Guild Wars 2

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15 char

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

would be more if i could SALVAGE THE RUNES OF MY WVW/KARMA BOUGHT ARMOR!!!

If you could salvage them then everyone could salvage them, and their value would quickly drop.

From what I hear, mobas have particularly bad playbases. GW2 isn’t unique in that respect, but I imagine it’s very far from the worst.

However, allow me to be the first here to give the response typical of these threads: People who have created their own parties with their own requirements are, by no means, forcing you to do anything. It’s one thing if they fail to specify what kind of players they want in their party description. But if you join in spite of clear instruction, it’s completely reasonable for them to remove you from party.

Miliko.5480:

That’s not the game’s fault, is it? It’s the player’s fault entirely.

Absolutely, which is why it’s unfortunate that this can harm the tier progression shared by everyone. I’ve watched players with cleave and large cone AoE inadvertently whittle down and prematurely kill the main tendril, seemingly without meaning to and in spite of my warnings.

Again, the risk is only slight, and it happens so rarely that it’s not a huge problem. Just more of a nitpick.

PopeUrban.2578:

That’s the beauty of it, you can’t do anything but help other players by taking on events as every event contributes to favor…

I disagree. There is some potential for a new/inexperienced player happening into an organized zone and contributing to the loss of the bonus favor available from several events. The two tendril events are the best example of this, where killing the main tendril first results in the failure of the bonus. Yes, this objective is indicated in the event description, but not all players are equally attentive.

Luckily there’s some leniency, and missing out on a bonus once or twice still puts the map in range of T5. However, earned favor and losses all add up, and that event could have been what tipped the meta. There is some risk, even if very slight.

I remember hearing a lot of complaining about underwater after release. Though I never outright disliked it, myself, and loved to visit the aquatic environments, it wasn’t until shortly before Raid on the Capricorn was removed that I really started to appreciate the combat on ele. Even though necros, engies, and rangers could easily overwhelm opponents when in the right hands, I had a lot of fun at that center capture point.

It’s confusing that ANet seems to be slowly phasing it out, as you say, even though they only just recently fixed Evasive Arcana after roughly a year and a half (something I had otherwise been content to consider “working as intended”). This fix could have added some direction to attunement rotations underwater and given trident a “flow” similar to d/d.

I agree that it would be a great shame for ANet to continue neglecting underwater combat. It’s well-worth the variety it offers in gameplay and scenery.

Dredge tunnels? Please. We all know once WPs are removed, everyone will be traveling via skritt tunnels. Why else would they be all over Dry Top? QED.

I think it could have made for a shocking cutscene, witnessing Belinda ensnared and killed by the vine in front of Marjory. Instead we just get the usual pantomiming.

Sure, she was a short-lived character. But “offensive”? Seems melodramatic.

I suppose it’s possible that a bug has been introduced with the addition of the Wardrobe, but my suspicion is that progress for The Emperor and the individual race achievements has remained independent of that system.

Don’t forget that the achievement requires you to purchase six pieces of cultural armor from each tier. This means you cannot fully unlock it by simply purchasing all of the light, medium, and heavy armors from T1 alone, even though these are technically 18 unique skins and will credit as such toward the Fashionable achievement and Wardrobe unlocks.

The achievement also requires that the pieces you purchase be of each armor type (helm, shoulders, etc.) such that you can’t minimize costs by purchasing multiples of a single type across each armor weight (i.e. buying the T3 light, medium, and heavy helms would only credit you for one piece). The most straightforward way to avoid this conflict is to purchase a complete set of a single armor weight from each cultural tier. You should look through your Wardrobe to see which pieces you are missing and be sure that you’ve done this.

Hope this helps.

Sithaco.4673:

I remember leading up to the final patches of last year, getting excited because I knew that new legendaries would be coming out soon, and then patch after patch slipped by, and nothing.

My experience, summarized perfectly.

Like erstag mentioned, there was a viable method of farming giant kills with an event in Toxal Bog of Brisbain Wildlands. The number of giants spawned by the event scaled with the number of participants (I am unaware of any cap on the maximum, though I’m sure there must be one). You could start the event, kill the giant spawns, and then guest to two other servers and repeat, allowing the event to fail and respawn in ~8 minutes.

From what I could tell, the number of giants spawned was 1 + (number of players / 2), or something close to that. With a group ten players you could spawn 6 giants per event, and net 18 per 8 minute cycle. I would assume Megaserver has made this significantly less effective, but it’s still your best option.

I went with one of the typical d/d cantrip builds, 0/0/2/6/6. Soldier’s armor, zerker trinkets. Cleansing Fire, Armor of Earth, Lightning Flash. +40% endurance regen food can help as well. After the initial 3 orbs, I continued to focus on hitting her with more orbs and sustaining myself. By the 8th orb, she was only at ~2/3 hp, but I had no problem DPSing her down in time.

If you want to karma train, great! Do it. If you want to defend or get some kills, go for it. It should be as simple as that.

Players aren’t entitled to the cooperation of their teammates in this regard any more than they’re entitled to the cooperation of their opponents.

I’ve always felt like the 10s CD is too steep, considering your other Master tier options. With many classes having relatively easy access to Burning, I could see it being difficult to control when this trait is put to effective use to counter Chill (especially if you’re also running Evasive Arcana). The only advantage is its independence from Water Attunement CD, but Soothing Disruption + Cleansing Water seems like a better means of achieving that.

I would not mind at all if ANet copied the weapon naming and (purely cosmetic) leveling system used by Strange weapons in Team Fortress 2. Valve knows how to make a buck from microtransactions, and ANet would not be wrong to follow their lead.

However, the real allure of these items in TF2 is that other people can view them in your backpack or when spectating you, and the item details are shown in the freeze frame on death. In order to be successful, there would have to be some kind of preview or inspecting feature in GW2 like this. I’m not convinced pinging items quite cuts it, but I don’t see them adding a more involved feature like that due to concerns of inviting player hostility or “elitism.”

I completely understand the resentment some people feel towards ANet. As some others here have touched on, many core aspects of the game had/have felt long-term neglect, and there have been quite a few failed promises made. Some bugs and issues have persisted since launch.

The real problem is that some people can be snarky, rude, and sometimes just blatantly have no clue what they’re talking about. Even when venting frustrations, a little civility goes a long way.

I haven’t bothered to read through this juggernaut of a thread, but I hope I’m not the only one who wants ANet to release the now long-overdue new legendaries and precursors, along with precursor crafting, while keeping the crafting and acquisition of components the same for the current generation of legendaries. Appeals to me as striking a nice balance between maintaining the current market and opening the door for more players to obtain legendaries. Though I’m certainly open to changes to help stabilize the cost of current precursors, perhaps interest in the new legendaries could even help to lower the prices of the old ones?

The loss of Evasive Arcana is debatable, but to lose all of Arcana is a massive hit to the survivability of d/d—a weapon set that is range locked and generally very aggressive. Don’t forget that without investment in the Arcana trait line, you’re losing Vigor (II), Protection and Regen (VIII), and boon duration. Additionally you’ll increase the CD of attunements, which won’t necessarily be devastating, but it draws out the time you are stuck in each attunement and loses the great timing synergy with the on-swap benefit of other traits and sigils.

This is why there are several variations on the typical d/d build, but all keep the 30 (now 6) Arcana.

While I’m not unhappy with the Megaserver in spite of the these few problems it will cause, I’ve always agreed that there is something wrong with the design of events when players are encouraged to allow them to fail in order to access other events/rewards. It’s simply been less of a problem in the past.

I love the Frozen Burst blast finisher. Nuff said.

I have always considered it a waste of time transmuting skins before you are level 80, for the same reason it’s not worthwhile investing in the best-in-slot stats on an underlevel. Pretty soon you’d be a higher level and you’d need to buy better gear and re-transmute. It was a waste then and even more of one now, but I still have no problem with it.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

When I say “completely immune” I mean “THEY CANNOT BE AFFECTED AT ALL IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM” None of those skills I listed can hit stealthed foes…

The rare exception is for those skills that have cast times and are cast just before the target stealths. Though I don’t think I’d consider that to be a mechanic that can be effectively used as a counter.

To ANet’s credit, balancing stealth for a class for which stealth and survivability are so closely tied is tricky. I think they’ve already made huge concessions by implementing and increasing the duration of the Revealed debuff, but I do feel that a little more can be done to make it a more fair mechanic without harming thieves’ survivability. For instance, allowing attacks that are evaded to also cause Revealed.

For the most part, I am not unhappy with stealth. The only times in which the mechanic breaks down are when stealth (Shadow Refuge) and the downed state are used as a crutch to enable groups of thieves to get away with playing poorly. The usual “just spam attacks and CC” really only goes so far, unless said thieves get run over by a zerg in the process. That, combined with quick res speeds especially with multiple ressers, makes the group insanely difficult to kill regardless of relative party skill.

ThiBash.5634:

The reason why this is a problem can be seen from the following:

To be fair, we may still be able to use trident to gain on-kill sigil stacks for a similar effect. So would everyone else though, so the result (and your math) is the same…

Sure, I’m dissastified with eles/engies being shortchanged on sigils. But I can’t deny I’m still delighted that players won’t be able gain these stacks using weapons they don’t even keep equipped. Always seemed like a lame tactic.

I think I agree with some of the other eles here who take staff over d/d. Don’t get me wrong. I love d/d, even in large group fights. When the enemy zerg gets large enough, however, there’s a point at which I feel that the effectiveness of staff’s CC outweighs anything I could do on d/d. Throw in superior heals and support, and I’m happy to take the backline.

This idea has its own pros and cons. On one hand, it offers greater customization. You could have, as you point out, different stacking sigils on different weapon sets that better cater to whatever role that weapon set fills. On the other hand, should you want the same stat stack on different weapon sets, you would potentially need multiples of the same sigil.

While Klocknov’s idea addresses this, I’m not in favor of his solution. When picking sigils, we as players should be forced to make tough choices in selecting those that best suit our professions and builds. Stacking sigils are no exception. We’re not entitled to the benefit of these stacks, but that’s what a stacking sigil slot independent of weapons would make us.

Anyway, it’s an interesting idea, naphack. I’m not against it, but I don’t think it’s what ANet wants for sigils.

I typed out a long-winded explanation of why a daily schedule for world bosses isn’t exciting, but deleted it. kitten it.

I feel like the schedule is the unfortunate result of greater changes that will help to bring some life to otherwise dead PvE zones. I love the idea of the megaserver for that purpose, but a boss schedule is just… lame.

Normally I cringe when someone passes off valid criticisms as belonging only to the “vocal minority,” but I do think the term applies here. I’ve offered up some complaints and maybe even been a part of that negativity, myself, but have no plans to stop playing. I’m sure there are plenty of others in the same boat.

I have never understood how some players, even new ones, struggle with WP costs. It should never be an issue, unless you willingly dump all your gold into buying something without paying mind to such fees. A couple blue/green drops from any mobs in a given zone will easily cover the expense of traveling there.

Chase.8415:

While you think it might not be as useful to yourself, it’s actually a godsend for fractals.

I’d like to think that multiple sets of ascended would be less of an issue for anyone doing high-end fractals (where the AR on armor makes all the difference), but you’re absolutely right. I shouldn’t have marginalized those players.

I’d like to preface my complaint by mentioning that the changes to ascended equipment in no way affect me. I main almost exclusively only one character. All other characters are only used to funnel resources to the benefit of that main and to do things that are profession specific.

The account binding of ascended equipment is not quite the blessing players make it out to be. Because there is no means of also swapping out rune/sigil sets, players have to make a choice: would they prefer to receive the minor stat bonuses of ascended equipment, or would they like to run a rune/sigil set specific to their profession and build? This is a perfectly fair trade-off for ascended. Certainly there are some runes and sigils that are effective in most situations (Divinity, Force, etc.), but it is otherwise not cost-effective to constantly swap out upgrades, especially given some of their current prices. If in that situation, I would almost always choose exotic armor with a good rune set that synergizes well with my profession and build, instead of ascended stats.

Originally, when ANet announced the stat-swapping function of legendaries, I had hoped for something similar—the ability to tie sigils to specific stat combinations that would also be swapped out on stat change. This would create some complications regarding upgrade management and a need for either multiples of a given upgrade to fill out those stat combos or a whole new interface for easier management. Its usefulness, however, could not be understated. While most people easily make do without, the same problem resurfaces with the now account-bound ascended armor.

Obviously an upgrade-swapping function is not befitting ascended rarity items any more than stat swapping. Especially now that legendaries are arguably somewhat devalued by being both account bound (perfectly acceptable and long overdue) and easily accessible through the wardrobe, having this added benefit seems more appropriate for legendaries than ever. While it’s something of a long shot, I’ve still held onto the silly hope that this kind of upgrade swapping function will be added eventually.

tl;dr Account-bound ascended armor is not as useful as people think and, in light of recent changes, an additional upgrade-swapping function on legendaries is appropriate to help incentivize the acquisition of legendary items and not just their skins.

Thanks for your continued work, ANet!

/point @
/cower
/laugh

Boom. Message received.

The typical d/d build is 0/10/0/30/30. Other variants are 0/10/10/20/30 and 0/0/10/30/30, depending on how much condi removal you want and which boons you favor. These can also work well for support staff in WvW, with the high survivability needed when zerging or meleeing.

For PvE, however, they may be overkill in terms of survivability, especially with a skilled/organized group. In PvP/WvW, I prefer soldier’s stats, but you can swap out pieces for zerker as desired for PvE. I like to say, “build for utility, gear for offense.” You certainly won’t hit quite as hard, but it’s a decent balance that can still be supplemented by LH or FGS (pending welcome changes to the 4 skill).

And don’t forget that on-swap sigils synergize very well with ele’s attunement dance. I should mention that much of what’s available to eles is up for reevaluation giving the impending Feature Pack. Good luck.

We need a little more info to give any meaningful advice. For example: What game mode is this for (PvE, PvP, WvW)? What build are you running or what have you tried running in the past?

In general I’d say the trick to playing zerker ele is to know your limits. Stick the outskirts of a fight and back out when you must (though this may be easier/more difficult depending on your weapon set—I’d outright not recommend going zerker on d/d). Getting targeted can be tough if you have little survivability.

If your aim is to damage siege, don’t forget that you cannot crit objects. Power is the only stat that matters for that purpose.

Ranged damage (especially combined with condi) is not surprisingly a natural counter to a range-locked d/d ele. Any thief (or sometimes mesmer) running these types of weapons/builds and worth their salt will be able to kite you effectively, and no amount of cripple, immobilize, or knock down can shut them down. While I understand it’s incredibly frustrating as a d/d ele, I’m not entirely convinced it’s unfair.

At this point, I’ve adopted the temporary mantra “We’ll see how things are after the Feature Pack.” My hopes are high but, realistically, ranged condi may always be something that d/d struggles with.

Dolores.5471:

Are we sure that the blinding from 30 fire will be aoe? I mean, it has 5 secs icd just like glyph of elemental power and the later only affects one target, even when you use aoe skills to trigger.

Glyph of Elemental Power actually has no limit on the number of targets it can affect. The limiting factor is the AoE limit of the skills used to proc the effect. This would be one of the many viable ways to make use of Blinding Ashes, especially if this new trait’s CD is per target like the glyph.

Did they specify whether Blinding Ashes has an ICD or if the CD is per target? I assume the first, because per target would be too awesome.

sminkiottone.6972:

… the only thing I whish is that anet wil be focused on WvW/PvP and not PvE with everything balance related.

Yeah, this seems to be a point of some contention among a few players, but I tend to agree. GW2 PvE just isn’t demanding (possibly save high-end FotM), and with the changes to dungeon rewards, speed runs purely for profit are a thing of the past. The only problem I see is certain professions being considered outright undesirable (poor rangers), but other than that, like you, I’d much prefer balance be geared toward the more competitive game modes where it actually matters.

Aquatic Benevolence is a good example of this. I don’t foresee myself ever bothering with the trait in PvE, unless future content is more difficult. In PvP, I’d consider it equally inferior for the weapon set and build I prefer (though these are obviously subject to change with whatever the Feature Pack brings). I still say WvW is where its greater potential may lie.

Umungus.8326:

• snip *

Don’t forget that each trait line is getting a new grandmaster trait.

If you don’t currently have a stacking sigil on a weapon equipped in any of your weapon sets, should you really be allowed to keep that sigil’s benefits?

No. They’ve made the right move here.

People are being melodramatic here.

Let’s not forget that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to truly measure the value of any single change/addition without looking at the larger picture. Until we have more information (especially regarding changes to other professions, not just our own), speculating on the future state of eles is pointless.

I could see this being particularly useful in WvW (or GvG, if you’re into that), but reserve judgment until we know more.

I don’t think people appreciate just how much RNG factors into the time it takes to down the knights. Sometimes a knight will enter a burn phase (when you stack conditions to lower its toughness) almost immediately. Other times you may have to wait several minutes. Since this is when most damage is dealt, hitting this phase quickly is to your advantage.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what I’ve observed.

Let’s give a hand to whomever at ANet finally fixed backpieces such that they no longer disappear after using certain skills. For as long as I can remember, I would lose mine after using Ride The Lightning if my weapons weren’t drawn. Glad to see this plaguing visual bug finally resolved!

2 weeks is barely time enough for me to get out of bed and brush my teeth, and they expect us to finish all this content in that time? Totes FML.

Fuzzion.2504:

8) To harass rabbits

As far as I’m concerned, this is the sole legitimate use for a FGS.

Ayrilana.1396:

Five resets? The patch came out barely before the reset on Tuesday so I doubt people got any before then. That leaves only 3 resets with everything else from the bags. Or am I missing something?

Three resets, four opportunities to search the rubble piles, counting the brief period between the content update and Tuesday night reset. I doubt anyone actually managed to find all 40 in that time, but I’m sure many players found at least some. I suspect the rest were obtained by hopping from OF to OF to gather more heirlooms from the bonus reward chests, in addition to just lucky drops from the regular supply bags.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Cost for a single use superior sharpening stone = 12s for 30min or 24s an hour

Cost for a single sharpening stone station= 7g*5 + 20s*30 = 41g for 1hr

It’s actually even worse than your maths suggest, if you instead buy the Potent 1 hour single-use consumable version for ~17s.

Alternatively, if you continue to struggle regardless of weapon or conjure, you can trait for survivability and instead gear offensively. The typical d/d build (0/10/0/30/30) and its variations offer superior condi clear and healing, and it works well with any weapon set. Just swap out traits to fit your needs. The key is to make effective use attunement swapping and dodge rolling to sustain yourself, at the sacrifice of some of your damage output.

Based just on the video, I can tell nothing of what kind of content this update will bring, and since ANet no longer does the splash pages (a big mistake — I loved reading them and looked forward to those more than these videos), I don’t know what new items/features there will be, if any.

That said, just in terms of the LS arc, this is one of the few updates I feel like I can get excited about. This is the attack we’ve been expecting. This is the beginning of what the entire LS has (hopefully) been building up to.

It’s make-or-break time for ANet, and I really hope they deliver.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

You are basing a build’s strength in how good it is against and with CC. On skyhammer, I can see that. On EoTM, there is so much more you can do.

Access to skills and utilities is independent of build. I agree, eles have other ways of offering support that make them valuable in their own right, especially in zerg fights. But as far as environmental hazards go (i.e. pushing an enemy off a cliff), that is not something so easily managed with the tools at ele’s disposal compared to other classes. While I don’t think anyone expects all classes to be exactly the same and have equal access to all such abilities, there’s always room for improvement in terms of balance and level design.

I recall a point made by Valve regarding their balancing of TF2, where they noted that players enjoyed the game most — even when they died — so long as they felt that they could have done something to prevent it. (This is probably horribly paraphrased, but you get the idea.)

Access to stability in GW2 is limited, as it should be. This strikes a great balance with access to CC with some exceptions, but again, room for improvement. Being knocked or pulled off a cliff has the feeling of circumventing GW2’s combat system altogether, and I imagine that to be the greatest source of frustration. The skills, utilities, and tools at the disposal of your class (and their balance with those of other classes) don’t have a chance to shine.

Let me be clear, I don’t have some vendetta here. I only occasionally get knocked off of Skyhammer (which most people would agree is the greater offender here) as I usually position myself to avoid the common pushes/pulls. I just don’t think it’s in the “spirit” (whatever the hell that means :P) of GW2’s combat, and it’s something that the developers have control over. I don’t think EotM is so bad.

Probably not the type of skill you’re looking for, but Tidal Wave can dish out massive damage underwater if you manage to hit an enemy against a wall, along the ground, or if you can snag yourself against an object (such as the keg at the bottom the underwater point in Raid on the Capricorn). I’ve not yet bothered to try it out on enemies under controlled settings, but I would not be surprised if Tidal Wave can deal some of the most (and quickest) damage to a single target from any single elementalist skill in PvP. In the very least, it’s a competitor for that title. :P