Guild Wars 2

LilMcGinley.3890:

Penguin.5197:

I don’t understand why thieves would get torment too. They’re already the fastest class and hard to catch as it is, no it seems you would get punished too if you try and chase after them.

Of course we don’t know how exactly the new condition is gonna work yet or how powerful it is but that is just my initial assumption.

I raced a warrior on my thief while farming coffers, beat me to almost every one, I even used Inf strike and shadowstep to try and win. GS/Sword+warhorn is more mobile than a thief sadly. Maybe I’m just bad but they are almost on par with each other depending on the situation.

Well one of the biggest advantages with thief is Z-axis teleports, of which warriors have none. So given flat terrain, yes a warrior might beat you in a straight line but that’s about it.

stof.9341:

Deified.7520:

I hope the current meta builds (p/p thieves …)

Whaat? Seriously?

made me lol too. Are we even playing the same game, OP?

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

Two of the game’s strongest duelist gets exclusive access to the new condition , punishing those who make a subtle attempt at movement whilst they’re insanely mobile and potent in trickery.

#Keyboardturnersrejoice!

Yeah, that was my fear. Let’s wait and see though, they may have to make some serious sacrifices to get viable access to it. For all we know it could be horribly weak too, but I share your concern.

Yep, it gets old quickly. Just unintelligible chatter would have been nice.

I’d drink to drive the insanity away, but it looks like it’s a bad day to buy wine…

Wow, sounds pretty interesting. Hopefully the whole torment thing is primarily going to be used with Necros, because thieves and mesmers being able to punish you for movement seems a little extreme. But we will have to wait and find out I guess.

I think the expansion of stun breakers can also really help, and it’s something people have wanted for a long time. It’s not as much of a problem on some classes, but engi in particular could see a big boost from this.

Can’t wait to go back to the drawing board with all my professions!

Sampo.9678:

Need more quaggan voices in pvp
NooOOOoo our LooOOOoord

LOL YEEESSS!!! Make it happen!!!!!!

I really wanted to love the GS, I like the weapon both in skills and aesthetics. However, I stopped using it actually because of thieves.

It’s just really hard to stop a good thief with a GS. They’ll close the gap instantly and then you’re blowing long CD’s just to stay alive it seems. You have the knockback on number 5, but once that’s gone it’s really hard to kite them or protect yourself unlike staff.

It’s a shame because it has such fast clone generation, and the berserker can hit like a truck when it actually works. It’s just that the staff is so awesome at holding off any sort of melee class and is just too flexible for me to give up.

Thanks for everything guys, especially Osicat. I’ve started to run his suggested build in sPvP and have been having surprisingly good success with it. I always figured that anything but berserkers and the typical shatter setup was a waste, but it has been working out.

I can’t down single targets as fast, but I have a much better chance of surviving in bad situations and can have more sustain during group fights.

As for 1v2’s, I can do them rarely if I’m fighting bads. I think I’ve been facing better opponents recently so that’s part of the problem. But for 1v1’s I’m always confident now.

I would really love to see a pvp match with a shatter mesmer winning a 2v1 so I could take some further notes, but so far so good

Edit: Forgot to add that one of the most crucial things I’ve learned for anyone else is that setting up “the perfect” burst or rotation is often not needed. I get better results when I just move with the flow of combat and shatter when in range and combine it with steady pressure instead of trying to set up some magical insta-kill trap.

Appreciate the feedback!

Yeah, as you mentioned I think an important point I’m starting to learn is less reliance on rotations. Improvisation seems to be a big factor in doing well as a shatter mesmer, because rotations often fail. I’m still working to improve on this, I had no idea this style of play could have such a high skill ceiling!

I’ve noticed that by using shatters when the enemy gets within melee range (or I do) regardless of iLeap + BF is a good way to keep pressure on an enemy without worrying about whats on cooldown.

Brew Pinch.5731:

You cannot win 1v2+ against good players as any class/build, period.

All the WvW roaming vids where you see players destroying multiple dudes to electro tracks, those enemies are terrible players, or at the very best are terrible in comparison to the guy posting the video.

You can test this yourself, head into WvW and go roaming. Assuming you are pretty decent you WILL win a lot of 1v2+ fights, but in tPvP against strong players with decent builds? No chance.

This probably doesn’t apply to you so much, but I’d like to put down anyone it might help: Beating multiple players for me I feel is firstly and primarily about simply being quick. Having strong mechanics – that is always moving, always doing something, always having the next move ready – is the most important factor dividing strong players from the weaker. 1v2+ is all about the difference in basic skill between you and your opponents.

Yeah, I figured as much, especially for tPvP. I do appreciate the advice, and honestly that’s why I really wanted to point out that I was curious if this was possible for PvP because as you said, WvW is a bit of a different animal. I’ve asked people questions like this before, and usually I get a link to a video which is exactly how you described (electro music and everything lol).

As for everyone else, thanks again for the tips. I will try to incorporate these things into my playstyle. Oh, and I’ll have to try that other build too!

twity.4732:

The thing you may be missing, is making sure to get that mirror images in there for an even bigger burst.
What I do is 3 clone mind wrack on the blurred frenzy, then as I’m blurred frenzying, I mirror images into cry of frustration. This hits ppl really hard… The only problem is you’re gustos lost for a little while after this.

I’ve tried that too, but doesn’t popping mirror images interrupt your blurred frenzy? I guess you could use it at the end, but by then my target is usually frantically trying to get away via dodges / invulns / whatever.

Edit: Oh, one more question. How important is it to get off a Diversion shatter before a full mind wrack (with Dazzling traited)? Do you guys do it all the time as part of your rotation, or just whenever you can, maybe in the middle of a fight?

twity.4732:

What rank are you?
There should be 0 chance of you 2 v 1ing with shatter, unless you are playing terrible players.
In fact, despite what some people say, shatter is not dominant 1v1.
Shatter’s strength lies in its burst and utility (illusion of life, portal, etc…)

Almost rank 40, but I haven’t played a tournament on this mesmer yet and I’m new to the class itself, it’s mostly just random hotjoin to get a feel for it and have some fun when I’m not doing other things.

I was just wondering if maybe I was missing some major tactics that experienced shatter mesmers use all the time or something. It sounds like I’m probably not.

For sPvP:

After messing around with many different builds, I keep coming back to the current standard of 20/20/0/0/30 shatter mesmer with Staff / Sword + X (usually Pistol, sometimes Torch) and obviously zerkers amulet. Utils:

Mirror Images / Blink / Decoy / Mass Inivs.

I’d like to improve my game. While I win almost all of my 1v1s, 2v1s really mess me up. First of all, I know that going against 2 other experienced players is usually suicide anyways, but I still would like to win the occasional 2v1s vs. average players. I know I can run, and winning is more important, but nothing gives me a rush like winning outnumbered fights. So far I’ve only pulled it off once, and the enemies were abysmal.

Questions:
1. Is this even feasible? Or should I always expect to lose on a shatter mesmer in outnumbered situations in pvp? It was possible for me on other professions, though I wasn’t playing as glassy. It seems like all the tools are there, maybe I’m just missing something.

2. What sort of rotation works best here to maximize burst to get one target down ASAP? I assume it’s something like:
p.Duelist -> Magic Bullet -> Dodge In -> iLeap -> Blurred Frenzy + Diversion -> Mirror Images -> Dodge in -> Mind Wrack

3. Should I start in Sword / X, or Staff?

4. What do you think about the utils? Is Mirror Images a waste? I ran with Feedback for a while and it’s great for shutting down rangers and engies.

5. Offhands, what’s more important? Invis from torch, or more pressure via the Duelist? Or am I completely wrong by not using the focus?

Please keep in mind that this is for sPvP only. I’m not concerned with WvW, and I’ve already seen many videos of people 2+v1’ing there. I would appreciate any feedback you guys have.

IMO, it goes something like this:

Trash Talk: “Wow, you’re a bad.” / “Get wrecked scrub hurrr” and they’re done. Go seek your revenge if necessary.

Verbal Abuse: Someone so mad / crazy that they are PMing and harassing you constantly. Blocking is an option, but I don’t think that kind of behavior should need to be tolerated.

For me it’s a time issue, not exactly what they’re saying. Still, I’ve only reported someone once because they were literally stalking me everywhere, I can’t even remember what upset the guy so bad. I blocked him after being slightly amused, then somewhat disturbed when they actually got on a different account to harass me more a day later. There are some wackos out there..

OP, here’s some general tips:

1. Learn your chosen profession inside and out. Practice with many different builds, and if you aren’t sure where to start ask your respective profession’s sub-board about it. Start out with some tried and true (commonly called cookie-cutter) builds so you can rule out really bad trait / util choices and just get very familiar with it.

2. Practice. Playing every day will train your mind and “muscle memory” so you won’t have to think so much during a fight, you’ll just react. When you can react to what the enemy is doing more than just following a set routine (and panicking when it fails), you’ll notice yourself becoming much better.

3. Learn the OTHER professions inside and out. Find their strengths, and especially take note of their big weaknesses so you can capitalize on them. This will take time, and really, if you want to truly understand how other professions / builds operate you’re just going to have to take the time to get in the mists and play them yourself. This is crucial, because if you have no clue what the enemy is capable of, it’s very hard to play reactively when the situation demands it.

4. If you’re getting absolutely wrecked by a particular profession / build, go to that prof’s sub-board and respectfully ask for help. There are usually experts there that will be glad to give you help. Take note that simply showing up and flaming / demanding nerfs isn’t going to go over well with them.

Well if you want to especially kill thieves, HGH might not be the right choice. S/D thieves WILL steal that 20+ stack of might + fury + whatever and down you with only a couple more 33333’s.

When fighting thieves, I like having Net Turret or Tool Kit. Both can shut down thieves pretty well and give you some breathing room when necessary.

Also, if you’re looking for swiftness and decent mobility, you’d probably like the Speedy Kits + Invigorating Speed traits. Essentially it can mean perma-swiftness and perma-vigor depending on how often you rotate your kits.

I’m not sure I can give a specific build as I am between builds myself.

It does work fairly well, although I can’t speak for the highest level fractals, you should have no problem in dungeons or overworld leveling.

Probably the most notable nade build is the currently very popular HGH build:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hx93LdkAOg

I ran this for a while, but I prefer it with rampager’s amulet. Basically the idea is to stack might like crazy via elixers, and then just wail on enemies with your combined direct damage + condition damage.

1. Default bomb radius increased.
2. Gadget CD reduced, slightly buffed effects, and no more self CC.
3. Mainhand pistol auto base damage buffed.

Sil.4560:

You mean you were used to playing an EZmode faceroll class against the most underpowered class in the game, lol

Pretty much, yeah lol.

Forestgreen.7981:

Jericho.4521:

Previous Guardian player here, don’t have a warrior though so please take this with a grain of salt:

Every pure melee warrior I ever fought in sPvP couldn’t win 1v1 with me, mostly due to constant retal + protection (which is just stupid) usually they died or ran, except for one. He had a rifle and axe + shield, and was very good at just kiting me around enough so that I had to pop my shouts and defensive skills to keep bleeds and cripple off me.

Once he made me burn a lot of my defenses he’d rush in a spike me with Eviscerate and really start putting major pressure on me with the axe auto.

Maybe not the best gameplan, but I do know guardians hate getting kited around. They may have 2 teleports at the max (unlikely), but pretty much 0 access to cripple or chill, and no reliable ranged weapon.

Sorry bro, I like to pew pew guardians. Not sure if it was me but I do run rifle + axe/shield.

It might have been, it was sPvP maybe a few months ago. Sadly he did not win the fight, but he came close, afterwards he raged a little and said something like “WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO AGAINST THAT?!” I did kind of feel bad. Still he was fairly talented as I was used to just slapping warriors around.

Previous Guardian player here, don’t have a warrior though so please take this with a grain of salt:

Every pure melee warrior I ever fought in sPvP couldn’t win 1v1 with me, mostly due to constant retal + protection (which is just stupid) usually they died or ran, except for one. He had a rifle and axe + shield, and was very good at just kiting me around enough so that I had to pop my shouts and defensive skills to keep bleeds and cripple off me.

Once he made me burn a lot of my defenses he’d rush in a spike me with Eviscerate and really start putting major pressure on me with the axe auto.

Maybe not the best gameplan, but I do know guardians hate getting kited around. They may have 2 teleports at the max (unlikely), but pretty much 0 access to cripple or chill, and no reliable ranged weapon.

Dante.1508:

And because of these one trick pony builds and tiny group overpowered in a minority Aspect of the game (spvp) is why Engi cannot have nice things….

Nonsense. There’s no reason ANet couldn’t just buff gadgets, turrets, or broken / useless traits. There are many options for increasing engi viability in all the different game modes without ever touching the HGH build.

uberkingkong.8041:

Nah your wrong, P/D is really good, but requires lots of skill, timing and setting up, on the other hand HGH engy is powerful as well, but requires no skill no timing and setting up

LOL. 5, 1 with the occasional caltrops sure is tough.

The CD time is different than every other class. Isn’t that way OP? In a vacuum yes, but there are plenty more differences between professions that this is practically a non-issue.

Appreciate the time and effort Swagg, I agree with pretty much everything on your original list.

Also I agree that Grenade Kit is fine as is. It’s seen it’s fair share of somewhat deserved nerfs, but it’s time to leave it alone. No nerfs, no buffs, just bring the other kits up to it’s level, not necessarily in damage but in equal utility.

Hopefully we can get some dev’s eyes on this.

EDIT: Looks like turret traits are now working, thanks devs!

I agree that balance is probably in a better spot now than it ever has been. However, I think the devs should begin to focus on expanding build variety for all classes.

Here’s what I think needs to be done:

1. Spread out stun breakers a bit more.
2. Spread out condi removal slightly.
3. Buff and lower CD of underused utils.
4. Fix bugs on broken traits.
5. Buff very weak traits if necessary.

This is just my opinion, but I really feel like it could help open doors to new builds. Most professions have about 2 builds (sometimes 1) that work well in a pvp environment, and I just wish people could be more creative and remain viable.

Grenades are in a good spot. Most other kits really need to be brought up to its level, and adding fields + finishers would be a good start.

The CD would make sense if the turrets were actually powerful enough to be a tool for area denial. As it stands now they really don’t do much, and their traits literally do nothing. Still no word from the devs on this issue?

Syn.3459:

Jericho.4521:

I don’t play mesmer, but I don’t think it needs a nerf. I think it requires pretty skilled play in order to predict what the enemy will be throwing at you to use it as a block, which in turn allows for baiting this move by the enemy. Using it at the wrong time means you may not have it as an offensive option when you really need to burst.

I’m of the opinion lately that we just don’t need more nerfs to take away people’s options in a fight. I think we should be giving every profession more options to deepen the gameplay.

due to the low cooldown there isn’t much skill about it, i play a mesmer and find it atrocious that we have the ability to immobilize, do fairly good damage to you, while also being immune for 2 seconds, every 10 seconds

in my opinion it should be given a 15 second cooldown and then it might be considered skillful because you have to think when to use your leap, right now it’s just leap then blurred frenzy every 10 seconds

Fair enough. I guess I forgot about the 10s CD part.

I don’t play mesmer, but I don’t think it needs a nerf. I think it requires pretty skilled play in order to predict what the enemy will be throwing at you to use it as a block, which in turn allows for baiting this move by the enemy. Using it at the wrong time means you may not have it as an offensive option when you really need to burst.

I’m of the opinion lately that we just don’t need more nerfs to take away people’s options in a fight. I think we should be giving every profession more options to deepen the gameplay.

In hindsight, I realize what I posted last night was very negative. I think ANet could still really open this game up and create good build variety. To accomplish this, I think they’re going to need to do the following:

1. Spread out stun breakers. They are so vital in just about every mode, and yet so few utilities have them. No need to go crazy, but I think at least 1-2 in every utility type (except maybe device / weapon kits) is fair. Luckily, they’ve made mention of doing this recently, a step in the right direction.

2. Give some more options for condition removal through traits. Too much condi removal and condi damage becomes worthless. But making them grandmaster traits on trees chosen for different build categories would be a good way of ensuring nobody can get too much without seriously hurting their build anyways.

3. Reduce cooldowns and / or buff very weak and underused utility skills, and possibly traits to affect those utilities. Nobody chooses gadgets because of the cost / reward factor, among other quirks like self-cc.

I firmly believe that by focusing on these 3 things, the game could seriously change for the better for ALL professions. Maybe I’m way off base, idk. Let me know what you guys think.

OP: People are pretty much all running varients of HGH in PvP atm. WvW I don’t know, maybe there are still some static discharge rifle users.

Why? There’s not much else. You wanna take turrets? All of the turret traits in the inventions line are literally not doing ANYTHING as of the latest patch, with videos to back it up. Even if they were, what are you going to do with them? You have to choose between 2 turrets and a stun break, or it’s pretty much gg, and turrets die VERY quickly. The recent change to healing turret is good, but I’ve never seen anyone actually leave the turret out. They drop it, instantly overcharge and detonate. Why risk having it destroyed?

Gadgets have insanely long cooldowns + self CC (what?!).

Grenades have suffered a 10 – 15% damage nerf on all skills, and another 30% for #1 on top of that with a later patch. They’re not done though, they want to nerf it some more according to JP in the SOTG for April.

Everyone in sPvP runs a variant of the HGH build because it works well, but this too is likely in anet’s crosshairs. Build variety is very low, and non-existant at high level PvP (probably true for almost all classes).

Overall it’s not looking good. I want to remain positive, but nobody knows what’s going to be next on the chopping block. We get minor buffs to things nobody can still hope to use right along with major nerfs.

I hope you come back, just don’t settle on anything. If you do really like a particular build, give it till the next patch and see if it works.

It would be nice to see at least one patch where they do nothing but provide some actual substantial buffs for every class’s very weak utilities. Almost every class has at least one subset of util that never gets used in WvW or sPvP. It’d be nice to get some buffs with no nerfs attached for ONCE, and just see how much that adds to the build variety. Turrets and gadgets are obviously engie’s weak points at the moment.

To be fair, the healing turret change was a great step forward, and actually does open up some possibilities, but I think it should be taken a step further with all turrets.

What is E, all of the above.

I’ll take hotjoin tactics for 500, Alex.

I main an engi and I can definitely say that elixer S was over the top. It felt cheap to be able to pop it, swap to nades, and proceed to spam a group to death with almost no repercussions. I still use it because invulns / stability / stealth is invaluable, but it’s just purely defensive now.

Ele’s mist form had a similar problem where it could be used to near – completely recover from a number of bad choices, and left little options for counterplay for their enemy.

As others have said, a warrior can pop endure pain and still be killed by conditions, or controlled by CC. Mesmer’s distortion is the only one that not only grants invuln but still allows actions, but then again is a special class ability. I don’t play mesmer, so I’m not going to try to weigh in on that.

Well it’s just that the stealth procs right after the HS, you’re not stealthed as you land it. Combo fields are weird. Most of the time they proc the effect as soon as you use a finisher, but this is the once instance where I think it doesn’t do that on purpose.

Archaon.6245:

At first i tought it was a normal (And really nice one) backstab combo so i took a look at combat log, well i didn’t really see bp shot hitting me (I was already fighting a ranger) so i was like “ok it’s not d/d” but then i saw a really strange thing…an HS before backstab, i know you can use bp field to go stealth but isn’t hs supposed to break stealth on hit? Combo was probably bp>steal>hs (stealth)>backstab all felt like 2 massive hits (Like a c&d>steal>bs combo)…no problem on avoiding it, dmg is not the problem and it was hotzerg ehm..custom arenas so don’t really give a kitten xD I just would really like to know how you can land an hs and still being in stealth for backstab, if it’s something like a bug or just another sad macro abuse?

The HS out of black powder does not reveal you, otherwise it would be useless. What likely happened is that he used BP, didn’t hit you with it, then HS’d which hit you and put him in stealth right after to follow up with a backstab.

Thieves tend to lack good condition removal, so overloading them with conditions is usually a great way to kill them. Movement impairing skills are also great: Glue shot, box of nails, freeze nades, etc. always suck to get hit with. I like to run tool kit, so gear shield is a great way to stop HS spam. Also note that channeled skills will continue to hit them after they’ve entered stealth, provided you target them before hand.

When they get low, they usually pop shadow refuge. If you have grenades, at this point it’s likely a free kill for you. Get close and throw everything into the circle, they likely won’t survive.

Kimbald.2697:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Kimbald.2697:

And on topic: yes, I consider it a very bad design if engineers can’t survive without putting 20 points in Alchemy.

I think there’s plenty to argue with that statement. Engineers can definitely survive without Cleansing Formula. I just don’t see why someone would want to go without it.

It’d be like using the Flamethrower without grabbing Deadly Mixture. Certain traits are no-brainers. If you use a lot of elixirs, you should grab Cleansing Formula.

not saying you’re wrong with these things. They do make sense.

But the question for me is: why would you need to take cleansing formula if you use ONLY elixir S as elixir?
Without this trait, the elixir S is mostly a 3 second wait to get downed…
No more cleansing, no more swiftness, no more healing.

I can live with not being allowed to prybar or bomb someone when invulnerable. But the healing skill should have stayed for me.
Runes of grenth, or a pushback turret explosion… they were ways to escape with elixir S.
Engineers could do with such ways to escape, we aren’t the best at that at all.
So that’s why I don’t think that changing this for ele’s was reason enough to change it for engineers.

Elixer S, even without 409 (or the heal) is still decent. It can secure guaranteed stomps on most professions, and be used to avoid big burst combos, as well as just relieve some pressure and re-position in a team fight. Most importantly, the toss skill can provide stability which is vital for fighting any CC heavy classes, or stealth which is always useful. 409 is a nice touch, but for my current build I like taking 2 kits, so 409 isn’t all that great.

Maybe it’s not an escape tool anymore, but it’s far from useless.

Come on man, this isn’t the ele forum. Engineers expect some nerfs by now, take it in stride. Our day will come where we get some solid buffs to underused things, but until then the class is far from unplayable.

Gotta love patch day.

+1
It would be nice to know for sure that you get that supply crate off when you absolutely need it, or react as fast as possible just in case you got interrupted.

Kalan.9705:

Engineers have learned to expect little and get even less. Ironically if we complained more we might not get such badly thought out crap for changes. Or a test server.

This. I hate to be so negative, but time has shown over and over that the buffs we get are minor and nerfs come swift and heavy handed.

I WISH that aNet would focus more on buffing weak / underused traits, weapons, and utils BEFORE throwing the nerf hammer around so hard. We would likely see natrual counters evolve and expand build viability, but hey what do I know.

Or you know, we could get a test server

Honestly, I hope they nerf everything they said they would and nothing more so that all this crying can stop for a while. All I ask is that grenades themselves be left alone for the time being until we can get some buffs to bomb kit or something, we’ve already seen nasty nerfs there.

Buffs:
I’m hoping for a bomb kit buff, love using them but they feel clunky compared to nades, and unfortunately just don’t measure up. Other than that, I’m not sure. It’d be nice to see some new playstyles open up, but I think we need to see some love before that can happen. Also it’d be nice to see some new kit refinement mechanics, and SOMETHING done about gadgets…Though I doubt we’ll see that this patch.

1. Area Retaliation – Engie will do siginifcant damage to himself if he’s spamming nades onto a point. I’ve seen some nade engies even kill themselves from one guardian using Stand Your Ground in a group fight.

2. As other people have mentioned, conditionmancer necros will also make them kill themselves between Plague Signet, Deathly Swarm, and Putrid Mark. Will have to soak some damage though. They do have form. 409 usually, but if each elixer takes a little bit to cast, and only removes one condi. They are usually running elixer B instead of C anyways, so you should still be able to pressure them hard if they are tossing all elixers trying to wipe.

3. CC in general. Elixer S is their only stunbreak, so once you get through that one you’ll likely be in control. Don’t follow so close though waiting for them to come out, they can still throw nades while in mini-me form.

4. Burst in general. Now granted you won’t land this if they have elixer S, But again, elixer S is on like a 48 s Cd even when traited, so if you’re a thief, stealth up, backout, and come back with bask venom to light them up hard. They don’t have that much armor, just watch out for the freeze grenades if you’re trying to finish with HS.

Last tips:
These engies usually come into a fight very aggressively, I think it’s best to also be as aggressive as possible. Playing too passively means that their conditions will wear you down pretty much regardless of how much condi removal you have. Pressure them as much as possible, and when they get their nade kit out, dodge as best you can, freeze nades + shrapnel nades kill quickly, especially if you’re pure melee. Use a condi wipe if you can after they are out of the nade kit and hit them as hard as you can.

Again, repeating what others have said but:
DODGE SHRAPNEL GRENADE (as much as possible)
DODGE BLOWTORCH (use anything to get out of this)

These are the 2 hardest hitting skills in this build. Dodging every shrapnel may be hard, but if they come in close with pistols, they are likely going for a blowtorch.

It’d be nice if hotjoin was just 5v5 from the beginning. 8v8 is, and will always be a zergy mess. These custom arenas can’t come fast enough, hopefully they are implemented well.

“Hmm, nobody here. I’ll just neutralize this poin-”

And then there were 4.

I also play Guardian and haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Survivability is still pretty insane. Maybe you’re just a bit rusty from taking that break?

I run a very similar build for PvE. However, I would recommend you either pick up Pure of Voice, or Absolute Resolution so you can get some condition removal, esp. if you’re doing WvW. Immobilize will absolutely wreck you without it, and anyone running heavy conditions is going to chew through that regen in no time.