Guild Wars 2

If roaming you’re looking at different classes than in larger groups of 10-15 to zerg groups of 25+

Scrapper,Druid,daredevil, reaper, condi chrono are more small group classes

guardian/DH, staff ele/tempest,wells necromancer/reaper,chrono (mesmer) , herald ,warrior are all better for larger groups

If you’re getting blown up by revs your armor must be below 2400 or you’re playing an ele with little to no vitality gear

I got hit for 4K trueshot in WvW yesterday post-nerf and today in PvP for an even higher amount so it still does damage…

It might not do the absurd amounts as before but it still hits for more than some melee skills.

It’s called replay value.

Without scaling people would just mindlessly farm everything

Is Maguuma’s pairing with Devona’s Rest strong enough to be in T2 versus that new Tarnished Coast and Dragonbrand full of former TC transfers? That is what we shall see this week along with queue times.

Play during a different time than weekly reset, that’s my best advice

Crit chance doesn’t matter for a guardian IMO unless you are using a sigil that has “on crit” or the honor trait that grants might on crit.

Plenty of people run full Soldier’s on frontline guard.

1) How do you feel overall about reward tracks?

They’re a welcome change.

2) What are your thoughts on the rate at which you gain participation?

The participation rate should decrease more sharply when someone is not moving/casting skills, at a spawn point, and not dead. I noticed on the first day that people idle at spawn to leech rewards which is very bad when you have 30+ people hitting your keep and you can’t get active players onto the map.

3) How do you feel about the rate you earn reward track points?

It’s fair I guess. I don’t pull 10+ hours a day like some people and I am close to finished with one round of the WvW armor track so it should be doable (1-2 armor sets a month?).

4) Overall, what are your impressions about the types of reward tracks we have?

They are fairly similar to PvP so that’s okay.

5) Are there any other reward tracks you would really like to see?

There needs to be a more reliable way to get damask/elonian leather/deldrimor steel in WvW or a standardization of ascended armor stats to exotic level. The same goes for the Fulgurite required for HoT ascended items ; most people just mystic forge their old sets to get the new HoT sets.

There needs to be a way to get Crystalline ores semi-reliably in WvW or PvP. It wouldn’t be an issue if Guild ornate armors were a PvE thing but they are in the guild hall and not in a PvE outpost.

I would like to see a siege reward track with an end box of (5 to 10) colored/Guild stylized Omega golems with guild flags on its body or whatnot (see guild back item), similar to how PvP has a NPC skin track for Tybalt, Grymm Svaard, Nika. The reward track could reward one superior siege item of each type per reward (so one sup ballista/ arrowcart/flame ram/trebuchet/shield gen/catapult, and 2-5 guild catapults or 2-5 omega golem per tier).

WvW weapon skin track with siege and consumables (lvl 80 food), end reward is WvW Tournament Claim Tickets (25 maybe?).

WvW scribing track.

Back item skin. (See PvP balthazar’s back item)

Separate from reward tracks: there needs to be HoT stats on the WvW armor and weapon vendors (Vigilant, Commander’s,Viper’s,Wanderer’s,Trailblazer’s,Minstrel’s). These shouldn’t be a reward track because ideally you don’t want to gate them behind a reward track.

The same goes for HoT armor runes such as the Durability rune / Surging rune/ Thorn rune/ Leadership rune (100 crystalline ores each = 600 a set).

40 crystalline ores is doable for a weapon since that is what you get for completing the story, but you need 250 for one set of armor. Three sets = 730 (which is 40 per piece x6 * 3 armor weights + 10 for the insignia).

I don’t know exactly why the patch increased noxious pods and didn’t also reduce the cost of the armor sets’ crystalline ores by at least half. Each piece currently requires 40 crystalline ores , on top of 10 for the guild insignia.

If you PvP/ WvW there currently is not a reward track that will give you those crystalline ores you need (Mordremoth Cache doesn’t have that option).

Need to should kick people afking at spawn

It’s ill advised to not have HOT at this stage but you can try:

GS+Staff Guardian – virtues traitline , SYG are both core
Staff Ele – Just run Arcane + Earth + Water and use triple cantrips
Blood Necro w/ Wells
Warrior w/ Banner

Ill advised:
Core mesmer , because 25% permanent move speed & chill reduction
Ranger, because without druid it is much more fragile
Engineer, because scrapper is so strong in WvW due to hammer block/evade & stealth+blast gyros
Revenant , because you can’t play one
Thief, because Daredevil’s Unhindered Combatant / Bound+ staff skills and heal on dodge

Infusing Terror didn’t need upped cooldown IMO

Soul Spiral nerf seems okay unless you relied on stacks from fields very heavily

It’s an excellent change as far as stability goes.

Keep WP change to tier 3 means defending a keep means more now

Skill change for gunflame to bugfix was great.

Usability improvements were a nice change for structures’ upgrade status

Fire keep change was a decent one as far as the lava in lords room , air keep turrets’ removal from bridges was good, barricade removal allows more roaming.

Autoloot is also welcome , Lvl 80 Boost, as are WvW reward tracks.

There’s more to be done, but I have to commend Arenanet on the update. The last change that brought usability improvements was probably the squad change.

ArchonWing.9480:

Yea it kinda sucks in practice; I know why they won’t let us sell; it’s because of the perma merchant they want us to spend gold on. (BTW, I’ll buy it if it spawns its own window instead of trolling people with an NPC)

The only good thing from the provisoner is the level 70 consumables. Getting the hardened sharpening stones or sage salad for a few badges is nice. But you usually don’t need to constantly get food.

I disagree , there’s other things it’s useful for.
siege disabler
supply trap
stealth trap
emergency paper ballista

There’s no NPC

They could have it allow you the option to reset points every week while you are at spawnpoint. I don’t see why not.

Ascended weapons shouldn’t be gated behind a reward track. They should just have proof of heroics /memories of battle req instead of badges (to make more use of those). OR JUST have them with the same base stats / bonuses as Exotics when in WvW.

Same thing goes for HoT stat combinations on exotic armor at http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_Master (A complete set of armor costs 5 Gold coin 44 Silver coin and 950 Badge of Honor)

It’s a terrible idea in general to have the WvW armor reward track attainable in EOTM

On topic of rewards: Skritt trader does not seem to have massively reduced gold requirements , only about half.

SuperKorean.7345:

I am fighting against a equally skilled player and I am thief and hes dragon hunter.
If I try to end the fight quickly, I lose for sure.
The traps can kill me in 1 second.
If I prolong the fight and wait until dragon hunter is on all cooldowns, I win.
vs Scrapper, same thing
vs Druid, same thing
vs Chrono, same thing
vs Tempest, same thing
I am not saying this is the only way play thief.
Thief can just rush in and just pour out damage without backing off.
I have seen thieves who play like this
They wont back off , they wont go back into stealth , and they just march forward pouring out everything they got.
Some people will call them novice player but I think this is how Assassin class should be.

It has to do with powercreep on every other class and all the passive defense.

If both classes are running full zerker, the thief should be hitting 10K (3/4 an HP bar or basically instakill on eles and other thieves) on light/medium armor easily.

If you’re talking about PvP tempests, it’s because they’re mostly running cleric amulet which means your burst damage is going to be cut down significantly. Most chronos are running Mercenary’s amulet so that’s the issue there as well.

lujate.5432:

ArchonWing.9480:

@Supreme Okay… I’ll just take your word on it then. I didn’t realized eles had gone downhill in roaming.

@ Infusion. Well, Gravity Well has a 900 range, and if you manage to stunbreak out before the last beat you can get out largely unscathed. Not saying it’s okay either, but I think it’s not as badly designed.

And Gravity Well is an Elite not a weapon skill.

That’s an odd argument since the other skills available as an elite for Chrono do not have such a profound effect in fights of 15+ people:

Time Warp
Mass Invisibility
Signet of Humility / Moa

What Gravity Well loses in range it makes up for in the short cast time and the ability to chain 2 of them

Also, a dark field is not always ideal.

basz.6129:

Blast gyro in spvp ftw.

It’s definitely underrated

I think the problem is Daredevil traitline (and just about every elite spec) is overtuned.

Look at unhindered combatant for example , compared to the entire Acrobatics traitline.

FogLeg.9354:

The fact that you can only get those items from specific PvE maps is kinda selling point for HoT. If you could simply get them from WvW, then you do not need to buy HoT and that is bad for business.

They could just lock HOT stats to accounts with HOT ; PvP has Viper’s / Marauder’s amulet

It’s a moot point since elite specs are a far better selling point.

It’s not just Hunter’s Ward, gravity well has the same amount of stability stripping and can be chained as well

CommandoTNT.2350:

Infusion.7149:

Anything over 3500 armor is overkill, I’d rather put some more vitality to deal with condi spam.

Keep in mind necro well of corruption and/or scepter auto will make dogged march’s regen into more condis

What armor threshold do you think is good but not overkill? Only asking because Warriors have natural high health and I’d prefer to have more toughness since conditions aren’t of much threat in a big group that is constantly cleansing.

20K HP isn’t that much actually

> 3500 armor you have diminishing returns

3300-3500 armor, ~23K+ HP

You could probably swap helm+shoulder+boot (or rings/accessories) + weapon to marauder / nomad for a quick and easy change

Anything over 3500 armor is overkill, I’d rather put some more vitality to deal with condi spam.

Keep in mind necro well of corruption and/or scepter auto will make dogged march’s regen into more condis

Jalis sees use in WvW mainly for frontline revs but I feel as though it could use some usability improvements

Inspiring Reinforcement: could give stability instantly instead of with the delay , also energy could be reduced slightly

Soothing Stone / Heal : could remove conditions before the heal

Forced Engagement: reduced energy cost (it has a cooldown of 5 seconds already)

Ventari needs more help & Mallyx could use a 900 ranged mainhand / 2 hand weapon (shortbow perhaps).

^ even as a Chronomancer, I still think Gravity Well should be nerfed.

Dragonhunter LB5 / Hunter’s Ward also

The problem with old stability was two fold: the amount of CCs and the amount of stability stacks.

When a single skill, “Stand your ground!” (5 seconds , 5 stacks, and 600 range) supports an entire team, you know that the rest of the skills with 2 or three stacks of personal stability aren’t going to be seeing as much use.

You can’t say Indomitable Courage (Virtue of Courage) has as much an effect, since it is 3 stacks of stability for 4 seconds , although it is also 600 range.

Fragments of Faith doesn’t work as effectively vs ranged although it is 3 stacks for 5 seconds

Toss Elixir B is 3 stacks for 4 seconds but with a small 180 radius

Power Break (Mantra of Concentration) is only 2 seconds per use (3 stacks though) with 240 radius

Rock Solid trait is not as reliable since you need to switch attunements and it only gives 2 seconds in 240 radius

Well of Precognition is a joke of a skill after nerf (1 stack for 1 second pulsed 3 times, really?) , 240 radius

Inspiring reinforcement is too unreliable since stability comes after 1 second, short duration (1second of 1 stack pulsing 5 times), and energy intensive

There should be emphasis on timing, not slamming a bucketload of stability ; the current iteration of spam CC to overcome any SYG / Virtue of Courage is the reverse of this.

I just wish non-direct hits like that were reduced in damage.

Sich.7103:

Planetside 2 have friendly fire, and you can’t choose your team, and the game work fine…

Let’s not add more options for griefers that spam flame rams all over.

katz.8376:

Infusion.7149:

….Priority 3:
Accountbound Runes, since you need 6 of them with the following in particular:
Superior Rune of Leadership = 100 crystalline ores each (crystalline ore are very difficult in get in such large numbers, really this needs a cost decrease even in PvE) —-> or nerf boon duration
Superior Rune of Thorns = 250 airship parts each
Superior Rune of Surging = 250 Leyline crystals each
Superior Rune of Durability = 150 Lump of Aurilium each —--> or just nerf it…

or how about the sigils… i had to put up with kitten Tangled Depths to get a kitten Sigil of Draining. i want another, but i can’t stomach more of that kitten. i’ll just do without

Runes are more intensive due to needing 6 of them. Sigils are lower on the priority list especially since “on interrupt” sigils are not widely used.

Also, I think there should be a consideration of new PvP stat sets for the trinkets:

• Paladin’s (Power + Precision , Vitality / Toughness minor stats) —→ ideal for frontline in WvW such as Phanlanx Strength Warriors using Sigil of Strength and Guardians with Empowering Might
• Mercenary’s (Power + Condition Damage , Vitality / Toughness minor stats) —→ ideal for Condition Necromancers that want to deal extra power-based damage from Reaper’s Shroud
• Mender’s (Power + Healing Power , Precision/ Vitality minor stats)
• Sage’s (Power + Condition damage, Healing power / Vitality minor stats)

• Wanderer’s (Condition damage + Precision, toughness / expertise minor stats) —- naming is confusing since it is not the same as PvE Wanderer’s stats

• Barbarian (Vitality, Power / Precision minor stats) —- 3 stat

Priority 1:

HoT stat ascended trinkets, basically what you can get from raids.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Irwyn
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Holt
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Garr
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Manton

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defender's_Energized_Loop
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Healer's_Energized_Loop
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Assaulter's_Energized_Loop
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Malicious_Energized_Loop

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Balm
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Juju
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Talisman
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Ward

see http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Laurel_Merchant_

Priority 2:

HoT stat exotics to armor master (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_Master) and Weaponsmith ( http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Weapon_Master_ ).

Priority 3:
Accountbound Runes, since you need 6 of them with the following in particular:
Superior Rune of Leadership = 100 crystalline ores each (crystalline ore are very difficult in get in such large numbers, really this needs a cost decrease even in PvE) —-> or nerf boon duration
Superior Rune of Thorns = 250 airship parts each
Superior Rune of Surging = 250 Leyline crystals each
Superior Rune of Durability = 150 Lump of Aurilium each —--> or just nerf it…

Source for “next expansion”?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How can we set a fair price on the next expansion when they haven’t fully delivered this one and give every indication that they’re not going to? Let them finish this one, then we’ll talk about the price of the next.

This

@ FogLeg , Arenanet can link it to WvW achievements

Crise.9401:

Infusion.7149:

They would need to adjust the ascended weapons being handed out (it’s essentially once every 8 days right now).

No they wouldn’t because the stuff you get once in 8 days is just a skin as far as I know, the ascended weapons only come from the Tribulation mode collections. That said it would probably be in their best interests to slow down the acquisition of those skins if SAB was to be permanent.

Right now the skins are 400-500g…

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kaiser_Snake_Weapon_Box_

Kaiser Snake weapon skins (orange): Earned through completing Course Load or by completing Tribulation Mode collections.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kaiser_Snake_Greatsword —-> Acquisition: Kaiser Snake Weapon Box

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kaiser_Snake_Hammer —-> Acquisition: Kaiser Snake Weapon Box

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kaiser_Snake_weapon_skins

They would need to adjust the ascended weapons being handed out (it’s essentially once every 8 days right now).

I’m forcing myself to play SAB dailies to get the ascended weapons for cheap. 8 days of SAB dailies: ascended weapons or skins worth 400-500g presently (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kaiser_Snake_weapons).

8 days of WvW: cheap greens and blues with exotics worth nothing due to oversupply.

A nice change of heart.

Your (or her) graphics settings may have been reset?

Ambrite Weapon Collection , Bioluminescence achievement have the same reward.

Why are you complaining about this?

Would you like the wording to be “Double-click to choose an of ascended armor box”?

^ You need 2 sticks of RAM for dual channel

slyr.4528:

My job specializes in building gaming PCs. i would give a big explanation but it comes down to this. Processor about an i5 will be fine so would an amd FX cpu. The cpu will make next to no difference having an i7 over and i5 dont waste the money put that towards your gpu.
Id recomend
I5 6400/6500 or AMD FX
Nvidia GTX 960 or AMD R9 370
16GB ram
Any SSD or HDD
750W psu
Remember you can always OC

Whatever you do , get an intel quad core from Core i5-2xxx onwards.

Don’t get an AMD CPU with inferior single thread performance for a MMO.

You also don’t need 750W unless you’re running a high end GPU with overclocks on both GPU+CPU. An i5 is 95W, a typical midrange GPU is 150-200W. A good PSU (Seasonic X series, Seasonic G series, EVGA Supernova G2, EVGA Supernova P2, XFX Xtr series, Corsair AX series) with 550 or 650W is plenty.

see : http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html for PSU reviews.

The GTX 960’s competition is the AMD R9 380 / 380X

The GTX 900 series is generally better value due to overclock-ability, power use, and new architecture (Maxwell)

The R9 series save for the R9 Fury / Fury Nano with HBM (high bandwidth memory) are rehashes of 2012 technology circa HD7900 and HD7800 series. Those are still poor value due to the price tag. R9 390 series is Hawaii (R9 290) with cooler refinements and more VRAM . R9 380 is the same as R9 285.

Budget / ITX : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9R82gs
Overclockable / ATX: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KdYKCJ
^ GTX 970 , GTX 980 TI, or R9 Fury if you can stretch the money

Back in 2012 the typical setup was i5 with GTX 660 /GTX 650 ti boost / GTX 560 Ti or HD7850 / HD7870 / HD6950.

still relevant: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

Donari.5237:

That’s how I made my Marauder Ascended set. And a good thing, too, as I’ll need all my resources to make 250 fulgurites in the imminent future ><

Marauder & Crusader are the only ones that do not need Fulgurite actually.

see http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jeweled_Damask_Patch

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jeweled_Deldrimor_Steel_Plated_Dowel

lioka qiao.8734:

I think its too early to call for a nerf since cloaking waters barely ever worked.

1.5 minutes could get from SMC to ogrewatch with time to setup the bomb before the buff wore out.

That’s not the problem I find, because once you unstealth it is basically a long duration veil. The problem is once the fountain is up then you can reuse it over and over.

I don’t understand the need to make a defensive weapon unblockable?

I could understand a request for a boost to the auto in terms of healing power scaling though. That would need to be evaluated with Astral Force generation in mind of course.

Fluffball.8307:

The staff is a fantastic weapon, but it doesn’t really do anything. It sort of does damage and it sort of heals and it sort of protects your allies.

I guess CA is basically part of staff, so that evens things out enough that I can’t complain. CA does stuff.

Staff exists for AF /CA.

If you look at the damage it is horrific.

Well the only problem in Wvw with guardian traps is super stacking (i.e. instakill 5+ traps) and stupidly long durations after the person leaves.

In PvP you need to dodge more most likely unless the DH used judge’s intervention to teleport to you

PU is not nearly as strong as it once was, I typically run it for group veils and Mass Invis in havoc when not using Gravity Well. Meanwhile scrappers have sneak gyro and elixir S stealth , thieves have stealth almost all the time if running D/P (due to Black Powder).

edit: In addition to PU being weaker than its older versions, revealed is more common due to every herald having access to it via Gaze of Darkness. Dragonhunters also have revealed (Light’s judgement); rangers have sic em but that’s not a must have utility, sneak gyro and engineers with Lock on trait.

Hlord.5940 , Gravity Well was unchanged , only alacrity changed

edit with paragraphs for people

One of the best features of being a player in GW2 is coming to the forums and interacting with experienced players who can either “feel your pain,” or understand the nuances of a particular profession and give you sage advice. That is particularly true, in my opinion, for mesmers. When I go through this forum I see posters who struggle to keep mesmers viable in every venue of the game and that is especially true for the competitive formats.
All mesmers want to see a build(s) that make us a vital part of any team whether its in spvp or wvw. Having stated that, ever since the last so called “balance patch,” where we took a particularly hard set of nerfs that rendered both alacrity and wells particularly useless, mesmers have been struggling with an identity crisis.
The profession has been reduced to a so called “meta” that in reality is nothing more that a moa/portal bot with minimal sustain, no real burst, and moderate condi application which most experienced players shrug off in contempt. Everything has to work right for this build in order for it to succeed because it lacks any real team support (moa and portal already afore mentioned).
There is a mid season balance coming, and with it a possible hope for buttressing what little is left in Mesmer to make it truly viable once again. I do not think all is lost, I do not think the current meta deserves the title and the build itself “pigeon holds” the profession into trying to become what most good players detest – a gimmick. I think that in this current stream of GW2 Mesmers still have some things we ought to consider.

Mesmers can still do a few things I hope you all will “chew on” when considering our current state.

1)replacing portal with boon stripping and added condi cleansing – portal can move you around quickly, but in the long run is the cool down, coupled with its limited tactical use, worth sacrificing overall teamplay? I might be able to decap or move my team quickly 1 time or perhaps 2 times, but then how often do you really use it in the course of an entire match? I watch plenty of streams where portal sits dormant until an optimal time for setting it up occurs- like once you finally get out of combat. As an aside, Lord Helseth’s version of Mesmer is more attuned to playing a thief, if you like that style of gameplay that’s okay, but how often are you not engaged or disengaging instead of helping secure capture points? Its feast or famine the way I currently see it and I don’t feel it has to necessarily has be that way.

2) time warp over moa: Moa is great in 1v1, or taking down 1 target (assuming you land it and also have team support because they can simply disengage and it is wasted because you don’t get that kill).
Time warp has the same cool down, and with continuum shift it can be used how ever often cs’s cool down recycles. The aoe, coupled with the super speed and slow (2 seconds of resistance if its traited isn’t bad and you can stack it if you have other glamour skills) is much better that a 1 shot (if it hits) moa on 1 player. Again, its more useful for team play that 1 potential quick kill. Both condi cleanse and time warp can be used wither offensively -help team or defensively 1v1 or 2v1 scenarios.

3)Scepter-torch over sword-shield: The current meta just doesn’t have enough toughness or burst to sustain melee situations against other professions(and skilled players). Furthermore, if you are not traited, you have no condi capability with it either, nor do you have crit. So either be a condi build or a dps build but the current setup is good at neither. Scepter-torch is better paired with staff, and the 3 seconds of stealth is more useful (kiting and misdirection) but more importantly they apply conditions. I hope this starts a conversation that helps us all improve the best profession in GW2. Lets get back to doing some other things that mesmers do well!

Paragraphs, man. Paragraphs.

Fashion Mage.3712:

I would imagine it’s used a lot in WvW because of the semi-broken synergy it has with AH rather than what the staff itself does. Also because it’s a good farming stick.

Might I remind you of Empower , Line of Warding, + Symbol of Swiftness?

It needs to be more durable if not scrapped entirely (pun not intended), whirl finishers generally aren’t amazing when the gyro doesn’t receive player’s power/condition damage/heal power.