Guild Wars 2

I can’t see anyone using 90% of the runes… if you sort exotic runes at the auction house by price, you’ll see almost four pages of runes selling for less than 10 silver.

There’s your feedback…

…four pages of runes the marketplace deems worthless.

The new GM traits are mostly worthless. The exceptions would be the fire ele blinds, the engineer mines, and the guardian health….

everything else looks like junk.

90% of the runes are still junk, yesterday they were worth a fortune, as everyone, was expecting awesome upgrades, and today they’re for less than a silver, because no one in their right mind would use most of them.

At least let us flush them down the mystic toilet in hopes of rerolling something useful.

there are maybe 5 sigils worth using…. I’m willing to bet 90% of players will use Fire and 7%crit …the other 10% won’t be able to afford ’em.

we need hotkey emotes if we are expected to play with people who no speaky english

Seven or eight months ago I took a break for GW2. It was easy to do, there are other games out there, and I was tired of playing a game where the answer to the question, “who can kill a thief?” was “another thief”

…and all this time later, the answer is the same.

Is everyone ok with this? Is it acceptable that one thief can kill four or five people without any risk of dying? If anything goes bad they just stealth, run away, come back and kill anyone who’s left standing…

…and don’t tell me there’s no such thing as permanent stealth. They attack walls.. whatever… just poof gone. I’ve fought mesmers that do this too. Poof, gone, and minutes later they’re right back where you saw them last.

Are they hacking? great… then there’s that too….

How has this game held on so long? Why are people still playing it?

It it just ‘cause it’s free? ‘cause that’s about the only reason I’m here.

I was away for seven months (college) and upon coming back to GW2 I find it all massively disappointing….

IMO all guard builds should have empowering might and altruistic healing, and having those two skills basically kills every build you could want…

how are people supposed to spec 30-30-0-0-30 for a condition build?

why is permeating wrath an aoe around the guardian, instead of around your target.. would it be too OP for guards to have a ranged aoe? Heaven forbid someone may actually use a scepter…

we should all just roll banner warriors, and be done with it…

…30 points just to give your teammates battle presence, so lame.

PTV+emerald orbs=flamethrower/elixir gun/rocketboots mmmm..mmm.. goodness

I like either a 10-20-0-30-10 or a 0-30-0-30-10 build

It’s a nice solid build.. really cheap for gear costs.. very viable. I use pistols more for the 2 sigils than anything, but they work well for people on the walls.

…just don’t use your flamethrower against people with retaliation.

I have leveled every class to 80, and the one that has cost me the most money is the guardian. No matter what gear I use, no matter what spec I use, nothing seems to work.

But people keep saying how awesome guardians are, so I keep trying to get it right, but in reality, guardians are a lousy class that isn’t good at anything beyond standing the the middle of a group, and soaking damage with Altruistic Healing.

Sad, truly sad, damage. Sure you can spec for decent damage, but you’ll be squishier than a thief, and you will have no tools for survival, like escapes or stealth, or even a decent run speed, or heaven forbid a blind.

Sure you can spec to tank, but you’ll have no chance to kill anything, and are basically a boon-kitten for your group.

One of the best guardian skills is the aoe flame one for 30 points, but there is no way to get it and Altruistic Healing + Empowering might, so there’s no viable build that uses it, cause you can’t stand in the middle of the fight without AH+EM.

…and it’s a condition damage skill, as the top trait in a line that has nothing to do with conditions.

Stuff like that, has me putting guardians in the same category as rangers; sure they can do everything, but they just aren’t fun, and they always feel lacking.

Of course the big difference between the two is that every zerg/group want it’s boon giving meat-shields, and rangers are bordering on hated.

So after fiddling with this for a few days, I am really not impressed.

A typical proc of confusion is a little less than 500 damage in WvW. An extra 100 condition damage would net you 5 damage per bleed/second.

Undead runes would give well over 100 condition damage, even if your necro sucks, and has no armor. (spvp people I guess)

So with undead runes your mark of blood would do 150+ more damage for it’s 10 second duration. So against 3 or more mobs undead is the clear winner, as it rapidly does more damage as you spam mark of blood over and over, as well as boosting Earth Sigil procs, and any poison or fire damage you should do.

There’s also the joy of having it proc on something unintended, like a passing deer, or a Jagged Horror….

It also turns pvp against aware necros into a game of hot potato as you just toss it back and forth at each other.

So I’ll give it another day or so before I go back to undead runes, as I have yet to recall a fight where it helped me take someone down, and it’s really not helping in the aoe department.

I was on FA fighting them. In open field there was nothing our commanders could do. Even our commanders that main necros were laughably clueless about necro skills, and how to fight back against them.

For a server that mocks any necro that doesn’t run wells (like me), watching them get schooled was glorious.

FA has this thing against using open field arrow carts too, I told them to just drop carts and aoe the pets… but no one listens to me….

I’m not even sure this thread is for reals but…

…only condition builds will get anything out of them, and condition builds are kinda meh. So they all needed a boost.

I put them on my necro, and like others have said, fear isn’t an interupt, and warhorn is kinda useless. Landing a daze on someone is pretty hard to do; an offhand dagger gives condition transfer and aoe bleed/weakness, so the warhorn is pretty bad.

So for my necro, I have no interrupts.

The damage from confusion is nice, but it’s unpredictable, worthless against some classes, and comes at the cost of the 140-150 condition damage that I used to have with undead runes 6th bonus.

The bottom line is, that even with these runes, you still won’t be able to kill a thief.

Absolutely there are staff builds!

The staff is an excellent weapon to build around, and you should get used to using it early!

The first 10 points in talents you spend should be to get the 20% cooldown reduction for staff skills, and then 10 more in that trait line for unblockable marks.

When leveling use the little scorpion looking pet and the ghostly blob one, since they actually heal themselves when out of combat.

The blob makes a decent tank. You just need to keep casting Mark of Blood on him, so that he has healing from regeneration.

In time you will learn if you favor direct damage/power or bleeds/conditions for damage, the staff works with both, so it’s all good.

P.S. when leveling you may want to pick up the Vampiric Master trait, since the pet heals can add up fast.

Ezeriel.9574:

…You’re just left with weaker bleeds. Like 20-30 per tic weaker depending on how you spec.

I said “depending on how you spec”

….it’s not my fault none of you can read.

the 6th bonus for undead runes was around 150 condition damage for my necro

I also went from a 0-30-20-20-0 condition build to a 30-0-20-20-0 build to use these runes, and that cost me an additional 150 crit and 150 condition damage.

So right there is a loss of 300 condition damage, and a rather large drop in crit chance, meaning less earth sigil bleed procs as well as waiting longer for Dhuumfire to proc, which is something to consider.

In full rabids and using a +5% crit sigil I’m only at 38ish crit, and I’ve gone a good while without procing Dhuumfire, dry spells for crits really hamstring that skill.

…I’m just saying, it’s not all greener grass and roses using perplexity runes.

You give up a massive amount of condition damage to use these runes, as-well-as fifty toughness, and that’s actually noticeable.

To make matters worse once you start down the road of more single targeted conditions you’ll want to go for dhuumfire, and that’s kinda iffy for condition builds.

All-in-all, I’m really on the fence about these runes. Sure, they will rock the world of fast attacking classes like rangers, but in the world of zerg v. zerg… meh.

…and if the class can cleanse that confusion. You’re just left with weaker bleeds. Like 20-30 per tic weaker depending on how you spec.

I fear for JQ’s eyesight!!!

….all that playing with themselves and they could go blind!!!

but yeah uh.. FA can’t fight JQ alone, and MaGoonies are so outmanned they’re no help… I think I’ll take the week off.

A good thief won’t let you see them until they backstab you for 10k damage, then Shadow Shot for 5k, then heartseeker you to death.

…and unlike every other mmo, where a glass cannon thief would be left totally exposed, in GW2 they get to stealth, stomp you, and move on to the next guy.

It is the most OP glass-cannon thief class that has ever existed. There is no risk involved for a full zerker thief, and the people talking about dropping wells, and marks are fighting noobs.

Against a decent thief there is no strategy, you’re already dead.

The only classes I feel comfortable taking camps with are ones with pets. I can usually kill one or two guards while the pets get killed, reset, rinse, repeat.

Thieves can do it one guard at a time, but it’s tedious

As long as I can’t go anywhere without getting ganked by thieves, I refuse to do anything without a zerg

they gave one spec thief-like dps, and then almost immediately nerfed it.

nothing to see here, move along

…because 80% of forum users are bored thieves, posting in between yak kills, and they’re mad, because they can’t one shot people safely while they are all blobbed up.

If you have access to AOEs then your condition built, and odds are the thief is nearly immune to all conditions, as they will just remove them when they stealth.

If you are a power build you won’t be able to target them when they stealth, and what measly damage you do with a well or whatnot, will easily be healed when they stealth.

So to put it simply, as others have said, you don’t.

… and in the future please keep in mind that the CEO of Anet is a 12 year old that plays a thief.

yesfourme.8906:

I am sorry… where is FA presence already? This is happening for the past several hours.
http://i40.tinypic.com/2qa1si8.jpg (FA is red)

As a member of FA’s elite “I don’t care how many people they have, by time I’m done with them, they’re gonna wish they were dead” squad, I can honestly say “let ’em have it, I quit”

I rolled into EB with 10-20 fellow FAers only to see an ocean of JQ players washing away everything we had.

I logged to FABL, and saw an ocean of JQ players flooding through north camp.

This 20-1 stuff is for the birds.

We have a guy that does this on FA. I don’t know if he’s impersonating Kid, or mocking our commanders….

..but it sure does make WvW fun.

Eternal (80s) Battleground FTW!

Ok, first trait line, zero points. Stupid tree. Spirit weapons are worthless.

Second line, zero points. Stupid tree. First two tiers are wasted points.

Third line. Heals on meditations got buffed, so lets go with that.

Fourth line. Symbols are bigger, so making them even bigger is better, lasting longer, and healing me… That’s Awesome!

hmmm… if I am gonna use symbols, I should use Altruistic healing.

So I’ll switch healing meditations with AH, but if I am gonna do that, I’ll use shouts, so I should get the 20% reduced cooldown instead of bigger symbols.

…and if I am gonna use AH I should get Empowering Might, instead of longer lasting symbols.

…and I saw a guy with runes that cause shouts to cure a condition, and combined with the trait that makes shouts turn a condition into a boon it could get pretty awesome… so I should get that instead of healing symbols.

…hmmm… Well if I’m not going to use the symbols I don’t really need altruistic healing, so I should use the meditations heal trait instead.

…and If I am going to use meditations I don’t need the 20% reduced cooldown on shouts, so I’ll get bigger symbols.

..and I won’t need that trait that make shouts convert conditions, so I’ll get healing symbols.

..and without AH I really don’t need EM, so I’ll get longer lasting symbols.

Hmmm.. AH… if I’m gonna use all these symbols I really should use AH…

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s true, I just tested it on the walking golem in mists.

^it’s a target drop, not an aggro drop. If you have the X amount aggro before you stealth, you will still have X amount of aggro when you unstealth.

An aggro drop skill would remove aggro from you when you used the skill, stealth in GW2 does not do that. It used to drop aggro, but it no longer does that.

Stealth is Op and everyone is in love with that fact… and it’s short sighted.

The stealth in this case is a target drop, and offensively used. We needed an escape.

Right now, on Fort Aspenwood, rangers are massively looked down on in WvW, so much so that I have heard many commanders ask someone if they have a level 80 alt that they can log on to.

A range poison field, smoke, fire, water… that’s the kind of thing that rangers needed. An AOE niche of some sort, that they could bring to support groups.

One water field just doesn’t cut it, when the addition of one elementalist meets that need.

Conditions seem to be fine, but the pulses of a trap will break stealth.

Auto attack seems to be fine as well.

It’s barrage…. if you cast a full barrage, arrows continue to rain down for a few seconds, if you use Hunters shot after using barrage, stealth is broken immediately.

This would normally be one of the best possible times to use hunter’s shot, aoe a zerg and run for it…

It’s traps… if your target is being hit with a trap, or sets one off, your stealth will be instantly broken.

^maybe you should roll a thief, and then you would know that stealth is not an aggro drop, and hasn’t been one for months.

If you are using a melee pet, the mob will attack it while you are stealthed, and when you lose stealth, it will return to you. Ask any thief, this is how stealth works in GW2.

…many times last night, when I used a ranged pet, the mob would just stand still waiting for me to come out of stealth. I assume that is a bug, but either way, when your stealth ends the mob will return to you, because stealth is not an aggro drop, and 3 seconds is not enough time for someone to pick up the aggro.

It is also far from laughable if an auto arrow I fired passes through my point blank target, I use Hunter’s shot, and then the auto arrow hits a guy at 1500 range, causing my stealth to break instantly.

…. I’m off to mists.. I’ll figure it out.

well something happens.. I’d say half of the time that I used hunter’s shot last night, it only lasted a fraction of a second.

I’ll hit mists later on to figure it out.

I’d still kick a necro in a heartbeat. Engineers are kinda iffy.

..but a longbow ranger, with a ranged pet and bear, would be welcome in my groups.

So many changes sound good on paper, and then you get to test them out, and they fall short, and Hunter’s Shot really falls short.

First problem, you have to have a target. I know this is a fantasy game and all, but where is the logic in that hitting one dude with an arrow gives you stealth to the world?

…the primary use of this skill would be some defense against a thief that just backstabbed you, and in that regard, this skill fails miserably.

Second problem, as far as I can tell from pvp gameplay, one of two things (or both) is happening….
***edit***
….your pets (I had this wrong)
….or an auto attack arrow (I had this wrong)

*barrage*…. if you cast a full barrage, arrows continue to rain down for a few seconds, if you use Hunters shot after using barrage, stealth is broken immediately.

This would normally be one of the best possible times to use hunter’s shot, aoe a zerg and run for it…

*traps*… if your target is being hit with a trap, or sets one off, your stealth will be instantly broken.

Third problem, your pets don’t gain stealth, so if your pet is on passive, or more likely dead, everyone knows where you are.

Fourth problem, it is not an aggro drop, in fact several mobs will just stand there, and wait for you to come out of stealth.

Fifth problem, it can miss, be blocked, obstructed, or dodged making it very unreliable.

..and the bottom line, leaving Hunter’s Shot how it was, and adding 3 seconds of blind, or a 3 second smoke field, would have been a vastly superior improvement.

^they nerfed sword #2, so you can’t break stunk to escape, making it useless.

Your better off stealthing in and popping daggerstorm

As a condition necro, the only use I have ever had for deathshroud was jumping off cliffs.

…so it makes perfect sense that Anet would nerf it into the ground, as it promotes their policy of sucking every last ounce of fun out of this game.

It’s strange, that I just now realized, that my ex-wife works for Anet.

At this point, all eight of my 80s, are designed for the sole purpose of killing thieves.

Thieves in GW2 are the most stupidly OP stealth class that has ever been designed, and most people have accepted, that giving up everything else for the sake of killing a thief is worth it.

I haven’t kept up with ranger news. I know they said Dismiss Pet would never happen, and then they nerfed pets into the ground….

…so since pets are so frigging’ useless, is there any news on them not forcing us to use them?

Every time I look at my pet, I just wish it was gone!

Maybe if it dies, then the player has to rez it (like in wow), and should the player decide to never rez that pet, that’s the player’s choice… Sounds good to me!

I could care less about the money aspect of it all, although it is salt in the wound…

…but running to a vendor after every death in WvW is pretty G.D. ANNOYING!!!

In fact there are more things in WvW that are annoying, than enjoyable. That’s not a healthy place for a mmo to be.

what the heck is an MF?

My engi loves the 0-30-0-30-10 FT/EG build

…works very well with knights, some soldiers, ruby orbs

But retaliation will destroy you.

I love the people that said “when you see them go stealth”

A good C n’ D thief in WvW NEVER leaves stealth, and can run around in a keep for hours while 20-30 people run in circles trying to find him.

Scepters were amazing in beta and early after launch. The fire #1 skill didn’t require you to face your target, so when a thief got on you, you could run away while spamming it.

It wasn’t massive damage (mostly condition), but it was enough to get people to stop chasing you.

In Anets infinite wisdom they nerfed it into the ground, and since then, there hasn’t really been a reason to use the scepter, and I honestly cannot remember seeing a level 80 elementalist using it. (unless they were bored in the mists)

Hmm…. since you are still leveling I think the simplest answer is that you have out-leveled your gear.

FA barely has enough to hold it’s gari at the moment… picking a fight with JQ wouldn’t help the situation.

On the up side, when the loot bag express (TC) gets to the lords room we’ll be ready for ’em. On the down side, I gotta get some sleep.

FA’s coverage took a big hit with GODS leaving, but they took Derv with them when they left, so it’s a win in the long run.

…one less drama queen.

Nick.6972:

What happened to FA? I mean, wasn’t it like the top T2 server few months ago?

FA’s commanders are what happened.

Most days I avoid TS like the plague. The only thing worse than hearing “stack on me” every 10 seconds, is the endless whining about people not stacking.

…and for the love of god, most of our commanders want us to stack to go from Mendon’s to Speldon’s camp.

…and, now, on a good day, we get everyone together, from every map, stack up and take SMC from TC. We give up our Bay, maybe Gari, at least 2 towers, but we get SMC, and 10 minutes later TC takes it back.

Add to it all the frustration from Anet’s horrid class balance. “Thieves keep killing our yaks…” “Yeah? WTF do you want me to do about it???”

….and it’s all gettin’ old.

There’s also the joy of taking an hour to build up a tower’s siege, just to have it zoom-carted down, as a thief in the ground kills your tower lord.

…or when a wall/door hacking mesmer ports ’em into your keep.

I prefer brackets, since there are rather large gaps between the groups, but assuming the deadliest 1v1 specs…

Thief (they could delete stealth tomorrow, and thief would still be #1)
_________
Mesmers, Necros (fear nerf inc)
_________
Ele, Engi
_________
Ranger, Warrior
_________
Guardian

aesthetics…

I loved my paladin in W.o.W. I loved my warrior priest in Warhammer.

So I want to love the guardian.. but I get much more enjoyment from my warrior.

Warriors usually have a decent crit chance.. using my healing signet and the elite signet I have around 67%….

and 3k armor 20kish life…. it’s good to be a warrior!

that being said, after getting around 3k armor, and a crit chance that you like, +crit damage is good to have.

You people make no sense. All I’m hearing is….

“AH+EM is only good in groups”
“The only thing AH+EM does is let you live longer” (that a bad thing?)
“What’s the point of living longer if you aren’t giving your group boons”
“random insults”

Is that all a guardian is? A walking boonbot?

It’s a zerg buff in WvW… it hurts AOE classes quite a bit when they drop an AOE on 5 people with retaliation…

other than that.. no

And look at the power/zeal trait line.. every minor trait is about symbols…

Sword, Scepter, Torch, GS.. these are not symbol weapons… they just redid the trait lines, and it’s mountains of failure. 25 points to increase damage with symbols.. wtf?

“Otherwise why are you taking AH?”

because I want to live for more than three seconds… even with AH it’s hard to live that long.

and 0-0-10-30-30 doesn’t work… all the damage skills are physical, you lose more physical damage than you pick up in condition damage …and once again AH+EM is more healing that you get with Absolute Resolution.

So you’re doing less damage, have less toughness, and do less self healing.. Fail.