Guild Wars 2

Cynz.9437:

the joke is, since you get locked into 3 traits it seems like there will be even less diversity lol

Depends on the class. Some classes have amazing synergy all over the place, others do not. With the New specialization and Core specs, the Necro has gone from having a few builds to having too many.

Sororita.3465:

Great video, it’s refreshing to see the same enthusiasm for the Reaper that I and many others do. it opens up so many different ways to play our beloved necros.

Whilst I am enthusiastic, I do feel some of the complaints are warranted but I cannot say much on many of those things until I can get my hands on the Reaper.

Hey guys, this week in light of the specialization reveal, I’ve made a video discussing all about my thoughts and feelings on the Necromancer’s new specialization. I share my thoughts on the Greatsword’s slow skills, give my thoughts on the viability of shouts and talk about 3 of the 11 builds I’ve put together for the Reaper already.

Talking briefly about my thoughts on the Greatsword, I feel that the amount of CC we gain in Deathshroud and the amount of chill we have will make up for the slowness of the weapon. Chaining CCs into big attacks will be paramount to make the GS work in our favour but yea check out the video and let me know your thoughts.

coglin.1867:

No. That would be such a bad trait in my opinion. Personally I do not want another trait that only has value 10%-15% of the time.

It’s all about burst and maximizing the tools that we have to launch, KD and kB enemies. For those who wish to play that way, (like me) I think this would be a great trait to have as a sub-effect to another trait or sitting on adept/master tier on it’s own.

Another trait that should be considered for Engie should be;

Concussive Force
Deal 10% more damage to foes that are stunned, knocked back, knocked down or launched. Foes 150 units outside the radius of Big Ol’ Bomb are dazed.

FLAWLESS…. LOGIC…!!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Hammer-and-flying-bots-confirmed-for-Engie/first

You missed the thread.

Fixing the forum bug. YAY!!!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Mesmer wins just from the Dr. Wells reference!

Haha but nice video man, I can’t say I entirely agree with everything (such as your opinion on Continuum Shift, I believe its the best thing we received because of how versatile it is in all game modes.) but I do respect your opinion.

I’d say in the end Mesmer got more substantial changes, not just with the specialization but with our complete reworks to all traitlines allowing for all sorts of build diversity.

Thanks! I appreciate your appreciation! Don’t get me wrong I love the Continuum shift but I feel like the duration and the fact that it requires clones doesn’t serve it all too well.

Waaaaaay too early mate.

I know I said I wouldn’t reply but you’ve been so courteous and nice I decided to give you one more reply.

Xaylin.1860:

You didn’t say that. I brought it up. That’s what having a conversation is about.

If you’re going to bring up a different point that doesn’t directly challenge what I’ve said then you should probably do it after you have replied to me directly. Or just make it more obvious by using phrases like; “On another note….,” “Thinking about things from a different angle…” “Another thing I’ve noticed is…..”

Any of those things would have worked wonders.

Toxsa.2701:

Dirame.8521:

mistsim.2748:

Ragnarox.9601:

True shot CD is fine because you need to stand in place and its easily dodgable.

it’s not fine, it’s too strong. it spends people’s dodges and evades while being nearly spammable and doing 4.2k damage with carrion stats. it’s better than rapid fire in every way and it’s going to be a nightmare playing against this.

It’s a nightmare fighting against anything with short-cooldown burst. Thieves, Mesmers…. Guardian hammer 2 and Scepter 2 and Sword 2…… wait….. there’s a pattern here….

Umm, Hammer 2 is melee with short range, scepter 2 damage is meh unless target is not moving, sword 2 has very low damage, sword 3 has low accuracy and doesn’t pierce, focus 5 has very long CD.

True shot is a 4 cd skill that may potentially hit 6k+ with zerker gears, pierce, 1200 range, doesn’t affected much be retaliation, a true “burst” (channel skill like RF is NOT burst), and wide range. Those skills you mentioned don’t even come close, and it’s way better than RF. This is basically an on demand kill-shot with shorter cast time and shorter CD.

What I’m trying to get at is, most of the powerful abilities on your bar that don’t also have CC have short cooldowns. I think the cooldown for True Shot should be 7s but that is still pretty short so /shrug.

You have some good points but sometimes I think to myself, “how did you get that from what I said?”. I’ve done that so many times now I’ve just gotten tired of it so I’m going to stop replying to you after this.

Xaylin.1860:

I think that this comparison is slightly off. Yes, Well of Gravity will be awesome if not countered by Stability. But Mesmers won’t have a way to blow up people with Wells as Necromancers and Elementalists were able to due to the stat boost their Elites provide.

When did I say anything about Mesmers blowing people up with their Wells? All I’ve been saying this whole time is they will be useful to some degree and yet all I keep getting from you is what I consider to be points I wasn’t even trying to make. I was comparing the uses of long cooldowns to gain a benefit, nothing to do with damage, seems like an apt comparison to me.

Xaylin.1860:

Again, this comparison is slightly off. Guardians will have to use their Traps at melee range and therefore are likely to fill a different role than Mesmers would.

When did I argue against the role of Guardians? Did I not also say they will be used for the benefits they bring? Specifically mentioning Shield of courage with regards to that?

Xaylin.1860:

Additionally, Guardians are already part of the melee train (people apparently keep neglecting that you don’t have to run LB for Traps and vice versa) so this basically means further diversification.

The only traps I see players bringing are; Light’s Judgement and Dragon’s Maw. Procession of Blades is a retal hazard and Fragments of Faith is useless.

Traps have an arming time so players will have to set-up to land Dragon’s Maw. Mesmers will be great at helping with that.

Xaylin.1860:

Well-o-Mesmers will compete for the slot of Well-o-Mancers.

They won’t need to. My friend played a mesmer for many years amongst other Necros, Guardians, Eles, and Wars. So maybe your guild is different but at least one guild I know of is willing to run Mesmers alongside their usual GWEN.

Xaylin.1860:

I think you got that the wrong way…

You will want the blurr to counter massive attacks. That’s a) impossible to properly time in WvW b) unlikely to happen in PvP and c) still very difficult in PvE because mobs don’t have tells for incomming attacks which happen 3s ahead.

You will have some lucky blurrs but there is no reasonable way to actually time the blurr.

Sigh. You wait and see.

mistsim.2748:

Ragnarox.9601:

True shot CD is fine because you need to stand in place and its easily dodgable.

it’s not fine, it’s too strong. it spends people’s dodges and evades while being nearly spammable and doing 4.2k damage with carrion stats. it’s better than rapid fire in every way and it’s going to be a nightmare playing against this.

It’s a nightmare fighting against anything with short-cooldown burst. Thieves, Mesmers…. Guardian hammer 2 and Scepter 2 and Sword 2…… wait….. there’s a pattern here….

Xaylin.1860:

Dirame.8521:

The annoying part about the trap is, it has an arming time so you can’t immobilize someone and then immediately drop a trap on them. There’s a good chance they’d exit before it even starts.

The arming time is important but there will be plenty situations where it doesn’t matter. For example, in large scale WvW you can go all melee with Traps and just drop them to your feets. You will always hit someone. If there are piratekitten shenanigangs going on, drop them somewhere and lure the opposing zerg into them. Won’t work if your zerg is the one pushing, of course.

In PvP, avoiding Traps on cap points isn’t too easy. Trap Rangers aren’t meta but are scary to fight on points. This will also be the case for Trap Guardians. Even if you don’t land all hits you might be able to decap or whatever. Additionally, just imagine how powerful those Traps will be when disposing Skritts and Tengu in Stronghold. You can place them in advance and shred them to pieces.

In Stronghold I believe Chronos and Dhunters will be equally effective as choke points are aplenty there and Traps and Wells perform well in those situations. Mesmer and Guardian defense combo is definitely quite viable now.

Xaylin.1860:

As I already said: Yes, OH Shield looks powerful. But aside from the Alacrity on the Phantasm it doesn’t offer much new to Mesmers. Focus, Sword and Pistol all got interrupt capabilities. We also get projectile reflection else where. The only thing where OH Shield adds to Mesmers is in zerg situations. However, CC is less potent there.

CC is not less potent there. It’s probably more prevalent now than it was before and is more than used in Raid vs Raid fights. Guardians jumping in the midst of a zerg, to binding blade a group of people so that Necros can proceed to use their wells to waste them, Elementalists using Static Field and Unsteady Ground to remove stacks of stab so that those very guardians can pull off that combo. CC is not less potent there, quite the opposite from what I hear.

Xaylin.1860:

I think people are overestimating Alacrity and Chronomancy overall. Understandable, all new shinies. But, for example, the Phantasm won’t be that desired in groups. First, it doesn’t provide any damage as iWarden does (PvE). In other situations it is too likely to die (WvW/PvP). Second, you also don’t see anyone using iMage or iDisenchanter for good reasons. The bouncing projectiles aren’t efficient in groups. Those Phantams mainly shine in scenarios with no more than 3 allies/foes limiting their use quite significantly.

Maybe. We’ll see.

Xaylin.1860:

Mesmers most certainly won’t be the first choice. Sh#5 and WoGravity are our only additions which matter in this regard but both are on high cooldowns. That’s it. Actually, Null Field is better at removing Stability and we don’t see it being used that frequently anyway. Even Shattered Concentration is better despite the downfalls of shatters in large scale fights. Mesmers didn’t really gain too much in this department.

WvWers think differently from what I’ve seen. Yeap it’s a long cooldown but if it offers a significant advantage, then it’s more than useful. Why did WvWers use Lich + Wells a lot when Lich has a long cooldown, why did they use Meteor + Tornado when Tornado has a long cooldown? And the planned use of the G-Well isn’t my idea, it came from the mouth of a WvW guild member that I speak to a lot. So at least they are going to give it a try.

Xaylin.1860:

Necros will still be a better option when comparing Wells when it comes to countering Stability. Also Guardians (Wards) and Staff Elementalists (Earth thingie, Static Field) will remain better at peeling Stability than Mesmers. But yeah, Mesmers will suck less in WvW I suppose

The guild member I spoke to also mentioned a combination of Mesmers and Necros. Instead of having Guardians risking their hides to land a pull, they can just toss it from a safe range and grab a bunch of people to nuke with Necro Wells. No one is really getting left out. Everyone and their tools are getting used. Guardians will probably remain due to the new Shield of Courage and their other support abilities.

Xaylin.1860:

Unblockability is interesting but probably so niche I doubt it will become too important. I’LL admit that overall the new Wells are more interesting than the new Traps. But that doesn’t make them more efficient.

What are the traps going to be more efficient at?

Xaylin.1860:

Unblockability, as said before, is very niche. The blurr effect will be almost impossible to time properly since there aren’t too many ‘tells’ which indicate a blurr-worthy attack 3s in advance.

There’s going to a giant clock on the ground. What other tell do you need? Good players will eat that well up like it was a feast after a 40-day fast.

Xaylin.1860:

Mesmers might have received the bigger overall buff but when looking at the current metas this is quite understandable. Guardians on the other hand have been complaining about the lack of change and now they got some. I think both classes can be equally pleased with their previews due to different reasons.

I can’t argue with this assessment. Though my fear is that the bow won’t go very far when people start testing it for viability. Regardless, I can’t wait to start doing silly things with all the classes.

Sebrent.3625:

@Dirame:
This is true, but did you see the ceiling for how many stacks of bleeding one trap can stack? Combine that with any of a Guardian’s number of ways to lock a target down and you’ve got something quite mean.

We also can’t ignore that burning is going to be stacking. That is the single largest change that opens the condi door to Guardians.

The annoying part about the trap is, it has an arming time so you can’t immobilize someone and then immediately drop a trap on them. There’s a good chance they’d exit before it even starts.
I agree with your observation on burning though. The new virtue of courage will definitely help in that department. Though I still don’t feel it’s something we couldn’t do without.

Sebrent.3625:

Mesmer wasn’t part of GWEN … Necro was because of AOE from staff and Wells … so Mesmer got Wells and a Shield that both could be useful in GWEN.

Guardian long range sucked because of slow softballs from scepter … so Guardian got a Longbow that is pretty darn nice.

Guardian lacked condition damage outside of burning (and sigils) … now Guardian has more options for conditions

Do you not see what they’ve tried to do with these new Elite Specializations? It seems fairly obvious…

I know what they are trying to do. But really you’re wrong about the “more condition options” thing. There are still no other conditions the guard can apply outside of Burn, Bleed, cripple, blind and vuln. The cripple won’t favour all scenarios or every build and the access to a lot bleed is stuck on traps which is also not favourable in all situations. That leaves Burn, Blind and vuln, which Guards already had before.

I think what they’ve got now is more utility in team fights with Longbow and their new virtues. The traps…. are a bit meh in my opinion. Elite trap excluded though.

Toxsa.2701:

Wells only tick once, as traps tick multiple times to unlimited targets

Are you sure you are talking about the right Wells and Traps?

Toxsa.2701:

Chrono looks flashy and all, but they don’t get any new ways to attack foes.
Also their traits are abit too scattered when the elite specialization kicks in, so they’re bound to make hard choices. They look interesting on paper, but the synergy is still questionable.

As for Dragon Hunter, it’s a straight-forward “improved ranger” that’d destined to be insanely OP in all modes of game play. Big Aoe damage, lots of ground target, lots of CC, infinite snare is EXACTLY what PVE, PVP, and WvW need.

I’d say Dragon Hunter gains way more, as Chronomancer gets alot of new gimmick mechanic that may be helpful in certain situation.

Hard choices are what make builds, builds! That’s not a negative! That just means that you have quite a bit of possibilities when it comes to your class. Seriously, go look at the builds that they’ve come up with on the mesmer forums and tell me if the synergy is “questionable”.

I’m sorry but your assumptions on DH, I really don’t think is going to pan out. In WvW, Shield of Courage, Leaps, traps and the Longbow will be amazing, same in PvE but not in PvP. PvP is way more nuanced than that. Okay you hit someone with all your traps, what happens when they survive all that and all you’ve got is a 40s cooldown?
On the other end, Chrono’s Shield, Wells, Elite, and their Continuum split can be used in all forms of GW2. The Mesmer wins out on this won because, like the Mesmers on the forums have said, that’s how it really should be because they are the ones who needed more work.

Flow.2947:

its hard to say who wins i mean if mesmer does his F5 you lay a symbol on the rift and he will be forced to come back very fast depend s on how strong the rift will become.

Gardians does have some extreme power gain you can immobilise for a very long time using eg. F1 which casts the signet and the leap on F2 so you can immobilise him for 7 seconds. means you can land your burst. Blind is still the best weapon against mesmers you have enoght from them just use it!

id say the person will win which is the better player its balanced in traids

The topic is not about their 1v1 capabilities but rather a general overview of what they can do in all game modes and situations. Who would be more useful to a team in every game mode? A Dragonhunter with traps and a Longbow? or a Chronomancer with Wells and a Shield?

I feel these traits should be considered for the Engie;

EXPLOSIVES:
Shrapnel:
Successful Blast finishers apply bleed and cripple to nearby foes.
-Always suggested this rework for Shrapnel because I think requires a lot more timing and skill.

FIREARMS:
Puncture wounds:
Pistol/Rifle Shots that pierce cause additional bleeding to foes affected.
- This means the shots have to hit multiple enmies in order to cause additional bleeding to them. Just like the cripple on the guardian longbow.

INVENTIONS:
Do Not Touch
Overcharged turrets explode and deal massive damage when hit. Turret cooldowns reduced by 20% ICD 30s
- Proposed as a GM trait if it were to be implemented so that players can decide between keeping their turrets alive and using them for a long time or making them tools for burst.

ALCHEMY:
Deadly Mixture:
Throwing down two or more elixirs at the same location creates an acid pool at target location. Applies Bleed, cripple and vulnerabily per tick. Lasts 5s (10s CD)
-Proposed as an Adept trait for an additional damage option for pure Elixir builds.

MEDIC!
Rezzing an Ally whilst wielding a medkit stuns all nearby enemies for 1s.
Ressurect allies 30% faster whilst wielding a Medkit. Medkits heal for more and can be thrown. Medkits also increased ally downed health by 10% when used on a downed ally.
- Proposed as the new Medkit trait.

Imbued Stimulant
Allies affected by your Medkit Auto get 3 stacks of might, Swiftness and Fury for 30s.
-Another Medkit trait… that… may … never be used… sigh.

TOOLS:
Oscillating Electro-Graviton Generator [OEGG]
After 3 successful dodges your OEGG is charged up. The next hit you take is blocked and knocks all enemies in the area, back. 30s CD
- Proposed as a Master tier trait for defensive purposes.

Xaylin.1860:

Weapon
Guardian > Chronomancer.

The weapon skills on both weapons are interesting and probably equally powerful. However, Guardians needed a proper ranged weapon. Mesmers didn’t need another OH.

Mesmers may not have needed another OH but the mechanics they have on their OH are really powerful. Alacrity spamming Phants? Who wouldn’t want that in a team fight. On the other hand, someone spamming cripple on everyone with their bow? I can already spec for that on Ranger, and I don’t even need a bow to do it.

Xaylin.1860:

Utilities
Guardian > Chronomancer.

In it’s current state, the new Traps simply outperform the new Wells. Chronomancers get extra points for their unique buff but this won’t change the fact that their new area effects are inferior in the damage department. And that’s a huge part of their role.

Damage has never been everything. Sure in WvW the reveal trap and Dragon’s Maw will get used a lot and a few people will take more traps because of the Stealth/Super speed on trap use from the trap runes but like I said in the Mesmer forums, who do you think they WvW’ders are going to use to remove multiple stacks of Stab? Or even in PvE, unblockability is actually useful against some mobs and bosses, and in PvP that evade at the end of the well could very well be a life saver or a safe stomp.
Traps are boring in comparison.

Xaylin.1860:

Core Mechanic
Guardian > Chronomancer.

The new F5 is nice and all but it seems like it being very situational plus it is easy to counter. It might enable us to pull off some nice tricks but it won’t help against, for example, Thieves most of the time. Guardians had a greater change of their utilities. F1 offers way more active play. The gap closer on F2 is awesome although people complain about its support being ‘nerfed’. And I love love love the new F3.

So… you might think I think DH won. But nope. Because:

I do believe the Chronomancer core mechanic has a limited amount of uses, mostly due to its short timer and clone requirement. And yes I do agree that, the Guardian beats them in this department because dat shield of Courage though.

Xaylin.1860:

Traits and trait rework
Mesmer >>> Guardian

The rework of the old Mesmer traits are way better than most of the Guardian rework.

Does this add up to a tie between Chronomancer and DH?

For me it adds up to Chronomancer edging out the DH but a lot of the mesmers on the Mesmer forums have stated that the Chrono changes have been sorely needed for the class as the class previously REALLY lacked a lot in the areas that have been improved so maybe their gain is born from that. Personally though, I think they are underselling the weight of what they got, they could just as easily have gotten less than that.

Sebrent.3625:

<sarcasm> And traps won’t at all be useful in the new Borderlands with all their new choke points and narrow pathways </sarcasm>

Stupid post was stupid … /surprise

Traps are useful in WvW world but who do you think is going to drop a Gravity Well to remove multiple stacks of stability so that DHunter’s can land their Longbow 5 and Necros can land their wells?

Curunen.8729:

Daniel Handler.4816:

bump because vanity.

Trouble now is what sacrifice to make to get the slow access and other chronomancer benefits.

You won’t need Chrono for a condi rupt build. People probably just want it for shininess sake.

Ragnarox.9601:

But I dont get it…with longbow we are supposed to be backliners but our virtues need to be in almost melee range to work especially justice. Nah I’ll just wait for expansion to go out in 2016 to try it out

Good observation. But I guess that’s why we get the leap on Resolve so we can get closer.

StickerHappy.8052:

Dirame.8521:

StickerHappy.8052:

What is the point of this thread? This will be another source of complaints and baseless comparisons.

I will assure you if this thread foes out hand, this will be yet another source of unnecessary mesmer nerfs in the future.

You’re wearing tight pants today aren’t you?

Im not, im just being careful, i dont wanna play the blame game if we get nerfs.

Well, if the class is nerfed you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference because you didn’t know about it. hehehehehehehe!

Silv.9207:

DH give the chance to make new condi builds, a ranged weapon and new ways to use Virtues.
Chrono give more support and survavibility by wells, shield and F5, and can obtain a lot of clone respown or quickness on shatter.

They both obtain great things, but there’s only 1 reason why I think that Chrono will be more good like a class: Chronomancer traits can be combined with every other clone and shatter skills, that is it’s mechanic and can obtain a large amount of slow and quickness with a unique traitline that gran exclusive things but that can be shared with it’s all traits and can work with every other traitlines.
Dragonhunter can’t mix well with other traits and builds because there’s a large amount of traits that depend on the New Weapon and the Reworked Virtues.

If we look at the minor traits if Chrono we can see that there’s nothing that can’t be used and useful in all the builds you can do. in DH we have a minor trait that work only on range, that make it bad for those who play un melee or use staff. Compared to a +25% speed and -25% crip/imm/chill totaly Passive and Free, we can see that there’s already something wrong. And if we spend all the traitline to power up our Virtues we lost our time because we already have a entire traitline to power up our Virtues, a line that will be complitely abandoned after tha release of HoT because everyone want the new redesigned and better mechanic instead of a old one.

All the Chronomancer traits work with all the pre-existent builds and traits but the Dragonhunter traits work Only with the New Virtues and LB and traps, making one of our traitlines “old” and “bad” to chose.

Wow, well said mate. I never saw it like that but you’re right. The Grandmaster Minor trait makes the assumption that you’ll be using a Longbow or Scepter when it should instead be something that can slot into any build for the class.

I feel the rest of the traits are fine though, just that GM Minor trait needs to go through re-iteration.

Saiyan.1704:

Great video I really enjoyed it.
Yay!!!

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

Saiyan.1704:

There’s a few key components from each class I like to stand out.

First off, the overall Guardian Gains.
Guardian gained

• Range
• Moar cc
• Peels
• Condition coverage, condition applications, and condition reliability.

There were several reasons as to why hybrid guardian never even made it to metabattle as a recommended build. Lack of conditon applications through traits, skills, etc. Condition coverage from other damaging conditions like bleeds, torment, etc. And the ability to get countered by your own team due the inability to stack burns. Our burns literally had to wait in line to deal damage.

We gained a trio deal! A huge buff to our condition viability. Along with higher crit in Radiance, Carrion guardians could very well be a thing.
It’s happening before our eyes!

I agree with all those things but I feel that, what the Guardian provides, based on what you mentioned, can be filled by any class at the moment. But what the Mesmer will provide in the future, cannot be done by anyone else. Alacrity? Who else has got that? AoE unblockability and evade? Say what?

Don’t get me wrong though, I sti

Mesmer Gains
All I really saw was Mesmers gained a bigger support role through wells and skills. Mesmers reeaally needed it and i’m glad they went that route. They topped it off with a skill repeat function that can offer either higher burst or higher support, depending on how its used.

Mesmer’s Continuum Split
Mesmers will be more predictable in their bursts. I don’t see it a thing in 1v1 because we will almost always know when they set up for a CS combo. Even if they stealth! A duelist just knows. However, it will be a hassle trying to track this in tpvp amongst everything else thats going on. This alone could make them very dangerous in tpvp.
[/quote]

I agree with all those things but I feel that, what the Guardian provides, based on what you mentioned, can be filled by any class at the moment. But what the Mesmer will provide in the future, cannot be done by anyone else. Alacrity? Who else has got that? AoE unblockability and evade? Say what?

Don’t get me wrong though, I still stand by the fact that our new Virtues are better than Continuum split by a long shot but the mesmer utilities and the new weapon provide more possibilities for a team than the Longbow/Traps currently do.

StickerHappy.8052:

What is the point of this thread? This will be another source of complaints and baseless comparisons.

I will assure you if this thread foes out hand, this will be yet another source of unnecessary mesmer nerfs in the future.

You’re wearing tight pants today aren’t you?

Silv.9207:

Guardian get a new way to make builds: condition damage. They’ve never been able to play other builds than shout support or meditation dps. In that way the DH will give much more to the class than the Chrono do. But DH trait can’t combo with builds out of traps, lonbow and conditions.
Chronomancer will obtain a large amount of powerfull skills and traits that can combo with any other existent build and make news.
Just say: +25% speed passive with -25% cripple/chill/immobility duration, 30% critical rate free against slowed targets and every 3 critical hit you slow the enemy for 3 sec. If you add Alacrity and wells that deal high damage or any other kind of weapon/utility you want to play because everything can be used with these traits you obtain a class that can win every 1vs1 so easy that no one will want to fight a mesmer. And mesmer’s already a very good class, one of the best for pvp in terms of damage and survavibility; with that you can simply be unkillable.

Then, you obtain:
- Guardians that obtain finally a new way to fight and be good at this
- Mesmers that obtain a way to be god in 1vs1 and mix they’re new traits with every kind of build they want to play.

Guardians have been able to make condi builds since the Kindled Zeal and then Amplified Wrath but the popular belief is that they can’t. The new specialization will only help in improving the damage of the spec but not change the underlying problem which is; cover conditions.

This is a weakness the Guardian doesn’t need to be rid of because conditions are really not their department. Whilst they can stack a mean burn, they should always be deficient when it comes to covering it up with stuff.

The traps may not help simply because then you lose out on meditations and other utilities that could really help your situation. The only trap that could work is the Elite trap because of it’s CD which works well when using Krait runes.

Ragnarox.9601:

Guardian got traps, got increased symbol dmg which you can easily dodge. We are so OP against non moving mob.

Good thing we have a ton of immobs then!

Tarsius.3170:

It’s a bit hard to say here without actually having hands-on time with them.

One thing to note is that the Guardian has benefited in 2 areas in which it had nearly 0 practical capability:

a) ranged attacks
b) condition damage

and improved our limited CC potential.

So perhaps while the chronomancer has the better/most effective skillset, the DH increases our range of options the most.

I agree. And I also mention this in the video that the Guardian gains a ton of damage and soft CC in the way of cripples with the Bow but really their winning factor over the Mesmer is their virtues. The virtues open up a larger way to play such that it almost makes up for the DH traits not being so creative in my opinion.

Azure.8670:

I want to say Mesmer, and im way more excited for Chronomancer, but Guardian Medi/Lbow is going to be unreal in pvp. as for PVE I dont think theres really anything you can do to make Mesmer better than Guardian. Its going to be interesting though, the theory crafting for Chrono is amazing

I feel there’s one thing might edge DH out over the Chrono and I think it’s the virtues. Being able to combo the new mechanics of your virtues with other aspects of your class gives more value to the DH virtues than the Chrono’s Time Splitter ability. Simply due to the fact that it generates more ideas for builds.

tetrodoxin.2134:

I see you posted this thread in the Guardian subforums as well.

Concerning your topic:
Mesmers will probably say: Guardians gained the most.
Guardians will probably say: Mesmers gained the most.

:D

Me personally, I feel like while Guardians got more on paper (skills, class mechanics), Chronomancer traits are more meaningful to the class as a whole. I might add that I haven’t played on my Guardian for a while, and Mesmer was/is still my main class since beta. There’s a lot of potential in the new traits, Kudos to Robert.

This is what I think as well. Whilst the Guardian has more on paper, the Chronomancer has more substance to it. The guardian traits seem great if you take them on a spreadsheet but they don’t combo into any further builds. It feels very much like how I felt when I started playing the Engie, nothing makes sense, everything is just damage modifiers and barely related effects.

There might be more potential there for the Guardian but I just don’t see it yet.

So with the release of all the specialization details for these two professions, I created a video looking at each of the professions tools and possible combo tactics you can have with them. I don’t go into too much detail but I do talk briefly about what I think you’d be able to do with the new specs in different categories. The categories are as follows; Weapons, Utilities, New Core Mechanic.

Now I want to pose the question to you guys. Who do you think can get the most out of their new specialization abilities based on the above categories?

I personally think the Chronomancer wins out in the possibilities that have been unlocked by the new trait line, the weapon and the wells but I’d like to get all your cynical and objective opinions. I’ll do a mirror topic on the Mesmer side as well just to see what they say if you’re interested in that.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts!

So with the release of all the specialization details for these two professions, I created a video looking at each of the professions tools and possible combo tactics you can have with them. I don’t go into too much detail but I do talk briefly about what I think you’d be able to do with the new specs in different categories. The categories are as follows; Weapons, Utilities, New Core Mechanic.

Now I want to pose the question to you guys. Who do you think can get the most out of their new specialization abilities based on the above categories?

I personally think the Chronomancer wins out in the possibilities that have been unlocked by the new trait line, the weapon and the wells but I’d like to get all your cynical and objective opinions. I’ll do a mirror topic on the guardian side as well just to see what they say if you’re interested in that.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts!

Something has to give and I personally am okay with giving up Chaos for Chrono.

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=mesmer&traits=“Chronomancer”,2,5,8-“Domination”,3,4,9-“Dueling”,3,6,7

I used to do well without it in my interrupt mesmer spec initially so, not a huge loss i my mind.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

All the traits you mentioned are still quite niche.

Renewed justice for instance is great when fighting lots of weak mobs that can be killed easily. But when fighting boss level creatures it almost never triggers.

If they were to simply add “Your critical hits have a 33% chance to burn 1s” onto it then it would be great no matter what your doing.

As for protective reviver, it’s good if you have allies to revive. However if your playing with competent people that may not ever happen.

As for always prepared, its alright as is. But it only rewards you if you go down.

See where I’m going with this, traits that do something when you revive, kill an enemy or take falling damage need something to make them more of a real choice.

Oh so make them like signets? Yea, I’m down with that.

Leeto.1570:

If you have 100% life force every fight then you are almost OP if 0% then you are underpowered. The problems comes from the fact that life force amount depends too much on factors that necro cant affect.

You said this but you still want another Life force on auto. Fact is, if they apply Life force to the auto of the Greatsword, it will definitely not get any life force gain on the rest of the weapon unless they decide to let you have it through traits.
Prime example of that includes Staff and Dagger. I believe they do this just because they know how powerful necros can be at max life-force, just as you stated.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

I like many people are disappointed to see that so many of the fall damage, on revive & on kill traits remain as is.

The vast majority of these traits feel very lack luster compared to other choices & are very niche in their effect.

Looking at the thief we see that their shadow arts trait “Concealed Defeat” was merged to also reduce decentpion cool downs by 20%.

What I am asking for on behalf of the community is that arena.net take a look at the following traits from across all the classes & add additional effects on to them to make them more of a viable choice.

Arcane Abatement

Arcane Resurrection

Renewed Justice

Courageous Return

Protective Reviver

Strength of the Fallen

Always Prepared

Decent into Madness

Toxic Landing

Ritual of Life

Trapper’s Defense

Soften the Fall

Death From Above

Determined Revival

Reviver’s Might

Vengeful Return

Healer’s Celerity

Some of those traits need something to improve them yes but others on the list really shouldn’t be there if you actually knew anything about the profession or how they are being played.

Renewed Justice, Protective Reviver (already merged with a trait that gets a lot of use in PvP right now), Always Prepared (useful in pvp, it’s just that no one knows it yet), Strenght of the Fallen (removes a condition every 10s).

In PvE, traps definitely will do a lot but in PvP, it’s just not going to go very far. Quite a few of them will not see any play at all. Some will due to their cooldowns and usefulness.

The real reason why the DH will be awesome in PvP is the Longbow and the Virtues. They open up a more supportive/defensive/offensive playstyles for our class. The traps are further built with WvW and PvE in mind.

Kharr.5746:

I hate to be “that guy” but it’s all AOE damage too. If it can drop Chieften (approx 30k hp) in 4s, what will it do to a group fighting on point? AOE condi death from guardian will be crazy.

Controlled environment is controlled. Don’t base the effectiveness of a build on how fast it can kill chieftain but on how well it can stop chieftain from hitting you if he had stab, could dodge and had a heal skill.
And trust me, that build won’t do squat in PvP unless you’re a thief who stupidly runs in on a DH when he’s just chilling on point.

In PvE though, the build will be killer. No doubt.

MonMalthias.4763:

I’m debating whether to start a thread like Gates Assassin’s Necro Feedback thread for Engineers. I may as well, but the slowness of the Engineer forum to me says that everyone is taking the proposed changes in with some cautious optimism. That said, silence is the worst feedback so I may type something up tomorrow.

Go for it. I’ll definitely post my thoughts as well.

MonMalthias.4763:

• I posted my take on the Specialisations changes in Chaith’s thread.

Yea, I read that already. Good stuff.

MonMalthias.4763:

Regarding the Inventions changes, I’ve theorycrafted a 0-100 spike healer. .

If the Inventions Adept 2 trait has no Internal Cooldown then instead I would run Med Kit with Throw Mine and Traveller’s Runes .

I see a couple problems with the current Specialisations as they stand.

• Firearms had nearly all the Zerker engi relevant traits taken out: Rifle Mod, Sitting Duck. Enduring Damage and Empowering Adrenaline were also deleted.
• Tools has been severely nerfed for Zerker engi by putting Power Wrench along with Static Discharge.
• There are still way too many passive procs with Engineer; emblematic of lazy design. The Rocket-on-Crit, Incendiary Powder+Napalm Specialist, Shrapnel, Infused Precision+Precise Sights, Self-Regulating Defenses – all these traits being retained while other classes get interesting new synergies and effects that are predicated upon skillful play is disheartening.

I wouldn’t put too much stock into what they are doing currently because of how unfinished and out-of-game it was, though we definitely have to tell them what we don’t want to see. I’ve also refrained from theorycrafting for that reason. I mean come on, 11 Blasts in one build? And each of those Blasts heals twice? Please Anet, have a seat because I think you lost yourself on your way down to the stream.

Jekkt.6045:

Cynz.9437:

4.3k burn 2.5k bleed ticks from hybrid on stream… GG

a carrion guardian is not a hybrid.

Semantics. The point is the damage it’s doing.

Ehecatl.9172:

ronpierce.2760:

It will be Dragon Yeller.

You mean Dragonyeller.

You mean Dovahkiin.

MonMalthias.4763:

This is actually a really good initiative. The previous attempts kind of petered out so I lost interest; but it’s coming back at the right time and in my opinion with the right speakers; Ceimash/Dirame in particular.

Thanks dude! Haven’t seen you in a while! Glad to know you haven’t completely quit!

A lot of people hate it but I’m willing to bet that they’ll see tomorrow’s stream and later, a few crazy people play it and they’ll go…. “OOOOooooooOoooooh….. now I get it.”

I personally, am in love with the new virtues and bow. I’ll reserve judgement on the traps.

TyPin.9860:

lol, I bet no one saw that coming^^

My gaurdian will become a dragon hunter with trapper runes. Guardian invisibility OP^^

This guy knows where it’s at.

Jasher.6580:

Dirame.8521:

So as we are all well aware, Celestial currently rules the day in GW2, from Eles to Guardians, down to Engies.

Guardians either wear zerker or Cleric. So that’s Elementalist, Engineer and Warrior.

3/8 classes.
-
37.5% of the classes use Cele amulet in their meta specs.
-
Of the 37 viable specs on metabattle, 5 of them use celestial amulets.

That’s 13.51% of all viable specs on metabattle.
-
How exactly does Celestial “rule the day”?

I’ll rephrase that part if it makes you feel better.