Guild Wars 2

Sometimes I wonder how many actually understand the difference between viable and optimal.

Nike.2631:

Ventari is there so the Sylvari Revenants will have an obvious go to choice .

That’s also why Jora is there… oh. Right. My bad. Norns don’t matter to the Devs.

By that logic they apparently they don’t care about Asura or Charr either.

xDudisx.5914:

What if they give us the option to customize the collor of the hp bar UI so everyone is happy?

Text window too while they’re at it.

But that would involve UI customization, and god forbid we don’t preserve their prized “game aesthetic.”

I wish. Basic pet functionality should have been in at release, and something like “Guard” should be baseline, not a utility slot.

A 1% power increase is worth 1% damage (1000 -> 2000 power = 200% damage / an additional 100% damage increase)

1% crit = 1% damage at 200% crit damage (50% crit @ 250% crit damage = 62.5% damage increase)

You can do the math yourself using that as a baseline. Generally power > precision, which is why Zerker > Assassin, but in PvP Zerker has vit and Assassin is pure offense so it could go either way. Keep in mind Precision soft caps at 80% and you shouldn’t consider any further precision after that point as far as stat weights go.

As far as sigil of perception goes, never take it over Bloodlust on a power ranger. 1:1 Power > Precision (> Ferocity, but that’s never a decision you need to make), and that’s not even considering the opportunity cost of not using air/fire in its place. There’s probably a ferocity breakpoint where precision > power, but it does not exist in PvP.

I haven’t done the math myself, but if I had to guess, I’d say for pure damage Assassins is better than Berserker, but Berserker has a slightly higher stat budget 2364 versus 2232, therefore it might be more useful for the already very squishy power ranger. Keep in mind, many popular variants of power don’t go full damage (which would likely look like 6/6/0/2/0 + Ranger Runes and QZ). Eurantien ran 6/6/2/0/0 with Traveler runes, and purely defensive utilities, and another common variant is 6 in Nature’s Magic. From this it is safe to conclude that damage is not the end-all be-all of Power Ranger, or that it already has enough damage innately that any more starts to give some diminishing returns. Haven’t done any actual theorycrafting though, this is just speculation.

I’d say play it safe and stick with Berserker. There’s probably a reason why people use it even with Assassin’s as an option, and if you’re short on gold you shouldn’t waste it.

Fairytayl.1035:

I don’t want to sound lie i’m trying to break your argumentation but why should we normalize the dps of the weapons while no other classes have 2 weapons who deal the same amount of damage.

Axe and GS are extremely close for warrior. No reason GS and Sword for ranger can’t be like that.

Pretty awful bug tbh. Also screws up F2 casting.

BlackTruth.6813:

You want a heal that completely mitigates burst, makes people not want to attack you for 3 seconds, and heals off of conditions too, to have no casting time?

Yes. It should have no cast time, because it is an awful heal as is. I’m surprised you weren’t aware of this, since it’s all you run after all.

Signet of Resolve:
8150 per 41s = 199 HPS

Litany of Wrath traited:
1640 + 1960 per 24.75 seconds = 145 HPS

Shelter:
kitten (really anet) per 31.25 seconds = 146 HPS

In order for Litany of Wrath to surpass Signet of Resolve in pure HPS, the damage it needs to do is:
(Signet of Resolve healing – Litancy of Wrath healing) *4

Signet of Resolve does 4919 healing in 24.75 seconds, Litany of Wrath does 3600.
(4919-3600) * 4 = 5276

In order for Shelter to surpass Signet of Resolve in pure HPS, it needs to mitigate the difference in healing, at a minimum. Signet of Resolve Healing – Shelter Healing = 6318-4555= 1763 damage mitigated, which is like one or two autos in a practical sense.

Now keep in mind this is for pure HPS. This says nothing about actual counterplay, in which case Shelter wins in virtually any scenario. Literally the only practical downside of Shelter is that it has a longer cast time than the other heals, which might allow an Engineer to poison it, condis to tick, give more time for unblockable interrupts, or that one warrior who randomly runs Signet of Might to eviscerate.

In my opinion, there’s an argument to be made for Signet vs Litany, but the block from Shelter is absurdly powerful and outshines any amount of healing the other two could do. Block 5k damage, and that translates to 20k damage for Litany, and you’ve also nearly doubled the HPS from Signet. It’s ridiculous.

Rangelost.4857:

All tiers: most players are so gullible they actually believe in a “meta”, and when they end up falling for it, they get absolutely destroyed by anyone who is using a custom build.

Oh my god this is the funniest post I’ve seen in a while. Please tell me more about the underground world of condi guardians and bunker thieves.

Aomine.5012:

The -50% CD is way too OP so I wouldn’t recommend it.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kick_%28warrior_utility_skill%29

Yeah watch out guys or we might have a new kick meta in PvP.

Xyonon.3987:

@ Everyone who says “Legis are only supposed to be skins”. Show me the exact quote from ANet that says that.

“Legis are only supposed to be skins.” -Anet

Seems good enough for me.

spoj.9672:

Nephziel.6053:

Zerk is generally most used for PvE yet is completly usless against Teq.

Wrong. Its the best for Teq aswell. You still have power mainstat. And you do more damage during the defend phase or if you are on turret defence duty.

Assassin is slightly better for some classes in dungeons and regular open world though.

If you really want to get down to it, Soldier + Zerker is best for Teq. Soldier for Teq phase, swap to Zerker for defense phase.

Yeah but what if I bring zero stun breaks, zero condi removal, and zero stability. What then!?

Cosmin.8306:

Larynx.2453:

A warrior’s Finesse stat would increase your CD reduction for adrenaline skills, thief would be steal CD, and so on. Either way, stats need a big overhaul.

I wonder what the ranger will get, “improved pet AI” ? , if so i would go Finesse/Finesse/Finesse gear on both of mine.

Joke aside, the idea is not bad . There are some gear and combat issues that need to be addressed, either in HoT or sooner.

Pet Attributes.

Most people do the LS solo minus achievements.

Yeah, a single encounter in WvW is definitely a great demonstration of a build.

nicknamenick.2437:

Tao.5096:

There are no “easy stomps” against team with experienced players.
L2p.

invulnerability

Stealth.

Team utility of AoE stealth is huge, that’s why you have them on a large amount of teams. Not to mention the simple opportunity cost. Blowing a large CD in the form of invulnerability to secure a stomp is not an easy stomp. You lose an enormous defensive CD, which later on might cause YOU to get stomped, fail to res a team mate because of cleave, or force you off a node to prevent death, ceding the point to the other team.

You can press escape to remove your target and then cast it, and the pet will do it instantly on top of you if he’s on passive. Spamming the button interrupts his current action as well, or at least the canine knockdown.

I mean yeah it sucks if your pet is on a node not near you because you sent him to go CC/Attack someone else, and then a thief gets on you. All you have to do is either pet swap or use Return to Me and use his ability without a target when he gets to you.

Besides being unable to control the pet’s other abilities and the general clunkiness how their responsiveness is, imo the only real solution to this problem is just to allow a greater amount of control over your pet like in WoW. In WoW, utilities like Guard are baseline for the pet, why can’t I control the basic positioning of my pet without dedicating 1 of 3 slots for it?

Zenith.7301:

They should remove ferocity as a stat and simply make crit damage a 150% damage done fixed.

Merge power with condition damage into a single power stat so condition damage skills and power based skills can be more incorporated, and it makes the bunch of currently useless hybrid weapons better.

This.

Who honestly thought Berserker was a good idea. It is perfectly itemized, giving a player every single damage stat they want. With Power/Precision/X, at least we get a basic choice between Healing Power, Vitality, or Toughness. Additionally, without Ferocity scaling Precision becomes weaker, even allowing Power/X/Y to be viable. The exponential curve is less steep without Ferocity on gear.

I’d be all for adding two more stats with the removal of Ferocity and Condi Damage. Condi Duration, Boon Duration (in relevant amounts) are probably first in line. We could also see a Profession specific stat that gives you a % bonus towards whatever your 6th trait lines happens to be. Call it Finesse, lets say.

A warrior’s Finesse stat would increase your CD reduction for adrenaline skills, thief would be steal CD, and so on. Either way, stats need a big overhaul.

A responsiveness buff would be nice, as well as making the pet’s own abilities more controllable (ie canine knockdown).

I don’t think they should be given much beyond that, making the abilities instant would be too strong. Instant, unblockable, 600 range AoE fear from a wolf?

Ravenmoon.5318:

Larynx.2453:

Ravenmoon.5318:

This thread is garbage, made by people who have only seen screenshots of thief and mesmer. A well placed eviscerate kills the thief (if they fail to dodge) so to be a good thief you have to be very observant.

I wonder though. If what you crybabies are claiming is true, and the thief is the “master race”, why don’t we see teams with 5 thieves? Since the thief can wreck any class, why bother playing anything else than a thief? Why is it so that a team with 2 or more thieves is at a disadvantage.

Yes, the typical standard adhered to for OPness is constructed on the premise that if it can’t be stacked to 5 and win, it’s fine.

Ravenmoon.5318:

I’ve seen teams of 5 power rangers completely obliterating Khylo from camp spots,

Ah yes, the illusive yet dreaded Euratien zord 5-man split.

Utterly bad attempt at troll. Learn to play, talk less, and you might actually start winning vs thieves, lol

All I’m saying is that you’re the one who claims a team of 5 power rangers is a thing.

Ravenmoon.5318:

This thread is garbage, made by people who have only seen screenshots of thief and mesmer. A well placed eviscerate kills the thief (if they fail to dodge) so to be a good thief you have to be very observant.

I wonder though. If what you crybabies are claiming is true, and the thief is the “master race”, why don’t we see teams with 5 thieves? Since the thief can wreck any class, why bother playing anything else than a thief? Why is it so that a team with 2 or more thieves is at a disadvantage.

Yes, the typical standard adhered to for OPness is constructed on the premise that if it can’t be stacked to 5 and win, it’s fine.

Ravenmoon.5318:

I’ve seen teams of 5 power rangers completely obliterating Khylo from camp spots,

Ah yes, the illusive yet dreaded Euratien zord 5-man split.

Ouroboros.5076:

Condi rangers get stomped because they clean condis like mad.
Pew pew rangers will struggle to inflict enough damage to overcome their heals.

Any suggestion ?

D/D ele can 1v1 any viable ranger build.

Haha get it?

Side note, figured out the IP Address (es) thing. You added an extra space. It’s actually IP Address(es), as in, one or multiple Addresses.

Zerker Ranger reigns supreme.

jportell.2197:

Honestly I have no clue how to do that. I’m a medical geek not a computer one >.< I know how to open the resource monitor but not sure how to check latency from there.

If you have the resource monitor open, navigate to the “Network” tab (listed on the top of the window).

Actually run your GW2 client (making sure to also log in), and after a few moments “Gw2.exe” should appear under the “Processes with Network Activity” tab at the very top of the window. Check Gw2.exe, and it’ll filter only network processes by that program. The Network Activity tab (below the Processes with Network Activity" tab) shows the data you’re sending or receiving. The IP Address with the most activity is likely the most relevant IP you want to pay attention to. Don’t worry if you have more than one with high traffic, just apply everything I say here to all of them.

Under TCP Connections (below Network Activity), find the IP Address with large amounts of network activity (and the IP Address is going to be found below Remote Address, not Local Address). You can see Packet Loss (%) and Latency (ms) here. This is basically your latency in GW2.

Let me know if you have any questions.

The solution I found to my latency was what I said above,

I changed the target field for my Gw2.exe to be
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” /clientport 80

The default port is 6112, and changing to 80 seemed to fix most of my issues. The reason this works is because of ISP and internet protocol nonsense.

The target field can be found by right clicking your Gw2 shortcut and changing the “Target” text field.

I don’t know what the es means. Have you tried pinging that IP and seeing what you get? Or using the resource monitor and checking the latency for that IP?

That IP might even be irrelevant. To check the IP your game client connects to, (other than the resource monitor) you can create a shortcut for GW2, and in the target field add -diag. So it would look like,

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -diag

And then run the client. You’ll get a text file in your Documents/Guild Wars 2 folder where screenshots are saved called “NetworkDiag.” Open this file and under “cligate.101.NCPlatform.net” You can see the list of IPs your client connects to. The 101 number be vary, but control-f “cligate” should be adequate.

To ping for latency, open the command prompt and type ping -t and then the IP address(es).

To use the resource monitor, go to Run and type “resmon.” This opens it up, filter by Gw2.exe and you can see all the network activity, including latency.

I was having these issues recently, my latency spiking from 250-500 ms or higher. I downloaded something called Leatrix Latency Fix (which did nothing, but it might help). I also changed the target field for my Gw2.exe to be

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” /clientport 80

The default port is 6112, and changing to 80 seemed to fix most of my issues.

sinject.4607:

C-Tier (mediocre, is considerably outperformed by other professions filling same role):

• Ranger

I hear the footsteps of a wild Euratien approaching,.

Assassin X.8573:

BurrTheKing.8571:

BlackTruth.6813:

YuiRS.8129:

That’s the question. I hate the Longbow bunker brainless playstyle with a passion. Is there any way to play something else without being a detriment to your team? Metabattle.com doesn’t have an answer.

http://www.twitch.tv/blacktruth009/c/6259903

http://www.twitch.tv/blacktruth009/c/6152446

But they take A LOT of skill to play. You have to be patient.

P.S Try to not listen to the whiners like the guy above me, listen to yourself and just keep being a better player while you’re at it.

You keep listing those videos, but how are people supposed to try them without the traits/runes/sigils? I’m pretty sure I can tell just from the gameplay but to someone not into theorycrafting it helps to have a reference.

im not 100% sure of the sigils, but i think its something close to this for the Doom Hammer 2nd link (http://www.twitch.tv/blacktruth009/c/6152446)

From what I’ve seen, it looks like he runs maybe 0/4/6/0/4, and doesn’t take cleansing ire. Takes Balanced Stance + Defy Pain in Defense.

edit: Actually I see might on weapon swap. 6 in discipline, no idea what the other 2 points go to. Strength seems like the only option, but with a build like this for all we know he’s taking immob on cripple. Might make up for his zero mobility, I guess.

dominik.9721:

ofc is greatsword stronger. there is a reason why rom and tarcis play sometimes with greatsword and never with axe mace.

No no, obviously Defiant Stance, Bulls Charge, Rampage and Axe/Mace are the way to go. Those warriors know nothing.

Coulter.2315:

Note no one else has requested other projectiles be exempt from whatever change is required tooo.

The entire post is an attack on ranger longbow specifically.

Equilibriator.8741:

think of hundred blades as a stationary flamethrower mode for quick bursts on mobs or long attacks on bosses, you dont actually HAVE to do it for its full duration and the cooldown is pretty fast.

This is very wrong. 100B damage is backloaded. The 9th hit is worth 20% of the total damage of the attack.

You can cancel Rush and Whirlwind by weapon swapping.

• Throw Bolas reliably able to hit targets on a flat plane without getting random obstructed messages when it hits a pebble.

The #1 reason it is unusable in PvP. Even assuming your target doesn’t dodge, blind, block, whatever it, it’s a dice roll whether the thing even hits at point blank.

Use an axe build if you can’t manage the immobility from 100B. The delta between axe builds and GS builds isn’t extremely significant. In an optimal environment, you might lose 5-10% dps, and in GW2 this difference is practically irrelevant for all but record times.

If your group is doing 50,000 dps, swapping to an axe might lower your group dps to 49,000 or 49,500. In a ten minute run, that means your run will take ~9 seconds longer. If you’re having to interrupt 100B, miss damage, or die due to the immobility, it’ll actually make the run faster.

Shiki.7148:

Nephziel.6053:

Muchacho.2390:

Lazaar.9123:

Mallyx heal healed him for 6,167, Jalis heal healed him for 5,060. That’s a total of 11,227 healed, which would be more healed if there was more conditions on him, plus retaliation, resistance if traited, as well as condition removal.

Lets do some calculations with those numbers.

Both healing skills have a cooldown of 30 seconds and if we dont take casttimes in consideration this is at best an hps of 11227/30=374.33 (still unrealistic since it would mean you spam your healing skills on cooldown). It also looks like he was wearing celetrial amulet so he has some healing power.

Now compare that to Healing signet (see http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Healing_Signet). Without any healing power it is 362 hps and with celestrial amulet only it should roughly be 362+0.05*438=384 hps.

So with does numbers in mind does it still look so strong?

Forum Fighters don’t care about statistic. They said it’s OP and no matter what you do there is no way of changin it.
I just started even trying to reason with few people here.
Just let them think what they want.

Then lets do it without statistics then. 2 Revenants got rekt by 1 Necro in a PvP-Match i saw. Even with their double-heal.

And yes, double heal(or double elite) is intended.

Idk, maybe it has less to do with class balance and more to do with one person has 2+ years experience and the other has +/- 1 hour of experience as a class?

MaXi.3642:

maybe it’s not supposed to be that hard? compare it to any other boss except for Teq and TT and it’s still harder, so I don’t see a problem, not every boss is supposed to be super hard imo…

That’s like walking into 1st Grade and saying the curriculum is hard compared to Kindergarten.

Thaddeus.4891:

Well 6/6/0/2/0 GS vs 6/5/0/0/3 GS+ Ax/M is very similar is dps indeed. But when you talk about
- 6/6/0/2/0 Pure axe there is around a 700 dps difference.
- 6/4/0/4/0 Pure GS, its around 1500-2000 less dps
- 0/6/0/6/2 PS Warrior, its around 3 000 less dps

So ya, you are right for some build, but the dps drop can drastically drop for other build. For example, the build the OP is proposing will be a loss of around 1 000-800 dps.

Thanks for the numbers. My info is outdated and a lot of what I was going off of was this tool: http://gw2dps.david-reess.de/

But that’s also very out of date.

Falados.7165:

What about http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Pure_Axe_EA this spec and do i really need to use night sigil instead of bloodlust ?

You lower your personal DPS significantly (by around 1000-2000 I believe? so 10-20%) but you increase group dps by something like 7.5-10%. That’s a party support build, I wouldn’t run it outside dungeons or fractals. I’m not sure if it is even considered worthwhile in that content either, I haven’t played for a while so things might have changed.

And no, for someone like you you don’t need to worry about the sigil differences. You could even go accuracy, air, frailty or fire or something and be fine.

When people say X build is better than Y, lets say 6/6/0/0/2 GS > 6/6/0/0/2 Axe, or 6/5/0/0/3 GS versus another similar build, the differences are literally something like 10,000 dps versus 10,200 dps. It doesn’t actually matter. So as long as you’re intelligent about what you do and run a build similar to the meta warrior builds, your damage will be fine. Soloing dungeons/fractals and general utility is a different story though.

I would say that you want 6/6 for axes. Dual Wield Agility is a huge DPS increase, and worth sacrificing quick hands for.

Falados.7165:

Would http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQRBHTdGiBCCKzFQAkAn/gTY6VVGA be decent for solo even through living storylines ?

Literally any build can solo the living story. It’s a fine build though.

Argon.1563:

Im just preparing a set of random rare gear. We don’t know if Revenants will be better on direct dps, condi, or both, so im going with Carrion, because I can easily get it from carapace boxes, and its balanced in the sense it does both direct dps, condi, and it will give me vitality to save my life with in the event the Revenant is super-squishy.

Considering they’ve announced no meaningful PvE stat overhaul or design changes, and Berserker and Soldier are the best armor sets for literally every profession, it’s pretty obvious what will be better right now.

TheDaiBish.9735:

On the HoT page, they have:

New adventures await you in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Confront the growing hordes of Mordremoth’s minions, discover allies from ancient civilizations, and battle new enemies.

• Tackle challenging group content.
• Explore new open world jungle maps.
• Experience new events and storylines.
• Test your mettle in new boss battles.

What this ‘challenging group content’ is is anyone’s guess.

Could be open world events, dungeons or Fractals. Heck, it could even be raids (we had a Raid CDI and they hired a raid designer a while back).

Some people considered the Shadow of the Dragon challenging group content. It’s meaningless buzz that promises nothing.

XDeadzX.2581:

Carlin Sanders.3587:

i imagine that, similar to revenants filling in the ‘missing gap’ for soldier professions that great-axes may be added in the next expansion for professions. the problem is, who will be using it apart from warrior?

Rangers, maybe guardians, and necromancers. Reverants, and warriors as you said.

That’s 5 professions, which is more than rifles, longbows, or shortbows have. I’d say that sounds fine.

They could literally give it to just warrior and rev and that’s already on par with other weapons.

Also, forgot torch and shield. Three for each. Honestly, great-axe won’t be any issue. MOST weapons have 2-4 professions, and great-axe could fit at 2-5 without much issue.

I’m so sorry you got 3 precursors and 2 legendaries. I really have such sympathy.

^Glassbow is a 1v1 build

I think literally every profession has a 1v1 build that can beat or be on equal terms with a longbow. I guess if you’re bad you might have difficulty, after all how can I deal with a rapid fire when my ele only has 9k health and no defensive cds?

Rin.1046:

I’ll use your icecream analogy and compare it to GW2 and other trinity based MMO’s:

In trinity based MMO’s you can build for damage, tanking or healing. Three flavours of icecream.

In GW2, you can build for damage, tanking (while not in the tradition sense you can make tough builds), support, control and utility. Then you can mix them all up and make effective hybrid builds. More than 3 flavours of icecream.

There is, and has been for a long time, a misconception that you only need damage in GW2. But need is not what makes GW2’s system better than the trinity system. The thing that makes GW2’s soft trinity better than the traditional trinity is that you do not HAVE to have certain roles in order to do the content. While a damage focused team may be able to clear a dungeon faster, they may not do so well in a conquest match. Different content in GW2 has different effective builds. But at the end of the day, you CAN take ANY build into ANY content and succeed. While in most traditional trinity MMO’s, if you don’t have a healer or tank, you fail. GW2 has opened the doors to many more role options than the old trinity system, and it allows you to play your way without that feeling of ‘we will fail because X role is not filled’.

Many people are still struggling to see this. They think that because damage focused builds can be more effective in many situations, GW2 has only one role. But this is completely wrong. Actually, no, it is completely right. GW2 does only have one role: Your role. Whatever build you take is irrelivant, its YOUR ability to tackle the content that matters not the role you build for. And that is a much better system in my opinion.

To sum it up, the game is so easy it literally doesn’t matter what you play.

That’s a horrible gameplay model. People play zerker because of all the viable options (every build) it is the best for time efficiency. In a void, if someone could clear a dungeon in 5 minutes or 35 minutes, people will trend towards the quicker run.

Just because something is viable doesn’t mean you should use it.

Haishao.6851:

Larynx.2453:

Haishao.6851:

Control has always been very useful in pve

Is this sarcastic because I can’t tell

What make you think I’m sarcastic?

Here I’ll lead by example.

Dire has always been useful in dungeons.

Haishao.6851:

Control has always been very useful in pve

Is this sarcastic because I can’t tell

It is night time in the HotM?

Pretty kittening bright to me.