Guild Wars 2

Also, if you consider the following…

GW1 did have Hero’s Ascent and GvG. We may very well get that (or similar) ourselves.

I’ll pop in this thread again. 2 ideas stemming from previous posts/ etc.

Chronomancer – (GWUtopia anyone?)

and as per

based on the typical Dungeon and Dragons roles…

Green Whisperer (a combination bard & druid whose music is especially effective against animals & eventually plants) (DR311 p70)
(Progression: +1 Bard Caster level –and– +1 Druid Caster level. Class levels stack with Bardic Music ability & Bardic Knowledge checks. )

Bard and Druid combo-deal. Could rock staff, wand, foci, axe, dagger (though overly available) etc. (mace? there’re charts around showing who can use what weapon, and theres some lack in a few that could be addressed.)

I don’t know how exactly either would fit into the GW2 archetypes, but I’m sure some creative people with more time than I feel giving could flesh some out.

And now Mordremoth. With an affinity to plants, nature, growth, etc. It makes sense for the “conceptual opposite incarnate” to use poison, corrupt life much like a cancer, or parasitically, and by being tethered to sylvari in the way we assume, would invade the dream with nightmare (or, is it the other way around?).
(Its quite possible, having the Elder Dragons around since the beginning of time or so, that the Nightmare has existed first, and the Pale Tree and her relation to the Dream only exist as a counter to that initial creation. It would fit with the way the Pale Tree views the Dream, and also with mentions the Nightmare Court make regarding the true nature of Sylvari, though I personally don’t invest too much into it as a theory. Its still some food for thought.)

Mordremoth’s ideological tie might be towards nurturing and caring, as in the way one cares for a child, or a sapling you’ve planted yourself, or a plant child-sapling you happen to be the mother of and want to teach it correct values growing up which are conveniently written down in stone so that generations may pass by and read its words of wisdom so that by the time those sapling-children are ready to be on their own they can make wise and correct choices regarding their futures and interactions with others. That kind of nurturing to which Mordremoth is opposed, and thereby uses torture physically and psychologically. Ruling by fear, intimidation, and forced respect as the Nightmare Court seem to do. Not only that, but the Nightmare Court still have a mirror of chivalry, which can be seen as a corruption/ adaptation of the Sylvari form.

The poisoning/blight seem to fit well in all those options. Poison in the earth being taken up by plants, poisoning the mind, all metaphors towards that idea and such. One option for the Magumma wastes being as they are, is that the poison excreted by Mordremoth (in all senses) is eventually killing off whatever it infects. Similar to cancer or some other similar things, the poison (we’ll still call it) invades the host, lives off of it parasitically, and then either can’t sustain itself when the host has died, or moves on from that point.

For whatever reason I’ve been avoiding making references to Christianity, but there is a lot in common with the ideas of Mordremoth, the Sylvari/ Nightmare Court, and what we’ve discussed here that tie in very well with many of the concepts of Christianity, more from a theoretical point of view I’d say (The way Satan (notice how its close in pronunciation to “Zhaitan”) corrupts people, how people cannot be sustained on Satan’s teachings, some of the feigned care and love he offers and how it related to Faolain’s interactions with Caithe, etc etc etc). Seeing the Sylvari as representing a lot of medieval Europe (specifically Britain), it seems like a possible route for the lore makers.

There is a bit of lore that interests me, and specifically this kind of lore. How things relate to the world around us, commentaries on the human, mind etc. I find it great to delve deeper into something such as this.

Back tracking a tad from previous posts…

During interactions with Malyck, when he leaves he states that his tree is far west, assumedly (if not explicitly) in the Magumma Wastes area or even farther. Also, by the reactions of your character, there are other “Pale Trees”, hinting at a community/ communities of Sylvari, who don’t have a connection to the Dream as our Pale Tree does. (Whether the Dream is something only for us, or if its something that exists seperately for all Pale Trees, I don’t know. In any case, Malyck doesn’t have a connection to our dream). I’m of the assumption that the Mordremoth of whom we’re speaking is connected geographically to this locale, which brings me to my next point…

We’ve connected Mordremoth to plants and plant-like things, Primordus to Fire, and Kralkatorrik to crystal, which all have a foundation in earth.
To build upon that idea, along with the “flaws” idea (where each ED represents a flaw, or an aspiration, etc. Basically where Zhaitan wants immortality, Kralkatorrik represents greed, etc. (I’ll lose my train of thought jumping around forums too much))…

We can take Kralkatorrik and give him greed/vanity and crystal, which both compliment each other. Greed for vanities and an aspiration for things that otherwise look pretty, with the actual crystal, representing both the objects of desire (being pretty to look at) and also a cheap imitation of the real things (emerald crystal only looking like true emerald, zircon and diamonds, etc).

Primordus, having an affinity to destruction, is contrasted with foundations and creation in that sense. Fire and earth are what make the core of this planet, and are the foundation to creating “land” (think Din from Legend of Zelda fame). This also would fit fairly well if Primordus were aligned to metal, as its strong, requires fire (most often) to manipulate, and can be foundational (slight stretch). It makes the contrast between creation and destruction sit nicely with the way the Destroyers handle things (or are intendid to).

Sounds mostly like you want to play a Thief. Shortbow gives you that archer feel, and even contains its own combo factory in skills 4 and 2 if I’m not mistaken. You also have access to smoke combo fields through utilities, and have at least leap and projectile finishers on pistol and dagger (and maybe sword? I’m too lazy to verify my info). As a Theif, you’d need to be fairly mobile to stay alive/effective, and can be built to be self-reliant.

My full recommendation is to Main a Thief, with main Alt as a Mesmer (or vice-versa).

Playing my own Mesmer, I was able to create my own combos fairly easily, be it with staff’s 5 and 2, or a glamor utility and Sword 2, or pistol 4 etc. Mesmers also gain a smidgen of stealth using torch, which may be underused as far as I can tell, and so you could find something interesting utilizing that aspect of things.

Maining a Guardian myself, nothing seems even close as far as self-reliance goes, but that’s just ‘cause I’m spoiled.

Also, on armor, many people seem to think Medium armor isn’t too, different and exciting per se, while Light armor definitely has some decent stuff. I personally have no qualms with any armor (at least, as a category), but if you want to see how they’d look, you can check the pvp lockers in the Heart of the Mists, or google a database. I don’t know any off the top of my head.

Also, lets not forget more people are getting more gold, and thus can have more opportunities to convert to gems. During the 3-day headstart, I was able to buy a new character slot for a paltry 1g40s, and almost got a second at double that price.

The prices are always going to fluctuate based on many different factors, but at least that also means you’ll be getting more gold for your rl money.

As much as I’m in agreement with OP’s idea, and as much as I loathe “while staying in control” (this is purely a personal issue in phrasing. Don’t mind my dislike of it, but I mention it as I’ll elaborate with my own interpretation), this is mostly spot on.

Damage is damage. Its a pretty simple concept, and in its relation to GW2, its something that is intrinsic to every profession, every build, most skills,and ideally, is a main part of a build’s design.

Support is aptly named, and much more descriptive than “healing” as has been known. It exists not just in flat heals that have been a staple to holy trinity designs, but also as boons, rezzing, and basically whatever helps you/your team do the job better.

Control, is in two parts for me. Controlling movement, and controlling damage. Controlling movement is very much what OP mentioned, and will be a noticeable aspect of most pvp-type builds. Swiftness, teleports, crowd control (notice that control is right in there) are all examples of movement control.

Controlling damage, is what used to be mainly found on tanks and buffs from healers. In GW2, we find damage control in the form of blind, block, dodging, protection etc. If it lessens the impact you or your team takes, or avoids it all together, its good, you should have some, and its extremely helpful.

Now, can you push out flat heals? Of course you can. Can you build towards facetanking champion mobs? Definitely. Should you expect individual results to vary? Yes, and like ordering fast food based on how appetizing the pictures look, you probably won’t get what you expected.

In my interpretation of things, the better builds will have satisfying aspects of all three parts of the trifecta, and while I’d say most will specialize in a given focus, the contribution of all three to the build will be noticeable. For example, the Guardian popular Altruistic Healing build template. Assuming use of a Hammer and Staff, you’ll have sufficient damage, support via party-wide boons and healing (protection, might, Empower flat heals, etc) and control of both damage and movement (again, protection, Banish, Line of Warding etc). This balancing of concepts, or at least hitting those very arbitrary “effectiveness thresholds” is what I think will grant people the most mileage in their build building. Effectiveness thresholds in this sense refer to the point at which having that extra amount, or better utilizing your current damage/support/control will be more beneficial than adding those “points” somewhere else.

We have a new way of thinking about combat and group synergy, and would benefit as a whole be regarding it as such.

80 Guardian: 218hr 17min/ 187 deaths
11 Necro: 5hr 46min/ 3 deaths
25 Mesmer: 28hr 45min/ 19 deaths
18 Thief: 13hr 18min/ 20 deaths
8 Engi: 6hr 16min/ 0 deaths (wvw leveling only char, woo!)

(I’ve had “alt zheimers”, so unfortunately my data is slightly skewed in a sense)

Tbh, this is a fantastic thread idea

1. When did you begin playing? (post bw’s)
BWE1
2. how many hours total do you have? (/age)
310 ( I used to have much more time to play, but meh)
3. What’s your most gold banked so far?
80s. I don’t really bank gold, and the most I’ve owned in one pile has been ~3-4g
4. Do you have a max level character (s)? (number if more than one)
Guardian. (I have a severe case of _alt_zheimer’s, so assuming levels take the same amount of time, I would have about 3 80s)
5. List 1-3 areas / zones / events / tp; where you spend most of your time for income.
I don’t really spend time for income
6. Do you mainly use MF or not?
I’ve had maybe 7% max at one time
7. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a mob? If so, how many and total?
I don’t think I’ve ever had an exotic drop period
8. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a chest? If so, how many and total?
Same as #7
9. What’s the most number of rare weapons you have looted in one day or 8hrs time?
Maybe 2
10. How many rare or exotic weapons do you “expect” to loot in one hour of time?
I don’t have expectations
11. How many lodestones have you looted total so far? (all types)
A grand total of 0
12. Do you craft? If so, do you have a 400 crafter? if so, how many?
Armorcrafting. At this point I’ll just buy what I need I think
13. Do you sell your looted crafting mats? (specify optional)
I do now.
14. Do you feel your return, (in terms of items, completion, income, etc) for your time, has been worth it?
Mostly
15. In ONE word, what needs improved most; from your perspective?
Balance. Balance between the greatness of GW1 and top-teir MMO’s, balance between professions, weapons, and builds (while maintaining uniqueness), balance between vertical and horizontal (and even z-axis progression, whatever that may include), etc.

I love the efforts made to make the GW universe closer to traditional MMOs. They each had their high points, but I’m missing some of the nostalgia of Guild Wars Prophecies. I walk into Ascalon or Kryta and say, “X place is supposed to be here, but I can’t tell anymore.” Its as if I’m not actually in any of the places I used to spend many thousands of hours years ago. I’d love to see more of the original bleed through into this world.

I don’t mean balance in the normal, skill/trait minded sense with regards to profs, weapons, etc., but moreso a “filling out” of what isn’t “filled” to begin with. I don’t mean pushing everything into a bland “middle”, but rather smoothing things out along the spectrum. There are traits/skills with bugs, ones that are rather boring, and are otherwise unused. There can be small effects given to increase the variety. Just look at Mesmer weapon traits compared to, say, most of the Guardian weapon traits. Theres more those can do than just “20% reduced cooldown” and “+5% damage”.

I’ve played quite a bit of WoW (WotLK only) and DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online), and they both have their good points as far as vertical progression, both of which I say is a bit better than GW2 for the moment. WoW and DDO’s dungeons and raids were quite fun and could potentially have a place in GW2, but only if the horizontal progression increases by the same ratio. Perhaps Anet is working on expanding each type, but will only have one form of update at a time. It seems to me like they’re going for many, many small updates over the life of the game, so that when we see GW2 after 7 years, it would have size and content to dwarf many MMOs combined. And so likewise, its possible that this recent update was for vertical progression, and the next one is for horizontal, and the one after that will be for something else. They have admitted they added FotM a bit in the wrong way, but by the time Ascended gear is fully implemented, you’ll be in/have been to many more places than just FotM in LA.

I have plenty of reason to keep playing, and I expect to accrue many more hours (especially when I’ve finished off the rest of my untouched gaming library). I’ve got high hopes for GW2, and I expect that to see the full vision Anet has had for this game, it’ll take a bit more time than we’re allowing. That is my general overview after 3 months.

I’d probably try to use something like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNArfRlYgiDXGyLEg4ERWhRa9ggI0fXPcIFZIA;T0AAzynEOJdS9kyJqsMZJyymlLLZWjMA .

I feel its burn centric, but it won’t be the only thing you do, given the AH, stacks of might on crit, a tad of range and aoe, and anything else you can manage to mess around with.

The sigils/runes/weaps (besides Sigil of Strength) are up for grabs, but even without the Honor might stacking trait, you can still stack might (adding power and condi dmg), heal yourself from it, deal a lot of heavy hitting crits (205%dmg 68% of the time) and you’ve got 3k toughness still. Has 1k condi dmg base, which is more than enough to have burns hit for 600+

I’ve had some success in PvE with something similar, in situations similar to a wvw zerg, but that’s all I can give you for first hand experience.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsd5elYgCCXEyLEgIFSuA7DEEmCCE+ue4QUEDB;TwAg0Cno2xsjYH7Oudk7s+YQwOiZGA

It’s almost what you’re asking. In my opinion, a “generic” Altruistic Healing build. You can buy Exotic zerker’s armor for about 2-3g a piece and that’ll provide most of the dps figures for you.

15 into Radiance to grab VoJ renewal on kill, plus 5 in Virtues for 3 stacks of Might on popping VoJ. AoE blind, 5sec party burning, and 3 stacks party might on every kill.

20 into Honor to get 1 stack of party Might on each crit (1sec cd, but its mostly negligible) plus vigor for you each crit. 50% crit rate means high vigor uptime (and might stacks), which translates to frequent party heals at the end of dodge rolls, which does scale nicely with Healing Power.

30 Valor for Altruistic Healing. Any boon to an ally = heals for you. Those come from VoJ each kill, might each crit (every other attack), Focus #4, Focus #5 depending on combo field, Mace #2, Mace #3 if no block, Shield #4 etc…

Sigils, Runes, Utilities, and even armor can all be changed around on preference, but a Strength sigil is ideal for might stacking (which ups your already high power). You’ve also got around 50% crit damage, which makes your crits hit 2x normal damage. Depending on jewelry you’ve got more damage or more defense, but all in all this would make for a pretty good build. I actually used the sword portion quite a bit while waiting for a decent hammer to make the switch to a more proper “crithammer” type build, so this should be up your ally. Make sure to test things in the Mists to find what exactly works best for you.

I used the word pulse, because I was still unsure if smite literally does run off the fist animations. It definitely seems like it but to be safe… (pulsing would be preferred in any case)

I can test things again, but as far as I’ve seen the fists do “Pierce”, though the numbers might not always pop up.

As far as I know, Smite does deal aoe damage (i.e., each pulse would hit multiple enemies). However, many people note (read: count) less than 15 hits. However, with more enemies, you’ll have a better chance of having all 15 hits land, though no single enemy will take 15 hits.

I do agree (as do 200 potentially non-hyperbole threads) the scepter could benefit from more pizazz

It’s too bad we can’t take Right Handed Strength (+15% crit change for 1h weaps), Altruistic Healing (heals you for applying boons to allies), and Empowering Might (grants might to yourself(?) and allies when you crit all at the same time…

If I were building for Scepter myself, I’d go at least 15 in Radiance (so VoJ will renew on a kill), Grab Altruistic Healing, Empowering Might, and put my last 5 points in Virtues.
That way, each crit and after each kill, you can add stacks of might party wide, and give each person 5secs burning to toss on their target. Perfect for trash mobs that die quickly. I’ll just drop a build down as an example of what I’m thinking.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNArfCoQyFYfggwUQgw31DHiiYIA;T8Ag0yoEOJhS9lyLqkMJJSymkLJZSLGGEMzA

The Runes and such are up for debate, but the idea is high attack, high crit chance + damage, and effects when you crit/hit. Any time you apply a boon, you’ll be healed ~70 per boon, per person. Rune of the pack 4 gives 3 boons on a 10sec recharge (though you could easily switch to more toughness oriented runes, that would also be ideal). I’d put the hammer as a defensive option if enemies stay too close, and the Hammer also provides boons via the auto attack symbol and mighty blow combo.

Exotic gear of a similar level has much better stats than a masterwork. So exotic (true top end) 80 gear does go for a few gold a piece, where as highest level 10-20 gear wouldn’t. I don’t know if the “adjusted” price would be less, equal, or higher though (adjusted here will mean “items price vs. expected amount of money a character of that level would have”).

Crafting can net you a profit at all levels, and with people in MMOs constantly rolling alts or joining the game, there will always be people wanting to buy mats, crafting components, and finished products. You’ll just have to find the right things to make for profit.

Each individual can also learn all 8 crafting trades, making the crafting leveling procces s 4-8 fold, and many people will become lazy and would rather spend the money on parts instead of spending the effort on all 8. (remember, the different crafts affect what legendaries you can craft, among a few other things, so there is incentive to learn all.

Well, the skill breaking in any sense isn’t a plus for reliability. Either way; use it or don’t, tell Anet if you want, and then feel better.

Healing power with a trident isn’t too bad underwater, as usually I can almost face tank mobs in a glass cannon build 1v1 (granted, I don’t normally run glass cannon builds, but the idea is there. heals allies on hit, bounces quite a bit). For dungeons, you’d just need to dodge, make use of your retaliation/ ranged absorbtion bubble, and start tossing out the burns with trident #2 and passive VoJ.

With a trident, anything that has an effect on hit, or with high enough prec, on crit will be a help.

I recognize that quote DanH, I bow to you.

I agree fully with this, and have thought mostly along these lines since I first heard people complaining about health pools.

I haven’t bothered with doing that math, nor do I really care to, but I think Anet has gone with a very percentage based system for things going on in GW2. You attacks always deal a percentage of total health, augmented by percentage enhancements to your attack and your damage. They’re hidden partially by the flat numbers, but are otherwise calculated based on percentages unlike, say, a pnp board game like DnD, where most things are flat numbers and/or ranges of flat numbers.

In this way, healing will benefit lower hp classes more than higher hp ones, particularly those invested in concepts like toughness, which is just another way of effectively increasing health. Our many forms of avoidance allow us to completely avoid damage that would otherwise eat away at health pools, while our toughness (which I would say we ought to have quite a bit) helps make the percentage of damage taken more equal to the percentage of those with higher health.

Now, if A Guardian and Warrior are both taking the same or similar percentage of health in damage in a given amount of time, any healing will benefit Guardians more as their current health will be raised by a higher percentage while still losing a constant, similar percentage.

Of course, Warriors could build strictly for Toughness and Vit, but their damage output would significantly suffer, and they aren’t quite built for support in the same way we are. We have so much available for healing and protection, it actually signifies a relation to having more toughness and more healing power to combat a lower pool.

All in all, it just seems to make sense for things to be in this way. The way I see it, you put armor on something that is naturally squishy per se inside, while that which is naturally strong would opt for less. I know Guardian and Warrior are both heavy armor classes, but the concept is still there. Going back to DnD (3.5e), think of Clerics vs. Barbarians. Clerics: Heavy armor, 1-8hp gained per level, healing, defensive (and many offensive) spells (purely relating to melee combat mind you). Barbarians: Medium armor, 1-12hp gained per level, heavy melee, rage to increase melee abilities while sacrificing defense, (even some natural mitigation to make up for their lower defense), etc.

(though I’d rather not,) tl;dr OP has it, and with more healing, it benefits our lower pools much more. Our avoidance and mitigation makes up for lack of hard numbers.

SY! is about taking conditions, while giving boons to compensate, not the other way around.

I’m all for Ynna’s nerfs though. Make it happen!

Ynna.8769:

• We programmed a system where anyone who claims they’ll reroll will have the relevant character automatically deleted.
• Anyone who complains without being constructive about any weapon, will be barred from using that weapon.
• The same is true for any Heal, Utility or Elite skill.

As far as I’ve been concerned, the Blast finisher had always operated at the start of the skill, and never the end. Either way, the more you know…

Wall of Reflection give you 10+ seconds of nigh immunity from ranged attacks, which is very useful in many situations. toss in two shouts and trait into “shouts remove conditions” and you’re now removing a condition from everyone every however many seconds, not to mention you can pull all party conditions to yourself, then remove them with the trait plus your own soldier runes. not to mention signet of resolve or purity (trait) also. Grab a staff and something like a mace/shield, hammer, or other weapon that has a bit of support.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.7.2.0.19.31.31.0.17.54.66.65.68.76.2.1.41.0.0.0.167.0.0.185.0.0.197.203.206.213.0.0.0.15.15.30.10

Something like this could give you a bit of mileage. Remember, test things out in the Mists, where you can mostly build for free. You don’t quite get the full stat customization as PvE, but you can see how things fit together before you start spending your life’s savings.

For anyone who has alt-itus like I do…
Altzheimers
Cymbalta (also great when referencing commerical lines)
etc.

And for my own character names (though it seems some don’t appreciate personal names, as per thread title, I have seen these names)

I use a naming convention based on Ghoti. Pronounced like “fish”, and something I’ve loved using since hearing the word.

Ghotistyx(any and all mains), Ghoti Bones (necro), Cat Ghoti (charr), Ghoti Burns (inside joke), How I Mine for Ghoti? (vgcats reference, engineer), Ghoti Tank (warrior), etc etc.

I’m a fan of Wayfarer Foothills the most, for leveling and visuals, particularly everything in the valley. I always seem to send my alts there to level.

I love Kryta and Ascalon zones for nostalgia and looks, as pre-searing ascalon (or post post-searing as it is now) and Kryta were some of my favorite places to be in GW1.

I will give Metrica Province its dues for mining though. It seems to be the place where I can gather the most copper the easiest.

I think its intended, though its a tad annoying as I’m also a Norn Guard. Our utility skills like Hallowed Ground and Wall of Reflection are unusable underwater for slightly obvious reasons, as most anything 2d in nature is disabled. We also don’t have any symbols underwater, which may explain the tome situation for our “normal” elites, and it might’ve been decided that our animal transforms wouldn’t work underwater.

Its unfortunate, but eh, we continue on.

Nope, never tried going outside, that’d be silly.

However, you could try side strafing back to teammates, since you can attack in a reasonably wide arc, or zig zag backwards. Theres ways to do it, it just takes creativity.

afaik, they do stack, and they do stack in a 2 condi/10 sec, instead of 1 per 5sec

flyinpoons.6481:

Add one more, if it is a complaint about complaining, don’t post it here.

And if its a complaint of a complaint about complaining…

Everyone is entitled to have their own opinion, but not always entitled to display said opinion. That’s apparent in the Free Speech cases that’ve been done.

I also know that this is the internet, and not under US stewardship, which also means you are no longer specifically entitled to your opinion. There are no laws or rights applied world-wide. I’m not advocating stupidity though, this is where common sense and the “golden rule” come into play. Leave the same way you enter, with respect.

Anet already has a place where this exists, i.e. the test professions in the Mists. I wouldn’t mind seeing this at all in PvE.

In GW1 and 2 Anet give the player a suggestion build right when they jump into pvp. Making up 3 or so of those and applying them to mobs should be fairly straight-forward, and would make it somewhat closer to GW1, where most general mobs used skills and had builds that the players did or could have.

The AI issue has somewhat already been solved by those test profs in the Mists, as they play a bit more dynamic than normal pve mobs. You could even differentiate between “smart” and “animal” AI, allowing certain mobs to act in ways representative to their perceived intelligence etc. I’ve always wondered how well fighting those Mists mobs would translate to actual pvp, as I’ve yet to jump into that.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-outlines-guild-wars-2-live-game-development/

Particularly the Bonus Teams section.

They just need time. Time fixing any “surprise happenings” they still have, time to generate and double check new content.

Maybe Anet thought that always having a full power leap would end up being a design feature they preferred. I.e., possibly getting to the point of leaping to the far side of a target would be a wanted advantage to those who could pull it off, or being able to dodge/run somewhere mid-leap would be good for the player (or mob, but mobs don’t usually act outside their coding) targeted defensively. As long as those leaps are the same game-wide, then its fine. They could always just make every leap target-able if they really needed to.

They’ve said that world transfers, when the game is running at “longevity” speed, will cost a certain amount of gems based on server population, and that there will be a cooldown on frequency of transfers (I believe something like 2weeks, the average length of a WvW battle, as was previously stated). Apparently, WvW is still finalizing things, and so we still have the free transfers, though now with a day cd.

Now, granted, things could have changed, but for now I don’t believe so.

As far as I’ve known, the sword will be the higher dps weapon of the lot. Don’t forget Sword’s #1 chain will proc burning on every rotation, which will help. The Mace isn’t left behind in the dust though, as far as damage goes, and like many people will say, it’ll depend on your build. You can trait Mace to be incredibly good ad keeping yourself alive, and helping out teammates, while sword will let you teleport around the place like none other. Your traits will make a significant impact on which would end up being ideal.

If you go searching around the other class forums, you’ll find plenty of threads that say their particular class is rolled over and forgotten on the side of the road, while they compare the “maussiv deh peh ehs” of other classes. Its literally a circle (more like multiple over-lapping circles) of the grass is greener.

I expect, like some others have stated above, that most if it is caused by people not running alts, and otherwise just not being familiar with every/any other class.

Also, people like use the phrasing “viable” and “only decent option” for top-tier or overly powerful weapons/traits/etc, and complain when they’re brought down to a more even leveling to their own or other class/game mechanics etc.

etc., etc., and more etc.

I think instead of having the clones copy you exactly, doing skills when you do, dodging when you do etc, clone should act more/less like the Mesmer (punching bag) in the Mists. Using their own weapons, doing their own animations, completely independant of you, but made to look more “human-like”. Their actual effects could happen at their normal recharge rates, and just made to happen w/in something like 5sec from spawning.

Clones like that would have a better feel imho.

They’ll have something similar to that in an upcoming patch. You’ll be able to rent servers and set up 1v1 battles etc.

I won’t be quite so ad hoc, but it’ll mostly be there.

Evidently they saw something that needed changing now (or they changed as much as was ready to change), and so went ahead and made the changes. They may only have a few small number tweaks to finalize, thereby delaying the rest of their changes, or they may want to foreshadow (in a way) the coming changes, and get people unstuck from the idea of playing GS in “x” way so that they (the players) can make an easier transition to the “new format” instead of throwing everything down at once.

There is some pacing to take into account for balancing, and its nice to at least have some warning in a sense of how things could change. Anet might’ve already decided this is actually all the change they wanted to do, and now that the skills are how they are, people will need to adapt. We may or may not need to adapt more, but I’ll tell you that I have faith in Anet, and in my personal opinion, the Oct 7 changes were for the best in a few ways.

I’m the same way

I actually leveled my guardian in somewhat odd build like that (at least, from what I was seeing on the forums), and quite enjoyed myself. I ran a sword torch 30 Radiance 30 virtues 10 tough build focused on VoJ and burning+crits, + turning the sword from single target to pbaoe. I felt like I killed things no slower than anyone else, even with a single target focus. Its not super crazy, and should easily be manageable even if people think you’re weird in a matter of speaking).

I’ve thought of a Healing/support build for my Engi that is a perma wvw toon, and a toughness/stealth build for my thief (although I’ve since reworked that idea to also include some other things).

They have a “new” focus for Guardians, and when they’ve finalized what they need, they’ll let us know. That explains their changes to retaliation, Greatsword, and silence on the forums.

I now feel I should note, “Don’t be stupid about things” was more for reference about trying to grasp at straws in the article, or replying with nothing more than “But this isn’t about Guardians, its about pvp, so blergh…” etc., not so much at my regarding the reactions to be stupid.

Read this article, replacing anything spvp with Guardian.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/structured-pvp-iceberg/

(Yes I realize what your comments will be, and don’t be stupid about things, that is all)

He might’ve meant 250% dmg on crit (150% base crit, +100%, I get confused sometimes what exactly is meant too)

I wonder if anyone has thought that Anet’s decision on Retaliation wasn’t geared towards Retaliation as a whole, but just that ease of access on the pre-patch GS + Signet of Judgement.

(I haven’t crunched the numbers, but…) It seems like with longer symbols and +25% Ret uptime (and maybe even shorter 2H cooldowns, which are all often commonly taken traits) that you could keep up Retaliation nigh indefinitely with just those skills, while you could still build the rest of whatever you were doing as you saw fit, thereby gaining all the benefit of a build geared towards 100% uptime, and whatever else you wanted.

Granted still, that would mean you’d need to stay in the symbol, which is much easier to do in PvE than PvP, which would make it more of a PvE change than PvP, unlike what others have complained about, and what we’ve already considered above.

If you’re trying to pay2win, you’re playing the game wrong

SoW is purely a guardian thing. If the post had been about retaliation as a whole, with nigh no or little focus on anything strictly Guardian, it might’ve stayed. \

I expect they’ve got something fairly big in the works for Guardian, but they want to take things at their own pace, not to mention they have much more info than we do on total usage, statistics, etc. Anets also said that testing a new idea roughly takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks (mostly a month if I remember correctly), so it seems these changes were needed (ie. seen as a problem) a month ago.

Rizzy.8293:

6 × 5 = 35 percent.

6 × 5 =30 btw, on top of the other comments.

Now, I agree on the basic idea of this post. I particularly want the PvP version of Shaman gear in pve myself (“1x” toughness, “.5x” condition damage, “.5x” healing power), or even other, currently non-existent combinations of stats to show up on gear. All options should ideally be available through crafting, drops, and karma.

My 2cp

For Race, I’d like to see Tengu. Another upvote for the birds, makes sense for Cantha, etc etc.

As for class, I’m on board with the Chronomancer, since that isn’t a staple class in gaming and its been mentioned before. I’m feeling a main mechanic around quickness and/or reducing recharge rate. Possibly having auto attacks reduce cd by 1sec, or put it on a specific weapon chain etc. Or, (I come up with these ideas at 3am while I’m at work. I post on the pm side of things, and so my memory has ran away with the spoon). In addition, It could be about space and time, not just time, to add even more etc to it.

The #1 skill is full of feathers and butterflies, but the #2 is nice for the knockback and #3 is a very respectable heal and a bit of damage. #3 can keep you alive almost another half bar itself. I think the skills are fairly good where they stand.

Condition damage isn’t terrible for guardians at all. I’ve only been able to play around in the mists (and oddly enough their stats are a bit different, I’ll get into that), and I came up with a decent build that at least works well for me. (http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.3.7.17.0.24.27.25.0.54.62.61.68.76.6.6.29.0.0.0.167.175.176.185.186.0.196.203.0.0.0.0.0.30.20.20.0).

For whatever reason, Shaman items are Toughness, Condition Damage, and Healing in the Mists, which is incidentally exactly what I want. It’s pretty durable, you can stack and reapply burning very fast and often (I should mention too, that unless you pop VoJ, your passive VoJ does 1sec burning. It’ll deal its damage long before most would even recognize they have burning on them, nor would it be worth trying to remove a 1 sec burn, which you’ll apply again after another chain, or any other 5 max hits.) , and you get intermittent healing that helps a lot with survivability. Your main heal completely fills your health pool, which is about 12k or so (it mostly should anyway) and is reduced to a mostly 30sec heal. Sword’s sigil could be moved around, but otherwise, it’s pretty easy to kill almost whatever you’re up against.

Now in PvE, Shamans gear gives Vitality instead of Toughness (which hurts the build overall I’d say) and I can only deal with my current just-dinged-80 gear. I did gear towards condition damage first, and each tick of burning does more than my auto attacks (or inbetween two and three hits of sword’s 3rd chain. 3 hits does more, 2 hits less compared to each tick). You’ll need quite a bit of condition damage, but if you want to go for it, it can be a big help with your total damage output. I’ll admit however, that high condition damage is probably good for making up not having much power. If you’re gearing for power, then you might not need to invest much (or any) regardless.

What I’d like to build for, is Shaman gear (as far as I saw it yesterday, giving Tough/Heal/Condi dmg) with undead runes for even more toughness and condi damage. My test build worked wonderfully in the mists, and now I just need to find a way to make it work in pve