Guild Wars 2

It is the history of MMO’s that one group will claim another group (class) is OP due to their perception of the class mechanics. I have never played an MMO where this isn’t the case and the forums are almost always filled with such complaints.

I used to think that my hybrid PU Mesmer couldn’t lose in a 1v1 or 1v2 until I met this Warrior using a strange hybrid build. She ate me alive. Of course, that same Warrior was destroyed by a very skilled Ranger who I was able to easily defeat on my Mesmer. The point is, every class/build has a counter and ever counter can be defeated by a skilled and intelligent player.

I personally don’t believe in the OP rhetoric and find the topic only diminishes the fun of the game. If you are unable to defeat another class, perhaps you will find more success in learning their weakness.

If people spent half the time doing research and trial/error testing as they did sounding the trumpets of OP complaints, I think the gaming/MMO community would be far better off.

I’d still rather pay 400 gems for 1 item than 800 when I know I won’t be using the rest of the set. It’s simple really, pay 300-400 per item or 800 for the entire set. I think this would just give people more options when they are trying to create a very unique look.

PU has some serious weaknesses though if you know how to fight against them. I played a S/Torch + GS hybrid of the PU build and would crumble against intelligent condition players.

On my S/S + LB condition warrior, PU mesmers are easy to kill due to their lack of mobility and inability to avoid the massive amounts of conditions.

Every build, every class has it’s counter though at the end of the day, it’s the skill of the player that matters the most.

P/P is OP because Anet used it on one of the original trailers for the thief class.

Vaanss,

Just wondering, have you fought one of those condition/shout S/S+LB warriors yet? I ran into a warrior the other day with your build and it was a pretty epic fight. I think I was spamming my stability the entire time.

Like the topic indicates, I would like for Anet to consider allowing us to buy individual items from the armor sets currently available on the BTLC. Personally, I really love the designs on these items but I don’t like any “set” enough to purchase it off the BTLC. It doesn’t make sense for me to spend 800 gems ($10 U.S.) when I want only the boots on one set, or the pants on another. As such, I end up not buying anything.

However, if the sets were able to have each item sold individually (like how normal dungeon sets are purchased) then I would easily spend 800 gems (or more) gathering all the items I like. I would assume that if sold separately, the cost would be slightly higher (300 gems for the legs, chest, 200 for boots, etc.) but it would be well worth it. As someone who likes to create a unique appearance for my characters, this would be a great option that is currently unavailable. For simplicity purposes, this could be implemented so that when someone clicks on an armor set, it opens up a new window where they have the option to purchase each item individually or buy the entire set at the discounted 800 gem price.

I also think this would increase sales to Anet and something that, in general, most of the fans would appreciate.

Thanks for your consideration.

Thanks for the help! I’ve collected so many of these “level up” items from doing sPvP that I though I would put them to good use and actually play my ranger a bit. It’s the only class that I’ve never really given a chance because I was stupid enough to listen to all the anti-ranger hate on the forums.

maddoctor.2738:

If your team is winning and your team changes due to auto-balance, you still get a win, not a loss.

I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info!

Folks, there was a “sniper” LB build I remember reading about awhile back that was pretty much a glass cannon/zerg build but with all the changes, I’m sure it’s not the same anymore. As I have recently been leveling a Ranger, could one of you link this build for me so I can know what I should be working towards? Also, does this build work in PvE as well?

Thanks!

Perhaps I don’t understand this aspect of the game but this morning, three times was I on a team where the autobalance warning activated and as luck would have it, I got changed over to the other team. In each case I joined right when it began. It is very frustrating when you get up to 300+ points in a match and then get changed over to the other team only to get the loss. I think there may be some problems with this system as it sometimes gets very upsetting to put in a good bit of work to support your team only to have that taken from you.

This has probably already been suggested before (if so, then I apologize) but could we be given the ability to choose a hairstyle regardless of race? I suppose you could even argue for any hair on both genders (which would be funny). Either way, I am one of those folks that will change the appearance of my character every few months and would like to use those available of different races.

Follow the link below then. You will lose out on the +25% movement speed (which sucks) but the tradeoff of spiked armor is well worth it. It’s pretty funny when you go up against the traditional D/D Thief or GS Warrior. The only other issue you’ll have is that this build does lack stability so depending on what fights you’ll be getting into, you may have to change out “on my mark” to the dolyak signet. Depending on the map location, I will also change out “on my mark” to “fear me” and laugh when you fear people off the side of a cliff. This is priceless in the Skyhammer PvP map.

Shout/Condi Warrior

Zepidel.5349:

It beats grinding PvE anyday if you like to PvP.

I still think that WvW is the quickest way to level but this is a nice alternate for those who don’t care much for PvE. It also has the added bonus of when you hit 80, you should have a pretty full set of gear to use too.

lastmohican.8365:

I love GW2, beautiful landscapes, soundtracks, …

I can stay for hours in Queensdale helping Diah, killing drakes, clean the pumping station, …

and this song <3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlBvKzc8Odo

That song/video is what initially caught my attention about this game. I figured, if a game had this good of a soundtrack, it must be worth checking out in more detail. After years of WoW and SWTOR, I can honestly say that this is the best MMO I’ve played so far. The only aspect I don’t like is the lacking of story. I give BioWare some credit there with SWTOR that even though most of the game was boring, the character progression story was epic.

Are you looking for the traditional condition build or the condition/shout version?

@Crovax

Yeah, that’s a good point about the offhand sword. I had looked at the mace but the one problem I have is that by giving up the 25% movement speed bonus, I didn’t want to drop the leap that the sword offers. Plus, those bleeds are really nasty. I had also considered the mace as an offhand for that stun that it has but then I give up the only block I have.

@ Carpboy,

Not sure how I missed that +40% food bonus. Guess I’m low on caffeine again? I originally was using dire (and played around with rabid) sets but I really wanted to try out the shout concept and see if it was worth it. I know that Warriors have been using shouts for ages when it comes to bunker/commander builds and so I figured it would help with my regen too.

If I change back to the offhand sword, are perplexity runes worth anything at all?

So once you hit 80 and have a decent set of gear, what really is the point to karma anymore? I’m not even trying to get an ascended item right now so this junk really has no use.

Excalibur.7603:

@FinalPatriot may i ask whether the s/s + lb is it good for both wvw and dungeon runs?

To be honest, I have never tried this in dungeons as I use this specifically for WvW and sPvP. I would think it would be effective but most groups tend to want a full zerker Warrior. For that reason, when I run dungeons, I always switch back to my GS+R zerker build.

First, I don’t take credit for this build as the idea for it came from a suggestion that Epborden mentioned to me in the other Condition thread on Warriors. Also, I apologize for my constant theory-crafting as I’m always trying to think of moves and counter-moves from other classes/builds. With that, I will start by a quote:

epborden.7492:

In WvW it is a little different because you want confusion as well as the other conditions. You can’t run with just bleeds, fire, and poison. Thieves will be a nightmare for you especially, but other classes will smoke you if they can counter those three. I don’t think there is a class in the game other than Necromancer that can remove confusion natively (without using a skill like a shout), so it is the ultimate condition in WvW.

This is something I never really considered before but after testing his point, I wanted to share with you all a build that I am now hooked on. It is essentially a combination of bunker, conditions and shout builds with the focus on being able to CC your target and then drop a massive amount of conditions on them while still giving you several ways to regen and ignore their conditions.

As a note, the build I’m testing is based upon the gear I have and doesn’t use any ascended items. With that, here are the basic stats:

Health: 26K
Toughness: 1644
Condition Damage: 1100
Healing Power: 1073
Armor: 2922

Confusion Shout Warrior

Take a look at the attached image at the bottom for more details…

Anyways, I’m still testing this out but so far, it’s been pretty darn impressive and gives you a great deal of versatility. The major aspect I don’t like is having to give up the movement bonus.

What do you all think of this so far?

@epborden,

I went back and made a few changes to your build based upon my love for the shouts and your point on confusion. I also changed up the armor a bit due to what I have available and with trying to increase the toughness a bit more. Anyways, what do you think?

Confusion/Shout Warrior

Personally, I have grown to love the S/S + LB /shout build. I’ve found that my health regenerates at an amazing rate and that I take a great deal of damage before having to back out of the fight. In zergs, I will sometimes drop the other sword for a shield if I get the urge to jump into the middle of a group.

My build is linked in my signature.

epborden.7492:

I’m a condition warrior and I play WvW. In WvW it is a little different because you want confusion as well as the other conditions. You can’t run with just bleeds, fire, and poison. Thieves will be a nightmare for you especially, but other classes will smoke you if they can counter those three. I don’t think there is a class in the game other than Necromancer that can remove confusion natively (without using a skill like a shout), so it is the ultimate condition in WvW. My build is focused around a balance between condition damage and healing power.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAseTjMd06ZZHugwJagfgC5t3CGDgjO9UUEZBA-TVyCABUq+DAPAAkPEAEqE0P9Bcp8b59Hm4IAIxJAIAACwMLzycmB+5P/5P/5PbmzcmzcmzsUAMpsC-w

This is a pretty interesting build and something I think I’ll try to play around with. I actually just sold all my perplexity runes but that’s not much of a problem. The one concern that I would have is that since I created this thread, I have been working a great deal with a Condi/Shout Heal build and have found it to be pretty darn amazing. I do miss the movement bonus but when I’m just trying to travel around the map, I’ll drop spiked armor for the + 25% movement.

What I’ve found is that in most cases, the shouts will keep my health up high enough that I can just wear down the target. A decent D/D ele is still a pain though as they tend to just run away.

Anyways, below is what I’m currently working with: Condi/Shout Heal

Pyroathiest.4168:

I fail to understand how a LB/GS ranger would counter this. Poor active condition removal, poor mobility…

Sorry, I was mistaken. I was thinking GS but it’s actually the LB + S/D build listed below:

Anti-Condi Ranger

Ok, this may be a dumb question (which most of mine are) but wouldn’t this build be fairly easily countered by a LB/GS Ranger or one of those shout heal Warriors? I would think that being as they both have decent anti-conditions and high mobility that they would be able to kite the Mesmer around.

Sorry, I’m not trying to be critical as I honestly am trying to think moves and counter-moves against multiple classes/builds.

Are you using the shout build as well? I find them to be less than difficult with the shouts as it’s easy to drop a ton of conditions on them while ignoring most of the conditions they try to drop on us. Take a look at the warrior build in my signature and see if this is something that might help. I know it’s strange but it’s been working well for me and I don’t have to change anything when going from WvW to sPvP.

Your portraits are simply amazing!

Lazarus.3970:

If you don’t care about losing the story progress or cultural items, why not just… make a new character? Because you don’t want to have to level to 80 again? Oh, so you just want an insta-level 80 fully geared, not just a race change.

My character already is level 80 and fully geared (took hours upon hours to gear) so why should I do this all over again simply because I don’t like the animations of the character’s race?

@Awge,

Thanks for posting this VERY detailed guide on the Ranger class and the build options available. I will be going over each of these this evening as I try to find something that I like playing. I always hated those sniper builds in WvW as once they get in a tower, they just cut down zergs. I suppose though you probably get a ton of bags though.

@Osicat,

First, thanks for posting this build idea. While it looks fun, it would be difficult for me to ever give up my GS. I love that thing!

Anyways, I was wondering if you have tried using this on those S/S + LB Shout Warriors? I play one as an alt now and the more I tweak it, the more I find it either helps take down many different targets or allows me to quickly escape. If you are around sometime in the evening (US – EST) then I would love to duel you and see this first hand.

Thanks!

I just created a Ranger last night and played around a bit in sPvP just to get a basic concept of the class. I was wondering though, are there any decent guides that you all know of which outline the options available in both WvW and sPvP?

For WvW, I’m looking for something that can be effective as a roaming build (great mobility) while also being able to help with the zerg. From what I’ve seen, the LB pretty much sums up zerg combat.

For sPvP, I suppose it’s all about survival. I ran into a Ranger the other day on my Mesmer and she was an amazing bunker Ranger. She pretty much kept me busy long enough for the rest of her team to arrive and force me to retreat or die. I’ve never seen that before from a Ranger.

Caedmon.6798:

Honestly i stopped playing S/S – Lbow because its just way to strong and it really feels like easymode,after a while you just get bored of it since there is little challenge if you play the build right…

I don’t know, a decent Hammer/GS Warrior or a D/D Ele still give me trouble. These days, almost every Warrior I see is running some sort of hammer build.

I have tremendous respect for the Thief players out there as I find playing this class to be a complete act of frustration. Yes, it has some great tricks but I always feel like I’m really having to work to make some combo come through. Half the time I find myself bashing my head into my desk.

In comparison, I can play my Warrior, make a sandwich, and formulate the space-time continuum while still being able to 1vX other players. Thieves are not OP, they just are better players than myself.

Tachii.3506:

Not only would would conditions be a problem, even a few ranged hits and your health will drop fast. Comparatively-wise it’s also poor at disengaging and chasing. It’s okay in sPvP I suppose but as a roamer, there’s better options.

This is exactly what I noticed when trying to play the build last night. Yes, if I could lock someone down I could do a ton of damage but then again, so can every other class under “perfect” conditions. I found that my survival was terrible overall and there were few ways for me to escape other than stealth + SB away. It’s sad that I leveled up using full conditions and now that the character is 80, I have yet to find it as fun/effective as my condi warrior. I wish that wasn’t the case though.

I’ve gone back and played around with the build a good bit more and essentially combined the normal S/S + LB condition build with that of the WvW shout build. By so doing, I do have to swap out one shout for the stability but it grants some amazing results on self-healing and survivability. Anyways, below is what I was working on:

Hybrid Shout/Condition Warrior

Fluffball.8307:

Empathic Bond. The new Survival of the Fittest. Healing Spring. Signet of Renewal, both passive, and if necessary, the active. Spirit of Nature active. Sigil of Generosity. There are a few others, but those are the common competitive condi removals.

Thanks for the help! BTW, I love the account name too.

I’ve just started playing a Ranger so this may be a stupid question but the class appears to have very limited ways of dealing with conditions. Are there some suggestions you all might have in dealing with Necro’s and other condition heavy classes?

First, let me apologize for my questions as I have only spent about an hour with this build and so there is a ton I still don’t know. With that being said, is this something that would be effective for both sPvP and WvW? The one major problem I see is that there is little regen and no condition removal. However, it’s pretty nasty when you can lock a target down or just annoy the hell out of them with all the pistol skills.

What do you all think of this?

Sword/Pistol Roaming

Esmee.1067:

Thief might be worth trying out a bit more. S/P (Shortbow in second set, Arrow is too amazing in sPvP) is a weaponset that kinda offers me almost anything I could wish for: Blind from Pistol #5, Interrupt/Evade from S/P #3, Leap/Immo Sword #2 and quite high damage from their auto-attack. A similar build (I’d suggest 2/6/0/0/6 but it’s best to find something you like.)

I played around with this build a bit in sPvP a moment ago and it’s pretty darn impressive if you can CC someone and then use pistol whip on them. I’m wondering though, what kind of gear are you using since you can’t regen in stealth?

Hello folks!

I recently came back to GW2 and though I love this game, I’ve never been able to settle on a class to play after the RTL nerf of the D/D Ele. Since then, I’ve been struggling to find something something that works for what I’m hoping to find. Perhaps you all can make some suggestions?

I would like to play a class that is very fast moving, exciting, and effective in sPvP and WvW (solo and group) without having to change the build too much. Sadly, I’m not sure there is anything that can meet all those conditions.

I have a Mesmer, Thief and a Warrior all at level 80 and I’m not sure that either of them fits the bill. The Mesmer is great in sPvP and dueling but she’s terrible when it comes to group WvW. She’s also not all that exciting to play. The Thief is a new 80 and to be honest, I can’t play this class at all. I’ve tried D/P, P/D (damage) and even D/D. I simply just die… As for the Warrior, she’s a S/S + LB condi and while it’s kinda fun, she’s not much for being able to escape anything.

Like I mentioned, I loved the D/D Ele but when RTL got wacked, it pretty much killed the fun for me. Perhaps that’s changed now? I’ve also never really played the other classes beyond level 20 so I can’t speak about them.

Anyways, I’m certain that this doesn’t make all that much sense but if you can understand what I’m asking, would you please post here your suggestions?

Thanks!

As someone who has played a Mesmer since I got this game, I can tell you that we are not all equal as some of our builds have almost no survival against a decent thief. The trick is to look for the “clone” that is strafing as most players tend to drop a clone and then continue to move like a human, not a clone. A decent Mesmer will try to blend in so that you never have and idea as to which one is real.

With that being said, I find that the D/P Condi (perplexity) builds tend to eat me alive if I’m not careful. The normal D/D builds are predictable as everyone knows you will try to setup a backstab. Against the best Thieves I’ve dueled, normal D/D builds will, at best, drag the fight out but against the build I use and the defensive style I like, its probably not all that effective.

One other idea that I’ve read up on is the P/D + SB build which should work much better against almost all Mesmers. Use the SB to kill off the clones and then the pistol #3 + CnD on the Mesmer. When in stealth, unload and laugh as they try to remove the conditions. Even if you’re not built for conditions, most players will try to clear them before they have any idea that the real damage is coming from normal power.

panicbutton.1053:

I’m working on something with very similar traits, but otherwise different in technique. The build takes advantage of 2/6/6, while fully incorporating D/D offhand. It will utilize the best parts between P/D and D/D. It’s been an extreme success so far… putting together another fun video :]

@ Panic,

When do you think you’ll have this video available? I leveled up my thief to 80, got her a good bit of gear with the meta D/D concept and then found out I hated it. Instead of trying something else, I just quit and rolled a warrior (because they were so OP). Anyways, this P/D build concept looks rather interesting though and I’d really like to see more. If possible, a nice commentary on the build/play style would be great.

I still like my thief as, like I said, I put a ton of hours/coin into her but I just never got comfortable enough with the class to be that much of a success. Just wondering though, would using perplexity runes make the build more effective against a wider variety of players?

The rifle may not be all that effective but it does grant a +10 to sex appeal.

This build was really designed for WvW though I was hoping to find something that worked well for both. I hate changing builds.

I see what you’re saying about the stability and that was one thing I was concerned about actually. The hope was that with taking fear me that I would get another shout heal and keep folks away long enough to rez someone. I had also thought about the apoth gear as well as that would just make an amazing heal/bunker build.

As for the sword, I just have a hard time giving up the mobility. I know that with this build it doesn’t really fit well but I’d have no way of catching someone or keeping up with the group.

Could you link an example of something you would suggest for both WvW and sPvP?

As you can tell by my constant build questions, I’m still searching for a Warrior build that is fun, yet effective in most situations. My goal is to find something that can not only work well in 1v1 but also has the ability to help a team in sPvP or WvW. Being able to tag multiple targets is also a nice bonus. As I’m not at all familiar with the shout builds, I was hoping that some of you may know more about this concept and tell me your thoughts on the shout build linked below.

Survial Shout Warrior

I went ahead with the normal PTV gear (weapons too) but used zerker for everything else. I’m not sure if by so doing that I will have enough DPS to really do much but the hope was to find a balance between damage and survival.

I ran into a Warrior with a similar build last night in an arena match while playing my S/S +LB Warrior and at first, I didn’t catch on as to how he was able to cleanse my conditions so quickly. The guy was a beast to fight and it ended up taking 3 of us to bring him down.

From what you all have seen, what are your thoughts as to the pro/cons of this build linked above?

She was a p/d thief that was wearing that new “blue skin” armor (including the helm) so I couldn’t get a good look at her. Think the guild was Ark or something like that.

Thanks Carpboy! I’ll give this a try and see how it works.

Any thoughts? I played S/S in sPvP today with the healing gear and it was… interesting.

For the last while I have been struggling to find a build for my Warrior alt that isn’t the typical Hammer + whatever that I see all the time in sPvP. Way back when, I played a condition build that used Apothecary armor with similar trinkets and the S/W + LB. I’ll post a link to the build below.

I also played around with a S/S + LB condition build but found that it didn’t have as much survivability. I could also just have sucked…

Anyways, my question is what, if either of these builds would you all recommend these days? I have always liked the condition Warrior though I just don’t feel that I can make it work as well as my current Mesmer.

S/W + LB Condition Build

S/S + LB Condition Build

I’m not sure who it was from the Maguuma server that I was fighting today on the Tarnished Coast map but this girl was probably the best Thief I have ever seen. I think the duel went about 10 minutes before I just got tired and went my own way. Whomever that was, I owe you some respect. If you by chance read this message, please send me a PM.

Thanks!

I’m not sure who it was from the Maguuma server that I was fighting today on the Tarnished Coast map but this girl was probably the best Thief I have ever seen. I think the duel went about 10 minutes before I just got tired and went my own way. Whomever that was, I owe you some respect. If you by chance read this message, please send me a PM.

Thanks!