Guild Wars 2

Cogbyrn.7283:

I think there are some interesting ideas, but a few necessary aesthetic concerns:

1. For the Mace #1 Attack 3, what is the combo field made of? I understand the desire for a combo field, but you’re wielding a blunt object in one hand. I have no idea what it could really be that would make any sort of sense.

2. For Hammer #3, I get the idea, but we aren’t Thor, or Wulfgar. Having a greatsword boomerang is already a bit of a stretch, but throwing a hammer at someone and having it somehow pull them back just seems aesthetically silly. I’d also personally rather have the conal cripple, but if they could make the movement more like Mighty Blow for Guardians (where the character leaps forward and slams down, providing movement but still making sense from an animation perspective), then it would be less of a mobility liability.

3. I use Greatsword all the time, and I would be heavily bummed by those changes. To be honest, moving 100B just frees up another ability slot that I would use more frequently, and then I’d probably almost never, ever use 100B. The bummer lies in 4/5. Bladetrail already doesn’t seem to do a very good job of being a predictive projectile when targeting an enemy, so when I hit someone on the way out, I feel good. If that turned into my only means of gap closing, I’d be horrified. Not only that, Rush is incredible. I know you’re looking at tPvP, but the consequences of WvWvW and even PvE and I’d venture sPvP/tPvP mobility give me a sad. The fact that it doesn’t often hit is almost a non-issue. It’s the long range dash that is the key that adds really good mobility for the weapon. A block would be nice I suppose, but the weapon seems geared more towards mobility, and blocking is in stark opposition to that design philosophy.

4. For Hammer #4, I think I’m the only one in the world who isn’t bothered by the self-root. I use it to follow up after an Earthshaker for clearing people away from the area, or for predicting when someone will be attacking and having the knockback already swinging when they get to me. It has its place, but if they wanted to make it so you could move while knocking back, they’d have to change the animation completely, and maybe reduce the AoE as well (even though it already isn’t very big).

5. For the Longbow F1, when is the boon removal applied? Is it ticked immediately, then every 5 seconds? Or is the first tick of removal after 5 seconds of being down? If it’s the former, I’d be concerned that it would almost be too good, and if it’s the latter, I’d be concerned that it would almost be a nonfactor.

6. For Longbow #1, I feel like there are already infinite ways to cripple. Putting it on something spammable in any class feels lame. I’m not sure what the answer is to spice this one up, but I’d personally prefer just about anything else. Maybe they can apply 1 second of burning or something to tie the weapon into a condition damage/burn theme.

Ok lets revise it then.

1) Mace has a Combo Field attack, not a creation of one. A ‘finisher’ where it does something but I have no idea what.

2) The problem with Hammer #3 is that its on a completely horizontal pane. If you’re above someone you have a 50/50 chance it actually hits based on elevation. I don’t have an exact idea of what to put there but I’d like some form of gap closer OR an AOE Buff where you kiss the top of the hammer and spin in a circle ending with a high five to your closest ally, giving them Vigor.

3) GS needs to have 100B revamped, its only intelligent. Maybe removing Rush went to far. How about
GS #5 (rush) – Targeted enemy becomes immobilized (2 seconds) Rush towards an enemy, crippling all enemies in your path.

4) Hammer #4 is only useful if you can time it right such as hiding behind a wall as they walk in. Or comboing into it, its not a skill you can actually use on its own without having a great chance of missing. There needs to be a way to actually make it MORE useful oppose to just a follow up. Maybe have a whirl like Axe #5 where it knocks back those in your path for say 3 seconds of a whirl. But the AoE is smaller.

5) First boon is removed after 5 seconds of the F1’s use. Giving enemies a chance to move out of the attack.

6) A burn on attack would be fine as well but the problem is are traits associated to burning (10% + dmg on burning foe) would have to be reworked as well. Otherwise the primary attack will always do +10% Dmg.

I REALLY like the idea of making the Warrior more of an AoE team buffer in the sense of Vigor / Might / Fury, and Debuffer of Weakness. I think that would really add some team benefit and incentive for tPvP

Something I would really like to see is more Warrior abilities that grant vigor, essentially solving some survivability problems as well as giving us actual boons for attacking.

Here’s a list (top of my head) that I’d like to see.

MACE

Mace #1 -
First attack – Places Weakness on Enemy
Second Attack – Grants Warrior Vigor
Third Attack – Combo Field – Grants those around you Vigor

SWORD

Sword #1 -
First Attack – Bleed
Second Attack – Cripple (2sec)

Sword #2 - Leap + 1sec immobolize

Sword #3 - Cripple(2 sec) + Appled 3 stacks of bleeds.

Sword #4/5 I think is fine as is.

HAMMER
Hammer #1 -
Attack #1 – Remove a boon from TARGETED enemy (since it has a long attack time and is an AOE)
Attack #2 – Grant 1 stack of Might for 3-5 seconds.
Attack #3 – (which is an AOE infront of the target) Apple a 2-3 second Cripple on enemies.

Hammer #2 - Applies Weakness to your enemy & Grant the Warrior Vigor

Hammer #3 - Replaced because Attack #3 of Hammer now apples Cripple
Attack – Throw your hammer and pull your target to you. Applies Knockdown 1second.
(20 sec cd)

Hammer #4 - Leave as is but remove the self root.

Hammer #5 - Leave as is (2 sec knockdown is already pretty good)

AXE

Axe #1 - Leave as is EXCEPT (already does good damage)
Attack #2 – Grant 2 seconds of fury.

Axe #2 - Leave as is except – Throw now pierces, applying cripple to all those in its path

Axe #3 - Leave as is (its quick and applies vulnerabiliy imo balanced)

Axe #4 - Leave as is (good damage, grants fury)

Axe #5 – Leave as is except – Grants the Warrior Vigor, Increase damage by 15% (right now auto attack does more damage by a long shot).

SHIELD

Shield #4 - Leave as is except – Apply Weakness to enemies surrounding the target (small AOE)

Shield #5 - Roll in the Missiles Reflect trait so that it now Blocks and Reflects Missiles.

WARHORN - IMO balanced just fine. MAYBE:

Warhorn #4 - In addition to its removers, apply cripple to enemies in range (3 seconds).

GREATSWORD - Jesus where to begin

GS F1 – This is now where Hundred Blades is. Damage is reduces by 15%, you can now attack while Mobile. Damage is increased by 5% for each level of Adren (at full Adren you’ll do the same amount of damage)

GS #1 - Leave as is (applies vulnerability on swing I believe? If it doesn’t then add that)

GS #2 - Strike your Foe for (1100 ish) Dmg and Grant yourself Fury for 4 seconds. – 15 sec CD

GS #3 - Leave as it, great skill

GS #4 - Leave as is except
First strike applies Immobolize (2 seconds)
Return strikes pulls the foe to the Warrior. (Sudo gap closer)

GS #5 - NEW: Block foes INFRONT of the Warrior for 3 seconds. Each attack blocked grants the Warriors 1 stack of Might for 3-5 seconds. (#4 is now useable as the gap closer).

LONGBOW - This needs SPECIAL attention
Increase projectile speed across the board.
Minimum attack range is 1200 – no longer traited.

F1 – Revamped
-F1 Lasts 5 seconds per Bar of Adren.
-Apply Burning in the AoE Field.
-Enemies within the Field now suffer from Weakness
-Remove 1 boon per enemy every 5 seconds (3 boons per enemy at full Adren, if they stand in it for 15 seconds)

Longbow #1 - Damage increased by 25% (it current hits like a wet noodle)
Apply Cripple (1sec)

Longbow #2 - Fire a TARGETED AoE Burning region (there needs to be more ways to apply burning, so the AoE spread imo isn’t very good).

Longbow #3 - Leave as is except
Foes hit have Immobilize Applied for 1.5 seconds.

Longbow #4 - Leave as is except lower the CD by 2 seconds.

Attack #5 - Immobolize your foe & Grant the Warrior Swiftness for 3 seconds.

I’ll do Rifle later but here are just some ideas that I dont think are that over powered it also add some pizaz.

Crit is incredibly important in Bleed Builds. Pair up the 60% chance to apply bleeds sigil + the % Chance to apply bleeds trait and suddenly crit chances is important to quickly applying bleeds.

“I hope this is in regards to pve….
In tournaments I do very very well, at first I was getting my butt handed to me, but with some practice and a couple of routine combo’s you eventually figure out, if done properly and you have a good sense of your surroundings you should be one if not the top players in whatever team you are in, I have no problem what so ever with any other class other than another warrior….”

No this is in regards to tPvP.

I do well in tPvP on my Warrior as well. But there have been MANY times that my team has wished I brought more to the table in the scheme of total group buffs or enemy debuffs.

I think we have enough survivability, I also think we definitly do enough damage.

However I don’t think we bring enough interesting utility to tPvP that would warrant us being picked over say a Mesmer / Guardian / Necro / Engineer.

So that’s the problem – alot of teams are running say 2 necros or 2 Guardians in place of having a Warrior. This is because alot of OTHER teams are running 2 Guardians, thus making the presence of removing Boons extremely important.

Essentially the tPvP Meta is revolving around Bunkers, dealing with Bunkers and Mitigating Bunkers. None of these areas Warriors really excel at.

please dear god no

Maybe replace your F1 skill with a new one depending on what banner is out?

More F1 skills that would bring dynamic changes to abilities would be a great thing too, and the functionality is already there with the Ele Profession.

I would just like to keep the discussion open and have as many people give out their thoughts and ideas on the subject. The goal of the discussion however is how we can improve the Warrior Profession in such a way that 100B isn’t a go-to build for many players, as well as increase the incentive to bring a Warrior to tPvP.

Darkhaven usually has a number of players in the mists at all times.

^ Well the idea isn’t to just use the different abilities in different orders and obtain the same results.

It’s more to use different abilities in different orders to provide group wide boons, or AoE conditions or other special effects.

So instead of Mace #1 just applying weakness to an enemy. If you combo INTO Mace #1 it’ll apply weakness to an enemy as well as give the warrior Vigor.

Then couple in Weapon Swap combos and they provide even larger incentives such as.

Weapon Swap (combo) into Hammer #5 (usually a 1 person stun) now it does the stun as well as places churning earth below that persons feet causing any enemy who enters it to take damage.

Essentially combos give larger gains than what weapon attacks do now.

^ I personally believe the Profession should be considered Disruption / Survivability / High Sustained (not burst).

Adding Combos in to promote higher damage attacks or utility from attacks would go a long way to promoting cross weapon combos and awareness of attacks.

I use more than use two buttons, I generally use 16 buttons.

I run Hammer / Axe-Mace.

Yes. Yes it is.

Some people are lucky. At rank 3 I had full tourny (Armageddon) gear. At r25 now I’m still using the same gear, so its been pretty stale for me since lol

Personally I think our survivability is fine if you bring in enough toughness / vit. The problem I’m finding is that our attacks most of the time, are just for damage. Where as other classes, their attacks do comparable damage, but also add multiple effects.

I would like to bridge that gap and offer some versatility and more importantly: incentive to weapon swap and be conscious of the attacks you’re using.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_reward

Click an item and it’ll tell you what mats you need to make it.

Hey guys since we’re all pretty passionate as to how the Warrior class could be performing better in PvP I created a thread on the sPvP Forum. (yes I concede, after playing a Mesmer a little today we are slightly vanilla ish)

The thread is about improvements to the Warrior class in an open dialog to Jon.

In it I detail a concept I hope will be picked up in regards to comboing different attacks into each other for special effects.

Think Mace 1 creates a Combo Strike,

Using Mace 2 and if a Combo Strike is present, place Weakness on the enemy and grant Vigor to the Warrior.

Also give special bonus’s for doing Combos across weapon sets.

Example:

Attack with Mace 1 – Gain a Combo Strike
Swap
Attack with Hammer 5 (stun)
Extra effect: Cause a churning earth effect placing bleeds and slows on enemies surrounding the warrior.

The concept is to promote weapon swaps and using different attacks in coordination in order to create benefits to the warrior and their team, as well as place a hindrance on enemies.

Please comment, show your support or give your own suggestion here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Dear-Jon-My-thoughts-on-Warriors-and-unique-improvements/first#post358904

Thanks fellas.

Jon,

As an avid Warrior fan I was wondering what your thoughts (your opinion) are in terms of the profession?

I find there’s a silver lining of how good a Warrior can be compared to the other Professions. We bring a couple of things to the table, yet many people consider those abilities to be worth less than other professions.

So, in your opinion (since you have all the data), where do we stand?

Do we need a little help? Or are we just fine?
How’s our build diversity?
What’s our tPvP representation among teams that come in 1st place?

Today, for the first time since the game released I played a Mesmer. I was amazed at how many of their abilities do multiple things at once. After toying around I realized that the Warrior class, in MY opinion needs attack diversity as well.

So I sat down and pondered. Hmmmmmm, what is there available in the gaming universe for me to pull an idea from.

And then it hit me!

Attack combinations!

What if instead of lets say Mace #1 (attacks three times, and on the third attack it applies Weakness)

We changed it to something like: (I’m a programmer so bear with my logic)

Mace #1

- Gain a Combo strike (create a combo strike bar on the right side of the Warrior).
If(Combo Strike == True && Attack != Mace #1) AKA we already have a combo strike
{
//A weapon can’t combo into itself
Attack places Weakness on your enemy and grants the Warrior Vigor.
}

Mace #2

-Gains a Combo Strike
If(Combo Strike == True && Attack != Mace #2) ’Aka we already have a combo strike
{
Attack Stuns the enemy, and leaves churning earth under their feat.
}

TLDR:
-Weapon attacks combo into each other to perform boons / conditions on the enemy as well as place ‘warrior’ like attacks on them. Single weapon attacks cannot combo into themselves, forcing the Warrior to use attack diversity.
-Grant additional bonus’s if the Warrior does a weapon combo across weapon swaps.

Thoughts?

Thank you for your time,
-Defektive

Tried all three of those with consistent target swaps. It worked once ina while but they would just book it and kite with stability.

Hi.

I spend alot of time in tPvP and came across a very well put together team running:

2 Bunker Guard
1 Bunker Engy
1 Bunker Ele
1 DPS Mes

Map: Foefire

Engy/Ele on GY
Mes Roaming (portal to watch primary point)
Guard/Guard Bunker on our Primary point.

Either
A) We couldn’t get the bunkers off our point and they’d eventually decap.
Or
B) We would swap target to a diff point and their Mesmer would reinforce with Bunkers porting in.

Really have no idea what comp would beat that.

Thoughts?

Edit:

Forgot to mention they portaled into our Lord, killed him in under 10 seconds and Ported back.

just going to capitalize on the ‘outright suck’ portion of that statement

Lets start with this question:

What is your goal / what are you trying to achieve?

Support can mean a number of things. Condition removal, condition application. Boon application. Mitigate damage from enemies. etc.

Just to be clear. I dance around things for a living.

While yes Warriors compared to some classes like Mesmers or Guardians have a handicap, I’m more concerned with how much of an over reaction people are having to it. I see us as 10% less effective in certain areas (like damage compared to survivability). But I firmly believe we make up for it in control utility.

I play tournaments all day.

Kiting: Leap has a very short CD fyi. I also have very few problems being kited mainly because I cleanse the conditions as they come instead of letting them stack ontop of other buffer conditions that stop the cleanse from hitting the right condition.

Spending Adren: There are a number of methods to regain adren quickly. You should be constantly using your adren not just letting it sit there and fester. Don’t let that stop you from using an F1 that’ll give you a gap close or keep an enemy in front of you.

Also in regards to using ES as a gap close: You only need 1 bar of adren to use it and it’s on a 10 sec CD. You don’t need to save up a full adren bar to use it for multiple effects.

And we should have to trait to do certain things, if anything the classes you’re referring to should be toned down to our level instead of us buffed up to theirs.

By asking for more conditions to be added with standard attacks you’re essentially simplifying the game.

While yes we do have to sacrifice a lot to be marginally good at certain areas, I wouldn’t count us out just because of that.

It almost sounds like you’re purposely trying to find reasons to not like the class. There are plenty of reasons TO like the class.

Edit:

Forgot to add in regards to making us better for Tournaments. I’d like to see our base toughness / armor increased so we wouldn’t have to trait/gear so hard so we’re not squishy.

Jestunhi.7429:

Raging Bull.5048:

Well it’s not really the same thing. Actually not at all. Anyway let’s not derail the conversation, I am only asking whether it’s possible, and hoping for an official answer.

As a coder, unrelated to this game and any companies involved with it, yes it’s possible.

They already have a version of the code working in WvW, it may not be straightforward to adapt to other zones but I’m certain they could if they wanted to.

The hurdle is probably identifying how to flag an enemy to be a combatant. In WvW they are flagging individuals by server so its easier. It may be easy to just dummy in a temp ‘server’ using a GUID that’s hidden, thus making the application think each individual is in a different server. Then just set parties / guilds to the same GUID.

Actually you could probably ditch certain traits for more damage depending on your gear’s toughness. You could probably do something like

20/0/20/20/10
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#ccR9wG0GGaVazaoRV

But it’s all dependent on the type of gear you currently have to prop up your HP / Toughness.

I’d probably go FGJ, Shake It Off, Balanced Stance for Utilities.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Defektive-s-tPvP-Build-Avalanche/first#post350006

^Build. Look for the DPS Variant in the traits section.

Much of the post is in regards to s/tPvP but I wouldn’t mind giving it a run in Dungeons just as a mitigation tool and damage dealer.

May I recommend a Hammer – Axe/Mace build? Support your team by mitigating the enemies ability to do attacks. Then swap into Axe for damage.

Should take a look at the DPS Variant of my ‘Avalanche’ Build.
Believe its 20/0/30/20/0

In regards to targeting Warriors in sPvP:

That’s true in tPvP I usually call to just burn down the warrior. But thats only because 95% of Warriors still play single minded. It reminds me of when WoW Arena (yes I went there) started and people tunnel visioned on one enemy. Thats the common Warrior at the moment. When in reality its the target swaps and the pressure that gives which set a player apart.

I think the class has a lot of offer, maybe slightly handicapped compared to other classes. But there’s still a lot there – people just need to capitalize on it better.

Guldur, not to be a thorn in your side but I’m going to pick apart your statement.

1) “easily kited” – With proper shout management, you can cleanse a large amount of cripple / immobilize / Chill, essentially rendering yourself mobility free. Not to mention a number of skills that provide mobility such as Leap, Earthshaker and Bulls Rush

2)“his skills are too simplistic” – This may be true if you’re running GS or Rifle builds. Even Weapon/Shield builds are relatively simplistic. But the number of skills that combo into each other as a Warrior are vast as soon as you mix in Hammer / Maxe(MH or OH) and Axe.

3)“Most of our skills are do dmg and thats about it.” A lot of our skills do important things as well: Vulnerability on demand. Stuns. Knockbacks. Weakness debuff (which would eliminate the spammy vigor players), bleeds. We can also buff allies with Warhorn. I think a lot of about being a good warrior comes down to knowing whats going on around you and reacting to it accordingly.

4) “we don’t have access to boons like protection and retaliation reliably, also we don’t have access to conditions like poison, chill, confusion,blind,burning”
Retaliation uptime of 33% of a whole fight is pretty nice, I consider that reliable wouldn’t you? We also have access to Weakness, Burning (longbow bleh), Bleeds, Confusion (traited), and Vulnerability so I’m unsure of where you get that intrepretation. Also, a NUMBER of our attacks work in combo fields that will also apply things like Poisen and Burning.

5)“we aren’t able to remove boons.” – Just grab a 60% chance to remove Boon on crit sigil and stick it on a weapon if it’s that important to you.

For some reason I can’t edit the build right now to include these gameplay Proof of Concept videos. When I get the chance I’ll add them formatted correctly:

This video covers if the Avalanche Build can throw a punch
“Who says ‘bunkers’ can’t do damage?” - http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334468167

Video displays the importance of interrupts in a sPvP environment
3v2 With Uwaaah - http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334468860

Video covers the inevitable “but can you beat a Mesmer?” Yes.
tPvP Mesmer vs. 1/2 HP Avalanche Build -http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334471836

Video show cases damage + survivability of Hammer/Axe-mace
1800 HP Goes a long way
http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334806954

PS: In regards to the edit – I can ‘edit’ but when I go to save the changes, nothing gets saved. Reloaded the forum and tried it on a different browser – same effect.

Correct, the Pains do not remove nor stop condition damage.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Oh ya, wanted to add: yes, we’re watching Mesmers, bunker Guardians and tank heal Ele’s. Forgot to add that.

THANK YOU. Those are the ones that definitely need the most observation.

I love that you started the post with ‘Sup’.

Love it.

Love Love Love

I tried the Clerics Amulet for a while for the same reason but it didn’t meet expectations.

Here’s why:

HP Pool to start with isn’t very high (22kish lets say).
Solider pops that up to 29. Id rather have a buffer zone of an additional 7k HP over being able to heal for more total HP over a minute, mainly due to the fact that 90% of fights don’t last over a minute.

Lets really cut down a total fight to 30 seconds because realistically it sits around there.
At 240hp per sec – 7200hp in 30 secs by your calculations.
200 HP More. – Under the assumption your popping shouts on CD which isn’t optimal because you don’t want to be blowing your stun break and double stacking your Fury bonus etc.

In a mathematical sense your numbers work - in game however the circumstances don’t lend itself well.

And then there’s the power loss….

I do however like it if this was WvW or Dungeons.

I think what sets Warriors apart is that you can’t really CC them out of a fight. We have so many stun breaks / stability boons on extremely low CD’s that it’s impossible to properly mitigate our presence. Couple that with our own Stuns / CC’s and now you have this behemoth walking around who can’t be CC’d but whose stopping you from your objective.

That has to be worth some weight.

fadeaway.2807:

I’m not a fan of either 30 traits for defense tbh. Spiked armor has low uptime and is only useful if you’re being attacked (if you are being attacked and not your groupmates, you’ve already won the fight).

….

Anyway, darn you for posting this. I’ll be facing more of em now ):

:)

By the way the uptime of Spiked Armor is actually very high.

It lasts 5 seconds, has a 15 second cooldown.
-Cooldown STARTS when the 5 seconds Starts. So in reality you won’t have Spiked Armor only for 10 seconds (not 15).
-AoE attacks proc it, and AoE attacks will take damage from it. So while they may not do direct damage TO you, they sure will be taking damage from it for AoE negligence.

I’ve killed more people than I can count with Spiked Armor, to the point that I feel frown face without it.

Yes you do take the damage.

I would like to add, that Spiked Armor only gets better the more HP and Toughness you have.

If you have 1500 Toughness and are taking 500 dmg a hit from an enemy, you’ll reflect about 375-400 back to them.

However, if you have 2000 Toughness and are taking lets say 375 dmg a hit from an enemy, you’ll reflect 375-400 back to them.

Defy Pain is only relatively (and I mean relatively) decent for builds that have barely any HP/Toughness and really NEED outside utilities to keep them alive.

Spiked Armor x1000.

Considering it’ll be up 33% of a fight, compared to Defy Pain that has a long CD, doesn’t last even as long as retal, and activates only after the majority of the fight has ended.

Shouldn’t even be a decision!

For Warriors at least, in order to achieve that burst you have to wait 60 seconds each time its possible. My most used stun break has a 20 second cooldown (traited). But once ina while I’ll bring a second one just incase.

There’s also the possibility that you may just need to pay more attention to your surroundings and to specific enemies. If I know a GS Warrior is fighting against me, but attacking an ally, I like to keep my camera angled towards them so I know when they are about to rush to me.

Just need to play more my man!

I’m going to answer each real question posed here.

Sabbathius.1465:

I think we need a tad more details in this thread. Like which class you’re playing, and in what scenario, when you name a specific class.

- I play a Warrior.

Sabbathius.1465:

For example, someone earlier said #1 is “Engineer by a LONG, LONG mile”.

I feel Engi is very flexible, yes. I feel it is highly mobile and very useful in WvW. But I really can’t remember playing any class (and I played them all at some point during the betas and/or since release) where I said to myself “Oh, crap! An Engineer!” and my pulse rate went up. Never happened.

-Some engineers right now, are almost impossible to kill unless you get a CC chain on them with a few teammates. Bunker engineers are simply AMAZING in tPvP. Consistent regen, speed, AoE’s and knockbacks make them an extremely difficult class to deal with.

Sabbathius.1465:

On the other hand, when a Warrior jumps me and I didn’t see him, or a Thief starts unloading at me before the engine even renders him, that is a definite “Oh, crap!” moment where it’s do-or-die. With a warrior the reflex gut reaction is to roll away, but if you are CCd already, that half-second’s hesitation when the roll fails will see you killed.

-This is (unfortunately and I mean no offense) a ‘Learn 2 Play’ issue. A simple stun break can mitigate Warrior and Thief burst and give you the upper hand if you retaliate with a stun or knockback. For this reason is why many people in this thread aren’t listing Warriors / Thiefs as on ‘top’.

Sabbathius.1465:

Similarly, a lot of people say Mesmer. And I can’t for the life of me work out why. Certainly for a complete newbie that can’t tell a clone from the real thing, a Mesmer can be a daunting foe. But against someone who knows precisely what ability was just used, and what it did, and most often where the Mesmer is as a result of it, the class is very easy and predictable since abilities are so prescriptive.

-My heart rate doesn’t go up against a Mesmer. But my annoyance does. Great mesmers use LoS and their ability to consistently spawn illusions to simply kite an enemy to death with Confusion and NPC damage. Couple together teleports, in some cases invulnerability and stuns/CC’s, this class becomes exceedingly difficult to deal with.

Sabbathius.1465:

For me personally, I would rate classes as Thief, Warrior, Ranger. Not because of their individual strength perhaps, but because the classes perform very well with an absolute minimum of effort. Not quite “Spam #1 and win”, but very, very close to it. It takes precious little skill to be highly effective with these classes. Just takes a bit of luck and positioning to totally wreck with them.

-Once again, a L2P issue where “Spam #1” professions are still giving you trouble, but for many of us are now kill fodder due to stun breaks and counters.

If I may direct you to: http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/333898008 in regards to Thiefs and their high damage. Notice the use of stun breaks to get out of their burst, moving out of range of their spammy attacks, and retaliating with Stuns / CC’s to easily overcome the foe.

I appreciate the response Jon. I recognize there’s a balancing act here in regards to stats.
However there have just been a number of times where I said to myself

“This style of build would be neat to try, but I would lose to much Toughness, or I’d lose so much Power that the build essentially becomes ineffective or forced into a Bunker or DPS style.” So I always end up reverting to the same two Amulets.

Sephalo.5407:

I don’t want to start talking about OP classes cus it frustrates people.
I personally think 3 classes are overpowered in their own ways but I won’t mention them.

The thing that makes me sad is that for tournament games 2 classes are more or less required to do well in the Trebuchet map. The protective knockback Guardian to camp the Clocktower and the Portal Mesmer to control the Treb and quickly repair it.
It’s sad that a good tournament group basically always has both of these combined with some burst, roaming and maybe one more point holder.

Pretty much the reasons above are why I say Engy(point holder)/Guard(clock)/Mes.(Treb)

In all seriousness?

Best → Worst in the Top 3
1) Engineers (by a LONG, LONG mile), 2)Guardians, 3) Mesmers.

You would love about 7k HP with that amulet over others so I see it as balanced in that respect.

Maybe this combination isn’t the best as an example, but there needs to be more choices available to people. All be it, with restrictions.

Jax.5261:

Escape cancels your skill you’re currently using, no need to sheath.

True but for some people Esc isn’t that reachable. I personally have small girly hands so Esc is out of reach. You can’t bind Esc (I believe) but you CAN bind Sheath. So I do. To a button thats easy to reach for my little itty bitty fingers.

Hammer- Earthshaker:

If ES is interrupted mid cast, it gives it the full CD instead of the 4 seconds all other abilities get.

It’s all about getting that first stun in and then chaining them all together.

The easiest stun to start the chain is the hammer F1 since its instant and a Leap. Just watch for the amount of times an enemy has dodged, once they hit 2 just go for the F1 Stun.

From the F1 I generally go:
.#4 (knockback) -> #5 (since it can be casted as you run to them while knockbacked) -> #2 since its the only other casted attack you may as well do it while they are knocked down.

Can’t just wail it around you need to watch for their boons (stability) and how much endurance they probably have left.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention, sometimes I like to bring Bulls Charge along for easy target swapping and starting a CC chain.

Also. Use the CC chain to combo into your more damage-based second weapon set in order to provide the DPS push you need to win a fight.

Man I shouldn’t have wrote that when I was running out of the door for work.

Either way. Some stat combinations already lead to more ‘op’ builds. Berserkers amulet is widespread in most high DPS builds yet there isn’t an accompanying Amulet for the reverse
(798 Toughness
569 Power
569 Precision) etc.

It just seems terribly inconsistent and more often than not has a direct impact on the build direction I go.

Hello.
It has come to my attention that there are a few holes in the PvP amulets amulet.
This is a startling problem due to the stats Amulets provide. The absence of stats can stop an individual from trying out builds due to not meeting certain stat criteria.

I understand that Amulets are important to balance. I propose that you create an Amulet build form in-game that allows you to take off stats in set intervals (+/- 200ish). Controlling the amount of stats available, and capping out stats at the highest number in standard amulets: 798.

This will promote build diversity as well as provide people with the feeling that their characters are more custom than the next persons despite still being balanced.

Below are two examples of Amulets that if possible, I would love to see added.

1)
798 Power
569 Precision
569 Toughness

2)
798 Toughness
569 Power
569 Precision

There is only one Rune right now that provides Toughness as the primary stat:
Shaman:

125 Toughness
75 Condition
75 Healing

If possible, I would like to see an associated Rune for the above mentioned Amulets.

125 Power
75 Precision
75 Toughness

125 Toughness
75 Precision
75 Power.

Thank you for your time.

Rifle Axe/Warhorn or Shield is a decent solo and dungeon build.