Guild Wars 2

Yea…I’m not really a fan of plant weapons either. I will admit, that as far as plant weapons go, they do look good.

However, there’s not much armor that it matches.

Personally, I’d rather see more practical looking weapons. The bizarre, super shiny/flashy/flowerfilled weapon skins just don’t appeal to me. =P

http://dulfy.net/2013/10/29/gw2-trickster-viper-and-phalanx-armor-skins/
^ Link for those who haven’t seen the armor yet.

The male armor is really good looking and gives a good option for a good armored knight look.

However, the female armor looks almost completely different than the male version…

I guess I should be used to female armor being turned into a stripped out, clevage-showing version (sadly), but even then, helmet is completely open-faced, whereas the male version has absolutely nothing in common with it.

The first one is almost exactly what I have on my Sylvari Guardian, except that I use the TA chest piece and have a different dye color scheme.

Personally, I like the first (as you may have guessed), but I don’t think it looks good in black.

Yea, the heavy armor is impressive. The others…well, I’ll wait to see them in game…

Vorch.2985:

Also, if playing a warrior against a D/P thief

• Do NOT stand in black powder like an idiot
• AoE just outside of black powder
• Use an autoattack to remove blind…do NOT use a big stun while blinded.
• As SOON as you see a delay in D/P blind chain, that means the thief has run out of initiative and it’s time to lay the smack down.

As a thief, you can counter these counters by:
– Move to the far side of a black powder field so that the warrior either comes close enough to hit you or has to stand out of melee range.
– If the warrior stands away from the black powder, HS through to stealth and backstab
– Don’t wait until you are almost out or are out of initiative to escape if you haven’t killed the warrior yet.
– Unless you’re wasting initiative, you can spam black powder until the cows come home.

Robtastic.2647:

Is going all out on damage and traiting no defence/utility really necessary?
On forums all i see is 25/30/x/x/x viable. but what about 0/30/25/15/0?
i really like that build, it makes pugs a lot easier to deal with, it’s also a lot more fun to use. Does it make me a bad thief wanting to use a different build?
In game thiefs also give me a lot different opinions on builds than the ones on the forums.

No, you definitely don’t have to run a build like that to be viable.

Check out the thief forums on GuildWars2Guru.com. There are a lot of good alternative thief builds there. A 25/30/0/0/15 will still get you through dungeons more efficiently than any other build if you know the fights and can time your dodges well, but you can clear all PvE content in the game with just about any build you can think of (well, top tier fractals is probably the exception), so go with what you enjoy.

Here are some threads from the Guru forums you may be interested in:

An Introduction to S/D Builds and Play Styles [Guide]

Examination of Ranged Thieves

A Look at D/D Condition Dmg Thieves

P/D Trolling Tormentor

KooB.6503:

d/p thieves.
dat bp dat hs dat bs dat bp dat auto attack dat hs dat bs dat rinse dat wash dat repeat

Yea, D/P thief is one of the better specs to counter a warrior, but if you miss dodging or blinding a stun, you’re insta-downed. However, more warrior stuns are terribly obvious.

Take a look at the forums. People have been asking for a way to get PvE rewards from PvP for a long time.

Now, I don’t think that getting trick-or-treat bags instead of gear is the most elegant way to do this, nor do I think it addresses the problem of not being able to really earn any gold from doing sPvP, but the crossover isn’t inherently problematic.

Personally, I think it would have been best if they had have given a choice between gear and trick-or-treat bags.

I liked the show, but that was primarily because it served as a balance preview from the devs. Balance changes have been so hush hush from the devs lately. =(

However, it seems like a lot of coverage of PvP has been fading. Look at the forums and following from IntoTheMists.com (http://forums.intothemists.com/index.php?/forum/38-tournaments/).

You used to be able to easily find all of the builds the top players were using in tournaments, but it seems like those don’t get posted much anymore.

The PvP community really needs some life breathed into it.

Here’s the 25/30/0/0/15 build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVEBnTEbP2pO5p/ByqzgmtE-jQyAYfioRiCIZBiKIkl8KiGbxtIas6aMlLRUt9uIa1A-e
(slight, debateable variant: take VIII instead of X in Critical Strikes tree)

This is pretty much as good as it gets for min/maxing in PvE. You can run with other builds if you prefer, but generally they make sacrifices in DPS for survivability. Some people prefer to drop 10 points from the above build into Shadow’s Arts for extra initiative, but that’s only a minor payoff on long boss fights. If you’re running with a serious group, then you won’t have that issue.

For some classes, the ultimate min/max dps build is a bit debateable, but this isn’t the case for thieves. While there are plenty of viable builds, this is the one you run if you want to maximize dps. Just be aware that a berserker, glass cannon thief is a lot harder to keep alive than most other professions running a similar type build.

Community keeps me playing. I love my guild.

PraetorMortis.8610:

I’ve been running 15/25/0/20/10 with hammer. You get vuln on blind and from symbols ticks plus longer lasting symbols. As most boss fights in dungeons are stack n smack this keeps 5-8 stacks vulnerability up solo. For PvE, I can’t see how you don’t run at least 10 virtues for master of consecrations. WoR is useful in nearly every dungeon and Purging Flames gives those zerk warriors the removal they lack. Just my 2 copper

Agreed with this. Writ of Persistence is your go-to talent for any hammer build in PvE. Also, consecrations and shouts vastly outperform almost every other utility skill Guardians have in PvE and you can get the cooldown reduction for both of these with this build.

In PvE, Altruistic Healing and Pure of Voice are both defensive overkill and come with a high cost to your dps. If you’re new to the class and new to dungeons, Altruistic Healing can be some good training wheels for you while you learn the fights, but Pure of Voice will almost always provide more condition cleansing than your group needs.

Consecrations and symbols would probably result in it having a combo field, which would just be another combo field that gets in the way of a fire field.

Personally, I’d rather just see the cooldown reduced and/or have it as an AoE that hits around the Guardian, rather than just in front of them.

Yea, it is frustrating.

Really, they might as well remove all scoring and win/loss aspects to hot joins as games. The teams change so much that winning almost always has more to do with what team ends up with more players for a longer duration than any other factor.

If they ditched the scoring, they could drop the autobalancing and at least friends could stay together on the same team without constantly being split up.

This makes me a sad panda. I loved that site. =(

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Dahkeus.8243:

Nice vid OP.

However, I can’t see myself ever taking a meditation build into PvE. Shouts and consecrations are just too good. =S

You really need to try it. 3 skills that give 2k+ healing, plus your actual healing skill. Add dodge heals, and GS heals just for fun. On top of that, you get fury for those meditations, and condi removal from 2 of the meds plus stun breakers from 2 of the meds.

The amount of things this build does is really impressive. I have a few recording of me demolishing some bad hammer Warriors. But I’m waiting to upload a video when I find some skilled people to duel. Don’t know why I run into so many bad warriors. People will just laugh at my video saying all I do is fight bads, but that’s all I find being a solo roamer in the silver league on a server getting their B’s kicked (DB)

The problem is that healing is pretty weak compared to reflections and might stacking, which is something you get with consecrations.

Nice vid OP.

However, I can’t see myself ever taking a meditation build into PvE. Shouts and consecrations are just too good. =S

Thief is still my favorite prof. I’ve been messing with some alts and still run Fractals primarily with my Guardian (group already has 1 thief and didn’t have a Guard), but thief is still probably one of the most fun classes to play.

The nerfs sucked, but we’re still doing fine.

My thoughts on alts distilled into a quick bite:

Leveling alts = Not fun.

Playing max level alts = Lots of fun.

I’ve never done the math on this, but this is pretty discouraging. The level playing field on armor was one of the main reasons I came to this game and have continued with it.

I think A-Net is testing the waters to see how much new gear they can add before the potential retention value is offset by the number of players who leave/encourage others to leave after being upset at the gear treadmill.

Now, I know that there’s not much good in knocking ascended gear unless there’s a better alternative, so here’s what I recommend: Add more difficult to attain armor skins.

As it stands now, pretty much every armor design can be attained relatively easily. The legendary skins for weapons was a big success, but armor needs something like this as well. It doesn’t have to have better stats to attract interest (remember FoW/UW armor from GW1?).

Since release, the only new armor skins that have been added are either the occaisional holiday/event item or gem store armor skins, but if you want to keep players engaged without pushing them to become enraged, give them new armor skins that are attainable, but difficult to attain.

tl;dr: The whole benefit of taking a gear strategy like GW1 has is allowing people to stay interested by putting in hard to attain gear designs while making the stats easy to attain. Unfortunately, this is the opposite of what is happening now.

While the UI is much, much, much better than what often occurred in WoW, I agree that the spell effects are still over the top.

However, I think the best way to counter this would be to at least reduce effects that surround or obscure bosses. Big stuff on the ground or at range is fine, but many boss fights become difficult because of obscured boss tells rather than the fight mechanics themselves.

I vote for the one on the left.

- In GW2, everything that is in the gem store can be attained with in-game gold and vice versa.
– The best weapons in the game (legendaries) have a very menial stat boost and are so expensive that almost no one would buy them with real money.

In other words, GW2 has pulled off a cash shop that doesn’t screw over people who can’t throw tons of cash at the game and doesn’t create a buy-to-win that imbalances the game.

How many other MMOs can claim that?

I’ve got my grievances about a fair share of things in GW2, but honestly this game has probably the best cash shop available to any MMO out there and this is coming from someone who was totally against any cash shop in any game a few years ago.

Kite.2510:

Turning Quartz into Charged Quartz was a brilliant excuse to have players revisit locations, that would otherwise visit only once in their character’s life cycle… And now you are allowing them to do it in their home instance? (same spot where we get our normal Quartz)

I would rather have a Southsun fruit tree!

BTW
Nice work with the rest of the patch.
The page has minimum content, but somehow it doesn’t feel as underwhelming…

I never had any reason to charge any quartz, but it’s probably for the best. I’m already pretty unhappy with having to use crafting to get my ascended weapon, so at least I don’t play one of the few professions/builds that actually use celestial gear.

I have yet to encounter a ranger who has used Sic ‘Em against me and it doesn’t really surprise me. Why bring Sic ’Em when you can just steamroll stuff as a spirit ranger.

Even when they’re not running a spirit build, thieves aren’t really a big enough threat to merit bringing a hard counter to stealth.

Minigrump.4961:

We both decided to run arah p2 yesterday and chose to use the ingame lfg and posted “experienced” only. The first 2 we got were people who had run it before and actually knew how to read! But with hopes high the last member was an elementalist that ran staff the entire time, was his first ever dungeon and was in Trading Post exotics and had less than 1k AP. So we decided to go against all logic and actually let him stay in the run because we felt like being generous. The run took 2 hours, the ele died constantly, on the run to the first boss, on the run to the second boss by aggroing the spider after the detonation and on lupi was dead the entire time, even asking to be revived halfway through phase 2 when he was fully dead. But it felt oddly pleasing knowing that we helped that poor soul completing his first ever dungeon.

Welcome to the world of being a decent, friendly player.

I’d just like to see some new items in general. The only things coming out lately have been stale re-skins of items that are already available or just more minis.

I still have yet to meet anyone that actually collects those. .

hooma.9642:

Dahkeus.8243:

hooma.9642:

Dahkeus.8243:

I can’t remember the last time I saw a full team vs another full team that went the entire match without a team suffering being short-handed. Auto-balance tends to occur in the majority of matches and I find little reason to volunteer. Sure, there’s a good honor bonus, but it’s not worth being put on a team where players will likely just ditch and join another game until they end up in a balanced or winning game.

Sorry to say, but the auto-balance system doesn’t work. If you increase the rewards for volunteering any more, people will just ditch games until they get a chance to volunteer instead of skipping to avoid it.

I think the problem stems from a system where players have no wait times and are put into a game which is almost never filled up before a game starts anyways. My advice? Take a page from WoW’s book:
– Don’t start any games until both teams are full.
– It’s ok for there to be a queue. Unbalanced games aren’t fun and there’s little consequence to leaving if you’ll just be instantly put in a new game anyways.
– Allow players to queue together. You can set up the queue system to pair grouped players against other grouped players to keep things relatively balanced.

The last point is a big one. Being auto-balanced against your best friend or loved one really sucks and this results in even more people leaving games early. As someone who is married to a fellow GW2 player, I can definitely speak to this (and have been for quite some time, lol). Because of the queue system, we don’t pvp together nearly as much as we would otherwise.

We appreciate the improvements to allow players to choose a team at the start, swap mid game, and the option to join in PvP, but the auto-balance system still kills this. If an auto-balance hits, it’s our cue to ditch and find another game…or quit PvPing if that becomes too much of a hassle.

Now, the tPvP side of things is in much, much better shape, but we don’t always want to jump in tournament stuff (would prefer to do with a full group, testing new builds, etc.). If you don’t take the full approach suggested above, at least considering structuring hot joins to be more like tPvP games.

we dont talk about hot join. whats the point to have hot join if hot join is like tpvp? if u want tpvp go play tpvp or spvp.

Yea, I know it’s not cool to talk about hot join since all the 1337 players do nothing but tournaments, but it’s still part of the game. I don’t see why we can’t have a hot join system that puts together games with two full teams against each other where players who leave have some sort of repercussion for ditching a losing fight. There are enough other differences between hot join and tPvP.

cause its against the naturell of “HOT JOIN”.. do u understand what that HOT means in HOT JOIN?

It means unranked/casual. It doesn’t mean you have to throw all semblance of a team vs team match out the door.

hooma.9642:

Dahkeus.8243:

I can’t remember the last time I saw a full team vs another full team that went the entire match without a team suffering being short-handed. Auto-balance tends to occur in the majority of matches and I find little reason to volunteer. Sure, there’s a good honor bonus, but it’s not worth being put on a team where players will likely just ditch and join another game until they end up in a balanced or winning game.

Sorry to say, but the auto-balance system doesn’t work. If you increase the rewards for volunteering any more, people will just ditch games until they get a chance to volunteer instead of skipping to avoid it.

I think the problem stems from a system where players have no wait times and are put into a game which is almost never filled up before a game starts anyways. My advice? Take a page from WoW’s book:
– Don’t start any games until both teams are full.
– It’s ok for there to be a queue. Unbalanced games aren’t fun and there’s little consequence to leaving if you’ll just be instantly put in a new game anyways.
– Allow players to queue together. You can set up the queue system to pair grouped players against other grouped players to keep things relatively balanced.

The last point is a big one. Being auto-balanced against your best friend or loved one really sucks and this results in even more people leaving games early. As someone who is married to a fellow GW2 player, I can definitely speak to this (and have been for quite some time, lol). Because of the queue system, we don’t pvp together nearly as much as we would otherwise.

We appreciate the improvements to allow players to choose a team at the start, swap mid game, and the option to join in PvP, but the auto-balance system still kills this. If an auto-balance hits, it’s our cue to ditch and find another game…or quit PvPing if that becomes too much of a hassle.

Now, the tPvP side of things is in much, much better shape, but we don’t always want to jump in tournament stuff (would prefer to do with a full group, testing new builds, etc.). If you don’t take the full approach suggested above, at least considering structuring hot joins to be more like tPvP games.

we dont talk about hot join. whats the point to have hot join if hot join is like tpvp? if u want tpvp go play tpvp or spvp.

Yea, I know it’s not cool to talk about hot join since all the 1337 players do nothing but tournaments, but it’s still part of the game. I don’t see why we can’t have a hot join system that puts together games with two full teams against each other where players who leave have some sort of repercussion for ditching a losing fight. There are enough other differences between hot join and tPvP.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a full team vs another full team that went the entire match without a team suffering being short-handed. Auto-balance tends to occur in the majority of matches and I find little reason to volunteer. Sure, there’s a good honor bonus, but it’s not worth being put on a team where players will likely just ditch and join another game until they end up in a balanced or winning game.

Sorry to say, but the auto-balance system doesn’t work. If you increase the rewards for volunteering any more, people will just ditch games until they get a chance to volunteer instead of skipping to avoid it.

I think the problem stems from a system where players have no wait times and are put into a game which is almost never filled up before a game starts anyways. My advice? Take a page from WoW’s book:
– Don’t start any games until both teams are full.
– It’s ok for there to be a queue. Unbalanced games aren’t fun and there’s little consequence to leaving if you’ll just be instantly put in a new game anyways.
– Allow players to queue together. You can set up the queue system to pair grouped players against other grouped players to keep things relatively balanced.

The last point is a big one. Being auto-balanced against your best friend or loved one really sucks and this results in even more people leaving games early. As someone who is married to a fellow GW2 player, I can definitely speak to this (and have been for quite some time, lol). Because of the queue system, we don’t pvp together nearly as much as we would otherwise.

We appreciate the improvements to allow players to choose a team at the start, swap mid game, and the option to join in PvP, but the auto-balance system still kills this. If an auto-balance hits, it’s our cue to ditch and find another game…or quit PvPing if that becomes too much of a hassle.

Now, the tPvP side of things is in much, much better shape, but we don’t always want to jump in tournament stuff (would prefer to do with a full group, testing new builds, etc.). If you don’t take the full approach suggested above, at least considering structuring hot joins to be more like tPvP games.

Atherakhia.4086:

Dahkeus.8243:

Even if GS did eek out a bit ahead of the sword, a sword/warhorn ranger would probably be preferred in a group since they can give 100% fury uptime with a red moa and can help stack might since the warhorn also gives a blast finisher.

Also, you stack your pet with might and while that’s not a big benefit, it should be taken into account as well.

Now, personally, I’m not a fan of the 1h sword at all since the mechanics behind the 1h attack make me a sad panda. I think the GS has a much better feel to it, between the leap, block, and normal auto attack, but it lacks a lot of the utility that you get from bringing a warhorn. =(

Gs lacks in utility? It’s all utility. It’s a support weapon and that’s the problem. Auto really does need a dramatic increase in damage. If not, then give the class a trait to allow us to swap weapons faster so we can swap in to use maul and leave without concern much like how Warriors work.

I should clarify: The utility that the GS brings is primarily personal survival. You get a little vuln stacking from maul and a knockdown that is occasionally marginally helpful on trash.

However, the group benefit from fury and might stacking trumps the short duration 3 stack vuln from mauls.

Writetyper.1985:

Roaming, yes, PvP, very yes, but zerging WvW is a big no. It’s just kitten compared to other classes when more than ~12 people are involved.

Don’t listen to the other people’s flat out “no” because a lot of people run dumb kitten on their ranger and somehow can’t even play the class with the lowest skill ceiling properly.

This is pretty much my experience as well. Pets generally don’t do too well with large zerg groups and even using a longbow’s AoE, you won’t do anything close to a staff necro. If you’re smart about it, you’ll still be fine, but the class doesn’t lend itself to being as much of a benefit as most others in zergs.

In sPvP, well, there’s a reason that spirit rangers were the most represented build/class in the 9/27 MLG tourney. Outside of spirit builds…I can’t think of much that really comes close, but for now, that’s one niche that rangers have.

Even if GS did eek out a bit ahead of the sword, a sword/warhorn ranger would probably be preferred in a group since they can give 100% fury uptime with a red moa and can help stack might since the warhorn also gives a blast finisher.

Also, you stack your pet with might and while that’s not a big benefit, it should be taken into account as well.

Now, personally, I’m not a fan of the 1h sword at all since the mechanics behind the 1h attack make me a sad panda. I think the GS has a much better feel to it, between the leap, block, and normal auto attack, but it lacks a lot of the utility that you get from bringing a warhorn. =(

1) More permanent dungeons/PvP modes
2) No more gear treadmill/ascended gear
3) Class fixes

To clarify number 3: I don’t just mean class balance. Yes, it’s great to not have overpowered classes, but some classes also need some fixes to mechanics to make the gameplay more in line with their class or to smooth out awkward experiences.

Examples:
– Ranger’s most effective PvP build (Spirit Ranger) has a very low skill floor and skill cap. In PvP however, the most effective build for many situations (sword/warhorn melee) has a very rough skill floor.
– The 1h sword of rangers is still rough and clunky since you are movement restricted and dodge restricted with the auto attack.
– Engineer turrets aren’t mobile enough for most PvE
– Ranger pets, mesmer clones, engineer turrets, etc are all too vulnerable to random enemy AoE in PvE.
– Ranged builds in general still punish players by putting them out of range of all the good buffs a group provides. Sure, you can just get closer and use a ranged weapon, but this will cost you dps if you use a Ranger Longbow or a Mesmer Greatsword.

Could just be some random environmental weapon skill.

mojowalker.3798:

True … but in in a good number of the threads I’ve seen concerning town clothes, and the armor sets available on the TP, the issues are are that you can’t wear the town clothes as armor and they don’t appear in a wardrobe once bought so they can be applied to multiple chars multiple times.

While cargo shorts may be one of the few legging options available and don’t coordinate with much, I think even these would sell more frequently if once they were purchased they appeared in an account-wide wardrobe and you could add them over your armor.

But to your point about additional town clothing, I’m all for it … I like most of the costumes from GW1 and owned almost all of ’em.

Well, the problem of that is that you run into the issue of armor types. Do Guardians get to charge into battle wearing cargo shorts and hoodies? If so, why not allow heavy armor classes to just transmog light armor?

I just don’t see it working, personally. .

mojowalker.3798:

I think the main issue with the untapped potential may have to do with sales figures, and I’m just guessing, so don’t quote me or ask for quotes … based off a lot of comments in various threads from folks who said they wouldn’t drop a dime on additional town clothes since you can’t wear them over your armor (ala GW1), I’m going to assume that many of the clothing options available go unsold. That, in turn, could demonstrate a lack of interest in them as a whole, hence a lack of further development of other clothing options. This would, obviously, be the wrong conclusion to draw from the lackluster sales, but I could see it being a contributing factor.

Personally, for myself, I’d buy multiple sets of different outfits if they weren’t restricted to town use only.

I think part of the reason for low sales on a lot of town clothes is also that most of the stuff simply doesn’t match anything.

To ANet, it may look like people aren’t interested in the items, but it’s not necessarily a problem with the item if there’s just nothing that goes with it.

Now that the game has been out over a year, I figured I should speak up about some missed opportunities for ANet to get me to part with my precious $$$.

Town Clothes
There have been some good additions to shirts and hats/glasses/head pieces in the store, but the rest is a bit lacking. The cargo shorts are nice, but really, unless your default town clothes give you a normal pair of pants (like humans), there aren’t many options and there are even less for characters that want a dress. For shoes, the options are even worse. My sylvari has the option of leafy shoes, riding boots with spurs, or pirate boots and none of these match any of the hoodies or other shirts.

Tl;dr – The value of some of the shirts/hats is vastly reduced by a lack of pants/shoes to match

(Also, you should give cross-dressing options for characters. It may sound strange, but I can assure you, a lot of players will take advantage of this, whether it be out of a sincere desire to cross dress or simply for the lols)

Character Emotes
The closest we’ve gotten so far is the dance item. While I like this, there’s a lot of potential money to be made from roleplayers who just simply want to be more expressive. Hell, even non-roleplayers would probably like the option to /flex or /roar after killing a particularly tough foe.

Musical Instruments
The flute, bell, and horn are good starts, but let’s get a guitar, bass, and a drum set. Creating these items should b relatively simple since the mechanics are already created.

^ These forums need more people like this guy. Hooray for helpful posts that aren’t dripping with angst and elitism!

Really, the class is in a good state in terms of effectiveness (well, outside of WvW at least), but the biggest problem seems to come from whether or not you like certain niche builds.

In PvE, you can deal some of the highest DPS while giving your party permanent fury, but you have to use the 1h sword and warhorn. This means that you’re spending your time using the only weapon in the game that prevents you from dodging just by auto-attacking and of course you’re without a dodge in melee. The frost spirit is a pain to keep up, but it’s a pretty unique damage buff that no one else can provide.

In PvP, spirit rangers are still relatively untouched except that vigor doesn’t come from every tick of Healing Spring any more. Considering how many spirit rangers were prevalent in teams during the MLG 9/27 tournie, I doubt they’re really in trouble. (source: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:TahiriVeila/MLGInvite27Sep2013). That being said, out of all the PvP classes/builds I’ve tried, I found the spirit ranger to be one of the least engaging builds to play, which made it one of the least enjoyable for me.

And really, this may be part of what causes so much distress for rangers. The most effective PvE spec has a very high skill cap since you have so little defensive utility as a 1h sword ranger compared to other classes and managing a pet and a spirit at the same time just makes things tougher. On the other hand, playing the most effective PvP spec puts you in arguably one of the simplest PvP builds around and has a very low skill cap.

That’s my 2 cents at least. =P

Sadly, a return function is something that’s long overdue for this game. Adding the ability to return something you bought on accident was one of the best quality-of-life changes that came to WoW.

JonathanSharp.7094:

It’s true that we don’t want to create a “monk” style healer/support class like we had in GW1, but we DO want to augment the efficacy of support builds.

And you guys are hitting the nail on the head – we want to make it so that some of the support skills help allies more than they help you, but they do it so well that a support role is justified.

It’s a balance between dedicated support and builds that are entirely self reliant. Once the dues settles on the trait fact pass, we’ll be looking at how to improve the support builds with another round of trait improvements for every class, as well as skill adjustments for each class.

Well, I understand that it’s easy to tweak something and end up overtuning something so much that you have a balance issue on the opposite side of the spectrum, but we’ve never had an issue of a low dps class being too strong in support. So far it’s either been that a class is too strong as dps or as a bunker. This is even worse in PvE where people only want either a hardcore dps class or a heavy dps class that brings tons of dps-focused buffs. I know that’s a whole ‘nuther can o’ worms, but there has never been much of a calling for a party member with low or medium dps because of how much support they bring.

I’ve been thinking on this and here’s what I think it will take to put a class in a viable support role:

- Normal self-healing, but strong ally-healing
– Very strong group-focused traits in support trees (toughness/vitality/boon duration/healing trees and not power/precision/condi damage/condi duration trees)
– Toned down support available to classes that choose full dps-focused traits and weaponsets
– Consider a talent that does something like increase boon duration when your base power/precision is lower

Right now there is some tradeoff to get support heavy traits, but the tradeoff is weak. Because of this, people that build heavy dps builds can essentially have their cake and eat it too.

I mean, it would be awesome to keep warriors as stun champions, but make them trade off their insane dps to do it. They could then fill a line backer role in a team without being a 1-man army.

I understand that the style of gameplay in GW2 is largely based upon having very self-reliant classes, but I think there’s plenty of room to tweak things so that players who want to play a group-focused build can thrive too.

Runes of Lyssa cleanse condis. They also don’t require you to be fighting a mesmer. =P

I don’t understand why you are comparing them as if they are competing against each other.

The wonky mechanics of the sword are a big part of why I got frustrated with the ranger class and have largely shelved my ranger in favor of a thief.

The sword isn’t unplayable and you can work around the mechanics, but it just makes the class feel very stiff and clunky, which is a shame since I really liked the swashbuckler style of having a 1h sword-wielding ranger.

I wonder how the GS compares in DPS to the 1h sword now. I know the buff it just receives was small, but I don’t recall it being that far behind the 1h sword, last I checked either.

Boosting healing power could definitely help….but then we’d be back to the same problem with nigh-unkillable ele bunkers like we had early on in the game.

Hmmm….it would be nice to see something like this balanced out, both in PvE and PvP.

Darnis.4056:

Sounds like a great way to keep a guardian off a point….
Guardian one knocks guardian two off point, Thief Immobilize spams for 5 seconds.

P/d Sbow new meta.

Scorpion wire and do it yourself.

Course the other guard will just condi-cleanse/dodge/block/etc.

I didn’t see the stream, but I caught the notes here (http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1og4v2/skill_change_developer_livestream_notes/). What caught my attention was this:

Hallowed Ground – now grant stability and boon duration for any boons activated while it is active.

Between this and the buff to purging flames, it looks like a good time to be a hammer warrior in dungeons. Blasting Hallowed Ground with your hammer will now be better than ever for might stacking.

Easy:
One who is successful at GW2 would be one who achieves the goals that they set out to accomplish.

dDuff.3860:

I’m succesfully using S/P in top50 soloQ
so don’t know what is this thread about.
We’ll see notes – we’ll make builds.

If you’re doing well with S/P already, that’s awesome, but it doesn’t seem to be the trend in teams that go into top end tournies:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:TahiriVeila/MLGInvite27Sep2013
&
http://forums.intothemists.com/index.php?/topic/46-top-gw2-tournament-builds/

And of course people will make builds based on the notes, but the notes aren’t here yet. However, we have been given enough of a heads up on the major changes to speculate: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/October-15th-balance-skills-updates-preview/first

With the 10/15 patch bringing a nerf to Larcenous Strike on S/D, I’m curious what will predominate tournament thieves. As it stands now, it seems like most top end thieves are running the initiative spam S/D build with a few still using D/P. Because of this, I would expect one or a combination of the below situations to occur:

a) Thieves skill keep using S/D ini spam builds since the evasion is still just as strong and since it doesn’t rely heavily on stealth, which is potentially countered by rangers using Sic ’Em.

b) Thieves going back to the D/P builds predominantly. Sic ’em may counter stealth, but it may not apply a very long duration of revealed and still may not find it onto the utility skill bar of spirit rangers anyways.

c) S/P may see a return. The build is weak against anything with retal, but it’s probably one of the stronger weapon sets against spirit rangers and doesn’t rely on stealth.

d) Thieves simply stop making it onto tourney teams.