Guild Wars 2

To get a good view of the build you would have to mention what your utility slots will be.

You also don’t mention what you are gearing for: cond damage, precision, power?

Grenades, and apparantly mortar as elite.
What about the other 2 and the healing?

Will you have sopmething to remove conditions for example?
A stun breaker or some good defense skills or traits?

As for the traits: why the recharge on the pistol? If you’re mostly using grenades than I think lesser cooldown on pistol is less important.

If you have lots of crit you could consider the vulnerability. Mind you: with steel packed powder you already stack vuln very high with grenades.

Another option there is the swiftness on crits. You have 3 chances to crit on each grenade throw after all. Depending on your precision that could be something…

If going 30 in explosives, and 30 in inventions, have you considered the healing bombs instead of the extra range on the mortar?

For range you’ll use your grenades, so the mortar is more for door defense for example, where the range does little.
Also: I tested that trait yesterday, and somehow I think the morar range isn’t increased like it should… could be me.

Infused bombs instead could give you a close range healing defense option.
Just an idea.

I am no expert at all, just throwing out some ideas on a first look at the build you linked.
But to get a good opinion I think people will need a litle more info.

I’m somewhere on these pages with my own answers.

Just adding here that I do mainly WvW these days and having fun at it, because of the guild I run with.

When WvW is tooo slow, or I can’t commit without being afk every other minute, I do some questing in search of skill points mostly.

I’m still playing not that much, but when I do it’s WvW.
As if that’s the game for me: a B2P WvW game I hop into every now and than…

Karast.1927:

I’ve ran both healing and bunker bomb builds in WvW.

They both have their uses. I like them for point control if my guild is depending a keep or supply camp.

They are also handy if you kiting away from a zerg, but my big issue with them, and the reason I stopped using them is that it is next to impossible to use them effectively while staying mobile and chasing or pushing into an enemy.

When you move forward the bombs spawn behind you and the delay means they explode behind you. So you have to push deep to hit enemies on the front lines. It also leads you to stopping in the front line to dps.

This just did not work for me. I’m not saying it can’t work, but I found that I did not enjoy it as much as tool belt / rifle.

thanks for the input.

I like to run several kits, so your problem with attacking I would solve by using a different kit.

Most of the time I use elixir gun in our attacks.
I tend to go all out supportive. First because that’s how I play, second because I’m low lvl anyhow.

I like the flamethrower for doors
But I’m thinking of getting mortar elite for that.
So might replace FT with Bombs.

zaragoz.6351:

So anyone running bombkit in wvw or is it one of those things that just doesn’t seem viable?

wondering the same.
In doubt between flamethrower with juggernaut and healing bombs.

Sooo, anyone running bombs in WvW? Healing or regular…

naphack.9346:

you ever seen a perma stealth build in action?

well… no.

Think that is more or less the core of the complaint.

As a leveler I am getting used to dying while running here or there without seeing anyone untill I’m downed AND finished.

Haven’t faced one holding a camp in WvW yet myself, but heard others report it in /map.
Or maybe I did face one but never noticed it…

It does swing back and forth.

Far Shivers and even worse Kodash aren’t making it easy for us at Piken.
We often feel them breathing down our necks from both sides…

We had a lot of the map at EB in our hands last evening, and lost most of that later at night.
No idea where we stand now.

Looking forward to logging in later on and finding out.

WvW is fun this way: win some and lose some, and feel you make a difference.

Let’s face it: WvW is an uneven mess anyhow, so it might as well be an even uneven mess where nothing is made easy

AngryBuu.2479:

Well to tell u the truth,cooldown is about 15 seconds,at least I think so,so u better go lightning bolt discharge thingy(not that Im sayin Kit Refinement sucks).

actually the cooldown changes from kit to kit, depending on what it does as free spell.

For elixir gun it’s even 20 seconds I think, just like the actual spell.
For med kit bomb I think there is no cooldown…

It depends on the kit used.

Xanthian.3025:

Decent start from Piken, was expecting a walk over with it being the “unofficial rp server”

Saw some huge guilds presence there, was impressive to see so few guilds but in such large force. Something that FSP lacks..

I noticed an old enemy from my Warhammer days, Boon Control, lets hope some of you guys settle in here and split that zerg as the week goes on so we can get some really good roaming pvp going.

when I joined PS for the goody goody atmosphere a RP server brings, I did not expect it to have such a strong WvW scene…
It was a really nice surprise.
This server is bringing back the fun in this game for me. Both in the pve sillyness as in the WvW chaos.

So until we meet in battle (and you kill me since I’m here with a leveling 24…)

Have only ran around the new match for a few hours, mostly following Obsydian or Zacharus (both GG) around.
Compared to our last battle it does seem we will get even more of a fight on our hands.

Looking forward to more of it.
It’s basically the thing that keeps me playing, so bring it on

Orion the Cursed.1206:

Kimbald.2697:

Orion the Cursed.1206:

Kimbald.2697:

Aside the randomness of getting tornado, the main issue in spvp was the double cast bar.
Anyone remotely looking at you could interrupt it.

At least they fixed that, it’s easier to get going now.

Still I think it should be neither tornado nor rampage.
Start by removing the whole tornado thing, and leave the rampage. But…

Even if it has EXACTLY the same abilities as Rampage, it should be something engineer-like in design.

Make it a robot, make it a mad scientist… just don’t copy another profession!

Nah, brute is fine. Imagine i turn to Mr Hyde or Hulk.

“You wont like me when i’m angry”

Tornado is what? Tasmanian Devil? hahaha T.T

both are simple copies of other professions… that’s what annoys me.
Not what I or you could ‘imagine’ it is.

An elite shouldn’t feel like a placeholder…

That’s because you do not understand the purpose of the skill. Are you saying a robot isn’t similar to a warrior or asura’s golem suit or a mad scientist isn’t an ele or a necro? The Mr Hyde scenario actually makes sense because Jekyll is an intelligent chemist which is an GW engineer who became Hyde, a rampaging brute, after drinking his potion. The idea is to have a skill which says “Surprise, i’m a different kind of threat now. How are you going to deal with me” and the brute with its melee and stability charging at them fits the order because its the opposite of what most engineers will do.

than we both don’t understand something…

There is a post of me in this very topic where I say the Rampage doesn’t even have to change in terms of skills.
So what are you on about?

I’m talking about the LOOK of it!
It’s a downright copy of another profession!

Even with the same skills it should be something unique for an engineer.
It’s an elite for crying out loud.
It should not look like a replacer skill where they used the ability from another profession for the time being.

Got it now?
Not complaining about Rampage itself.
It has it’s uses…

But give it an appearance and animation and look UNIQUE for the engineer.
That’s the least an elite skill can do.

I’m running speedy kits… a LOT of running speedy kits.

Oh, and always elixir gun for support, tool kit for escape and pulling, and either grenades or flamethrower.
Gear matters less, leveling a new engineer in WvW. No ammount of gear is going to save a low lvl.

But mostly speedy kits, LOTS of speedy kits.
Lots of running actually. LOTS of running.
And lots of LOTS in caps.

tigirius.9014:

Even without being traited for healing right now supply crate has saved my hide multiple times. (it takes ALOT more mobs to kill me now then it did glad they fixed healing)

When the X wears off is where the danger lies. While trying to take back temples for example you could find yourself normal and without a prayer of surviving the twenty or so mobs you just made mad by knocking them around with the tornado.

Elixir X doesn’t protect you with anything else but stability either.

I’ve been killed from range while being a rampaging slightly less small asura…
It’s one thing to be able to knockback and jump yourself, which of course is great. But when they outreach you, or simply come back… you have no protection.

Again here Supply Crate offers the better protection, which is odd when you think of it.

Orion the Cursed.1206:

Kimbald.2697:

Aside the randomness of getting tornado, the main issue in spvp was the double cast bar.
Anyone remotely looking at you could interrupt it.

At least they fixed that, it’s easier to get going now.

Still I think it should be neither tornado nor rampage.
Start by removing the whole tornado thing, and leave the rampage. But…

Even if it has EXACTLY the same abilities as Rampage, it should be something engineer-like in design.

Make it a robot, make it a mad scientist… just don’t copy another profession!

Nah, brute is fine. Imagine i turn to Mr Hyde or Hulk.

“You wont like me when i’m angry”

Tornado is what? Tasmanian Devil? hahaha T.T

both are simple copies of other professions… that’s what annoys me.
Not what I or you could ‘imagine’ it is.

An elite shouldn’t feel like a placeholder…

Why do you feel the need to explain to others what they are complaining about?
Don’t you think they can figure out for themselves?

So all the complaints can be reduced to newer players complaining the older players are ahead of them?

That’s ‘a perspective’ indeed.

Mostly it’s your perspective and it’s a very limited one at that.

For engineers the biggest difference comes from the fact that rifle is much more naked power based, while pistol has a larger condition damage portion.

So I’m not sure if our pistols are ‘calculated on wrong fire rates’.
This could be the case, but not sure if isn’t just the power versus condition damage issue.

Aside the randomness of getting tornado, the main issue in spvp was the double cast bar.
Anyone remotely looking at you could interrupt it.

At least they fixed that, it’s easier to get going now.

Still I think it should be neither tornado nor rampage.
Start by removing the whole tornado thing, and leave the rampage. But…

Even if it has EXACTLY the same abilities as Rampage, it should be something engineer-like in design.

Make it a robot, make it a mad scientist… just don’t copy another profession!

Minda.9270:

The grenades are really useful for deterring revivers in WvW. When in a zerg fight and you see a player fall at arms reach, just spam all your grenades at them and you’ll almost guarantee a kill unless a full mob of them revive the person at once.

flamethrower #4 fire field can do just that as well
But the grenades look more menacing for others to go stand under…

Thanks for your input all.
Been helpfull.

Vendris.4201:

Instead of nerfing something fun, how about add some other interesting tactical abilities to other professions then.

Kimbald.2697:

Vendris.4201:

“Change anything in the game that can be a tactical advantage for people who bother to organize!”

An organized guild that understands WvW, has clear objectives and communicates is going to have an “unfair” advantage in WvW no matter how many skills you get nerfed trying to turn this game into a brainless deathmatch FPS.

After “nerf portals they are unfair!” it will be “nerf siege weapons! people who are able to organize funds in order to purchase and use them have a game breaking advantage!”

difference is that sieges etc aren’t limited to a single profession.
Portals are, which is what annoys people.
No other profession offers a utility this strong.

Which I suggested as well

Casia.4281:

I don’t actually find range to be that important in wvw. at 1500, your targets are out of kill range usually. they can just be rallied. The long air time, means avoid.
It means nothing for killing seige. 240 aoe radius is what matters their. Walls are only like 900 high.

I was mostly thinking sieges etc, less about players unless you’re just nuking the zerg.
For nuking the zerg the distance changes all the time anyhow of course. Not sure the 1500 is the main thing there.

I feel like the range matters when reaching the sieges from as far as possible, since they are mostly placed at strategic distances.

Good to read your comment though, it shows I might be putting too much into that range.

This does leave the original question though:
if it’s the 240 aoe radius, than aren’t we still stuck with grenades? Regardless of range?
Bombs seem a bit tooooo close to be as viable

Bombs traited for healing in a siege detroying commando team on the other hand, that does seem like a good option.
But that’s not what we mean when we mention ‘wall defense’ and such.

venusiano.8246:

Wildman.9641:

Nerf Mesmers. Problem solved.

Mesmer portals (and other mesmer skills) have already been nerfed in recent november patch. No need to nerf it anymore.

Kimbald.2697:

No other profession offers a utility this strong.

So? Are you sure?
No other profession produce the damage of the thief.
No other profession have the survivability of the Guardian.
No other profession have the AoE damage of the Elementalist.
No other profession can tame and get new pets like the ranger does.
Etc.

Mesmer strenght is below other classes in almost every aspect:

Mesmer have low direct damage.
Mesmer AoE is basically inexistent.
Mesmer running speed is lower than half of the classes in game.
Mesmer wears light armour.
Etc.

Mesmer still have a few tricks in his hat tho, like his clones (that are very easy to identify and kill) and the portals. If you get rid of them there’s nothing left to him.

Portals are of one the few skills that makes this game different. But people seem to dislike anything outside the classical class stereotypes.

yes I am sure.
You reply as if i said that no other profession is as strong as a mesmer, which i didn’t.

No other profession offers a single skill utility that is as usefull for the team as a mesmers portal.

And don’t claim I don’t like the portal by itself.
I was very clear about how I see it: it shouldn’t allow that much people to use it, and at least 1 or 2 other professions should have something simular.

By itself, as a mechanic, I think it’s wonderfull for the diversity of a game.

If you quote me, at least get it right what you’re replying to.

Vanecrox.5094:

I would save your karma. You can buy decent low lvl gear off of the TP for a handfull of silver. You’ll thank me for it later when you’re 80 and have to farm less karma.

it’s what I have done for now. It’s actually why I wondered if spending karma would be better than the gold.

Thanks for the answer.

I’m not a big fan of the grenades, but they have this one advantage even if you ignore their higher damage:

the 1500 range!

No other weapon an engineer has offers this long range.
I don’t like that to be honest, but I can’t ignore it.

If I want to be as versatile as possible in WvW, I simply have to consider my only weapon that can reach 1500 yards but on top of that: it’s an AoE!!!
This combo makes grenades among the most usefull things an engineer can carry.

Of course it’s not usefull in every situation.
But the fact is that very often it WILL prove usefull.

And that’s not even counting in their highest damage potential of all weapons we have.

So yes: I always carry grenades in WvW, and I feel obliged to trait grenadier for them as well.
Simply because 1500 range is too usefull to ignore.

If the pistol piercing trait would increase the pistol range to 1500, or some other solution, than I would consider it.

But as it stands, even if I don’t use grenades all the time, I feel that 1500 range + aoe on top of that, is a combination too good to ignore.

note: please prove me wrong and say the range doesn’t matter. I hate being limited to a specific kit. Instead I would love to have my flamethrower be just as usefull with juggernaut…

Think the title question needs little explanation.

I’m leveling a new engineer mostly in WvW and I was wondering what to gear her with.
Karma gear seems an obvious choice, but I’m not sure if I should do that each level group of karma items.

I don’t want to be short of karma at 80 too much, because that will be the main gear a WvW character has acces too.

Is karma leveling gear worth it in WvW, seeing the scaling and such?
I have a feeling it is quite important, but not 100% sure…

e-sport?
With what audience?
Who, besides Anet themselves would sponsor a crowdless e-sport?

Balance is one thing, but an e-sport requires spectators.
First of all this game hardly has any viewers on the streams, and worse than that you can’t make out what they are doing anyhow as an outsider…

Not saying this will never happen, but at the moment there simply is no audience for any serious sponsor to make advertising money on.

Even if they balance it all in a single patch, and even if they introduce serious ladders, custom servers and all that. Than they still need that audience to show up.

Just like the actual balance, it seems to be a slow progress to be made.
And personally I’m not sure if the game will make it in time…

Vendris.4201:

“Change anything in the game that can be a tactical advantage for people who bother to organize!”

An organized guild that understands WvW, has clear objectives and communicates is going to have an “unfair” advantage in WvW no matter how many skills you get nerfed trying to turn this game into a brainless deathmatch FPS.

After “nerf portals they are unfair!” it will be “nerf siege weapons! people who are able to organize funds in order to purchase and use them have a game breaking advantage!”

difference is that sieges etc aren’t limited to a single profession.
Portals are, which is what annoys people.
No other profession offers a utility this strong.

1. Lower the number of people that can use it

2. Give others the ability to create some sort of passage for team members as well. Also in a limited way of course.
Engineers building a human catapult or something else silly.

If mesmers stay the only ones, and as long as it can effect entire zergs, people will consider it overpowered.

Tone it down, spread it out even a bit.

Gehenna.3625:

Part of that are the poor story lines and even worse voice acting. I actually can’t stand hearing my own characters speak in this game.

I know this sounds sooo stupid: but I actually leveled a second engineer because I did the storyline with my Norn female and I simply can’t stand the sound of her anymore!
I just ruined the character for me.

So I decided to level another engineer, an Asura this time. Without the storyline. Not going anywhere near that this time around!

And what you know: now people tell me the Asura storyline is actually the only decent one

If anything the replies here show only Jonathan Sharp and Allie Murdock are working on balance.
So that’s only 2, as Jon Peters said all along!

Believe it or not but I actually tutored a bit for Logic courses. You’re not fooling me!

I don’t fully agree. By wich I mean I’m enjoying parts of the game, but never as much as I expected when i started the game.

So yes: I’m rather disapointed in a lot of things.
Luckily not in all, or I just wouldn’t play, or post for that matter.

It’s not my intention to ‘ruin’ this topic by the way.
I’m giving feedback just like the posts above me.
Just not the same

The OP has written a nice view on how he enjoys the game, without saying others are wrong or should feel the same.
I like that.
Honestly: I do.

note: out of respect, and fear of derailing the topic, I am not going to list what disapoints me.
You can find other threads where I explain IF you absolutely want to know. Which you don’t…

1. maybe there is a distinction between ‘the devs’ and other people calling the financial shots.
Could be that not all decisions are actually what the dev’s wanted.
We don’t know, plain and simple.

2. If I disagree with anyone, be it a player or a dev, I try to argue with them.
I try very hard not sound insulting to anyone, even my biggest adversaries.
This is an extemely important rule for me. Whenever someone said they felt insulted by my posts (in a reaction or a pm), I always tried to talk it out.

3. Given 1 and 2, I strongly believe I should give any feedback I can. Even if for me personally most of this feedback sounds a bit negative.
I’m not doing anyone a favor if I keep my feedback for me.
It’s up to the devs to decide what they find usefull of this feedback or not.

My motto: ‘learn to disagree in style!’

Karizee.8076:

Kimbald.2697:

Karizee.8076:

Most of the opinions expressed on the forums are pure sabotage, nothing more, and mostly the same players posting copious amounts and trying to push the agenda of another MMO. You can safely ignore it.

This is a good example of a player having a stroke of conspiracy theory, while I’m sure no Arenanet dev actually believes this to be true…

Please stop thinking most players complain because of another game.
They complain because of THIS game.

When you see posters with 9 pages of “I hate ANet because _______ and going to resub to _______” making a mess all over the forums it’s pretty easy to see.

So by the same logic all those posts saying ‘thank you Anet’ are people pushing the agenda of Arenanet, instead of actually making sincere comments on the game?

It’s not ‘pretty’ easy to see’ from those 9 pages that people are pushing the agenda of other games.
It mostly shows they aren’t happy with how THIS game turns out.

Stop using the flawed argument that most criticism comes from some biased agenda to push other games and discredit GW2.
You only keep yourself blind by doing that.

Only if you acknowledge the feedback, you can use it to your benefit.
I can not imagine any dev of Arenanet even remotely believing what you say.
The moment they believe your theory, they lose all contact with their playerbase and the game will suffer from it.

Urxx.6840:

Kimbald.2697:

Truth is that foriums are a limited form of feedback, but at the same time they are the most clear form of feedback.

Also, if ArenaNet wants to make the point that the forums aren’t a reliable form of feedback because they don’t necessarily represent the whole community, then this should’ve also been true of the feedback about the “legendary wall” problem which led to the introduction of ascended gear.

Either the forums are reliable as a mean to survey the community’s stances on various issue, or they are not.

Yes.
I’m quite sure Arenanet will pick out the feedback they can use for their own plans, and try to minimise the feedback that doesn’t fit them.
As any company would.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t want that feedback they don’t like or can use.
It’s better to know than not know…

Because it always can happen that the feedback is so huge, that you better make some adjustments, even if wasn’t your plan.
As they did for haloween and it was pretty clear they never intended to introduce the second type of chests.

By telling complainers to shut up, the players are not doing Arenanet a favor.
Just let Arenanet use what they want, and dismiss what they can get away with.
They’re big boys and girls, they can handle themselves…

Karizee.8076:

Most of the opinions expressed on the forums are pure sabotage, nothing more, and mostly the same players posting copious amounts and trying to push the agenda of another MMO. You can safely ignore it.

This is a good example of a player having a stroke of conspiracy theory, while I’m sure no Arenanet dev actually believes this to be true…

Please stop thinking most players complain because of another game.
They complain because of THIS game.

Medazolam.3058:

People are more likely to speak up or post in a forum if they have complaints than if they want to praise a product or service. This is true across all forms of mechandise. Don’t make the mistake in assuming the general response in the forums is a good indication of the entire player base, it is not.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking they are ALWAYS a vocal minority either…
better businesses have fallen over such vantity.

Truth is that foriums are a limited form of feedback, but at the same time they are the most clear form of feedback.

Forum outcries should never be ignored or dismissed as unimportant, or not representative.

They might be a minority, but it’s actually safer to assume they are showing a major concern.
Players often try to call the forum complaints unimportant, but I reckon Arenanet takes them extremely serious as an indicator.
Than it’s still up to them to follow that indicator or not.

Arenanet can handle their forums well enough. I’m always surprised to see posts of players trying to do that job for them…
As if Arenanet is too stupid to handle the information themselves and they need players to filter the forums first.

I play less (but I still play) because:

1. spvp has no variety in game modes. It simply bores me doing only conquest.
A shame, since I think making 5v5 hot join was a good thing in terms of actually plaaying as you should.
Still flawed point system though.

2. leveling is too empty in mid-level zones, I don’t want to constantly ask for help every corner I turn.
Mostly respawn rates are still getting on my nerves. It’s not the veteran killing me, it’s the bloody trash jumping up a moment after I kill them.
This game is designed for full zones, which is a design flaw only good for the first weeks.

3. WvW is still the most fun for me, but it’s an uneven imbalanced mess isn’t it
And mostly running…
Less fun as a leveling character in there but I’ll get by.

4. Dungeons don’t appeal to me that much. Instead of being innovative by removing the holy trinity, they appear mostly one-shotting bosses who happen to have extreme big health pools.
Haven’t done much, but they are too difficult and too simple at the same time… very odd feeling. I think I miss creative boss mechanics (yes, I been a raider in another game…)

5. grinding and crafting, and living in Orr?
Not interested whatsoever. I don’t even think the skins for medium armor are creative enough to grind for…

Conclusion: I hardly even hot join spvp anymore.
I do mostly WvW and when that is slow I do pve maps a bit. Mostly searching for skill points actually.
And dungeons: perhaps, if someone would beg me…

But I still play.
When I stop alltogether, you won’t have to read all my criticism anymore. Promised!

To the OP: if you even have problems with those posts that are well written, provide arguments and all that, as you say you do, than there is nothing to help you.

Your opinion is not more important than that of others.

Many posts get on my nerves too, but I know it’s the price you pay for being on a forum.

If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

The forums are for the people who still play the game, not for those who have left the game for whatever reason. The problem is, the second type of people are still on the forums spewing their hatred for the changes in the game. This makes it a hostile environment for those of us who do still play this game.

Again, this forum is for those who DO play the game. If you don’t play the game anymore for whatever reason, please move elsewhere. Thank you.

When someone says people have left, another always defends that you dn’t leave since there is no subscription fee, and that they might be back.

Well than: same reasoning: forum is for everybody who bought the game…

Tobias: you say gear doesn’t matter except in 5% of the game, being dungeons and WvW…

That’s about most of endgame right there… way beyond ‘5%’ at max level.

Nymia.3256:

Zid.4196:

While I personally accept low lvl people in my runs, leveling to 80 in this game is super easy. If you can’t be bothered to do even that, expect really a lot of people to kick you.

I’m not trying to pick on you Zid, I just noticed something here that I felt like pointing out.

You see… you now have an obligation to play this game in a very specific way. If you ever want to enjoy new content, be it this FotM dungeon or the next one, you must “earn” your spot and “work” for your gear. You must level to 80, buy rares, then earn your exotics, and THEN – and only then – will you be considered worthy of the new content.

If you don’t enjoy those things… the grind, or the grind that follows it, or the grind after that one… then you will never be allowed into new content. After all, it really is a requirement now and “if you can’t be bothered to do even that” then you haven’t worked hard enough yet and aren’t allowed to have fun.

Once upon a time there was a team of game designers who figured this out, and even thought about creating a game to eliminate this mentality…

“So if you love MMORPGs, you should check out Guild Wars 2. But if you hate traditional MMORPGs, then you should really check out Guild Wars 2. Because, like Guild Wars before it, GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee.”
- Mike O’Brien, President of ArenaNet and Executive Producer of Guild Wars 2

If they would simply include traits into upscaling to 80, it would solve most issues.

Enter a dungeon, or enter WvW for that matter: your stats AND your traits scale to 80.
And to be honest: the way this game was advertised, it should simply scale the gear too. Just like in spvp.

Simple as that: you now have a fully functional group member (who can even trait for support if his gear is lacking for high dps…)

This game should make up it’s mind if it wants gear and level to matter or not in dungeons and WvW.
It made a clear choice in spvp, but in the ’other ’ form of pvp (WvW) it lingers in between.
Same as in dungeons.

Gear should matter, or it should not matter.
GW2 can’t make up it’s mind it seems.

digiowl.9620:

But one reason why it happens in other MMOs is because each class have certain skill sets, and the “tanky” ones have to rely on consumables or outside assistance to heal. In GW2, we all have a designated slot for healing skills.

not sure what MMO’s you refer too, but we call it simply ‘defensive cooldowns’ and especially the tanks have a ton of those…
Healers can only help that much, no healer can keep up a tank not using his defensive cooldowns, or any dps for that matter.
Not in challenging fights.

People have a very limited and static view on this trinity I think.
I haven’t been in a raid fight where part of the strategy wasn’t to help yourself instead of relying fully on the healers.

As said: it depends on the MMO I guess.

GW2 is more dynamic in terms of self-healing, but that doesn’t make ‘other MMO’s’ static. Not by a long shot.

TheRamosOnline.2670:

Early mornings my server is outmanned. So I flick on my commanders badge, rally up a zerg and steamroll everything, the outmanned boon actually tricks the enemy into thinking they can beat us only to get out numbered.
That boon doesn’t apply to a single map, it applies to them all.
So you can actually out number the enemy on a map despite being “outmanned!”

the obvious thing to do when someone faces your large group of ‘outmanned’ players, is to hit the other maps, hit everything you are not near of, and completely push you in your small little corner

It’s exactly the outmanned icon that would give you away in this strategy.

Of course it can give your direct enemy a false sense of outnumbering you.
But in the larger scope of the battle it can’t have anything but downsides.
(unless they would actually start adding usefull buffs to it)

edit: I forgot to add the most imoortant part: that sounds like a hell of a lotta fun to pull of!

Columba.9730:

perma stealth for theives.

that’s more of a bug than a skill of course.
Not saying it’s ok, but it’s not intended.

Where as portal, MOA and the other mentioned abilities are perfectly intended to be what they are.

digiowl.9620:

The thing about DPS is that at least direct damage have the crit percentage. Go heavy there and you can double or nearly triple your output (meaning that +1 power can see perhaps +2.5 in damage output with a crit). You can’t crit a heal by comparison so the increase is much more linear.

good point.
Heals working on precision would go a long way in making + healing better.

It’s mostly the loss of dps when taking healing stat for me.

I understand you can’t have both at a great level of course.
But currently taking + healing is too big a sacrifice in a game with only dps’ers.

Healing power is odd just because this game has no dedicated healers, only dps.

Most say it scales bad because of this, but I think it actually goes against this very idea either way:

1. To get a noticable increase in healing, you need to take a lot of + healing stat.

2. to get any significant ammount of healing power, you need to sacrifice a LOT more dps.

3. Dps scales higher than + healing
You swap one stat for the other, but the dps stat you lose scales a lot better than healing power. So you end up losing more than you gain.

Very bad in a game where everybody is dps…

I think + healing has no place here as a stat.
Healing could come from major traits that give you + healing based on power or condition damage.
And it has to be in those traits that offer your best dps options as well.

It HAS to be a choice between dps and healing, but not one where you kitten your gear.
And it has to be a more fair trade-off seeing the little gain from healing you get.

Katsumoto, I’m not sure if thieves are fine woithout rendering issues.
They might be.

Thieves have one big advantage though: it is far easier to burst as a thief than it is to defend against that thief.

I would make their damage more complicated to pull of.
Just to match the same ‘difficulty’ it takes to defend.

But in general I think we can’t really judge thieves as long as rendering issues exists.
Your idea of names appearing sooner could work.
But what if those render too slow as well? You can’t give them nameplates in stealth, now can you

It’s a technical issue and I fear that the dev’s and programmers can come up with better solutions than us.
The fact that they haven’t solved it makes me wonder if they can solve it at all..

As for your steps in the reasoning: if the problem is more or less solved in tpvp with the latest changes (not sure, is it?) than of course it would have to be a WvW solution only.

I’m not here to nerf thieves without reason.
I just want things to be balanced and currently in WvW slow rendering + stealth is a big issue.

On my server we have several great commanders often working together.
Some from different guilds.

We also have the odd commander doing things without thinking or much patience.

Most people get the idea who to follow and who better not.

I know of one impatient commander who i would always follow in the attack itself, he’s great at charging the impossible fight and getting a crowd motivated.
But I would not follow his bigger strategic plan, since often he just gets bored and wants to charge something else…
The only problem there is that he gets a big following of players lost for the real plans.
That’s when he shouldn’t be a commander.

I agree that the current commander system is very flawed. Simply buying the badge is beyond silly.
But I still think most will know who to listen to or not.

Still I understand the problem: people tend to follow that blue icon around everywhere they move.

More and more commanders will appear. We had 6 last night in one map…
We are already reaching the point where you have commanders, and you have people with a commander badge that aren’t ‘commanders’.

The system is bad and is killing it’s own purpose.

The difficult part is this:

if rendering remains an issue they can’t solve, than stealth remains overpowered in it’s current form in WvW, and lesser but still in spvp.

Not stealth by itself, but stealth + slow rendering.

As in most games they decided to couple high damage to a class with stealth.
So we get stealth + high damage.
That’s always part of the issue as well: the unnecessary reasoning that a stealth class should be a burst class because they have low uptime.
Guess what: they don’t have low uptime, their OPPONENTS have low uptime on them

So we get stealth + high damage + slow rendering as the result.
You need to lower at least one of these 3.
Slow rendering is the obvious choice, seeing as that is a bug.
But what if they can not fix that part?

If they can’t adress slow rendering, they are forced to adress the other 2 parts.

Even if those 2 parts by itself might be ok: stealth + high damage might have counters, but that becomes irrelevant when there is also slow rendering.

shin po.2756:

I don’t know what the most OP profession skill is in GW2, but I thought this video was pretty cool talking about how MMO’s have to OP certain skills to bring an imbalance to the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e31OSVZF77w

very good watch

But don’t throw theory that at any given ability though.
In my example of MOA: having no counter at all would simply put it out of that acceptable curve for ‘perfect imbalance’.
I think such a system would have to work more subtle than that.

Would be great to not just hear someone call for ‘a mesmer with a portal’, but also ‘Do we have an engineer with a tool kit? Our treb’s under attack.’

Mortars need some long AND short range fixing.
They are designed as the ultimate WvW elite.

Just like elixir X is in theory a great stability point defending elite for tpvp.

But we all use only supply crate… and for good reason too.