As someone who has leveled all classes to 80 and so I do have a bit of perspective:
Guardian
Elementalist
Mesmer
With those 3 you can find a ton of different playstyles to suit you.
Mesmer is just unique (though I haven’t figured out how to play it properly). Stealth/misdirection, some abilities no other class can touch (portals).
Elementalist requires a very active playstyle, esp. if you go with D/D, and the options for how to play are really incredible (there is no “spam 5-2-1” redux as the only way to go)
Guardian can be specced/equipped for DPS, Tanking, or heavy support depending on your desire. You can have pets (ethereal weapons), symbols, etc.
I actually play my Warrior, Ranger, and possibly my Necro more than any other classes, so the classes I have more “fun” with may not coincide with the above list. But for pure variety, I think those are the 3 most expansive.
Many people consider it rude and selfish to use MF runes/equipment (other than food) in a dungeon party, since it makes you less effective at killing/healing/helping the party.
I’d stick with the zerk armor for dungeons and save the MF for outside world.
D/P – Leap combo, heartseeker damage + backstab, utilizes Shadow arts (SA) trait line. Daggers and pistols have several traits option. Typically people would want to have at least quick initiative recovery
D/D – Has huge burst damage, also utilizes the SA line.
S/D – No traits for swords. Offhand dagger is the main reason why you can use the SA line.
S/P – Worst of the lot. Received a 15% nerf in damage way back. Some people claim that auto attack does around the same damage as pistol whip. Blinding field is completely useless since sword has no finisher to speak off. But D/P has leap finisher (stealth after heartseeker), P/P has projectile finisher.
If S/X is nerfed, then how bad is P/D such that it doesn’t even warrant a mention in all of the above possible combinations (and hasn’t been mentioned anywhere else in this thread)? What is it about P/D that seems beneath all consideration?
Everytime there’s a guy on this forum that " discovers" the longbow again, they often make the same classic mistake : Not bringing swd/axe for the secondary set.
Because the warrior selfcombo ( using combushot as starter) is only half of what it could be without your axe. How does it go ?
- combushot
- ( as combushot lands) pindown on the target.
- flip to swd/axe, savage leap (granting fireshield)
- (optinal : cripple or doubleaxe move for more fury)
- axe whirl in the firefield (skill5) to start the truly damaging part of the warrior selfcombo, the fire whirl…. where all 15 whirls of your axe shoot pewpews of fire.
- Finally, flurry with the builtup adrenaline, turn around and savage leap away in the other direction.
Wow, that is precisely what I use and how I use it. It may not be a max/min combo but I find it incredibly useful in a variety of situations, especially carrying a pair of stunbreak utilities. I’ve tried almost all other combinations of warrior weapons (including GS), and none of them were nearly as much fun for me as the LB —> S/A —> LB synergy.
A troll is someone who cares not about truth, facts, or observances. They only seek to offend or upset people for the sake of enjoyment.
A troll I am not.
And how does the original quote you pasted in no fewer than 4 different threads not qualify as precisely that?
So now you’re also a hypocritical troll.
Walking away/ignoring them is not the “mature” thing to do. People need to eat their words, taste their own medicine, be talked to in a way they’ll understand. You don’t take the high road. You punch them in the mouth.
You are just validating my original assessment.
What in thee holy kitten does me copy/pasting my OWN comments have to do with me “looking pro,” “bro”?
Posting the same quote in multiple threads makes you a troll. And your “told you so” attitude makes you a juvenile troll.
I vowed months ago that WHEN, not IF, but WHEN this time came, I was going to come here and slap a giant “I told you so” in here.
This makes you no better than the so-called 14yo kids you’re taunting.
this is the first time i’ve felt gouged by ANet.
Unless you are making a pun around the word “gouged”, I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
Gouging is when a company significantly overcharges for an item or service considered a virtual necessity (gasoline, food, insurance, utilities come to mind). This mining pick doesn’t come anywhere close to a necessity.
If you don’t think it is worth the price as a soulbound item, then don’t buy it.
If you buy it anyway, don’t complain about the price.
Don’t confuse Buyer’s Remorse with “gouging”.
3. Have the firestorm get better target player detection. I don’t mean shoot the player 100% of the time, I mean make it so the player actually needs to move more than 10% of the time.
Your experience was very different from mine. I was constantly running from the AoE rings that appeared on top of and all around me. Maybe no one else was drawing that kind of aggro, but I was downed a lot because sometimes I just dodged from one AoE into another (no safe spots within dodging range).
Most people are surprised when I tell them this, but I had a FAR harder time with my mesmer than with my ele. I found myself constantly kiting mobs who tended to ignore my illusions (which were doing almost no damage on their own), and it took forever to get through some mobs/events/hearts.
My D/D elementalist, while theoretically squishier, seemed to do more damage and was able to get through mobs faster, while dying less. I started my traiting in Earth just to get that extra toughness, and got the Lesser Elemental early (usually choosing the Earth version since he’s the best meat shield of the bunch), and was able to use hit-and-run tactics to quickly wear down the mobs while avoiding too much damage at once. I found the Fire-Earth combo (4 – switch – 4 – 5) wore down a lot of mobs without having to take more than 1 real hit before dodging out, and the extra might made the fight easier.
I will also say that running a D/D elementalist forced me to become a better player (I started with a Ranger and Warrior, and didn’t have to play light on my feet to survive in most cases). You have to be more aware of your surroundings, you have to learn when to dodge and when you can get that one extra melee attack in that might finish or bleed out the mob. Conditions are also your friend, which is why my build is heavy on Earth, Fire (sort of), and Arcana, and light on Air. It is not the classic D/D build, I will say that. It’s also why the RTL nerf isn’t going to drastically change my style.
If you can learn how to play your elementalist, I think you will find most of the rest of the classes to be easier (except possibly the Mesmer, but that’s just my bias).
It’s 2 different playstyles, and comes down to how you want to spend your gametime.
I have 8 alts (0 mains, 8 alts). I’m doing something different with each. One is specced more for dungeon runs, another I want to make better for WvW, one farms Orr, some are dragon fighters, etc. One almost has WC (just waiting for a few darn WvW points to open up), but not that interested in legendaries. Most of them have rare or exotic armor and weaponry, some from crafting, some from chests, some from exploring, some from Karma vendors.
I’ll probably never have a fully-decked-out max/min Omnicharacter. I don’t care, I don’t have to be the best at anything, I’d rather have variety and be decent at a lot of things. I like to experience all that is out there (except sPvP, which holds no interest for me). That’s why I run alts.
The most fun skill in the game on the prof that i have been playing since the beta (which has been getting only nerf since then)=no thank you.
If your entire game experience hinges on a single skill, you have been setting yourself up for disappointment. I guess none of the other stuff the OP mentions has any importance at all; RTL is 100% of your game. How very odd.
FWIW, I play a D/D elementalist, and I find it’s the variety of skills and sequences of use that make the class fun, not one single skill that I build my whole attack around. I use RTL a lot, but this nerf isn’t going to have any serious effect on the way I play the character.
Chicken Little said something about the sky.
I’ve leveled 8 alts to 80 (1 of each class), and I never found the actual leveling to be a “chore”. You level by playing the game. Yes, I got a bit of leveling in by crafting (because I wanted to learn the craft and make my own stuff, not as a shortcut to leveling), but for the most part I just played the game, and the leveling happened organically. No, I didn’t like every bit of content, but the world is so big that you don’t have to do the specific stuff you don’t like (unless you just “hate all hearts”, which — all hearts aren’t the same, so I don’t understand this sentiment other than as hyperbole).
If you hate “playing the game” — then why are you playing?
Slalom, can you post your trait lines + utilities for your “survivability” build? I’m having the same trouble as the OP (OK in zergs, dead meat 1v1 or solo roaming for POIs).
Also, what are the best pet(s) for use in WvW? For PvE I favor the hyena (double damage) & polar bear (very tough & the chill-roar can be good against zergs), but they really don’t help much for some reason 1v1 or in tiny groups.
Guardian is the best party class in the game and that is what WvW is about, not wandering around, getting in duels with people over nothing.
Then Anet shouldn’t have made all the WvW POIs, etc. required for world completion. You HAVE to wander around various maps by yourself, unless you can convince a zerg to escort you everywhere you need to go.
There was indeed, until sometime yesterday evening. Now they’ve removed the server listing entirely from the post, and the server pops haven’t budged in the slightest overnight (I’ve checked at 3-hour intervals, and every time the pops have been the same as they were at peak hours).
I don’t see how a VH-pop server at 4 am local time is ever going to drop to Medium.
I think AN screwed the pooch on this one. Clearly the objective was to move some population from the VH servers to the lower-pop ones; instead, by observation and chat with those on my (med-pop) server, the effect has been the opposite: people on the existing med-pops flocked to the other 4 listed servers early in the free-transfer period, so AN put a stop to that and now there are (and will continue to be) only 2 options for free transfers. And those 2 servers are even less desirable than they were before.
ANet needs to address this, but in a completely different way.
Nope, not going to get into it with you. You seem to think heavy plate wearers waving around a scepter like a tennis racquet and rolling around like Olympic gymnasts is good design.
See, this illustrates the problem I have with much of the “need trinity”-like posts in this thread. There is an underlying current that RESTRICTING what people can do is a good idea. Not only are you talking about trying to pigeonhole classes themselves, ultimately you’re also talking about pigeonholing builds.
Example: Group needs a warrior for DPS. Fine, I join, but I don’t have a cookie-cutter warrior built around absolute max/min of DPS. Instead I have (and use) my longbow on occasion (fire field is nice), and my gear may be tuned for some survivability/tanking. Group doesn’t want my build, they want pure min/max DPS build, kick me out because my build doesn’t fit their trinity preconceptions.
I don’t want a game with cookie-cutter builds that fit one of 3 very specific roles. I like build flexibility. I like being able to use weapons that may not be the absolute best choice for pure tanking or DPS. I like being able to heal myself and dodge, or stand in and take a few hits when I think I’ve worn the baddie down to where I can out-DPS him.
And I also like being able to log in during slow times or when my friends aren’t online, and play the game by myself, without being stymied because the game requires that I have a tank or a healer with me to make any meaningful progress.
There are games out there that impose these restrictions. I don’t want GW2 to become another version of that. It has a niche that fits my style of play. Don’t try to take this one game away from me so you can have yet another enforced-trinity game to add to the pantheon.
I question the mentality of everyone who doesnt at least think of what the game would be like if it was designed with more defined roles.
I hope you don’t slip off your saddle, because the fall off that 5000-foot high horse would be fatal.
Seriously, man, cut the elitist “anyone who disagrees that this game should be just like GW1 or another trinity game is a moron” crap.
Open your mind to the possibility that not having strictly defined roles makes each and every character self-sufficient. And that this is a GOOD thing.
When you join a new game and notice that you can never “catch up” it can put you off and make you leave the game.
If not being able to “catch up” to people who have been playing the game for months on a “leaderboard” that has nothing but symbolic significance deters someone from playing the game, then they weren’t playing for the right reasons in the first place, and probably would have left sooner or later anyway. And frankly, I’m not interested in playing with someone whose primary purpose is to see their name on such a leaderboard.
How long before your position on the leaderboard, or your position as last marks you as a “baddie” and you are ostracized.
Seriously, this is creating an elitist community who will try and bully others with the claim, “well I’m #3 on the leaderboard, I’m better than you, know more about the game than you so you just stfu.”
If you’re playing the game with people who act like this, you need to find a new guild. If not, then wtf do you care what a bunch of strangers think about your position on a leaderboard?
There is a whole mindset going on here that is completely foreign to me. It’s like some kind of metagame where position and prestige are the real game, and the actual playing is secondary or even irrelevant.
I’d change your Attunements to Control + 1-4
What kind of freakish hands do you have? I can’t hold down Control + numkey without really contorting my wrist away from its natural position, regardless of whether I use the thumb or pinky for the Control.
all classes should have access to all weapons. What to do with ‘em, should be only player’s concern.
Completely disagree. Access to many weapon types is one of the perks of the warrior and soldier-type classes. Their specialties are tied to having such a variety of weapons to use. Warriors, especially, have little else other than basic toughness.
Scholar-type classes have tons of flexibility, unlike the warriors, that is not tied to having a variety of weapons. That’s one of the sacrifices you make choosing a scholar. If all classes have all weapons, then the specialness of the warrior becomes null.
Good lord. If elementalists are getting a new weapon, the mace makes much more sense than the greatsword. The GS is a weapon for warrior/soldier types. I may be nerfing myself, but I won’t even equip one on my mesmer because it’s just so wrong.
For my engineer, I went with a bomb/grenade + turret build. With the trait that allows explosions to cause vulnerability, normal mobs are becoming butter. I prefer the rifle with this build because it has several CC/mobility attacks that can pull the mob to within turret range, then freeze them, then blast them back out before they can damage the turrets. Or I can let them come to my turrets and lay down bombs to destroy them while they sit at point-blank turret range (and BoB to help protect the turrets if necessary).
I admit engineer and elementalist have been pleasant surprises, and I actually enjoy them more than some of the L80s.
Necro: I tried the MM route, but I found I didn’t like leaving my fate in the hands of that AI. Once I switched to conditionmancer (scepter/dagger), and only using the flesh golem for meat shielding, my efficiency (and enjoyment) went up significantly.
I agree with engineer, but would add that elementalist also meets most of your requirements. Definitely takes some skill, but I’m finding it to be far less squishy than the mesmer I’ve played in PvE, and much more enjoyable (though mesmers seem to have street cred in WvW and dungeons). Lots of complex strategies, deal good damage, etc. I use D/D primarily so I can even get up in the mobs’ face and lay down some AoE, then dodge out and blast them as they recover. I do tend to use elemental glyphs to provide a little cover and pull aggro. Staff would give you more AoE options and ranged attacks, if you prefer that style.
But I found that my mesmer was spending most of her time kiting because the PvE mobs tend to ignore the illusions, and that’s not a fun playstyle for me. I tried Sword, Staff, Greatsword, even Pistol…none worked very well IMO.
I think a lot of people might disagree and will sing the praises of mesmers, but that’s just my experience.
I think it’s interesting, though, that I’ve gotten 5 classes to L80 — but it’s the 3 you mention that are still sitting in the 55-75 range.
To clarify: when I said zero exotic drops, I did not just mean armor, weapons, and jewels. I have also never had a crest (of any kind whatsoever) drop, nor any lodestones.
Every “orange” item I have ever obtained has been via map clearing or purchase (including karma armor).
In 878 hours, my highest ever gold total has been 21 in the bank, because I’m constantly having to spend it to buy rare or exotic gear for my L80 alts.
age = 878 hours & change
5 L80 alts
1 L72 alt, 1 L65, 1 L49
Exotic drops ? exactly zero.
Friend who has been playing about 900 hours but with fewer high-level alts: “too many to count”.
Something is completely out of whack.
Why’s it taking this long?
No really. Here’s how you make Ascended items far less painful to attain. You make a vendor in the wuvwuv starting locations who sells each Ascended piece for 500 Badges of Honor.
BAM. Done. I have fixed the game.
No, you have totally ruined it for people who don’t do WvW. Everyone can do simple PvE content; not everyone can do WvW.
There sure are a lot of people here who apparently care only about the destination, and despise the journey. Why are you playing GW2 if you don’t enjoy doing the things that the dailies ask for?
Just went through same hell. Had no problem until the courtyard, then it was nothing but continuously losing ground as the respawns far outlasted the NPCs. If I couldn’t get through it the first time, I’m not sure how I was ever going to get through it with broken armor and no NPCs to pull aggro, esp. when any dents I made in the previous attempt were wiped out upon rez.
Finally did get through with the help of 2 other players and focusing completely on the vets, but for most people I’d say this is almost undoable solo. None of my previous attempts with other alts were anywhere near this difficult.
" The puerile kitten contest between the Orders has to go, "
QFT. And I would add to that the sophomoric attitudes of the Destinies’ Edge members nursing their petty little grudges. And I don’t like that DE is constantly referred to in the main story line, but to play out their story you have to go through all of the dungeons, and mostly in order. If you just play the PS line, keep hearing about and seeing the DE people but not witnessing their actions or developing story, then suddenly they’re there at Arah, it just generates a wth reaction.
As for Trahearne, I didn’t mind his role (the main needs someone to tell him or her where to go and what to do), but he’s as wooden as his origins, and needs some spice.
Also, why is a member of a species that has only been in Tyria 25 years the “expert” on Orr history and knowledge? I would expect a Charr or perhaps an asura scholar to fill that role.
I couldn’t even man the cannons properly at the end. When I interacted with one, the camera panned way way out and turned at a funky angle I couldn't change, so I had no idea where I was pointing or whether my shots were remotely connecting. I ended up disengaging and instead went around healing group members who were getting poisoned.
They can be used in the Mystic Forge. Take a soulbound item and 3 other cheap items of the same rarity (color), throw them in the MF, and pray for a miracle. You might strike lightning and get a good item. Usually you will at least get a crap item you can sell or salvage. If you’re unlucky, you’ll get another crap item that’s soulbound as well.
Hi, I’m working on a Mesmer build designed to maximize illusion up-time, damage, and survivability. I’m trying to decide which 2 of the following 3 traits makes the most sense:
Empowering Illusions (Domination III, 10-pt trait)
Phantasmal Strength (Inspiration 25-pt trait)
Compounding Power (Illusions III, 10-pt trait)
The first 2 are identical except the 2nd applies only to Phantasms, while it seems the first applies to all illusions (which begs the question of why it is only a 10-pt trait compared the 2nd being a 25-pt trait). I’m not sure if they stack or not (does taking both give phantasms 30% — or 27% or 34.5% — more damage?)