again were on the topic of an AI mechanic being OP. The thing with turret engis though is that without there turrets they are nothing. So either leave them be at their home point and outnumber the enemy somewhere else, or fight them accordingly(knowing when to back out, not letting him heal, etc).

5. Hambow: Honestly the skills are way to telegraphed to be considered OP in my opinion, the only thing I really hate is waiting out 2 endure pains which can be avoided with just kiting the warrior during the duration.

6. Thieves: I’m getting really tired of this one haha. They take so much skill to even compete in the meta right now. I’m not going to go to far into explaining why they aren’t OP because i’m not really sure how to word it, but just because you get destroyed by one when playing your full glass staff ele, this doesn’t make them OP.

7. Longbow Rangers: The range… this class is really just more annoying then anything. Nothing gets close to competing with this range.

8. Shatter Mesmers: plz remove frum gaime