I’ve run both varients on different occasions. And while on paper the ~2000 extra HP you have on Valkyrie armor (you have to account for the 7% Precision → Vitality conversion) sound superior to any fairly minor damage boost you would get from running Berserker, in practice the difference isn’t quite as obvious.
Burst and pressure can at times, be more valuable than a little extra HP. In fact the burst is what makes Backstab builds viable in the first place. And sacrificing that even for significantly more HP…ain’t necessarily worth it.
There’s no clear-cut answer though. Anyone can make anything work or make it look good. But I#d say Berserker gear, at least mixed with a few hybrid items, is a solid choice (and also great for PvE).
That said, I wouldn’t want to run around with less than 15.000 HP in any case.
You should be content with the fact that someone is willing to use a 60+ second cooldown just to finish you off.
And given how many tricks there are to secure a stomp, from Stability over Blind to Mist Form or Stealth I don’t see how Shadowstep is different.
It’s hard to say and the question has been posed a number of times.
In theory the set will be quite a bit weaker as your main source of damage is getting a significant nerf.
But I don’t think it will be nonviable. In fact I’d wager, aside from slightly lower damage, you won’t notice the change much. And you should note that you too will be taking slightly less burst, so there’s that.
I would say that Berserker gear is slightly more attractive than Valkyrie at this point, but only by a margin.
From now on I think every PvP video needs commentary by a sassy black guy.
Afaik there is never a point at which you should sacrifice Power for Precision.
There might be some class-specific exceptions due to certain mechanics but in general Power > Precision at all times, especially after the patch.
I used to have 30 points in Acrobatics while playing S/D evade-spam. It worked well enough even with the Acrobatic traits being a little lackluster.
Hard to Catch is one of these traits you test again every few months, only to realize it still sucks as much as ever. Being randomly displaced is more like CCing yourself rather than being a counter.
I assume they would functionally work the way defensive cannons work.
To be honest, I don’t see the point. We already have Ballistas that fit a similar niche and they are already underused.
And for siege we have both Catapults and Trebuchets.
90% of Engineers are Asura. If you really want to stand out, don’t be.
That said, play whatever you feel most comfortable as. I don’t think the racials really matter.
Yes, I stated this is a thread a few weeks back and it’s insane how powerful these foods are compared to all else.
They break any established rules regarding item budgets. The best example is that it adds more condition duration than an entire trait-line. I mean wtf? Where is my 400 Toughness food?
The kicker is that it even ruins any of the “normal” level 80 foods, most of which only add 15% duration to one particular condition. I mean how does that make sense to have level 80 food that adds 15% Burn duration or 15% Poison duration when you can have it all in one and much more powerful too.
What actually makes it so OP however is how it affects all the CC conditions as well as the damaging ones.
Games that focus on large scale PvP conflicts like to focus on three-way warfare for a good reason.
In theory having three factions battle it out creates a natural balance.
The stronger faction expands faster, captures more territory and needs more resources to maintain it. They will be encountered and thus fought more often while fights between the two smaller realms are rarer.
Map design also caters to this natural balance as the more the dominant faction expands, the further it is from its respawn location and the more difficult it becomes to hold it. The EotM or Eternal Battlegrounds are a good example of this except for the fact that they are incredibly small.
However for a few reasons this doesn’t work in Guild Wars 2.
1. As mentioned, maps are too small. The whole theory of holding distant territory barely applies when your map takes less than 3 minutes to traverse. A single zerg can easily cover an entire WvW map without being stretched too thin.
2. Don’t fight if you can’t win. Due to reason #1, a dominant server will typically have more people than a weaker server and this population difference is very difficult to overcome. So in the end you’re better off avoiding the enemy you can’t beat and focus on the one you can. This means you pick on the weaker server, rather than gang up against the stronger.
3. Since Points-Per-Tick is all that matters (worst scoring system ever!) you’re actually encouraged to pick on the weaker guy, rather than gang up on the stronger. Assuming you’re fighting for second place in a matchup, pick on the weaker guy to deny him points and increase your own all that while avoiding the big guy.
Even in the few cases where there is competition for first place you’ll often be better off picking on the weak rather than fighting an uphill battle against a stronger opponent.
So in summery the entire reason to have 3-faction warfare is ruined by this really stupid points-per-tick scoring system. It’s about time it was replaced.
Why on earth are you running Queensdale champ train?
Don’t worry, he won’t for much longer.
Can’t wait for this farce of a League to end. This matchup against Gandara seriously kittened me off.
Is this what ANet considers competitive? A server that has more than double the WvW population of all the other competitors.
You can’t even roam decently because EVERYWHERE there are dozens of Gandara running around and even if you catch the odd player his savior is just around the corner.
Gunnar duking it out with Drakkar in an epic Siege? Nevermind, here comes Gandara with 4 times the people and rolls over everyone.
What a joke.
Ok I know this is going to get a lot of snarky responses but imo Engineers are the single most overpowered class in this game.
They are somewhat flying under the radar though because their imbalances aren’t as obvious as with other classes. The exception being sPvP which they have already turned into a mockery.
Unlike with other imbalances like Warrior Healing Signet + Adrenal Healing it’s hard to pin-point exactly what makes Engineers so OP.
In my book it’s the ability to passively deal damage while kiting combined with lots of knock-backs, CC and Blinds. It’s not an individual trait or skill that makes them OP, but rather their entire kitten nal and the lack of trade-offs they have to make.
Yes, Engineers don’t have amazing crit-videos where they show off their PvE DPS and no they aren’t very popular but mark my words, in a few months time this problem will become much more apparent.
Pro roamers and PvP heroes have already caught on to this for a while and most have rerolled Engineer at this point.
I said this about Stealth over a year ago, when the game was still in it’s infancy.
I said stealth was a flawed mechanic, it did not have trade-offs and the way Initiative works wasn’t resulting in fun game-play for Thieves or fun counter-play against Thieves.
Naturally the Thief community insulted me and told me “stealth is fine”.
I’m glad more people are coming around to this issue though.
No it’s not. GW2 may have a lot of superficial complexity but in practice it’s not very deep.
Also very few skills really affect play or have important synergies.
You get the boons as soon as they appear on your boon bar. It depends on minute timing to know what, if and when it applies to what.
The megaserver move is probably the way ANet will deal with the call for server merges. It kind of avoids the issue and fixes all the problems associated with such things (such as OMG game is dying! talk) in a nice way.
I’d say reclining server population was probably one of the main reasons to go ahead with megaservers.
People who crunch numbers on conditions are absolutely missing the point. Crunching numbers is for PvE and there’s no debate there about how poor conditions are.
In PvP however, ease of application, availability of counters, telegraphs, being able to kite while still dealing damage, the fact that conditions help cover each other etc. are all far more problematic than the numbers themselves.
It’s not about how much DPS you deal with conditions, it’s how easy it is to do with with little/no trade-offs that’s the problem.
Are the people in this thread aware that Infiltrator’s Arrow (AKA Shortbow #5) is an AOE Blind? It’s not just for moving around, folks.
Except it is.
I have known about this “feature” since launch and the only thing this added Blind does is get you stuck in combat because you blinded some random critter along the way.
It’s not like Thieves are starved for Blinds as is and I’d gladly see the one on Infiltrator’s Arrow go in return for a reduction in Initiative cost.
There are lots of variants of P/D, all with their own emphasis. Back when I tried the build, 0/0/30/20/20 was the standard build and afaik it still works well today. But you could also invest in Deadly Arts to pimp your Venoms or go for a Venom-share build with Thieves Guild and Ambush Trap.
As for gear, Dire is the most obvious and safest choice. It should make you nigh immortal with the right traits. But this means you’ll be dealing condition damage almost exclusively. Some may prefer a little Carrion or other gear for a little more omph, but that’s up to you.
The reason why people hate on it so much is because it’s a low-risk, high-reward build that kills with attrition, rather than skillful play. The entire build evolves around using Cloak and Dagger as often as possible, followed with a Sneak Attack and then the odd Shadow Strike as a gap opener or whenever you feel like it.
You do the same thing, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Against every enemy, in every situation. You don’t need to react to anything, anticipate anything or even use 2 hands. All you need to do is manage to hit targets semi-reliably with Cloak and Dagger. That’s it. But don’t worry, with 15 Initiative you get three tries before running into problems since you don’t really need it for much else.
As for PvE…..it’s almost exclusively a single-target condition build and pretty weak with straight-up damage. Frankly I can’t imagine a worse build to bring to high-level fractals. Maybe with Riccochet you could spread some of your conditions to other targets, but that too sounds extremely lackluster. I don’t see this being viable at all, especially not in Dire gear.
Momentum shifts?
You mean momentum building? Because the first team to get a down also gets all their people rallied once they finish, maintaining their momentum.
This map in itself drove me away from soloQ into teamQ.
Just like 95% of the players I meet in teamQ (who are also soloQing).
ANet outdid themselves ignoring player feedback on this issue. Bravo!
Drop-wise Precursors aren’t treated any differently than any other Exotic item.
And since you don’t exactly get a lot of random exotics with 100 MF, you still won’t be getting many with 300 or 400 MF.
I never seem to have a problem being alone or lacking competitors, even when doing them at 9AM on a weekday. Activities are cross-server so I doubt you should find yourself alone very often.
Anyway, my take on the actual activities.
1. Keg Brawl – This is one of the few team-activities and can be a lot of fun. Most matches are very one-sided but there can be a few good games. One thing that annoys me about it though is the extent of CC-spam. There is so much CC being thrown around constantly it can get really frustrating. It would be nice to see some of the stuns/dazes/knockbacks replaced with “softer” CC like snares or displacements.
2. Sanctum Sprint – My least favorite activity because it’s rarely a competition. I know it’s inspired by Mario Carts and the ingredients should work, but they don’t. Normally one guy races ahead and there’s nothing to stop him from gaining ground. Meanwhile the mid-field, if there is one, decimates each other quickly and then it becomes a dance routine to the finish. It’s never actually a competitive race though, which is what it is supposed to be. I think they need to revise some of the mechanics of this activity.
3. Crab Toss – The activity I’m surprisingly good at for some reason. Overall I think it’s ok, nothing fundamentally wrong with it. I think the 2nd Karka shouldn’t join the game until a little later but that’s no big deal.
4. Southsun Survival – I love the concept, and it’s my second favorite, but it lacks fine-tuning. First off being a Ghost is not a lot of fun. The revenge nodes seem to spawn at random….or not at all. Often you can’t actually do anything at all. On the other hand being ganked by a group of Vengeful Spirits isn’t much fun either and detracts from the core experience. Also very few matches actually end with a fight. Most of the time the last two players never find each other and just starve to death.
I would like to see the whole Spirit mechanic revised. Maybe allow dead players to control wild-life that can interact with the player, both in good and bad ways. They can attack players, but also provide them with rations if killed.
The boundaries of the map should also shrink over time forcing the survivors to face-off eventually, rather than outlive them. Capping the time-limit at 10 minutes would be good too because at that point it really starts dragging.
are you high?
warriors have such an incredibly low risk/high reward ratio that if you can’t win duels with one you should probably stick to pve XDwhen i play my obscenely OP warrior i like to stand there and dance while other classes attempt to break through the insane passive health regen.
Warrior is incredibly easy to play but has limited options. Not much you can do besides from facetanking all the damage. Other classes ( if they are good) can take no damage at all in a duel.
Basically, a baddie warrior wins against any other bad player from other classes but similar skill level, warrior will lack options to outplay his oppenent.
I agree with this assessment.
It’s easy to be a decent Warrior and not hold back your group/guild/team. But excelling is difficult because the class is so straight-forward.
Thankfully though only a few environments really ask you to excel at something Warriors aren’t naturally good at.
I was wondering how good Unsuspecting Foe really is, especially when compared to Merciless Hammer.
Unsuspecting Foe gives us 50% crit-chance against targets that are currently stunned. How does this apply to Earthshaker though? Is the stun applied before the damage or after?
Also the damage increase on Merciless Hammer also only counts against dazed or stunned opponents. And while I know Hammers stun a lot, do our enemies really spend much time stunned or dazed?
I’m thinking not.
Battle Standard should just rez the NPC to 25% health, right now I think it’s 50% which is too much.
The health doesn’t matter. What does matter is that resurrecting the lord resets the cap timer.
Well then maybe that’S the solution.
Rather than introducing some contrived mechanic, reviving Lords should simply not instantly reset the claim circle. Instead it should stay neutral and increase/decrease depending on who is holding the circle, just like sPvP.
I agree there needs to be a cap. Bannering NPCs is fine in itself…..2-3 times. But then it needs to stop.
If direct damage is fine, why do I wear armour?
Apparently though it’s not, which is why it’s getting a nerf.
….then why does my Commander heavily invest to donate -40% Condition Duration food for the zerg?
…then why do I spend 40+ Gold on Runes of Melandru for the -20% Condition Duration?
…then why are 2 out of my 3 utility skills dedicated to countering conditions?
…then why is practically every Guardian in the zerg forced to run AoE condition cleanse?
…then why is -40% Condition Duration food the most most expensive, yet also commonly used buff-food in WvW?
…then why am I still constantly affected by them despite having some of the best condition-removal in game?
These are all question directed at people who think conditions are"fine" or even “weak” in WvW when the fact that people invest so much to counter them tells a completely different story.
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
I don’t like the Guard stacks either for this reason. It’s completely contrived and dilutes what would otherwise be a slightly difference balance.
More than that though I hate the Bloodlust stacks and thse “leet” roamers who refuse to fight unless fully stacked and go PvE for 5 minutes every time they respawn.
Can’t wait for that to go.
Small race is already occupied by Asura.
Bearded drinking race is already occupied by Norn.
Not much left for Dwarves to occupy.
Depending on the changes in the MF, prices of precursors might actually drop a bit after the patch. While (as has been mentioned in the blog) there will be no changes to chances of getting them from forge, the changes are supposed to be beneficial to Forgers in general – which may result in more tries for other things, and thus more incidental precursors being made.
I think they will just make it easier to mass-produce with the Mystic Forge. So creating 100 Superior Siege won’t be such a click orgy.
What does “immersion” have to say about Razen the Raider, mighty challenger of the Flame Legion, who dies of a single Burn effect.
That way you can be the hero.
No, that way I can do the revive daily within a single event.
Taking the standard Hambow build 0/0/30/10/30 into WvW with full Berserker gear and Greatsword + Axe / Shield actually works really well.
I tried to walk past a group of Spider once…
once!
They should nerf/remove the +/- Condition Duration food and see how things go from there.
True, and I still don’t see a downside to it. Yet people here are getting their panties in a twist because why?
I still don’t know….
sPvP is slightly different in regards to conditions compared to WvW, where most complaints originate from.
1. Some condition abilities are down-right weaker in sPvP compared to WvW/PvE.
2. Perplexity Runes, one of the things that pushed conditions overboard, is not available (yet) in sPvP.
3. Dire gear is not available in sPvP so you can’t max. both condition damage and survivability.
4. The popular and dominant condition builds like PU Mesmer, P/D Thief or Spamaneer don’t work in sPvP because they rely on stealth or have other, more useful builds (decap Engi).
5. sPvP does not have food that enhances all conditions by 40%.
All these things combined mean that conditions are much less of an issue in sPvP compared to WvW.
Even then though, that’s only an issue in very scale fights. Once the fights get larger the amount of cleansing that goes on makes conditions nearly a non-issue. (WvW)
This is almost entirely due to the Guardian’s ability to cleanse not only for himself, but for his allies as well. Without that ability conditions would be far more dominant in large scale warfare as well.
-40% condition food is already the most prevalent food even in zerg-fights, for good reason.
Just wait until the patch. We’ve only seen 5 of…what?….30 different Rune sets?
With burst damage going down you might actually find yourself “durable enough” even with your current Berserker gear.
And the nice thing about Traveler Runes is that they free up a trait or ability slot. And that’s something you have to consider. Without any sort of run-speed increase positioning is too difficult.
You should have learned by now to exploit anything as much as possible in this game unless it affects the economy.
Ohai! This thread again!
I find it a bit weird that, especially when selling an expensive item worth multiple Gold, you can be undercut by single Coppers.
I think it would be reasonable if there was a minimum price-difference of 1% for undercutting.
So if someone is selling an item worth 10 Gold, you can’t undercut him with 9 Gold, 99 Silver and 57 Copper. Instead you’d have to go down to at least 9 Gold and 90 Silver. Someone undercutting him would also have to maintain at least a 1% price-difference.
Obviously items worth less than 1 Silver would not be affected by this change. But I think it would make trading a little more transparent and user-friendly, especially if you add an automatic “undercut” option.
Thoughts?
How would a minimum price-difference of 1% affect trading?
Sorry, but minimums of 1% would require maths. I don’t like maths. It’s a lot easier to just take the current price, and offer 1 Copper less. If you don’t like it, feel free to undercut me 1 Copper as well. Tis the circle of life!
That’s why I proposed the game offers us a convenient way to post and item at 99% of the previous price. Currently there’s only a convenience option to match a price but not undercut it.
That’s all I am asking for.
You say that but don’t give a reason.
Reason is: That’s how it works now, and it’s working fine. We don’t have to give a reason to defend a system already in place. The burden of proof is on you; not us.
I don’t have to prove anything since I’m not submitting a scientific proposal. All I’m asking for is a convenient way to undercut someone by 1%.
You’re the one getting so super defensive for no good reason.
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
You say that but don’t give a reason. Why would this enrich power-traders? How does this benefit them?
I am well-versed in economics but don’t see why this should directly benefit any particular group more than others.
1. Elementalist – Nigh immortal near gates in WvW and no counter to his delay.
2. Mesmer – Powerful downed-skills and very difficult to counter his stealth.
3. Ranger – The pet can revive them or help kill their opponent. The skill interrupts everyone in the vicinity. Only downside is that Blind can counter it fairly easily.
4. Thief – 2 potential delays, one with a counter move (Blink/Shadowstep).
5. Guardian – Heals himself fairly quickly and the AoE knockback is good, but has obvious counters (Blind and/or Stability).
6. Warrior – Nothing special except for the fact that they are fairly strong in downed-duels due to high armor and decent damage.
7. Engineer – The pull is a fair interrupt but again easily countered by Blind and Stability.
8. Necromancer – A single interrupt and aside of being fairly good in downed-fights, nothing special.
Personally I think the last 3 are almost identical in practical terms. 1 interrupt that can easily be countered. The top 2, Elementalist and Mesmer, I consider slightly OP because unlike the other classes they can guarantee 1 failed stop attempt. With the right skills every class should be able to be instant-stomped.
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
This has nothing to do with free markets or not, nor is it about “protecting” a price.
I have yet to read a compelling argument against it.
We don’t talk about cents when buying a car either because those amounts are meaningless when we’re talking about big purchases.
I understand market forces and can’t think of a single reason not to do this. In fact I’d consider it BETTER because a convenient “undercut” option when entering the price would ensure a much more dynamic market price. If I could undercut someone by 1% with a single click I’d definitely make use of that feature more often than manually undercutting someone by 1 Copper.
When you go to an auction they have pre-determined steps as well. You can’t outbid someone in 1 cent-steps during a thousand dollar auction. Why not? Because it would be stupid.
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
sPvP is slightly different in regards to conditions compared to WvW, where most complaints originate from.
1. Some condition abilities are down-right weaker in sPvP compared to WvW/PvE.
2. Perplexity Runes, one of the things that pushed conditions overboard, is not available (yet) in sPvP.
3. Dire gear is not available in sPvP so you can’t max. both condition damage and survivability.
4. The popular and dominant condition builds like PU Mesmer, P/D Thief or Spamaneer don’t work in sPvP because they rely on stealth or have other, more useful builds (decap Engi).
5. sPvP does not have food that enhances all conditions by 40%.
All these things combined mean that conditions are much less of an issue in sPvP compared to WvW.
I find it a bit weird that, especially when selling an expensive item worth multiple Gold, you can be undercut by single Coppers.
I think it would be reasonable if there was a minimum price-difference of 1% for undercutting.
So if someone is selling an item worth 10 Gold, you can’t undercut him with 9 Gold, 99 Silver and 57 Copper. Instead you’d have to go down to at least 9 Gold and 90 Silver. Someone undercutting him would also have to maintain at least a 1% price-difference.
Obviously items worth less than 1 Silver would not be affected by this change. But I think it would make trading a little more transparent and user-friendly, especially if you add an automatic “undercut” option.
Thoughts?
How would a minimum price-difference of 1% affect trading?
SAB was the only Living World update I almost completely ignored.
The whole mechanic of entering and earning coins was too convoluted to make sense, the progression too non-intuitive and very focused on trial & error.
I like jumping puzzles, but only in short sprints. SAB was like one overly long, frustrating jumping puzzle with Achievements and mechanics that weren’t obvious to the uninitiated.
Ok for a permanent addition when you can progress at your own pace, but not ok for a 2 week, limited-time, content update.
What does “immersion” have to say about Razen the Raider, mighty challenger of the Flame Legion, who dies of a single Burn effect.