Guild Wars 2

The design and style looks brilliant…

but I 100% agree with 2 points made already:
1 ) Please, please, please give us something other than point capture. Ugh, so sick of this map type.
2 ) Jumping pads, while appearing to be awesome, are severely hindered by latency. This is one of the main reasons I have no interest in Dragon Ball.

Because ArenaNet always loves to give back.

I really hope they implement something that allows stuff like this. I’m super jealous of Wildstar’s player housing system. =S

I have my beefs with some things, but yea, I agree this is the best MMO out right now.

Yea, I love GW2, but when I look at player housing in games like Wildstar (especially Wildstar), FFXIV, Rift, etc., I get jealous. I mean, I don’t want to play a different game, but this is really something that GW2 needs to get on board with.

If nothing else, customizeable player/guild housing would give players a lot of new potential rewards to work for since there’s a limit to how appealing new gear/weapon skins can be once you already have a huge selection to choose from.

wish.1027:

Dahkeus.8243:

wish.1027:

Dahkeus.8243:

They really need to make PvE test dummies

This would really help give better test data and allow more solid conclusions to be made.

No it wouldnt… only a fool would sit in a game and try to determine average damage by hitting stuff when the equations for damage calculations are known and would be many, many, many hours faster. Does a parser for GW2 even exist or are you going to sit there and write down every value so you can add them up and divide?

…I think you’re misunderstanding.

With the right dummies, all a player would need to do to test dps of different specs/classes would be to time how long it takes to kill a dummy, then compare kill times.

Sure, as long as the dummies take an hour or two to kill. Otherwise Im going to argue small numbers and that math is better. And at that point where you fight a dummy for an hour or two, math is faster. If they die super fast, youd have to kill them for an hour or two, then average all the times together to get an idea of your real time. Because sometimes you’ll get all crits, and sometimes you’ll get no crits, and sometimes your crits will proc on the bigger hits and not the smaller ones, etc. You’d have to do it a lot so the numbers eventually balance themselves out, then add all the times together, and divide by how many times you killed it o figure out your true time. So youre still doing math anyway even with the test dummys.

ok, here’s the thing:
A ) you don’t need to spend hours with each build/class test to average out crits.
B ) Even if you average out kill times from multiple tests, the math is still much, much, much simpler than calculating together weapon damage, stats, chance of proc, chance of crit, etc. together.

I think it’s pretty unlikely that this wouldn’t work on it, but an official verification would be nice.

Agreed. This was a very good decision on behalf of ANet.

wish.1027:

Dahkeus.8243:

They really need to make PvE test dummies

This would really help give better test data and allow more solid conclusions to be made.

No it wouldnt… only a fool would sit in a game and try to determine average damage by hitting stuff when the equations for damage calculations are known and would be many, many, many hours faster. Does a parser for GW2 even exist or are you going to sit there and write down every value so you can add them up and divide?

…I think you’re misunderstanding.

With the right dummies, all a player would need to do to test dps of different specs/classes would be to time how long it takes to kill a dummy, then compare kill times.

They really need to make PvE test dummies with the following qualities:
– Killable
– High health
– Can be crit

This would really help give better test data and allow more solid conclusions to be made.

Here’s my 2 cents:

- Noir cinematic: Brilliant and beautiful. A+ on this.
– Mystery investigation living story thing: Totally spoiled on Facebook by ArenaNet’s announcements.
– Dungeon: Good dungeon with good boss fights.

However, here’s my problem with this content:
Instead of giving us more drip content with little mini stories, I’d much rather see some serious change to keep the game relevant:
– Player housing and/or guild halls. Leaving this out of the release was a tremendous step back from the original game and adding this as new content instead of these mini-story events would be a great improvement. Player housing is becoming more and more common in the MMO genre and allowing players to customize their houses/guild halls can give new potential rewards to a game where gear rewards aren’t that big of a deal compared to gear-grind mmos.

- WvW rework. Make WvW wins/losses matter (i.e. unlock PvE content like UW/FoW in GW1) or at least add to it so that it fits in with some story.

- Permanent dungeon/group content releases. ANet already said that it will focus more on permanent content, which I’m very happy to hear. Hopefully enough of this will be challenging group content like the Molten Facility and Aetherblade dungeons.

Computers 101:
Random number generator generates numbers randomly.

Noctis Assassin.4035:

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, pistols are pretty awesome, especially with the Ricochet buff. Here’s what I would recommend for PvE:
0/30/0/15/25
CS: Pistol Mastery, Combo Critical Chance, Executioner
Acro: Power of Inertia
Trick: Thrill of the Crime, Ricochet
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqaVlUmSO3eS+E/5Ex2DgmTe6zgsit/wVB-jAyAYLioRySEpCCZJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVbvLiWtMAVLA-e

A lot of the damage comes from the 25 trickery talent, so wait until your ini is full or a tick away from full before using unload.

Isn’t pistol mastery more or less, a waste of a trait? Unload isn’t classified as a pistol skill but a duel wield so you would need 20 points in deadly arts to get the damage boost to unload.

I’m not sure where you heard that, but you can go into the mists and test for yourself. It definitely affects Unload.

Yes, pistols are very viable. I just posted this in another thread, but this is probably one of the strongest options for pistols in PvE right now:
0/30/0/15/25
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqaVlUmSO3eS+E/5Ex2DgmTe6zgsit/wVB-jAyAYLioRySEpCCZJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVbvLiWtMAVLA-e

Yea, pistols are pretty awesome, especially with the Ricochet buff. Here’s what I would recommend for PvE:
0/30/0/15/25
CS: Pistol Mastery, Combo Critical Chance, Executioner
Acro: Power of Inertia
Trick: Thrill of the Crime, Ricochet
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqaVlUmSO3eS+E/5Ex2DgmTe6zgsit/wVB-jAyAYLioRySEpCCZJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVbvLiWtMAVLA-e

A lot of the damage comes from the 25 trickery talent, so wait until your ini is full or a tick away from full before using unload.

Sword is the best melee weapon for condition removal and port, but honestly, going double pistol is probably your best bet. Since she ports around so much, the dps loss of a ranged weapon is pretty much offset by how much time/initiative you spend chasing her.

Short bow change sucks, but it’s still the best swap weapon for 90% of the builds out there.

There are two main builds I consider for any sword PvE build:
1 ) 25/30/0/15/0
DA: Mug & Sundering Strikes
CS: Side Strike, Critical Haste, Executioner
Acro: Power of Inertia
This build is the highest dps aside from moving the 15 from acro to trickery for Thrill of the Crime, which gives some good buffs, but loses a lot of survival.
2) 0/30/0/15/25
CS: Side Strike, Critical Haste, Executioner
Acro: Power of Inertia
Trick: Trill of the Crime, Flanking Strike
This is slightly lower dps, but still does substantial damage since you get all your damage from keeping your ini full while you auto-attack. The benefit of this build is that you get Thrill of the Crime, a lower steal cooldown, and a bit of extra damage from conditions you apply when using the short bow

Personally, I prefer the top build.

AreUMadBro.6907:

Well, thanks for the nerf. Pets are even better now. HA HA

But we cant get desperate about it, lets just wait for another op build to come out…and ofc, the nerf inc after few months

I can’t think of a better username for someone to post this, rofl!

I’ve been reading patch notes since beta and if these “leaked” notes are fake, then they’re really well done since everything is very much in the style of ANet. They would have also been put together rather quickly considering that the announcement on the June 25th changes was made less than a day before I saw the notes come out.

But in the end, it really doesn’t matter if they’re real or not. They make for interesting discussion in a time where there’s not much interesting going on with the game.

This still really sucks. I mean, put a long cooldown on it and/or an expensive cost, but having NO WAY to fix a mis-click is bs.

Simonoly.4352:

I’m really not sure about this. WvW is neither balanced nor competitive enough for a reward for the server with the greatest score to be evenly remotely fair. It would basically just reward anyone who happened to be on a server with a very large WvW presence. It would also encourage more animosity from servers that are regularly stomped by others.

I’d also rather have less people care about their server’s score than more, simply because it encourages more interesting battles when people aren’t spending all their time pending ticks and trading T0 towers.

If servers were pitted against random servers, that would be a valid point, but putting a server against another server of similar ranking evens this out. I’m not saying this is done perfectly now, but it’s definitely possible and shouldn’t be an excuse for keeping WvW in it’s current state of pointlessness.

I haven’t been in game to see the item yet, but I expect this is what it’s like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-xX7iWvzbo

DevonCarver.5370:

We would like to have a system that rewards servers at the end of a matchup based on their performance and are working out all we’ll need to do to make that happen. Ideally it will give extra rewards for winning while still rewarding everyone for participating. All that being said, it’s hard to know what form the final version will take. Hopefully we’ll have something to get everyone excited to fight for victory.

Please do.

Right now, WvW is largely pointless. Sure, there are some buffs that servers get from WvW, but they don’t really matter. WvW has tons of potential, but as it stands now, I don’t see any reason to care about it.

Orr is the ugliest, most annoying area in the game. I’m all for challenging content, but this news is pretty depressing. I’ve already been bored in game waiting for something decent to be added (besides the mini side quest psuedo-expansion content that has been drip released to us) and this doesn’t really help my outlook.

lol, the title to this thread is a question, but the first sentence by the OP is a stubborn answer that declares anyone thinking otherwise is stupid.

Oh internet, why do so many people become rock-headed jerks as soon as they connect to you?

Bring us GvG (with guild halls) and HoH.

GvG was great for community building in a guild and HoH was PvP that felt like it mattered. I mean, you can win a WvW or lose it, but it really makes almost no difference. Back in GW1, however, the winners would be announced to every player in the game and winning for your country would unlock the most profitable areas in the game.

A full CTF with a linear map rather than a radial one would be awesome.

CTF is great, but I’m not a fan of the orb capture that we have now.

But in the end, anything that’s not conquest would be a welcome change at this point.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I was playing with my Guardian last night just to change things up a bit. I went to hot join then this thief came at me with;

FS->FS->CnD->BS->HS->HS = dead Guardian.

I was like a little blindfolded kid trying to hit a pinata.

So, yeah..I went back playing my thief.

How to counter: When you see the thief do that evade dodge attack thing? That’s Flanking Strike. You can take this hit, but it’s your cue to dodge the next attack since it will almost certainly be Larcenous Strike (the one that steals boons).

After that, use your boons to smash the thief.

Also, if you see a thief use CnD against you, dodge or use something to block/defend the next attack since that’s the cue that the thief will be using backstab.

Have a nice day.

Here’s my list of reasons:

- Thief mobility in combat is insane. Active defense from porting and dodging around is always more fun than just standing and absorbing hits.

- (PvE perspective:) Thiefs have all the fun stuff of a ranger with greater dps, more group utility, and no reliance on an AI-controlled pet.

- Big burst damage. Hitting hard with big backstabs is definitely fun.

- Every single weapon is good. Sure, not every combo of weapons is great, but every single weapon that a thief can use is great in both PvE and PvP.

- Very balanced talent tree. There’s room for a lot of variation in talent trees (well, aside from the 30 in CS that almost everyone takes) and you can make good use of just about every weapon without having to have a very specific build to support it.

- SR rezzing in PvE is pretty awesome. I play the game primarily with my wife, so it’s nice to have a good save for rough situations.

- Second best 1h sword skills in the game. Mesmer blurred frenzy with the 1h sword is still my favorite 1h sword skill, but IS on thieves is a very close second.

OP: Go Pistol/Pistol with Shortbow and follow Loperdos’ guide. It’s a solid build and a viable way to get through PvE as ranged:

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/82179-buildguide-examination-of-ranged-thieves/

stof.9341:

Dahkeus.8243:

For us mortals, however, protection means that your enemy has to do 33% more damage to kill you, which is easily the difference between whether you survive to use your heal when it comes off cooldown or whether you can live until you have the endurance to dodge that next shatter from the mesmer or whether that next backstab will drop you, etc.

Actually, Protection means you have to do 50% more damage to kill someone. So it’s equivalent to 50% more effective HP.

Can you explain the math on that? I don’t follow.

In this thread:
“Your class has X. X is really cool, especially because my class doesn’t have it. Since I am not considering that I have Y and your class doesn’t, X looks OP. I think this is unfair!?

Puru.4217:

Complains that fs removes boons from boon reliant class (mostly because of regen and protection, those class spam vigor so it being removed doesn’t really matter)
End up saying Protection is worthless.

Another priceless thread in the thief forum.

Yea, that captures it in a nutshell, rofl!

sorrow.2364:

Protection is alwasy worse than a well timed dodge, ALWAYS.
The only situation I would say Protection is useful is against a minion army, but we know how many MM are around…

This logic is so broken, I’m not even sure where to start…

No one is arguing whether the protection boon is better than a dodge.

Protection and dodging aren’t mutually exclusive.

And wth is this about minion armies? Are you saying that you dodge everything? If you somehow evade every hit of damage, then please post a video of this godliness. For us mortals, however, protection means that your enemy has to do 33% more damage to kill you, which is easily the difference between whether you survive to use your heal when it comes off cooldown or whether you can live until you have the endurance to dodge that next shatter from the mesmer or whether that next backstab will drop you, etc.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Dahkeus.8243:

sorrow.2364:

Daecollo.9578:

I can see how bunker boon users would be angry about flanking strike, however its rock paper scissors, I think Warrior and Ranger elites should have there boons split a bit so they arn’t as effected by this however the ability itself is fine.

Any boon removal in this game isn’t capable to constantly cleanse the enemy out of their boons. They mostly annoy the boon-user if you are good enough to use your boon strips at the right time, to strip the most crucial boons.

Once you give to some profession the tool to completely wipe any boon out of your enemy for some reasons (probably they want boons out of the meta), you should adjust any other boon-hate skills according to your game design decision, or your buff will become imbalanced.

Counter-example: Mesmer 1h sword autoattack. With clones up boons are removed exponentially faster since clones from dodge and illusionary leap attack with the same ability.

That’s not very practical unless you happen to be fighting a scarecrow. Then again, scarecrows don’t use boons.

Really? Since when was it hard to land an auto-attack on a moving target. It’s so easy, even clones can do it.

Also, lol @ protection as worthless.

sorrow.2364:

Daecollo.9578:

I can see how bunker boon users would be angry about flanking strike, however its rock paper scissors, I think Warrior and Ranger elites should have there boons split a bit so they arn’t as effected by this however the ability itself is fine.

Any boon removal in this game isn’t capable to constantly cleanse the enemy out of their boons. They mostly annoy the boon-user if you are good enough to use your boon strips at the right time, to strip the most crucial boons.

Once you give to some profession the tool to completely wipe any boon out of your enemy for some reasons (probably they want boons out of the meta), you should adjust any other boon-hate skills according to your game design decision, or your buff will become imbalanced.

Counter-example: Mesmer 1h sword autoattack. With clones up boons are removed exponentially faster since clones from dodge and illusionary leap attack with the same ability.

SR is definitely less effective against more experienced players, but it’s still far from useless. The best example of this is stomp prevention for allies:

Even if an enemy knows exactly where you and your downed ally are, they still can’t land a stomp while your ally is down. If your enemy has stability up (as is wise when going for the stomp), then stealthing your ally is one of the few ways you can prevent a stomp and rez your ally at the same time.

It’s a great skill, but you definitely don’t need it. Personally, I almost always PvP with my wife, so I keep it on my bar for the stealth rezzes, but lots of high end PvPers run without it.

Sword builds don’t gain as much from it as backstab builds do and a lot of good PvPers know to just come and attack in your circle to keep pressure on you anyways.

A ) All thief weapon skills are spammable to some extent (depending on build/traits). By your logic, we should have no strong weapon skills?

B ) Corrupt boon’s cooldown is offset by the following benefits that you don’t get from LS:
1 ) There is no mess with RNG to strip the boon you want. Corrupt boon strips all. This is murder against anyone using anything like Runes of Lyssa (which a lot of S/D thieves use, ironically).
2 ) LS requires a melee hit to land. Corrupt boon has a 1,200 range, is unblockable, and is insta-cast.

The reason that the skill is balanced is because there is a trade-off: Instead of getting a ranged, unblockable full boon strip, they have to get into melee range and are at the mercy of RNG to strip what they need. LS is good, but after spending all your initiative, your target may still have protection and/or might up.

Psybunny.8906:

@Dahkeus: Who runs S/P in tournas?

Doh, that was a typo. I meant D/P.

And for sources of people running D/P, you can pull up the builds used in recent tournies posted in the PvP section of GuildWars2Guru.com’s forums.

Here’s how you counter a S/D thief spamming 3: You deal more dps than he does, you CC him between evades and/or you outheal the damage. That’s it. Boons are great, but they aren’t the end-all be-all.

Also, take a look at the tournament builds thiefs are using. You see some S/D builds, but it’s not the dominant weapon choice that you describe since D/P still brings more burst and blind fields.

So, if I understand this right, when you use this thing, you smash the ground with a giant scythe, which causes water to spurt up and makes the mining pick sound of metal hitting stone?

This is so bizarre that it actually sounds kinda cool, rofl!

sorrow.2364:

Dahkeus.8243:

Whatever you claim your incentive is, you can still get a challenge easily:
– Don’t equip an offhand
– Invest in bad/lackluster traits or don’t use all your traits
– Don’t use sigils/runes or simply remove a piece of armor
– Use badk/lackluster support skills or don’t use any

And if you still aren’t getting a challenge, then you, sir/madaam, are simply too awesome for the internets.

You are suggesting me to play a soccer match with half the team because my players are on steroids. Does it makes sense to you?

I think you’re missing a few subtleties behind my pointed rhetoric, lol.

Thief, engi, or ele, depending on the content and build you use.

Who says you can’t do them both at the same time? Just do your dailies while on your alts to get your laurel.

Spiuk.8421:

I rather pay for actual expansions than having mediocre content for free.

Agreed with this. I’d throw $60 down in a heartbeat if I thought that I could actually get a solid addition to the game.

SAB was probably the best mini-additions to GW2 to date.

This southsun stuff, on the otherhand, is really pretty disappointing (especially the crab toss).

ANet, please, take some time off from these mini-releases with temporary content and give us another good, solid dungeon, additional race, additional profession, and/or new skills/abilities for the current classes.

@ Robert: The crab toss really feels like it was made by a single person in a few hours. Considering how many achievements are focused on it, I think this is one of the main reasons that it’s so unpopular.

sorrow.2364:

Dahkeus.8243:

If you’re not getting the ego boost you need from playing at a disadvantage, then just unequip your offhand or something.

lol.

It’s not about ego, it is about challange.
Have you idea of what a competitive game is? Is a game where there isn’t a build when you can press 3-3-3-3 and win. And GW2 aims to become a competitive game.

Whatever you claim your incentive is, you can still get a challenge easily:
– Don’t equip an offhand
– Invest in bad/lackluster traits or don’t use all your traits
– Don’t use sigils/runes or simply remove a piece of armor
– Use badk/lackluster support skills or don’t use any

And if you still aren’t getting a challenge, then you, sir/madaam, are simply too awesome for the internets.