Guild Wars 2

The Greatsword was great even before the new patch. The only problem was the damage output was a little on the low side. But it was/is still the best utility weapon the Ranger has. Greatsword has the best travel skill (Swoop), an interrupt skill (Hilt Bash), a block with an interrupt (Counterattack), and a ranged cripple attack (Crippling Throw). It’s an awesome second hand weapon. Problem is that most only pick weapons based on damage output, so not many realize how great the Greatsword is (pun intended).

JonPeters.5630:

Hi Anders, I’m totally not here so skip this post and read on…

We made the improvements we had time to test. There are still more ranger improvements but when our time is limited we have to focus on things we know we can fix. Signets and shouts are still on the docket, and I suspect some of each of these will get some love in the next time around. As you can see a lot changed in this build for every profession and we have to test these changes as well.

I do still believe ranger is the profession in most need of improvement after this patch and we will continue to make those improvements. If we could fix everything at one time we would, but the reality is there are a limited # of hours to make changes.

I see a lot of talk about ranger weapons, but I don’t think that is the real problem. I think sword and longbow are both good weapons, which is why the changes take longer. The problems are deeper, in pets ability to hit moving targets, trait lines with not enough viable choices and skills that are often too specialized to really compliment the weapon builds. These aren’t things we can change overnight. The change to Greatsword block was in fact a very difficult change, but we made it because we knew it was the right thing to do.

There are >500 skills in this game, 480 traits, and 2 designers working on this. Even then often we are bottle necked by other issues. I’m not going to say we are not working on these things, nor can I say there are things we could have changed but just ran out of time on, but this was a patch that contained ranger improvements and it will not be the last one that does so. Maybe you want more than honesty but that is what I currently have to offer.

Jon

Only two designers working on balancing?! That explains a lot. I expected you to be at least a group of five people. How many designers were working on it before release then?

A new sPvP map that focuses on vertical combat, and absolutely no update on Ranger damage or pet responsiveness. It seems like ArenaNet aren’t interested in making the Ranger viable in PvP.

Sounds good to me. It seems like they are listening to us, and are doing the best they can with the time and crew they have available. The new map also seems very interesting, but I’m worried about how a vertical map is going to diminish the Rangers pet even further.

Read all your skills, find out what they are best used for (interrupt, burst damage, running away, supporting, and so on), and then apply them to different situations that you’ll come across. Start by finding a burst attack combo and a “run away” combo, then work your way up from there. Then when you’ve become comfortable with your profession, you slowly move on to learning what your enemies does, and then learn how to counter it.

I disagree with people saying the Elementalist is the hardest to learn, though. No doubt that you can do a lot of combos, but the set up of the Elementalist is simple. Fire is power damage and burning, water is healing and vulnerability, air is critical damage, control and speed, earth is defense and bleeds.

Telsyr.8723:

Kasama.8941:

The butterflies are a metaphor for transformation, that’s what makes it cool.

Don’t forget, butterflies are also masters of illusions! It should totally be tigers though , instead of bears, stripes make you look bigger..

There are other animals that does illusion a lot better, though.

The butterflies are a metaphor for transformation, that’s what makes it cool.

Make clones, and then use stealth and teleportation to my advantage. I use staff and scepter/focus, with Decoy and Blink. Eventually, I will kill the Thief, an ally will show up, or the Thief will get bored and run away (people who play Thieves generally don’t have a lot of patience). I very rarely have a problem 1v1 against Thieves. And that’s playing as a level 18 Mesmer..

But Thieves are really not that hard to beat at all. The only difficult thing about them is surviving their burst damage. If you can do that, they are nothing more then a normal damage profession with low survivability.

Not everyone works 9 hours a day. Work times and salaries are different depending on who you are, and what country you live in.

Life is all about priorities. No one can force you to do anything. If you want more time to play, then find a way to make time.

Gear is not that important at all. You can use second had exotics and medium gear, and play at exactly the same level as someone with max exotic gear. Player skill plays a big factor in Guild Wars 2.

I disagree with sharing Worlds PvP and sPvP gear. I like that each require two different approaches to building your profession. I would make an NPC in the mist instead, that has a guide on how to make a solid sPvP build for new players.

Capture The Flag is a really bad idea in a game where players take so long to kill each other, and the maps are so small. It would just end up being a ‘control vs. stability’ game mode.

I think your downed state ideas are way off. There would be no reason to have the down state, if you remove rally. Rally is awesome, no matter which side you are on. I always respect my opponents ability to get back into the fight, and I love when I can pull it off myself. Downed state and rally are a part of the game for me now.

Other then that, you have some nice suggestions.

I think they should move the opposite way, and add portal like skills to more professions then just the Mesmer. I could defiantly imagine the Engineer having some kind of catapult gadget, with a entry and exit “portal”, that could launch people over walls. Or the Necromancer having some kind of Death Shroud portal skill.

As admiralnlson mentioned; once you start working on something, it’s not a good idea to just leave it behind. It’s better to finish one thing first and then move on to something new. But I still don’t know why ArenaNet thought that renting servers were more important, then establishing a solid high end PvP community. A ladder system, observer mode, and steaming support, along with more maps, should have been highest priority in my opinion. ArenaNet should focus on making a strong foundation first, and then start building up from that. Right now sPvP is a bit of a mess..

I would just reduce the quickness duration to 2 seconds on all skills/traits/sigils/runes. 2 seconds are nice for a small burst, 4 seconds just feels overpowered. The duration on Time Warp should also be reduced to 4 seconds. 10 seconds of AoE quickness is just completely ridiculous. I’m not sure what ArenaNet were thinking there. I don’t even like to use Time Warp when I’m playing Mesmer, because it makes me feel like I’m braking the game..

+1
Not sure why this is still a happening. It seems like an easy fix.

Alternatively, you could put a smaller instruction/score box up in the corner of the screen, that we could make bigger if we wanted.

Lukin.4061:

P.S. Do not mix FPS and Gw2 – FPS conquest modes work because there are no bunkers at FPS. Also some best fps games are not in a conquest mode (quake, counter-strike).

All conquest mode games have some kind of defenders. Planetside 2 and Tribes Ascend literally have bunker builds, and Battlefield 3 can have three Engineers in a tank who makes it work as a bunker build.

Defektive.7283:

^Wouldn’t work in a real-world scenario.

Problem being he won’t pop stability unless your a class that has knockbacks to begin with. Mesmers have very little in that department.

So stealing any buffs would only make you tankier, which the guardian doesn’t care about since his goal isn’t to kill you, just to toss you around like a ragdoll until his friends show up.

Now if you’re to team up with someone else who has knockbacks and stuns etc. And perform a 2v1 against said guardian, then you’re fighting a bad team that wasn’t watching the map and wasn’t sending people to intercept. At which point this scenario is null since it’s not against a valid set of players.

The Mesmer has two skills that can get the Guardian out of the node (not counting underwater); Into the Void and Illusionary Wave. Each has a cooldown of ~30 seconds. Next to that you could also use Runes of the Nightmare for the 5% chance to fear.

It does matter if the roles becomes switched. If you push the Guardian of the node, you will need the stability to stay on the node. Stealing retaliation also helps you to deal more damage to the Guardian.

You wouldn’t attack 2v1 at first. The strategy would be exactly the same as with a bunker Guardian. If the fight drags out, and you think (or know from experience) that the Guardian is going to call for backup, you do the same. So the fight goes from being 1v1, to being 2v2. You basically copy the bunker strategy.

This got really off-topic now. I’ll stop responding on this subject before it turns the page.

saVdoom.2067:

While you’re at this, you’ve already lost ~100 points to the other team since he’s staying in the point and probably knocking you back while he is NOT being knocked-back due massive stability accessibility.

It does seem you haven’t done much tournaments. Unfortunately what you described would be fine… if tournaments weren’t conquest type of game. Then who cares if he can stay alive all the way he wants ? He’s not hurting anyone is he ? But its a complete different scenario when you MUST have/hold the objective.

I thought it was pretty obvious, but I guess I was wrong.

If the problem with the Guardian is stability, protection, and healing, then the counter would be to first remove his boons, and then try to counter his heals. The Mesmer is the profession with the most boon removal in the game. Chaos Storm and Null Field should move him out of the node. And with a skill like Arcane Thievery you can remove the Guardians stability, and prevent his knockback on you.

No, I haven’t played a lot of tournaments, but even if I did, my point of view wouldn’t be any different. I like finding solutions to problems, instead of just accepting them.

And in your scenario when his backup arrives and your backup arrives. Lets say you’ve more burst with 2 dps and kill his buddy… if its a mesmer/thief (which usually is) that came to aid the guardian even with stability they’ll be able to deny you at least a stomp giving the guardian enough time to pop stability himself and ress the guy up, and you’ll be around 150 points behind already. If it was a bunker Engy or a warrior that came to aid, they can ress themselfs up. Engineer easier then Warriors since those need some time, but can still do it, while doing massive damage while downed.. which brings me to → compare with rangers n2 in downed state…

This is the worst case scenario. If you can predict the problem, you can also begin to take steps towards solving it. You need to apply more “what ifs” then “what is”. Just some advice.

There are glory vendors in the mist that sells copper, silver, and gold reward chest, that has rewards. Next to that you can also make sPvP gear in the Mystic Forge, by salvaging your PvP gear, and combining it with arcane powders, arcane crystals, and tokens.

Pyrial.2917:

It’s not just their ability to hold a node that makes them a top tiered profession. Area retaliation, stability, and heals in most builds.

Put a Mesmer on him with boon removal and interrupts. Look for repetitive patterns, and try to be one step ahead of his defensive skills. If the fight drags out, then expect more opponents to come and call for backup to counter it. That’s the best advice I can give without risking this becoming a 20 page long debate

Pyrial.2917:

You really believe Guardians to be average?

All the Guardians I’ve played against I’ve had no problem with, they just survived longer then other professions. I’m not a big tournament player though, but I don’t think bunker builds are as impossible to beat, as people make them seem. It’s more the strategy in which they are used, that makes them feel powerful. I.e. guard the node until an ally comes to help you fight 2v1.

Why did the first one get removed? Strange.

PvP Main: Mesmer
Alts: Ranger, Thief, Engineer (I’ve played all professions though)

Overpowered:
Warrior (burst damage + heavy armor + plenty of control skills = overpowered)

Strong:
Mesmer (clones), Thief (stealth burst damage)

Average:
Elementalist, Engineer, Guardian

Weak:
Ranger (because of pet damage), Necromancer (a lot of work for very little gain)

I think the core game is fun as it is, although it can feel a bit repetitive right now with only three maps (Raid on the Capricorn doesn’t count, because it’s just plain bad). I see sPvP as basically a FPS game. I played Battlefield 3 for almost 400 hours only in conquest, and it never got bored to me.

Design wise, it seems like a really bad idea. I hope it’s not going to be though.

Yes and no. Yes, because when you only spend time on one profession, you can spend more time learning the core game, instead of your profession. No, because you’ll have a harder time learning the tricks of other professions. Professional players from any other game don’t just learn one class, but plays all classes of the given game, in order to learn all the tricks of their opponents. So to be the best player, you have to be a bit of both; stick to one main profession that you know you are good at, but practice playing the other professions as well.

The role playing game part was ruined once it became all about making money. MMOs have trained the mind of players into believing that if they just get more exclusive pixels, and level their characters to 299, their lives will be complete. MMOs in general have become elitist games, where words like ‘role playing’ and ‘fun’, have been replaced with ‘farming’ and ‘working’. But it’s not like there’s no hope left, as there are still plenty of players who haven’t forgotten the word ‘fun’. It’s just that they don’t have as big of a voice, because they are busy actually doing something, whether that is playing the game or going about their daily lives.

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

yeah… it is not good to have your opinion put as community opinion. i understand how you feel, i feel the same, but if you personally choose to leave it doesn’t mean community will leave with you…

i dont want to offend here, but just trying to be realistic, and less emotional about it. and in the end id like as much players as possible to stay.

I’m just telling it like I see and read it. I end up in 1v2 fights in sPvP all the time. I see people having to ask for more players for paid tournaments in the mist, because they can’t find enough players. I read about people on this forum who are not only sarting to give up themselves, but also has friends who feel the same. So what am I suppose to take away form that? That it will be okay eventually? I think honesty is a better way to go.

It rather seems to me like you aren’t being realistic, but optimistic. You’re saying it’s going to be fine, but without any notion as to why. But it’s not really about whether the game will “survive”, it’s about what kind of direction it is currently going in. I have faith that the game will get better soon as well, but as it stands now, I feel it’s not going in the right direction. And I’m not emotional about, it at all. If Guild Wars 2 had to close tomorrow, I’d just simply move on to something ells. It wouldn’t affect me at all. But as it is now, I enjoy the game a lot, including sPvP.

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

yeah, i agree and all that…

but, its not gonna happen if you threaten anet with leaving. they don’t realy care. and they shouldnt. what i think is gonna happen is this: anet is polishing pve first (atm). this is kinda ok for me, because game looses more players when you cant finish the world map achievement because skill point is buged, then because of pvp issues.

pvp will have its turn, and while it is very frustrating to play pvp as it is, it will get fixed, balanced, get new modes and all that beautiful stuff ppl write about on forums, but it takes time. pls dont expect to get all that immediately… i mean, really… we need to get something in expansions also (i bet its gonna be new modes then).

as for pvp dying… not realy… more like ppl enjoying pve while pvp gets fixed. i know a lot of them…

i wouldn’t worry, i would be patient cause all agree pvp has incredible potential and anet is not gonna waste it. im gonna be there and then to play it.

They aren’t doing anything “first”. They have different teams working on different things within the game. But regardless of that, there is still a problem with the priority that things gets made. Why they are releasing paid tournaments and renting servers, before ladder and observer mode, is just a riddle really.

PvP will have its turn yes, but the question is; how many are going to be left once that happens? There are no guarantees that the players who are leaving PvP now, are going to come back.

It might be that “dying” is a strong word, but it is defiantly going down hill at the moment in terms of player numbers.

Success is not only determined on what ArenaNet does. You can not have an eSport if there are no player support for it. Support is not just players playing the game, it’s also players supporting the game when they are not playing, on youtube or blogs. You can argue with it “happening eventually”, but that is a really bad mentality to have. Games grow based on popularity, not how good the game itself is. You can have the best game in the world, but it won’t matter if your player base has lost faith in it. And as evident of this thread, and the player popularity, people are starting to lose faith in sPvP.

dank.3680:

Well I for one hate the Focus, and only use the Staff for situational purposes. The Centaur rune is useful in AND out of combat. I has gotten me that kill that almost got away, it has saved my kitten MANY times running from zergs, it helps a buttload to get 14(12 just from runes and I have 20 in chaos) seconds of swift during combat every time I heal, which means I’m swifted almost all the time in combat.

I might wear light armor, but my armor stat is about 2900, which is by no means squishy. Aside from that Mesmer has SO many ways to avoid damage when played well. In fact I find myself using my heal IN combat against multiple opponents almost more often just for the swift, then for the heal itself.

But to each his own, you may not like it, but you can’t argue it isn’t a viable choice.. I would not give up my Centaur runes on my Mesmer for anything.

It’s not about whether it’s a viable choice, or about me telling what people must do. I’m just making sure that people who are reading this know what they are giving up in return. Runes can do so much more then make you run faster, so using it just for that just seems ignorant to me, especially when there are other options that are of better gain. You can get Rune of Rage that can give you fury on top of your power, and then use Sigil of Speed that gives you 10s swiftness whenever you kill an opponent. Or, as said many times, simply use teleportation to move forward faster. Swiftness does really not make you move that fast.

I disagree. I played a Mesmer yesterday and came up against three opponents, I went into down state (of curse), but I then managed to escape all three of them by using my clones and stealth to confuse them. Escaping from downed state is one of the best feelings in PvP. It’s the feeling that you escaped death, while it was standing right in front of you. Another thing I love to do as a Thief, when I see a downed ally, is to stealth to the opponent that’s about to stomp him, daze him, make myself and my ally invisible, pop my quickness, and then revive my ally. Now the game is turned around, and we are suddenly fighting 2v1.

I think the problem is that most players who doesn’t like the downed state, are still considering it as something extra that you have to do. But that is the wrong mentality to have. The downed state is a part of the game, just like your healing skill is. Your opponent is not dead or defeated, before you have drained his life in downed state.

The problem is that the foundation is not well enough build, so now the house is collapsing. There are a bad influx of new players because 8v8 gives the wrong impression of what sPvP is about, and because there are no guides on how to make a solid build. And experienced players are losing interest because there is nothing to keep them engaged in the game, like a ladder system, an observer mode, or streaming support. Who wants to rent a server when the game is going down hill? Get your priorities straight ArenaNet! There are no guarantees that the players you lose now, are going to come back later.

Ceelaniri.8410:

well if you think the teleportation from the staff is a reliable way to go faster, whatever floats your boat

the point of these runes is that they free up a space for more utility/weapon skills avoiding limiting your choice of decent tools. Look at my post further up for my rotation.

besides, i m sceptical about the passive bonus signet of most of the other classes granting only 10% spd bonus as opposed to 33% spd bonus AOE.

to take you example:
if i m immobilized, i still got blink/tp from staff/decoy/duelist X to get away if my heal is on CD.

if i had a passive spd bonus slotted on utility i would have to discard either decoy/blink/feedback. That d be a hefty price IMHO.

or perhaps ditch the staff to get the focus instead which would reduce my survivability.

it is obviously a matter of preference but I do not believe that opting for runes of the centaur instead of a more offensive set of runes is really kittening you.

It is very reliable, of curse not on its own though. I use it while the focus swiftness is on cooldown.

As mentioned above, all it takes is a double click on a weapon in order to switch it out, which shouldn’t take you more then 1 second if you keep your inventory open while traveling. So you don’t loose anything using a focus, other then one inventory space. Using Blink only for travel is a bad idea, yes. However, if you are already using it for combat purposes, you might as well use it for traveling as well, as long as you don’t spam it when you get close to enemy territory. I’d rather use a utility skill for travel, then a healing skill, since I have two more utility skill I can use.

Swiftness is really overrated. When playing my Ranger, I can use the 10% movement speed signet, plus the leap skill (Swoop) on the greatsword, and be able to keep up with an Engineer having constant swiftness. If I use swiftness on top of that, I can easily overtake the Engineer. 33% is really not that much.

Signets come with an active skill, and you also have two more utility slots, so you aren’t really losing that much, if anything.

Kanto.1659:

Except that it gives a 10 second buff and then you need to wait 15 seconds for it to recharge.

No, centaur rocks for everything. You also never need to heal at the start of a fight so the heal has plenty of time to recharge. If I would like to use other runes? Certainly, but I also like to reach where I want in a fast manner and 15 second gaps in swiftness is terrible.

Statistically speaking unless you lose the fight by 2% HP that extra condition damage that would have won the fight does not really enter the equation.

The staff can also give you 4 seconds swiftness, and you can use teleportation from the staff, or utility, to move forward faster as well.

Unless you are just running from door to door in Worlds PvP, or standing safely behind a wall casting skills, you do need to have your heal ready. It is very possible to turn a corner and run into a group of players. And since you are wearing light armor, it only takes an immobilize skill, or some quickness, to get your health very low fast.

I can get almost 300 more condition damage from runes. That’s equal to a full trait line, or about half the condition stats from an amulet. Runes make a big difference.

Pay.8713:

Rune of speed doesn’t help when running around solo and not getting hit. And no it’s not for a Condi build if I’m going Power.

I do have the bleed trait on illusion crit which does happen a lot and +15% duration on that is helpful but don’t care much about it (more than I would on swiftness while I get hit). Point was it does give stats and no-one ever mentioned build specifically, but running Condi damage in WvW isn’t going to be as good as Power for Phantasm damage on siege.

Edit: Actually getting hit for swiftness is counter-productive since while exploring especially, combat speed is horrible.

It’s silly to use runes as a means to travel around faster. If you are going to use swiftness on runes, it should be for combat reasons. Runes are a big part of a build, and you are kittening yourself if you don’t use the right runes for your build, or waste them on a swiftness buff. And not only that, but you are also wasting your healing skill, so you won’t be able to instantly defend yourself if you get ambushed. A focus can be switched in 1 second, if you hold your inventory open, and it doesn’t waste your healing skill or your rune set up.

Centaur also give 165 power and 15% bleed duration in addition to 20% swiftness duration and swiftness on heal. rather have 165 power and bleed duration over condi damage in WvW

I hope you don’t mean in a condition damage build, because 165 power won’t help you a lot there. Power, bleed, and swiftness duration is just a bad combination really. If you really want swiftness that badly, you can get it much more efficiently from Rune of Speed, that also has vitality on top for extra survival. Getting a mixture of power, bleed, and swiftness is just too unfocused.

I think a few of you missed the point. It’s not really about whether 8v8 is bad or not, it’s about what it’s meat to offer to the game. What does 8v8 do for sPvP? Is it suppose to lure more players in to playing tournaments? No, that doesn’t work because tournaments are 5v5, meaning that it’s a totally different ball game. Is it for practicing builds? Well, then the question arises; practice for what? Practicing in 8v8 for tournament play doesn’t make any sense at all, for the same reason as above. So is 8v8 just suppose to offer some casual fun? Well if it’s just about casual zerg fun, then how are new players ever going to consider sPvP as a serious upcoming eSport? Is that a good way to advertise sPvP for a new player?

What is the idea behind 8v8, what is it that it’s suppose to offer us? That’s what I’m wondering.

Use runes for swiftness? That sounds like a really bad idea to me. Rune of the Nightmare gives you 183 condition damage and 10% condition duration, that’s quite a chunk of damage you’re giving up just for some swiftness.

Moebiuzz.9057:

You don’t find it fun. Ok. Other people do. Deal with it.

Really? Could you elaborate on that? I would really like to know why.

Im Too Godlike.5629:

I had just typed like a page about this and then the forum glitched out and my entire page was lost so ill just make this short and sweet.

Money. Anet spends less money maintaining fewer servers with more people. They give us bs reasons but we all know what its really for. There’s no other explanation unless the person directing this happens to have some sort of mental disorder and everyone else that watches it happen is screwed up just the same.

But they don’t have to spend more money. There are already too many empty servers and 2v2 populated servers, so they don’t even have to use more servers, to make 5v5 work. Just put in 5v5 matches instead of 8v8, and watch the half empty servers fill out.

The ironic thing is also that no one even likes to play 8v8. Players get into sPvP because they want/expect to play a structured game, not a zerg fest.

The Mesmer should not have a lot of speed buffs. It’s an important downside/opposite to having clones and stealth.

When traveling I use these three skills:
Focus – Temporal Curtain (13s swiftness)
Staff – Chaos Storm (this has a chance to give you 4s swiftness)
Staff – Phrase Retreat (as you’re auto running, press your “turn 180” key, use Phrase Retreat right after, and turn your mouse manually back 180 again as your teleporting. Easy to do after a bit of practice, it sounds more complicated then it is)
Remember to always stow your weapon immediately after using each skill.

You can also use Blink if you have it equipped, but if you’re only using it to travel, you’re wasting a utility skill.

I really don’t get the idea behind this. 8v8 doesn’t offer any real value in preparing you for tournament or paid tournament play, because you only play 5v5 there. It also means that you get a lot of bad match making, because everyone are piled up in a few 8v8 games, while the rest are playing 2v1. But the biggest issue is that the maps are obviously too small for sixteen players, so what you end up doing is; run with three to four other allies and kill any opponents that you come across, die from running into a group of four to five opponents on your way to a node, or stand around in a huge chaos of twelve plus players, and try to figure out who you are hitting, and who is hitting you. How is that structured?

There’s just no strategic gameplay involved in 8v8, and it’s a really bad way to advertise sPvP for someone who is just starting out. First of all, a new player can get a much more fun zerg fest in Worlds PvP, so there’s basically no real reason for him/her to play 8v8. Next to that, it’s much harder for a new player to get a good impression of sPvP, when he/she can just run around with three other allies and spam skills without any consequence. And there’s no way a new player is going to start of playing tournament/paid sPvP, as the word “tournament” is too intimidating. If the point of sPvP is to offer a strategic PvP game, then why are we playing 8v8 at all?

Yes, but the game still has potential, and that’s the important thing. You can’t create a popular eSport game in a few months, these things take a lot of time. If ArenaNet can get the metagame more balanced, and make more maps within the next few months, it could turn out for the better. But there are no guarantees with this stuff, it’s always a gamble, because in the end it doesn’t matter how great the game is, you need people to make the game popular.

Play a Mesmer and get to know all the ins and outs of it, then you will know all the tricks of your opponents. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer =)

PvE:
Immerse Yourself In The World, Talk To NPCs
Complete Your Personal Story
Unlock All Skills And Test Different Builds
Get 100% World Completion
Find/Buy All Your Favorite Looking Gear With Gold And Karma
Find And Complete All The Jumping Puzzles
Participate In Optional Events Like Keg Brawl, Halloween, And The Lost Shore
Max All Crafting Disciplines
Discover Hidden Recipes
Discover Mystic Forge Recipes
Craft A Legendary Weapon
Get Dungeon Armor
Complete All Dungeon Modes, In all Dungeons
Join A Guild
Help Your Guild Earn Influence
Make Fun Group Events With Your Guild
Make An Alt Profession And Race
Complete Achievements
Get Rich, Or Dye Trying (pun intended)

Worlds PvP:
Immerse Yourself In The World
Get 100% Map Completion
Level An Alt To 80 By Only Playing Worlds PvP
Join A Guild And Claim Captured Objectives
Create A Guild WIth Only One Type Of Profession, Like A Thieves Guild
Help Your Guild Earn Influence For ‘Art of War’ Upgrades
Become a Commander
Practice To Become A Better Worlds PvP Player

Structured PvP:
Make Creative Builds, With Different Professions
Get Max Rank
Play Tournament sPvP
Join A sPvP Group
Play Paid Tournament sPvP
Get All Your Favorite Looking Gear
Discover Mystic Forge sPvP Gear
Practice To Become A Better sPvP Player

What You Shouldn’t Do:
Play The Game For 10 Hours Every Day (unlike other mmos, the game doesn’t stretch out content, like making you run half way across the world for a quest. So if you play a lot, the game is going to feel short)
Complete Only One Type Of Content At A Time (<— this is you grinding. Now stop it)
Rush Trough The Game (a game is meant to entertain you, not waste your time, so enjoy it)
Expect A Completely Different Gaming Experience At Level 80 (if you didn’t like the game up to level 80, you most likely won’t like it after)
Only Do Content For The Rewards (again, games are meant for your entertainment. If you want to gamble, then poker is an excellent game)
Expect Other Players To Need You (there is no holy trinity in this game, so no one is forced to talk to anyone that they don’t want to. You have to spark up a conversation yourself)
Compare Guild Wars 2 Content, With WoW Content (Guild Wars 2 is one month old, WoW is seven years old. Of curse WoW is going to feel like a more complete game)
Try To Force Yourself To Love The Game (maybe the game just isn’t for you?)

Honestly, it sounds to me like you should just quit MMOs all together. You can’t expect everything in an MMO to be as perfect as other games, that only focuses on one of these things. A MMO will never have as whole a story as Skyrim, or as complete a PvP games as LoL. It might be that Guild Wars 2 will grow into having as great content as these games, but it’s going to take more time then three months into release. There are only a limit amount of people in a development team, so they can’t work on everything at all times. So if you don’t have the patience to wait, it’s better to just quit all together and play something you think is more worth your time.

Greatsword skins are the best weapon skins in the game, because you have such a wide choice of different styles. You can have a long sword, a broad sword, or a shorter greatsword.

http://donoftheslum.minus.com/mm1CbsHyw

That “certain hook” that other MMOs have are just extended events that draws out your time. Guild Was 2 feels different because there are barely anything that wastes your time. But it has exactly as much (if not more) content as other MMOs. This week we just got Halloween, in november we are getting The Lost Shores, and in december we get christmas events. On top of that they are also improving structure PvP for eSport. And I’m sure ArenaNet has more events planned for next year. All of this is ten times better then the content of other MMOs, which does nothing but draw out your time with extended events and raids, until a new expansion is released. And they do all of this while you are paying for a monthly fee! The only problem where are peoples lack of ability to accept a new style of MMO, that doesn’t milk your money and time.

Press the arrow next to the flag in the down right corner of the post you wish to quote. If the forum is bugging out (which it tends to do quite a lot) you can also just type: [ quote ]message here[ /quote ], without the spaces.

Play an Engineer or Elementalist, and use more skills
???
Profit!

Also; no one really uses 40 skills at one time. 3/4 of skills in other MMOs are either just buffs that does nothing, or for show in order to make you feel more powerful as a player.

Whatever you do, get the items you need to craft the weapons now. They are only going up in price from now on. So if you decide a few months from now, that you want to craft the weapon, you’ll have the halloween items to make it and won’t have to pay a ton of gold for it.

Some important things to keep in mind (from wiki):

• Sigils that hold a charge per kill cannot be stacked (i.e. +5 power per kill and +5 condition damage per kill), one or the other shows up. This applies even if you swap weapons. For example, if you had two different “On kill stacking stat bonuses” sigils on two different weapons, only the sigil of the weapon you make a kill with first will take effect. If you swap weapons and make a kill, the sigil from the second weapon will not take effect.
• Charging and non charging sigils can be stacked.
• In sPvP, sigils that hold charges gain 5 charges per kill, requiring only 5 player kills to reach a full 25 charges.
• Sigils that trigger on critical hits can trigger on any critical hits; the critical does not need to be scored with the associated weapon’s skills. For example, a character with an off hand weapon imbued with a Sigil of Rage can still gain quickness with a critical hit with their first three skills.
• Sigils that have a chance to trigger on critical hits stack their chance percentages multiplicatively, not additively. For example, two major Sigils of Fire, which each have a 20% chance to trigger on critical hit, will have a 36% chance to trigger, not 40%.
• Sigils that trigger on critical hits will not trigger on critical hits caused by mesmer illusions. It is unknown if this is true with other summons.
• A single cooldown is shared by all sigils active effects cannot occur for the duration (i.e. a Sigil of Rage will prevent the activated effect of another Sigil of
  Battle/Strength/Air/Geomancy for 45 seconds but will not affect the passive effect of a Sigil of Smoldering/Force for the cooldown).
• The weapon in the mainhand triggers active effects before the offhand.
• Sigils that trigger on weapon swap are not activated by dropping a bundle, such as rocks, or weapon kits, but only from switching between your standard weapon slots. Thus, engineers cannot benefit from these sigils. Elementalists do not have alternate weapon slots, but these sigils will trigger on switching elemental attunements.

Personally I really like Sigil of Ice. Adding chill on your opponent means that your pet has a higher chance of hitting, and that your opponent does less damage per second. So it can be use both as offense and defense. Sigil of Rage is also really great for longbow and greatsword damage, but the 45 seconds cooldown means that it’s going to prevent other sigil effects from being really useful, as they share cooldowns. Sigil of Intelligence should also not be underestimated if you have traits in Skirmishing.