Guild Wars 2

Hello, I have a problem with map loading screens: they usually last ~30-60 sec it becomes a real problem when I go to Tpvp, and after death i usually need to wait ~5-10 sec just for loading screen. I have tried renewing my nvidia drivers, but did not help at all. Everything else is running good – no problems while in gameplay, no fps issues, although I capped them to be on 60 fps.

Also I do not know if that is connected to this particular issue, but I get lagged while friend list, or guild list screen is opened.

Thanks for any help

One of the slowest cast time ingame and people still have problem with it? If you do not want to dodge, just run behind some rock or tree or smth, there is enough time even to run towards the war and cc him.

Its funny when this game pvp requires more skill, and people cry to change it that they would not have to dodge or stunbreak or keep eyes open, just TAB+press rotation and win – there are mmorpgs like that in the market, you can go and play them, do not ruin this game for players that actually want to try to learn how to master their profession and counter enemies properly…

In wvw that is considered normal, since lag there is almost constant, but in spvp it have never happened to me, still would think it is you lagging : |

They are without stats because there are no runes on them – you can purchase various runes at the npc who is selling weapons or armor, just press on the second item list icon when trading with him.

The minions aren’t here to fight your fights for you, they just give you moral support by standing near you and cheering…

Everybody ignores the best part of jagged horrors – when a thief uses his dagger throw ability it can actually hit the necromancer 2x since it will bounce of our very useful minion, thus it increases the balance of the game since thieves usually have a hard time killing necromancers so devs thought it is a good way to “even the playing field”…

It is a great idea – this would help increase the PvP base, create a more esport environment and also add more $ for anet.

Dueling must be implemented into the game, I have no idea why such a thing is not yet here. As mentioned before its a great way to learn about other class weakness without playing them (also it is very fun)

“In no other MMO to date has a theif class had this high burst+constant run speed plus spammable invis while in combat abilities…BECAUSE IT’S STUPID!”

This is a great example of what kind of person constantly complains about thief class… What you are saying is just untrue, most popular mmorpgs thief class had these things, for example lets take the most popular mmorpg WoW and lets say Wotlk version:

Mutilation rogues can run faster with sprint and also from talents have 15% constant speed increase (even in stealth speed is quite good especially if talents are specd there), they have permanent (!) stealth + vanish (2x if preparation is used) + a lot of CC like blind, sap, etc. Also not to mention a very high burst capabilities with mutilation and envenom spam. Same goes to lineage2: the dagger classes (plain walker/abyss walker) have the highest burst, and in Elf “thief” example highest base running speed ingame.

And yet, not every person finds fighting thieves very difficult, thus it is a l2p not learn to design issue. Either go to tournaments or create a thief to find their weak points…

I would say either necromancer or elementalist, but currently elementalist would be better since necro has so many bugs. You should visit class forums, since there you can read many topics about every class regarding builds, bugs, pvp and pve, etc.

I must disagree with you on some points:

Since ranger has the biggest range from any other char (1.500) it would not make much sense if you also made this class the fastest.

Spammable teleport? Thieves have steal ability on 45 sec cd and a signet on 30 sec cd. Also they have a shortbow “teleport” that uses a lot of initiative, and you can only cast it 2x in a row, but that leaves you with nothing to attack. Also about stealth – only if a thief uses shadow refuge as a utility (its an aoe stealth that puts a circle in which you and your allies are invisible if standing) the stealth part is long, other times its just a few seconds (3~) and you can still hit them even with melee attacks, not to mention aoe.

The biggest burst is debatable since 100b still does more dmg as one ability in comparison to any other one of thieves abilities.

In my opinion the main reason developers do not see the problem with this class is because a thief, especially BS thief that creates so many complains in this forum, is not really a threat or overpowered in tpvp, since most of people do not play glass canons without any defences and no stunbreakers there. Also they rarely get an opportunity to ambush anyone, since people tend to keep an eye ant communicate with their team about things like a thief sneaking behind you. So to sum up the game is currently being balanced for 5×5 Tpvp, thus devs do not see a lot of problems with thief class…

VictorTroska.3725:

Lukin if you are so pro, can you make video where you fight decent thief on your necro or warrior. Id really love to see how you do it. Because I hear tonns of claims of “lol, I have no problems against thief.” yet not a single video to show them fighting against decent thief and win. Id love to see Warrior and Necro one since I play those classes.

You don’t need to be pro to fight a bs thief similar to 100b war, its simple to keep him in sight and a bit away from you. For necro example (since I am too lazy to write both for war and necro):

I am a usually traited condition necro with staff+scepter and warhorn. With nightmare runes on my armor. I use well for blinding, corrupt boon and either spectral armor or plague signet for stunbreak usually and i do not change utilities for fighting thieves. Stats are not that important but I have 24k hp and 2k armor. Tactics are basic, lets say a 1×1 situation when we both do not have any cds, etc.:

First a thief will have to steal from you and apply basilisk venom to have a chance for backstab – and its usually their opener. Basilisk venom is a breakable stun, so simply use stunbreak after you turn grey+dodge to avoid primary burst. Or you can avoid it by planting a mark on yourself to fear him instantly when he comes to you. Either way now you have a distance between you and a thief, start using your scepter to cripple him, or/and marks to see where he is in stealth (don’t put them in one place, spam them around you) and start dropping conditions. Since thief just used a steal from you now has a 3 sec fear, when he uses it you use death shroud + 3 to fear him away and not get close enough for attacking.

Everything else is situatational since now he has no way to jump near you with daggers and stun + cloak + backstab since steal is on 45 sec cd. Just drop conditions, atack even if he is stealthed since you can still hit him, and dodge.

If on rare occasion you fight more than 45 sec, and your stunbreaker has still 45 sec cd, use DS to block the second burst for 1.5 sec stun and dodge again. When desperate thieves usually will start spamming HS to catch up with a target and it is not effective if you are not below 25% hp so they are just digging their own graves by spending initiative.

The best way to learn how to defeat a class is to try playing it yourself, and not qqing in forum about it…

P.S. I have no idea what are you calling a decent thief, but no thief that calls himself decent will use something as gimmicky as a pure BS build in tpvp that is just for 8×8 nab pwning and maybe stealing a boss in first tpvp map…

Strange, that mostly in Tpvp bs thieves are not a problem to anyone and usually I rarely meet them further than the first map… But the current way to create a topic in this forum is probably:

I have no idea why people do so much crying about thief class – I had no problem with them as a war, necro or a ranger. I am very curious what kind of char is phearis playing, since having no aoe, retal and no pets leaves you only with one class: thief (maybe war, but he has aoe fear/0 dmg for 4 sec, shield block, aoe axe lolstorm, so no).

The main idea to win against thieves is to not get ambushed by them, just keep your eyes open and communicate with your team, watch each others back…

Zunhar.4079:

I would like to see 1v1 dueling and 3v3 matchups. Other game matches like Team Deathmatch, CTF, and King of the Hill would all be really cool. I’m content to wait for now with the promise of paid tournies and custom arenas (sweet!), but many people aren’t, and will go backs to games that have a ranking system, etc (LoL, DotA, etc.)

I agree, especially with the duel part, also more maps should be added, even if some current maps could fit in a CTF or TDM mode…

Oh noes, someone stopped reading my post, now those 2 minutes that took me to write it are meaningless : o

He said there is no way to counter stealthstomp – there is, you need teamwork for that (for example guardian push, aoe fear from war/necro/thief, etc) OR you need to have a class that has an aoe 2 ability that necros do not have.

Stealthstomp can be equal to stability buff on enemy player, its basically the same thing. Also about the “Well, looks like you have a clear idea of balancing.” – in my opinion not everything should be countered by everyone: to explain this better we can take for example condition necro as a good counter against a thief, but as a poor counter against a bunker guardian that can purge conditions every few seconds and stun with hammers constantly. There is no universal build for professions, thus not everything should be countered.

Well you can counter stealthstomp, just not with necro. Also most of the points you have made are not correct, because of your poor gameplay and/or teamplay – noone is covering you, you go solo against a bunker what do you think is going to happen? He calls for help, and help will be there in couple of seconds, droping marks in one place is not the way to see where the thief is, etc. You simply need more experiance in this game and most of the things you have mentioned will not be a problem anymore…

I see, thanks for the information.

Hello, is the utility skill “Shadow refuge” bugged or working as it should, since it says that it gives 3 sec stealth, while in reality it is around 15 sec…

I see, thanks for your answers : )

Hello, since there are so many bugs and so many topics in our profession I thought I’d ask directly. So my question is: what kind of traits and runes that prolong bleed duration work/are bugged?

I myself use:
Runes of afflicted so +15% bleed duration
Sigil of superior agony on scepter: 10% bleed duration
From traits:
Hemophilia +20% bleed duration
Lingering curse: 33% duration of scepter conditions, so also bleed

So my basic bleed (1st attack from scepter) lasts 11 second, but removing for example Hemophilia trait and runes the duration still lasts 11 seconds. Did I somehow capped the duration, or are these things bugged and simply do not give any duration?

Minions do not have any AI, you can’t call the behavior they have “Artificial intelligence”, since standing afk when necro is getting pummeled, or running in place is not the most intelligent thing to do.

Create a mesmer, and check how the clones and phantasms attack – now thats an AI.

Meribah – human necromancer

I continue to play my level 80 necromancer for few reasons:

1. I am an optimist, ant think that 100+ bugs will be fixed soon
2. I only play this game spvp, so for 8×8 I use my warrior or thief just to lol, but on tournaments I use my necromancer, since he is not a common choice and enemies simply do not have any idea what I am doing.
3. I like to play the least common class in every mmorpg, and now I am an axe/warhorn+staff necro, that is also quite rare character (actually have not seen any other one that uses this setup).

“i played each class in pvp and i was destroying people by hitting few keys ,” I am very curious how did you do that with a necromancer?

Also on topic: if everyone has their char build for pure burst without defense, then the fights could last only few seconds, but those are low skilled people, that do nothing against a well placed dodge, block, retaliation, blind etc. I personally had most of my fights last more than 30 sec since i play as a necromancer, and have to outlast enemies rather then just bursting them. Besides, the dueling should and must be implemented even if everyone could only play glass canons.

Fellwitch.4536:

You should be using gw2skills.net for your calculator as it gets updated

Since necromancers do not get any updates, I think it doesn’t matter ; )

You have a very good understanding of our class, and these guides are very useful (especially in pve). Some suggestions: check the audio level of the game before recording, since they are too loud in some places, and you can’t hear your comments. Also choose a different font for the letters when writing something on the screen, because they are not that easy to spot.

Keep up the good work.

How about remove the repair kit, or just make it spawn after a minute or two from the destruction of trebuchet?

I have no idea why dueling was not implemented – its the best place to increase your gameplay skill also it is the easiest way to spot trait bugs. It should be somewhere in the mists, since the gear is even in there for everyone, thus creating the most balanced dueling.

Have to agree with almost everything said, just I personally don’t care for any pve content, never was into killing mobs, but I understand how for some people it is fun.

My main class is lvl 80 necromancer, but after seeing what thieves and warriors can do I have created them myself to try. It was like I installed a new game – you don’t need to have experience with your profession, you don’t need to plan your attack, most of the time you don’t need to know what opponents are doing, you even don’t have to have a perfect build for your weapons that you use, just press few buttons and win (it is especially in 8×8, not so much, but still possible in tournaments). But in my opinion these classes are not overpowered, its the necromancer that is weak, so I never complain in X are OP threads, but I write a lot in necro sub forum.

You play a minion master necromancer and think that you can win a fight ? : )) You are very optimistic – minion AI is glitching all the time, they go AFK when you are being beaten, only useful minion is flesh golem, since he does atleast some dmg, doesn’t die in few aoe hits and the only one that heals out of combat. When I play my necromancer (in tournament or just spvp) if I see a MM necro, always tell to target him first, since his dmg is non-existent, he has no utility skills, his minions either die from aoe or do nothing – its a perfect target, especially in the beginning of the round when he has no life force and cant even DS.

My suggestion for you, stop thinking that necromancer has anything to do with minions, go condition build as most of us (now I am trying 30/20/20/0/0 build myself, since i want to play with an axe) and start trying really hard, since its the only way to win in the current state of the game (not like some classes, that only have to press 2-3 buttons to win).

Well if you spec it right, you can get an huge increase all the way up to 28 hp, that is almost 20% more : o

My main is lvl 80 necromancer, but I usually only focus on pvp so im a lvl 20+pvp. My opinion about this profession:

Necromancer has fewest builds possible, since most of the traits are bugged, but we are the only class that does not get updated (check update info). Also our dmg is lowest from all the other classes (no direct dmg, condition dmg is not great, since other professions build for that do a lot better), our minion AI is not working, most of the time they just AFK and also are very fragile, few weapon are available (especially compared to warrior). So basically everything you can do others do better.

So I would only recommend this profession if you want to either play arguably the hardest class in the game or you want to get appreciation for your warrior.

P.S. I forgot, we only need to learn to DS…

That is the point: do not blindly dps the mob, but pull him to a location that either blocks enemy players from bursting from afar it last minute, or keep and eye out for enemy players that are incoming, or do something else with the team. It is not a terrible design for comp environment, since it rewards team play and strategy with a more higher risk/higher reward possibility in this map.

We dont need no freakin updates, just l2ds, that is all : o

The most fun I had at Spvp was when I had the ability to play 2×2 and even 1×1 the entire map (did join game to an empty server, and only 1 person entered). The 1×1 was amasing, we both let each other take 1 point, and fought over the third – winner took this point ant held it till looser respawned, this was very fun for me, and for the mesmer that was my opponent.

So dueling must be in the game, also an mod with small amount of people (2×2 or 3×3) should be implemented, since its also very fun and rewarding to play.

Short answer – you should not : )

I agree with minion customisation, since currently we have: undead rats, undead rabbits, flying jellyfish, shadow and a buff mutant. Will write few utilities that comes to mind a bit later : )

After devs post rolled a warrior again – its still amasing how easy it is to play in 8×8, 100blades still do insane dmg with lolstorm and eviscerate. No thought needed to win, just choose a target – press charge, then 3+~+5+f1=dead. Also it is fun to actually kill mobs in few seconds while lvling, and not run around. And ofcourse it is fun to play with traits that actually work as they should…

If you trait in it I believe its not 25hp, but entire 29hp – almost 20% increase : o

Wombatt.2546:

I don’t know what you all are talking about. My main is a lvl 71 necro, and I’ve been able to solo nearly the entire game this far. I use an axe/dagger and staff, and just roll. I don’t pvp, so I can’t comment on that, and they’re slightly under powered for dungeons (though their utility as condition eaters and aoe healing, plus snares and blind is good for the benefit of the team)

You can solo with every profession in this game – killing mobs is not difficult at all, necromancers are underpowered in PvP when you compare it to other classes, for example war or thief. War can kill necromancer with bull charge+100 blades in ~2 sec.

I found your guide very useful, but since my internet is currently extreamly slow, could not watch it to the end. Also try using brighter letters next time – sometimes it is difficult to see what you have written : )

Yes, most people feel similar, you should have checked the topics already in the forum – most of them have the same posts like yours.

I agree with almost everything said, but you have a few more CC than AoE fear: DS fear, spectral grasp, lich form push and blind of plague form. But everything else is correct: we lack the dmg output, survivability is extreamly low at the start of the match (since LF), no mobility compared to other casters, minions die increadibly easy, do not do anything (maybe not the golem), problem with signets, etc.

I have played a necromancer since bwe1, currently I am on lvl 80, but is so hard to force myself to play a profession I like in every other game – for PvP I have created a war, a thief, a ranger and it was SO easy to kill people its crazy. Just created a thief, had no experience with it, but spammed heartseeker/unload = win. War: stun+100blades+eviscerate=win . Necromancers have to try so hard to do something useful in pvp (comparing to other classes) it actually makes me lough. I have read after bwe3 a post from devs, that necromancer is a class that “currently needs the most love”, but I have not noticed anything boosted/changed to benefit this class. Did you?

I disagree – downed state should be in sPvP. The main benefits are:

Increases the strategy needed to defeat the opponent/help saving an ally – you need to cooperate with your team to do this.
It removes the possibility of cheap deaths and glass cannon spam on one target. There will not be a need for any support build if you can instantly kill people in few second with a burst build, since as you may have noticed, no healers in this game to outheal the dps done to you.
Downed players are still useful for team, since they can keep blocking a point from being overtaken by enemy team, dpsing and CCing enemy players, etc.

So overall in my opinion, downed state is useful not only to create a more team-based game, but also to balance characters.

P.S. I haven’t had any problems killing mesmers – wait for him to dissapear, the first one that appears is the clone, second one is the mesmer, so finish him : )

I have a level 80 necromancer, so here is how I played mine (and had a lot of fun):

First of all my build is 30/20/20/0/0 – heavy on marks and signets.
At low lvl, when you do not have a lot of experience with this char I would suggest using minions and a staff – it will help you kite mobs better, and waiting while DoTs will eat them up becomes a lot easier. In my offhand I use axe/warhorn – axe because of the DS and mass slow, warhorn for speed boost and daze.

In most high lvl areas minions become totally useless (except flesh golem) since they get one hitted and die instantly and do not heal themselves out of combat. So i switched my utility skills to: signet of spite, epidemic, spectral armor. The basic tactic I used to the end of my lvling is: choose a target with most hp, throw marks on it, then shoot signet of spite, then epidemic, to throw dots on other mobs surrounding it, then flesh golem mass stun. And then act depending on situation, either kite a bit (since they all are slowed now), pull the second set of weapons, or just turn on DS and mass drain them all. This tactic worked for me from lvl 30 to 80.

Be warned: necromancer is the hardest class to play in spvp that I have tried so far (I have tried: ranger/elementalist/thief/war) – you don’t have any “burst” build in comparison to other classes, you are not as mobile as they are, but learning to play this char and adapt to many drawbacks it has, becomes very rewarding against before mentioned classes : )

I’ve reached lvl 80 quite fast, in about a week or so, but I was not rushing, it just happened accidently (did a lot of dynamic events and almost entire story quest that was very interesting, thus accumulated a lot of XP). Now I started going to the zones I missed with my low lvl friends and exploring them. Also I look for and try to solve jumping puzzles & helping people at it, interacting with guild (thinking of making my own), going spvp, waiting in line for wvw, trying various builds of my necromancer and writing a guide on how I play it, etc. I don’t understand the opinion, that this game lacks end game – what is end game? Is it like in wow: few max dungeons that you farm, few arenas that you grind and wait for a week to flush, slowly getting gear with bigger numbers on it? Or is it something different – exploring the map which is always challanging since the lvl decrease, actually getting better at pvp not because of your wrathful gear bigger numbers, but because of the increase in your skill, creating a new character to see other possible ways personal story might have went, becoming a good trader, and just basically doing something that is fun for you? I would personally choose the second option, but that is just my opinion : )

I turn on my deathshroud, then thiefs that are not so good (usually 90% of the ones that spam HS) use all their initiative on it, after I put marks, fear them, if they try to run away – spectral grasp and axe to death : )