Do 5 gambits. Drop eruption, and unsteady ground; drop lava font and start a meteor shower. Use arcane shield as necessary, as well as elemental. Otherwise blast your fire fields for might while doing this with arcane wave and your heal.
Even when you go down, the extra lava font should be doing massive dmg.
Unless I am misreading. It would seem to me that the Megaserver system was set-up for this new function of living world. Now, once you activate a previous living world element, I imagine you will be placed into a world in which the living story is occurring with other players who also have that specific living story selected. In the past, there would of been too few people, and there may still well be in some living world content, but many of them will be full of players completing the living story element.
I think this change is awesome, especially for someone like me that only started playing last crown pavilion.
I really did not enjoy the overall effect of the Tournament. Some match-ups were fun, but mostly I had a much better time in WvW before the tournament. Locking the match-ups was a big mistake, countless people made threads about it, including myself. The rewards style was also poorly conceived, as it promoted server stacking. Anyway, just wanted to bump this, as I feel the Devs need to read it.
Servers with less people should be given the chance to “win” a little. Imagine, the enemy may outnumber your forces 2:1, but you and your men are a constant thorn in their sides; a very persistent and annoying thorn. Only being able to strike key locations, your smaller army, while only controlling some stray towers and a keep, cannot be repressed. Such vigilance should be rewarded. I think that until coverage can be worked out in WvW, ANET should allow the community to shape it, with little input from themselves. (Aside from some needed functionality improvements, I mostly mean no Free Transfers + Tournament based on being the top server)
I hope A-Net learned from this tournament, and does not simply consider it a success due to the increased financial gain from mass transfers. Eventually, customers will get reluctant to hand over money if they feel that they are being unfairly treated, their fun exploited.
I find Guild Wars 2 to be an awesome game, it just needs more polish. (Aka stuff that fills the small gaps that are lacking from the current structure, in order to create a smooth surface.) I think the feature update was mostly positive, I’ve been having fun since its release.
Good luck A-Net you have a great product that many people enjoy, Gambatte.
Two very different builds, It looks really interesting too. Give them both a try and let us know how they work out.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAodhMM6cW9wvBf0AaAGpPw4AwEIDW+HMDyBA-TJxHwADeAAa2fAwJAoYZAA
This build involves switching elements for boons, countering cc spikes and burst, while trying to maintain frost bow in water element. The lightning flash allows you to surprise people with spikes, aka 1800 range deep freeze. The build will force you to leave the bow and use your D/F skill set, but with Water being such a useful element for the build, you will still feel like you are playing the freeze game. (Also, don’t forget that if you are only auto attacking with frost bow, you aren’t dealing much damage; also people can steal your weapon. )
Signet of earth can be changed, but it can near guarantee some burst if used right, or allow an escape. (since this build has such poor mobility)
Good luck, and feel free to experiment with alternatives. I just cooked this build up in a few minutes.
Hello fellow summoners of the elements,
I am approaching the point where I’ll need to buy my Elementalist here Accessories. I don’t have any other 80s. (I used to have a thief I deleted to change servers, before they announced the BoA Ascended gear) I only have enough laurels for 1 set of Accessories. (I have 90 currently on May 1st)
On my thief I went Zerk, for PvE, and WvW. I was the obvious best one, unless I wanted a condi build, which I would’ve worked on getting dire.
However, with the Elementalist, the choices aren’t so clear. I’ve actually been considering picking up Celestial for all my Accessories, to allow me to change builds by switching weapons and armor only. (All Exotic, as I have an overabundance of Karma) I was worried about hurting which ever build I focus on.
I really enjoy full glass staff in spvp, and enjoy staff in zergs in wvw. I would even want to try playing it in PvE and solo roaming. I’m a little worried that I’ll be killed a lot roaming with that build, so having Celestial Accessories(which provides more overall stats) seemed like a good way to balance my build without losing too much. But When I’m trying to burst with it, I’ll be missing about 300 power from a full Zerk Accessory set-up.
I was reading the WvW build thread on page one. Lots of interesting builds mentioned. (Cleric D/D sustain might stacking, d/f Fresh air, Staff healer, s/d Fresh air, etc. ) I want to make the Ele my main, but was a little worried about feeling non-optimal for any build if I went Celestial, but then, I could at least play many builds, by only changing my armor and weapon (Both easy to replace).
Any Elementalist struggled through the same choice, and come to conclusions since they picked either Celestial or went for a more focused approach to build making? If I end up feeling kitten , it would be many months before I could buy a new set of Accessories.
So conjure me some knowledge, and hit me with critical arcane; I seek the guidance of those who had settled on this class long ago, or those lucky enough to benefit greatly from BoA Accessories, allowing them to try many variations of the Elementalist. A class full of wonder and power, hidden beneath the crust, built through Subduction. Let no man be at Fault, when an Elementalist conjure’s fire and flame.
So unless this is some kind of bug, there is no longer a pvp daily. Which means you now have to do at least some pve for a daily (laurel included).
This would usually allow me to get my daily done, when I was limited in my playtime. As I could finish my pvp daily in about 40 minutes. I can see one reason for this. At least is seems that there is no capture daily, which means less people standing around on nodes when they need to help. (I’m actually talking about what I described, I am well aware that most of the time grabbing nodes is a high priority.)
Is this intended? If so, I can only see myself getting my daily done once or twice a week; down from the 5-7 I used to mange. This is probably a lot worse for people who almost exclusively pvped.
Anyway, what’s everyone thoughts? And Devs, is this on purpose?
Signed for keeping jewels.
This is, as many people have said, a nice bonus for players that put the time in to perfect their build. And since the jewels have very little stats, it does not overly damage a noob who doesn’t fully grasp the value of the various stats in relation to their build.
Removing this will benefit no one and hurt many, including myself. (I was using cleric amulet with barb jewel on my guard to increase my hp pool and give me a little extra precision. I gave me an extra 4% crit, which brought me up to 15%, enough I felt to utilize some of the longer cooldown on-crit sigils. ) I am always having fun customizing my pvp toons, as changes are so easy to make. With all these upcoming changes, I feel it will hurt pvp more than help.
I have to agree to this. I’m very saddened to see dye drops go. When I’m exploring Tyria, a dye dropping was one of the few items of possible value, and I always felt my character had gained something from it. (Except when my main gets certain pinks and purples I’m not fond of…lol)
Hey everyone,
I had heard we’d be getting some upgrades in tandem with the upcoming launch in China of Guild Wars 2. It seems account-bound dyes are about to become a thing with this feature update.
source:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/dyes-in-the-new-account-wardrobe/
There is no mention of changing dyes costing money, but I noticed in the picture they posted of the process, there seems to be some kind of cost in “transmutation charges”. I hope this is only because they took the picture straight from the new chinese edition, with translations.
I personally, love to change up my dyes. I like doing it it randomly, and even wish they would expand the system to allow you to dye your weapons. I’m all for account bound dyes, but I’m worried about never getting dye drops anymore and the potential cost of changing dyes.
Hopefully Anet can clear up this confusion, as the post on the main page doesn’t actually talk about these “transmutation charges”. Also, will the mystic forge and the gem store be the only places to acquire dyes? What are these “select in-game rewards” that also give the players dyes?
Please try to stay on topic and avoid talking about other posters. Everyone has a right to their opinion, and those posting on these boards must care in some way about the quality of the game, and they must enjoy it on some level.
The point of this thread is to hear what various players, even if just a small portion of the playerbase feel about the current and future content labelled as “exploration” for 80s. As well as help give feedback to the DEVs, who gave us this information with the expectation that we would give them feedback.
I’ll type some of the general ideas I’ve seen so far on this thread and the few others cropping up on this topic.
1) Players enjoy feeling more powerful at max level. If the majority of the player base didn’t enjoy having low level content easier at 80, the game wouldn’t be as popular as it is.
2) Many players are looking for good reasons to explore the world, which as many have pointed out, mostly exist on your first play through.
3) Once you’ve hit max level, many players will spend their time where they enjoy themselves most, regardless of exploration.
4) An increased ease at doing low-end content doesn’t scare as many players as I thought it would.
5) Random challenges scattered throughout the world, that offer some difficulty help build the community by giving bragging rights, and a feeling of cooperation when accomplishing them as a group.
Here is another suggestion that I’ve been thinking of that I’ve seen in other games that I’ve personally enjoyed, but is mostly lacking in this game; I find it helps build a sense of adventure.
Suggestion: Have a few creatures, a lot like Champions, that require challenge to beat. A level of difficulty that all but a handful of scaled players can beat. These challenges are meant to give 80s something to strive for in the world. They should not be simple HP cushions, but have mechanics that will 1 shot low levels, and nearly kill 80s. The goal is to have lower levels encounter these creatures, when exploring off the general scope (aka not planted right in a heart quest), and find them impossible to beat, and look forward to hitting max, come back and teach that creature a lesson. The rewards should be interesting and focused on the specific event in question. (I think skins are the most obvious reward that will lure many players without forcing it into a daily grind)
Example: When roaming the wayfarer foothills, you notice what looks like bunny ears sticking out of the ground next to a tree. Upon approaching you are given the option to pull the ears. When you do, a giant bunny blasts out of the ground, and promptly kills the unprepared explorer. The location of the bunny changes each time he is pulled. And if he is not pulled for a certain amount of time, will come out of the ground himself, with small baby bunnies, if you kill the babies while he’s moving dens, he gets a powerful buff, and turns red. This changes the reward table for the giant bunny. One day, when trying for world completion, (now maxed) the player stumbles upon this bunny again. A low level passer-by had seen the ears, and was eagerly awaiting help. Together, they manage to stump the bunny, and earn a unique costume brawl outfit.
The bunny’s attacks are focused on similar mechanics found in fractals. Often dodge-able swings, charges, or attacks that auto-kill you if you don’t get to higher ground (allowing the fight to be different depending on the bunny’s location), etc.
With NPC’s hidden around that move and offer great challenges, located in all zones, players can look towards an increased sense of adventure when setting out to explore the world. The interactive start, means very few players will be punished by this event unwillingly, aside from the first time he encounters it, or bad timing (furthering his desire to seek revenge). A handful of these events in every zone could liven up the exploration. Some can even reward relevant traits, like vigor or dodge based traits for an event that focuses on dodgeing, or movement speed traits for ones that focus on movement, etc.
I love how alive guild wars 2 feels compared to most other mmos, but most zones can use some help for bringing players back. (to catch all the witty banter between npcs, and fun events that occur randomly) And this can help by increasing rewards, while making sure the rewards aren’t grindable. (you only need 1 of a specific trait or one costume, etc.)
I made a topic with this focus as well called “make exploration fun at 80”, feel free to hope over and see some of the ideas being thrown around, as well as peoples opinions on the current status of scaling and difficulty.
They could always implement a question that pops up on login after the change for each character, asking if you want to challenge yourself. But mostly, I think a level 23 character that you love the look of, should be able to experience the new system once its implemented. Rather than having to remake the character after the update.
I want to preface for those questioning the validity of this thread with two points:
1) This thread allows the players to throw around ideas, some of which may be implemented into the game.
2) It gives the Devs a clear idea of how players are interpreting their statements, allowing them to better structure their interactions with the playerbase.
I have to agree that map completion is a drag, I’ve yet to complete it in the 6 months I’ve been playing this game. But adding interesting ideas to enrich the lower level zones, as its a big part of the end-game, is good for everyone. The trait challenges they are adding is supposed to do just that. But if it turns from interesting mechanic at lvl 38 to stand still and press 1 for 5 minutes at 80, I will be disappointed.
I agree that most of the world should feel easier when max-level, but there should still always be challenges available to the players and exiting rewards for doing their map completion, or simply exploring a few zones. Now, we have jumping puzzles, a few fun events, the rare fun heart, and that’s it. I would not be opposed if the upcoming trait challenges were yes, located in the world, but instanced so they can give you a truly personalized and fun experience. (when I say personalized, I simply mean properly calibrated in difficulty)
I wanted to create a thread for people to discuss the upcoming trait challenges and how they will affect current players.
Trait challenges will be tasks that you must complete in various parts of the world to unlock traits that are currently available to all players, as well as the new upcoming traits. With this new system, currently made characters will only be tasked with achieving the newest challenges for the upcoming 40 new grandmaster traits, and new characters will have to earn all their traits.
Another important detail in this is that players can choose to buy their traits from a class trainer for a fee (larger for the newer traits) and that once a trait is unlocked, a player will be able to change their traits with the click of a button in any mode other than a pvp match, without the need to leave their current locations on the map. Players will also be receiving traits at later levels than they do now. Also, acquisition of tiers will be automatic.
Now I’ll leave my feedback on this change. I love the new system, although I don’t understand the need to push trait acquisition back. My biggest concern is old characters that I worked hard to create, but never bother to fully level will not be able to experience these new trait challenges to the degree of a new player. I suggest that current characters be forced to complete challenges for all traits that they have yet to unlock on their current character. So a character below 11, will get to do them all, one from 11-39 can do all master level trait challenges, etc.
I hope to hear some nice feedback from other players and their opinion on these changes.
I don’t know about most people but I actually have MORE fun when I’m steamrolling things. I dunno, something about those extra shinies and feeling powerful for all the work I put into my char. Of course I love a good challenge too and as such there are places I go to for that (WvW, PvP, solo champs and play on the highest maps etc).
So please, don’t say that we ALL will get bored.
Don’t worry this isn’t an argue this thread. I want to hear other players feedback on this change, and how they feel about current difficulty. Since, unless they announce another change, the game will get even easier. As much as you enjoy it now, can you imagine if mobs took half as much to kill for a maxed out character? Things are already steamroll for 80s in queensdale, etc. I’m just concerned that moving further in that direction will decrease the enjoyment of going out into the world to complete these new trait challenges.
I have liked some of the suggestions so far. Removing the trait bonus stats is interesting as it doesn’t make 80s feel weak, but rather slightly bring down their efficiency without compromising their diversity and feeling of completeness. A downscalling change could work nicely, but how it is calibrated is tricky; people in crappy gear at level 69 lets say could suffer more from this kind of change. So it would have to adjust per level to accommodate the average gear a player has at those levels.
Keep the ideas coming, and try to stick to the established format if possible, but if that doesn’t float your fancy, I’d rather get feedback than not.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dev-Blog-Changes-to-Traits/page/7
It’s said in the fourth Dev response on that page.
Hi there,
I figured since this thread has yet to be made, but its ideas are being thrown around all over. I thought I’d make this thread for the community to post in and hopefully get some feedback from the Devs about the upcoming changes to low level stats.
So the Devs plan to reduce the enemy world NPCs stats, to compensate for the upcoming trait changes; which will prevent players from having as many stat points as they previously had as well as any powerful early-game traits.
The problem with this change, as much of the community has pointed out, is that downscaled 80s will gain strength with this change. And with a patch that is trying to get players to “explore the world more” and “bring some life back to certain zones”, this can have some large repercussions. More 80s and other higher level characters will be travelling around to accomplish tasks that are supposed to be fun for scaled players. (I’m referring mostly to the new trait hunt) They will do these “challenges” with impunity and get bored. If a max level player can just steamroll the content that he is forced to play, the game will get boring for all concerned.
So leave your opinion on the topic here, and let ANET know if you like the implications of this change or not? Feel free to post suggestions on overcoming this problem, as the patch as a whole is being perceived very positively and I have to say I love most of the ideas. Try not to deviate too much from the topic at hand, which is:
1)Do you like the idea of 80s becoming even stronger than they are now, when in a downscaled environment?
2)How can you prevent 80s from steamrolling content, while allowing them to enjoy downscaled play?
I’ll start:
1) I already found 80s to be strong enough when downscaled, and do not want that balance shifted any way towards them becoming stronger.
2) Since downscalling works off gear and stat values, give 80s a reduction to their downscaling potency, while attempting to bring them in-line with scaled players for a zone. Traits should be all the help a higher level player can get from downscalling, otherwise his stats when fully ascended should be equal to max gear of the zone, aka blues during 2-13, and masterwork 14-39, and finally exotic 40-80.
Hey there fellow elementalist,
I can’t say I’m a great ele, but I’ve had a lot of success in pvp (hotjoin/spvp/tpvp(although I have a more fun build for tpvp)) with this bunker build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJArYhMM6cW5wwBrkAA5hLnwS5BAzYDA-TkAA1CtI8S5lzLjXyusdNCB
I’ve left a few things open for changes, as there is no 1 build that is best for any
situation. Sometimes, I’ll go into earth with the last 10 points for armor of earth at 50%, sometimes I’ll go air for bolt to the heart, and if so I’ll grab vigor on crit in arcane, otherwise I grab either 50% endurance regen with scepter or 25% hp arcane shield.
Now, this build is very diffrent from the one mentioned by the poster above. (Mine is for pvp, his was for wvw, but they are also different styles of bunker ele) So I’m going to point out some of the major strengths and weaknesses of this build, and things you should look to try and do during a game.
-Tornado elite can allow you to decap almost any point (not the super large ones) even with multiple opponents. Make sure to let your opponents blow their stab first, you have time, you won’t die fast, so take your time and plan the perfect tornado.
-Updraft can be used to decap players who are unprepared. (doesn’t work as much against good players, but always funny when you updraft→earthquake someone long enough for a decap. And you can do that every 50 seconds, abuse this.
-This build has decent dmg, so don’t dismiss air traits (although I usually prefer earth for extra stability). Focus on staying alive, but don’t forget dmg. Eventually you will kill most players 1v1 (except other bunkers)
-You have good mobility so don’t get tied to a single point. You might not be as powerful as a guard bunker, but you can switch from far to mid in a few seconds, decap and return to far. Use your support and mobility to assist your team where needed, but still try to spend most of your time on points.
-Vapor form can be used on point when you still control the point fully. Once it drops, you will still have control over the point. So use this to stall large groups. (4 enemy players returning home to clear you, vapor form, flip around a bit for as long as you can, then ride the lightning and lightning flash out of there)
-If your opponents are trying to down you, and you feel pressured, be sure to use armor of earth before you heal for condi clear, or let yourself drop to 50% if you have relevant earth traits.
-Lightning flash, armor of earth, and tornado means a decap engi should waste his time if hes trying to decap you. Play with him, if you know you’ll lose a point. Again, mobility is your ticket. Make sure to be bunkering and decap when you can.
-Stacking might with blast finishers (including evasive arcana) is useful as you can catch people off-guard with your spikes.
-Stick close to your allies when they need help. Switching to water will remove a condi from them (then your heals can remove another), earth will grant them protection, air swiftness to help them get out while you hold the point until they can return to the fight. Basically, don’t forget the amount of support you bring by clutch cc, boons, heals, condi removal, protection, etc.
-Runes are cement as far as I can tell, as they grant near permanent protection and some nice heals. Your second sigil will either be 5%dmg or heal on crit if you decide to invest into some precision.
This spec plays a bit more like a decap ele, with great support, and surprising dmg, while also being almost impossible to be killed 1v1, can hold your own 1v2, and can stall for time against even 4 opponents.
Good luck with your bunker spec, its great when playing solo as you bring a lot to the team with needing very little in return. And if you feel like trying a more team focused build. I use a staff full throttle dps build for tpvp which works amazingly. Although you rely on your teammates for protection when the enemy team allocates a player to just killing you. Which will happen against good teams. But I get triple or quadruple kills every match just about, so I enjoy being glassy.
Prioritize:
1. sexy armor for female human and norn
2. sexy hairstyles for female human and norn
3. sexy female NPCsSpend less time on:
1. Fixing charr armor.
Are you secretly an Arena-net Dev?
IT’S SCARLET!!
She has been planting Lag Mines all over Tyria, even in the mists. So Watch your step, cause with this latest LS: “You never know when Scarlet’s reign of terror will strike you!”
All kidding aside, I think the servers all handle bandwidth together, so some times of the day, more players in WvW, all servers lag more.
Thx for the response. In case people were wondering I’ve compiled a list of servers that will benefit from this change.
Mag, SoS, FA, SBI, IoJ, BP, YB, HoD, CD, NSP, GoM, EB, DR, AR, ET, Kain.
All these servers will be given a chance to receive more or sometimes less rewards for the tournament. Which will help motivate them to try to win. If they still fell 3rd each game, they would win 200 tickets, but if they can win at least one week, that’s an extra 60 tickets for them.
I think more servers will benefit from this system. And it helps deter the server stacking problem we have now.
I’ve thought about the upcoming tournament and while nice has one feature that bothers a lot of people. Some servers, FA, SoS, Mag, HoD, etc. Essentially the majority of servers have no hope of winning with the current system. Now I like the idea of the next match-up being based on your current position in the tournament. (How well your server is doing will compete with similar servers)
Now here is the idea to circumvent this:
Forget about leagues. Start the match-ups based on their current rating. And move forward as planned when it comes to deciding match-ups. (Those that win go against those closest in strength who are also winning, etc.) Without the barriers of leagues, some of the bottom of the current league system can compete with the best of the lower leagues, and those doing well in what would’ve been bronze can face off against the weakest of would be silver. By doing this you have more variety in your match-ups.
Next is the point system. With this change, you will see the servers with the most wins rewarded the most. And servers that would of dominated their bracket give a chance to finally lose a match, by competing with ever stronger opponents, allowing servers under them to receive relevant rewards, by raising their relative position to the server that had been creaming them, as that server can actually lose.
If this was too complicated for you, I’ll try my best at a TLDR:
-Remove leagues
-First match-up based on current ratings
-Matches are adjusted to create a competitive environment as is current plan (minus leagues) week to week
-Rewards based on number of times your server got 1st/2nd/3rd (100/70/40 tickets for each week)
This allows servers weak in the current league system to win more often and gain more rewards, and prevents servers at the top of silver and bronze from simply destroying the competition, as they will face stronger and stronger servers. Top of gold league is unaffected by this change, but it will probably be the most competitive anyway with TC/BG/JQ, while servers like FA, and Maguma can beat down SOR and DB once in a while for some extra rewards than what they will currently get.
Sincerely, a hopeful player.
I ended up rolling onto FA first. I spoke to the people online, and it seems fun. I’ll try it tonight, and if all goes bad, I’ll just wait until next week to try a new server on a lower tier. Thanks for all the help here. Also, if FA ever made it to tier 1, I may have made enough gold for the gems to transfer by then. Wish me luck, and anyone from tier 2, I look forward to playing with you and against you.
Peace, Loboling.
I was mostly trying to be funny with the “great desolation”, but I know along with my guild many big ones left, and for weeks our server was so disorganized, I dropped WvW. Which led me to TC.
Only thing that really worries me about tier 2 is the possibility of moving to tier 1. If I’m going to go through the trouble of deleting my 80 (don’t want to spend money on transfer) and starting over, I want to be sure I’ll get at least a good year from it. Although, I suppose a t3 server could theoretically drop to t6 over a few months if things go bad with match-ups and guilds want to leave.
I think from what I’ve heard, I don’t want to drop below t5. (but I’ll check out DH again, as I have some fond memories there) I like getting on during prime time, or during a reset, but I play more often during the off-hours. (9pm-2am est) *obviously not in a row XD
If I get the guts to delete my 80, I’ll prob create a bunch of characters on all the promising servers. Which for now it is still quite a long list, only ones I’ve eliminated between rank 8-18 are SbI, BP and Yak’s Bend. (Some just because I don’t like the names XD)
Also I just want to mention how awesome it is to get so many responses, and I’m even getting Pms; makes me realize how nice our community is here on gw2 compared to many other games.
Edit: I think the first servers I’ll check are IoJ, HoD, CD, NSP, DH, SF, FC, and DB. They all seem to offer something cool, although 7 servers will take me a while. I should be able to get a feel for the lag, and community by playing and asking around in-game.
(edited by Loboling.5293)
You can always come back to Dh. It really depends on your view of “empty”. Pretty much every map will always have 1-2 roaming parties in it from Dh, as well as 1-2 round the clock pug zergs (1 in eb, and often 1 in a bl). Dh has very well rounded coverage compared to other servers in our area, so if you’re looking for a server lower down I’d definitely choose Dh (biased but I think the reasons are solid regardless).
Well, 1-2 roaming parties of 3-8 could almost run around for hours without bumping into each other if they are unlucky. If you were around on DH during the great desolation, maybe you can compare. Have things improved since then?
Also, between CD, NSP, and HoD on t5, which has the nicest community?
Edit: added the same question for t4.
Between, BP, YB, and IoJ, which has the nicest community on t4?
(edited by Loboling.5293)
I wish there was at least one t3-6 server (although I don’t know how empty t6 is nowadays) that stood out in the way TC does. The people are so nice on this server, I’ve never met anyone I didn’t like who wasn’t an enemy. In fact, our enemies seem even more ruthless than my old server DH, where I could probably sip some tea with most people I bumped into in WvW. I don’t mind evil bad guys, but I want my team to feel like were fighting the good fight XD. With a sprinkle of what the hell did that guy just do. And rarely do we feel completely powerless, except to the Anet servers themselves.
Thanks so far for all the feedback, I will be toughing it out on TC for now anyway, so more feedback is very welcome. I’m also enjoying all the threads that try to label servers…some of them are great, some I’d feel ashamed…as much as you can in a video game. XD
-Loboling
To make lag better, you should turn settings to max and join a t1 server…
Seriously though, I’m having the same problem and its forcing me to try my hand on a lower population server. (Coming from TC) I know I don’t lag in heart of the mists late at night, so I figure it has to do with the number of players in a zone. Try something like that to see if your problem is also correlated to player density. Should tell you if switching will help or your computer can’t take the game. Also, I’m going to try guesting a low pop server to see its effects for zones like LA, etc.
Any t3 or t4 you can personally recommend? I loved that video of ehmry bay (I think) of these all charging people as a stampede of dolyaks. XD People who know how to have some fun and let loose are my cup of tea. Its why I crackle still when I see people spending hours in divinity’s reach playing music for money. Makes the game feel alive.
Someone recommended Sorrow’s Furnace to me, it looks interesting. I was just a little worried of its current population dying down like Darkhaven did.
Well this may come as a surprise to some people, but I want to transfer out of TC. It is a fun server, great community and I even have guildies I enjoy playing with.
The problem is, WvW has gotten boring as my computer can no longer handle the server load. Since we’ve moved to Tier 1 and our server has begun to grow, it is sometimes not just WvW that is rendered “immersion breaking laggy”. I can have some fun, but it all feels ruined when suddenly I can barely control my character until we change zone and hope the zergs don’t follow. Either way, it breaks my immersion, which is why I play these games.
I’m looking for a lower population server to transfer to that will still offer an active environment in WvW. (I’m a former refuge of DH, which seemed empty 4-5 months ago) I like small scale skirmishes of about 1v1 to 8v8, although sometimes just running with a small zerg (~20-30) and capping towers like they were properties in monopoly can be relaxing and fun. I hope to find a nice guild who likes to get out there and kill some people, play the game to have fun, but still try to win and improve ourselves.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and further thanks to those who take the time to respond. I don’t get a lot of time to play, so I value my time in-game, and don’t want to spend an hour waiting for the lag to stop. (I think the most my computer can handle in a zone on lowest graphics is about 60 players total, none of these 40 3 way battles)
Also if anyone is wondering, I play a thief, but I’m wanting to move to Ele, and I spend most of my time in either pvp or wvw.
See you in game, Loboling.
I don’t have much experience with d/p as I found it boring when leveling. I tried to like the S/P and found it awesome in teamfights with good allies. Just clean house!
But in the end, I play with D/D almost always. (I should mention I only solo queue) And I trait to be invincible, because when your team is bad you still get over 100 points, have fun, and kill a few people. (Obviously I grab zerk trinket and Crit traits with 20% dg bonus below 50%) but the rest give me regen in stealth, and vigor on heal.
I play the far assault mostly, I can 1v1 any build if I play perfectly. But some people take a while to kill, and during that time they have the node. My goal is to put enough pressure on far to force them to bring a second, sometimes third player. If that doesn’t go well, use your great speed to traverse the map and deliver precise strikes where needed; always being around killing people who get low, and securing kills (poison/killing person rezing/stomp/sr allie stomping, etc), then its back to far assault and try and lure a few to fight me, often with the desire for revenge in their home. If I can get this going, we’ve generally won the game. So don’t underestimate D/D in Solo Queue.
Although, sometimes I’m fighting 3 in home, and we are being 3 capped, with not an ally in sight. Makes me wonder if my team has akitten or something. I can go many games fighting none stop and not ever go down. But still if I’m not careful its very easy. Also sick-em in teamfights gets you killed.
One last thing of note, cause it will happen often enough in solo queue. If you either kill someone quick or get to an empty node and cap, and see incoming enemies. With this build its usually good to try to force them to fight you off node, if that doesn’t work, switch to sb and hold for as long until you need to blow a cooldown, then gtfo, usually to the opposite side of the map as quickly as possible.
Anyway, yes d/p has many advantages over d/d, you can make d/d work if you try and have fun with it. Just focus on staying alive and delivering decisive blows. Or poisoning/blast finisher/evade. Against an organized team who knows how to respond to this, I can see how it could cause problems. But then again, your teammates can better utilize the opportunities created by the chaos you try to instill on the enemy.
Good luck with your choice, and sorry if this was a little long. (Thank you Arizer Solo)
I wanted to add that I was able to solve my problem by lowering all my graphic settings to minimum. All that really changed was “choose best textures” off, lowering shader from medium to low, and same with animation. These 3 changes got rid of my lag entirely.
I can’t explain it as I used to get about 60fps in pvp before, but after patch it was unplayable until I lowered my settings.
I wanted to mention that I have been having some of the same problems with lag this past week. Some moments it seems normal (3-4 seconds), but the lag never leaves me in gw2. Anything else is working as expected. (downloads/other games/streaming)
All I really suggested was giving shortbow a few extra bleed stacks, or buffing its direct damage a little, nothing too over the top. I know the guy right after me went a little too far lol, but it would be nice to see some more builds focused on shortbow.
I am trying now to make a death blossom build viable, built tanky with SoM, Dev. Venom, caltrops, and 25% mov. sig.
Trying alternate builds is a lot of the fun of this game, sure shortbows utility is great and deserves some nerfs, but bring up its viability for things other than pve and utility.
Edit: The more I think about it, the bleed stacks might be over the top, but maybe increasing the auto attack dmg by 50% if it doesn’t bounce.
(edited by Loboling.5293)
I was happy to see the devs responding to Mesmer concerns over their upcoming changes. I thought I would talk a bit about the Thief’s Shortbow.
The shortbow is an aoe weapon that is partly direct damage and partly condition damage. Due to this, almost no thief optimizes his build around Shortbow. It is used as a utility weapon.
(Spamable Blast finisher (only really awesome in melee range due to its long flight time, most fields have expired before the first shot lands at ma range.), Aoe poison field (useful for negating enemy healing, due to its design you can guarantee that the enemy will be poisoned for a little bit by spamming and using all your initiative for poison), and finally the teleport of 900 range (useful to “cheat” terrain and gain mobility, also blinds).
As a utility weapon the Shortbow is very strong and I can see why spreading poison over a node for as long as you can survive with little initiative can be very powerful, as can all its features. But if you plan on reducing its effectiveness as a utility weapon, buff it as a main weapon. My suggestion is to play around with either the auto-attack or cluster bomb. I would probably double the bleed stacks from cluster bomb (2 or 6 depending on if you detonated it.) Or increase its base damage to allow not detonating it be more viable for damage, if you have low condition damage. For now, detonating it properly is always more damage.
General:
-How long until the new weapons show up for classes?
Thieves:
-Any ideas being thrown around about fixing some of the underused traps. (Maybe making them pulse like ranger traps?)
-What is/are the most likely new weapons Thieves will get when new weapons for classes come? (I hope Greatsword, so I can teleport around with a giant sword and backstab people through their whole chest XD)
/beginrant
Engineer:
-HOBO SACKS, when will they DIE?!?!?!
/endrant
Hey, I play on TC. Into PvP mostly, but I do PvE. I have a male character though, I hope that won’t be too weird being in an amazon guild. XD If you are still looking for people, I play regularly on my Thief. He’s human, and has an interesting back story, but I don’t tell people much about it right away.
If you are still checking this thread, send an invite to Loboling, hes my Thief.
Well its too late XD. I already pushed my Thief up in levels by 20 and gave him the extra bag space. As much as I like the Elementalist, I’m not hardcore enough to excel at it. And I can always play it as a small time alt if I really want to blow people up at a distance. Meanwhile, I’ve been kicking kitten on my Thief, having a blast. I’ve just accepted that in WvW I am a loner, even if I’m following a zerg; I’m watching the terrain for signs of the enemy, scouting around and killing stragglers, but always outside the zergballs.
Wish me luck fellow Thieves, and I hope if we ever meet again, that it’d be during the 3-4 seconds of revealed between kills. XD Stay stealthy San Diego.
Ps: If anyone else is into RP on TC, feel free to whisper me in game under my same name as forums. This game is more fun with people to play with. I’ll await your response from the shadows.
On my Thief I can usually finish most classes once the fight reaches the 30-40% threshold, in under a second. I’m always saving initiative for that moment, while staying alive and dealing some damage. Need to go a little more offensive with some builds. And ele can catch a thief off-guard with a good cc at the right moment, like a ranger can put releaved on a thief to land a kill if you play it right. Its rare for a guard to kill a thief period, unless the Thief is trying to fight toe to toe with him. You just need to let guards blow their burst and then you can exchange blows and come out ahead. And all over once he blows his elite.. XD Guards are so slow to die.
I’m mostly interested in pvp and wvw, although I do have some fun with RP.
Thief is very fun in spvp, and roaming wvw, but put me in a zerg, and there is just too much aoe to do anything, even my bow barely works (although its great for combo field blasting) I have a better time, running behind their zerg and catching the stragglers who fell behind the zerg and 1v1ing them. It just feels like there is no point on walking with a zerg on my thief except to collect badges, xp, and gold. One my ele, I was always feeling epic with a zerg. If our zerg died, I would actually think: “if only I had done that then maybe we would’ve turned the tide”, compared to my thief: “I guess my team got wiped, better go meet them back at base once I get out of combat”.
I know this is a weird thread title, but I’m about to use all my saved up glory and super level my Thief to near max level. I’ve waited this long to use my glory because I have some doubts about thief. I don’t really like how he feels with zergs in wvw, prob my least fav of the classes I’ve tried. I love walking into crowds of enemies and goading them, but when I’m not alone, I feel mostly powerless.
I want to have ONE MAIN CHARACTER.
I tried the Guardian, and he was a blast, biggest reason I switched to Thief was that I couldn’t stand Thieves running from me at the first sign of trouble and there being very little I could do to stop them.
Ranger was fun, but I had this nagging feeling I was weaker than I should be. Sure enough, when I rerolled I could suddenly burst people down, but I had to leave my old comfort zone of 1500 yards. They are no longer even under consideration.
I played Engineer, had a blast, but hated the looks. To the point i realized that if I was to focus on one character, he better look good. Hobo saccks anyone.
Elementalist was also really fun, almost made it my main. I felt like in pvp though, I was playing with a handicap, but it was still very fun. But if I learned anything on my Thief, it’s that Eles are often free kills. Although a few have been able to down me in a fraction of a second if I missed my dodge. So not sure how to feel about it.
Mesmer was fun, but I felt alienated from the game. I felt a little like I was playing a game, that would play my game with phantasm. (Game being, make the most phantasms, when I really wanted to be playing kill my enemies.) It felt like a very beat around the bush class. (Although shatter was fun, but overall aside from some nice utilities, I prefer Thief for Mesmer roles.
Warrior is faceroll boring to me.
Haven’t tried Necro, but mobility is probably too important.
Anyway, I want to play Thief, but can’t find something as fun in wvw as my ele or guardian was. Guard lets Thieves escape, ele is like playing with an arm behind your back, but very fun (If a burst ele can work as effectively as a thief I’d roll that), all others are pretty much out. Help me hate or love another class. I’m also using my bag slot expansion ticket, so this decision will have some permanence.
Thanks for reading all that, and with any arguments you can bring.
Ps: My favorite Thief spec is D/D 0/30/30/10/0, since I can 1v1 any class and burst down key targets in group fights. (like icebow/meteor eles.)
They should swap feline grace with hard to catch and rename it: “Easy to Catch”
Easy to Catch: When your opponent targets you with an ability that is out of range, teleport the Thief up to 900 yards towards the opponent.
This will really help other classes keep up with the Thief’s OP mobility.
That video is a perfect example, why I should transfer lol
Thanks for everyone’s advice so far, I’m seriously considering it. Prob going to sleep on it for now though.
ps: I’ll try to leave my cookie thievery in the darkhaven I come from. I may even retire my thief all together and cease stealing completely.
I’m currently playing on Darkhaven, and while its a great server. I find the wvw a little empty ever since my guild and what seemed like a few others left. I’ve been thinking about transferring over to Tarnished Coast. I used to play on an RP server in my last mmo, I always loved what it did to the atmosphere of the game.
I’m not too worried about the queues, but I wouldn’t want to get on for an hour planning to wvw, and never make it into the map. Also, I hear its not just blobs in TC, which is good to hear. I really want to run around ganking people, do small team operations and occasionally blob like its my birth rite.
Anyway, any advice is welcome. But since there is guesting, I am mostly focused on the fun to be had in WvW.
I thought I’d make this post to celebrate the new thief. Thief was the first character I rolled, d/p actually got me to stop playing because it felt so cheesy and easy. I tried all sorts of classes, but in the end came back to thief. (I’m level 25)
Anyway the point of this post is that people have mocked thieve specs calling them OP, and cheesy, well with the latest nerfs people can go kitten. We are now, not just a hard class to play well, but we also have less cheese to rely on than most other classes, we have become the underdogs.
So now when you kill someone, feel good about it; and don’t let other classes call you faceroll. We are the ninjas hiding in the shadows waiting to strike. We are the watchers, and we will kill anyone who strays from the herd. We will carve our way into the hearts of our enemies and feast on their fear.
Have pride of who you are thieves, and be ready for people to continue to qq about us. Hope the devs don’t think that we deserved to be nerfed because some guy who bought the game yesterday didn’t see where that thief ran to, and got killed by the evil invisible ninja. So let us spread the word that we are the underdogs, and the best of us will still have enough bite to kill all the noobs.
Longbow for guards b4 2014!! Or whenever possible lol
It is definitely a good choice for a new weapon. It can be a hybrid between the ranger longbow (my favorite longbow for its speed and fluidity), the warrior (for some kind of blast finisher that leaves fire field), and the ice bow (for its healing abilities)
All in all it could be an awesome weapon for guardian since they won’t make mistakes like they first did with some of the other early weapons, aka hunters shot giving vulnerability. Its more fun to have good utilities on the weapon with some explosive power and healing. I’ll leave my ideas below for consideration, but wish the devs luck in bringing this idea into fruition.
1- Piercing shot 3/4 second
Fire piercing arrows coated with flame that burn so hot they pierce right through their targets, leaving a 1 second burn on them.
2- Flame Spray (6s. cooldown) 1/2 Second
Fire a spray of arrows that immobilize (2 seconds) enemies struck in a ring of fire, causes torment to those trapped. (5 stacks for 5 seconds, two of which they can’t move)
3- Steam vent (10 seconds) 3/4 Second
Release steam around yourself (800 radius) by dipping your arrows in water, healing all allies inside the radius for X and granting regen.
4- Compressed flame (15 seconds) Instant
Fire an arrow at your target that explodes on impact striking all targets within 260 radius knocking them back 350 yards.
5- Irradiated arrow (30 seconds) 3/4 Second
Fire an unstable irradiated arrow that explodes on impact leaving a circle of fire lasting 8 seconds in its wake. Blast finisher.
I think a new set of cooldowns should be 30 seconds/50 seconds/70 seconds (23/38.5/54 seconds with virtues traited)
It would take 10 seconds off the heal baseline, and only 8 if you have full traits for reducing virtue recharge.
And it would take 20 seconds off courage baseline and only 15.5 seconds off with full traits.
With these small reductions of about 15-20% on only the two support virtues, I think it would go a long way to making them feel more integral to all builds and getting rid of that annoying feeling that comes with using courage or resolve. (Its not fun to lose a passive for almost 2 minutes that you are used to having up)
Although I would also be very happy to see cooldowns of 20/40/60 baseline. I just want to show the devs that they can also go some of the way with these changes without upsetting balance, and helping dps guardians to have some defense without needing the virtues tree. (also I wouldn’t mind some baseline movement speed without runes, but I’ll save that discussion for another day)
The most frustrating thing I find about low mobility is when you are with a group of people being chased down. (Pug situation in WvW) And you end up being the slow guy who bites it while everyone else runs away. If I can get away from zergs on the mes at least as well as Engi/Ele/Ranger I’d be happy. I also think I’m going to hop into mists and try mes out again. Ranger is almost the perfect class for me, but the buggy pets and weak power options are a big turn off.
I did try Spvp with a Mesmer, but felt it was a class I would really have to submerse myself through leveling to get an understanding of. I think I did 1 game and it felt a lot like my ele in pvp b4 I leveled him a bit. (aka I got owned lol)
ps: won almost every battle on my war first game without an knowledge or practice XD. My Ranger was almost as effective, but I had to learn about positioning and how to take it from behind when a good Thief shows up…lol
edit: never heard of name change contracts lol, but I’d hate to spend real money in something I can do in a couple days of having fun playing gw. But thx for the cool tip.
(edited by Loboling.5293)
Hey everyone, I’m one of those ping pong altoholics. I’ll start with a story that should help you to understand what I liked about the various classes I played, but the focus of this thread is to help me decide about the Mesmer. Feel free to jump straight to my question at the bottom of the post.
When I first got the game, I was planning on running Ranger, but after looking into the game I settled on Thief. I got that character to 34 before deleting him and making an Engineer with the same name. (I really want my main to have my “Loboling” as the name, and I only want to play one class…hopefully)
Anyway, I found the Thief too easy and straight forward and had heard the Engineer was harder and more diverse, which it was, but I hated the look of only rifle and pistol as weapons. (or Hobosacks)
At level 41, I deleted the Engineer and went on to make a Ranger finally, found it fun, in fact it was my favorite class for leveling. Playing around with my pet and being an all around PvE powerhouse was a blast, but I didn’t like the disadvantage my power Ranger was in for pvp. It was fun, but I thought I could do more on another more burst class.
At level 44, I deleted the Ranger and tried Thief again, but was equally disappointed as the first time. I then rolled an Elementalist, and had a blast up until level 46, where I decided that for twitch gameplay there were better games, and overall I had more fun on the Ranger.
I went back to Ranger and now have him to level 20 and I’m asking myself why I haven’t considered the Mesmer. It has good ranged burst, clones that can mimic a bit the gameplay of pets, but I worry greatly about the mobility and general fun/challenge.
Question:
I need to know from some of the Mesmer vets out there how crippled they felt their mobility was coming from classes like Ele, Engi and Ranger. (I know it won’t hold a candle to Thief (which was too easy) or Warrior (which I felt was boring)) Also how fun/challenging are some of your favorite builds, I don’t want d/d ele challenge all the time, I like to switch builds from easy to hard, based on my mood.
I may stick to Ranger, but the Mesmer utilities seem much more interesting. Thanks.