Guild Wars 2

I dont play PvE much at all, but can somebody explain “stacking” tactics to me please.

I was under the impression that if everybody is in the same location, that would lead to easier time being hit by PvE NPC attacks.

But from what I hear, zerks do this tactic.

So can somebody explain to me how stacking messes with the AI?

Swimming would have been better if they just stuck to the World of Warcraft/Rift way of handling under water combat… its 10 time better than GW2’s underwater combat, yet it wasnt even a major feature in those games like it was hyped up to be here.

Dagger #2 would be so much better if it worked like Drain Life from Warlocks in World of Warcraft…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VfrMdVeu0
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=689/drain-life

I dont really know how its used now. but the older version of it was a clear channel skill, and was instant without a delay, and build up as you channel, for good damage / healing.

With the current graphics is hard to see if the skill is going off or not. And that delay is a killer.

I am not sure what Zoom hack is, but clearly this just shows how poorly designed the Arrow Cart system was made.

I said this before. To add more casual spin to the mode, they should add more PvPvE elements like Unit Summons and Supply running to the mode to give less 1v1 oriented players more things to do to feel useful to their team.
I am not good myself at every class in 1v1, especially when i dont have the right gear on any of my characters.

So roaming is out the question. That usually leaves me to nothing but Treb building and sieging on smaller servers with low numbers. So thats a long process and can get boring after a while, especially when your team has no supplies. What do you then do?

I keep suggesting to Anet on how to solve this. Take a lesson from Old AV from Vanilla WoW. The little things we do, help the overall team of more core PvPers.

It starts with better Unit Spawning system. UNIQUE Supply Runners, for spawning these NPC. Guardsman for the Spawners. And the Spawning process itself.

Have flying NPC bombers that bomb keeps and bomb players in open field, have powerful champion spawners that do the roaming as a commander normally would (not the current npc commanders which usually are useless). Spawn sharper Guards that walk paths and siege enemy buildings as they walk the paths.

the current npc system doesnt have to go away. This can simply be an addition to it. Summon different champions for different goals, and have the champion attack enemy keeps and buildings. I remember early WvW had more champion boss spawns, but they didnt really do anything. This is how you take that concept and make it more interesting. Have those champion attack bases, and you now have another dynamic layer of gameplay in WvW.

Would SoW be good on dual dagger thief?

Whats some new ideas for future WXP upgrades?

Me personally i would like a upgrade that adds skills 6-9 to siege weapons.

Also an upgrade that boost defense and health and reduced supply cost when having outnumbered buff.

An upgrade that allow us to spawn special npc units from npc factions.

also an upgrade that grants a special vendor from npc faction that we buy special siege weapons from.

an upgrade to let us ride doyaks to control their path and speed them up.

Automaton.4926:

Gotta write it own into ur busy schedule? Anet will announce when they will reveal the next one, not us. How about just wait till it gets announced? patience is a good thing, it’s not like you will get to play it till the expansion is out.

thing is, not everybody follows social media, and know what new info is released. they rely on the forum for news. but this placed is cluttered. Not a problem to ask when you looking for any new info.

I was waiting for somebody to ask this. Because I too would like to know.

Was expecting a teaser today…. But nothing was mentioned on the forum yet.

Vix.6730:

Hard to call Heart of Thorns a full on expansion. The PvE content from all accounts is thin and contained in three overlapping maps. One PvP map, one WvW map and trait reworkings (again) is not enough to bring back the old war horses or attract new players IMO.

And anyone who mentions precursor crafting as expansion-level gaming hasn’t been keeping up with current events the past three years.

I was quietly hoping for a new continent to enjoy with added personal story missions. Oh well.

HoT is adding Raid dungeons. They just havnt revealed them publicly yet because all the elite specs havnt come out yet. We will be getting new PvE.

Ele with defiance bar would be extremely difficult to take down in pvp….

Dragon Hunters gives guardians dps and better group tanking and CC for defiance bar breakdown.

mesmers get better support.

Necro get better dps and tanking.

now we wait on the rest.

i assume Warrior and Engineer will get tanking skills for elite spec.

ele to get tank/healing.

ranger to get healing/tanking

thief to get dbs/healing

Revenant getting a dps/tanking elite specialization

IndigoSundown.5419:

Knighthonor.4061:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Phys is right.

This whole controversy is brought about because people are unwilling to look past the old-style MMO standbys of: (a) different roles are tied to different gear and (b) roles must be static, distinct and dedicated; and because ANet grafted a gear/stat system reminiscent of trinity MMO gear onto a system in which distinctions in what your “role” is varies from encounter to encounter and is based on your profession and trait/skill choices much more than your stats.

The situation is compounded by ANet’s failure with dungeons. Dungeons were intended to be “challenging content for coordinated groups of skilled players.” This was even true at the very start of the game. Dungeons were hard, and were especially unforgiving to (if not undoable by) uncoordinated groups of less-skilled players. However, once the dungeons were learned, the risk in running glass was lessened because everyone knew what to avoid. There have been other issues. The Ferocity change was essentially a nerf to dungeons in which 80’s are down-scaled. No dungeon updates (other than bug fixes and rewards) other than FotM have been seen in 2 years and ~5 months. This leads to a dungeon culture in which dungeon runners are doing the dungeons for the gold (and/or because they’re the only hardish content in the game).

Hopefully, ANet is going to be dealing with the real problems instead of the perceived problems, because dealing with the perceived problems involves selling out the game to the trinity-or-bust crowd — no matter how you slice it.

So how would you have changed the gear stats to work?

It’s too late for that ship, but I would have put very few stats on gear — basically an adaptation of the system from GW. Armor could have had defense and been a holder for runes. Weapons would have their damage plus a Sigil slot.

But how exactly would that have made multiple roles equally effective and not just dps? Because thats the problem here.

ronpierce.2760:

nopoet.2960:

ronpierce.2760:

…The healing debuff isn’t statics 33% no matter the stacks. …

Has this been confirmed?

Yes, there was a slip up of a 2 stack of poison that showed 66% healing reduction, but one of the devs clarified it was a tooltip error and the utility portion will remain steady.

So what exactly is it stacking ?

IndigoSundown.5419:

Phys is right.

This whole controversy is brought about because people are unwilling to look past the old-style MMO standbys of: (a) different roles are tied to different gear and (b) roles must be static, distinct and dedicated; and because ANet grafted a gear/stat system reminiscent of trinity MMO gear onto a system in which distinctions in what your “role” is varies from encounter to encounter and is based on your profession and trait/skill choices much more than your stats.

The situation is compounded by ANet’s failure with dungeons. Dungeons were intended to be “challenging content for coordinated groups of skilled players.” This was even true at the very start of the game. Dungeons were hard, and were especially unforgiving to (if not undoable by) uncoordinated groups of less-skilled players. However, once the dungeons were learned, the risk in running glass was lessened because everyone knew what to avoid. There have been other issues. The Ferocity change was essentially a nerf to dungeons in which 80’s are down-scaled. No dungeon updates (other than bug fixes and rewards) other than FotM have been seen in 2 years and ~5 months. This leads to a dungeon culture in which dungeon runners are doing the dungeons for the gold (and/or because they’re the only hardish content in the game).

Hopefully, ANet is going to be dealing with the real problems instead of the perceived problems, because dealing with the perceived problems involves selling out the game to the trinity-or-bust crowd — no matter how you slice it.

So how would you have changed the gear stats to work?

phys.7689:

Parlourbeatflex.5970:

Wow the logic of some people in this forum is actually on insane levels.

The challenge that Anet took up upon devloping this game was to kill off the holy trinity so that there was no forced roles.
After 2+ years, the zerker meta has shown Anet that no matter how hard a MMORPG tries, the player base will generally prefer optimal builds and ‘meta gameplay’, so actually by not forcing any roles, the playerbase in itself makes DPS centric builds completely mandatory for any PVE group, as the meta isnt about completion, but more about time taken… Whats ironic, is the realisation that it is almost impossible to make any build viable for any content, without expecting the players to take the path of least resistance and thus decrease the amount of challenging fun in the game.

So now, its looking like more diversity is being pushed. THANK GOD. And yea, I am of the camp that raids (in some shape or form) will be also coming to gw2, so therefore I expect new content that demands certain role requirements. And yea, I am a little dissapointed that the initial no trinity dream of anet seems to be slowly and surely dying.

HOWEVER

You basically have a simple choice, let the zerk meta continue so it seems like NO OTHER build but zerk is particulary viable. Or try and develop a new and diverse meta in which players are actively challenged by its content, and a diverse set of builds and players options are not only viable, but almost required to complete the challenge.

Now the beauty of Gw2 is the adapable nature of each class in general, so if Anet do this right, most classes will be able to switch hard roles on the fly not just soft. This means you dont need to wait for specific players to do content, but a group communicating role options and adapting their build to suit the groups demands is actively encouraged.

I dunno maybe its just me… BUT when your trying to make a game FUN, this seriously seems like a no brainer to me.

zerk is not a role, its a gear choice. Most Meta builds are not based around max damage, they are based around utility/boon sharing/team support.

there is a large disconnect, because people wear zerk that they have only one role, that is false.

The zerk problem is a flaw in game design. They basically made a flawed gear stat system based on a classic trinity when the gameplay is not.

the roles are support damage and control, stats barely have any effect on control and support.

the current meta is basically about movement/avoidance support and dps. since no stats have much effect on anything but dps, people choose dps gear.

if you want to be support, you wear zerker, and bring skill with fields/finishers aoe aegis protects etc.
if you want to control (though its not that important) you wear zerk and bring CC skills traits
if you want to increase team utility, you wear zerk, and bring invis, reflects, swiftness

so no, its not that the game has no roles/diversity its that none of the diversity has anything to do with gear.
They should just cancel gear, but since they made people invest 100s of hours into ascended, thats fairly unlikely.

So based on what you are saying, what would the current pve system be like if support stats like +healing were just as effective to healing output skills as zerk is to dps skills?

latinkuro.7304:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Faux.1937:

Nope I dont think it is moving that way, GW2 ALWAYS had support builds/rolls.

The game getting harder (maybe) doesnt mean it is still needed, Aegis/blinds/walls for 90% all fights will still be used.

Blinds/Protection boon/Walls/Aegis/Time warp ARE the Support sets for PVE Wvw/pvp is a different monster, but for PvE in order to NOT be forced into a Holy Trinity anet will keep it about the same, better AI and Mechanics doesnt me Trinity.

Those aren’t builds or roles, what you described is utilities. Every full zerker DPS can use blinds/prot/walls/aegis/time warp, there is no build or role required. Those are full dps characters who have the right utilities.

A healing rev will have to spec for healing and wear healing power gear in order to do enough healing for the entire party, that is a role. Currently nothing like that exists, everyone can run full zerker gear and still provide the exact same utility as someone in full nomads gear.

Hopefully we’ll see a similar role develop for tanks where they get a build that gives them tons of taunt and prot and they will benefit from full soliders or nomads gear.

what you described is also WRONG !

those are the traditional style trinity roles which are tied to stats and all that.
utilities ARE part of your build in gw2 it is THE reason zerkers can bring meaningful support…..

This also points to yet another thing trinity lovers do that ticks me off !
trying to implement those trinity style ideas to a game that is vastly different.
if you don’t like how a.net implemented support and you wanna play a trinity style role system go play a trinity based game there problem solved.

I for one like the ideas implemented though they are not perfect they are to me far better than the yee old stuffy trinity roles of getting stuck on one role you either do dps, tank or heal. what a boring crap.

You sound mad.

Are you mad latinkuro.7304?

Med Kit #1 skill now blast people in the face with a healing breeze. #2 now drops a buff pylon that buff allies nearby. #3 drops a glowing syringe on the ground.
http://dulfy.net/2015/04/24/gw2-specializations-ama-livestream-notes/

anybody see this in beta?

if so, what are the skills like?
what they do?

Also people keep in mind, the new Poison mechanics will be a major counter to Rev healers..

Poison now stacks intensity.

Also I want people to keep in mind.

Poison will be the new major +Healing Counter. It stacks intensity now. Meaning poison got a major buff.

Last two legends may have stun break.

Humenkind.9587:

Also can’t forget changes to Engineer Medkit, also might give dedicated healing a push. I don’t think healing will be essential, but it will be nice to finally have good options.

Wait, what was those changes?

CodeHavoc.7926:

I don’t think people are capable of understanding what “when it’s ready” means but this message goes out to all of them. No Anet has not made an official announcement of either the Price nor release date of HOT. The websites that have them available for preorder are not confirmed by NCSoft nor Areananet. They are Placeholders and nothing more. Hope this helps.

ColinJohanson.2394:

More info “when it’s ready”.

we ask these questions, because Anet is run by humans. And like humans, they make mistakes every once in a while, and may slip up and reveal info by mistake. (Hence Tempest- Elementalist’s Elite Spec was a slip up)

I would like some more of these. But some of the ideas the OP had won’t work in this game and some are already in the game, just in different context, such as Dervish skill.

I know Ventari is the new major support legend. But have people notice he has no traditional #6 heal at the sacrifice for major team support.

I see major complaints already regarding Centaur legend balance,

but that’s a big sacrifice IMO. So I still see balanced.

What’s your thoughts on this?

Finally Anet realizes that the Vanilla design was poorly done.

Dont work like that. Most heals can be interrupted already and are weak without heal gear.

People forget that Ventari doesnt even have a normal heal skill for skill 6. Correct me if I am wrong.

Genesis.8572:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Vayne.8563:

Since it’s based around support, the odds are it won’t be high DPS. That would make it quite OP.

Yup. There is another weapon set more focused around ‘High" DPS, but can’t talk about that yet.

Please not another greatsword.

no he talking about Sword/Sword.

But I hope we get some traits from Shiro line that can apply to Staff as well as 1 handers…

I wonder how this will change.

Because remember Guardian Weapons were non-targetable at first as well, but we saw how that went.

Problem is, the Tablet is a major part of this legend. By making it killable, you basically ruin 1/4 of the Revenant’s skills making Centaur Legend useless.

there is a thin line here.

The Tablet has to be strong, or this legend is useless. and the tablet cant be too strong or you will get massive QQ like Guardians got…

Relshdan.6854:

morrolan.9608:

Palador.2170:

0The Ventari skills don’t seem to be compatible with racial skills at all, nor have we had any answer on if a Rev will even be able to slot them in place of some of the legend skills. At this point, I think we can say that the Revenant will be unable to use racial skills.

How is this fair when compared to the other classes? Well, a quick look at how we’ll earn our racial skills under the new trait/skill system will answer that question.

I think you’ll find racial skills will be dispensed with entirely.

i can only hope.
outside of that asura daze, they stink….and only tempt new players to waste skill points on kitten skills they’ll never/should never use. the first thing Anet should have done w/ that NPE was kill race skills and reimburse those who spent points on them.

enjoyed the ventari preview…..looks fun to play…..but pretty much confirms we will not be able to customize utilities. disappointing, but will wait until whole class is revealed before i bury it.

Disagree. I like Charr racials, especially on Engineer.

Norn Elite are useful at times as well.

YAY !!! lets get the theory crafting started

Rejuvenating Assault-
Cleave foes around you with your staff, creating healing orbs for you and your allies.

Swirling Mists-
Summon an orbiting globe of mist when you spend energy. The globe is destroyed upon legend swap.

Revitalizing Breath-
Pull in and absorb all active replenishing globes when you invoke a legend. The healing from the globes has increased effectiveness.

Interesting question OP.

Captain Unusual.9163:

Your chosen legends do not impact your weapon skills. They only affect your Heal, Utility, and Elite skills. You can use whatever weapon you want with whatever legends you want.

Yes we know this.

What people were suggesting, was that each Specialization(trait line) is themed after a Legend.

Salvation themed after Ventari. And its coincides with the Staff Weapon reveal. Also Salvation is the only Specialization with a Weapon Trait. All other traits dont have Weapon Traits(yet).

I believe Glint will be ranged damage focused. Many people keep linking Hammer to Retribution. But there really isnt any Hammer traits in that specialization.

Hammer is ranged DPS and protection weapon. and none of the current revealed legends fit that play style yet.

Take a look at the Specializations and Skills for weapons and Legends.
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgYEqAKoA6g~

Only Salvation tree has Staff traits.. its the only Trait line so far with Weapon Traits. Ret does not have hammer traits.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Looks like the trinity is coming to GW2… Rev can heal more than most healers in WoW…

Now you just need a tank that can provide prot + stab reliably and pure dps teams won’t stand a chance anymore.

New Defiance Bar allow us to apply control skills more tactically to avoid major damage attacks. thats the new tanking mechanic.

Sigmoid.7082:

Not going to happen – Ventari falls apart with CC and poison. And because you put up the Ventari tablet, it’s a BIG “Kill me now” sign.

Revs have pretty good access to stability and resistance, To counter CCs and Fear and poison, plus the cast times arent that long. So, yeah, its going to happen. Besides just being near the tablet heals you for pretty decent amounts.

Don’t forget the taunt on disable. Man Rev/Necro is just going to be killer combo. I can see it now. I can’t wait to team up with some skilled Revenant’s when I play Necro. And vice verse..

Stability on dodge, and blinds.

Artaz.3819:

Knighthonor.4061:

Sigmoid.7082:

Knighthonor.4061:

Sigmoid.7082:

Those numbers,with the potential outgoing healing improvement that revs can get, can be doubled. Thats actually a huge amount of outgoing healing. Unless focused they can stop an entire team from dying if specced for it.
Yje numbers are so high for outgoing healing its insane.

I believe I found one of my new main classes! :-)

You can drop an instant 9k on point heal to allies after swapping to this leg then grant them regen to boot which is boosted by outgoing heals to the best regen in the game! This will be the new class to focus in team fights since it will end up keeping everyone alive!

Like I said, a Revenant(Cen)/Necro duo could lock down a mid cap point by themselves.

Not going to happen – Ventari falls apart with CC and poison. And because you put up the Ventari tablet, it’s a BIG “Kill me now” sign.

As I thought, extremely disappointed with Ventari (a) based on Healing Power stat / -0- synergy with other legends and (b) no stability boon. An extremely organized WvW/PvP group might be able to find use of it (because of Boon sharing) but a defensive spec with high energy cost mobility is not good enough.

Who wants to play heal bot anyways? Didn’t we leave that behind when we got rid of the Trinity?

Ventari will see some play in WvW zerg v zerg (mainly because the tablet can be hidden from who actually owns it).

---

This explains why the general other Revenant healing skills are such low values … ANet had to balance them with knowing healing power was going to be higher than norm just from this Elite specialization line.

Here I was hoping for sharing health pools or some other such new-tech between allies within the Ventari tablet radius (since it also gives plenty of healing too). Current incarnation, this looks like a dud. People want to do damage AND heal/remove conditions.

But staff does have promise IF Revenants are getting a mobility utility in another line. Surge of the Mists (Staff 5) should be devastating against targets when pinned against a wall.

Here’s to hoping ANet reads this and modifies Tranquil Benediction (Master Trait, Salvation line) to provide 1s, 1-stack Stability boon instead of 1s Regeneration Boon.

Salvation/Ret can pretty much self defend. And Necro can pretty much provide additional defense.

Sigmoid.7082:

Knighthonor.4061:

Sigmoid.7082:

Those numbers,with the potential outgoing healing improvement that revs can get, can be doubled. Thats actually a huge amount of outgoing healing. Unless focused they can stop an entire team from dying if specced for it.
Yje numbers are so high for outgoing healing its insane.

I believe I found one of my new main classes! :-)

You can drop an instant 9k on point heal to allies after swapping to this leg then grant them regen to boot which is boosted by outgoing heals to the best regen in the game! This will be the new class to focus in team fights since it will end up keeping everyone alive!

Like I said, a Revenant(Cen)/Necro duo could lock down a mid cap point by themselves.

cocowoushi.7150:

Salvation is so heavily Ventari that is stands to believe each trait line is themed with a legend in mind. Roy pretty much said “The trait line for this legend…” So I believe we’re still missing 1 core legend (besides Shiro, as Glint is likely Elite).

So if Glint is an elite, that means Revs only get 20 utilities which is what vanilla classes get baseline.

Also what weapon would they get?

Because Mesmers already got shield. And Eles got Swords. So those have to be baseline Rev weapons.

I guess I may been right about Dagger as a Elite Spec weapon for rituals.
Torch could also work I guess. But scepter would be best since they lack ranged combat.

Sigmoid.7082:

Those numbers,with the potential outgoing healing improvement that revs can get, can be doubled. Thats actually a huge amount of outgoing healing. Unless focused they can stop an entire team from dying if specced for it.
Yje numbers are so high for outgoing healing its insane.

I believe I found one of my new main classes! :-)

For WvW, send Revenant(Cen) and Necros and Dragon Hunters to the front line, and the rest of army stay behind them, and your army would be indestructible ….

Lightsbane.9012:

Diovid.9506:

Lightsbane.9012:

Knighthonor.4061:

Lightsbane.9012:

Knighthonor.4061:

http://i.imgur.com/hvILOhL.jpg
Staff looks like it’s going to rock in WvW.

yup, lets just remember that says ventari staff skills, not baseline revenant.

Wait is there a different set of skills for staff?

…..there’s at least two other legends to be channeled. what do you think?

Except that weapon skills are independt of legend.

has anet said this?

Yes.

Can Tablet be destroyed/attackable?

Lightsbane.9012:

Knighthonor.4061:

http://i.imgur.com/hvILOhL.jpg
Staff looks like it’s going to rock in WvW.

yup, lets just remember that says ventari staff skills, not baseline revenant.

Wait is there a different set of skills for staff?

Jekkt.6045:

and where is your support? the healing from staff auto won’t make the difference and condis won’t cleanse themselves.

another bad thing about the revenant support is the radius, it’s 240 around the tablet and 120 when it moves. try to heal somebody when he gets focused and is trying not to die, he won’t come to you and the tablet range is 900 with a 2s cooldown.

See that duration on projectile block? Imagine that on a cap point!!! Ultimate lock down defense.

Also +heal to Defense conversion. Plus dwarf traits for added defense and Cen traits for lock down bunker healing of allies. A Rev/Necro could pretty much lock down a mid cap point themselves….

Trinity may be in use for Raids after all. :-)
http://i.imgur.com/hvILOhL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7gcwS3i.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NwlPRuD.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hvILOhL.jpg
Staff looks like it’s going to rock in WvW.

Jekkt.6045:

and while you are in ventari you have no stability and no stunbreak. go out of ventari and you won’t heal allies anymore.
nty. guard > revenant for support.

That’s what other trait lines are for. Can always spec into those other trait lines for additional support or defense.

You get 2 other trait lines to pick to go with this.

Staff looks beastly
http://i.imgur.com/hvILOhL.jpg