Guild Wars 2

Pooka.3420:

I just feel bad for Clown Magic in the video : p

Haha don’t feel bad for clown he destroyed me a fair few times. Eventually I’ll make a video with losses and it’ll be him beating my behind.

Pooka.3420:

Gotta say,

I’m really impressed with this build. Of course I bought legendaries and ascended to go full heal, so I’ll be a ways away from making this into the correct gear ensemble.. but.. I’m gonna buy the exotic tonight and play with it.

Very cool and thanks for Sharing! VT is always on the Cutting Edge!

Thanks! Hopefully you enjoy the build like I have. And honestly I’m in exotics for armor on it currently. Ascended armour is still on my thief, but seems to work fine. If you wanted to put a healing twist on it, runes of the druid theoretically should allow for good burst heals after glyphs and since TU has a 50% uptime you should see an impact on it. Though with 0 HP TU can account for 12k healing when you have the two minors in druid up.

I’m not an expert in pve so can’t for sure answer your question, but I’d say that pve double ranged will not be optimal. Just swap out lb or staff for gs or sw/a and you should be fine I believe.

Shoe.5821:

interesting point about Remorseless+revenant. I too keep trying to make Remorseless builds but losing piercing just hurts too much.

that poor Reaper at the start of the video, you just have too much mobility and CC…

i also find verdant glyphs invaluable, but for some reason i hadnt thought about using them for executes… smacks forehead

PS what’s with the Charr ignoring you at 11:00

kitten move for his teammates

Haha pretty much everyone I’ve dueled for a long period gets really annoyed with the build. If you don’t have stab or a cleanse for the immobs it’s close to game over for you.

Remorseless is something I’ve always taken since the trait changes. Once HoT released first thing I tested was for a hidden icd with a revenant giving me fury. Found out there wasn’t one so every second it refreshed more or less. Also it allowed for me to get 5k glyph hits which is crazy.

Haha that warrior was chill. We ended up dueling him a bit. IDK sometimes people when they see 3v6 just kinda sit it out and don’t attack. I know I do that when I see my server trying to gang a group. But you can see I also expected him to attack when I swapped target and went towards him before realizing he wasn’t going to.

Stand The Wall.6987:

Good vid, thanks. Personally I cant imagine going without Quick Draw as it makes staff 3 godlike.

It pains me too. But the moment of clarity is very very strong with the dazes.

Bryzy.2719:

Awesome, I wouldn’t have thought that far into the Remorseless trait to be honest but it all makes sense. I’d personally keep the VE choice and probably take LtW simply for the addition to kiting and any backlining in skirmishes. Also – just played your build for like 15 minutes in EB, and when skirmishes do occur, finding it thuper fun to Staff 3 into the enemy group and bomb your glyphs/entangle for laughs :P.

Yeah that trait really comes down to personal preference.

Glad you seem to be enjoying the build. I’ve had a blast so far running it.

Bryzy.2719:

Hey thanks for the video + the build.

Coupla quick Qs – do you find remorseless works better overall with this build than Lead the Wind? and have you ever toyed with Celestial Shadow over Verdant Etching? I’m guessing VE is preferred for the extra condi removal/healing?

Cheers!

Those two traits you mention are two that are the most flexible for the build.

When I was trying it out during BWE3 I thought I would definitely be using Celestial Shadow over Verdant Etching, but so far I’ve found VE to have a bit more utility for the build overall. Instead of offering me a stealth when I leave CA (which is strong especially when kiting), I gain access to lower cds on 2 utility skills along with AoE blind and a small heal (around 500 with no HP). It mainly comes down to how I believe I get more consistent application and use from VE than I would from VE.

The remorseless vs LtW question is even closer imo. I really enjoy remorseless for the sure crit along the damage increase (killer with glyphs) and vuln. It also synergizes extremely well with the rune choice, clarion bond, and having any revenant within the group since it has no ICD. LtW is great for the piercing, but with staff I can always use the staff to get that same piercing effect from the AA. LtW becomes more effective the more people you are fighting, so it depends on the situations you are expecting.

Eirdyne.9843:

Great build!

This really answers the ‘stay at range’ issue.

Do you have any thoughts on how healing is going to work in raids? You’re maintaining good range with the gliffs you’re running, but how will address the need to swap over to heals for a 10-Person party?

We really can’t get over to our heals that fast right now. That’s good balance for WvW and PvP, but not so great for the raids and playing Healer.

How you change the gear for raids will probably depend on who you’re running with and how they communicate/move when they require a heal. Honestly for raids, I’d probably swap the runes for runes of druid and then keep the gear more or less the same otherwise giving you good damage and good on demand healing from the rune set.

As far as getting to use CAF, since it doesn’t degen out of combat, using TU should make sure you have 100% going into combat. Once inside of it, I’d recommend just never using all the CAF and using it for some burst healing from 3,4 and then going out of it to make sure you don’t have to recharge that full bar.

LughLongArm.5460:

Hi, trying not to sound like a broken record, But I REALLY like your playstyle.

Glad you enjoyed it again!

Fluffball.8307:

I have been enjoying your videos. One comment: your music is pretty much all or nothing. For example I could make a video with just all death metal for hella intense fights, but maybe you wouldn’t want to watch it. Muting music in this type of video I think removes a lot of the video-makers intent.

One example where I thin the music did a fantastic job complimenting the content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WdcXE-j6qY&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for the feedback, honestly when it comes to music I kinda just toss on whatever I’m feeling at the time so there isn’t a ton of intent at least when it comes to my videos and the music. I’ll try and think of ways to make the music a bit less of a factor in the video and more as a complimentary aspect to it.

Hello again!

Decided to put together another video of my recent roaming in wvw. Like the last video, this one includes some 1v1s and some general roaming. Unlike the last video, the roaming is primarily not solo ranging from 2 to 5 with my guild.

Video

While the overall build hasn’t changed a lot, I did change the air sigil on my lb to a sigil of agility for on demand quickness when swapping into lb.

Build

Feel free to give me feedback about what you want to see in videos, more duels, more roaming, commentary, more wipes, whatever it is let me know.

Hard to say on the opponents. Obvious if you get more or less 1v4 by a zerk class something is lopsided skill wise. If you wanted I can put together a longer video showing all the fights losses included. I didn’t want to make the video too long especially since I dueled Alma (the daredevil) for over an hour so it’d be a bunch of duels against a single player which can get boring.

Remorseless is chosen since I have 6 ways to get fury and it also gives more damage and an additional cover condi for immob. Also since I will normally be doing small group fights with revenants on my side it synergizes very well with their facet that gives fury.

As far as swiftness, I get 10s on pack and another bit from weapon swap. With how well hydromancy and absorption goes with the daze trait on staff and ancient seeds I’d rather keep it. Especially since anything larger than solo roaming means swiftness is easy to come by. I was considering the new quickness and swiftness on swap for lb tho.

I’ve only tried ancient seeds. Since the build is double range even with the delay getting additional range is always welcome. Also when it does proc it usually gets the opponent to waste a cd. Additionally, with how the ancient seeds works, the staff daze and hydromancy will proc on every opponent it hits bypassing the icd. Being able to basically have a second entangle in fights is very strong imo. But I’m going to be looking into a lot of tweaks to the build so I’ll look into it.

Glad you guys enjoyed it.

I do get some swiftness out of cb from call of the wild proc due to stowing pet and the staff3 putting you into cb proccing the call.

The staff skin is the modrem one (spelling?). I bought it as soon as I saw ranger would get staff in the trailer haha.

Hello there, decided to quickly put together a video of some duels and outnumbered fights I’ve had in the past few days while learning druid.

Video

Still learning with regards to the new spec and the best time to activate the form and what not.

Build

Woot im a warrior.1563:

Is there an easy way to tell which stance a Revenant is in or do you have to wait for them to use a heal/utility?

Each legend shows as a buff on their bar. Whichever one is active has an icon.

If I recall correctly ebg will remain the borderlands are being changes though.

As a note entangle is very strong against the majority of revenants since they lack the cleanse to get if off quickly. Though condi revenants and their resistance won’t be too effected.

Honestly it’s a strong trait but it does depend on when it procs. You caught someone with no cleanse or ability to escape and they’re usually done for with entangle.

From a wvw perspective I’m going to use the trait and swap my food to +40% condi duration 33% (bugged so 66%) chance of life steal on crit. Should help combat some issues and will still benefit my zerker ranger well.

Hexalot.8194:

Helly.2597:

I’d not so much disappointed at the number of hero points as disappointed in how I am required to unlock so much useless kitten with the normal specs first. Hell if I am never going to use shouts or traps with my druid then I shouldn’t have to waste those hero points.

You’re confused. The last June patch made it that once you hit lvl 80, all the normal core specs and skills were unlocked automatically… and you don’t have to do a single hero point challenge while leveling from 1 to 80 either.

You’re confused. I’m not talking about the core specs, I’m refering to how I have to use up all those HPs I get from leveling on those core specs in order to access the elite spec, since anet has decided to gate the elite spec behind having every core spec unlocked.

I’d not so much disappointed at the number of hero points as disappointed in how I am required to unlock so much useless kitten with the normal specs first. Hell if I am never going to use shouts or traps with my druid then I shouldn’t have to waste those hero points.

Basically you need to have every current traitline unlocked (what a load of kitten), to unlock just half you need 200 points aka current full map completion, and then you need another 200. So for a new character you need to rank up 40 times (assuming that when they say maguuma challenges give 10 HPs that they are extending this to the wvw ones).

EoTM K train this weekend anyone?

morrolan.9608:

If you pick and choose maybe but to unlock everything no. From the figures I’ve seen there are 210 hero challenges in tyria but 250 will be required to unlock everything.

Yes you’re right the numbers were 250, I had my head turned around.

Its all useless though talking about it, we’ll all find out in 4 days time.

morrolan.9608:

Hexalot.8194:

morrolan.9608:

Sorry but anybody who thinks that they should get retroactive scrolls from their prior rank ups is just fooling themselves. Its instant full elite specs which is clearly unreasonable.

But its not unreasonable for the average veteran PVE player to be able to do instant unlocks because chances are he already has tons of Hero Points stockpiled just from playing the way he wants ?

• shakes head *

Number of skill points needed greatly exceeds those available in regular Tyria, pvers need to do maguuma hero challenges to get the full elite spec. Given how many WvW ranks most WvW players would have stockpiled they would be able to unlock everything immediately. Its not perfect but its entirely understandable and its more than most would have expected.

I’m not sure what the exact numbers that the elite specs are going to need are, but it seems 210 is what people are saying is for everything. Now if I make a new ranger, tome it to 80, unlock only what I need to use the spec I am going to use in HoT minus the elite spec stuff, I have 270 skill points left over. I think most PvE players will have enough stocked up, and this gives WvW players a way to get them too. I like their solution, but I still think people are going to be able to instantly unlock stuff.

Hexalot.8194:

Helly.2597:

Hexalot.8194:

morrolan.9608:

Sorry but anybody who thinks that they should get retroactive scrolls from their prior rank ups is just fooling themselves. Its instant full elite specs which is clearly unreasonable.

But its not unreasonable for the average veteran PVE player to be able to do instant unlocks because chances are he already has tons of Hero Points stockpiled just from playing the way he wants ?

Now I’m just speculating, but based on how they emphasized there being a difference between HoT HPs and standard HPs, its entirely possible anet is planning on making the existing HPs not work for the elite specs (though I think it’d unnecessarily complicate the issue). This would create the sort of level ground anet wishes for it appears with their not (or at least not appearing to) applying the HPs (or rank up rewards) retroactively to wvw players.

Then again its equally possible anet just doesn’t want wvw players to have nice things.

If you read the blog again you’ll see that the new rank to HP conversion allows you to “buy” hero points from both the old maps (Tyria) and the new ones (Magumma). So stands to reason then that players pre-launch HPs will still count towards unlocking elite specs.

With the new Maguuma points being more expensive. So either they want you to get the tyria ones first just cause they want HoT completion to take a little while or there is a difference in what you get.

Hexalot.8194:

morrolan.9608:

Sorry but anybody who thinks that they should get retroactive scrolls from their prior rank ups is just fooling themselves. Its instant full elite specs which is clearly unreasonable.

But its not unreasonable for the average veteran PVE player to be able to do instant unlocks because chances are he already has tons of Hero Points stockpiled just from playing the way he wants ?

Now I’m just speculating, but based on how they emphasized there being a difference between HoT HPs and standard HPs, its entirely possible anet is planning on making the existing HPs not work for the elite specs (though I think it’d unnecessarily complicate the issue). This would create the sort of level ground anet wishes for it appears with their not (or at least not appearing to) applying the HPs (or rank up rewards) retroactively to wvw players.

Then again its equally possible anet just doesn’t want wvw players to have nice things.

Scryeless.1924:

Unless you spend an insane amount of time with the mystic forge you should have more than enough points upon HoT release to finish out any or all trait lines.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_point are not http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spirit_Shard

We are talking about Hero points which are needed for taking trait lines, not the spirit shards which are used in the mystic forge. This change was made for the specialization changes, and has a huge impact on a WvW players ability to take the new traitlines included with HoT, especially on alts which have little to no map completion done.

I was going to make a post about this. It seems a little out of line with what ANET claims to be their intentions. As a wvw player, a large number of my characters have 2% or less map completion on them. By making these elite specs cost 80-170 (250 for skins some are claiming) it forces any wvw player to devote a huge amount of time to pve grind these points. This isn’t something that I think is appropriate nor does it fit with the play how you want mindset anet tries to enforce (and typically does a good job at).

I shouldn’t be considering rerolling a class simply to have the hero points open to me to spend them on the elite spec.

Now how to solve it, one possibility is to reduce the number needed to unlock the spec aspect (not the skins); another is to reset hero points on release and allow those who have already spent points to redistribute them as they now wish with the new options.

FrouFrou.4958:

snip.

I agree on your roaming sentiment. It’s interesting to hear how many different definitions there are out there though.

Honestly I record to mainly with it myself. When I post to YouTube I expect not everyone to enjoy it or dislike it or complain or criticize it. As long as they’re doing it constructively it’s all fine. If they’re just doing it and not offering any feedback it’s easy to ignore them. The feedback here was pretty constructive from most so it’s all good, unlike the revenant forums that got angry when I called for some tweaks to the class after putting up a gameplay video.

Tricare.2946:

snip

Pretty much. But hey, how else are you gonna get those clips. If you’re pulling out 2v9’s there is a massive skill gap regardless of what builds you’re running. I for one am grateful for their existence.

Also nice video, Duke God putting in some work with those heals and condi cleanses.

Raven.9603:

Helly.2597:

The best way to improve quality of videos is to get good footage. It’s a trade-off though since good footage maybe happens once a night at most. So either I spend 3 weeks putting together clips for a video or I toss in some random fights that might not be as great. Without having reliable and skilled opponents, it can take a while to accumulate.

You can’t rush good pizza.

True enough.

Raven.9603:

snip.

Thanks again for the feedback.

It’s hard to tell at the start of the fast forward as you say. I’d say they had 4 which makes it even but as we all know even against a guild group of any worth is really outnumbered so I’ll agree on that.

I’ll agree also that Mesmer is a very strong roaming class. As for those AFK mesmers you’re right that were trash, but it’s impossible to find good clips nowadays (I’m even complaining about it at the start of that clip) and they were a full condition group so I find some enjoyment at their horrible play.

I agree with pretty much every statement there, though the engineer you point out had followed me down the cliff. I had just taken the fall damage as well but cut it out because it didn’t have to do with the fight.

And yes the 2v3 near SET the warrior immediately runs away when he sees it’s no longer a 1v3. Just illustrates the issues in finding clips to put into videos when the majority of what could be good fights end up being ruined by someone running away.

I will let you know if I see them either. I would say HUNT but currently all they’ve been doing is running 2+ Mesmers in a group of 5 and hiding in zergs or calling zergs to our location instead of fighting.

The best way to improve quality of videos is to get good footage. It’s a trade-off though since good footage maybe happens once a night at most. So either I spend 3 weeks putting together clips for a video or I toss in some random fights that might not be as great. Without having reliable and skilled opponents, it can take a while to accumulate.

I suppose it’s true what you say about that video. I’d argue that the ranger didn’t need to be pressured and only opened himself up to those chances by running into the opponent. While they are supporting each other, they also leave their guildies out in the open and don’t even go back to power rez when they are downed.

Raven.9603:

snip.

Fair points. Though I’m curious where you are finding us outnumbering the enemy? As far as I can tell there weren’t any clips of us outnumbering the opponents.

It appears we have different views of what roaming is, some view it as only solo and some view it as anything five or less. It’s up to you.

I’m also curious how far you got into the video, which is probably a fault of mine. I put most of the 4-5 man material at the beginning, with the rest being mainly 2v3 or 1v1. The fast forward was for that one fight because it was far too long to enjoy at normal speed.

Camping longbow is not the ideal situation, however in that fight there why should I swap to gs? Going zerk means there isn’t a whole lot of point to charging in with the gs and getting blown up by cleave. If I’m not being pressured in melee, why should I swap to a melee weapon?

I appreciate the feedback and will attempt to act on it to improve for the next video. Thanks.

Granted I haven’t watch the rest of the videos, but the second one you posted I would take issue with the claim “good players.” A guild attempting to melee train down people in small group, and a bunch of pugs who are hard rezzing instead of fighting.

The issue comes down to the fact we can control who we fight. I’d love to constantly be fighting other roaming groups and guilds but frankly at this point in the game they either don’t exist or they simply don’t want to fight anymore.

I noticed you’re on SBI. Do you know of any active roaming guilds on the server during NA?

hobotnicax.7918:

This is not very good gameplay tbh, sorry.

Care to share specific instances? Difficult to improve when the only feedback is “This is bad.”

Justine.6351:

The 8min sped up was kinda annoying. Should have made a separate vid of that engagement.

Be sure to post a build, here and/or on youtube, using one of those websites. People like to see builds. Even if its typical to you/me/other frequent forum users, there are a lot of new people looking for up to date game play and the accompanying builds.

I watched it in 360. It actually come in higher quality or it still processing? If it is low quality vid simply cause its so long, consider not uploading anything above 10min.

Its 1080p now. Youtube processing does the whole 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p in that order after it gets uploaded.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjUqQLLWyCOsAVLG+Dq91XgAo73aYH49Nf3gCW1A-TFCFABMcEAA4RAUo6PXpEEJlfCcBAqZ/h00FQKAz1ZB-w

Fluffball.8307:

Helly.2597:

Fluffball.8307:

Says it’s processing? Can’t watch it.

Indeed, like I mentioned in the first post it was just uploaded. It should be completed in a bit. Sorry for the inconvenience.

You hadn’t mentioned that when I posted it. #pedantic

I had actually, but its not a big deal. If I had edited the original post it would say that it had been edited and when it had been.

Fluffball.8307:

Says it’s processing? Can’t watch it.

Indeed, like I mentioned in the first post it was just uploaded. It should be completed in a bit. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Video

Just a video of me playing some full zerk ranger in small group WvW roaming. Forgive the sloppy play at points, I just came back to ranger after a long absence and a bit rusty still. I tried to include some even fights, outnumbered fights, and 1v1s in there as best I could.

I appreciate any feedback people have about the video, gameplay or otherwise.

*When I posted this the video is still processing so give it a little bit and check back and hopefully it will be done and in HD.

Gaaroth.2567:

Engis never spread lies

We’re an honest folk.

Gaaroth.2567:

Exactly and mesmers and guardians have sumilar skills with same effect.

Yup there are numerous examples of it in game. I don’t think that is a bad part of the skill. It adds another level and gives melee players ways to punish people who are up on a ledge above them.

Just frustrating to be called out as a liar and claimed to be spreading misinformation deliberately despite actually being correct about the mechanic in question.

wolfpaq.7354:

A lot of what you wrote in your response to me is wrong, but I thought I’d just stick this because it is objectively and egregiously wrong, so much so that I feel you are intentionally spreading misinformation.

When you try to shadowstep to a target on a different level (zaxis) than you, you get the following message:

“No valid path to target”

And the skill does not work. That’s the case for every shadowstep/blink currently in the game, as well as Phase Traversal. It does not “break the z-axis” and it is a definitely something that can be used in WvW and sPvP to escape a shiro revenant.

You’re coming across very aggressively here. Claiming I am "spreading misinformation
deliberately. You are saying that the “No valid path to target” message does something it does not do. There are still a huge number of altitude changes that can be shadowstepped without any issue. What you are talking about is where those shadowsteps fail, which is where they always have.

Next time I log onto GW2 I will make a special video just for you showcasing that you are incorrect about everything you just posted. I really shouldn’t have to do this, but your blatant lack of knowledge of the game mechanics that you are attempting to discuss makes this very difficult for me to get my point across.

Here is the reference post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/On-Shadowsteps-and-No-Valid-Path

Notice he mentions one such z-axis port in his very post, Khylo clocktower port up to the roof. Also note he mentions they did not change shadowsteps with this change, but instead simply changed the “No valid path to target” from being hidden to actually showing up and causing the skill not to activate.

This is not from my channel, but should illustrate what we are talking about here.
http://www.twitch.tv/narcarsis/v/19004431?t=24s

You can see Caed uses steal to go up in altitude (T2 to T3 on Foefire Mid) as well as does it without any direct LoS of the target.

Vennyhedgie.5369:

Yes I know it’s not useful against mesmer, but what I’m trying to say is there needs to be more counters to stealth, not less.

Not really. Stealth prior to June 23rd patch was in a good place. Perma stealth thieves can’t do anything at all really. What got out of balanced was the PU buff (should have no duration increase). Now is this a stealth issue or a mesmer issue? It sounds like a mesmer issue.

Stealth is not too difficult to counter when it comes to thieves. Interrupting their combo through the blind field isn’t difficult and AoE still destroys them since their burst is done in melee. SR also is a good example of how long duration stealth should be, have an opportunity for counter play which in the case of SR is cleave/knocking out. The PU buff and ability to trait this line without losing out on any of their damage traits makes mesmer out of balance when it comes to WvW. I wouldn’t say this is a stealth issue but a mesmer issue instead.

Vennyhedgie.5369:

No, do not remove or nerf the revealed on facet of darkness. I refuse to accept this as long as it’s possible for a single mesmer to perma stealth in Stonemist castle and waste 10 minutes of everyone’s lives chasing him down.
It’s amazing how for months people cried about perma stealth thieves and now they gave it to mesmers who HAVE AN ABILITY THAT CAN PORTAL 20 FRIGGIN PEOPLE inside any keep they happen to be in, with no risk of being caught.

Let’s look at the current skills that apply revealed:
Dragonhunter’s trap that you have to trigger and continuously stand on to reveal.
Revenant’s facet of darkness which has a mease 240 radious around yourself. This one’s esentially only ever useful for shadow refuge, as anyone in stealth within 240 radius of you is gonna be a thief that will already have shadowstepped to you and backstabbed you.
Ranger’s “sick ’em” shout that requires a target. Good luck targetting the mesmer in the split second they’re visible between mass invis and the prestige.

Seriously, a perma stealth thief was an annoyance, that could maybe eventually kill you.
A perma stealth mesmer is an outright broken trump card that can flip stonemist castle without wasting any siege.

What mesmer is going to let you get into range? Gaze into Darkness only hurts thieves, a class that is already hurting. You’re trying to justify no change to an ability because of something that the ability is barely useful for anyways.

Actually unless they fixed it, you can cancel cast your heal for free group protection. Worked with shiro during BWE2

wolfpaq.7354:

This is nonsense for several reasons.

1) It already effectively has an 4 second cooldown due to the energy cost. Longer if you do anything other than auto attack while chasing.

2) There’s nothing unhealthy about a class being good at chasing – there are already plenty of classes who excel at it.

3) Phase Traversal requires a target so anyone who can drop target (such as thieves or mesmers with stealth) can get away just fine. I’m also fairly certain that a GS/ S/W perma swiftness warrior could outdistance you as well seeing as you have no access to swiftness in shiro stance.

4) Phase Traversal requires flat ground and line of sight to work at all, so even if you can’t stealth there are ways to avoid it.

There is something unhealthy about the ability to move 2400+ range extremely quickly. And you don’t need to stay in shiro once you catch them, just swap legends and boom you’re in business to do whatever you want.

A gs/sw warrior can eventually get away maybe. But with offhand axe and UA you can burst him while keeping up with him. But you’re also comparing a build that is designed almost entirely for running away to just an added bonus to the build. Also you probably have 1+ minutes of swiftness from facets anyways.

How often are thieves gonna be stealthing when they see you at 2400 range?

And phase traversal does not require either of the things you mention there. It works like thief infiltrator signet which can go through los and breaks the z axis.

What makes it so powerful is the use in disengages as well. Keep targeting random creatures further away from you and it’s easy to outrun anyways. The cd would prevent this from being as prevalent which is good.

You can out run all of the classes you listed very easily with shiro. I didn’t put the clips in the video but nothing can escape or catch with phase traversal as it is currently. Adding a cooldown wouldn’t hurt the ability to stick in combat that much but it will hurt the ability to run away so quickly or catch so easily.

Why is it appropriate for glint to be instant and shiro not? Swap the cast times and it’ll be better. You claim shiro would add too much burst, but it’s really not an enormous amount (though it is not totally nothing), due to the icd on the shard hits.

As for the glint heal, it’s not appropriate to have the ability be considerably better than defiant stance due to the lack of a cast time. If Anet hadn’t had that precedent in the game one could make the argument but as is it just seems overtuned to have it be 0 cast time.

The engi reveal requires an elite slot to be used and has a cast time. Currently the revenant ability has no cast time breaks stun and blinds while revealing. No reason to have so many powerful aspects in one ability. Either reduce the reveal duration or remove it. 25% uptime on reveal is a lot for such an ability.

Shield 5 is acceptable as is. The main complaint is with the trait activation and how it uses a skill that roots you in place. For a game that promotes such movement a root like that can easily kill you.

corwen.5798:

Cygnus.6903:

rennlc.7346:

(The build I threw together likely also won’t work very well if Bound remains a blast finisher.)

Yeah, this was my main disappointment with DareDevil. Bound does not work, as you have to leap into the BP for the blast to go off and actually get you stealth. That, and the animation is clunky as hell.

I’ve said it in other threads and I’ll say it here again… the Bound Dodge did NOT WORK AS A BLAST FINISHER! How come nobody saw it? It never gave Group Invisibility when used in a smoke field, it never gave might when used in a fire field, etc.

How far as I knew, they said it worked like a blast finisher where you had to end up in the field, not that it was a blast finisher.

I made a video with some of the good fights from the weekend roaming in T3 NA. Here is the video . Apologies for the green bar at the bottom, and the video flickering and shooting itself back a few seconds, the original output was in .fiv and I had to convert to .mp4 to edit and it caused a number of headaches for me. To the point of which I gave up and just put the video up as is. Hopefully it doesn’t annoy people too much. (And sorry about repeating a song in there, while trying to fix the editing it happened and now I’m being lazy and not changing it.)

All my thoughts are generally based on small group WvW roaming.

Quick thoughts on the class overall:
-It appears to have really come together, some excellent damage ability while having ACTIVE defensive abilities instead of the passive abilities that are so common in the game.
-Playing mainly burst focused and the class does a very good job with mobility and the ability to survive (though once cds are down its a little rough)
-Conditions will be a problem (and this is good), especially when using a burst build. IMO its good to have a weakness like this.

Quick thoughts on skills:
-SoTM could really use the Warrior GS3 treatment. No whether this requires a damage reduction or what, but currently it feels a tad clunky though extremely effective if done right. *This is probably the change I feel the least strongly about, I had a lot of fun landing the current “skill shot” version of the skill.
-Axe 5: Evaluate how you can make this skill work on terrain that isn’t perfectly flat. I love using the skill since it also has a small skill shot feel to it, but missing out on it because there was a rock or slight z axis change is frustrating.
-UA changes seem to be good, though I might personally think about toning down the might stacking associated with the skill itself, whether its stacks or duration.
-Shiro heal. Make this skill instant, for such a small heal having the cast time can really interrupt the flow of combat and cost you dearly. Plus an instant cast would synergize well with UA.
-Phase Traversal should get a cd on use, somewhere between 3-5s, with 5s being the better number. Currently nothing can outrun a revenant in shiro and this isn’t a healthy addition to the game. Adding a cooldown will reduce its effectiveness at long range escapes and engages while keeping the feel of the skill.
-Glint Heal, allow for the first activation to be instant (like very facet) and then make the actual burst heal aspect 0.25s cast time. Currently its more or less a get out of jail free card for revenant. Either they heal full or they effectively have that entire span of time to counter pressure or run away with no fear of getting bursted. This effect working through CC simply doesn’t promote skilled play imo. A short cast time would benefit skilled players while keeping it from being viewed as too strong (which it is currently imo).
-Gaze of Darkness is an excellent ability currently, though I’m a little hesitant to have the reveal included to the effect. Sure the radius isn’t huge, but unlike other skills which reveal, this effect is AoE (perfect for SR) and has a short CD and has the additional effect of fury and blindness. Either removing the reveal aspect, or instead of making it kitten reveal making it into 2s or 3s would be more appropriate.
-Shield 5 should be able to be used while moving (thus fixing the trait associated with it). Such a change might require a longer CD and a change in the heal amount (maybe 2/3 what it is currently) but at the moment taking the trait especially can be a death sentence in anything other than a 1v1.

Feel free to add your own thoughts about the video (again apologies about the editing) and the class.

It’s not consistent. I’ve had it remove conditions, not remove conditions, remove from allies but not myself, remove from myself and not allies.

Not sure where people are getting their numbers from. From my experience in WvW UA on a single target ranges from 7k-19k (19k was only achieved once on a downed mesmer lvl 80 in WvW). That is without the opponent dodging anything. As for SoTM, give it a cast line like Warriors GS3 and nerf the damage all you want. It isn’t an extremely easy skill to get all the hits off, but it does hit like a truck which is fair. Highest I’ve seen in WvW from it was 17k on a lvl 80 ranger.

I’ll put up a longer video of burst revenant later tonight, but here is the 19k hit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYgJPWdbIL8&feature=youtu.be

Nymph of Meliai.6739:

I am nowhere near the most skilled fighter in this game… I am a little above average at best. Yet, I have none of the problems killing a mesmer that you ppl qqing here seem to have.

Maybe I’m missing something but are you saying you as a Mesmer have no issues killing mesmers and claiming that shatter builds take less skill than condition ones?

I believe I dueled you a couple times on my marauder s/a shiro/mal prior to me swapping to shiro/glint.

Some good fights in there.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsemn3guNSuQ7JRboVlsP0rS4IaWJ4EdsklNFiNMpZNtB4APw+fHchA-T1CEABQcIAWUtgU2fggHAQiq6wkyAJOBABqEsJletpPAgjAApAEUnF-w

Those are my thoughts for a build mainly for small group/solo roaming in WvW. Shield will be swapped with axe whenever the mobility and additional cc/dmg is better than the additional sustain from shield. Alternative for the food is Fried Golden Dumpling for additional boon duration and more might (no icd means even more might from sw3).

Runes are probably going to be either Hoelbrek and Strength for the might duration. With Hoelbrek the food would likely be swapped to lemongrass soup for -60% condition duration overall. Budget option for build are Rage runes.