Guild Wars 2

Oldirtbeard.9834:

I really miss playing a tank like character that can offer some decent damage reduction, or offer some sustainability to keep health pools from bottoming out. I’ve got 3 80s, a Necro, Gaurdian, and Ranger.

Reapers great and all but I’m not sure how much extra healing I offer with the blood trait line, it would also be cool if there were a way to transfer conditions to minions through Death Magic for the whole party as well but I’m not sure that’s possible; still doesn’t have that good ole tank feel though.

I’m frankly not aware how a Druid really works other than it heals supposedly.

Gaurdian my old main I had hoped I could tank with but there are no one hand shield options that would work that way, I suppose there’s per a protection with the Hammer but what else can I consistently offer for defensive support?

I asked in guild once regarding Gaurdian and I was just told equip a Staff for Might and a Speed Buff ( that’s just depressing).

I’m probably just playing the wrong game.

This might have already been said, I only skimmed. And, I’m going to try to be concise to keep the post short so if you want something elaborated on just ask.

For Necro, the group condi transfer exists in Plague Signet, it pulls condi’s from your team allowing you to turn it into damage.

For Ranger(druid) you can basically full heal your group every 10-15s even while in a full DPS spec. I wouldn’t recommend going full healer but it is an option and can make things easy.

Guardian, I have a Clerics set that I bring into fractals sometimes. It makes things easy. Being able to face tank Mai trin or the Gladiator (end of chaos) so your team is free to pew pew/slash slash with damage is quite valuable. I was in a group the other day where a person said “wow we’re just melting this” which I found particularly entertaining considering 1/5 of us (me in this case) was doing almost no damage, it just freed up the team to do more themselves (much like your more typical MMO). Aegis rotations are particularly good on Chaos fractal’s boss.

I wouldn’t recommend that type of build in solo content or even a lot of group content, because you just can’t always take full advantage of it.

The Staff recommendation is likely for large scale WvW, where you play in bursts, you buff up and engage dropping all the burst damage, then disengage and regroup and drop burst healing/buffing so you can re-engage, rinse and repeat until you whittle the enemy down enough that you can just clean up and clear them out. So staff fits here, but not other places where it’s more about sustained combat.

zero.5316:

w0w didn’t expect anything to do less dps than wyverns.

… It’s the brown bear… I’m surprised it’s in the triple digits

GS still has the same niche it’s always had, burst damage. Run your burst rotation then swap out.

Mace: Healing/support/defensive
Sword: Gap closing + Fury
Scepter: Mid range/large hitbox/Might
Hammer: Protection/CC
GS: Burst/AE Pull/Mobility
Bow: Longer Range
Shield: Team support
Focus: Personal Defense
Torch: DPS

Really no profession has better balance, GS might not see much use right now because there’s really not that many situations where kitten burst of damage is really a thing, PVP/WvW Roaming people will bring enough to survive that burst or avoid it, PVE has all become longer fights for any content that is really worth discussing. If you go back and do Dungeons opening with a GS burst and then into say Sword or Scepter would work great though, but dungeons are… just wow how much power creep has trivialized them.

I really can’t see it changing and not just being in competition with another weapon for the same slot, meaning one will be ‘useless’ (lesser option) and one better, which ruins this nice balance going on.

Oldirtbeard.9834:

I tried the meta Mace Shield build and I’m melting doing the story in Bloodstone Fen. For some reason I’ve got a hell of a lot more sustainability on my Reaper. Is there anything different I should be going with my build? The gear I’m running is exotic Valk armor, Exotic Zerker Mace/Shield, Ascended Zerker Hammer, Ascended Zerker Jewlry/Back. Sigils Force/Accuracy X 2, runes Flame Legion I think.

Do I need to change my gear to Clerics while keeping my Weps/Jewlry/Back Zerker?

Shield is a great Support option, there’s just better stuff for solo. I’d say try Focus for it’s extra blocks and blind, or GS for it’s blind/pull/burst.

Group aegis is huge, but you’re only getting 1/5 of it’s effectiveness when you’re alone

Alex Shatter.7956:

In the Chaos Isles fractal, could the brazen gladiator charr dude be rytlock when he went to the mists? Since time doesnt really exist in the mists, it could make sense

Could be, but never seen Rytlock use a GS, usually sword is he not? Though he did jump in after his sword, so maybe he picked up a GS to hold him over until he found it?

If you’re talking like the raid dps lists Core Power Engi is about the same as Core Condi Engi, you’re just often asked for condi due to needing them, and some utility benefiting from longer duration on condi’s. As for general play, both work great as well but I’m not sure on exact comparison, I want to say condi is slightly better though (talking when Vuln/Might isn’t guarenteed), and Scrapper may be good in that situation as well with it’s quickness trait, but I haven’t really tested.

Anyways, yeah we are pretty close between Power and Condi, it’s all about the exact situation on which one is preferable.

CptAurellian.9537:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Having done this several times now, I can say that its nowhere near as bad as I initially thought. Some build tweeks and learn the mechanics and its not bad at all, albeit a bit long.

Pretty much this. I still think that the champs are superfluous, but at least I finally managed to get hit by one! Made me wake up …

They’re not superfluous if you’re a Necro, team loads it with condi’s before Bloom activates, epi on bloom, win (also 2 necro epi bouncing).

littlebabyprincess.9786:

why swamp again? back to back? it’s the most hated one.

Or most loved depending on who you are :b

kiwituatara.6053:

Jerus.4350:

So, I had a couple questions.

I’ve been too lazy to get specific answers on this myself and before doing it I figured I’d throw the questions out if anyone had an answer.

What is the exact time from Bloomhunger’s emote of the incoming massive attack to the attack? And, can you invuln through it?

When the attack goes off do you need to redo all wisps or just finish the ones you missed?

If anyone knows it’d be appreciated, wondering if it can be soloed, pretty sure there are options to get 3 wisps in time but 4 would be pushing it (2 is pretty easy on most professions). Bloom I know can be soloed, it’s just that wisp part.

I don’t think the attack for failing wisps is a 1-shot mechanic (even at 89). You can tank through it. I failed 25% wisp and my health dropped from 15,444 to 1,887 (viper/sinister gear) from the attack (without singularity).

Hmm I guess I was slacking and not topped off on health the times I’ve failed. Promising.

Well bombs are just fine still, very powerful. Condi just adds that additional level making sure the enemy brings their condi clears which means they have to drop something else.

Personally I’m just now getting into the condi options so I can’t recommend much (still tweaking to find what I like best, I see to many variations that show promise). But, again pure spike damage from wells will never go away. And, in condi you’re still going to be bringing Well of Corruption it’s just too important(if you can strip resistance then the condi’s get good).

Ardid.7203:

After 3 years playing, Engie’s hyperkinetic, convoluted and versatile playstyle is still the most fun and satisfying of all for me.

This, need something done? Just give me a minute to rummage around in my toolbox here and find the right thing for the job.

EQ the intro raids were designed that you could get the group gear (2-3weeks) and start raiding. Or, coming in with last years raid gear was fine, so taking long breaks wasn’t a huge issue (it was pretty normal to take a good 4-5month break at the end of an expansion cycle, and you’d come back for the next expansion missing nothing)

DCUO likewise had group gear lead into raid gear and took about 2-3 weeks to get back up to enter raids, though you could fast track that one with ‘gems’ and it was technically possible to be back and in top tier raid gear within a week, just it’d cost a pretty penny.

In either within a month or two you were in that top tier again.

Of course I could just be flat wrong and it’s more my hatred of the mastery system that makes it feel honestly worse or at least the same.

OnizukaBR.8537:

Jerus.4350:

OnizukaBR.8537:

Jerus.4350:

OnizukaBR.8537:

ChrizZcE.5981:

Raids should be hard, entirely skill based, but accessable to everyone. Nobody likes gear grind.

So raids should be what they are now. Kind of hard, entirely skill based and acessable to everyone. GW2 is the first game that have raids with 0 gear grind.

Not much on the gear grind, but there is a mastery grind

Getting updraft is anything but a grind. I think people dont know what grind means anymore and just use it if you have a pre-requisite to something, even if its pre-requisite take little to no time to get.

I haven’t done Xera yet, was I told wrong and you don’t need leyline gliding? And, the raid masteries sure are handy.

Between that and new stats being superior to old ones for many things… I don’t know, I don’t feel it’s really any better than the old MMO’s I played.

Xera is the last boss of the last wing, you can get enough XP for its mastery just by doing wing 1 and wing 2, so yeah no grind at all. Its not like VG needs all the mastery to do. And about the new stats, only condi needs it, power still use the same old stats that you got years ago. So its miles better than any old mmo you played ( in the grind aspect ).
GW2 is literally the only MMO where you can buy the game ( you get a boost to 80 ) and go straight to raid. I could buy a new account boost a thief choose a carrion as gear stats and go raid. Dont even need DD as condi thief dont use it.

Ehh, I guess you make a good point in that you can take that 80 boost and do a raid. Just as someone who came back after taking a break before HoT, I’ve felt the same uphill climb to get set back up that I did in any other game I’ve played.

OnizukaBR.8537:

Jerus.4350:

OnizukaBR.8537:

ChrizZcE.5981:

Raids should be hard, entirely skill based, but accessable to everyone. Nobody likes gear grind.

So raids should be what they are now. Kind of hard, entirely skill based and acessable to everyone. GW2 is the first game that have raids with 0 gear grind.

Not much on the gear grind, but there is a mastery grind

Getting updraft is anything but a grind. I think people dont know what grind means anymore and just use it if you have a pre-requisite to something, even if its pre-requisite take little to no time to get.

I haven’t done Xera yet, was I told wrong and you don’t need leyline gliding? And, the raid masteries sure are handy.

Between that and new stats being superior to old ones for many things… I don’t know, I don’t feel it’s really any better than the old MMO’s I played.

OnizukaBR.8537:

ChrizZcE.5981:

Raids should be hard, entirely skill based, but accessable to everyone. Nobody likes gear grind.

So raids should be what they are now. Kind of hard, entirely skill based and acessable to everyone. GW2 is the first game that have raids with 0 gear grind.

Not much on the gear grind, but there is a mastery grind

Fay.2357:

>Mfw the guy arguing with me literally calls himself a sheeple

Nothing I read on the forums will ever be better than this!

Hey I love salt, I’m quite sodium rich myself a lot of the time (didn’t meant it as an insult, but more just calling it the blunt, pessimistic post that I saw it as).

And, I haven’t pugged much this week as I finished the lockouts I feel comfortable doing in LFG (no Mathias/KC/Xera, the latter two I haven’t even completed with groups willing to teach me yet though).

Honestly though, maybe it’s a time zone thing? Like, I wouldn’t start pugging until after Reset (I don’t get home from work until then) and I’ve had pretty good luck. Sure last reset night I pugged I ended up hitting like 100 shards and all I got was 1 VG kill, but then the next night I got Gors and Sloth done, and by the end of the week between pugs, and a training run I ended up getting Sab, Trio and Matthias as well.

So again I’ve been able to get most of my lockouts done the last few weeks through PUGs, training runs, and subbing in for missing players in static groups. I do end up wiping far more often than get successful kills, but I go in with that expectation.

It can be tough and grueling at times, but it’s possible, and overall I find it fun. And, only a couple of the groups I’ve been in have had anyone even raise their voice, it’s usually pretty calm and civil and people make adjustments to fix mistakes.

So, I had a couple questions.

I’ve been too lazy to get specific answers on this myself and before doing it I figured I’d throw the questions out if anyone had an answer.

What is the exact time from Bloomhunger’s emote of the incoming massive attack to the attack? And, can you invuln through it?

When the attack goes off do you need to redo all wisps or just finish the ones you missed?

If anyone knows it’d be appreciated, wondering if it can be soloed, pretty sure there are options to get 3 wisps in time but 4 would be pushing it (2 is pretty easy on most professions). Bloom I know can be soloed, it’s just that wisp part.

Squish

Some salty responses here. Personally I hopped into ‘Looking For’ found a guild that was offering invites to people interested in learning raids. Joined up, was carried through a couple of them once or twice and then I started PUGing in the non-LI required groups. So far I’ve been able to get most of my lockouts on wing1 and 2 the last few weeks (This week I got lucky and asked to sub for a static group which left me with not much to pug ). And even if I miss a lockout on a boss that I could potentially get down, I still hit the shard cap which is nice, I love how they give you shards on a solid attempt.

Anyways, those two salty posts, ehh they might have some truth in them, but they’re only fully true if you give up like they did. Plenty of others put their heads down and got things done.

We can repeat the same things at each other over and over again, but I don’t think that’s very constructive ;D

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

Think it has to do with us proving that we are an asset to the team, since we used to be considered worthless before then. Take up the tasks that people usually wouldn’t want to do; like how I learned how to solo the thermal room in Thermanova Reactor fractal and how I could control Mai’s agro with a Bear before they changed the fractal entirely. That’s my take on it since most Ranger mains tend to be masochistic after all of the abuse Anet has given us.

THIS! as an Engi main myself, I feel the same way ‘maybe if I keep picking them up they might realize Engi ain’t bad’ but, it doesn’t work Gyro rez the commander? ‘Nice banner!’

Alex Shatter.7956:

Jerus.4350:

Alex Shatter.7956:

Friends- I understand that necromancer has “longevity” and that conditions are good in high toughness environments- but it is ridiculous that people assume a full team of necromancers is “optimal”. I was kicked from a party because the other 4 players decided removing a chronomancer for a 5th necro was the “elite” and “meta”

No use getting upset over stupid, you can’t beat it.

but can it be nipped in the bud? i wouldnt have taken the time to write a post about it if i didnt see it every day in the t4 lfg /sigh

The fact that people request specific things in fractals is dumb, but people do it. Same with old dungeon pugs, chances are that ‘meta’ group took longer to clear the dungeons they did if they tried to pug a perfect makeup. Can’t cure stupid.

I honestly don’t see much of requests at all on NA though, but I guess I do fractals usually a bit after reset so maybe I just miss it?

KickzNGigglez.4958:

Just did swamp with the healer + 4 necro squad. Usually they go well as everyone had stated. However, it definitely isn’t a free pass as everyone assumes. 3 of us definitely were well prepped for the encounter but our druid and one of the necros were just taking hits left and right. The encounter was mostly just picking their dead bodies off the floor. When we got to 25%, it turns out that necro didn’t understand the wisp phase and the druid got ripped just as it phase (lingering conditions phased it).

I don’t think swamp is significantly harder than any of the major boss fractals. Unfortunately, I think the main difference between swamp and other fractals is that you can’t carry multiple low skilled players as you need at least 4 competent players.

This got worse as mist items used to infuse items became buyable, making the window to higher tier encounters way too easy.

Most professions can get 2 wisps and always good to be ready for it. I liek Scrapper Condi Engi on it for superspeed. Not a bad idea to pull out a staff on Druid. Mes/Thief of course blinks, warrior is obvious mobility. and Yeah, lots of stuff.

Alex Shatter.7956:

Friends- I understand that necromancer has “longevity” and that conditions are good in high toughness environments- but it is ridiculous that people assume a full team of necromancers is “optimal”. I was kicked from a party because the other 4 players decided removing a chronomancer for a 5th necro was the “elite” and “meta”

No use getting upset over stupid, you can’t beat it.

Saying an argument is nonconstructive doesn’t make it so. Fact is pre-HoT (and actually pre that last big trait altering before HoT) fractals were all Bloomhunger difficulty. Hell way before you could do fractals beyond what you could get AR for and people did them!

As for Chaos I find that last fight very fun on guard. Block/aegis rotations, I can face tank him while providing Aegis for the group so that the third attack doesn’t daze them when they don’t have enough dodges. Problem is finding a group that can break the bar fast enough >.<

Benchmark doesn’t include epidemics, which is why it’s an incorrect benchmark. But, also the ‘as many necros as possible’ “meta”(lol) doesn’t gain the buffs that the benchmarks have. So its’ just all wrong.

However, necro’s survivability still makes for a nice easy run. And add a Ranger and a consistent might provider and you’re rocking it hard, maybe not best but certainly easy and solid.

Jahroots.6791:

Jerus.4350:

I think that’s what is/was unhealthy for the game. Having what you call the top tier content be facerolled by pug groups for so long made people think they should be able to get top tier rewards, well, that’s not top tier content. Fractals are a scaling difficulty system, it should work that way. The lowest tier should be something a fresh 80 can push through even if it’s hard. The top should have experienced players failing if they make mistakes. Bloom does this, most of the other fractals don’t.

I’ve always had a problem with this approach to game design. A high chance of failure doesn’t inspire most players to improve, it just makes ‘em go do something else, because there’s relatively little value in it. Also, top tier rewards should not be exclusive to those with the greatest skill, but to dedicated players as well.

We had a real sweet spot in the early days (around the time LFG was added), where legit challenge was the exception rather than the rule. The majority of dungeons and fractals created the opportunity for players to master them, while still generally being accessible to all. It’s kind of odd that the addition of raids firmly cemented the meta build approach that people were constantly rallying against in the forums, yet there are relatively few topics opposing it these days. Makes one wonder whether people have embraced this, or simply lost interest in this type of content (or even the entire game)

I really wish Anet would have promoted PvP rather than instanced PvE as the go-to content for those who are actively seeking a challenge and willing to dedicate time and resources to honing their skills. It’s much better suited for this, and the dynamic and unpredictable nature of conquest matches are a more true gauge of player ability.

I can agree exclusive rewards can be devisive and I don’t support that, but completing harder content should result in a higher reward as generally it means more time investment so you need a scaled up reward to be worth the effort.

Dungeon meta had a strong dislike as it was ALL damage focused, support was minor tweaks to gain active defenses. I liked it (though I often played slightly off meta that made things easier rather than slightly faster). It’s not there anymore as all the people who wanted to do other things were granted just that with HoT. You have tanks/healers now.

PVP has a load of problems for being an endgame bit of content. Balance for instance in WvW is trash. sPVP is incredibly limited and designed in such a way that myself who has typically been pretty into PVP (part of guilds/groups that were in the top tier of PVP content) in other MMOs, well I just don’t like how GW2 does it. I could go into why but that’s a lot of stuff, but basically there is just too much to balance and too many options. If PVP was the endgame of this game, I’d have quit a long time ago and gone back to a PVP game I actually enjoy.

First, and I mean this as politely as I can, but paragraphs man. They make it much easier to understand your point.

Anyways I read it and I think I get what you’re saying, but I group with Sarah as much as I can, it’s hard with timezone differences but she’s a fractal friend. Over the time I’ve known her the list of fractal friends is always growing. These people typically will run fractals over and over, just for funsies, or to help someone who didn’t get their lockout, whatever the reason. These people are out there, and I’m one of them. It’s not rare for me to run dailies 3 times in a day with different groups of friends.

Your mention of dailies is important I think. That’s one of the problems with fractals IMO. Before HoT a lot of people ran fractals more for fun than for the rewards, but now they’re the daily grind content. And, the reason Swamp is a hot topic is because people have lost their easy t4 daily reward. They can’t handle t4, or can’t find a group that can, and they refuse to try and drop a tier to get it done and get the lesser reward. People feel they deserve the t4 reward because fractals have been so easy for so long.

I think that’s what is/was unhealthy for the game. Having what you call the top tier content be facerolled by pug groups for so long made people think they should be able to get top tier rewards, well, that’s not top tier content. Fractals are a scaling difficulty system, it should work that way. The lowest tier should be something a fresh 80 can push through even if it’s hard. The top should have experienced players failing if they make mistakes. Bloom does this, most of the other fractals don’t.

So again, ‘git gud’ by practicing Bloom in an easier setting, once you(global you, not personal you) can avoid Blooms attacks consistently then you jump up a scale.

Personally I hope they add t5 Fractals that make them all up to the bloomhunger level, and a Bloom that has it’s trash adds actually dangerous to where you want to rotate blinds and actually have to worry about them (Bloom himself doesn’t really need to be any harder, he already downs you on a mistake just fine )

Amineo.8951:

Rising Dusk.2408:

Esquilax.3491:

Ya right, except you won’t let average player into your group because we haven’t already done raid 100 times. Public groups are out of the question for someone wanting to start raids.

My only personal requirement when I make a pub is that they understand the mechanics well enough to not need them explained. If they are bad players who die repeatedly and consistently fail the mechanics, they’ll be removed from the group after a few failures so it doesn’t affect the entire team too badly. I don’t think anything about that is particularly unfair.

Esquilax.3491:

Join a guild raid? Most already have their “core raid team” maybe sometimes they might run a “pitty party” and kill 1 boss with some member who aren’t in the inner circle for charity work, but nothing serious.

Speaking as a leader of one such guild, you’re absolutely incorrect. I am willing to bring any serious member of the guild to any boss and explain the whole fight and work it through with them. If they’re an extremely bad player and can’t stay alive through anything, well, then we bring them to easier encounters so that they can practice. Obviously if they show no signs of improvement or willingness to improve, I’m not going to keep bringing them. Again, nothing here seems particularly outlandish or unfair to ask of players.

Esquilax.3491:

This exclusivity is why raids are bad.

The perception that all or even a majority of groups are exclusive is what’s bad, as it’s just not true. I see training runs grouping up and learning all of the time and have even helped them out. I personally lead a guild that brings total new raiders into difficult encounters and witness them thrive. The exclusivity is self-imposed; people see groups asking for requirements and then assume that all groups have requirements and then give up. If you’re serious about wanting to be a raider, you can do what we all did back in the day—gear up appropriately, practice a lot with your class on DPS rotations and skill usage, watch a lot of videos, and then get in there and try it!!

Just because you’re different doesn’t mean everyone is like you, you’re speaking for a minority again

True not everyone is as nice as people like Dusk, but the community is much more patient and nice than you’d expect reading the forums.

I got back not that long ago, took a few ‘pity parties’ to learn the raids, and then got myself pugging. Not all groups ask for LI. I’ve made myself flexible by having almost every profession ready (no chronotank, just chrono) so I’ve learned most of the roles now too. I still need some practice but I’m getting most of my lockouts weekly and shard cap easily hit.

I guess you just have to take some initiative. Now, I am lucky to have some old friends from back in the dungeon days (many from this forum) which helped me get a few of those pity parties, but the main learning group I ran with I got through the “looking for” area of the forums, it just happened to be lead by an old friend >.<, but there were others that joined at the same time I did that got their training just the same as I did.

Again the main difference between us and the other healing options is we HAVE to be right there. You could argue Orb, but… really?

So for WvW Zerging that means you can’t just be a healer as you’ll be up in the frontline. So mixing healing with defensive things is key. And Hammer to blast water fields can be awesome (as well as it’s other skills like immobilize). Wings and Merciful Intervention (if you want) along with orb as your on the move heals, then regroup and blast or empower. At least that’s how we’ve done it when I play WvW. Guard is your stability (so boon duration can help), some healing, control effects like pull, and then the meatshields that rush in first.

Spec.1063:

Thanks guys, It’s nice that we can have alot of options but what would be ideal gear to make, if i want to play high level fractals and to be accepted in pugs if needed?

Don’t worry about PUGs too much, they’re all over the place. One day you’ll have a guy telling you condi is the only thing acceptable because it’s the highest damage. The next power because it has additional utility and you can equip offhand staff to help heal when needed without losing a ton of damage. Then you’ll run into the guy who doesn’t want to use his own heal skill or avoid damage and wants you in full Healing gear.

Go with whichever you like the best, there’s a solid 3 options that are all acceptable, though I’d stick to the damage if you can handle it as you should never have to heal to the extent healing gear does in fractals, if you do you’re carrying a bunch of bad players very hard.

So basically Condi > Power in damage, but power brings reflects and extra support and is more free to make variations for certain situations. Personally I go Condi just because I find the rotation fun. It’s not all that hard but does take a bit of timing and it’s kinda easy to screw up big (forget to swap weapons, or hit it and lag then bonfire without making sure).

And my experience is pugs usually don’t care too much anymore, it’s not like old dungeons or raids where people demanded certain things.

Azoqu.8917:

Jerus.4350:

It’s no druid (druid’s honestly OP and if anyone tells you otherwise they’re a liar) but when you’re all sticking together it’s very very solid, just that range healing that’s not there (teleport/leap heals, but you have to move there basically).

I’d almost look at Guardian healing more compared to Water Staff Elementalist healing. It’s all about lots of smaller consistant heals while the Druid is about really big heals but not nearly as often. Once you compare it to Elementalist you start to realize that Guardian healing is terrible because there is not a good weapon to use for it. I personally believe that the staff should be looked at by the developers and made into an actual healing weapon instead of the random stick of mob tagging it is. And improving the staff would not be hard to do either:

Skill 1 – make it heal allies that are in the cone in compariable numbers to Water 1.
Skill 2 – increase the CD to 10s and make it ground targetted. It would heal those it passes through and detonate on spot for more healing. Being a blast finisher wouldn’t hurt either.
Skill 3 – make the symbol pulse a little bit of healing baseline.
Skill 4 – this thing should honestly heal per pulse and in total heal for 5-6k in healing gear and not the trash it heals now. I’d also remove the might stacking for condition removal and regeneration.
Skill 5 – allies who pass through it are healed.

Honestly the biggest problems with Guardian healing are the fact that the staff is outdated and a relic from the time when Anet didn’t want anyone playing main healer but wanted to give a support weapon. If the staff was made for an elite specialization it would do so much more than it does now. And of all the classes that heal, Guardian should be the best at it because it was supposed to be the class that was the closest to the monk.

Most of this is a thought from looking at the raid scene. Why Rangers and Elementalist heal raids and the Guardian, who was supposed to be the Monk replacement, doesn’t is beyond me.

Yup it does compare to Ele better, I made the comparison to Druid as they’re the premier healer, and I think a lot of that is due to the fact that they can range heal so well. Guardians have solid burst healing, it’s just that it all has to be near them, unlike the other two which have great and practical range options.

Closest I’ve found is Engineer, Druid, and Warrior. Invigorating Precision Thief can be very good, with Staff or Sword/Pistol, you just regen health so fast, but you lack the ability to take a high damage hit with the low base hp pool, but you have plenty of evades and potential blinds.

Engineer you have Scrapper with the hammer which has an evade (tricky as it’s animation locks you in longer than the evade so use with caution), a solid block, and a reflect. Then you have some other tools, like… toolkit with it’s block. But, mainly Blinds, and blinds and more of them which are good agaisnt anything that either doesn’t rapidly strike you, or doesn’t ignore it. In the end I have no problem on my Engi’s but then again they’re my main profession so I just feel comfortable. Also they have some great healing with HT and water field blasts.

Druid, you have CA form to bounce you right back to full health when you get down. You have access to other survival skills and pets holding agro can pull the pressure off you.

Warrior of course being just a meatshield, but it lacks the recovery without great losses to damage output. Which is why it’s still behind Necro/reaper just like all the rest of these.

Reaper is just impossible to compete with in your more general day to day PVE.

I like to lie to myself and say it’s done on purpose for immersion. You’re in a giant battle, things are flying everywhere, big booms, pops, ahh. Think of that rushing the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan. You’re just plowing through dazed and in shock doing the best you can.

So, yeah that’s it, it’s all about immersion… :s

Azure has a nice list there, and this is what I use as my “I’m gonna carry this fractal”(in the end being mainly me just kitten ing around though it does take a lot of pressure off people):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNApeSl8AhShYvQwOIQQELLEFWCUBnwVA8ADg8y/8TPA-T1xHABopP4n9HA4UAckyPwfCA0pEsQ1fIFgfDtA-w

Of course there are other alterations, like picking up Monks Focus and Merciful Intervention for more healing. Focus Mastery if you use that instead of hammer/shield, shelter if you’re facetanking and all that fun stuff.

In the end we have a high powered regen with Writ of Persistance, mace auto heal, plus our boon regen. Couple that with somewhat frequent aegis pops for 1.5k a pop and dodge heals as sort of a less frequent health maintenance. Then you have a nearly 6k wings of Resolve(actually should be closer to 7k with the outgoing heal effectiveness) and 7k+ Receive the Light for burst healing. And that’s not even everything available, but typically more than enough to get the job done.

It’s no druid (druid’s honestly OP and if anyone tells you otherwise they’re a liar) but when you’re all sticking together it’s very very solid, just that range healing that’s not there (teleport/leap heals, but you have to move there basically).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4y70rr/how_to_start_raiding_this_far_down_the_line/

Similar question, bunch of good responses.

High Level fractals condi is very nice due to high toughness. But, zerk build is also very acceptable. The good news, you can swap relatively cheaply if you change your mind (spirit shards may be your biggest boundary there as they come in slow).

Personally I love the Condi builds, when they fixed condi’s to be viable I suddenly found myself liking ranger (sword back then was something I just couldn’t get used to). My friend though does almost exclusively fractals and sword+X.

If you do go power you’re going to want to get a Sword and an offhand (Axe most likely but they all have their benefits) ascended as Longbow is not a good standalone weapon, it’s solid in a rotation with quick draw though, or when you just need to range, but that’s not that often.

Anyways, both are good, and gearing condi is much tougher as you need to raid to complete the trinkets right now (in another 2months or so we’ll probably have more options, but for now just back, amulet, and 1 ring are available outside raids). There are alternatives though (Sinister/rampager/rabid in that order IMO) and change your sigils a bit.

curtegg.5216:

Anet would benefit employing two obvious solutions. One wonders why they don’t do it.

1) Make all dungeons, raids, and world bosses have two modes. Regular like now (except remove time gates from raids) and hardcore mode (preserve time-gate in raids), and
2) Implement tiered loot based upon 2 factors. Numbers participating and performance. If you solo a dungeon you get 5x the loot as a player who does the same dungeon with a full party. Do a world boss with fewer players or down him faster than the average (like get Tequatl to battery phase at 10 minutes left on the timer) the participating players get better loot. The end result is better loot for the good players while letting casuals participate in all aspects of the game.

Elitists get the goods and casuals get to participate in all aspects of the game. It’s a win-win!

Anet wise-up!

1) No clue how true it is here, but I know when talking about a similar thing with a dev in another game he said that even making a strait copy of an existing piece of content is the majority of the work for making something new (as far as a developer was concerned, so not factoring in new art or code). So if that’s at all true here, it’d make sense as to why they haven’t done it (why do all that work for a copy if a little more will get something new?)

2) Kick at the end of a dungeon/whatever to get extra loot… it would absolutely happen. In Open world you’d have people demanding specific builds and calling people out for making mistakes… and just generally people get salty when others determine their rewards. So your last sentence… ehh, casuals get to participate, but while being verbally abused by the elitists as far as open world goes. And, we’d surely see “meta” popping up in fractal LFGs again (only seen it a couple times now since I got back a little over a month ago).

Dire is just fantastic with how much defense you get with a respectable amount of offense through condi’s. The problem is if you come across someone with a setup that can defend themselves against heavy Condi damage then you’re kind of SOL and best to just disengage. Dire/Rabid with Balth runes and P/P, Flamethrower. Firearms with 113, then I’d go Alchemy and pick up HGH. Last line there’s lots of options.

One of the favorite things to do though is drop a few elixirs to get your long might stacks from HGH, then come in and fire all your…fire (burning) stuff and try to burst them down.

For that last trait line, Tools is great with extra dodges as an option, perma swiftness and auto stunbreak, or you can get double Incendiary ammo if you wait to use it until you can get your first evade, then release a second burst (weaker initial burst for a second burst after they’ve cleansed).

Remember to pump out more than just burning though, that’s our burst condi, but bleeds stack up nicely, and then other condi’s even if they aren’t pumping the damage are great to cover and force the use of condi clears. And, poison will make their healing less effective so perhaps saving at least one of our options for that for when they get a bit lower to toss on when they will likely pop a heal.

Overall though I suggest you hit up Youtube, there’s probably a ton of video examples that will be your best way to learn other than just playing yourself.

We’re also not bad in large scale, just not optimal, there’s actually a lot of things we can do.

I don’t know if you popped in two weeks ago when BG got dropped to t2, but it seemed to me that they were just as, if not more blobby during NA prime time. The main difference was that as soon as NA was over the amount of people to fight dropped to almost nothing, where t1 there seems to always be some kind of force on.

Muchacho.2390:

Sarrs.4831:

Brigg.3961:

Corrupter’s fervor is something power necros need now more than ever with this condition meta and it should have easier access than having to take an obscure trait line just to get it.

this argument ultimately ends with “death magic should just be deleted”

we have bunkery lines for a reason, death magic is one of those bunkery lines, it should actually be a suitable bunkery line rather than an automatic passover for soul reaping because you’ve taken one of its strongest traits

like really, just replace soul comprehension with something that isn’t absolute trash and it’ll be a good line. if you swapped the positions of last gasp and soul comprehension everyone running soul reaping would switch to death magic overnight

Swapping those two trait is not a good idea. Soul comprehension is a useless trait no matter where it is. On-death traits are always a bad idea (hence why all other on-death traits were removed) unless it would be something like the stack sigils (e.g. bloodlust etc.) though they have limited use in spvp (for WvW or pve they are amazing).

Death Nova is another on death trait, in a tree called Death magic…

Not saying I don’t agree with your assessment of Soul Comprehension, just there are still On-death things and it does make sense to have, it’s just a question of power.

Linken.6345:

New fractals you say looks around I see one new fractal, no fractals

It’s true they aren’t new, but they’ve done some major reworks to other fractals that make them feel quite new. Snowblind and Swamp are essentially entirely new fractals with the amount of changes.

Ayrilana.1396:

Ardid.7203:

SS afect only movement, right?

Yes. Quickness is the one that affects skills.

And it stacks to that point that a mesmer can keep it up indefinitely >.<

IMO SS should stack, it’s not like it’s super common or in high duration. But, at the very least it shouldn’t override a longer one.

Scrapper is more a defensive/utility line isn’t it though? I guess you could say the same about tools, but I think Scrapper gives a bit more, and that includes the hammer as well(block, evade, reflect). I think Scrapper overall is one of the better Elite specs in that it’s good in some situations and not just something we’ll always use like many others.

So I like this suggestion not for the damage increase but because it fixes the clunkiness of rocket charge. The damage is just icing. And moreso I’d like to see a damage increase on Rifle to make it worth using those skills.

caerulean.4837:

I don’t like the idea of reducing the number of leaps at all, sorry. The whole point of Rocket Charge, at least to me, is that you get three finishers in quick succession. Engi lets you play with combo fields and finishers more than any other class and reducing that skill to one finisher on a shorter cooldown has some merit but ultimately takes some fun synergy away. Maybe 2 leaps on a slightly shorter CD with a lower damage buff? But in my opinion 1 leap is less cool.

Totally agree that it should be affected by quickness though. But for the sake of full evade frames I also like the idea of increased distance instead, especially if there are fewer leaps.

You already only get 2 leap finishers, the middle leap’s finisher was removed.

You’d have the same amount of leaps/time overall though PierPiero, just they’d come every 6 seconds rather than 2 in 2s+ every 12s.

I like it though. Considering it’s hardly worthy of being called a movement skill (no distance) I think quickness working on it should be fine. I’d also be ok with no quickness but an increase on the distance though.

Behellagh.1468:

Jerus.4350:

sephiroth.4217:

Agreed, removed the time gate.

Celestial is a dead stat like most stats since HoT came out.

I’d argue that’s the reverse of ideal. At least by the games initial design. You weren’t supposed to have a gear progression or big blocks in gear. But, here we are with some stats being locked behind like 25g per piece and others at a couple gold max. That just seems counter to initial design and feels like it’s become the same standard MMO design of grinding for new gear every so often.

25 times 10 silver is 2.5 gold, not 25.

There was a glut of quartz before HoT was announced and it was going for 50-60c each. Smart market investors figured, as ANet has done in other cases, that a need for quartz was going to be introduced and the 8 million units on the TP was drained to under 200k when HoT launched. And they were right as charged quartz was need for guild halls, some new stat combos and a few of crafted legendary weapons.

I was referencing the stuff that takes the new stats that require 3+ of 7g+ stuff. Yes it’s slightly off topic but at the same time it’s all about accessibility to gear stats. Freshwater Pearls are about 7-8g each, need 3 of them per piece of standard gear, more for trinkets iirc. That plus the other materials you’re looking at close to 25g if not more on average per piece. Likewise charged quartz while not as much is still far more than your standard core gear stats, and that’s just wrong for a game that was not supposed to have a gear grind.

Ging.6485:

Simple answer :

Revenant : http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Herald_-_DPS/Support

This is by far the easiest class to play in raids from my experience. High survivability, easy rotation, high damage. The problem is though, raids pretty much only require one.

The rotation is easy to explain too.

Keep up facet of nature, use facet of elements on cooldown. Spam sword 1, use sword 2 on cooldown. Keep up other facets as needed for Fury, Regen, Protection.

For breakbars, use Axe 5, and then Staff 5.

That’s pretty much it.

Second would be:

PS Warrior :

This is a little harder to play than Revenant, but still really easy. Raids usually take two of these. Your goal is to keep might up. Seeing as Rev’s and Warriors can share ascended gear, I’d recommend making both if you can.

Next is :

Condi Necro : This takes a bit more skill because you usually have to take up some more complicated responsibilities. You have to time epidemics, kite mobs, run green circle in VG. It’s still 3rd easiest though.

…

Finally are Chrono, Elementalist, and Druid. The rotations and responsibilities of these classes make them somewhat stressful to play. Especially Elementalist in my opinion. Now that D/Wh has been nerfed, you need to use staff. The problem with staff is though that even though it’s long ranged, in order to get all the damage you need out of it, you are required to stay stationary. Combine that with the low survivability of the Ele, and you have a class that’s difficult to play.

Don’t forget Glint’s Elite for CC, and on Trio going Shiro and it’s elite on the Mortar guys… but yeah other than that what you said is basically it. More or less you’re there for the f2 skill and fury in glint. Beyond that you can do additional things but nothing you have to do (but should).

Lynnie.7213:

CondiDruid in raids are very niche. To get to run that you probably have to know the people you raid with? Pugs will more likely ask you for reaper.

See that’s something I just don’t agree with. My general pugs for raids lack a good amount of healing, not the fault of the healer but healing in 2 places at once is impossible at times. Having a backup in the form of a condi druid would benefit groups greatly. It’s not like enrage timers are usually an issue, it’s more mechanical faults and people dying, which can be remedied pretty well with some additional healing.