Guild Wars 2

This is going to come down to personal preference.

For me it’s bunker guardians. Every time I play one, I feel that I’m just delaying the inevitable. I can stay up for awhile, but I can’t do enough damage back to outlast my attackers. However, I believe this mostly comes down to my lack of experience (timing of skills) and understanding of the profession.

Which builds do you think require the most skill to play?

Which is why the MM gets so many complaints. Most people don’t run AoE. Most run glass cannon burst builds for the big numbers. MM necros, in particular, destroy those builds.

90% of my battles as an MM go like this. A thief or some other burst glass jumps me and unloads all their skills. Depending on how I react, which is usually very little, I take about 50% to 75% damage from a large health pool. Now they are standing in the middle of my minions, while I have all my skills at hand (plus death shroud, usually), and they’ve just used up their skills/initiative. The battle is decided.

How do I fight MMs? As a glass cannon, I don’t unless I’m with an ally. As anything else, I pressure them. Keep the damage steady and use CCs. Most of the minions can be ignored, with the following exceptions: Blood fiend (I’m baffled that no one kills these things) and Flesh golem (just need to watch for its charge). In most of my battles as an MM, my minions are gone pretty fast, and I still do well. I remember one battle when a mesmer Moa’d me. First, I pecked the hell out of him, then finished him off with my axe.

In general, I don’t have any problem fighting MMs. Other types of necros are far more troublesome. If you’re not able to beat MMs consistently, look at your build and style of play. There’s no reason that I can beat them and you can’t. I truly believe that this is simply a learning curve as it was with the shatter mesmer, which is no longer near the threat it used to be back when people didn’t understand it. Just like mesmers, MMs are going to challenge new players and those unwilling to improve or adapt.

style.6173:

They should offer something for the glory boosters. I have like 190 of them and it wouldn’t be possible to use them all.

Easy fix: Allow us to trade in glory boosters for other boosters based on the value. For example, a glory booster is 75 gems. If I want an experience booster, which costs 150 gems, I’d have to trade in 2 glory boosters.

Yes, I was all too unpleased to get glory boosters from black lion chests recently.

Scarlet is clearly the mega-karka paving the way for karka world domination.

I hope they give us something for glory boosters. I have more than I can possibly use.

Stx.4857:

How many MM Necro’s are there in the high level PvP scene?

How many Warriors are there?

Warrior is a very passive profession as well so… yeah. Not sure how this complaint is legitimate.

It’s not. Skillful play on warriors, engineers, other necros, eles, and guardians will beat an MM every time, regardless of the MM’s skill level. Hence no MM’s in high level PvP.

However, thieves, rangers, and mesmers will need to be skillful and go against a non-skillful MM to win more than 50% of the time.

The problem is that some players expect to win 100% on their favorite builds and cry “OP!” if they don’t.

Nike.2631:

DaShi.1368:

I can never forgive rangers for longbow #4. There is never a right time to use that skill.

Longbow is just not intended as a group-play weapon. Solo and in WvW it’s got some shining moments, but in a group, shortbow or axe if you still prefer range/survivability, and melee if you’re looking to dish a beating.

The problem is that #4 is a ranged knock-back. It doesn’t matter for the ranger to use #4 because they can still hit the target at range. Other professions have melee knockbacks and would harm themselves as much as their party with the same random knockbacks that Rangers have become infamous for. Anet should just change it to a daze or stun. Then it could actually be useful on occasion.

I can never forgive rangers for longbow #4. There is never a right time to use that skill.

Class: Any

Worst Enemy: None

This doesn’t mean that I win all the time. I certainly don’t. It means that it doesn’t matter what class attacks me, because the majority all attack the same way (as if they are fighting the test golems in HotM). They only think about what their class does and not what mine does. They seem genuinely shocked when I fight back.

I’ve seen thieves attack an mm necro like it was a glass cannon mesmer. Warriors trying to stun lock mesmers. Berserker guardians standing still trying to unload their skills on a warrior. I flatten these players in seconds regardless of what class they play.

When I do face someone who considers what my class does, the battle becomes interesting. Sure I may lose, but I have a lot more fun. Even the much feared mm necros aren’t a challenge if you know what you are up against. Certainly there are some classes that are more difficult than others depending on what I am playing, but I’ve found nothing unbeatable.

Don’t expect to kill every class as if they were test golems. Too many complaint threads are about classes people believe that they should beat. That’s not how it works.

I agree that most people struggle with mesmers because they don’t understand them. I have played mesmer a lot in pvp. Now I don’t consider them very much of a threat at all. This is because I know what they are capable of and how to get around it. This is why mesmers feel op to players who don’t play mesmer and woefully lacking to those who do.

I’d suggest not 1v1ing a build designed solely for 1v1, unless you’ve designed your build to 1v1 as well.

As most have said, just move on. They can’t follow and will be destroyed in group fights.

Was no one biting your posts in the sPvP forum?

Zhaitan was defeated by weakening him before the final battle. In addition, technology played a significant role. In many ways, the story is about the triumph of technology over magic.

Which sets up for Guild Wars 3 in space!

It was the 2012 Wintersday presents you bought off gem store. I’ve seen no indication that the Permanent Hair Contract drops anymore.

I choose one at random to complete the achievement. It happened to be Marcello.

Simplicity.7208:

• The burst doesn’t work on anyone with a brain (easy to dodge & split amongst your various clones instead of one hit like backstab)
• The burst is exponentially harder to play than any OP warrior or necro build you could run and achieves similar DPS
• Mesmers are very condition weak + there’s a condition meta, so mesmer counters are everywhere
• Shatter mesmers are too glassy; PvP = bunker wars, if you can’t hold a point until reinforcements arrive, you don’t have much place in PvP (note the bunker meta)
• Mesmers have lower mobility than a thief and thus are less adept at roaming, the primary goal of a glass spec in PvP
• Shatter mesmers are not typically as useful as other classes in team fights due to clones dying before you can shatter them and phantasms not having cleave

Pretty much this. Mesmers are forced into the PU and Phantasm to keep up with the other “OP” professions.

Crab Toss is my least favorite of the activities. I love the holiday activities, because then I never have to do it for the daily achievement.

I’ve never died to this skill, even when I’ve played an mm. I’m all in favor of Anet changing it into something better.

I like this idea too. I too frequently get those soul-bound on acquire superior runes that I never use and would love to forge or salvage them.

Yeah, it’s very close to Lord Voldemort.

Aberrant.6749:

The problem is that it’s profitable for them to burn accounts since they are making them more than the cost of obtaining another in between when they are started and when they are detected/banned. They need better prevention/detection so that this isn’t the case.

I hope you report it when you see them btw

I agree. While I certainly think they need to ban bot users, they also need a system that prevents them from coming back.

Reporting is hard. You can just a report items you think bots are operating on.

They are back in full force. They vanished for a brief period, and I was actually able to place several successful buy orders for the first time since I can’t remember when. However, not it’s back to instant outbids.

Are TP bots the only way we can use the TP now?

And the bear would outrun you.

This likely won’t happen because they don’t want people using the TP as storage.

Vampiric skills are always treated cautiously by Anet because they have the ability to be far too powerful (i.e. Touch Rangers in GW1). Clearly all these heals were not created equal. They were designed to support certain play styles for each profession and that might not be the play style many people play. Necros and Rangers were given a heal that helps support their teammates (probably because these professions tend to be less welcome in groups). The necro skill is probably considered more for PvE than other formats.

Vortex will not put you in combat, so I often use it when travelling to keep any pesky mobs from getting crippled and slowing me down.

So this skill will make PU mesmers nearly as tanky as rangers, but with less damage and less ability to hold a point.

Mystic.5934:

at current prices, you’d have to use the permanent kit more than 150 times to make it worth it compared to single-use kits.
just sayin’

If it is drops more then the price will drop too. just sayin’

This is usually what happens with the mesmer. It’s OP until people learn its tricks, then it becomes UP. I’ve never had a problem with PU mesmers or other mesmers in general because their tricks are easy to counter.

DragoTheWise.7256:

Treeline.3865:

With all the hate going on, it seems the rage train only want to hate Scarlet, and keep her in the Living Story only, at any cost. What I find annoying is that people keep claiming she does not belong in the Reactor.

Soooo…. Lore time. The game actually does have lore you know.

Back to basics. Scarlet used to have another name. From Wiki the first thing we learn is:

Ceara emerged from the Dream of Dreams with an innate fascination with the interlocking systems of nature, and a determination to forge her own path independent from the Mother Tree.

In my translation she is looking for the answers to “everything”. She wants to understand how things are connected and put together. In a world infused by magic, there is sure something to get to know. Magic is a part of the world, and everyone has access to magic. With Scarlet being so thirsty for knowledge, this is the ultimate mystery to be solved, the ultimate tome of knowledge. (This seems like guessing, but read on)

From an interview with Angel McCoy:

Magic is the lifeblood of Tyria. The entire world is infused with it, and it flows through everything via ley lines that criss-cross the planet.
The natural role of the dragons is to keep this magic balanced. From time to time, in the long history of the world, the dragons have awoken and begun to draw the world’s magic into themselves, reducing the level of magic flowing through the ley lines.

When the dragons have consumed enough and thus reduced the world to a low level of magic, they go back to sleep. From then on, the magic leaks from them, back into the world at a reasonable rate. Eventually, it builds up in the world again, and the dragons awaken again to tip the teeter-totter back in the other direction.

Now why is this relevant? Well. First of all, the dragons are very much active in the game, meaning we have reached a peak in the magic flowing around the world, so a loooot of magic must be flowing through those ley lines. Furthermore, Zhaitan is dead (surprise spoiler!). That must have released a lot of magic. I dare say there have never been more magic flowing across those ley lines.

Ok, so far we got Scarlet wanting to know how things connect, a lot of magic and dragons. What then? Back to Scarlet!:

Ceara’s ideas were understandably unpopular with the colleges of the Arcane Council, but very much in line with the ideology of the Inquest. She spent a brief time with them, but was ejected from Rata Sum after she and Teyo were found meddling with designs in the city’s archives

Scarlet DOES have history with the Inquest. With the lore describing her being in Rata Sum, being with Inquest, and also running around with Hyleks after again being an outcast, I think it’s safe to say she was in Metrica Province where all these can be found. Now for the sake of Inquest:

Thank you for posting this nice well thought out post about what’s going on with the Reactor Fractal and Scarlet. I’ve seen so much hate and quick-to-judge attitude both in-game and on the forums that it’s becoming annoying. I’ve been wanting to post something about Scarlet and how this is all a more deeper story and character than most people give credit for, but I just don’t have the time right now to commit to that. Back to this, it’s nice to see a positive look on the LS lore and story for once. Makes me feel that I’m not alone >_> haha. Perhaps, I’ll find some time soon to add to the discussion; however, I’ll keep an eye on this thread as it continues.

Lots of people would rather discuss the lore and the story than see endless posts of whinging. Unfortunately, few dare to start such threads because they end up like this one: a few thoughtful on topic posts in a sea of petty, self-centered complaints.

You can already estimate from their health bars.

captaincrash.6528:

I have seen the word “Scarlet” more than any other word in the english language for the past however long, and I’m pretty positive that is not hyperbole.

Um, that’s a perfect example of hyperbole.

Lord Kuru.3685:

DaShi.1368:

Jink Bonestealer.9274:

Plagiarised.2865:

I just want to reiterate: Scarlet was not the cause of the meltdown. We learn that the facility was initially intended to study chaos magic but the Inquest pushed the direction of the facility towards dragon magic. The Inquest learned that there was a link between the Elder Dragon energy and chaos energy. They concluded that the chaos energy and dragon magic may have a link or even be the same. They also concluded that this magical energy follows a course through the globe and crisscrosses at certain areas. One of these areas was the Thaumanova Reactor. So their study of the two energies at this interception of magical energy is what caused the meltdown.

Which is what makes her insertion into the fractal story even more pointless, in my opinion.

It doesn’t if it give us some more information about what she is doing. This actually is good writing because it is showing something rather than telling it. Sadly, many of the complaints about Scarlet are that people want to be told what is going on. Hopefully, they will realize how much better this is after we’ve reached the end of the Scarlet story arc. Then it should all come together and we would be like, “Ah, so that’s why Scarlet was there.” If not, then you might have some claim to the story being poorly written.

If the first 10 minutes of a TV show are just awful you flip the channel and watch something else — you don’t wait around for the off chance that it’ll have an awesome ending.

Good advice.

If you get the Dredge above 20, you’re in for a long night.

That’s debatable. And rarely the primary complaint against her.

Yes, I’m reserving full judgement on Scarlet until her story is complete. I admit that there are a lot of parts that I don’t see fitting: the different alliances mostly. Hopefully, it all comes together into a cohesive story in the end. Regardless, I’m just enjoying the ride. This is a video game and the story’s primary goal is to drive the gameplay activities. I’m not expecting Shakespeare here.

Jerron Blacksilver.8629:

They could redeem Scarlet Briar, and make her less lame. I’m thinking something like…poor young newly born Scarlet became a vessel for the essence of Lazarus the Dire, whose ancient and awesome power broke her mind. Lazarus used this new vessel to acquire the knowledge he’d missed out on during his self imposed exile, and is now using Scarlet to prepare the world for a return of his full power, whereupon he shall wreak vengeance upon “countless generations” as promised at the end of the quest “The Justiciar’s End”. Now we have a Scarlet that isn’t all powerful because of her thooper thmarth, but rather because she’s a puppet for an ancient and absurdly powerful entity. Her inherent nuttiness is due to her brain not being able to contain said essence, and her peek into the eternal alchemy further broke her mind, sheering away even the veneer of sanity.

Now, instead of an annoying mary sue villain, we have a villain that is in fact a victim, and thus, we can feel sympathy for, which makes her more interesting. And as a bonus, we have a return of one of the classic villains from GW1 lore (The Mursaat…what’s left of them, anyway. Which may in fact be just Lazarus, but perhaps not). Tie ins with current content are obvious, really, and easy to expand upon. (all the references to the Mursaat, the Seers, and the Forgotten are already there with Fractal gear…infusion, ascension, [spectral] agony, etc…)

Ugh, no. Just adding something from GW1 does not make it automatically good. I’m happy that we’ve seen the last of most of the GW1 villains. Their time is past. Our time is now!

I’d rather not see dragons as part of the LS because the LS content is nearly always temporary. For Zhaitan, we got a nice, long personal story to defeat him. While it’s not replayable on the same character, it is available to all players no matter when they start GW2. I feel the dragons are central to the GW2 experience and their story should be available to all players.

The LS could lead into a story that creates the story for taking out the next dragon. For example, Scarlet’s tampering with dragon energy makes Jormag become more aggressive than he usually is. Thus, the next personal story shows the increased activity of Jormag and the hero’s journey to stop him.

Silberfisch.3046:

Sadly, we’re already seeing the fallout of Scarlet in WvW. I have yet to experience a single commander who doesn’t state that she will be incredibly happy once the toxic spore events are gone from WvW maps

I agree, those are very annoying. I can understand Anet’s desire to put LS content in WvW to make it feel more “alive” and part of the GW universe. But the toxic spore events are a bit too intrusive to the gameplay there.

Scarlet is not that bad of a villain. She’s a fairly common archetype that you’ll find in many stories. Don’t take her appearance in the LS so personal.

Jink Bonestealer.9274:

Plagiarised.2865:

I just want to reiterate: Scarlet was not the cause of the meltdown. We learn that the facility was initially intended to study chaos magic but the Inquest pushed the direction of the facility towards dragon magic. The Inquest learned that there was a link between the Elder Dragon energy and chaos energy. They concluded that the chaos energy and dragon magic may have a link or even be the same. They also concluded that this magical energy follows a course through the globe and crisscrosses at certain areas. One of these areas was the Thaumanova Reactor. So their study of the two energies at this interception of magical energy is what caused the meltdown.

Which is what makes her insertion into the fractal story even more pointless, in my opinion.

It doesn’t if it give us some more information about what she is doing. This actually is good writing because it is showing something rather than telling it. Sadly, many of the complaints about Scarlet are that people want to be told what is going on. Hopefully, they will realize how much better this is after we’ve reached the end of the Scarlet story arc. Then it should all come together and we would be like, “Ah, so that’s why Scarlet was there.” If not, then you might have some claim to the story being poorly written.

Lord Kuru.3685:

There is no such reward — and yet there are about that many threads. Anet: this is how much your customers dislike your storytelling.

Or it just reflects the online culture. Frankly, even if there was a different villain, we’d see the same amount of relatively few players of the game making just as many threads about how much they hate it.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with constructive feedback. Unfortunately, these kinds of threads are not constructive in any manner. They clutter the forum and create a hostile and negative environment.

I like Scarlet. What I don’t like is how others are attacking people here for liking her.

While I think there is always room for some improvements, keep up the good work Anet! I look forward to seeing how this story plays out and all comes together. Thank you for not rushing it into a few events.

Is there a reward when someone posts the one thousandth thread about Scarlet?

If so, can they be original or must they be something people have already made threads about several times before?

They won’t do this because then Dredge and Grawl will never be played.

It’s part of Scarlet’s plan to access the planetary ley-lines of magic.

I just wanted Kiel to win. I didn’t care about the Fractals or the waypoints/keys.

I believe you can get green keys as a random drop from the chest at the end of level 2 chambers.

Tawn.9871:

Yeah this probably is someone with a program which tells them when their buy orders are beaten. There’s periods of time where they don’t immediately respond.
Guess I’ll have to kill the profit margins and see if he’s still as keen.

I’ve done that before; pushed kitten item to over 20s. The bot outbid me right on schedule, and I just pulled my order. It doesn’t really work for you though. As soon as the item is sold, the bot will replace it 1c against the next highest bid, and you’ll be right where you started. Hopefully, Anet will do more to address actual bots on the tp.

It’s gotten impossible to place buy orders for many items because of the bots. I tried reporting, but things have only gotten worse.