Guild Wars 2

This game sold us an e-sport. Some people spent 60$ for that e-sport.

Well, where is it?

Guild Wars 2 has the worst combat depth of any MMO I have ever played. World of Warcraft had much greater depth than this during its 2nd and 3rd expansions.

In Guild Wars 2 there are no abilities on my toolbars that I can synergize to perform complex high damage combos. There are no control cooldowns that I can juggle in order to tackle extremely difficult encounters.

In short, the depth of the combat system is so shallow, basic and simple that bad players can beat good players. There’s no skill cap. There’s no steep learning curve.

As a result, there will be no athletes that the masses watch to learn. If you have no athletes, you have no spectators, if you have no spectators, you have no sport.

This game is so dumbed down that the best players are bored to tears.

Leadfoot.9071:

Calae.1738:

Mice.8921:

The primary error is your assumption that they’re concerned about you backstabbing repeatedly, whilst that would be a problem, I believe you’ll find the stealth has a “cd” not because they’re concerned about the damage, but they don’t want you to be able to instantly escape into stealth… Since as a thief we already enjoy massive mobility, exiting stealth with a hit (in other words, fighting) has to come at some cost of commitment to the fight… If thieves didn’t have to commit at all, they would be nigh impossible to kill

I don’t think so. Hit and run is part of the Thief design philosophy. Engage, disengage, rinse, repeat. I’m almost positive they’re trying to stick with the idea of Thieves not having cooldowns on weapon skill. Unfortunatley due to this, reveal is used to dampen burst damage. The same effect could have been achieved with cooldowns. That’s the whole purpose of cooldowns, so that you can’t spam X, Y or Z.

You want to bet how many times Thief ability damage is going to be adjusted because of this? How many patches adjusted Thief ability damage so far? There will be more.

I feel like that is just a small part of the larger design philosophy which is that thieves use initiative and therefore do not have cooldowns on their weapons abilities. Some of these abilities (e.g. CnD) grant stealth and being in stealth permanently is overpowered. Therefore, introduce “revealed” buff as a way to keep the initiative system while still introducing a sort of cooldown measure to prevent “exploitation” of stealth, which can be powerful for many reasons including but not limited to backstab burst. My 2cents

Yes, initiative is the culprit.

I don’t understand why; as a designer, you would want players to spam ability X, Y, Z. There’s no skillful play here. It’s obvious that the skills which provide most use and utitlity will be overused and the less efficient ones will be underused or even ignored. Even in WoW the Rogue had cooldowns precisely for this reason.

Why on earth is spamming X, Y, Z considered fun, interesting or even skillful in any way?

Creating demand for gems increases revenue and siphons gold out of the system.

Quite genius if you ask me.

Mice.8921:

The primary error is your assumption that they’re concerned about you backstabbing repeatedly, whilst that would be a problem, I believe you’ll find the stealth has a “cd” not because they’re concerned about the damage, but they don’t want you to be able to instantly escape into stealth… Since as a thief we already enjoy massive mobility, exiting stealth with a hit (in other words, fighting) has to come at some cost of commitment to the fight… If thieves didn’t have to commit at all, they would be nigh impossible to kill

I don’t think so. Hit and run is part of the Thief design philosophy. Engage, disengage, rinse, repeat. I’m almost positive they’re trying to stick with the idea of Thieves not having cooldowns on weapon skill. Unfortunatley due to this, reveal is used to dampen burst damage. The same effect could have been achieved with cooldowns. That’s the whole purpose of cooldowns, so that you can’t spam X, Y or Z.

You want to bet how many times Thief ability damage is going to be adjusted because of this? How many patches adjusted Thief ability damage so far? There will be more.

BobbyT.7192:

Calae.1738:

Karolis.4261:

Calae.1738:

stinkypants.8419:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Revealed

See kids, this is what happens when abilities have no cooldowns.

Hi, I’m a game designer and I don’t know what I’m doing.

U trolling here or what ?

I get it, they don’t want us to hit/stealth/hit/stealth/hit/stealth. Revealed acts as an artificial cooldown on dagger/pistol/shortbow/sword 1 skills while stealthed. I find it pretty lazy but hey, what do I know.

Lazy….balance, same thing right?
btw you get revealed if you attack with anything from stealth, not just the #1 skills. it more for a thief to not enter stealth over and over again.

I can stealth 4 times, consecutively for almost 30 seconds. Revealed is just there to avoid, CD/Backstab/CD/Backstab ect ect…

See, instead of putting a cooldown on Backstab or other #1 abilities while in stealth, they put Revealed. It’s like patching a broken pipe with a piece of cardboard and electric tape. It’s lazy.

What ever you do, stay away from Necromancer, Engineer, Ranger and you’ll be fine.

Karolis.4261:

Calae.1738:

stinkypants.8419:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Revealed

See kids, this is what happens when abilities have no cooldowns.

Hi, I’m a game designer and I don’t know what I’m doing.

U trolling here or what ?

I get it, they don’t want us to hit/stealth/hit/stealth/hit/stealth. Revealed acts as an artificial cooldown on dagger/pistol/shortbow/sword 1 skills while stealthed. I find it pretty lazy but hey, what do I know.

stinkypants.8419:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Revealed

See kids, this is what happens when abilities have no cooldowns.

Hi, I’m a game designer and I don’t know what I’m doing.

So I decided to try this cool combo on my Thief…

I start with a Shortbow and hit Blinding Powder. While stealthed; the Shortbow 1 skill turns into a 2 seconds immobilize shot. Then I swap to double dagger and hit steal to bridge the gap, followed by a cloak and dagger and finish with a backstab.

Interestingly, my cloak and dagger ability breaks my stealth. Every single time. It seems that after cloak and dagger, my dagger 1 ability doesn’t turn into backstab and as a result I autoattack out of stealth.

Is this intended or is it one of the 346 other bugs this class has?

Raiding guilds always had a raiding schedule. Scheduling your life aroud a raiding schedule doesn’t appeal to most people.

Thief ability to inflict blind at will is extremely useful.

Nothing makes the world more boring and breaks immersion more than NPC’s standing still doing nothing.

Living breathing world? I don’t think so.

Sorry folks, we still haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

If you want a nice looking Shortbow skin that looks like a Longbow I recommend the Ebon Vanguard weapon skins at the karma vendors located in Ebonhawke.

Picture
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Ebon_Vanguard_Short_Bow.jpg

Leablo.2651:

This game doesn’t have a meta. Players have no choice but to play with the balance that is created. In the end I think GW2’s skill system actually requires more balancing work than the GW1 system, because even small imbalances can no longer be worked around by players who would have had the freedom to shift into counter strategies (the meta). Now the only way to get balance is from direct action by the developer, and that means more of the onus is on them to keep it perfectly tuned. Otherwise you get months of stagnant balance issues like we’ve seen thus far. Law of unintended consequences.

What’s worse is if the developer don’t have the time or the resources to allocate to class balance over other projects; we’re stuck playing with classes with skills that don’t work, tooltips displaying the wrong information and a list of abilities that are subpar compared to others.

There are some weapon combinations on certain classes that are never used. There are traits on certain classes that are never selected. There are utilities on certain classes that players will never, ever place on thier bars.

Arenanet can make the open world difficult. What we don’t know is if they can’t or don’t want to.

Maybe they want us all to hop around the world like Charlie at the Chocolate Factory.

Porky.5021:

Every post is turning into the same thing.

I was farming [insert server name here] and they ran off to PvDoor. [insert server 1] has great coverage and my server [insert server 2] has bad coverage. Numbers favor [insert server name] but I still farm them even when they outnumber us 75 to 3. I got 5000 badges last hour, why did you run away?

blegh.

Yea but, my server has a bigger “you know what” than your server.

Mif.3471:

Calae.1738:

Nice!

Zerg tactics getting bashed in the face with a baseball bat.

Good riddance.

Um…. if anything it encourages zerging.

Orange swords notify you of an attack of >5 players.
Now they will only notify you of an attack of >25 players.

So large groups, i.e. zergs, will now have benefits previously only afforded to tiny groups.

Well that depends on your definition of zerg.

What amount of players are we talking about? If it discourages 50 people from chasing 1 blue icon down to 2 groups of 24 chasing 2 blue icons then it’s a step in the right direction don’t you think?

ThomasKreshant.6572:

Assuming it’s just the orange swords and you still get the contested white swords it just means more active patrolling/defending of your walls in places like Bay/Hills to spot the small ninja team making a break in a wall while you’re being distracted by the zerg out front etc.

I can see that being a good strat. Large force attacking gate 1, small ninja group attacking gate 2. I wonder if people will start placing seige on every wall and hitting the cap more frequently.

Renowneddragoon.4536:

i dont think it should be 25 but 10 would be good 25 allows zergs to still attack a keep but now they dont get seen with swords

The number will be tweeked more than once I think. Regardless, making zerg tactics less effective is a welcome change.

Maybe people will actually be communicating in map chat for once and stop chasing blue icons like a bunch of lemmings.

Nice!

Zerg tactics getting bashed in the face with a baseball bat.

Good riddance.

Laika.8795:

Calae.1738:

That’s because you can anticipate it. That’s also assuming you can spot the Thief BEFORE he initiates the steal. If you’re both standing in front of each other like in the wild west waiting for the first guy to make a move; then I can understand your point.

If you don’t know where the Thief is and he has the jump on you; the combo will execute 99% of the time. Even if you survive the combo; I’d have already forced your defensive cooldowns placing me at an advantage. Now I can just roam around you like a predator in stealth and strike again when you least expect it.

I’ve been hit by thieves I was unaware of before, and still broke out. I actually find it MORE helpful when they use BV because I get a more telling visual cue as to what’s happening. It’s more tricky when it comes from behind because there’s no positioning required, but face it, EVERY burst build that takes you from behind is going to affect you in a similar way. It’s just something you have to deal with, and is not unique to thieves.

Furthermore, you may have wasted your defensive CD’s, but pretty much all of these burst builds don’t even HAVE defensive CD’s, so you’re on equal footing.

On my Elementalist, you can see me coming because it`s a big glowing white ball charging at you. Further more, the updraft knock down is a clear visual indicator that I will switch to Fire, Burning Speed / Fire Grab you for 10k. You have plenty of time to use your stun breaker and avoid it.

Classes that front load thier damage without setup are badly designed.

Laika.8795:

Calae.1738:

Jerks.3172:

No time to react? Since when did Steal CnD BS Combo time to execute become less than 1 second? it takes at least a good 2-3 seconds to execute and if you dont react after getting hit by the steal you shouldnt even be alive.

Wrong.

I have a Thief buddy. All you need are the venoms that stun or immoblize and you’re toast. We can argue all day about this. If you think 2 seconds of reaction time is enough, you’re delusional. That’s not even taking lag into account either.

I also have a thief buddy. Me.

And guess what? I avoid the backstab in a Mug>Immo>C&D>BS chain at least 80% of the time.

Guess that means it’s a l2p thing, huh?

That’s because you can anticipate it. That’s also assuming you can spot the Thief BEFORE he initiates the steal. If you’re both standing in front of each other like in the wild west waiting for the first guy to make a move; then I can understand your point.

If you don’t know where the Thief is and he has the jump on you; the combo will execute 99% of the time. Even if you survive the combo; I’d have already forced your defensive cooldowns placing me at an advantage. Now I can just roam around you like a predator in stealth and strike again when you least expect it.

Jerks.3172:

Calae.1738:

Stealth has always been a problem in any MMO. Any damage that you output upfront without time to setup, gives no warning to the victim. It’s too easy. Any noob can do it. Luckly, the Thief doesn’t have much control skills or else it would be a lot worse.

When you design a class that insta kills another player without giving enough time for that player to react; its a problem with the class not the player. It’s not fun for the person getting killed and it’s not fun for the person doing the killing either.

It’s completely stupid.

No time to react? Since when did Steal CnD BS Combo time to execute become less than 1 second? it takes at least a good 2-3 seconds to execute and if you dont react after getting hit by the steal you shouldnt even be alive.

Wrong.

I have a Thief buddy. All you need are the venoms that stun or immoblize and you’re toast. We can argue all day about this. If you think 2 seconds of reaction time is enough, you’re delusional. That’s not even taking lag into account either.

They could have 1 or 2 artists working full time making armor skins and weapon skins every month. They would be generating more money than a subscription based game.

You think people wouldn’t spend money shopping around for clothing? Why? Because no one does that in the real world right? We always wear the same clothes everyday. What planet do you come from?

Stealth has always been a problem in any MMO. Any damage that you output upfront without time to setup, gives no warning to the victim. It’s too easy. Any noob can do it. Luckly, the Thief doesn’t have much control skills or else it would be a lot worse.

When you design a class that insta kills another player without giving enough time for that player to react; its a problem with the class not the player. It’s not fun for the person getting killed and it’s not fun for the person doing the killing either.

It’s completely stupid.

Tempest Darqmane.4862:

Seems the current consensus is Shadow Arts being the must-have. Thanks for the input so far everyone.

It provides a lot of benefits while stealthed.

Initiative, condition removal and healing. Shadow Refuge clears all conditions and heals for over 6,500. Hide in Shadows; our healing ability cures poison, burning, bleeding, heals for 7,500 and stealths for 4 seconds.

I don’t do PVP much due to culling and lag issues but, it works really great for PVE. The damage is pretty high and the survivability is good. Group stealth support is also really helpful.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckzzc0zMMrFvoMoLvo0xxa0ocqmVqo

I wish Feline’s Grace was 5 points in the Acrobatics tree. I hate the fact that a Thief has very little swiftness, vigor and dodge bonuses.

Any game that allows you to “target” something and automatically aim for you is a game for noobs. Auto-aim is like training wheels on a bicycle. The game is literally treating you like a 12 year old.

Jezath.7395:

I totally agree with you im always having to go ranged to avoid those 1 hit kill attacks. melee have so many disadvantages to maintaaining there dps in this game. its not about how well you play either. For example even if you play well your still having to do at least 50% more work than a range charcter does just to stay alive. also its almost impossible to match the dps sometimes.

There’s no such thing as a ranged or melee character in Guild Wars 2. All classes have ranged and melee weapons. If you’re going into a gun fight with a knife, you’re going to have a rough time.

Melee deals much more damage than ranged in this game. A lot more. On my thief, when I go in melee, I can see my DPS increase almost 2 fold but, it is a lot more dangerous. On my Elementalist its the exact same thing. Keep your eyes on the boss at all times and use dodge.

In short, learn to dodge.

Suggestion

Give ideas to Arenanet instead of posting nonsense.

…an item that would boost a class to maximum level.
…an item that uncovered all waypoints.

Combo fields are quite dull. Its just a puddle on the ground that gives your abilities X, Y or Z. I understand that its there for large open world group play but, it’s not a combo that provides much control.

Shoot your arrow through the fire field and it becomes a burning arrow. Oh… cool… yeah… that’s nice. What about an explosive arrow that causes knock backs?

Ethics.4519:

Calae.1738:

Ethics.4519:

Use fire breath #2 before using #5 if you want the extra damage.

Combos are a sequence of abilities that players must execute with timing and accuracy. Timing and accuracy are skills that players can sharpen with practice. With enough practice, you can execute the combo faster, giving your opponent less time to react.

Fire 2 is a channeled ability, similar to a flame thrower. This ability would have to be interrupted midway through to land the combo quickly. Even though your solution works, I would’ve built Fire 2 differently. Instead of channeled, it would’ve been a 1 hit attack that applies burning.

However, if Fire 3 had burning, Fire 2 would be redundant. Fire 2 could be retooled to work in a combo with Fire 4. Fire 4 is a Ring of Fire on the ground. Fire 2 could be a flaming fist ground slam that caused AoE damage but; also causes an AoE knockback stun when used inside the Ring of Fire.

The combo then would be, Air 4, Air 5, switch to Fire, Fire 3, Fire 5, Fire 4, Fire 2.

A more complex version would be, Air 4, Air 5, switch to Fire, Fire 3, Fire 5, Fire 4, Fire 2, switch to Earth, Earth 3 (magnetic grasp to bridge the gap), Earth 4 (Earthquake knockdown), Earth 5 (Churning Earth), Lightning Flash teleport if target gets out of range.

You seem to contradict yourself a little. In your original post, from what I understand, you’re saying that you want the #3 to have longer last burning, to allow you to hit #5, but then you say my idea wouldn’t work because you wanted the combo to be fast, and you want skill to come into play so you have to pull it off quickly, counter to your original complaint.

My combo is similar to yours, except I use the #2 and interrupt it halfway through (sometimes) which I think is worth it. Then I switch to earth, hit #3 to share fire aura, hit arcana blast for the finisher, then hopefully pop in #5 to get an extra 3 stacks of might, maybe popping my cantrip to gain stability, depending on the mob I’m fighting.

All your combo ideas are good and interesting, but what I just said is interesting enough as well. The issue is that it eventually becomes button mashing. It no longer becomes “zoom in, knock down, surge ahead, burn, hit big damage, combo field, share aura, share might” after awhile it turns into “f3, 4, 5, f1, 3, 2, 5, f4, 3, r, 5, e” (with my keybindings)

That’s what a combo is.

A sequence of attacks that if executed correctly and precisely would reward you with additional damage. You can choose to not execute any combo but, you would not be rewarded for spamming auto attacks.

In the current meta, some professions deal more damage just standing there hitting auto attack. Hitting ANY other button would be a DPS LOSS. Think about it.

Errant Venture.9371:

Calae.1738:

Errant Venture.9371:

Calae.1738:

Errant Venture.9371:

Death blossom giving dodge + stealth + immobilize AND positioning you BEHIND your target? Girl you cray, that would be the most hella OP skill in game. And this is coming from a skirmisher sin with 7k+ WvW kills O.o

The reason thieves are overpowered is because of the initiative system. Put a cooldown on every single one of thier skills, reduce thier burst to reasonable levels and the overpowered Thief disapears. The developers will be spinning in circles forever trying to balance the Thief until the initiative system is scrapped.

Right, because simplifying the game makes it better. The initiative system mirrors the energy system from GW1 and actually makes the game COMPLEX and raises the SKILL CAP on thieves. The lack of a broad energy mechanic makes the game too simple. Don’t complain when you spec full glass and a skirmisher class drops you. That’s their JOB.

According to your logic, we should make every profession in the game have an energy system and remove all cooldowns.

Cooldowns are fine as a complementary system, but yes, every profession should have an energy mechanic.

I’d like to add that in a cooldown system, elite players count your cooldowns and develop strategies to force your cooldowns.

In the absence of a cooldown system, the player would require to guess the opponent’s energy. This becomes convoluted when traits effects energy cost and recharge rates.

Errant Venture.9371:

Calae.1738:

Errant Venture.9371:

Calae.1738:

Errant Venture.9371:

Death blossom giving dodge + stealth + immobilize AND positioning you BEHIND your target? Girl you cray, that would be the most hella OP skill in game. And this is coming from a skirmisher sin with 7k+ WvW kills O.o

The reason thieves are overpowered is because of the initiative system. Put a cooldown on every single one of thier skills, reduce thier burst to reasonable levels and the overpowered Thief disapears. The developers will be spinning in circles forever trying to balance the Thief until the initiative system is scrapped.

Right, because simplifying the game makes it better. The initiative system mirrors the energy system from GW1 and actually makes the game COMPLEX and raises the SKILL CAP on thieves. The lack of a broad energy mechanic makes the game too simple. Don’t complain when you spec full glass and a skirmisher class drops you. That’s their JOB.

According to your logic, we should make every profession in the game have an energy system and remove all cooldowns.

Cooldowns are fine as a complementary system, but yes, every profession should have an energy mechanic.

Thats fine. It reminds me of the stamina system in Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls.

Ranger (Longbow)

Hunter’s Shot (Longbow 1)
Deals additional damage to crippled targets.

Aimed Shot (Longbow 2)
2 second cast, deals double damage to immobilized targets and a short stun. If the target is not immobilized, deals normal damage and does NOT stun.

Trap Shot (Longbow 3)
Ground targeted AoE immobilize

Explosive Shot (Longbow 4)
Ground targeted AoE Knock Back / Knock Down

Barrage (Longbow 5)
Ground targted AoE, deals additional damage to knocked down targets and cripples.

Combos

Trap Shot (Longbow 3) to immobilize target, Aimed Shot (Longbow 2) for double damage and stun, Explosive Shot (Longbow 4) for knock back / knock down, Barrage (Longbow 5) for additional damage and cripple, Hunter’s Shot (Longbow 1) for additional damage on crippled target.

Errant Venture.9371:

Calae.1738:

Errant Venture.9371:

Death blossom giving dodge + stealth + immobilize AND positioning you BEHIND your target? Girl you cray, that would be the most hella OP skill in game. And this is coming from a skirmisher sin with 7k+ WvW kills O.o

The reason thieves are overpowered is because of the initiative system. Put a cooldown on every single one of thier skills, reduce thier burst to reasonable levels and the overpowered Thief disapears. The developers will be spinning in circles forever trying to balance the Thief until the initiative system is scrapped.

Right, because simplifying the game makes it better. The initiative system mirrors the energy system from GW1 and actually makes the game COMPLEX and raises the SKILL CAP on thieves. The lack of a broad energy mechanic makes the game too simple. Don’t complain when you spec full glass and a skirmisher class drops you. That’s their JOB.

According to your logic, we should make every profession in the game have an energy system and remove all cooldowns.

Errant Venture.9371:

Death blossom giving dodge + stealth + immobilize AND positioning you BEHIND your target? Girl you cray, that would be the most hella OP skill in game. And this is coming from a skirmisher sin with 7k+ WvW kills O.o

The reason thieves are overpowered is because of the initiative system. Put a cooldown on every single one of thier skills, reduce thier burst to reasonable levels and the overpowered Thief disapears. The developers will be spinning in circles forever trying to balance the Thief until the initiative system is scrapped.

Kakeru.2873:

Calae.1738:

If you think this is complex, what if every ability could be woven together to create an ultra combo. If every profession had acces to 5 skills per weapon and could swap to 4 different weapons; you could create a sequence that consisted of 20 hits.

Thats not even the best part.

The best part is that players could create thier own combos, shorter combos. In PVP, players would need to use combo breakers to avoid from getting owned. You have Dodge, Stun Breakers, Condition Removals, Invulerability, Teleports, Stealth, Knockbacks and Immobilize.

I don’t think it’s that complex but it’s a step above the simplistic system we have now, pvp is so dull because of it, sure being able to pull of a simple sequence with the 100nades is sweet but it’s the most basic type of skill play.

I agree. Lets see if we can change the Greatsword Warrior a bit.

Bladetrail (Greatsword 4) cripples targets from 900 yards. Rush (Greatsword 5) charges your target and slashes them but, what if Rush did additional damage to targets that are crippled and launched your target in the air causing a short knock down stun? Whirlwind Attack (Greatsword 3) would be used to bridge the gap and deal additional damage to knocked down targets.

Hundred Blades (Greatsword 2) makes you stand still and slash targets repeatingly (yawn).

I would change this to Triple Strike. Triple Strike is an ability that slashes your target 3 times. Each strike must hit the target or else the ability is interrupted. You can use this ability while moving and each strike has a different effect. The first strike applies a short cripple, The second strike causes a short immobilize and the third strike causes a knock down. The idea behind this ability is that if the opponent eats all 3 strikes, he’ll be in a world of hurt. He can dodge the second strike but, can’t dodge the third. If he gets hit on the second strike he has to use a condition removal to avoid the third strike. The cool thing about this ability is that you can use it as a combo opener or a combo finisher.

Opener.

Triple Strike (Greatsword 2) if all 3 strikes land, the target will be knocked down, Whirlwind Attack (Greatsword 3) to deal addional damage to knocked down targets, Bladetrail (Greatsword 4) from a distance to cause cripple, Rush (Greatsword 5) to bridge the gap, cause addional damage and knock back/knock down your target. Since this combo ended with the target knocked down, you can swap to another weapon to continue the combo.

Finisher.

Bladtrail (Greatsword 4) from 900 yard range to cause a cripple, Rush (Greatsword 5) to bridge the gap and cause a knock back/knock down, Whirlwind Attack (Greatsword 3) to bridge the gap and cause additional damage to knocked down targets, Triple Strike (Greatsword 2) if all 3 strike land, the target will be knocked down. Since this combo ended with the target knocked down, you can swap to another weapon to continue the combo.

If you think this is complex, what if every ability could be woven together to create an ultra combo. If every profession had acces to 5 skills per weapon and could swap to 4 different weapons; you could create a sequence that consisted of 20 hits.

Thats not even the best part.

The best part is that players could create thier own combos, shorter combos. In PVP, players would need to use combo breakers to avoid from getting owned. You have Dodge, Stun Breakers, Condition Removals, Invulerability, Teleports, Stealth, Knockbacks, Immobilize and Stability.

Ethics.4519:

Use fire breath #2 before using #5 if you want the extra damage.

Combos are a sequence of abilities that players must execute with timing and accuracy. Timing and accuracy are skills that players can sharpen with practice. With enough practice, you can execute the combo faster, giving your opponent less time to react.

Fire 2 is a channeled ability, similar to a flame thrower. This ability would have to be interrupted midway through to land the combo quickly. Even though your solution works, I would’ve built Fire 2 differently. Instead of channeled, it would’ve been a 1 hit attack that applies burning.

However, if Fire 3 had burning, Fire 2 would be redundant. Fire 2 could be retooled to work in a combo with Fire 4. Fire 4 is a Ring of Fire on the ground. Fire 2 could be a flaming fist ground slam that caused AoE damage but; also causes an AoE knockback stun when used inside the Ring of Fire.

The combo then would be, Air 4, Air 5, switch to Fire, Fire 3, Fire 5, Fire 4, Fire 2.

A more complex version would be, Air 4, Air 5, switch to Fire, Fire 3, Fire 5, Fire 4, Fire 2, switch to Earth, Earth 3 (magnetic grasp to bridge the gap), Earth 4 (Earthquake knockdown), Earth 5 (Churning Earth), Lightning Flash teleport if target gets out of range.

On my Dagger/Dagger Elementalist I have a really cool combo. I start in Air and Ride the Lightning (Air 4) to my foe, I hit Updraft (Air 5) to knock him down while at the same time evading backwards. I switch to Fire attunment, hit Burning Speed (fire 3) to bridge the gap and immediately hit Fire Grab (fire 5) for a 4 hit combo burst.

My problem with this combo is that it’s probably an accidental design.

Fire Grab does double damage on burning targets and Burning Speed only burns for 1 second. The window of time needed to land this combo is miniscule. If Burning Speed caused burning for 2 or 3 seconds; then I would have concluded the the combo was designed.

Look at the Guardian.

(Hammer 4) Banish, launches your foe 750 yards and knocks them down. (Hammer 2) Mighty Blow is a 300 yard range jumping attack. What if Mighty Blow had a 750 yard range and did double damage to knocked down targets? That would force your opponent to use an ability to break stun in order to avoid the combo.

Look at the Thief.

Take the bleeds from Death Blossom (dagger 3) and place them in auto attack (dagger 1). If Death Blossom caused stealth and immobilized for 2 seconds the player could create a backstab combo by summersaulting behind the opponment. This would force the opponent to use condition removal in order to avoid the Backstab. Adjust Backstab cooldown for balance.

Heart Seeker could cause addional damage to crippled targets instead of dealing more damage to targets with lower health. Dancing Dagger could cause additional damage while stealthed. Picture this combo; Cloak & Dagger (dagger 5), Dancing Dagger (dagger 4) from range to cripple your opponent, Heart Seeker (dagger 2) to bridge gap, Death Blossom (dagger 3) to immobilize and stealth, and then finally Backstab (dagger 1). This would be a 5 hit combo.

Design abilities that allows us to dance with them. Be creative.

Lutinz.6915:

Calae.1738:

You want to know why poeple leave and get bored of MMO’s? You think it’s because lack of content? Guild Wars 2 has plenty of content. There are 26 zones. Twenty Six Zones.

The problem is they are so ridiculously easy that you could train a monkey to complete them.

People play and leave MMOs for alot of different reasons. Difficulty is just one of them.

When the content you play is easy and predictable it becomes repetitive. Imagine you sitting down on your couch and watching a movie for the 3rd time. You know the diologue, the characters and the scenes actually play out in your head before they begin.

We become bored with easy repetitive tasks. Very bored.

You want to know why poeple leave and get bored of MMO’s? You think it’s because lack of content? Guild Wars 2 has plenty of content. There are 26 zones. Twenty Six Zones.

The problem is they are so ridiculously easy that you could train a monkey to complete them.

plasmacutter.2709:

Kodiak.3281:

TheGuy.3568:

Would you guys relax. You have literally taken a talk pertaining to Spvp and applied it to PvE. Now until they nerf us in PvE I see no point in the chicken little skyfall routine. In Spvp lets be honest it has to be nerfed. If you have played tournament with 3 DD bunker eles you’ll get what the problem is and there isn’t that much room for complaint on out side anymore.

The ways they discussed nerfing us was that some of our healing support when piled on top of each other is too effective. A very specific example was permanent Fury which is a thing for us. Another was the way all our tiny heals, regens, and condition removals all stacked up together giving us very strong defense.

It’s extremely unlikely, or at least they haven’t so far, take the time to separate said nerfs from PvE/sPVP/WvW because they want the game play feel to be “consistent” (as if sPvP felt at all like PvE or WvW even in the slightest).

So yea, it all kinda pertains.

Wait a second… they give us garbage for HP, nil for defense, build us around keeping boons up, then say it’s wrong for us to have fury?!

We HAVE to stack toughness as D/D to not go SPLAT.

We Can’t Viably Stack Crit As D/D!

Perma-fury is supposed to compensate for that, but only if you’re active, and only if your opponent doesn’t strip boons like crazy.

Just the thought of them nerfing us has kept me from logging on for over a week.

The idea that they’re targeting zephyr’s boon makes me want to file a refund ticket.

I will not be logging in until the next patch.

If I see any dents to fury on the patch notes I’m filing a refund ticket and going to PWI titles where the loot sucks less and at least there are better armor skins.

Depending on how they nerf the elementalist will dictate whether or not I continue logging into the game.

SPVP is borefest. I can count on my fingers the total amount of people playing SPVP. I couldn`t give a rat`s you know what about SPVP balance.

I wish all professions were built like the Elementalist.

Here’s my rotation for D/D elementalist.

start rotation

Air 4, Air 3
-switch to Fire
Fire 2, Fire 3, Fire 5, Fire 4
-switch to Earth
Earth 4, Earth 2
-switch to Water
Water 4, Water 2
-Switch to Air
Air 1 until Fire finishes cooling down
-switch to Fire
Fire 2, Fire 3, Fire 4
-switch to Earth
Earth 5, Earth 2

end rotation

Auto attack, whats that?

Winfernal.9208:

Piaskowy.7160:

So MF do nothing, drops are pretty and totally random…only matter of players luck.

Ehm. I do agree that the drop rates are low. But Isn’t this the point of RNG?…
Having 100% MF only changes droprates that originally were 1% to 2%.

RNG has always been about luck.

Luck is mathematical. This is how casinos work. A casino can increase/decrease thier revenue by X by changing the odds of winning/losing of thier customers.

In trying to make SPVP balanced and an esport, our skill bars are small, dull and boring. The sad thing is that there’s like 12 people playing SPVP.

Gilosean.3805:

What you want is the dynamic crafting guide, which uses TP prices to generate the cheapest way to level a craft. LInk: http://gw2crafts.saladon.net/

Reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/15den2/dynamic_crafting_guide_with_suggestions_to_buy/

Calae.1738:

A good example is elder wood logs.

The cost of me going around chopping elder wood logs is no longer economically feasable. I costs me 4 copper per whack of an orichalcum axe and the log sells for 11 copper on the TP. Once you factor in the TP tax of 15% your left with about 8 copper per log minus the 4 copper per whack with your axe and thats 4 copper per log. The net return on chopping elder wood logs is very very low.

Don’t use the orichalcum axe. Use the mithril axe, and it’s much cheaper. Not enough to make a log-gathering run super profitable, but enough that I’ll grab them as I run past.

If you gather regularly, get a bag full of all the gathering tools and switch as appropriate. It saves a surprising amount of money. You can also get a good deal on the gathering tools with the commendations.

Not having to switch axes on different types of logs is an inconvenience I’m willing to pay for but, I get your point. I can spend my time far more productively than chopping wood. That was the point I was trying to make.