Guild Wars 2

Keksmuffin.1450:

• Mace has blocks, protection, regen, heal and the only trait that buffs mace specificly gives healing power so I would say it’s pretty clear that it was intended to be a defensive weapon.

Mace has a single block (or Prot if you fully channel it), regen, and healing. But, I wouldn’t necessarily call that defensive. It also has good coefficients and a Symbol so it’s understandable Mace damage might be higher than Sword. Mace is definitely built for sustain, but that doesn’t preclude damage

• Sword gives none of that and the only trait that buffed sword specificly gave damage (which doesnt exist anymore) so I would say it got designed as a damage weapon.

With the current traits, Sword is being pushed more for its utility. Compared to Mace it has projectile absorption over a block, and a high hit count auto compared to the slower Mace. Flashing Blade deals negligible damage but has mobility and a blind. Sword is slowly getting a new niche carved out for it.

• Dunno. Probably because vigor isn’t that big of a deal anymore, almost every guard weapons has blinds and #5 is so niche that it’s not really worth mentioning.

LB doesn’t offer near the support that the other weapons do, at least on a pve perspective. It’s understandable damage might be it’s defining feature.

• How is self healing support?

I should’ve directly said healing or even sustain. Poorly made point still stands that most people wouldn’t consider traited GS to be a sustain weapon even if it brings sustain. Similar with Mace, having sustain doesn’t make it a sustain weapon.

• I don’t think we’re talking about our expactations only. What I said above about the weapons are more or less facts and not my own expectations.

It’s not just in this thread, but throughout the forums people expect that whatever they think is the case is true. I’m probably being a little picky, but that’s what happens when you’re bored waiting for computer parts.

You can use staff in a Burning build for some nasty Permeating Wrath procs while retaining staff support.

Just a few questions:

• Why are we considering Mace a defensive weapon?
• Why is Sword classified as a damage weapon?
• Why do we talk about the support melee Weapons bring, but don’t consider the support LB brings when we compare?
• The GS trait Zealous Blade is a damage increase and a support increase. Does that make GS a support weapon?
• Most complaints seem to be when individual expectations aren’t changed to meet reality. Why?

You don’t need a ton of resistance, just enough to evaluate what conditions you’ve just pulled.

yolo swaggins.2570:

It would not make sense as a condition weapon unless you were thinking about basing it off of Engineer’s rifle.

It’s a new weapon. It can be anything your mind desires that isn’t already covered by a current weapon.

DeceiverX.8361:

Disagree with both of you.

The rifle should be the first supportive weapon for the thief not featuring high damage or stealth attacks, and its specialization should focus heavily on the revealed mechanic.

Nothing you’ve mentioned necessarily conflicts with what I suggested. Being revealed could definitely be a theme of a proposed condition/gadget Thief spec.

BLAZE.3587:

gotta link?

I actually found em. Have fun
https://youtu.be/qYjyvreIrqI
https://youtu.be/RF9fKnmhYiY

Akijo.7395:

Sword wave is already like that, we want this gone cause it keeps missing and glitching

FB, not really fixing it imo

Zeolot’s Defense sounds more like a nerf to me :/

Sword Wave doesn’t act like that. They’re considered projectiles which means they can be absorbed by skills or terrain, reflected, and the like. Wave of Wrath cannot be reflected, ignores terrain, and is generally exactly what Sword Wave should be. This small change would fix all of Sword’s aa problems while keeping its unique benefits.

FB doesn’t need to be fixed, but the leap is almost necessary.

I’m a proponent of every weapon set having a Symbol. Symbol of Defense would trade the incredibly unreliable range for group support similar to Necro’s Corrosive Poison Cloud. Plus, you get the synergy from any of the symbol related traits.

These changes would give Sword a defensive role. Combined with Shield and WoR, you could become the ultimate in anti projectile. Get just a smidgen of oomph from FB, and Symbol of Defense would a dps increase over ZD, which isn’t compared to auto.

You know how Sword Wave had those 3 little swords in the animation? Each of those swords is the focal point for a very small Wave like Wave of Wrath. They should be sized so that enemies are hit the same as they might be under the original Sword Wave (3 hits on center, 1-2 hits on edges)

Flashing Blade is a leap finisher

Zealot’s Defense becomes Symbol of Defense. 2s Symbol that destroys projectiles crossing the threshold. I’m not sure if I would want it still throwing blades, so just keep those TBD.

Boom, done.

Spirit Weapons don’t really need a lot.

• Instead of inflicting Burn on attack, have them pulse a very short duration burn.
• The cooldowns need to be lowered drastically. 15-20s uptime, 15-20s cooldown.

I don’t know what Gyro survivability is like, but once SW are at a similar level they should be golden.

1500 range? How about no.
Ini regen every 2 seconds on auto? Let’s not.
Self-stacking 25 might for forever duration? Nah.
Plan B should be aborted

I do like the Mark concept though. Honestly, Rifle Thief seems like it should be a Sniper based spec, but I wouldn’t want to see it. Longbow with Mark would be preferred. Instead, Rifle ought to be a ranged condition damage spec with access to Burning. Thoughts coming to mind involve inflicting Burn when striking a blinded foe, synergy around smoke fields, shotgun styled weapon skills, possibly with Gadgets as the utility. It would be an almost SWAT-like spec.

There was a video around here like, a year ago of someone doing d/nothing duels

WTB: Someone who actually knows what they’re talking about and can put forth a cohesive argument when they complain.

K thx bye

MM Reaper is definitely one of those styles of builds where I wouldn’t be surprised to see a completion.

You can combine the Healer and Tank roles to open up 9dps slots. In that regard, Guardian is fantastic. Guardians combine both sustain healing (hots) and burst healing (Receive the Light/Wings of Resolve).

If your dpsers are a bit self-sustainable, you could run something like WoW lfg super queuer. You’ve got some damage, tank ability, and some good healing. If just one dps can off-heal with you, or if everyone ranged can share a bit of healing amongst themselves you’d almost have 10 dps. A lot of raid builds aren’t really plug-n-play. You need to create a comp built around what you have. There are a lot of things that can work if you look for the synergy.

Mesmer GS says hi.

Run PS on your tank and build your raid comp around a PSWar tank and you’re fine. Every profession can tank, just build your comp around it.

Consider using Trailblazer and DB spam. DA/Acro/DD would probably work well.

On a whim I made a power chill tank. Self stacking Might and caps vuln (unnecessary I know), but also brings self sustain and heavy damage reduction. Uses Vigilant armor because why not.

Behold, the Chillax Tank. Axe/Focus for boon strip and RP purposes. Otherwise, get some chill on the foe and stay in Shroud. Some of it seems overkill but you can also take this around solo. I just like how well Vigilant armor works.

If you really want a combo, Take Hammer, Longbow, Test of Faith, and Wrath of Justice.

Start in Hammer
Drop ToF
Let them walk out
Spear them and pull them back through
Banish them while immobilized from WoJ
Immediately swap to LB and True Shot

If you land that you deserve the 12-18k+ damage.

Herald and PS war can completely negate the need for fire fields. You can easily run a Tank/Healer Guardian. It’s effectiveness, like any potential build, will largely depends on your raid composition.

Cool story 8/8 m8

Glacial Heart doesn’t really have synergy with Zeal though.

However, my interest was piqued at Glacial Heart changing SoP (or perhaps every Symbol) to an ice field. Ice fields don’t have to pulse chill (and this one shouldn’t), but combined with Mighty Blow, and ask of a sudden you’ve got frequent Chill Aura uptime. That would be amazing defensively with Prot and Aura while providing chill on being hit.

fumcheg.1936:

Scaring story.
Poison stacking and CG nerf were implemented with the same patch. I’d really like to know where you got this information about “melting people”. Btw, CG is close to useless atm.

The " melting people " quote was directly from Anet when they were talking about the change. Someone else had inferred spamming CG on downed foes being revived as being too much band for your buck.

Also in Chinese wvw meta, you actually had a frontline of SB Thieves to drop poison on the enemy zerg. When it was only duration it was used to counter healing, but once it stacked intensity damage potential went a little crazy. That being said, Potent Poison, Thorn runes, and CG all mix together very well.

There are no diminishing returns because the time it takes to die scales linearly

AsurasRCute.4136:

Another possible solution to the problem, that I’ve been having good results with recently, is to switch to Exuberance runes and swap a few Zerk pieces for Valk ones.

Another option I like is full Marauder with Runes of the Wurm and Furious Maintenance Oil if not in pvp. 20k health, 54% crit, and 220% crit damage. There are a lot of work arounds to getting more survivability.

CG got its change the exact same update that allowed conditions to stack. It went from 3s stacking duration straight to 2s stacking intensity. The public didn’t have the chance to play with it in-between iterations. Keep in mind the effect to cost ratio.

Swiftness > 25%

anything CG related

Iirc CG used to have both an extra second duration, and perhaps an extra tick off application. That changes drastically once you add in 100% poison duration.

CG used to not Reveal the Thief that’s true, but that was a separate change (it happened earlier than lowering the duration of CG). The lowering of duration was the exact same patch that poison started stacking. This is where the issues happened. Downed players were CG bait as multiple allies tried to rez and ended getting all of them stuck with 10+ stacks. Even if allies didn’t try for the rez, the downed player would start eating all that poison and was essentially done before they had a chance. This also want just a pvp problem. Multiple SB Thieves (like on wvw) could guarantee players would not be surviving a poison burst, taking them from 100-0 and through downed state. CG became a legitimate damage threat once poison could stack when before it was more anti heal utility. CG still had a lot of potential, but it’s not quite as crazy as it could’ve been.

If you’re looking for 100% crit rate, consider adding some Fury. I’ve retooled your original build to not only be more survivable but also stay at a self-buffed 100% crit chance. You end up sacrificing maybe 8% crit damage, but gain a around 300 power and 500 vitality.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQJATRn8cCFdiddCWdCEEhl8hqKAWyyVe9j/73KCS3/E-TRCBQBN4CAIhDBAWUSpPdNA4JAkFlLMSJYR2fQhq/EAAB4jfMP+xArclrclrcl9xP+xNuxNWKA90ZB-e

Swiftwynd.1685:

Interesting, who gets higher condition damage than this and how?

Warriors and Guardians both do for sure. Warriors can take advantage of stat stacking traits/skills like + 150 under Fury, + 250 Stacking from Furious, Banner, ect. Guardians have the advantage of Signet of Wrath and Carrion being their ideal stat. Kindled Zeal and Scavenger rune allow for a significant amount of condition damage while relying on only Burning for damage. With frequent enough burn application, you don’t need additional conditions. (Guardians used to be able to hit 4016 at max, but some mechanics have since changed and that’s no longer possible. However, 3600 + is achievable).

Choking Gas was literally melting people. The extra poison duration allowed for much higher stacks. Spamming CG would stack more poison than people could deal with, which is why it’s been reduced to current levels. It still hits hard, but now it’s more difficult to reach unmanageable levels.

Digital Dragon.2697:

A bard class would be fun, but not attached to a mesmer. Totally different classes. One creates illusions, another sings songs.

Ah, but Bards are commonly illusionists themselves. The only other good option would be Thief, but the Mesmer still pulls ahead between the two.

Knighthonor.4061:

Its the only Land 2hander for starters left. Rather save Spear for something else.

Also in many fantasies, the Priestess wield bows.

Most other weapons core Guardian can already use from traditional runepriest archtype.

No Rifle?
But even then, why does it need to be two handed? A Dagger at 900 range fits the idea much better (etch runes through magic, like Necro Axe). Many Weapons unavailable to a Guardian fit the archetype better.

Sure, in Eastern legends a priestess might use a bow, but the Runepriest archetype is not Eastern in nature. A Runepriest and Shinto priestess are not one in the same.

Other professions can get higher (stat wise, not dps), but for Ele it’s definitely a contender for best condition damage.

Being able to double up on the fields of intentional regardless. It’s the same concept as two Guardians placing side by side Symbols. You’ll take damage from whatever aoe effect is intersecting with your hitbox. Likewise, this allows Scorched Earth to affect more than 5 enemies at a time. You get 5 enemies per field which greatly increases it’s effectiveness in zerg play (similar to Meteor Shower ect). Scorched Earth could’ve been 5 overlapping circle fields and you’d get the same effect by standing in the overlaps.

It’s a unique property Berserkers can take advantage of in many different scenarios.

I’ll just go ahead and mention again, toss them on a Warrior with Rousing Resilience. You can actually get heals upwards of 5k per broken stun, or potentially 7.5k if traited Shake/Shrug it Off breaks the stun.

Not every profession has to use their runes. How many people are running Ele Runes? Tempest does get a Stun Break per overload, plus all the others it has access to.

I don’t support it. Warhorn and Shouts are sitting right there. You can still roll a boon support idea with the common conceptions of Horn and Shouts without going overboard with Such Unique, Very Wow new mechanics. Plus Trooper and Reaper rune synergy.

dronikal.8150:

…

Or not. I like that option better.

Question:
What exact relation does a Shortbow have with the common fantasy notion of a Runepriest?

Also, why Shortbow immediately after Longbow? Are there not many other options that would fit the overall theme better?

Arutha.9874:

Azure.8670:

Because pvp isnt about killing? If pvp was 1v1 then yea, thats a whole diff story. Then again from your comment you probably dont pvp so I apologize for my comment. PVP is team based and is more so about bunkering and holding points, a “pure killer” spec is good for roamers and dropping people in team fights but its not as valuable as a good point holder. Mesmer at one point was unstoppable in 1v1s and still wasnt meta in pvp

Taking other team PvP games for example Mobas or Overwatch there are classifications of “killers”, “tanks”, “supports” and each character within each group is balanced against the others.
If gw2 PvP is to be considered balanced then DH should be in line with other “killers” not on its own level.
Just like bunkers are balanced against other bunkers and supports against other supports, although they are too weak at the moment to take up 20% of a team.

Whoa, calm down there broskis. You obviously weren’t picking up what I was putting down.
He could’ve meant it was perfect for his playstyle, or perhaps perfect conceptually. He even could’ve meant it had perfect internal balance. He didn’t specify what “perfect killer” actually meant. Just because you forced a definition doesn’t mean it’s the correct one in that instance.

You also haven’t provided any empirical evidence supporting the claim that Dragonhunter is imbalanced to begin with. So until I see some empirical evidence, I’m inclined to dismiss those claims.

You mean make Berserker extremely effective against people who don’t dodge and attack head on, but is a non-issue in higher level play? YOLOGunflame already does this.

Congrats, you’re equal in effectiveness. Happy Birthday.

Arutha.9874:

How can you call something “THE perfect killer” and not consider it Over Powered?
By definition the perfect killer would be better than anything else, top of the food chain.
While balance would mean they are all on the same level.
Obviously if it observably is “THE perfect killer” it should be nerfed down to the level of the other killers.

Perfect can have multiple definitions (or put more directly, what specific aspect is being called perfect). Therefore, it can be the perfect killer without being out of line.

SoM won’t protect you from blind, but it’s invaluable for punching through blocks and reflects. I wouldn’t use Rifle without access to that in some way.

Consider running Runes of the Thorn and focusing on poison instead. You don’t have to make any other changes and you should end up dealing more damage.

Arricson Krei.9560:

Proposed Changes
Keep all minors the same

• Adept
  1. Right-Hand Strength (Critical)
  2. Perfect Inscription w/o increased passive effects. (Signet)
  3. Striking a foe with Virtue of Justice’s active effect creates a fire field at their location that causes burning. (Burning)

• Master
  1. Gain Fury when you gain retaliation (Critical)
  2. Wrath of Justice (Signet)
  3. Radiant Fire (Burning)

• GM
  1. Gain 50 precision for each stack of Virtue of Justice’s Passive. Activating Virtue of Justice increases your critical strike chance by 100% for 2 seconds. (Critical)
  2. Gain +8% movement speed for each Signet Passive. Light Auras last 2s longer. (Signet)
  3. Amplified Wrath (Burning)

I don’t like creating a fire field on VoJ active. Does it activate for allies, can it stack? Does the fire field even burn? Adept tier?

50 prec on VoJ Passive? What exactly constitutes a stack? Why doubling up on VoJ active, and why VoJ in general when there’s the Virtues line. VoJ is the vehicle for the Radiance theme, not the theme itself.

8% movement on unused Signet? That’s potentially 48% movement speed, or do you intend to limit the total amount in which case you invalidate the trait for taking too many signets.

I’m not a fan of these proposals.

Indure.5410:

But I think a change to “1s increase to all burning damage” would, because it would guarantee a tick of damage for all your burns.

You don’t have to try and get ticks to line up with second marks because every condition grants it’s residual damage. Regardless, adding duration is a weaker option.

I had a whole large post typed up and it disappeared because of stupid phone stuff, so here’s a summary.

It’s important to make the distinction between Mesmer having 25% movement and Chronomancer having +25%.

Just because not having it isn’t a big deal doesn’t mean having it isn’t a big deal either.

Attaching the movement speed to UC or Piercing Light is definitely not the answer. I think looking towards Mesmer’s Signet of Inspiration as… inspiration is the best bet.

It’s not a bug necessarily. It’s a result of a separate change that allowed the floating graphic to persist, which allows the auto to continue. You’re attacking faster than the conditions needed to wipe the counter are met. Other skills make use of that extra time to work properly, so I don’t know if I’d expect a change anytime soon.

Zenith.7301:

Inflating mob damage with poor telegraphs into 1-shot territory for low tier hp classes is not exactly “hard” content. If you can make content easier with gear swap that causes passive defense, it’s not exactly hard content.

Except it is.
Higher damage and worse telegraphs mean you need to do a much better job at reading the opponent and becoming familiar with them. Either you run the risk with paper defenses where things actually threaten you, or you find some way to reduce that threat. It’s certainly not the only way of increasing difficulty, but it definitely increases the difficulty and requires an improvement on mechanic mastery.
If it isn’t harder content a) what then is it exactly? b) what is harder content to you?

RF isn’t actually all that fantastic, though a second Shield is certainly desirable. Granted, Sig o Courage isn’t particularly amazing either, but with all the personal healing you grant yourself, you can ignore a lot of the threat. Add that in with the unblockable mechanics you’d need to deal with and the disparity isn’t all that large.

Once raids are actually a thing then neither you or I will have to rely on speculation. Despite having some scant access during beta, there’s still a lot more about raids the community knows nothing about.

Indure.5410:

What’s the internal cooldown on Hunter’s Determination can’t find it on anything.

It activates the trap, so it would use the cooldown of the trap.