Guild Wars 2

Next epiphany for you to have: It’s your responsibility to find the enjoyment and meaning for the time you invest into a game. It’s not theirs to hand to you on a silver quaggan.

~EW

I have 2 rules I always follow: 1) I won’t join a guild 2) I won’t pay attention to any meta.

Other than that, I just wander around doing whatever sounds like fun at the time.

~EW

What is this “balance” you speak of?

It seems a lot like gas: you hear it, but it’s unseen. And, everyone’s version smells.

~EW

Henry.5713:

If this is about PvP at a good level…

I’m one of those hated PvEers (and some WvW), so much of what I state is going to be colored by that. Sorry.

Henry.5713:

All of that talk about how crazy healing signet is seems a bit outdated these days. It is and always has been just a means for good passive healing. With the added handicap of blocking your healing skill slot with a terrible active heal.

It’s “blocking” the healing slot because it serves the purpose of healing, but in an alternative way. The healing slot doesn’t necessarily mean ‘burst heal only,’ even if it is preferred. Like all skills including bread-and-butter bursts, the signet is going to be situationally useful.

Henry.5713:

A handicap neither revenants and scrappers have to share. They can do everything a melee warrior ( or guardian for that matter ) can and much more.

I can’t speak to that, I’m sorry. Engineers don’t fit my play style, and I haven’t picked up a revenant yet. I do know from 20ish years of mmo experience that it’s really easy to point at something from the outside and say it’s OP in comparison to what you’ve got (especially in PvP), and not realize the weaknesses/flaws the other person is dealing with. So many times I’ve had the class I’ve been playing pointed at as OP, and I’m dumbfounded because I can point to ways I can be negated and overcome.

Henry.5713:

ArenaNet could turn healing signet into a normal utility signet to make room for any of the active healing skills. It would finally allow for a combination of good passive healing as well as a powerful burst healing skill.
That seems like a really cheap and easy fix even if a pretty effective one. Wouldn’t do anything about the many problems with traits and all, though. It would also be yet another musthave we could add to the already long list.

Not to be too much a stickler to my previous post, but the healing signet heals more per second that the elite signet of the guard. Would you be okay with the healing signet being turned into an elite instead of utility if it got the same kind of burst heal that the guard’s elite got?

Henry.5713:

The problem has always been the very limited amount of “ulitities” such as blocks, evades, regen, teleports, instant stuff or anything like that coming from actual weapon skills or class mechanics and not your utility choices.

Those calaculations of the entire amount of possible passive healing do sound crazy on paper but they don’t consider the limitations you run into:

You have to pick between Healing Singet or To the Limit, three utility shouts or two shouts and a regen banner.
You need to decide whether you can actually go for shouts without Endure Pain or Balance Stance these days.
You will have to pick something like Defense+Tactics+Discipline and then Healing Signet+Shake it Off+Banner+Balance Stance to get all these stustain options at once.
Leaving each one of them at 1/4 or 1/3 of their full potential.

Look at the entire picture here. Your options for sustain actually exclude eachother or at least weaken the effectiveness of a second or third form of sustain you try to include in your build. What we actually need to see is the combination of a few of these sustain options ( combination of traits, skill type changes, rework to banners, etc.) to ever come close to what other classes can do.

All that math was just to point out that the ‘free’ passive heal the guards get is not worth pointing at as anything special… unless a lot gets invested into it.

In my experience with this particular game, any useful healing of any kind, sustained OR burst, requires it to come from multiple sources. You can’t depend on a single healing skill, or trait line, or whatever. And to do that you have to give something up (usually damage potential or versatility). It is really endemic to the game.

So, yeah, to get all that healing you’re going to have to get it from some/many/all of those sources you pointed out… and doing that you’re going to be giving up other things you could be doing.

Valik Shin.9027:

Yes it effects all healing but it hurt HS worse because it reduces each tick then does enough damage on top of that to soak up almost all of the remaining healing

I agree that builds should have condi cleanse but that part of the problem with warrior. They only have 3 non traited condi cleanses. 2 of them (mending and signet of stamina ) are pretty lack luster.

Over time something similar could be said about any burst healing: poison nerfs the effectiveness of that healing, and therefore makes it difficult for it to cover for the additional amount of damage that it does once it’s ticked a few times.

Another perspective might be that your healing signet negates poison damage and other conditions, leaving you to use other options for any additional burst healing you require. In this way you’re viewing it as what your skill does to others, and not what others are doing to your skill. At least to me it makes a difference.

~EW

P.S. A conclusion/realization I’ve come to about GW2 is that it’s built so all skills feel/are mediocre until you invest a lot into them with stats, traits, sigils, runes, etc. You can make nearly everything awesome, but it will always come at the cost of other things staying mediocre or even becoming worthless. Healing signet is mediocre out-of-the-box… just like nearly everything else.

spoj.9672:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I mentioned this to Bhawb the other day, but I do have an idea for Well of Darkness.

Keep its current effect and cooldown, but make it form an opaque black dome for enemies (allies see it as a transparent dome like the toxic krait bubbles). Inside the dome, it’s like one of the dark rooms in PvE/Obsidian Sanctum (for enemies only). You can’t see things properly in there.

Now, you can still maintain a target, perhaps, but do you know what is being hidden during those 5 seconds? It could be absolutely nothing, or it could be reeeeeeal nasty.

Wouldn’t affect PvE use at all, but I could see some crazy plays coming from it in PvP/WvW.

Thats a pretty cool idea. I could definitely get with this. Also pls make it a smoke field :o

Sounds cool for pvp. But wouldn’t people just turn of post processing to negate it. Assuming they don’t already have it off. And it doesn’t help pve at all.

If you cranked it up a bit and made it so the darkness acts like an obstruction, it could have wicked applications in pve, pvp, and wvw. Blocking skill LoS for everyone inside and out would make it a fun two-edged sword, I think.

~EW

Shadows Creed.3902:

For those who think they will eat quaggans. O.o barbarism is a capital offense in tyria. As of NOW.

I don’t think that’s possible when wanton slaughter is the preferred pastime everywhere in Tyria.

~EW

OrbitalButt.5708:

A quaggan is a demon I will never allow near the holy temple that is my body

Even if served with a variety of dipping sauces?

~EW

Valik Shin.9027:

Healing signet is good but can easily be countered with nothing more than poison.

That goes for all healing…. and it’s not countered, just reduced. So if you’re passive healing is merely “adequate” for most situations, then yeah poison will make it largely useless.

Any build that doesn’t include some kind of condi cleanse is going to have a lot of problems no matter what.

~EW

I’ve recently been theory-crafting a regen build for my Warrior… I’ve not yet tried it out (still playing with the numbers)… but it looks like I can keep regen on him all the time using only one banner… added to that the signet and adrenal health, I have high hopes it’ll work out. But I won’t know for sure until I try it out.

I love build experimentation

~EW

lighter.2708:

i mean like, rev has leech on damage trait line that matches healing signet and minor healing on shield, ele has water attunment skills
and like guardian F2

Guardian F2 is a really really horrible example to use; sorry.

Guard is my main (likely going to change soon to Warrior), and I believe I have build-experimented with him more than many have. I can confidently say that F2 is utter kitten unless you’ve got a ton of healing power, and even then it’s not enough.

A better example might be the guard elite signet… but even then when combined with F2 it’s not enough unless you have a respectable amount of healing power.

Warrior healing signet + adrenal health outheals Guardian f2 + elite signet. Even if you divide the Warrior healing signet amount by 3 (as some say it ticks the amount listed every 3 seconds instead of the 1 second it’s supposed to… I haven’t checked yet), here’s your math:

At 0 HP:
Warrior: 120 (signet/3) + 117 (AH) = ~ 237/sec
Guardian: 84 (F2) + 81 (eSig) = ~ 165/sec
Guardian (traited f2): 105 (f2) + 81 (eSig) = ~186/sec

At 1000 HP:
Warrior: ~137 (signet/3) + ~167 (AH) = ~304/sec
Guardian: ~144 (f2) +~131 (eSig) = ~275/sec
Guardian (traited f2) = ~180 (f2) + ~131 (eSig) = ~321/sec

So, it takes 1000 hp for the Guard traited f2 + elite healing signet to exceed the Warrior by a whopping ~17/sec.

Guard f2 activation heal is garbage. Warriors can shout-heal. Warriors can put out sustained regen (by banners) where the Guard does in small bursts (using mace symbol). So, Warriors can have every utility skill and their elite do healing…

As far as passive healing is concerned, Warriors got the prize.

~EW

(if my math is wrong somewhere, I apologize… I’m using the wiki as well as the build-editor where the wiki wasn’t helpful… to the best of my ability/knowledge, what I’ve presented is correct)

That Guy.5704:

So, its good game design to have a situation where one person’s progress is artificially stretched out over a very extended period of time regardless of progress made in other areas of that item OR where their progress comes from another person selling their hard limited progress. I see.

Correct. In a MMO, that is good game design. Not to blow your mind all at once, but there’s also a concept called a “skinner box” that is also employed by MMOs.

Welcome to the Matrix.

~EW

Bomber.3872:

Seriously people start reading threads before you write some kitten stuff in them. Around 50% of posts here are from people that have no idea at all and are just writing because they are bored.

Again for all the non reading kids: Noone cares about your stupid legendary or guild upgrade! For these two mystic coin price is fine and could be doubled and still noone should care!
The problem is that mystic coins are needed for ~250 mf recipes (lvl15 up to lvl500 recipes), there are ~100 mf only weapon skins that can only be created with mystic coins (like eternal sands), there are some couple hundret other items and upgrades that need mystic coins!!!

Only because most people are to lazy to look up from where or how their weapons are created, doesn’t mean that we all aren’t massively hurt by increasing mystic coin prices.
Mystic coins have been an undervalued item since gw2 release.
Not because you didn’t need them! They have been undervalued because 99% of the player base is —-———. I know that because I made thousands of gold two years ago by crafting mystic coin items (for less than 1g) and sellling these for 30g. Now this doesn’t work since HoT (which is totally fine), but now these crap items are really costing ~40g each and their price is raising fast (because of mystic coins).
So again the problem is that now ~300+ beginner items and base food cost ~40-50g and these are still raising fast. So 1g each mystic coin will be fine for guild halls and legy’s, but IT’S NOT FINE for hundrets of low lvl beginner items!

The OP was specifically addressing the issue of Mystic Coins with regards to Legendaries, and that’s why the majority of comments have been in that direction.

If you want to expand the discussion, that’s awesome. But there’s no need to be a troll or an kitten when you do.

~EW

Akrasia.5469:

I used to run something similar in solo PvE but I got rid of minions a while back when the AI was horrible. Being Sylvari luckily I have take root which adding invuln and plants to shoot helps a lot. Or I sometimes for fun run Lich form (which also has minions). I use blood and vampiric traits and run old school necro not reaper in my solo build. Well of Blood, Suffering, corruption and power, Death and Soul Reaping round me out. I almost never die unless I’m really being stupid. I solo medium level Champs with no problem.

I’ll take a look at Take Root, I find I generally dismiss racial skills out of hand anymore, with rare exceptions… thank you for that idea! Also, I’ll take a fresh look at Lich Form. I’ve been running golem for so long it’s become hard thinking outside that box… even though build experimentation is my favorite thing to do in GW2, lol.

The only reason I have the minions is aggro control, health siphon, and condi cleanse. I honestly don’t care if they how much damage they do, so long as they rush my target(s) and grab their attention, or otherwise become a distraction.

Akrasia.5469:

One suggestion is if you’re running a power build as it seems then take Axe/focus as your off hand. You can fill your lifeforce in no time and spam vulnerability at the same time making your minions do more damage. On top of that there are 2 slow down skills which really help you get away from mobs in a jam.

There was a thread a little while ago discussing the disapointment in the axe… but I LOVE my axe. Not only is it ranged, but with the siphon traits my AA alone siphons health 4 times and applies 2 stacks of vuln… that’s amazing for a power build.

I used to run focus, but it fell out of favor when I started taking advantage of the health siphon traits… this is because the siphon doesn’t utilize healing power (much)… so I could ignore that stat… But ignoring that stat meant I wasn’t taking full advantage of the regeneration granted by focus 4. That’s the primary reason I dropped it.

So, I delved into dagger and found that the traited speed bonus, #3 Axe cripple, #4 dagger homing blind, and #5 dagger weakness helps with mitigating heavy spike damage and getting away, too.

Akrasia.5469:

Besides running MM there’s no reason to be on the front lines as much as you do with your dagger. I use Dagger/Warhorn for mobility and get in and out plus an extra heal but staying mid is preferred if you’re in a tough fight.

Plz forgive me, but I can never remember a lot of gw2 shorthand… what is MM? I probably do know it, but lack of coffee has me muddled atm.

I keep mid range most of the time, too… It’s also one of the reasons I infrequently drop any well except in those circumstances I talked about previously… but I have found I can be in the front lines a long while so long as I have at least one well not on cd.

Akrasia.5469:

Did you read my suggestion for Well of Bone above?

Do you mean Well of Dhuum? I do like that idea… burn, chill, and solid damage sounds great, and definitely makes wells more appealing to condi and condi/power hybrid builds. I also really like your idea for the change to well of blood… especially because that’d mean each pulse would siphon health 3 times from each enemy hit… that makes me smile.

~EW

I’d love to see more pirate-themed armor, outfits, and weapon skins. Also a back item that serves the same function as the Rune of the Privateer “yarr!” shout.

Pretty soon my charr warrior will be in the pirate captain’s outfit with an anchor as his weapon… but I wouldn’t mind more options for mixing up the look…

edit: I’d even love to add a captain’s tricorn hat to the Aetherblade Armor skin.

~EW

There’s a youtube series put out by Mikei the Mighty on all the different ways you can approach making gold. I suggest you watch some of those vids to figure out which means work best for you.

~EW

Assuming your math is correct, I think 9 months is more than reasonable for obtaining a legendary.

…this is coming from someone who’s been playing on and off for 3 years, has never gotten a legendary, and will have his first ascended piece outside of laurel purchases in the next couple of weeks….

…when I see people stating they have 3+ legendaries (compared to my 0… I haven’t been actively trying to get one, tbh), I can’t help but wonder if they’re a bit too easy to obtain… they certainly aren’t living up to the name “legendary” when everywhere I go I see someone with sunrise/twilight/eternity.

~EW

I think wells are awesome as they are.

But, I mostly do solo pve, and I run a build that seems to be very different from what I read that most others run/prefer.

I run axe/dagger power build with wells of blood, darkness, and suffering. I use bone minions and flesh golem. Most importantly I use traits Vampiric and Vampiric Presence. (go ahead and mock me for this build, flame shield is raised)

With those two traits my wells melt through large groups of mobs… and allow me to go face-to-face with champs. Those are when I use ‘em, and I don’t need ’em any other time…. I rarely take any major hit to my health.

In pve the wells combined with those two traits make me pretty much immortal… and I don’t have to invest a lick of stats into healing power to do it.

As far as the claim of vampiric signet being better than well of blood, they serve two different functions. The passive heal of the signet only works when you’re hit… my minions take a lot of my aggro, so it’s infrequently useful from that aspect. Also, the active effect of the signet affects a single target, where as my well heals and siphons in an area… making it amazing when there are a lot of mobs and/or I want to give a bit of extra health to my minions that currently have mob attention. In my case, the well is definitely preferable to the signet.

All that said, I think an elite well would be really cool… but I don’t know if I could give up the golem. What I’d want to see in an elite well is something that spawns minions the equivalent of those karka hatchlings… with each pulse they pop out of the well, head towards the enemy, and explode in minion-explody-awesomeness.

~EW

I fell into a whirlpool this last weekend. So, it’s certainly doable.

It was during the zerg rush after the first batteries. I positioned myself in front of the left foot (his right), but not right next to it…. a little ways out, just outside melee range.

Just keep trying, and don’t let yourself get upset about it. The rewards of the fight (imo) are worth the time you’re putting into it.

If you do feel that he’s being taken out to quickly for the whirlpools to spawn… maybe join the map just before tequatil begins? That way you’re more than likely to be in overflow and fighting with a less-than-optimal zerg.

~EW

I keep about 4 alts camped out for this same purpose at The Gallowfields, located in the NW corner of the Brisban Wildlands. There is a guaranteed and unguarded Rich Iron Ore node by the skritt renown heart, and usually 5-8 other silver/iron nodes that spawn in that vicinity.

I hope that helps,

~EW

I absolutely love using axe + dagger; I pretty much exclusively use them. To me it’s the staff attack animation that is completely lackluster and doesn’t feel good.

Which just goes to show that what doesn’t work for your play style can work for someone else’s.

~EW

Currently, my lvl 80 guardian is in full Cleric’s. I play mostly PvE, with the occasional WvW. In PvE when fighting some of the world bosses I’ll see waves of people go down around me, yet I’ll be standing there at 75% health or higher… it makes me feel really, really good. My damage is solid (though obviously it’s not the greatest), but I can take on and outlast mobs that zerker-only builds can’t in their wildest dreams. In WvW I imagine it’s very frustrating to my opponents when even with my low health I’m never one-shotted, heal my damage back really fast, and conditions slide off my back.

Eventually I’ll get bored with this build. My bank is stuffed full of different gear sets for my Guardian. This is not because any given set is bad or ineffective. It’s because in every MMO I play I LOVE to explore builds and strategies within the classes. To me any “meta” is a boring concept. Some people have Alt-aholism… I have Build-aholism.

The different stat sets aren’t there to “confuse new players,” but to allow them to mix and match and find sets/styles that fit their play style. If this game truly had “one build to pwn them all,” I’d leave and find somewhere else to play.

~EW

I agree there should be no mounts.

“hey guys, let’s make the game more unique by doing the same thing everyone else does!” /facepalm.

~EW

All the time… and I still haven’t bought HoT.

~EW

Kitten the meta. Play the equipment/build you find fun and an effective, and learn to use those to their best ability. Playing the build/equipment that others say I should because it’s the best or meta is not fun… and in my experience, I’m more effective with something that gells with my playstyle, than with any “meta.”

To the OP: When it comes to the staff, it’s about what it brings to the table that other things don’t. Imo for the auto-attack this is homing and bouncing. People have already touched on the merits/usefulness of Phase Retreat and Chaos Storm so I won’t go much into that. Chaos Armor is for giving you some breathing room when you get surrounded… you get some combination of Protection/Regen/Swiftness, while your opponents get some combination of Weakness/Confusion/Crippled. It’s obviously designed to help extract yourself from heavy-hitting melee opponents. So, the staff gives you 2 skills that help keep you ranged (chaos armor and phase retreat), one skill for when you can’t extract (chaos storm), all the while you dish out both difficult to avoid normal and condi damage because they bounce and are homing.

As far as stats go, I personally I feel it’s about raising both pow and cond dam in order to be deadly with the staff. It does require the combination of the two to let you melt your opponent effectively.

~EW

I just recently started a warrior (I’ve mostly just played my guardian these last couple of years), and I’m having a blast with him. I’m going hammer and rifle. The hammer gives me the feeling like I’m actually hitting hard with a heavy weapon… a feeling I don’t get from flashing a GS around. I also really appreciate having 3 interrupts and 1 movement CC. The rifle is mostly for some world bosses, champions, and other things I don’t necessarily want to get into melee range with for extended periods of time. I still don’t have him to 80, but he’s getting close. Yeah, I’m using zerker gear for the armor, but for trinkets and weapons I’m going soldiers. He hits hard and can take a lot of hits, which is what I was going for; he’s only been dropped once in PvE and it took 8 trash mobs and 2 veterans employing stuns/knockdowns… and I didn’t have good soldiers trinkets yet.

~EW

For me it’s the Fire Elemental world boss.

Stand in one spot, and pew until it’s dead…. it’s incredibly boring.

~EW

In every class forum there are people screaming about how Anet done their class wrong… this tells me 2 things:

1) People love the classes they play (which means they’re all well designed)
2) The classes are as “balanced” as can be expected (because the grumbling is even across the board)

I also always chuckle a little bit when I read people clamoring for perfect balance in a game where it’s impossible to have it. Players bring the true balance with their skills, so if you feel underpowered then practice your class more, and be adaptive to change. You’re not meant to find one build to pwn everything you come across with ease, and then never have to change it up.

~EW

You’re looking in the wrong place. “Normal” looking weapon skins come from common loot. You’re in a very small minority if you wish to spend tickets on something that looks banal, as that’s not the intended purpose of the tickets.

~EW

Skritt before any others.

~EW

From the perspective of one of those filthy casual PvEers (me), I actually like the hammer a lot. Traited with Glacial Heart and Writ of Persistance, you can keep up a perpetual Protection buff, and 3/4 of the time Retaliation buff with just skills 1 and 2. Mobs tend to close into melee, which keeps them in the symbol.

According to the Wiki, the power modifier to Mighty Blow is 1.75… yeah, that’s not the modifier on the auto attack, but for a trait that you can spam every 4 sec (traited), that’s huge… and it closes the distance.

I can understand why hammer is unfavorable in PvP and WvW… it’s really not built around the constant mobility necessary for those areas. It’s really built around circling your enemy/target who’s standing in the symbol, while you lay into them. In fact, I suspect all of that is why the chill is part of Glacial Heart… in order to help keep up that fighting style even if your target is moving so you can get that Mighty Blow combo before your enemy leaves the symbol. It’s just not a perfect solution.

Also, the one time (yes only once) I brought the hammer into WvW I did discover that flaw that the swing for 3rd chain of 1 is so long that it’s easy to interrupt. It was definitely frustrating. But, as far as the zerg goes, if I got the symbol off, it didn’t matter that people weren’t constantly standing in it… there were so many people that there was always someone in it… then I use MB, give my allies retaliation and do a huge spike damage to the unlucky person who was passing through my symbol.

So, I think that the symbol is supposed to be used more for the Mighty Blow blast finisher to constantly apply retaliation. If your opponent just happens to spend a lot of time in the symbol, that’s just a perk.

I think the main problem with the hammer is my main frustration with the Guard as a whole: the fact Guards don’t get a traited speed buff of any kind. Even in PvE I really dislike that I can’t keep up with any large group… whether it’s the Silverwastes train, or the rush to kill the Karka Queen. And, the staff isn’t a helpful solution since I have to stop and stand in the symbol in order to apply enough swiftness to be worthwhile.

Sorry for the ramblings. I’ve been playing GW2 off and on for the last few years… Guard is my favorite class and I spent much of that time using the hammer… but I understand that my knowledge is still very limited. So, flame away if I’ve said anything to upset y’all. Also, I know I didn’t address skills 3-5, but I feel this post was getting too long.

~EW

I love the hammer. I feel like my character is swinging a heavy maul in combat; I don’t feel the respective same way when I use the greatsword. I also love the fact that when things go right I can keep up perpetual protection and retaliation. I also love the near-spamable blast finisher of #2.

That being said, the few fights I’ve been in WvW everyone seems to wait until I’m in the animation of the 3rd auto-attack to interrupt me. I have difficulty getting the third attack off because of the longish charge time. This results in my character being significantly less effective/useful when I can’t keep protection and retaliation up on myself, let alone everyone else.

In PvE, I love rockin’ the hammer. I can front-line nearly any mob, meta-event or otherwise.

I don’t PvP, so I can’t comment to that. I speculate I’d have even more of the difficulties with interruptions than I do in WvW.

Atm I don’t really use either GS or Hammer. I’m finding the Scepter/Torch a lot of fun.

Oh, and don’t forget the blast-finisher #2 can close the gap a bit. It’s just not nearly as effective doing so as the GS.

~J

I just wanted to give some praise to a very inexpensive and useful sigil: Sigil of Speed. On kill you get (unmodified) 20 seconds of swiftness for the superior version. It’s currently going for under 7s on the Trading Post.

I’ve read many complaints/observations about how movement-impaired the guardian class is. I can’t agree more. Often the solution suggested is to utilize a weapon-swap staff Symbol of Swiftness.

I’ve found that with just killing the usual handful of trash mobs on the map, I’m rarely without swiftness, and often I’m keeping up anywhere between 1.5 to 3.5 minutes’ worth.

The main drawback is, of course, you have to give up a sigil slot that could otherwise be dedicated to damage, support, etc. The other drawback of needing to kill a mob to gain the benefit is one I haven’t really experienced: I always have to kill trash mobs no matter where I go.

If you can afford to give up the sigil slot, I highly recommend you give this sigil a try.

As it probably matters to the reader, I mostly do PVE and dabble in WvW. I wouldn’t know if this sigil is as useful in PvP.

Thanx for taking the time to read this,

~J