Guild Wars 2

Ya anet acomplished their goal of making us not care about servers with the server linking. It probably had other side effects, since not having server pride makes WvW a bit pointless.

Also kitten off with the trump memes. This is our safe place.

Zodin.6517:

It used to be the consensus that the earth was flat, everyone agreed on that

No it didn’t, that’s a myth. Humans were intelligent enough to realize it was round at the dawn of history.

Justine.6351:

:Gonna pewpew my reaper from 2k range and play peekaboo with stealth spam?

Ya? Cuz it’s impossible to counter as a reaper? That’s why you don’t roam on reaper.

Justine you’ve been a little too keen on playing reaper lately. You fighting FA anytime soon? I’ll show you why you’re wrong.

Zodin you’re one person saying DH is a good 1v1 class and like 80 other people in a PvP focused forum are telling you you’re wrong. This isn’t a creativity challenge, DH is bad because of concrete reasons.

This video may help you. Specifically the bit about tele stomps since I think you’re playing thief.

Do you not have internet access, OP?

Mesmer runs to your home and does nothing but plant a portal. Run through some scenarios where you do this and that. Assume this is a balanced match.

Kovu.7560:

That said I don’t think you get anything extra for popping the item on a character that is already level 80. I could be mistaken.

It’s not extra, but you do get the same semi-useful stuff like sharpening stones, food, gem store consumables, exotics, etc. Clogged up my inventory.

I think the best competitors are going to have first hand experience with their enemies’ builds. I generally take druids extremely lightly in WvW because I know every single detail of their build within about 3 seconds of encountering them (I use WvW as an example because there is a lot more build diversity there.)

For other professions I have general ideas of what they’re running, but I don’t know with 100% certainty if a passive is going to proc or what runes they’re using and why and whatever else is going on.

I personally would never boost anything, but I like to enjoy games rather than just blow past the content.

Just ask yourself if you want to take your time with the game or if leveling and exploring is boring you. Do you want to get right to raids and WvW? Use the boost.

Weapons and trinkets are a bigger difference. Ascended armor is what I mean is not at all worth it, it’s something like 2% total stat difference, maybe less? (Coming from someone with many different sets of ascended armor for funsies.)

5 thief party versus traps, which is more lame? Apparently the lack of dodge is the lamest.

DHs lose 1v1 to pretty much everything. Traps are a terrible mechanic in any scenario where your opponent is aware of them (on rangers as well.) The reason DHs are decent is because they can plop them directly on top of a team fight and catch people relatively unaware.

Internomad.6149:

I have bought all the materials in the Crafting Guide, but ran out of gold to get it all, (I had 51 gold and it all went before I bought everything), and also I didn’t appear to have enough of certain materials, especially Bolts of Jute.

I crafted what I could but I still haven’t got past Novice Leatherworker yet, so I don’t know what I am doing wrong.

You’re not doing anything wrong, it’s just that expensive. To go from 0 to a full set of ascended armor, I don’t know the cost off the top of my head but I’d guesstimate over a thousand gold. All for a 2% stat increase. Just not worth it unless you’re a long term player looking for long term goals.

At launch, Arah was far and away the hardest content in the game. It’s still a death machine for newer players, and even inexperienced veterans. Nothing you played in Arah would have been a LOT easier for you.

That said, mesmer is indeed a tricky class because it relies so much on skills to stay alive. If you want a dumbed down experience, warrior, guardian, necro, and ranger can offer that. (I’m not saying those professions have low skill ceilings, just that that can offer low skill floors.) All of those professions can be extremely durable.

Are you planning on doing mostly PvP? Because ranger druid mostly camps staff and uses the autoattack there. Druids are bunker support builds so not terribly difficult to play. You just won’t do much damage.

The only other extremely simple, mostly ranged class that comes to mind would be a necro. Their elite spec reaper gives them greatsword, but you can ignore that and just basically become a ‘super necro’ and do the regular condi thing with staff and scepter. Basically just plop all your marks down with staff then spam scepter autoattack. Necros have next to zero defense, but if you duo queue with your wife she can semi-keep you alive with a healing druid.

For PvE, other than raids, no one is expected to be tanky. It’s all about the DPS.

Unless you’re planning on doing high level fractals I wouldn’t bother with ascended armor at all. It’s VERY expensive for something like a total of 2% stat increase.

If you play the season 3 living world stories (if you don’t have any unlocked just do the next episode) each one gives you a way to easily get ascended jewelry and backpieces via merchants on the new map.

It’s not your gear that is the problem, you just need to up your game for the new areas. They expect you to use more of the tools at your disposal than the joke of PvE that was the core game. Things like condi removal and stun breaks become important.

Feel free to stop by the ranger forum if you need build or playstyle tips for ranger. I am a ranger main.

Your warrior turns into a “berserker” which now has very solid condi damage with a longbow, and you know how durable and simple to play they are already (but even damage druid has a lot of party heals, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.)

The new weapon would be an offhand torch for more condis, and you typically pair it with mainhand sword.

Crazy Branden.6951:

any build will do

You answered your own question. If you’re using LB, it’s nearly impossible to die and very easy to tag things.

Typically you run berserker stats in PvE. Everything else is whatever the hell you want. Modify the fractal build from metabattle.com if you are completely and totally lost, but really just do whatever you want and you’re good to go.

The professions are balanced well enough that all 9 professions are at least reasonable in competitive formats. The only 2 I’d be iffy about are necro and revenant.

So rather than picking one based on what they can do, since everyone can do everything, I’d just pick the one you enjoy the style of the most. If nothing else, pick it based on the armor weight appearance choices.

Or make all 3. Especially for PvP, you don’t have to do anything to get them competition ready. Level 2 is fine.

For open world events, and low end PvE, power longbow is one of the easiest and most effective builds out there, and you should feel free to make up any build you want.

It’s not until you get to the raids and fractals bit that you mentioned that there is potentially a problem, because you need some level of efficiency to complete the hardest content. And you could absolutely complete raids with a power LB druid, you just won’t get into PUGs. But if you have a guild that knows the fight well, people have completed them with like 4 people in masterwork gear.

An elite frost trap doesn’t sound that extreme, it’s almost exactly the reaper elite shout.

Chase.8415:

Actually that shows we really need to start separating rating between each profession since you admitted that your not that great with Mesmer as opposed to other classes.

Ya I would love that. But having a below 40% or so win rate means you are pretty much undeniably the cause of the losses. My win rate on mesmer is approaching zero because it’s effectively a 4v5 every single match.

D&D hunters used duel melee weapons. I don’t think of rangers or hunters as being ranged. It’s just a misconception of this particular archetype on your end. There isn’t a pure archer class in this game, on all professions they want you to swap weapons frequently and use both melee and range appropriately.

AkumaKazama.8426:

Is it just me or is Ranger supposed to ranged?

What makes you think you should be at range? Ranger has a good bow option but it’s also very much a melee profession.

The power longbow druid buffer build in metabattle.com is probably what you’re looking for for group play. If you want to play solo as some sort of archer there is no reason not to. Play LB/SB or whatever, which is utter garbage but if it’s fun for you then it’s fun for you.

Edit: Condi is also totally fine and potentially better for higher level fractals, but it’s also a melee range choice. All good team builds are used in melee because you need to be in range of your teammates.

Did you never play Half Life or CS? Every custom tag wound up being child porn.

Justine.6351:

Rangers really shouldn’t be getting buffs to passive damage for themselves and their pets.

I dunno, we do poop all damage. There are about zero builds I can kill as a full glass ascended berserker druid in WvW if they are running something like soldiers. Most people can just out-regen the damage we do. Thief is the only class I know for sure I can kill and now they’ve got ghost thieves running around

I would be astounded if any video game can make a game without an optimal choice.

I like the sound of an omelet with max stats, that sounds delicish.

Drakortha.6974:

No, the matches are bad. That’s the problem. I am one team member out of five, I can’t do all the lifting myself.

If you’re really losing nearly every match then you’re the only thing in common. Anything below 50% and you should start looking at yourself as the cause. 40% might be bad luck, 10% means you are the cause.

Drakortha.6974:

Fluffball.8307:

I’m pretty sure you would have lost that game on any map.

I lose every game on every map.

I have a somthing like 5% win percentage on mesmer which I’m terrible at and a 65% overall win percentage. If you get my point, what this is telling us is that you’re the cause of the losses, not the matchmaking.

I’m pretty sure you would have lost that game on any map.

Ithilwen.1529:

Though, it’s interesting that you bring this up. It is why I have argued that the game needs to be more about strategy and less “street fighter 5” style reaction time gaming.

Just because you (and I) are not as fast as kids doesn’t mean we need to change the fast exciting pace of the game to be more turn-based-strategy.

My favorite hobby is boxing, and just because I’m not as fast anymore doesn’t mean they should change the exciting nature of boxing to be more about choosing the correct counterpunch than actually executing the counter.

metabattle.com

Basically still full glass, whether power or condi, and then a few niche support roles for raids.

I was well over 24 when I picked up GW1.

Jahroots.6791:

Dungeon rewards are in a pretty good place overall, but I do feel like they need a little something more as an extra incentive. There’s very little reason to run them after you’ve collected all of the skins.

I’d suggest adding dungeons to the daily rotation, or some new items to the dungeon vendor (Transmutation charges would be just perfect)

They don’t want to give incentive to people to play outdated content that isn’t being updated. The only reason we got the decent gold reward back is because the community remembers dungeons so fondly. Doing AC explorable path 2 in beta was my all time favorite GW2 memory. I still try to run them about once every week or two.

Very nice! I was terrified to do more Caladbolg stuff because of how miserable the bugs currently are.

Unless they add condi clear, invulns (proposed dust trap blind is nice) or stun breaks to traps, I don’t see them ever being terribly useful for competitive stuff. Several other professions have utilities that both damage and protect at the same time, notably and relevantly: DHs.

On the other hand I’m not sure I want more traps added to competitive stuff, considering how lame thieves and DHs currently are.

Dungeons are fairly rewarding already; every 8 unique paths you get 5 gold and some tokens via a repeatable achievement. Plus the loot and reward for completing the path.

Dungeons are so absurdly easy because they’re obsolete, and are rewarding, so why not just skip to the reward so you can buy things for modes that aren’t abandoned content? Like to buy new WvW gear or raid gear, etc. It’s just free money for some nostalgic fun.

Edit: Ironically I list WvW as not abandoned content…

Assuming they never readdress any Malyck storyline (which makes no sense to me) they should have had just some random, normal strength mordrem in the Dragon’s Stand meta have his name. That alone will give closure to his story.

Find a buddy, get better/more knowledgeable, or give up. We can help you with the first 2.

Cynz.9437:

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Yes, but power builds benefit from those conditions as much as condition builds.

because conditions were designed as utility originally

This isn’t true. How are bleeding or burning utility? Why did condition damage stat sets, sigils, and runes exist at launch? Why do many weapons do nearly no power damage and a lot of condi damage?

Some conditions have utility, always have and always will, like blind or chill. But condition damage builds have always been a thing.

For the good of the game type, everyone needs to make a full dire perma stealth trap thief. Although there are more and more of these every day, only when we achieve a critical mass will anet acknowledge the problem and at least stop buffing it.

It’s the lord right? I always camp lord all game just to be safe. Wish noobs would understand you autolose if your lord is downstated.

Tempest holding a point by themselves is a giant waste.

Exciton.8942:

Only class that has condition build straight up better than power is mesmer.

Boom. And almost all aren’t even close.

I’m not aware of anyone who streams something as boring as a bunker on any profession.

You can stop by the ranger forum for some tips. What exactly are you doing? Camp staff auto for the most part, hit CA for condi cleanse, emergency stealth, or support/emergency heals. There really is very little else to it.

I suspect your rotating is the problem.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

The question is: is it worth the trouble to switch now, at this late date?

Absolutely. Fractals are insanely gated for players, so sooner or later there aren’t going to be anyone running them. As vets die off (from the game), not many new players and vets that haven’t gotten into fractals are going to want to get into such a convoluted system, especially when an even more endgame activity is exponentially easier to get into (raids).

For that matter every other end game activity is straight forward to get into, fractals are the odd man out, that after thousand of hours and the fractal frequenter achievement I still don’t even understand what the heck is going on in them.

Raids, WvW, PvP, open world metas… what else do people? You can just jump right in. Fractals you have to read the wiki just to figure out how to gear up.

Anet has made a lot of changes where people were “screwed out of gold” for the betterment of the game. That’s not an argument at all. For example multiple legendary weapons and the wardrobe system, people lost out on many thousands of gold but the game was made better, among plenty of other similar changes.