Guild Wars 2

what does it mean to play in a “pro” environment? you pick 5 good players for a team, you decide on who is playing what and then you play a comp that is strong. if a build becomes unviable you change the build, if a class becomes unviable you change to another one. you keep players but you adapt. that’s what it means to be pro. having 8000 games on 1 prof and 300 on all others is a thing of the past.

Traits

Adept

Minor – Elemental Weaving:
Unlocks Weaver attunement spells, sword mainhand and stances.

I – Hotheaded:
When chilled or crippled, gain superspeed for 3 seconds. cooldown 20s.

II – Combination Benevolence:
Cleanse a condition when you trigger a combo field finisher. (depending on balance this might need an internal cooldown because of the water line)

III – Swirling Aura:
Increases vitality of nearby allies by 150.

Master

Minor – Weaver’s Perseverance:
Combo fields last 2s longer.

IV – Ferocious Stances:
Deal 20% more damage when using a stance.

V – Combination Quickness:
If you successfully use a combo finisher through a combo field, its cooldown is reduced by 20%. (works for projectiles, whirls, blasts, etc it is the combo finisher that gets reduced cooldown, not the combo field). (does not work for attunement weaver finishers like the blast on fire+air).

VI – Malicious Weaving:
Weaver Combination spells apply conditions to nearby foes:
water+fire = 2 stacks of burning for 2 seconds.
water+air = weakness for 4 seconds.
water+earth = immobilize for 2 seconds and 2 stacks of bleeding for 4 seconds.
fire+air = 4 stacks of confusion for 3 seconds.
fire+earth = 1 stack burning for 2 seconds and 2 stacks of bleeding for 6 seconds.
air+earth = cripple for 3 seconds and 4 stacks of bleeding for 5 seconds.

Grandmaster

Minor – Weaver’s Frenzy:
Gain one stack of Weaver’s Frenzy each time you use an attunement combination spell for 15s.
Weaver’s Frenzy: Increases your attack speed by 4% for 15s. Caps at 5 stacks.

VII – Shared Stances:
+20% Stance Duration. Stance durations lower cooldowns of other stances by the same amount (eg. 5s stance lowers the cooldown of stances by 5s, 10s stance by 10s etc. not instant but 1 second each when in a stance). Stance cooldown reduction doesn’t work on on the stance that is currently in use, meaning the healing stance won’t reduce its own cooldown when used. multiple active stances still reduce cooldowns only by 1s and not by 1s per active stance.

VIII – Combination Power:
Combo field finishers have 150% effectiveness. (means water leaps/blasts heal for x1,5 and fire blasts give you 4,5 might stacks which is 4 rounded i think, auras have 1,5x duration and whirl/projectile finishers apply 1,5x their condition duration).

IX – Ether Prism:
Increases your vitality by 300 points based on effective level. condition duration is increased by 50% when wielding a scepter.

Stances

Glowing Aura (Healing Stance):
Heal yourself and leave healing orbs behind. intial selfheal around 6000, 1 healing orb per second (400 heal per orb), 8s stance duration, 1s casting time, 40s cooldown

Double Dragon (Fire Stance):
Increase burning damage, gain might and burn foes around you. burning damage increased by 15%, 5 stacks of might (5s), burning radius 240, burning duration 3s, interval 1s,stance duration 5s, 70s cooldown

Maelstrom (Water Stance):
Surround your body with mystic water, healing you over time and removing 1 condition when hit (1s icd per enemy player). 8s stance duration. around 150 heal/s, 50s cooldown.

Enervating Charge (Air Stance):
Your body is charged with electricity, making you run and attack faster. 5s stance duration, 5s quickness and 5s superspeed, breaks stun. 60s cooldown.

Iron Mist (Earth Stance):
Magnetize your body, pulling sand towards you granting Protection (5s) and leave small blinding fields behind when you move. 5s stance duration, breaks stun and 50s cooldown

Elemental Lord (Elite Stance):
Transcend your elemental powers for a short duration, making critical hits reset all attunement cooldowns (1s ICD) and doubling the effectiveness of fury. 10s stance duration, 3/4 casting time, 120s cooldown

Disclaimer: This is an idea for a future elite specialisation and was not made in order to replace Tempest. I tried to give close range melee dps options (offensively and defensively) aswell as some options for condition scepter players.

Introduction

Weavers are Elementalists that are capable of weaving elements together, allowing them to use combination effects for their fluid fighting style, using a sword as their main weapon.

While their name sounds harlmess they should not be taken lightly, they are slippery, fast and when things don’t go too well they still have some aces up their sleeves: elemental stances.

Specialisation Mechanic

(weaver attunement spells have an internal cooldown of 8.5s to match them with the attunement cooldown of the arcane line)

Swapping attunement will weave them together, causing an effect at your current location depending on which attunements are used together. Instead of your attunement icons the combination spells will be shown expect for the attunement you’re currently in, which will show its normal icon.

Two attunements will always be tied together, going from attunement A to B will have the same effect as going from B to A.

Fire Attunement + Water Attunement
Steam appears at your location, blinding foes standing in it (smoke field, similar size of a thief’s pistol 5). if a smoke field would be too strong it could simply just be a blind field.

Fire Attunement + Air Attunement
The Air around you explodes, knocking enemies back. (a small knockback similar to engi’s turret knockback. blast finisher).

Fire Attunement + Earth Attunement
Melt the ground below your feet. (lava font, a fire field, similar to ele’s staff 2 on fire).

Water Attunement + Air Attunement
Electrifies water on the ground, creating a lightning field that stuns enemies crossing it.

Water Attunement + Earth Attunement
The ground under your feet turns to mud. (creates gunk at your location, similar to thief’s stolen engi item, applying random conditions, ethereal field).

Air Attunement + Earth Attunement
Magnetize the area around you, destroying projectiles. (a magnetic field that destroys projectiles when you stand in it).

Sword Skills

Fire

Auto Attack:
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time
Slice your foe. 1/2s casting time
Set your sword ablaze to burn your foe with a final strike (1/2s), giving you one stack of might (15s). 1/2s casting time.

Skill 2 – Smoldering Dismemberment:
Deliver a fiery cone slash with increased range. 1/2s casting time, 5 target cleave 15s cooldown

Skill 3 – Star Burst: Pierce the ground with your sword, sending fire blasts along the ground, causing heavy damage to enemies hit. 1/4s casting time, 25s cooldown

Water

Auto Attack
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time
Slice your foe again. 1/2s casting time
Turn into mist, evade for 1/2s, and damage your foe with a final strike. 1/2s casting time

Skill 2 – Slippery Leap:
Dash forward (600 range), leaving an ice trail behind you (narrow long ice field) and chill enemies hit by your strike for 2 seconds. (leap finisher) 1s casting time (whole leap duration) 15s cooldown.

Skill 3 – Ice Prison:
Stab your foe with a frozen sword, engulfing them in ice and stunning them for 2 seconds.
3/4s casting time. 25s cooldown.

Air

Auto Attack:
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time.
Slice your foe. 1/2s casting time.
Teleport to your target, strike them and blind nearby enemy players (1/2s or even 1/4s). 300 range 1/2s casting time.

Skill 2 – Lightning Retreat:
Strike your foe and “bolt” backwards. 1/4s castimg time, 600 range, 15s cooldown

Skill 3 – Invoke Lightning:
Strike your foe with your sword, sending lightning bolts through their body, deriving the bolts to nearby enemy players and causing weakness (6s) to all enemies hit. 3/4s casting time. 15s cooldown.

Earth

Auto Attack:
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time
Slice your foe. 1/2s casting time
Strike your foe, causing a magnetic impulse around you, reflecting projectiles for a very short duration (1/2s or even 1/4s). 1/2s casting time

Skill 2 – Earthen Shackles:
Block incoming attacks for 3 seconds, crippling (2s) and bleeding (6s) them for each time they hit you if they are close to you. 30s cooldown, 3s duration, 240 radius

Skill 3 – Stone Wave:
Leap at your foe (600 range), tearing up the ground, dealing heavy damage and cause cripple (4s). 1s casting (whole leap, leap finisher) 25s cooldown

prior to today’s update i used to be on 1/6 for the primordial legend achievement. now i’m 0/6 (i’m on legendary x2)

a fix would be appreciated

feel free to remove celestial amulet if you buff dps ele to god tier. if you can’t do that then go away <3

would like zealots and apothecary (maybe even with vit) stats in pvp, maybe a vitality variant of viper (like marauder is to berserker)

not only does ele scepter need many good changes.. faster autos, more damage on lightning strike + making it dodgeable, shatterstone a chill field (i have made countless posts about that)

but dps ele also needs a role.

no matter what changes you’re going to give scepter and air traits, if there are other builds that can do the same + have an additional benefit for the team scepter dps ele will never be viable.

fresh air ele always used to be the neglected stepbrother of shatter mesmers which had access to boonrips, aoe stealth and portal.

warrior should not get fast hands baseline. weaponswap cooldown is not a class specific thing so it makes little sense to give a class a shorter baseline weaponswap cooldown.

i also don’t see anything about expansion pet nerfs / vanilla pet buffs which are needed.

thief auto attack buff? it’s not like thieves have bad auto attacks to begin with. personally i don’t think this is the right way to buff thieves.. because stronger autos won’t help them survive, nor will it change anything about their role in pvp.

no need for more imbalance

they stated that they will never (at least not planned) make guild wars 3 because they can just update the gw2 engine if they need new stuff.

can we maybe get elite specs with tridents and spears?

after all land spears are popular weapons, and a trident is basically a tri-headed spear.

great changes, hope you’re as spot on with the balance changes too

when they released stronghold they said “champion of dusk bla, the first stronghold map.” so it might seem that they will pursue this a bit more.

i made a post before HoT, saying that i wouldn’t release stronghold until it’s 100% ready. they didn’t listen.

i would not mind new conquest maps as long as they are well designed and not gimmicky. heroes of the storm releases maps every 2-3 months or so and all of them are quite good. if anet can pull that off too then i wouldn’t mind getting new maps. i would mind getting spirit watch and skyhammer 2.0 though.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/viper-berserker-vs-viper-revenant/first#post5891899

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/viper-berserker-vs-viper-revenant/first#post5891899

after reaching legendary 1 my achievement started to advance. afaik you need to get to legendary 6 to get the title, crossing legendary divisions a couple of times; wether that’s in one season or not is something i don’t know.

Burtnik.5218:

Warrior needs overhaul. His desing is outdated and when i look at weapon skills i want to QQ. Traitline also was kittened up with june 23. If you dont use any physical utility you end up without an adept trait in str line…rofl

With current desing you can either end up being UP as he is now, or overbuff him with insane damage/healing to OP state. He will never be balanced if redesing wont happen. For now i see wars only as pve boring class to buuurrrn raid bosses.

tbh the damage is mostly on par and i got to a total of + – 500k damage (condi+direct) which is about the same as a mallyx revenant gets.

it’s true that many traits need overhauls, be it vanilla traits or berserker traits. as i’m not sure if arenanet is going for a full overhaul i just posted a few changes here that could be the key to a viable role/build.

that doesn’t mean that everything else is fine.

i do agree that some shaving is needed here and there. some things are a bit too strong and they partly push weaker things out of play. however, i don’t believe that such shaving will save warrior (it might save thief though). so a few changes and a few slight buffs are needed in my opinion.

even if some stuff gets nerfed, berserker will still lack a role in a pvp team. with my suggestions i try to push him a bit into an offensive group support role.

Impact.2780:

Jekkt.6045:

revenant corrupts boons into confusion. it’s not exactly what a necro does but neither is it simple boon removal.

Actually it is. It’s a skill which removes boons and applies a condition. Corruption is turning a boon into a condition. Corrupting stability applies fear, a revenant would remove it and apply confusioin.

“Deal damage, apply confusion, and remove boons from your foe. "

that’s right. i still call it “corrupting” though because it’s not just a boon removal. but that should really not be the topic here^^

and i can understand why people are opposed to buffing warrior with the over-the-top mess we currently have but let’s face it.. warrior is just really in a bad spot and even nerfing the other elite specs to a degree will most likely not make it viable either.

base professions will never be a viable choice again but rather be the foundation for the new elite specs. build diversity will not be base class vs elite spec anymore but rather elite spec X or elite spec Y in the future.

people complain about too much cc and now people complain about 1 stack of pulsing stab :^)?

toughness doesn’t scale well at higher levels so what it would do is allow lower armor dps specs to compete with “bunkers” in case the warrior gets cc’d and the allies are in range.

second option for rousing resilience is to make the heal aoe but keep the toughness to the warrior.

Impact.2780:

I think revenant just removes boons. It’s necro that corrupts.

Buff warrior instead of nerf revenant? We’re at a point where buffing classes to compete with over-the-top aspects of other classes is just making the game less and less enjoyable. The game was more enjoyable over a year ago before a lot of the new conditions, status effects, passives and over-abundance of crowd-control-effects were added.

I’d rather see revenant toned down, a long with other aspects of other classes, than see classes like warrior and thief buffed to deal with them. Small buffs in some weaker areas of the professions are of course necessary if ANet sticks to the current movement where other classes are moving away from specialising in a specific role and going for all-round builds, but personally I’d rather see more specialising than jack-of-all-trading.

I don’t think warrior needs more mobility. It should never have had as much as it did before anyway. Giving it some team support is a nice idea, and something I’ve always felt it needed. Warrior should be able to support not through healing or significant cleansing, but by breaking stuns, granting stability, and providing offensive buffs all for their allies. They are best built as offensive team fighters, yet don’t have the viable offensive support options to fit the role properly.

revenant corrupts boons into confusion. it’s not exactly what a necro does but neither is it simple boon removal.
i feel like revenant has already been nerfed enough and is in a quite optimal spot right now. it is not the strongest 1v1 spec and has taken a big hit against builds with conditions so it would be smarter to offer alternative options so that teams stop picking 2 revenants.

the buffs to warrior are nothing big but i feel like they could be exactly what is needed. shoutbow back in the days was a very popular build albeit being a bit more defensive than what i suggest here – support through aggressive playstyle, healing from using primal skills for example, instead of pressing shout skills.

introduction

i picked up revenant during the first beta because i liked the concept of it a lot and have played it since the release of HoT, from berserker through to viper and i like the fast gameplay of it a lot.

so lately i have tried viper berserker because it seems to have a similar playstyle and i wanna list here my build and some stuff that i noticed:

most likely my traits aren’t 100% optimal but this is what worked out okayish for me so far ( http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRAsf5enMdAVhgdhAmkCEliltA79yGaPtI/tAQoTJGU6aBA-TpRHABAcEAGf/BvLDQwDAQgTAQAHEAA )

sustain

if you compare the warrior’s weapons to the berserker’s weapons you will notice that while the rev’s are a lot more defensive they are also more powerful, especially the sword.

the shield skills, especially shield 5, are very similar. one heals but is rooted, one doesn’t heal but can move. the berserker’s problem is that it lack’s sustain and has less mobility than a revenant. so while you need to be able to move with your shield you also kind of need the healing…

in my build i wen’t for rousing resilience simply because i need the raw healing. once you get low on berserker it’s very hard to heal up again and i’m kind of used to being vulnerable to condis so what i have on the build was working fine for me.

damage

when we compare the damage they are more or less equally potent and similarly destructive (cc, confusion, poison) with the difference that the revenant can deal them ranged and they are aoe, while the berserker’s are mostly close range and cleave skills.

place in a team

setting aside damage and survivability, let’s talk about the benefits of having a revenant and having a berserker.

revenants bring aoe resistance in team fights, mobility for fast +1, aoe cc to lock down or peel, boon corrupt and aoe boons from herald f2.

berserkers bring strong single target lockdowns and mediocre mobility

can you see the difference :^)?

conclusion and suggestions

to be honest, i like how a berserker feels when playing it. what i don’t like is how raw and unpolished it is.

rather than nerfing the revenant down just for the sake of the berserker would be wrong (and won’t change anything). while the revenant is more of an evil warrior i would approach the berserker in a different way. while the revenant is destructive and removes boons of enemies, the berserker should cleanse conditions and give boons to allies:

savage leap – sword 2: cooldown reduced from 8s to 6s to give it a bit more mobility. everything got faster and got close to outrun a warrior although they used to be the fastest.

shield stance – shield 5: each time you block an attack, gain 3s of regeneration with a 1s ICD. this will help a bit with the survivability while allowing counterplay.

skull grinder – primal mace f1: 3 target cleave instead of just hitting 1 target.

blaze breaker – torch 4: aoe knockdown, cooldown increased to 20s. this skill as a whole is just too weak and a knockdown would benefit it as a utility skill.

flames of war – torch 5: removes 1 condition every second for you and allies that stand inside it. cooldown increased to 30s. i feel like 2 condis cleared is just not enough and this skill has the potential to be a situational skill for either supporting allies or hurting enemies.

rousing resilience – defense IX: toughness reduced to 700 but also affects allies around you. or instead of toughness, the healing is aoe.

dead or alive – berserker VI: changes to: heal yourself and allies around you for adrenaline you spend in berserker mode. 1 adrenaline heals for ~200hp. dead or alive suffers from the same problem as rebound – it just doesn’t help much and it would be the perfect spot to allow for some sustain and support. again, counterplay is possible if you don’t feed the warrior with adrenaline.

eternal champion – berserker IX: now pulsing stability around you when in berserker mode and allies also gain might and stability when you break out of a stun. again going for the concept of a more supportish damage dealer.

i feel like those small changes could push the berserker in a healthy spot in a team and might change the double rev meta to a rev + berserker meta.

tell me what you think, and a happy new year.

yeah but champion brawler is just as silly as the old “kill 1 million yaks” yakslapper title.

i feel like it would be fair to give players the titel for just getting into the legendary division or for completing it once.

it’s a bit silly if it requires you to complete legendary 5x and get to legendary 6.

it’s also a more psychologically appealing reward if you get the title on reaching the highest division instead of getting nothing + having to grind it another 5 times while getting 20mins queue times.

think about it, anet

i can’t get the 3rd class done because i can only play 2 well enough. playing a third class that i’m not really good on in diamond/legendary division would be a bit selfish for the players in my team. just because of this i think that those achievements are terrible.

quickness is terrible for ele so i’d rather not have that. not only does ele benefit little from it due to our mostly bad auto attacks but afaik it also messes with overloads and ticks. auras give resistance would be interesting though.

they could make a CDI with ideas for new conquest maps so that stuff like skyhammer/spirit watch won’t happen again.

they could even brainstorm ideas and ask the community what we find best.

they could create beta maps and let us test them, just like they did with stronghold.. even if it’s just placeholder objects as long as the actual map mechanic works.

and they could obviously remodel stronghold to proper GvG.

aggelos r.5387:

gw1 pvp was tottaly different from gw2 you cant compare them

i’m not comparing them, it would just be interesting to have such builds that are inspired by old gw1 builds.

OGDeadHead.8326:

More oneshotting? Yeah that’s fun. Not.

currently there is 0 oneshotting in this meta. if you get oneshot then that’s your lack of skill. 2nd, oneshotting (if the enemy lets you) at the cost of your own life is different than simple oneshotting.

because it’s an outdated game and the company decided to create a sequel instead of updating everything step by step like WoW.

i’m not the type of person that lives in the past but one cannot deny that gw1 pvp was more popular, had better build diversity and more interesting builds (partly because of the system).

if a company created something in the past that was deemed good, it’s not shameful to go back and look for ideas. they also tried to bring back power block mesmer (although it kinda failed).

Crinn.7864:

Jekkt.6045:

it’s still around in gw1. if it was deemed unhealthy it would have been nerfed dead, like many other builds before. and it’s also not a cheap gimmick but a very effective build with pros and cons.

Oh please, Guild Wars 1 is practically in maintenance mode. Take off those Harry Potter sized rose tinted glasses of yours.

fact is, gw1 is more balanced than gw2 and has shorter queue times. i don’t need harry potter glasses to see that.

Morwath.9817:

I fail to sere how such builds could be useful in GW2.
If you think about it, PvP in GW1 was about killing enemy team to win.
While GW2 is about not dying yourself while standing on node, your task isn’t to kill enemy players at all, you can win without hurting anybody feelings.

oh my, seems like you played too long in this meta :^)

Crinn.7864:

Jekkt.6045:

that’s why i said enoug, not too much. one such a counter would for example be kiting. in gw1 a bomber had to get in melee ranger (hence why they took shadowstep) a necro in gw2 obviously can’t take shadowstep.. so you could immob the necro in order to prevent him from coming to you, or stun. your team on the other hand could cleanse you or give you stability. that’s what counterplay is.

If there is any counterplay, a bomber is worthless. Killing downed is easier than rezzing. Which means any self-sacrifice build must be able to guarantee a kill as otherwise it’ll just be giving free kills to the enemy team in higher levels of play.

Jekkt.6045:

it would certainly be possible if anet wanted to. afaik robert gee was even a gw1 balance dev so he might remember the stuff.

Has it not occurred to you that there is perhaps a reason the devs decided not to bring bombers back in GW2?

Self-sacrifice builds will either be useless or a cheap gimmick. Period.

it’s still around in gw1. if it was deemed unhealthy it would have been nerfed dead, like many other builds before. and it’s also not a cheap gimmick but a very effective build with pros and cons.

Crinn.7864:

Jekkt.6045:

not if there is enough healthy counterplay.

bombers weren’t the best 1v1 builds. they were not meant to fight prolongued fights but to nuke. in gw2 that translates to finding the right opportunity to dive in and kill, by killing yourself.

If there is enough counterplay then the bomber will just end up like DH and gunflame warrior – a gimmick for killing new players in the low MMR bracket, and that has no place in high level play.

that’s why i said enoug, not too much. one such a counter would for example be kiting. in gw1 a bomber had to get in melee ranger (hence why they took shadowstep) a necro in gw2 obviously can’t take shadowstep.. so you could immob the necro in order to prevent him from coming to you, or stun. your team on the other hand could cleanse you or give you stability. that’s what counterplay is.

death nova and runes of the afflicted too.. but they hit for 2k crits on berserker :^)

it would certainly be possible if anet wanted to. afaik robert gee was even a gw1 balance dev so he might remember the stuff.

Crinn.7864:

Jekkt.6045:

because it’s not a suicide build. contagion bomber killed enemies by sacrificing its own life. laying down traps involves no risk for the dh at all lol.

self-sacrifice is a awful mechanic.
In order to make a suicide build effective you’d have to make the suicide effect a near guaranteed kill as otherwise if the suicide doesn’t kill anything then the death was in vain.
Of course if the suicide effect is so strong, it leads to a terrible PvP experience for anyone fighting against such a build, along with a bad experience for the bomber themselves since they are always dying.

that’s where downed state comes into play. as i said, bombers are not 1v1 fighters so it’s up to your team if your death will be (because downed state) in vain or not.

it can either lead to you wiping the whole team or your whole team getting wiped. imo that’s enough risk vs reward.

not if there is enough healthy counterplay.

bombers weren’t the best 1v1 builds. they were not meant to fight prolongued fights but to nuke. in gw2 that translates to finding the right opportunity to dive in and kill, by killing yourself.

because it’s not a suicide build. contagion bomber killed enemies by sacrificing its own life. laying down traps involves no risk for the dh at all lol.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Burst meta would just be as bad as this one. All of your deaths and all of your kills would be the result of cooldowns.

If you want a refreshing and good meta, ArenaNet just needs to balance their game. There are so many things beyond OP right now and the power creep is stupidly high.

deaths should obviously be the result of cooldowns, what else. why should you survive if you used everything you have?

bomber builds wouldn’t lead to a burst meta because generally they are not the best 1v1 builds so you need to support and protect them. arenanet wants fast gameplay for their esports, there you have the key to it.

Velimere.7685:

Dunecoon.5134:

Bomb kit? DH traps?……….

Jekkt.6045:

dh and bomb kit engi are not bomber builds.

A bomber is a type of build which purpose is to deal a high amount of AoE damage in a short amount of time, similarly to nuking or spiking, by using skills with an AoE centered on the user, therefore requiring to enter a group of foes. The main difference with spiking builds such as those based on Vow of Strength or Hundred Blades is the endangerment of the bomber, which is often a caster such as a Necromancer, an Elementalist or a Ritualist. Due to the low armor rating, the frontline position, the frequent use of Death Nova and the tendency of some builds to self-sacrifice (especially with Necromancers), a bomber usually dies in the process.

dh and bomb kit engi are not bomber builds.

A bomber is a type of build which purpose is to deal a high amount of AoE damage in a short amount of time, similarly to nuking or spiking, by using skills with an AoE centered on the user, therefore requiring to enter a group of foes. The main difference with spiking builds such as those based on Vow of Strength or Hundred Blades is the endangerment of the bomber, which is often a caster such as a Necromancer, an Elementalist or a Ritualist. Due to the low armor rating, the frontline position, the frequent use of Death Nova and the tendency of some builds to self-sacrifice (especially with Necromancers), a bomber usually dies in the process.

many people were disappointed when gw2 came out because there were as good as no bomber builds compared to gw1.

bomber builds are used for very fast burst at the cost of your own life if you’re able to pick the right moment for it.
the most used bomber build was the necro/assassin contagion bomber.

after this stale meta it would be refreshing to have something that is a bit more bursty.. warranted that there is enough counterplay and i feel like a high risk / high reward bomber build could benefit the game.

here are some gw1 bomber builds:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Bomber

thoughts? or your own experiences with bomber builds?

nearlight.3064:

Jekkt.6045:

tbh i don’t feel like tempest has too much sustain, without minstrel it even feels like as if it’s barely enough. usually tempest is the build i’m the least scared of.. manageable in 1v1 and easy targets in teamfights.

and your facts are not right. it’s 40% reduction only for the ele and diamond skin is useless against everything except necro. i’d rather have a gm trait that gives me something useful against everything instead of only vs necro.

It’s 50% reduction within 600 range units of they run earth for the GM minor trait (10% from that) and frost aura gives another 10% though that is less commonly up.

Diamond skin is also bad because it pushes out things like burn DH and condi scrapper/chrono, which have even less hope against tempest compared to necro, so overall it’s detrimental for this game’s build diversity in my opinion.

yeah if you add the trait reductions then yes, it might be over 50%.

i disagree with burn dh though. elite specs brought a lot more cleansing with them so a single condition build will just not work out.
on the other hand necro is the main problem when it comes to condition builds. after the mallyx resistance nerf, necro is again the king of conditions and counter to more or less every condition build in the game.

while i shouldn’t say this.. i’m glad condi chronomancer is not a thing and will hopefully never be.

something that i wish they’d add is suicide builds.. in gw1 contagion bomber was quite funny and while it brought some risks with it, it had the potential to be very effective.

tbh i don’t feel like tempest has too much sustain, without minstrel it even feels like as if it’s barely enough. usually tempest is the build i’m the least scared of.. manageable in 1v1 and easy targets in teamfights.

and your facts are not right. it’s 40% reduction only for the ele and diamond skin is useless against everything except necro. i’d rather have a gm trait that gives me something useful against everything instead of only vs necro.

Supreme.3164:

a weaker support auramancer can be run

the real problem for ele since launch is the lack of reliable burst build

1. you usually don’t want to run something weaker

2. burst ele always kinda was the 2nd grade shatter mesmer. not only did it have less burst but also no role. no portal, no boon removal, no stealth, only some boons. i also don’t really see a potential burst spec in tempest so that won’t happen most likely until elite specs v2.

now that the first small part of balance “fixes” is done, i would like to talk about what’s left to do.

i have no intention of bashing on classes here so i will only express my concerns on a mostly objective way:

ele:
problematic design atm. basically pigeonholed into diamond skin which is unhealthy for the ele and unhealthy for the enemies aswell.

warrior:
lacks sustain in the berserker line. you kind of need the healing that shouts offer you but you can’t get them because you need stances at the same time. rage skills are useless and many berserker traits are flawed.

thief:
difficult design. currently too squishy but buffing it can be dangerous as it has the potential to become completely broken. does not need damage buffs.

mesmer:
chrono support is still incredibly strong… nerfing it now after precog fix could be difficult. one strong part of chrono is the stability on shatter. basically what’s needed is tiny little shaves at some points. something that will always be really hard to balance is continuum split.. double elites is ridiculously strong.

necro:
necro still has the “no-disengage” problem, so when you start a fight you either win it or you die in it. something that is too strong on necro is the chill damage. it’s basically dhuumfire on steroids.

engi:
stealth gyro needs a longer cooldown and the sustain on it is too high. for a marauder build it’s incredibly tanky.

ranger:
daze duration is very strong.. bristleback damage is definitely too high. rng-ness of pet skills like the unblockable knockdown of the smokescale. buff to vanilla pets.

guardian:
i would personally appreciate to have a viable support spec on guardian again. dragonhunter just feels bad.. it’s not even a weak spec but it just doesn’t excel at the important things.

rev:
ventari and jalis useless in pvp. a viable support spec would be nice but hardly possible because of the nature of ventari. mallyx overhaul; resistance as the only condi mitigation is flawed, especially after the nerf.

what i hope for season 2 (appart from division and matchmaking changes, and a mmr reset) is that we get a number of new builds. imo it would be very tiring to play the same meta for 2 seasons. after a bunker + condi meta a support + burst (no stealth please) meta would be refreshing.

i miss the pre specialisation patch d/d ele that was about on par with cele rifle engi and shoutbow warrior. fire line ele after that was just imbalance..

the worst one is unrelenting assault.

just had a case where the skill didn’t hit any single hit and another case where the skill didn’t even go off.

it’s annoying and it can be the difference of dying or surviving.

i demand a fix.

i was impressed when i saw that you guys put the well of recognition nerf into today’s hotfix. you’ve never reacted that fast when it comes to feedback for balance previews.

it was really needed so that’s a good step in the right direction.

looking forward to the january’s changes and i hope our feedback can be implemented just as well.

Ara.4569:

“an overnerf would be more healthy” given that they nerf the right thing. Like Well of Precog instead of one of their double block. Like the rain of boons rev, mesmer and ele give instead of butchering Blighter’s Boon. Etc…

yeah i agree that they have to nerf the right stuff xD