Guild Wars 2

Because its guild war(rior)s and not guild thieves, guild mesmers, guild rangers etc
Devs already stated: Wars are the only prof that is working completely balanced and as intended
So basically we will have patches until every single skill in game is either warrior skill, weak version of warrior skill of another profession, or a aoe buff that benefits warriors the most.

Meaning of skill is decided by its use. Not by its description.
For S/D this was the main burst.
For P/D this was the main aoe.
For good D/D it was useless.

Do you know how much damage warrior’s counterparts of this do?

No this is just plain bad design. Venoms do not benefit from power in any way, and this kind of benefit on a tier 2 heal/tough line is just stupid.
Healing increases only healing of this now. Power increases damage. Is is one more cut down for support thieves.

awesome, isnt it?

I want the so-called balance team to see this. To see the numbers they have created. The numbers that I cannot believe they saw with their own eyes.
Every. Single. “Fix”. Addressed one single issue. Of one single skill. Of one single build.
None. Of the fixes. NEVER was considered whether they affected ANYTHING outside that one single issue. Of one single skill. Of one single build.

Because it is exactly what I was afraid of since the pistol whip nerf. Ignoring the context. Ignoring detailed, well thought through proposals, even lists of them.
Ignoring the warnings. Ignoring the existence of the underwater part of the iceberg.

Sadly, people do not care about numbers of people there. People, being people, care about what is told and what is given to them.
And I am sorry, but for a game of this size, two people are not enough. Three, and if they work on one class at a time I will be willing to wait my turn.
Balancing means finding the boundary between too strong and too weak. Not throwing everything onto a chopping block and then see if it fits.

back stab and unicorn and p/d bleeds are still as good as they were.

Just with a hope to get attention of certain people that made this awesome balance patch. I will politely not address issues that should have been but were not addressed
Shortbow
We heard you do more dps in melee with cluster bomb than autoattack. -15% (hello, pistol whip, we are getting into the same league now)
Pistol
Body shot was slow. ONLY FOR YOU, you can now waste initiative almost FOUR times faster
Dagger
CnD -33%:
Backstab glass cannon (average one, not superman level) = 4.5k + 6k*0.66 + 10k =18.5k. A 9% nerf
Backstab semi-balanced with mug: 2k+3.5k*0.66+6k= 10.3k. A 10% nerf.
Backstab semi-balanced with no mug: 3.5k*0.66+6k= 8.3k. A 13% nerf.
I see no reason to stop backstabbing

Dancing dagger: was 3k x4 targets. Now 1.5×4 targets. Sword attack: 2.5k x3 targets. Sword final attack: 5k x3 targets. Shortbow auto: 2.5k x3 targets.
Want ranged aoe? Take shortbow. Want ranged cripple? Rake shortbow. Want ranged aoe cripple? Roll a warrior.

Sword
S/D tactical strike balanced (no mug): 3.5k*0.66+1k*1.1= 3.4k. A 20% nerf. And a 50% nerf to daze duration. YEAH we buffed tactical by 10% but nerfed prereq by 33%. PROFIT

S/D full glass cannon(average one):
cnd+tactical strike+1 attack = 4k(nerfed) +3k(buffed) + 2.5k = 9.5k in 2.4 seconds (not counting positioning)
3 attacks = 2.5k + 2.5k + 5k = 10k in 2.4 seconds
We all know you love autoattacking. OH. And they are also aoe. And don’t cost ini. And no positioning required.

oh and last thought. Seems most viable build soon (in anet’s vision) will be shortbow autoattack with venoms. It all goes to that.

New series of tests before sleep:
Tactical strike daze duration in pvp is not increased at all by anything.
CnD nerf in pvp really only prevents glass cannon from dieing before backstab.

And leeching venoms scaling is like… Not noticable between 2k and 3.8k power. If it works at all. Healing not affected for sure.

I do not understand why anet IGNORES issues. And comes up with most ridiculous things. Illusion of effort?

PhoenixDown.5467:

Shortbow damage nerf – what were they thinking?!! Nerfing mediocre weapon…

Scorpion Wire – oh poor people in zergs and on the walls /insert evil laugh here/

50% damage reduction on dancing dagger?
It now does less damage than a shortbow auto attack and STILL costs 4 init?
Methinks they did not think this one through very much.

It’s a utility skill.

Last time i checked dancing dagger is on weapon slot not utility

Leeching venoms:
insignificant change even at 3800 power
healing still scales with healing power
Dancing dagger:
Just dead skill. It was my main pve skill
Tactical strike:
Damage increase minimal
Tooltip for daze not fixed?
Body Shot:
still too slow and expensive
Other things are either insignificant or meaningless.

Shortbow nerf = more backstab
x/D nerf = more backstab
CnD damage reduced… like anyone cares

YEAH SO MANY BUFFS
seriously. i dont care about most things. But why my cookie PvE/Dungeon dancing dagger is nerfed BY A FREAKING 50%?

Shadow Refuge applies stealth randomly to 5 people within it on every pulse, effectively stealthing more than 5 people. That is what i meant

It is probably unsolvable issue as it might also involve ping/server load.
I use V only for back dodge though, and use it rarely.
I would not hope for this but best solution would be to ask devs about how casting/queueing/dodging/instant abilities are prioritized. I cannot claim thathappened so on the server side, but I definitely did experience not only seeing auto attacking during dodge roll but also some of the skills with cast times to continue cast, finish and do their effects during dodge on my side

I will rate like this: Max possible efficiency is one or more situations that utility is viable for
Assassin’s Singet – 6/10 (D/D spikes) – 3/10 (just for power boost in pve)
Infiltrator’s Singet – 8/10 (Stun Break + teleport on 30 sec cd)
Singet of Agility – 9/10 (Ultimate offensive passive/defensive active combo) –
Singet of Shadows – 6/10 (Addictive, but only worth it if switching to outside combat)

Spider Venom – 5/10 (Max ticks for Leeching Venoms)
Skale Venom – 3/10 (Vuln stacking in pve with venom sharing, otherwise useless)
Ice Drake Venom 2/10 (Worthless outside of buffs traits provide on venom use)
Devourer Venom 9/10 (Strongest pvp offensive utility, would be 10 if we nad more control on appliance)

Tripwire – 2/10 (Unusable, but 3 second knockdown)
Needle Trap – 1/10 (Unusable)
Shadow Trap – 9/10 (If we omit the difficulty of getting full benefit of this utility)
Ambush – 7/10 (Goes well with venom share and overall)

Roll for Initiative – 6/10 (Epic pre-nerf, now largely unusable outside specific situations. If it could break immobile at start of skill at least would be much better)
Blinding Powder – 3/10 (Not worth utility slot unless you want to stealth stack or abuse stealth)
Shadowstep – 9/10 (Best self-defense utility of thief, the only reliable stun break)
Scorpion Wire – 6/10 (Picking people of the wall is awesome. If it works. Good chunk of mobs immune to this)
Shadow Refuge – 10/10 (after fix, best utility overall for thief and the only thief ability that can affect more than 5 allies)
Caltrops – 8/10 (Purely for pve (i consider typical opponents in wvw pve too) condition build. If you are to lazy to do direct damage)
Haste – 4/10 (Drawback is too big. I’d trade this drawback for warrior and ranger ones together)
Smoke Screen – 8/10 (The one and the only ability that thief has that fully exploits the aoe limit and a long lasting smoke field, but too situational in use)

There is a great difference in what is competition (capable of becoming a e-sport) and battle/fight for victory(no chance of getting to e-sports)

Competition is when BUILD or in case of team play TEAM BUILD exists, around which the strategy is created. For a specific fight, specific professions with specific builds go into the ring to unleash their specific tactic. They are opposed with a specific team with specific set of chars and specific tactic. And their battle is the battle of counters. Teams, players do not try to overcome a difficulty. Overcoming one difficulty does not turn the tide of battle. What is important is the COUNTER. Countering key skills and their combinations, countering general strategy and specific tactics.

What we have in Guild Wars 2 is not competition with exception of very rare situations in wvw.
Professions are barely balanced between each other and even within themselves. They are all extremely different but have almost no distinction in their usage. Things like “class X complements class Y well” do not exist.
Builds do not exist. Building is strictly limited to selecting stats on gear and weapon set(s) and finding at least few traits that work with this selection.
Outside of focusing damage team tactics do not exist. What is the point of being able to focus damage in a game where it is not possible to focus target for support?
No roles, no target priorities, no shutdowns, no punishes.
Gw 2 simply covers far too small part of pvp play to be competitive now. And without ridiculous overhauls that Gw1 never even heard of, it never will be.

I did not want gw2 to be just like gw1. But I thought that at least few of the things that made gw1 “The Best” in terms of competitive play would make it to gw2. So far only one fun, but very minor thing made it here.

I tried almost everything and I’ll recommend trying this:
P/D conditions – strong balance of defense/offense, but bad when most people are at average-bit above average level of play.
P/P direct damage – very strong and stable dps at range. Squishy, but incredible if played cautiously. Abuses people’s inability to make decisions fast enough.
S/D dazelock – brings most in team play and can be specced defensively, people have hard time dealing with this in group fights.

both defensive (tough, extesive blocks/heals) and offensive (crit damage, on-crit abilities, +% damage stacking) things should be toned down

its server/traffic problems.
for example you can start some torrents (or if server is under load) and your char will be running on walls (char will not always take vertical position on non-horizontal surfaces)
Also can cause:
mobs not resisting, multiple mob spawn in exactly same spot and position, deaths from 1m falls

Only random arena is alive in GW1. Maybe some gvg and ha too but only for small closed guild groups.
It is just sad

wts guild backpacks :| lots of them.

well gw1 in 7 years introduced crazy amount of new content. And everyone was happy with the same quality of the new rewards.
Also must be noticed that in gw1, you are significantly rewarded for doing something even ONCE.
Here, 99% of rewards for most “balanced in terms of difficulty” dungeons (not a single run even, i must notice, but tens of them) are vendor trash or TOKENS. that you need in amounts of thousands.

10 top quality players are sitting behind one top quality cata, 4 top quality ballistas and 5 top quality arrow carts? I think even 50 people will not be a problem

Man. Nothing new. There are spies, sabotagers, supply burners, lolclaimers, disinformers.
And believe me they use teamspeak or similar, not whispers.
You can whisper person from other world by finding out his acc name from report window. And cross-world whispers are used mostly to communicate between friends that for some reason can’t get on same server so no disabling it.

you can drop supply boxes and other may pick them up. sadly, the only way to move them

lookie. basic undyed armor, available from first outpost and random daggers that are not resembling half-meter long kitten swords
makes u jelly?

cargan.5689:

people with the situational awareness of a rock

cargan.5689:

A thief could be reduce to a single weapon, the wet teabag that they are only allowed to attack with after presenting the opposing player with a 5 page appology and waiting 30 minutes and people would still come here and complain.

I am your fan now. I wish my English could allow me to write similar things so often
Definitely will end up in signatures

Underwater downed condition thief is beast. In hotw 2/3 you can just be permadowned underwater and pull insane dps on last boss.

bug with ranged weapons

7% increase in 3 stats? 22% total increase for stats that benefit from one another.
+7% power from gear, +7% crit rate from gear and +7% crit damage from gear. Multiply and come roll things over.

Nothing really new in this, but you could consider smoke screen for good chunk of those fights, as it is far more reliable. And yet, most of those players are terrible.
Nvm, these forums and links :|
I would love to add that you can do the smoke field + hearseeker + steal combo for incredible gap closer with stealth

I don’t mind P/P being as it is functionally, but I would definitely like more “gunslingerish” animations for both attacks and movement with pistols.

5k with every buff on a squishy is big hit? My sword 3rd attack crits for 7k in those conditions

Now this is what makes me want to go back to pvp, just to meet these kind of people.
Really outstanding work both in game and with movie. Fearsome necro, hope we will meet someday.

They clearly stated you are not completing new dungeon without new gear

So. Now we will have a better gear, that will be a requirement for completing new dungeon, and will also be obtainable from only that dungeon. What? I have spent hours midnlessly grinding dungeons to get exotics with non-craftable stats, mindlessly grinded gold to get skins for them, and now we will get ONE place to get all gear out of, AND that gear will not be customizeble by upgrades?
THIS IS… MADNESS

In Gw1 there was farming. There was speedclearing. But there was no grinding. You were not obliged to go somewhere to get something you want. Here, you are.
Doasc. Voltaic spear farm. Fowsc/uwsc. None of those were even reminding anyone of grinding. Here, grinding starts when you enter dungeon for the first time. And no matter what you need, what you do, if you are in a dungeon you will be grinding through it.
And ascended gear? Infusion? 3 months into game? Sorry, I might be wrong, but it sounds like “get it or get out”.

You are alone in an open flat field. You look around and spot a thief around 2k range away from you. You are a full glass cannon and too lazy to switch skills. You look for a place where you could cover your back. Unfortunately, no cliffs, rock or walls around or any other kind of leveled terrain. Sadly, you await your fate.
Thief is closing. At 1500 range, you can attack him already. He can’t. But you think, oh he will dodge anyway. At 1200 range, most of your abilities can be used. Meh, why would I waste them if I will die anyway? Okay, now he is in 900 range. He should be instagibbing me now. OH WAIT WHAT IS HE CASTING. You can’t believe it. You see thief starting to cast CnD of certain doom. Any moment now he can port to you with op mug. In fear of death, you cower in fear, your head falls down as you accidetntly hit V on your keyboard. It hurts. You raise your head with a thought of at least showing some resistance in while in downed state. And suddenly. You are alive. With just that single V button, you avoided steal (4k damage, 45 sec cd), cnd (6k damage, 6 initiative, op stealth), backstab (10+k instant ability), basilisk venom (45 sec cd elite), assasin’s signet (30 sec cd) and one more signet of choise (30 sec cd). Furthermore, thief’s 10(or even 15) stack of mights are ticking off.
Thief realizes that he failed and is about to take a lethal damage. He finds his only (if he even has that) defensive skill on bar – shadow refuge – and hides himself in an obvious dome that he is not allowed to leave for 4 seconds.
Congratulations, you just blown away whole thief’s skill bar with a press of a button with your head.

Long fight in my opinion is when people circle around each other at range waiting for a moment of mistake to land that fatal blow aka killing in less than 4 seconds.
Combat starts for that thief once he spots you. It is way longer than 4 seconds

Elmuerto.9840:

At least in GW2 unlike other games you should dodge, and avoid.

I won’t get tired of saying this over and over until people understand

Thief on desolation is looking for a killshot warrior to work together in wvw. I will give stealth on demand for a safe execution of killshot and will only ask to stop qq in return.
TS is a must.

Because passive defense (armor, stats) is but around one tenth of your total defense.
If you want long fights you need not more armor, but more mobility, more dodges, more awareness.

It is in the nature of people. Much easier to base an opinion on consequence/result without considering opportunities/situation.
It is like complaining after getting killed fast by someone after taking fall damage.

And, again, surviving is not a matter of giving away all your dps, it is about changing your playstyle

More options = more difficult to mention everything = more people deleting their posts and not coming to forums for a few days after one good comment = everyone wins

ArcticRed, please. We are not telling that, for example BS, is weak. We can agree that it should be changed a bit. We do not agree to the fact that most people come here, spitting out senseless amount of senseless information, giving ridiculous conclusions and suggestions without a single thought. Worst part is that anet will have to read this, they decided this themselves by making off forums, so that minimum of informative posts with constructive suggestions may be lost and result in another “pw nerf”.

A THIEF that calls himself not a glass cannon, with a PISTOL/SWORD and dies to a backstab? There is like 4 skills just in weapon set that counter bs thief, and 2 of them are direct HARD counter.
I’ll quote myself: this game in not about taking damage and surviving. This game is about avoiding damage. No kind of even godlike defensive stats will save you from a kill if you decide to just face the damage.

Anet should stop the little games with weapon sets a give a SELECTION of skills for every slot of every weapon set. Until then there will be problem with every aspect of the game. This game does not need that much change to existing things. This game must simply have more options to choose from, so that people will blame everything on themselves for not being able to make a right choice, not complain about being hardly outplayed and blame everything on class imbalance (that is directly result of limited options)

I think he probably meant poor class design in terms of details. For every class out there except warriors.