Guild Wars 2

I don’t know PVP/WVW Roaming, so I won’t comment. But here’s a little summary of the meta’s.

WvW Zerg:
Guard: You’re there for 2 main things, Stability being the most important. Stand your Ground and Virtue of Courage (Traited Indomitable Courage) will provide stability for your team, rotating these with another guard will keep it up pretty consistently, the best way to get yourself dead in WvW is to stop moving, so this lets you keep moving even if they use stuff in an attempt to stop you. The Second is regrouping, Empower is a great ability on staff, heals + Might, whole package, on regroups you’ll hit this to try and reset, you’ll also hit it before battle. Along with those you have Hammer for immob/damage, and some other things, but those 2 are the big things.
Warrior: Big thing is Immob/Cripple, you’re the frontline, set the enemy up so your backline can take them out. Along with that Warhorn is great for clearing condis and keeping swiftness going in battle. Together with the guard you make up the frontline which as I said, tries to set up the enemy so the backline can wipe them up.
Elementalist: You’re there as the primary backline, Meteor is amazing damage, enough to make everyone scatter… or die… water fields on regroups or even on engages to help with condi. You’re both support and damage all in one, just stay away from the fight or you’ll die (speaking staff Ele which is what’s meta, you can do other stuff but it’s generally staff Ele in WvW Zerg).
Necro: You’re the damage, drop your wells when the enemy is all piled up, and watch them melt. You can also pinsnipe and focus on the commanders with Deathshroud and corrupt boon, but you’re primarily there to drop the bomb(wells) on the enemy forces.
Mesmer: Portal/Veil Bot. You can pinsnipe, but generally you’re there for those two abilities. It’s a thankless job with little reward due to the low AE ability, but it’s amazing how effective just those two abilities can be.
Ranger: Pinsnipe, that’s your job, kill that commander, track him down (the one everyone is following) and kill him.
Thief: Scouting, having one isn’t bad, they can look ahead for the commander without being seen.
Engi: Just like everything the Engi does, you can slip in and perform some of the roles others do but not as effectively, you can frontline, backline, anything just not as good as the GWEN setup.

What I’d do for a more elegant/realistic looking GS. Bonetti’s rapier is amazing, I want something along those lines but GS. Just have to take the Mithril one and touch up the hilt, maybe have a more elaborate texture on the blade, and golden.

Crossaber.8934:

Disco ball / Unicorn bow / Plant bow / Party gun

These are jokes to me, craft an ascended and apply any named exotic is so much better.

There’s a reason I only have Minstrel

Endo Kazuki.2086:

What is line casting? And what does that pot of hylek poison do?

That’s for Line casting, good explanation, basically tricks the game into landing all your attacks into a smaller area by crossing the targetted circle and the “max range” so that you have a smaller area that fits in both, think of it kind of like a venn diagram of sorts. If your targetted area is at max range, when you dodge back you’ve cut off the back half of the circle because it is now out of range, creating a much smaller area that will get the same amount of attacks.

As for Hylek Pots, the 1 skill gives 10s swiftness on a 15s reuse, make sure to buy the ones in Timberline not the ones in Caledon as the ones in Caledon can’t be used in dungeons.

yolo swaggins.2570:

Or maybe he has an evil twin.

OR TIME PARADOX! HE IS FROM THE FUTURE’S PAST!

Does one have a creepy goatee?

One’s CAPTAIN Evon Gnashblade, the other is Evon Gnashblade, different’ people, duh

Arken.3725:

I think another problem you’ll find is putting out a steady amount of dmg while NOT getting cced. Remember, meditations afford you no stability. This becomes tough when keeping on your opponents is incredibly difficult as well as your ranged weaponry(scepter) misses quite often.

Edit: While you do get that extrs 2k heal, the base is incredibly low, probably the lowest in the game.

I guess the big thing I’m looking at is the instant heal, god knows getting knocked out of shelter is the most frustrating thing. Then perks of possibly bigger heal + Fury, could be interesting to play with.

Obtena.7952:

Black Box.9312:

Obtena.7952:

Jerus.4350:

Obtena.7952:

I hadn’t considered the possibility that fixing shield may interfere with something new in an expansion but now you mention it, that’s just another good reason to not change existing content within a new content expansion.

Let’s be honest with each other here. We might not like shield the way it works, but for what it does do, it’s not broken.

… What does it do other than troll people in EoTM? Bring it on your Bunker in PVP to bounce people out of the node every 40s?

The idea that it could be relied on for anything is absurd.

Sure, but it does what it’s intended to do. I’ve not played an MMO where the dev’s priority is to fix things that are intended over broken, buggy, etc, especially in an expansion intended to showcase new content. It’s certainly a hard sell to claim we need this off hand option to work differently because players find little value in it. Based on what I’ve seen as historical, I would say it’s almost an irrelevant argument and Anet behaviour doesn’t seem to be too far from that truth either.

It doesn’t matter if it exhibits its intended behavior. Making something work properly is bug fixing. Balancing is going beyond making it work properly to ensure that it is a viable option. Guardian shield needs proper balancing, not just bug fixing.

Let’s be clear … it doesn’t matter to PLAYERS. It does matter to devs. It DOES work properly; sheild is not bugged.

Did I miss where someone said it was bugged? I thought we just wanted them to make it viable, in essences fixing their mistake of making it so kittenty.

Arken.3725:

Still wouldn’t help Jerus. Due to the fact that Guardian’s are slow and can’t control their opponents very well, Litany of Wrath actually makes no sense for the class.

It’s certainly hard to beat out shelter, and litany does have issues, just saying can’t forget that it’s a meditation, meaning it can come with an extra 2k healing, fury, and a reduced recast. It being instant cast would make me at least consider trying it out. Get off a good WW with that going and it should be a good amount of healing, not to mention that it was initially an uninterruptable heal of 3k+ and gave me fury. Still may not be enough to beat out shelter, but yeah…

Zoltreez.6435:

dmg is reeeeealy bad as a guardian even a full berseker guard with greatsword still hits like a noodle compared to allot of other classes.

guardians are realy only good for bunker builds. thats how i feel and see after allot of testing.

All depends on the build, guard can be anywhere from top to bottom tier dps, and still be valuable in every situation

IIRC, 45005 is on the low end,46202 is on the high end with UC and mid with MoC.

Swap Shattered Aegis for Fiery Wrath. 10% damage is nothing to scoff at. Kindled zeal isn’t all that great, I think you could find better use in those 2 points.

Drop Searing flames for Blind Exposure.

Drop Pure of Heart of Superior Aria, at least while soloing especially with that setup, 20% less on cooldowns is NICE.

With those last 2 points I’d consider Master of Consecrations if you want to use them, or if not, then maybe Retributive Armor (so 46022 or 46220 respectively).

For weapons I’d go GS + something, that something, for faster movement and you also have the added benefit of prestacking might before jumping in staff is not bad. Ideally you’d swap it in and out with the GS laying your swiftness or might as needed but that’s a lot of extra work so I can see being lazy. The other option would likely go with Sword/Focus. Sword is great for teleporting to things for quick movement and blinds.

Blinds are the HUGE thing about Guards, rotate your blinds so you can land one before they hit you and you can go unscathed through most content. It gets tougher with multiple enemies, especially if their attacks are staggered, but you can prevent a LOT of damage that way.

Other than that, you’ll generally want to do something like : Leap of Faith (gs3) into the group, Whirling Wrath, perhaps drop VoJ on them for a second blind, hit gs4 (symbol) then depending on your secondary weapon you may swap and do that weapons rotation, or you may stick to GS, if you stick to GS using GS5 is nice as it’s a damage over time effect if you don’t pull them.

Skill wise, retreat is great when solo in open world. Save yourself is not bad, I generally like Stand your ground over hold the line. I often will go with something like Retreat Wall of Reflection and Purging flames, you have your condi removal, your swiftness/aegis, and a projectil defense to make all the pesky range attacks bounce right back.

Do NOT use healing breeze, perhaps in a group environment… maybe… but really, Shelter is where it’s at, maybe signet if you want the condi removal/bigger heal and don’t think the block will help much (it almost always helps). Focused renewal is not bad as an elite, but I guess I can see your purpose on Hounds.

It’s kind of a broad topic so sorry if I wrote too much, and if I didn’t hit everything you wanted, happy to answer any more specific questions. In general I always suggest people look at Obal’s stuff, he’s made videos and guides for just about anything a PVE guard needs.

Ayrilana.1396:

Some people would call the new attack with his right leg as a gimmick. I say this as people have labeled new attacks as gimmicks in this game and others. Do do agree with you about those who call dodging a gimmick but that just shows you how loosely people use that term. A lot of times people use it towards anything they don’t like. If they like it then it’s a good mechanic, if they don’t then it’s too gimmicky.

I personally don’t see an issue with gimmicks or artificial difficulty when done within reason. If enemy stats are increased enough to just make the fight long and boring without adding anything, I would have a problem with it. If mechanics were added to the point that the encounter became convoluted, I’d have a problem with it. Again, this is all subjective as it would be based on what I felt was good or bad.

I agree with you here. And, like I said earlier, when you go into gimmicks you’re making it even more subjective as usually people enjoy the core mechanics, you’re taking a chance by diverging from them.

My problem and why I had to chime in was when I saw the same thing I’ve seen dozens of times.
“No one wants actual difficult content, look at aetherpath no one uses it, they just call it gimmicky as an excuse to not do it”

NO, we call it gimmicky because it’s gimmicky, and in a way that a lot of people don’t enjoy. There are difficult parts of it, but that isn’t going to make me want to go through all that stuff that I really don’t enjoy just for one good fight.

If you consider increased attack speed as simply an artificial difficulty, what about a new attack that isn’t a gimmick? Lupi normally kicks with his left leg. He now has a right leg kick that will carry through all 3 phases.

That work for ya?

People who call having to dodge an attack a gimmick are idiots. Many fractals are gimmicky. Personally some I enjoy, some I don’t. New Dredge is gimmicky, but I like it. Cliffside, not such a big fan.

I don’t consider increased attack speed artificial difficulty though. THe difference being that a perfect run is increased in difficulty. Harder hits doesn’t make it harder to perform perfectly, it simply increases the risk if you screw up. Adding more HP doesn’t make it harder, it simply makes it last longer which is usually a pretty boring thing. Increasing attack speed means you have to re-evaluate how you actively defend yourself. You can’t afford to needlessly dodge something that you may have before “just in case”.

Using Lupi as an example, Going into phase 3 from phase 2, I could use my normal response to frenzied blast, and often I will “just in case” knowing I have an option still available for the first phase 3 attack. Now, if I had to be concerned about having to deal with the first, second, and maybe even third phase 3 attack before my “wasted” response was off cooldown, then I may have to look at another way to handle that phase change. I hope that makes sense. Faster attacks means wasted energy/blocks/evades is more likely to make you dead. That’s not artificial, it’s going to require a second look at your strategy.

Remember Litany of Wrath is a meditation, Honestly making it fast cast or instant (most meditations are right?) would be enough to make it worthwhile IMO. Being able to pop it as you start your whirling wrath or something along that line would make it a viable alternative to shelter, currently it simply isn’t.

Hallowed Grounds is a very solid PVE ability, may be a bit limiting in PVP but I wouldn’t really change it, I mean I’d love a lower cooldown but I can’t complain about an ability I use quite often.

I’d love the signet of wrath idea.

Tome of Wrath of course needs to actually do damage, they gave it a minor buff recently, but it’s not enough to make it worth using outside of triggering the quickness then swapping out.

lujate.5432:

I’ve been away for about 8 months. Before my hiatus, for some reason i re-spec’d my PvE Mesmer to go shatter. I don’t care for shatter, so I’m going back to phantasm where i belong. I looked up builds in case things had changed dramatically. Nothing surprising regarding traits, but i saw people recommending the signet heal. When it first came out, most people thought it was a joke. Have things changed? Is it now a better choice than Ether Feast?

You have two general options for PVE Mesmer, Heal Mantra to synchronize with the GM Trait for an extra big of personal damage. OR you use the Signet to pop out your third phantasm more quickly.

In either case you’re not using Ether Feast.

silvermember.8941:

Jerus.4350:

Harper.4173:

@Bernie

If you think a good player playing the game and investing thousands of hours into improving his ability to play it equals “screwing around in a game” you’re dead wrong.

People do put effort in. People do it 50 times and fail before they do it right. People read, theorycraft and learn from their mistakes.

Perhaps you haven’t come across these facts since you seem rather uninformed to their existence.

The game doesn’t have to feel like a chore but good plays and good strategy and good theorycrafting should be rewarded.

There’s no reason the worst of players should be rewarded on par with the best of players.

The problem isn’t just that playing well isn’t rewarded. It’s worse than that. The better you get the more dull the game gets as the game hasn’t kept up with a growing skill level that many have obtained. That’s the big issue with not having increased difficulty. Your players that have learned to play well are being punished.

Old games use to increase in difficulty as you beat levels and content. The new status quo for MMOs is to stagnate as they don’t want to alienate anyone, in this very reserved approach they’ve shut off anyone who plays the game for a challenge.

Let’s be honest here, MMORPG are not games you play the challenge. There are better ways to get a challenge and that is in single player games since they come with a difficulty slider.

Crying about challenge is like going to a Chuck E cheese and complaining that the games are for kids and they should have games that cater to adults since adults like games as well. Chuck E cheese could include more adult (I don’t mean sexual games, just games like COD, rated T-M) games or the adults could realize they are best served going somewhere that allows them to play adult games.

And yet every MMO I’ve played has provided difficult content… including GW2, it’s simply whether they continue to do so or not. Arah, Fractal50s, Liadri, nice good challenging content. It’s just nothing new has been added to it in quite some time.

Harper.4173:

@Bernie

If you think a good player playing the game and investing thousands of hours into improving his ability to play it equals “screwing around in a game” you’re dead wrong.

People do put effort in. People do it 50 times and fail before they do it right. People read, theorycraft and learn from their mistakes.

Perhaps you haven’t come across these facts since you seem rather uninformed to their existence.

The game doesn’t have to feel like a chore but good plays and good strategy and good theorycrafting should be rewarded.

There’s no reason the worst of players should be rewarded on par with the best of players.

The problem isn’t just that playing well isn’t rewarded. It’s worse than that. The better you get the more dull the game gets as the game hasn’t kept up with a growing skill level that many have obtained. That’s the big issue with not having increased difficulty. Your players that have learned to play well are being punished.

Old games use to increase in difficulty as you beat levels and content. The new status quo for MMOs is to stagnate as they don’t want to alienate anyone, in this very reserved approach they’ve shut off anyone who plays the game for a challenge.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

Everything you need to know about PVE guard is in there.

46202 is what I use often for DPS swapping between MoC and UC. THen 45005 for full utility. 66200 is solid for non UC DPS which is more practical in many situations.

At least that’s what I understand in summary form.

Ayrilana.1396:

BeVa.4895:

Beldin.5498:

BeVa.4895:

I think the problem with difficult content is that difficulty is subjective.
What even is difficult?
Something that takes a long time to complete?
Something that takes “skill”? Then again what is considered “skill”?
Something that takes teamwork?
Something that makes use of unusual tactics? Then what are those supposed to be?

The thing is, there is no one that can give an answer that will please EVERYONE.

Thats the problem .. and in the end the answer in MMOs is mostly something that
only makes the game more annoying.

- more hitpoints
- more damage
- more one-hit kills
- more CC

Yeah because no one knows what difficult content is supposed to be… not even the players.

Game designers often ask the question:
“Why is “more x” a problem and how can we solve it?"

And the moment they try something new, they get criticized for making it “gimmicky”. Because people want a challenge, but do not want to do the same thing AND do not want to do something different.

I was tempted to make a post/thread asking what people thought difficulty was. I see it going two ways which is increased stats for enemies or increased usage of mechanics. The former would be criticized as artificial difficulty while the latter would be criticized as gimmicky. Sometimes I’ve seen the same people criticizing both leading me to believe they have absolutely no idea what they want.

I very much disagree.

The difference between a gimmick and a mechanic is whether it’s part of the core game play. Glint’s lair, the boss you kill by hitting the things that make you fragile then transfering it to the other things and breaking them… that’s a gimmick. The first boss where you simply have attacks that you try to dodge while you kill him, that’s normal mechanics.

That said, gimmicks aren’t always bad, it’s just you’re taking a stretch on whether people will like it or not. Only an idiot would play a game where they dislike the core mechanics. It’s when they diverge from that base that you are taking a chance. Aetherpath for example, it’s a lot of puzzle stuff, and not much of the strait forward fighting that most of the other dungeons are. It’s diverging from the norm. I’m sure many absolutely LOVE it. Personally I’m not a big fan, just didn’t hit me as something I enjoy. Whether you like it or not though it’s gimmicky because it is so different.

I only take issue with using Aetherpath as an example of difficulty and people saying “see no one likes it” well, it’s not that it’s difficult that people don’t enjoy it, it’s that it’s so different.

To get to your example, if they made a hard mode Arah where Lupi’s attacks came out 50% faster, no one would call that gimmicky, they’s simply call it harder. If they added a new mechanic where crystals spawned and you had to take them and hit Lupi with them, well then we’d be looking at something gimmicky.

To end, I’ll say that some of my favorite encounters in any game were in EQ, 2 raids that were the most gimmicky raids I’ve ever taken part in… but I freakin loved them. Others I know… HATED them. You’re taking a chance when you go away from core mechanics creating the content and instead try and use some more interesting out of the box ideas, some will love it, some will hate it.

Covis.6037:

Let us wear top hats with this outfit please.

Or just add it to it, and the monocle! we can always make the head gear invisible if people don’t like the addition it can be like it never happened for them.

Amen Arietta, though I do leave groups when I get frustrated enough. I don’t ask anything of my group but when I join a dungeon I expect to have fun, if I’m not, then I leave.

Doesn’t suppression only occur when you use the same phrase repeatedly? Try using more variety in the way you describe things? /shrug.

The people above already explained why it’d be a terrible idea to prevent suppression.

Focus is where it’s at for PVE, torch has it’s uses, shield is /meh. BUT!!!!!!

We’re guardians, we get this little purple ethereal shield graphic from our Aegis… so in essence we usually have a shield with us

dlonie.6547:

Mines gonna be an engi. I have some gems left over from a server transfer to get another slot, just waiting until I get bored again and feel like learning a new class

Do you already have all professions?

Sylvari Female Thief
Sylvari Male Necro
Asuran Male Guardian
Asuran Female Warrior
Asuran Male Engineer
Norn Male Mesmer
Norn Female Ranger
Charr Male Engineer
Human Female Elementalist

So yup with 2 engi’s, only combo I’m missing is male human and female charr too. So, it’s going to be a male human whatever it is. Not sure what it’ll be yet though. I was thinking warrior, but I don’t really like the profession, but all my other professions I already love the ones I have.

Edit: Btw Engi is great, if there is some hole in the group you can fill it, if not you get to do your full dps rotation and IMO it’s the most fun DPS rotation out there, the only one that can compare is the D/F Ele Rotation on Zehyn’s guide(sorry if I spelled that wrong).

dlonie.6547:

IMO, people who don’t want to run dungeons but want to level should just buy them.

That way, they aren’t in pugs slowing things down and having a bad attitude.

(Note that I’m talking about people that don’t want to run them, not people that are just inexp but want to learn. Those are more than welcome in my pugs).

And AC…you pay 1.5g to enter, and you leave with 1.5g, 60 tokens, and a free level a couple minutes later. Not a bad deal.

As for tomes of knowledge…I’m loving that they’re part of dailies now. At this rate I won’t even need to level my next toon at all \o/

Sitting on a free lvl 80 char now, just trying to decide what to make it.

dlonie.6547:

Vayne.8563:

The thing is, people aren’t mad about what we’re getting. They’re mad that it’s all that we’re getting.

QFT.

I’ve been pleased with the direction this season’s boss fights have been going (not in difficulty, but in creativity with mechanics), but I’m not at all happy that they’ve not released much content for WvW, PvP, or dungeons. It’s not being hypocritical — it’s about seeing most game modes languish while the LS gets all the love.

They’re doing a good job with LS. But there’s more to this game, and it’s been neglected.

Everytime I see the LS stuff I wonder how much work it’d be to manipulate it into new content for the other areas of the game.

Could Silverwastes be made into a WvW Borderlands map to mix it up?
Could Glint’s Lair be made into a new dungeon by beefing up the encounters a bit and adding some stuff here and there?
Any part of dry top/SW/instances that could be adjusted into a new PVP map?

Simply seems like it’d be doable, so… why not?

Dungeon/Fractal content you want as much Assassin/Zerk as you can get, because the content is designed to allow you to survive without the passive defenses by utilizing your active ones (dodge/block/blind/reflect) So I’d go with Assassin/zerk accessories/weapons.

Celestial will get you a bit more defense and some condi and that simply doesn’t translate into dungeon/fractal play very well.

WvW there are different builds utilized for different type of fighting. And PVP your gear doesn’t matter.

Obtena.7952:

Jerus.4350:

Obtena.7952:

I hadn’t considered the possibility that fixing shield may interfere with something new in an expansion but now you mention it, that’s just another good reason to not change existing content within a new content expansion.

Let’s be honest with each other here. We might not like shield the way it works, but for what it does do, it’s not broken.

… What does it do other than troll people in EoTM? Bring it on your Bunker in PVP to bounce people out of the node every 40s?

The idea that it could be relied on for anything is absurd.

Sure, but it does what it’s intended to do. I’ve not played an MMO where the dev’s priority is to fix things that are intended over broken, buggy, etc, especially in an expansion intended to showcase new content. It’s certainly a hard sell to claim we need this off hand option to work differently because players find little value in it. Based on what I’ve seen as historical, I would say it’s almost an irrelevant argument and Anet behaviour doesn’t seem to be too far from that truth either.

The bolded is exactly why it needs to change.

Is it broken in that it doesn’t work as intended, no.
But it’s intended mechanics simply don’t suit the game very well and that’s more than enough reason to address it.

Obtena.7952:

I hadn’t considered the possibility that fixing shield may interfere with something new in an expansion but now you mention it, that’s just another good reason to not change existing content within a new content expansion.

Let’s be honest with each other here. We might not like shield the way it works, but for what it does do, it’s not broken.

… What does it do other than troll people in EoTM? Bring it on your Bunker in PVP to bounce people out of the node every 40s?

The idea that it could be relied on for anything is absurd.

Heard it had fun, challenging jumping puzzles and dungeons. It delivered, just wish they had continued on with it more

X T D.6458:

yea edited to correct mistake, smc 25k caps, tower defender 500k yikes, yakslapper 1million etc etc. Time will tell if anything is changed, but some will complain its changed to cater to casual players, I dont know about that.

Can’t kill every single yak that spawns for 3 years strait? Psh casuals…
:D, there’s catering to casuals and then there’s not being down right stupid.

You could take a 0 off yakslapper and it’d still be a tremendous and insane achievement, take 2 off and it’d still be quite impressive.

dlonie.6547:

Hmm…now I’m curious…I wonder what the time difference would be if this was done without line targeting? How much of a boost does that actually give?

I’d imagine very little if any on Lupi because of how large he is.

Tom Gore.4035:

Vukorep.3081:

how did they buy the game in the first place if they dont have access to credit cards….?

currently 100gems is around 14-17 gold (depending on the hour) i can hardly believe making 100 gems be around 30 gold a win for everyone.

Again, im well aware of the conviniences that having such item in the gem store can be, but it wont be without a massive influence on gold->gem conversion rates which will never go back to “normal”, and can only go higher

Would be a win for those who don’t want to farm gold, but just buy some gems and swap them for gold. I would love to get ~200-250 gold for ten bucks.

^^ I’m sure there’d be plenty who would love to counter the effect a bit. And, maybe I’m wrong but I’d imagine a higher gold→Gem conversion is good for ANet, convince some people to pay cash instead of gold possibly.

NA logs in, finds a few EU and almost no CHINA. NA eventually goes to sleep, EU wipes out any progress NA made as there is only a little resistance left, CHINA starts to log in and take back their stuff, EU logs out for the night, and CHINA goes on a karma train while NA people start to trickle back in. Everyone gives up and realizes this is a terrible idea

Obtena.7952:

I think an expansion would be the worst time to ‘fix’ established content.

I’d agree except for the fact that shield sucks donkey nuggets and making it better couldn’t break anything.

Stark.1350:

I’m curious what you feel difficult content is and how you would design it for this game.

Keep in mind there are no raids – so you have to deal with a zerg. I think Anet is getting the right idea in finding ways to split the zerg up.

Take Marionette, this new Mordrem boss, the 5 bosses after the forts in Silverwastes, the Triple Headed Wurm, etc. Even Teq to some extent when you have to defend.

None of which have automatically succeeded without so much a blink of an eye. Problem with the megaserver though is while trying to command, get a bunch of people attempting to listen so you can win. It’s frustrating, work, and a lot of time and effort. And when it doesn’t succeed, it’s even more frustrating.

Now things like Liadri were difficult, but people found specific builds that made it easy. And people find specific builds and teams that make dungeon runs easy.

So, try this. Stick with one build. And use it everywhere. PvP. WvW. Dungeons. World bosses. Don’t switch things up to make fights easier – see if you can master one build across everywhere. I think you’ll find it’s harder than it is.

People don’t switch up builds for the dungeon metas to make things easier, they do it to make them faster. I could easily do a dungeon with my WvW builds, it’d just take longer and waste my time and whatever 4 unlucky people got stuck with me.

Mainhand Focus.

Mainly so I can have a beer mug in both

ZeftheWicked.3076:

I thought the 2 man kick has already been fixed to be a majority vote. It wasn’t after all?

Nope, they still have a horrible grouping system that allows griefing so freely that it almost seems as if they encourage it.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Jerus.4350:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Jerus.4350:

All Locked behind 10 minutes of talking and waiting…

That was the most important part of it…. you know, the story?
The boss fighting mechanic was boring as hell imo.

I don’t think you’re grasping the concept here.

The story is fine, it’s great, but why would I want to listen to it 5 times? 10 times? 20 times? Hell I raged the third time I had to listen to it while I was doing achievements.

We’re asking that the content they’ve already made, be tweaked to be made into more replayable content.

It’s a good idea to make them nice and easy first go around so people can eat up their story. But, it’d only take a few minor tweaks to take something like Glint’s Lair and make it into a bit of challenging content with high replay value.

Ah I see. Yes I can see that might get tedious. Maybe anet should make seperate story and challenge versions for each story mission. Story versions are, like the name says, just for the story. The challenge versions are for achievements and focus just on the combat.

Exactly!

Challenge versions or adding them to fractals or something. Such beautiful content that could be polished up and made into content people would want to do daily instead of just getting the story, going through a few easy but interesting fights, and moving on.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Jerus.4350:

All Locked behind 10 minutes of talking and waiting…

That was the most important part of it…. you know, the story?
The boss fighting mechanic was boring as hell imo.

I don’t think you’re grasping the concept here.

The story is fine, it’s great, but why would I want to listen to it 5 times? 10 times? 20 times? Hell I raged the third time I had to listen to it while I was doing achievements.

We’re asking that the content they’ve already made, be tweaked to be made into more replayable content.

It’s a good idea to make them nice and easy first go around so people can eat up their story. But, it’d only take a few minor tweaks to take something like Glint’s Lair and make it into a bit of challenging content with high replay value.

Don’t mention Glint’s Lair, it makes me cry. So beautiful. Such interesting encounters. All Locked behind 10 minutes of talking and waiting…

If they gave me a fractal of Glint’s lair, beefed up to warrant 5 people’s attention… my god I might actually be interested in doing fractals (god I hate the RNG)

Engi is not a profession that fills a single role. It’s simply not the design, you’re asking a silly question.

Guard is there for defenses; blinds, aegis, reflects, stability, etc.
Thief is there for stealth, blinds, and top tier damage
Warrior is there for banners
Mesmer is there for support like guard but more focus on reflects, then of course portals
Ele is there primarily for their top tier damage and might stacking, though much like the Engi it has a plethora of tools ranging from blinds to projectile defense.

Engi has no role in a meta group, it simply doesn’t fit in a perfect group, it’s not specialized enough. Vuln stacking would be it, but an Ele/war can cover it well enough that no record group is going to try and pull an engi in. That is not for a lack of DPS though, if you perform it correctly their DPS is top tier with the bonus of being AE, but again, Ele beats it there. (iirc according to the math Engi is number 3 in a 30s fight on a single target behind Ele and Thief, I imagine it’d pass thief as soon as there are 2 or 3 targets)

Engi’s role IS that it fills every role. It’s a profession you can take and cover any weak spots in any group. That’s it’s role.

Even in WvW your role will simply be to fill in sub optimally for other professions that do that role better.

Engi is for those that love the flexibility and love playing Engi, not for those who try to optimize their profession choices for everything.

I second this suggestion. A lot of the LS encounters were fun, but were missing a bit on the difficulty, and going through all that clicking simply wasn’t worth it if you wanted to repeat it.

No Pulse.2967:

Wethospu.6437:

Painbow.6059:

—
people who only play warrior are usually worse
—

:(

So much hate on warrior mains :/

Much love for all the great warriors out there. Much hate for all the warriors who are to kittening lazy to pull out their warhorns and give my mesmer some swiftness… kitten those guys… making me use hylek pots… kittens.

Jeht.8216:

So it seems dungeons is where I should start heading. Other than Citadel of Flame, any you recommend so that I can start getting geared up? (I’m assuming crafted exotic gear doesn’t mean “geared”).

Any/all the story modes would be a good start… well except Arah, wait till you’re there in your personal story to do that. And, btw, if you haven’t finished your personal story it’s always something to work on.

Ascalonian Catacombs story is nice. Crucible of Eternity is great, love the entire place, it’s a bit tougher though. Umm, I hated Caudacus Manor story, one of the guys is super annoying to deal with. Twilight Arbor is pretty beautiful and iirc it’s a neat story. But, again any of them other than Arah.

Then once you’ve done all the story modes start looking at the explorables. Explorables are much more rewarding than the story modes, though you need to do the story modes once to be able to open the explorables (not to join them though, so if someone else opens you can join without having done the story).

/shrug, hope that helps.

And Exotic, crafted or not, is the expected stuff, like I said ascended is technically better but only in a very small group of dungeons.

Karizee.8076:

Probably because contrary to all the hooting and hollering for more difficult content, very few players actually do it when they give it to us (Liadri, TA Aetherpath, etc.)

Aetherpath is a gimmick filled path that simply doesn’t make me want to go back to it. Unlike say something like soloing Arah paths which is something I actively work at. There’s a big difference between a gimmick and difficult content. Liadri on the other hand would count, and I did see people banging their heads on her at all hours of the day for quite a while when that event happened, it wasn’t until at least half way through that time period that it seemed to die off and everyone was simply farming their tickets with whatever they found the fastest opponent.

Jeht.8216:

Thanks for the great response. I really do seem to prefer Player versus Environment also I am feeling really compelled to try out some dungeons now, just curious what can I get from dungeons and how does the whole ascended thing work. Right now I do have my tailoring maxed, wondering what I can do with that.

Ascended is slightly (very small) increase in stat gear designed primarily for Fractals (similar to dungeons but it’s random on what 4 fractals you get, look it up on the wiki for more details). Ascended has an extra slot for agony resistance which is used for higher level fractals. Overall you’re looking at 10% damage increase for weapons (5 & 5 for 1handers) and 5% for the armor. This only takes effect when you are level 80 though, so for all dungeons other than Arah/Crucible of Eternity you won’t get the extra damage and there’s no point. So don’t rush to it if you don’t want to, though making your Ectoplasm Refinement pieces that are daily locked wouldn’t be bad to start early.

As for what you get from dungeons, gold as a guaranteed reward at the end, a bunch of materials from drops throughout the dungeons that you salvage or just get, and then you also get Tokens which can be used to purchase rare/exotic level gear from merchants in lions arch. Multiple titles and achievements linked to all this and what not. Personally I do dungeons for the fun, they require a certain level of proper execution to do in a timely manner, that isn’t really available many places in the game. In other words it’s a little step up in difficulty, though as you repeat them they get easier and easier.

Ayrilana.1396:

Jerus.4350:

Ayrilana.1396:

Jerus.4350:

SkylightMoon.1980:

Jerus.4350:

It seems you’re trying to link “difficult” with “cooperative”. I don’t feel that’s right. I’d love more Difficult content, things that actually make the individual play to a high level. More Cooperative content could be cool too, but with that you have the frustrations of trying to get your whole team onto the same map and trying to deal with griefers and general mouthbreathers scaling events while contributing nothing. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the cooperative play in this game, Especially after the megaservers were added in.

you’re overthinking it. im asking for more difficult open world event tiers, so yes coordination is one part of it, as is individual skill.

Not overthinking it, just simply saying that I think you used the wrong term as these cooperative events only require a minimal amount of personal effort if everyone understands the basics of what they as a whole need to get done. If people understood to split up so all events were covered in dry top, it was simple. Same can be said for every one of these types of events. CP is probably the only one I’d say is an exception to that, it took an average level of competency from at least most of the people in the area to secure gold in a timely manner consistently.

Point still being though. Requirements of cooperation does not make something difficult, requiring individuals to have a higher level of skill than is normal is what creates difficulty. That’s something we haven’t seen in quite some time.

I only post because I do want difficult content. Cooperative content isn’t really my cup of tea, so I think the distinction is important.

So essentually by difficult you mean Liadri and to a lesser extent Marionette?

Bah, I wanted to rephrase what I wrote (why it’s deleted) but ohh well.

Yes, difficult implies that it takes an above average level of competency to complete.

Events that take organization only really require one personal has a plan, and that everyone else can at least somewhat follow instructions. I mean I guess if you consider being able to follow the instruction “Go to X and do the event there” an above average level of competency, well… yeah… I’ll just have to shake my head and disagree.

Liadri would surely count as one of those. Marionette I have to say I never did Heard good things.

How would you personally categorize Teq and Triple Wurm? Both of which the difficulty relies on organization/coordination than personal skill.

Both the same way as Dry Top honestly. Both take very little individual effort. I think I see your point though, at least Wurm gets a lot easier if a few people are able to do things like use reflects on the wurm.

The problem with these types of events though lies heavily with the shear amount of people allowed to take part. When fighting the decapitated wurm heads, there are things you need to dodge… don’t? ohh well, someone will pick you up because there’s enough poeple there to do that easily and quickly. It takes most of the individual difficulty out when you have that level of safety net available.

I like some of the stuff one of my old games did to counter that safety net. Things like having people spawn extra nasty adds when they died, or even exploding if they failed to execute properly. They even went as far as having entire events fail because one person screwed up, not sure it should be taken that far, but some counter to that safety net would surely make things more interesting.

I don’t see that happening though, ANet doesn’t seem interested in adding difficulty. They don’t want to to have the less skilled players feel that they are as incompetent as they are at playing the game. Of course I’ll just come off as a grumpy old man type attitude but it’s just a sad state when the potential for this game to have some truly amazing content is squashed by the fact that most people would complain because they feel entitled to be able to beat anything and everything regardless of the effort they put forth.

What do you enjoy? Player vs Player? Player versus Environment(Dungeons/open world stuff), have you tried World vs World?

Test them all out if you haven’t.

To start dungeons I’d look into story modes for any of them first.

After that, If you want to do dungeons I highly suggest looking into the dungeon subforum and at the sticky of “Noob” you can use that to contact some people to help teach you about dungeons. Also you can use youtube to watch videos of people running the dungeons to get an idea of what happens. In addition to that gw2dungeons.net is a great resource for specifics about dungeons. Between those 3 things you have all the tools you need to learn, so be active and learn, most people at this point expect people to know the dungeons especially if they say “Zerk 80 exp” which means berseker gear, level 80 and experienced, as an expectation for anyone who joins the group. So do your best to prepare and try to find some people willing to teach as you start, or join the groups without such requirements or even make your own saying “I’m new!”

As for goals, /shrug it all depends on what you like to do. If crafting is your thing getting money and learning the professions should be a good start.

For me I leveled to 80 then dove headfirst into dungeons. After that I started my alt collection and got them all decked out in solid gear(9 chars atm, 1 of everything and 2 Engis) I have all my crafting professions done. Built a legendary. Soloed some dungeons, gotten Lupi solos on half my characters. Got 2 sets of ascended gear. Tons of ascended weapons. Blah blah….

There’s a lot to do, just pick something and move towards it.

Ayrilana.1396:

Jerus.4350:

SkylightMoon.1980:

Jerus.4350:

It seems you’re trying to link “difficult” with “cooperative”. I don’t feel that’s right. I’d love more Difficult content, things that actually make the individual play to a high level. More Cooperative content could be cool too, but with that you have the frustrations of trying to get your whole team onto the same map and trying to deal with griefers and general mouthbreathers scaling events while contributing nothing. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the cooperative play in this game, Especially after the megaservers were added in.

you’re overthinking it. im asking for more difficult open world event tiers, so yes coordination is one part of it, as is individual skill.

Not overthinking it, just simply saying that I think you used the wrong term as these cooperative events only require a minimal amount of personal effort if everyone understands the basics of what they as a whole need to get done. If people understood to split up so all events were covered in dry top, it was simple. Same can be said for every one of these types of events. CP is probably the only one I’d say is an exception to that, it took an average level of competency from at least most of the people in the area to secure gold in a timely manner consistently.

Point still being though. Requirements of cooperation does not make something difficult, requiring individuals to have a higher level of skill than is normal is what creates difficulty. That’s something we haven’t seen in quite some time.

I only post because I do want difficult content. Cooperative content isn’t really my cup of tea, so I think the distinction is important.

So essentually by difficult you mean Liadri and to a lesser extent Marionette?

Bah, I wanted to rephrase what I wrote (why it’s deleted) but ohh well.

Yes, difficult implies that it takes an above average level of competency to complete.

Events that take organization only really require one personal has a plan, and that everyone else can at least somewhat follow instructions. I mean I guess if you consider being able to follow the instruction “Go to X and do the event there” an above average level of competency, well… yeah… I’ll just have to shake my head and disagree.

Liadri would surely count as one of those. Marionette I have to say I never did Heard good things.