Guild Wars 2

alain.1659:

You can do fire/air/arcane ( blinding ashes, fresh air, evasive arcana), it is dangerous but fun. Or you can do air/water/arcane with cantrips and celestial amulet to be more tanky but you will have to use pack runes or something to buff your crit damage. There are several different builds on this subject, you can google it easily if you want to play.

ps: scepter focus may seem heavily nerfed after the patch, but you can “almost” compansate the nerfs with your playstyle.

one more thing, for cele staff, hoelbrak or pirate runes?

alain.1659:

I would like to say that it depends on you skill or playstyle. But D/D set is superior to staff. I still play celestial (or zerker, if I am in a very confident mood) staff because I do not like daggers. Staff brings more to your team if you use it right, at least for me. DD can do many things that a staff ele can do, with much ease, but it’s team support is lower than staff.

By the way if you will try ele in pvp, try scepter/focus fresh air. Hard to learn, fun to play. My favourite pvp build is s/f. Only bad part is that you can not play it constantly because it causes my hand to ache. Too many buttons, too little time

Whats a good scepter focus build? :o

I don’t main ele, its sort of an alternative character I play sometimes for something new. This meta I seem to be a bit better with celestial staff, but I always wondered, are both good for different reasons? Or is D/D undoubtedly superior?

While I agree that fast hands is very useful, its only one of the traits that makes it exceptionally powerful. Look at that whole trait line, every weapon swap gives you two stacks of might, some adrenaline and cures a condition thanks to multiple benefits. It’s a lot of recovery simply by swapping weapons.

Cleeansing Ire is a trait I’ve always been mixed on, I know its very important in the pvp and wvw area and id love it to be baseline, but I also know its very strong. I think it could be fixed if the other trait lines offered more recovery like discipline does, people always take discipline because when versing other players you need to switch weapons, you need more adreneline, you need that extra condi clear. Without cleansing ire and the discipline line, warriors tend to be pretty easy to take down due to low sustain since shouts cannot heal enough in this high damage meta and condis are also rather exceptional.

Mesmers are typically required to take deceptive evasion, which is fine, compare it to a warrior that is essentially locked into taking two trait lines for cleansing ire and discipline traits (this is by pvp and wvw standards not pve), the diversity is decent, but not quite there yet. I love my warrior right now, thats my two cents xD

Don’t get me wrong, the meta gs/hammer build does some fantastic damage and I may be in the minority on this, but I feel like the celestial mace/sword build is a bit more versatile.

Gs/hammer definitely out damages it in most cases, but mace/sword seems to be able to put good pressure while also taking more hits and dealing with kiting a bit better. What do you think?

Mea.5491:

This is lame. I don’t even feel like logging on anymore.

So nothing?

What time do they usually do the updates?

lordkrall.7241:

tazzannl.5016:

sorry to burst your bubble but every 2 weeks i have logged on a Tuesday to find new content in the gem store every single Tuesday on the 2nd week, so that is a load of coswallop

That is of course not even remotely the same as them promising to have updates every 2 weeks. It just so happens that most of the time they have done so. They have however never said anything about it.

Yeah I wasn’t sure if we were getting the new outfit and butterfly wings today, any updated word so far?

I main mesmer, warrior and necro but do have characters of every class just so I can understand what I’m going against in tpvp. Keep in mind this is for tpvp, not pve or wvw.

I’ve gone against very tanky or damage worthy elementalists, I’ve never quite been able to use d/d myself though. Probably my biggest downfall is the healing signet, I can live without the healing signet, but whenever I use it I feel like the heals just aren’t enough. My damage is also rather medicore, so I need legit advice on everything from rotations to might stacking, everything that makes a solid elementalist in tpvp.

I don’t main guard, and while I can kill them at times, there are a few that hit really hard. What would you say is the best method to deal with burning guards if you’re a mesmer/warrior?

DakotaCoty.5721:

Just to confirm

Well, at least its cleared up ;-; lol thank you

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Its not the first time we didn’t get something in the gemstore right after it was datamined. Look at how long it took them to get the exalted (i think that’s the one that looks similar to Anise’s attire) into the store after that_shaman found it.

Perhaps I have become too accustomed to Dulfy finding things early by about a week most of the time, such as the dragon and lion mask that came out the following tuesday after datamined.. I was really looking forward to getting the skin today, Dulfy did make a reply saying in the comments that it was on july 14th but I guess nobody knows for sure?

Becka Williams.4978:

Yeah, it’s looking that way.

That’s a bit ridiculous, because last week the butterfly wings were actually in the game, then they had an update and removed them from being able to preview.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Additionally an update to the gemstore doesn’t necessarily require a download.

So does this mean we don’t be getting the gemstore items today?

Last tuesday I dont think we got an update so shouldnt it be this one?

Is that gonna come out today? My money is ready

I’ll be the first to say I do like the revenant and think it has potential, the main reason why people “hate” them right now (at least in tpvp) is they do not have the tools to survive in this meta.

No sustain, mediocre damage, awkwards traits that don’t stand out or compliment each other much. In a meta as aggressive and over offensive as this with mesmers, thieves and rampage warriors running around, revenants are a free kill.

Dand.8231:

Serdoc.7261:

mobility. Using mace main-hand w/ sword off-hand + Longbow, you would have no mobility

play whatever you want and have fun!

This guy has it right on both counts. I’m a long time GS/Ham warrior so that’s always been my favorite build, but there’s no reason you can’t mix it up and play what you like.

I have used gs/hammer today and its very fun in tpvp, I think my only bad matchups are mesmers and dps guards (if in a 1v1 scenerio since standing in symbols hurt lol)

Serdoc.7261:

Well you get a lot of CC and a bit of mobility from hammer, with good damage. Then with Greatsword, you get a lot of mobility, great damage, and hundred blades is really good down state cleave on other players. It is just a solid combo, sorta like Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

A good point xD, what would you say favors this build over the celestial mace/sword lb?

I’ve been looking at metabattle and noticed that gs/hammer still remains in tier 1, even over things such as engineers and dps guards. May I ask, what is it that makes the dps warrior favorable as part of your time?

I love the mesmer class (I main mesmer and warrior) and I am certainly happy they have their place now as an actual threat in tpvp after being thief bait for so long.

That being said, the class itself right now does not require much skill. With the abundance of options in stealth up time, boon removal, extremely high damage output, reflect and escapes, mesmer is a force to be reckoned with even in the hands of an inexperienced player. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play mesmer, its a very fun and enjoyable class, but it’s about on the same skill level as other classes now.

is it this week or next?

ReaperJr.5967:

Mace shield is great against melee encounters but not so much against ranged. Esp mesmers and engineers. Idk why you think they’re good against them.

Secondly, hammer is telegraphed. But if you actually learnt how to land it after dodge frames or after your opponent has used up both dodges, it’s an easy stun lock for you.

Lastly, nobody uses rampage in duels. It’s a soft ban as it’s considered cheap.

I recently started using mace/sword and lb and surprising really like it. While the meta gs/hammer has better initial damage, mace/sword can deal with a variety of threats. Really the only unfavorable matchup I’ve had so far is mesmers.

bigmonto.4215:

I would say a traditional shout bow is still your best bet on dueling.

Yeah it is pretty strong xD

With all the new changes, I’m looking for a new good dueling build to use. Though the meta greatsword is good, the build itself is easily kited by dueling rangers and symbolic guards kinda force you to step into their symbols xD.

Any good dueling builds out there?

Saiyan.1704:

TL;DR post – Burn Guardian’s already gets hard countered by Necro’s and Eles. Not to mention that we can get outplayed by any class who has an ounce of cleanses and knows half of the Guardian’s mechanics. If a shave is needed, let it be burn duration or Balthazar runes.

People see condi guardian’s deal roughly 30k-50k burn dmg @ 12-16 ticks. Or similar dmg to tick ratio.
The thing is, to reach these high dmg to tick ratios they would have needed a constant 9+ burn stacks on them, at any one time. The higher the stacks, the more crazy the damage/tick ratio will be. People are posting all of these images calling burns OP when they’re allowing 9+ stacks on them to begin with. It can’t be helped if you or your team have 0 condi cleanses… or you keep re-entering Fire Field and self imploding. User error and improper synchronized teams is overpowered, not burn damage.

“Burn guard is countered hard by anyone with a few cleanses as they rely entirely on 1 condition for condi damage.” – The Source

We can out play other classes, but we can also get outplayed just as easily. If it wasn’t for Permeating Wrath, Guardian’s burns wouldn’t even be a thing in TPvP/Competitive play (not that they already are, I just think they could). The fact that we can potentially deliver huge bursts via cleaving is probably the only reason that burn guards can be team viable; compared to other dps classes, on the competitive level. Even then, people may rather depend on power or control builds as they’re more consistent in skirmish scenarios.

Don’t fall for the high dmg, low condi tick pictures. Players do not understand the mechanics of other classes; it was likely their own l2p mistakes that resulted in their demise.

I main mesmer and warrior and while the burning damage can be brutal in tpvp, I don’t think it’s overpowered. Burn guards don’t have much mobility and can be walled by just a few condi cleanses. I feel like the burning damage for guards are very intense because unlike necros and mesmers, guardians do not have access to a variety of conditions. They have burning, and to make that one condition viable, it would have to hit hard.

nearlight.3064:

OP I agree that your overall point is correct, in that its stupid complaining about condi necros or condi rangers or condi mesmers (notice a theme here?) for being very strong 1v1, because so many people think those builds are overpowered in general because they can’t win 1v1s against them… however its abundantly clear that those 3 builds, as well as most other 1v1 or condition focused builds absolutely suck in team fights with 0 pressure. Burn guardian is kind of an outlier in that regard, but only because its burn stacking is kind of broken to be honest, and even then, against a dedicated team comp that has AoE condi cleanses just from doing normal skills (a fundamental part of playing bunker guard, the old shoutbow, or any cele ele build, and now even mantra shatter mes).

Most of these 1v1 oriented builds can’t contribute well in teamfights because they are often dependent on condition damage and decent defenses to wear oponents down while being tanky, having lots of regen, or boons/stealth/ports. Condition damage has been proven to be lackluster against teams that have at least 1 ele/guard, as in teamfights their damage can’t really go through to its full extent. Meanwhile AI focused builds like MM necro or PU mes, simply get wrecked by cleave and AoE in teamfights, meaning they can’t contribute because their personal DPS is low compared to their AI+personal DPS.

Still its important to point out that most of the meta builds of the game mode are meta builds because they are both capable, if not broken, in 1v1s, and have the damage, support, and control needed to be useful in teamfights. For example, D/D (or D/F ele) is one of the best 1v1 builds in the game since they can overwhelm most oponents with might stacks. They only really fall to good mesmers/corruption necros that can remove boons very easily. And we know they’re great in teamfights because they can tank a point to an extent, heal/sustain their team and cleanse it, all while dealing good physical and condition damage. Bunker guards conversely won’t be killing anyone in a 1v1, but they can at least prevent a point from being decapped 1v1 until a teammate can arrive to easily finish the fight.

tl;dr 1v1 focused builds suck at teamfights, so don’t play them 1v1 unless your class somehow has an advantage. Play a good build that is both useful 1v1 and in teamfights.

Indeed, and keep in mind that this doesn’t mean I dismiss 1v1s as a whole as there are certain builds that revolve around that such as pre patch d/p thief that excelled at winning 1v1s. Conquest and dueling though, are different metas with different objectives. In dueling, you’re aiming to make the best build to take down an individual, which is usually at the cost of things like mobility and team support.

In conquest, you have to essentially balance a number of things to make you viable. How well does your build do against others is important, but does your build have mobility? Does it contribute anything to your team mates (healing, portal, condition clearing, etc.) Because other people have to bring similar builds, you don’t have to worry about builds like that most of the time because anyone who brings a slow moving 1v1 build that cannot down someone fast enough is bringing the team down. Thief and mesmer meta builds can get away with this because they can kill fast, but also offer mobility for back capping and other things like portal.

I often see a lot of people frustrated about certain builds/classes being “broken” and in some cases, there are certain builds that are just notoriously annoying/difficult (pre patched turret engi, burning, condi builds, etc.) I have noticed a lot of these people have trouble when trying to duel/single out someone, and while dueling is a lot of fun, it’s just not balanced around that (and it wasn’t supposed to be.) If it was, you wouldn’t see things like rampage or lich form.

Pvp is meant to be a team effort, encouraging players to work together and covering their weaknesses. Nearly all builds you will encounter in dueling rooms are designed for taking down one person and usually suffer from a lack of mobility, which can be fun, but is a completely different meta.

If you want rewards AKA a llama, chests, etc. at the end of the day training yourself for team efficiency is the better option.

In all honesty, I’ve always hated the greatsword pre patch, it has always felt inferior to the guardian’s greatsword. This is the first time I’ve had a lot of fun using my greatsaw on my charr haha.

I do kinda miss being a tanky support warrior, but last meta it bothered me that warriors were the tanky support healer while the guardians were the in your face dps, it seemed very backwards. It’s kind of refreshing to play a more aggressive playstyle xD

GreyerSkies.6287:

You could try the Juggernaut!

I tried this in hotjoin today, having never really played GS in PvP before. It was chaos, along with all the condi madness and super-Engis and so on, but surprisingly fun, and I felt so mobile and dynamic compared to the old longbow builds. I’d say I’m a mediocre player, but when people made mistakes against this it was usually gg.

I think I’d like GS/sword+shield even more though, so I’m going to try Elegie’s suggestions next.

I actually like this one, as much as I love shoutbow and being tanky, I always found it odd the previous meta warriors were the tanky heal supports while the guardians were the glass cannon in your face dps xD

I was never great with gs on warrior, but it’s definitely a lot of fun and I need to learn to abuse rampage more, any advice on this build? Another thing is I actually take bull’s charge, stomp and kick/endure pain as being an interrupt warrior is a lot of fun and has saved me many times.

xbutcherx.3861:

Spvp or WvW? 15 letter thing

Spvp preferred

My shoutbow still works pretty good, but with all the new changes I’ve decided to come out of the comfort zone and try some new builds. Any suggestions on some solid builds right now?

Idk if sword has any good builds but that would be cool too xD

online.1278:

As you all know, shout got nerfed recently. Its healing amount got decreased and now become totally useless.

Theorically, shout heal should have actually BUFFED in order to survive from increased overall dmg output around the game, but oppositely, it got nerfed by 1/3 which is lot, and now become toally dead. I would say Anet just killed it.

Personally I liked shout play, becuz using stance warrior I had to too much rely on cheesy buffs such as being immortal for 5 sec or being immortal from condi stuffs or gain vigor or ignore all the control effects. it’s like buff myself and only say"attackklkkkk and killllll, or we dieeeee if failllllll", which sounds like totally, you know, simple and corny.

When I used shout, I had only 1 stun break so i had to learn what to dodge like eviscerate and earthshake, and what critical condition I need to remove immediately. By using shout, It improved my overall skill and carefulness. Also being supportive improved my overall carefulness over not only me but whole party. I had to carefully watch over HP point of my ally who is in need of heal. I loved it cuz it looks so professional.

However, it is also fact that shout heal was also cheesy. So I would say both were cheesy but shout was a bit more cheesy for only expert warrior who do know what to dodge, when to leave or fight stuffs. Becuz they can sustain based on general game knowledge they learned using shout heal.

So here is my idea for shout,
1. Divide self-heal and party-heal. For self heal, well, meditation guardian does 2000 heal (when using berserker amulet), thus i think around 1500 self-heal per shout (with zerker amulet) is fair since it can also do random party heal.

For party heal, I guess 2000-2500 is fair (when using zerker amulet) it is mostly random heal anyway so it should be greater than self-heal by around 1000.

2. Tactics’s 3rd minor trait “inspiring presence” only works on party heal. It should not affect on self-heal in order to keep balance.

3. Since self-heal amount has got decreased, by a way of compensation for this nerf, Put more offensive & instant condi like blind (on next attack) and etc for shout like “for great justice” or “on my mark”. With this, user can learn when to apply blindness, requiring more skill of player’s carefulness.

Or it is also good to put teleport like guardian. Actually guardian does teleport (or condi remove) + fury buffing + 2000 dmging around him + 2000 heal though. Shout now just does really nothing as compared to this in fact : just small heal around 1000 and fury, nerfed might..

4. Make offesive rune that is affected by shout, not like current soldier rune that has defensive attribute.

Anyway, nerfing self heal and improve offesive capability will not make shout being called cheesy but skilled.

So what is your idea to bring back shout line?
Let’s gather some idea!

I don’t really think shout is dead, it’s balanced. I still use mine and have good support because while there was a slight nerf to warhorn and shout heal, we have been given some buffs I enjoy, some of them are:

-condi clear on weapon swap (which is very frequent)
-might on weapon swap (building up more damage pressure)
-extra toughness above 90%
-Retaliation every 15 seconds upon taking a crit
-We get an endure pain thanks to the trait layout

I love my shoutbow, he still provides valuable support and with things like burning and other conditions, a highly mobile support is still effective. You just have to be aware of the balances that were made and realize what new options you have.

Thaddeus.4891:

GS/Hammer is the meta for WvW Roaming for a long time. It’s a good killer build for the warrior. It was also popular in sPvP, but less than shoutbow because it fit less the strategy. In that build you use a lot of movement skill during combat, mostly whirlwind attack, which get you out of node.

So ya, it’s a great build to kill people, but you probably gonna lose the point while fighting, which isn’t good for your team.

The reason why it’s popular right now? Peak Performance + Rampage. All of your skill in rampage are physical skills so they all have 20% less cooldown and do 10% for each bar of adrenaline. In a bursty build like the Juggernaut on meta battle you do intense damage, while doing cc. It’s pretty hard to survive that, especially that for now not that many people know this trick so you can catch a lot of people unaware and kill them super fast.

Don’t think that it will be meta. Yes it kill, but if you can’t really keep a node, then your value is decreased in a team. Still, if they don’t change peak performance, it will still be popular in the future even if people get used to the trick.

Yeah you’re probably right, I’ve been seeing it a lot and it’s nice to see some diversity xD

I’ve been seeing a lot of those lately, personally my shoutbow has been doing pretty good still but I’m curious about GS/hammer build I’ve seen on metabattle. What do you think?

Even though it was never meta per say, last patch I always used fresh air as ele isn’t my main, but I sometimes use him for fun and for something new.

With all the changes, any good builds for ele I might have missed?

Wolfric.9380:

It is a very funny theme build. Incredible powerful in PvE.
But in PvP/WvW i consider it nearly a free kill. Shure if you stand still for three seconds you might be incinerated. Its some kind of glass cannon, that can be avoided/shaked off easier then the zerker thief. Its diffrent and not evryone can handle this “Surprise”.
I as ele have a hard counter. Dodge out of the firewall/circle using stop/doge/roll

Yeah I was probably using it for the wrong purpose, since the new patch I’ve been looking for new ele build xD

My only problem with this build is it is major thief bait in tpvp, similar to how shatter mesmer was in the previous meta.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Before they straight up nerf things, especially things that some specs/classes are heavily reliant on maybe they should make it so more classes/specs have more ready access to the resistance boon.

They should also make it so bosses have access to condition cleanses.

After that then they can adjust condition damage.

This is from a tpvp perspective, but I think burning is in a good spot. I don’t main guard (I main mesmer and warrior), but seeing condition guards is something completely new. That burning really hurts, especially on my zerker mesmer with 16k health, but I haven’t felt like I didn’t have a chance. I’ve been fighting a lot of condi guards and grenade engis and have been able to win against them thanks to the new trait changes.

I don’t want to see the meta force itself into a power only spec again, d/p thief did insane damage and that went untouched for a long time. It’s refreshing to see condition classes being able to compete with the zerkers we’re so used to playing with/against.

I’m actually enjoying these stronger conditions such as burning and I play a zerker mesmer with no condition damage. The last meta was complete zerker, conditions were made unviable in higher tier tpvp because of builds such as shoutbow warriors and d/p thief that had an absurd amount of burst that never got nerfed until now, so much that power necro, shatter mesmer, etc. couldn’t even play without holding their team back.

I play zerker shatter mesmer and shoutbow warrior still in this meta and I love it because it’s not just zerker, condition builds such as burn guardian (we never had that before) or condition necro can actually do enough damage to compete with power builds and even the playing field. I’m happy I can actually play my mesmer now or my burning guard and not be afraid of things like thieves for once or condition guardian being an actual thing. Grenade engis even with that pierce nades combo I have been able to use the new reflects and outsmart them, and it’s satisfying. Don’t get forced back into only having a few power options again.

I was playing my guardian and someone in a match was telling me burning was getting nerfed. I’m not sure if that’s true, if so, can someone link me any balance notes?

Josh Davis.6015:

Wanted to clear something up:

Power Block had its damage unintentionally increased with the 6/23 release. The reduction wasn’t a “nerf” – it was a bug fix. It still does the same damage it did before the 6/23 release.

As for Maimed, we wanted to address it before the build went out but we ran out of time. I agree that it would have been better to have adjusted it before you guys got your hands on the new build, but there just wasn’t time. Sorry about this.

For staff cd trait – conditional recharge is something new we’re trying out. The high cd reduction uptime that we were seeing right out of the gate wasn’t something we felt comfortable with. If it feels really weak after this we’ll come back to it and look at it again.

Anyways, as Peters said, we’re keeping a really close eye on everything right now and things will definitely continue to shift as we discover and evaluate how things take shape across the game.

Hope that addresses a few of your questions.

Night!

Perhaps this means you and the other devs are focusing on balancing one class at a time?

There’s a few items in the game that give your character a cool effect, examples include the preserved queen bee that makes bees swarm around you, or the poly luminescent that makes your character glow a different color. I really love these, it’s unfortunate I had to give up my glow because I wanted full ascended and these pieces will only work on exotic.

I was thinking it would be cool if you could unlock the effects or maybe a way where they can work on ascended!

smilango.5960:

Doubt we’ll see a dev response on this as that would mean committing to a time frame for distribution…here I was hoping to log into a mail from ANet, at the very least confirmation of your leaderboard place would have been nice.

What I’m confused about is the season ends today right? So that means My llama is secure? I noticed I went down one rank so it looks like people are still getting poins, does this mean I will lose my llama in two weeks if I don’t play?

This is the first time I’ll be eligible to get a mini llama, once the season ends, do I have to wait about a week before I get mine? Or is it awarded sometime today?

nightwulf.1986:

It was mentioned that the trait changes are getting released before HOT. But that is all we know at the moment. No ETA. However, they likely won’t implement the changes before introducing each elite spec. So at least 7 more weeks? Maybe.

7 weeks actually isnt too bad if thats the case xD, I wonder if it will get released soon

The balance changes for the classes discussed on the livestream, when will they go into effect?

Nemesis.8593:

Hello everyone, it’s been quite a while since i last posted or even visited these forums, heh… how’s everyone ?

I recently decided to give this game another try, i returned mostly for the PvP scene since PvE still doesn’t have anything new to offer, but… i see things are still more or less the same as they were when i left.

So i decided to put together a little something, i should have/wanted to make such a video for a very long time now, even before i left…

Nemesis 101 ranked games marathon – Guild Wars 2 PvP balance 17.04.2015 [status: unresolved]

Took quite a bit of time and effort to make this, so I hope this will help the necromancer community at least a little bit… in more ways then one.

This x1000000000000 lol, I don’t even main necro (I main mesmer and warrior) but I do agree that necros suffer from some balancing issues. I’m hoping Anet will consider some of the suggestions I’ve seen on the forum as Necromancer is a fun class, it just has a hard time competing right now but I think it will get fixed.

NeXeD.3042:

DrDivine.5378:

I’ve recently tried the traditional terrormancer build again after awhile, but I don’t feel like it puts as much pressure as it used to. I do hear people say that condi necro is better than power in team fights so maybe I just need some using on how to use the build properly.
Anyone here play condi necro that could help me?

Those people are wrong zerk 6/2/0/0/6 double wells sa d/w and either a/d or staff. Trait for downstate. It’s your choice if you pick Vital Persistence or peircing lifeblast.

So you think zerker is better?

I’ve recently tried the traditional terrormancer build again after awhile, but I don’t feel like it puts as much pressure as it used to. I do hear people say that condi necro is better than power in team fights so maybe I just need some using on how to use the build properly.

Anyone here play condi necro that could help me?