Guild Wars 2

Nice build options! I’m using the CondiBleed build from Kazi https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/PvE-WvW-Bleed-druid right now and it works like a charm for my lazy, unoptimised playstayle. I’ll try the other options at one point as well with my crappy non-exotic zerker pieces.

kizmaster.4365:

bought the game and im still stuck can you guys give us an approximate date so we dont panic ? or if possible to just skip the quest would be nice im now lvl 55 and i dont even did the story sad but normal sometime can happen ! please gm fix soon

Best-case scenario: With the next Tuesday patch (the regular bi-weekly one, I guess?)
Worst-case: Unknown.

My Asura herself is with scrolls + tomes sitting at Level 73. So Idecided to jump through the zones to collect the hero points in advance. Otherwise she would be collecting “dust”.

For PvE: Both staff and D/D are fine. Brazil posted a comparision between power + condition builds. And basically for power builds: Autoattacking D/D with Trickery instead of Daredevil> Autoattacking with Staff > D/D Daredevil with Backstab (no heartseeker) > Autoattacking D/D Daredevil.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6GSzgW3PwA

Coulter.2315:

Rasgalinj.2763:

I found the fight quite enjoyable. Took me a few attemts to kill it which is fine. What I can’t really say I find enjoyable however is getting a boss that takes quite some time down to 20%, get killed because for some reason the funnels that allows you to glide won’t work, then having to start at 100%. How about some phases with checkpoints for the real long ones?

Did you feel happy when you beat it? Get that little rush of chemicals through your brain rewarding you? Thats what games are for and adding checkpoints just diminishes that reward.

You did it, can say to yourself that you accomplished it just as well as everyone else. no need to cheapen things that are perfectly doable with a bit of effort – it just makes the game worse in the long run.

The fight is fine (after all the launch bugs got removed).

Aha, so you are THAT kind of “pro gamer”. It would make the game worse for you because you definitely define those fancy genre words like effort differently than normal gamers. If it things were “cheapened” you can still be proud or brag for completeting it in the unnerfed version, instead of worrying that the nerfed version would cheapen your personal accomplishment (or like the elite complainers of the forum warriors: QQ that their “hard efforts” were for nothing <lol>)

“I don’t get all these HoT-specific qualms.”
There’s nothing wrong with it and despite “our” complaints, don’t let anyone ruin your personal fun with HoT. I think that should be emphasised as some (not necessary in this thread) seem to think that “we” are actively out to ruin someone’s fun with our “rants”.

Despite my misgivings with HoT, I’ve found my repetetive way of getting what I want: Grabbing as much HPs as I can in core-Tyria and grab the remaining HPs in Verdant Brink. The only challenge from that “checklist” I need help with (and usually others as well) is the one near the exit to Auric Basin. After that I could take my time to try some events in AB, progress the story and rush through Tangled Depths thanks to Nuhoch Wallows mastery, which helped a LOT with navigating through the map + finding the juvenile Smokescale. Not really interested in any of the big final meta events à la octovine etc. I switch between my characters a lot because I can’t find a profession where I feel the most comfortable with.

maddoctor.2738:

Manasa Devi.7958:

maddoctor.2738:

So where is the mastery gating again? Where do you need to grind for masteries?

The moment you venture into VB you’re confronted with all kinds of mushroom. Speed, adrenaline, bouncing. And interacting with them gives you a pop-up telling you you can’t use that content. That’s mastery gating.

You can get most of the “important” ones before you even leave Verdant Brink, if of course you follow the story and do a couple of the event chains of the outposts. Without the need to repeat content (aka grind)

How many event chains (or amount of events) do you consider as " a couple"? You need for most level 1 masteries around 1,000,000 xp, and receive without boosters around 20-25k in Verdant Brink. So maybe for you as a hardcore(?) player doing ~50 events per mastery is just a couple but that’s not valid for everyone. And unlike Tyria’s PS xp reward where the xp gain was massive compared to a normal event or completeing heart quests, HoT’s story xp reward isn’t that much more than successfully comleting an event.

Call me strange but leveling more than half of my 9 characters the normal way through Tyria was for me less annoying than earning HoT-zone mastery levels. Obviously playing a few character through VB + a few events helped the overall cause, instead of only using one “main character”. Yet, to be fair, I assume this difference may be simply because I prefer the old quest or heart style to the event-only maps from Orr onwards.

ProtoGunner.4953:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Human female, blue hair with the flower in it, annoying dubstep and/or anime music, generic PvP and/or WvW montage #2312.

Haha, you nailed it, love this comment!

I wonder does this game not have its own sound and why cut out all the sound effects?

Lemme guess because he/she has the same badmouthing attitude as you when you gloat about other players not sharing your mindset and your own pro-level skills, right?

One reason why I started a thief was the character look for the (male) Sylvarie Thief at the profession selection part. (http://imgur.com/a/0iqMP#6).

Gameplay-wise: Even though I’m rather terrible at active dodging, I like the mobilty and fluidity. I enjoyed D/D or D/P before I switched weapons while leveling due to the fast animation. I want to play at least so far until I have Daredevil maxed.

I’m unsure I’ll fare well during the HoT personal story fights as I had already a rough time with pet professions in some.

I don’t measure my pleasure in “x years playing for free.” I agree that no subs are a great thing and the main reason why GW2 is attractive for me. But I have also no problem with paying subs, should I find more entertainment or bother looking for one in a subscription-MMO. Not everything is good just because it’s free. Let’s say I get burnt-out/tired of MMOs (again), then nothing is different. I quit GW2 and be done for time time being, or cancel my subs in subs-MMO and do the same. If I got my share of fun out of both games equally well, I don’t care if I had to pay subs or not.

And yeah, I don’t buy expansions (or gems) with the main reason to support a company. I buy it because I’m interested in the product or in-game item.

I wouldn’t say I hate HoT, but I’m also not all positive with the new maps. I can live with the hard(er) mobs as I know I’m a low-skilled player, and thus will have my trouble here and there. Navigation and farming mastery xp, on the other hand, is simply annoying for me. The latter also tedious. Maybe I’m supposed to rush to DS to get the most xp? But with VB and the second map, getting around 20-30k per event if a million xp for the level 1 mastery is required and the xp needed goes up, isn’t really influencing my motivation in a positive way. Not asking for instant-reward, mind you, and I’m sure that people who actually enjoy running events ad nauseum during their available game time have no problems with it.

It’s absurd, but I wonder why I enjoy leveling my characters to 80 through the same zones more than doing metas in general.
But a few of the elite specs provide some fresh air and I will see through the story with my own eyes. So it’s not all doom and gloom for me.

CadeRG.4508:

I’d just like to remind everyone that GuildWars 2 is an mmo. It’s a multiplayer game. Any mmo that allows you to play all content solo isn’t doing it right.

MMO simply indicated that lots of players are also playing on the same server/map as you. Not that a group-or-die mentality is required as you seem to wrongly imply. I see many players jumping mindlessly around in LA, so it’s also an MMO, even though they and I are not interacting with each other.

Besides, there are fractals, (group) PvP, and raids. They (mostly) need you to interact with others, i. e. not everything is soloable NOR is everyone asking that EVERYTHING should be, thus it’s an MMORPG.

Burtnik.5218:

Dat troll insulting everyone.. for real man?

And your comments and bitter QQing how A-Net balances around “pleb level” are any better than what you conceive as trolling? Maybe you are a pro at talking kitten and belittlement but definitely not a pro-level player.

To quote a response to a similar fail-attitude .
“I love arguments like this. If its only good against “pleb levels” and you are a pro why do you care so much then if things are being nerfed (…)" “But to say something is only good against bad people yet cry to see it untouched that’s a stoopid transparent argument.”

Zedek.8932:

I think this has been said already, but I come from 17 months of Final Fantasy 14. That game was fun for REALM REBORN, but everything after is terribly bad. The other MMORPGs are not my thing (mostly due to the lack of an awesome diminutive race, such as the Asura). I just came from the FF14 forums RIGHT before entering this thread. And boy, each time I see how terribly executed FF14 is, I realize that I should’ve never waste like 7 more months on that game. That was the time where Square Enix put up waiting games, timers for EVERYTHING and the game was designed NOT to be played (sitting and waiting for parties, groups, dungeons, random events). The treadmill is RIDICULOUSLY executed they could slam a sign in your face reading: “We want your subscription to be endless so we stretch out dumb content month for month to keep the carrot-on-a-stick up even harder while not actually offering any fun content”.

Plus FF14 is utterly “unrealistic”. All characters look WAY to photoshopped. They are all in the perfect age, perfectly healthy, all are happy, the races do not rival, people say FF games have story, but nope, check the race lores of GW and FF. It’s just a description what they are like right now. And they are all happy and everything’s fine and dandy. There are no kids, no elderly people. When I saw the first old Asura that look like the old Halloween pumpkin I forgot in the backyard I was remembered how stall and overly-perfect the FF14 look is. And how much I got disgusted by it. I got tired of full-boobed Mrs. Universes, and cat people which look like they have cat ears and a tail attached to their human bodies. Not even a single freckle or spot on their skin. All comes with some sort of “We are all perfect, WARRIOS OF LIGHT” sort of bullcrap. Their is no character behind them. There are no kids, no adults, no elderly people in FF14. In GW2 however, it feels way better, not utterly perfect super models, people pick fights, NPC are actually moving and doing entertaining things, events are dynamic. In FF14 in contrast, NPCs are rooted, when they talk they wave around their hands, your guy waves around his hands too as if they had a conversation.. That’s so poor (yet entertaining on a sad level to see characters trying to explain an epic enemy by just playing Charades) Zero immersion, Zero effort. The engine is dumb (getting hit while in cover) and the fights are a memory game. You could play DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION, that’s cheaper than FF14. “But it looks good. DirectX11!! And it’s Final Fantasy”. Yeeeeeaahh, no. Just no.

I do not play GW2 everyday. But when I do, I enjoy it from the soundeffects to the jobs over the voice acting to the skills and look. The gameplay of GW2 as Engineer fills up the MMO and the Third-Person-Shooter slot for me. Perfect match. It feels and plays good and fun! It caters me the best, and I am a “new player” (June 2015), so I do not know about the “initial shine”, but guess what, I DO NOT CARE since what I am getting right now is what I love.

Sorry but I had to laugh when you generously explained your disgust of the " perfect anime (bwebs)" art style seeing that you seem to be mostly unfamilar with it (that’s nothing bad). There’s always a huge controversy behind the anime-cartoony look and that some find it too childish, which is perfectly fine(!), of course.

To be honest, I stay mostly with GW2 because it’s for free. Not because of the awesome gameplay, not because of the oh-so challenging HoT maps or similar common reasons but it’s free and I don’t need to feel bad for my money when I quit for a few month out of boredom, “burnout”, or other reasons. I spend most of my time to level characters to 80 or to experience the elite specs, despite that I haven’t maxed any elite so far. I did the same with WoW as I had no interest in any form of forced group content, or for PvP. Hence, why I also didn’t mind to replace my gear each expansion as I had nothing important to lose. In reality I’d love to take another look at WoW or SWToR but monthly fees are simply no option for me currently. No matter how much worth or “cheap” the fees are.

Who or what is a Leeto, and why should I know that entity?

Mandalore.8906:

It’s just another oversexualized, “girls look 12 but have giant kittens”, fanservice-y bullkitten asian mmo with stupid little child characters having bunny ears and tails. The armor looks completely ridiculous. It’s the exact same kitten as tera, and to be honest, it’s sad when people like games like that.

Lol at the “It’s sad” phrase. There’s nothing wrong with people liking that kind of art style as long as they can (still) differentiate between virtual life and real life and don’t get “funny thoughts”, so your strange sense of pity is really out of place. Maybe you come from an old-fashioned household or culture where this kind of visuals are frowned upon and automatically is connected with pedophilia or similar?
If you simply don’t like that type of stuff, that’s perfectly fine but still belittling to find it “sad when people like games like that”

It’s a “Fun Build” as stated in the thread title, so it’s not about squeezing the optimum out of the standard 0815 meta builds, jeeze. He has fun with it, it seems to work for him in his prefered game mode, and thus he decided to share it (and is open to suggestions within his build structure). No rocket science.

1. No mastery grind or other ways than doing events after events after events after events… for a measly amount of xp.
2. Separation of PvE and PvP balance so that nerfs (and rare buffs) stay in the respective game catergory where they belong.
3. More than only events in end-game zones. I like doing events from time to time, and even repeating them but not as the only thing to do in a zone.

“work on something more important” >< “raid paths” “legedary weapon acquisition”… … … Yeah… okay.

OP, I seriously scratched my head at your replies. On one hand you dismiss or simply don’t even bother to answers others seriously, and then you wonder, probably honestly surprised, why everyone is hostile to you.

“ugrakarma.9416

the old content was not designed in prospect that someone could “fly” over it, probably will cause hundreds of bugs and glitchs. im against. anyway gliding its better as fast travel mechanism, better than horrible mounts(ugh!)."
Pro tip: Simply don’t glide if you don’t want. /solved

As for how to “earn” Tyrian gliding: I have honestly little faith that Anet tries to think of something interesting, instead of locking it behind – for me – terribly boring xp event-only grinds. Sorry but not-so-HoT showed me that doing (small) events for ~20k xp over and over and over and over to fill the the bar requiring ~1million xp is nothing I would feel really motivated doing (and that was only for mastery level 4?). There must be a compromisse between that and avoiding the QQ of hardcores for – according to their questionable interpretation – “wanting everything on a silver platter (pathetic bait argument!)”. Maybe something like optional one-time tasks to do something relelvant + related to the mastery, where you get an “important” quest item and upon completion you get xx% of the required xp towards the tyrian gliding mastery.

Archdevil.1748:

Gaaroth.2567:

Archdevil.1748:

Ayrilana.1396:

This is for those that dislike the events on timers. I’m not trying to make an argument for or against at this point but get some insight as to why it specifically bothers you.

What is it about the timers that you do not like?
What is it that you cannot do but want to do?
Have you tried using the LFG to hop to an active map or bring people to yours?

I have a very good answer for these questions.
I have 2-3 hours a night after work and may be 4-6 hours on weekend days. The timers on world bosses don’t bother me. If I want to kill a world boss I track the timers. Otherwise I am not forced to do world bosses. Free will Vinewrath in Silverwastes is a player driven meta event and is the final result of the collective Free will of a big group of players. Went to Dry Top several times. Timed map? No thank you. I don’t have free will. The game tells me what to do at certain times. Not my cup of coffee thank you again. Timing all the map events in all the expansion is just INSANE. I want to do on those maps whatever I want not whatever the game tells me to. NO free will
We are limited by too much things in real life. Being limited in the game you love and play for fun and relaxation is killing the joy of the game.
I want to explore and help progress meta events but not on a timer, but on my free will.
About the LFG – tried the DS meta. Watched the clocks. This is …. I don’t like it! The DS starts. First map 2-3 ppl around me. Transfer to another one. 2-3 ppl around me. Finally get to an organised map. Most players and all 4 commanders are German. Don’t understand anything in map chat. We start running and killing stuff. Yay! This is great! And then comes poison. Ppl try to revive me. I drop dead. Rez again. Drop dead immediatly. Poison lore says someone. Waypointed and for the first time in my life Allt+F4 the game!!! Never to come back to DS TD and AB. Now when I am in the mood (once in 2 weeks) go to VB, try to learn the event chains and GRIND some more xp to level up some stupid mastery and to be able some day to go to AB. TD and DS are such a long term goals as in may be 2-3 years if I still play the game

You cannot be serious… please tell me you are joking

No, I am not joking. Which part is not serius according to you?

Just ignore the troll. Gaaroth has always been completely unable to even to understand opinions which don’t conform to his narrow-minded vision. Instead he tries to belittle those disagreeing with him. He does a miserable job as a “white knight” as he simply refuses to acknowledge other opinions, similar to “It’s fine for me, so it has to be fine for everyone”

PvE:
The good: The elite specs give the old professions at least a bit of fresh air, not counting Healbotruid. Soundtrack looks to be nice.

The bad: 1) Mastery. Laugh at me as you want, but even as a mere level 2 in mastery I’m already terribly bored with trying to fill the experience bar as the only real way in Maguuma lies in doing events, over events, over events, over e…. snooze. Same in Tyria. I have 11 matery points I cannot use because I need to fill first the stupid experience bar.
2) Events/“mega” events: I don’t mind them but to have them as the only content form in the zone is unfortunately not my cup of tea. I only bothered with Orr in normal-GW2 due to the story missions.

‘Nuff said: I enjoy leveling my remaining characters trhough maps I’ve already done at least trice more than exploring the new HoT-maps. Don’t worry though, I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with the game but with my mindset instead!

Ape Ghosting.7396:

if you play the game regularly you can tell who pays and who dont. But this game isnt pay2winwars but skinwars. So why cry about that?

Congratulation, you failed to miss the point of a really simple topic to add some nonesense that has nothing to do with the question being asked. Nobody mentioned anything about “crying”. Fail³

@Topic: First reaction “Why the eff was this feature added by CashNet?” But honestly, I would probably not care that much, other than wishing I’d be so well-situated too.
Or shake my head as I couldn’t imagine myself spending thousands of euros in the cash shop. My stance is I buy gems for money if I absolutely want/need it (e.g. character slots) without trudging in the atricious money grind or playing stock exchange, and not to simply support A.Net by purchasing stuff I have no need for (or that doesn’t look nice enough by itself or be worth it for the suggested gem price).

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

IndigoSundown.5419:

xarallei.4279:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Harper.4173:

IndigoSundown.5419:

I’d like the see those claiming HoT is not challenging link videos of themselves soloing stuff like, say, some of the Hero Challenges, maybe the one in VB with the Vet Teragriff, pack of wolves and mender. We might learn something.

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not but isn’t that one the easiest one to solo?

Forum warriors can claim anything. If HoT really offers no challenge to the OP, surely posting such a video should be trivial for him.

But posting that doesn’t prove anything. That is literally one of the easiest HPs to get in VB. Now if he had a video of him soloing it back when it was a champion then that would be an entirely different story. Or pick any one of the other champion HPs.

I disbelieve his claims, and I’m inviting him to prove me wrong. I’d accept a solo of that point as a modest declaration that he possesses some skill. If he believes that a greater challenge would be more informative, then he can have at it.

Look, I can solo that point, but I’m not going to go out of my way to make a video to show disbelieving players that I can solo it.

I think you are mistaking your position here. He doesn’t need to prove to himself that HoT is too easy. He experiences it. To him, making a video of himself soloing a Hero Point is akin to making a video explaining why the sky is blue. If anything, you should make videos of yourselves failing that HP, so then the OP can understand why it is so hard for others.

Just to get ridiculded by the god-skilled forum warriors in return where maybe 2-3 people actually would offer any helpful advice (other than in the specific profession sub-forum)? That would be the same as the forum warriors posting their OPness and in turn being labled as show-offs/braggers or so.

Posts that include phrases like “I can’t understand why x is too hard/a grind/whatever” do likely not bother to try understanding (understanding =/= agreeing, mind you) the issue, or rather seeing it from another point of view.

Everyone definies hard differently. Dying 50 times could mean in this case that it’s hard and/or frustrating for some gamers but on the other hand mean positively challenging for others. Besides, not everyone has, can, is able and/or want to achieve the same “skill cap”. Maybe you’ve played in “high competetive” environments before, be it raid-or-die contents, PvP or any form of ladder and thus have automatically gained a better view of things/skill, which you may or may not take for granted in other less-awesome players. Similar like how a rich person has another understanding of what is cheap/expensive than poor or normal-earning person.

Quick copy & paste of his part in my PS impression in another thread. I don’t own HoT but know his fate by consciously reading the spoilers.

Lastly, Trahearne. I didn’t really mind him, let alone going as far as hating him <lol> for “stopping” your character to become the special awesome snowflake in the PS or for “stealing” the sword. You may question why he was made the leader as a simple scholar(?) or if it happend simply due to the vision the Pale Tree provided, or why he appeared so late in the story for every non-Sylvari but he certainly didn’t stole it from the player- at least it didn’t feel like that for me. Your character actually recommended him for the position and Trahearne was – as far as I am concerned – most of the time grateful for what you had done and for your (moral) support and gave credits when due. Heck, the lead-up towards the finale against Zaithan felt more about Destiny’s Edge than Trahearne being involved thanks/due to the Arah section. Now, all the above is ignoring the question/complaint/concern whether he’s actually an interesting character or not. As I’m apparently quite easy to please in that regard, I won’t comment on it.

Yes, I read some pretty ugly hate arguments, especially about him receiving that special sword from the Pale Tree, instead of the player character. Personally I find that kind of reason to hate disgusting as I tend to be goody goody when it comes to video game stories + characters :-).

I agree with Tigaseye. I’ve read some numbers with 3-4 hours of doing JP only for weeks to get the required amounts of drinks without using TPs and I just shook my head. Not because some things require effort, but that someone have basically nothing else to do, or feel it’s fun in doing the same jumping puzzle for 3-4 hours non-stop.

I’m hardly anyone who has MMO worthy attributes, but I felt already nauseastic when I tried to do daily quests in WoW to get the fast flying licence (during WotLK times I think) or had a headache – not due to the difficulty – after doing (in WoW) a simple 5-man dungeon. In GW2, I’m glad to get the JP out of my way because some vistas are “behind” them. Again that is if you ignore the difficulty/putting effort aspect away for a moment. I’m fine leveling my various characters to 80 because while it’s also the same, I can at least zip through the different zones in doing so.

Before anyone says “Then simply don’t do it if you find it so bad”, be assured I won’t do it. Just my intital train of thoughts after reading the required non-TP-using amount of time.

“I think the toxicity resides mostly here in the forums! it goes in all forms call them HoT haters, Balance haters, people that argue just to defend a point made earlier, Anet haters, dev abandonment haters,… and the self called elites that I would call errors intolerant instead.”

Yes and No. Many negative topics did indeed emerge after HoT’s release, but from what I’ve seen most of the complaints were written without too much foul language or “toxicity”. But then the opposition arrived, which is normal and fine, and decided to activate their “Elistist” mode with provoking, over generalising statements, flamebaits and other BS. And from then on it’s quite clear how it had to turn out. Or, the opposition started topics about HoT being fine in a first civil, well-written tone but decided suddenly to dismiss their manners and ended the opening post with the usual flamebait comments, as if their drugs started to take effect. Unfortunately, the few people on the “opposing party” were vastly overshadowed by their ill-mannered brethern who had decided to leave any form of reading comprehension in the cloackroom before they entered a thread (usually seen by responses akin to "I don’t understand why this is a problem, because […]).

I just finished the PS with one of my characters recently. And I found it alright. I’m actually fine with common trope usages as long as it’s done well enough.
What I didn’t like that much was how the Vigil after you joined them seemed to be more a faction longing for a fight, instead of the inital impression before you actually joined a faction. The opposite was the case for the Order of Whispers. The quests and interaction with Tybalt were pretty funny and great.

During the final bits after the Pact was formed, the various character deaths were at times rather unspectular. With some you couldn’t even get a strong enough inital impression to “feel” anything, unless the point A-Net tried to make was simply to show that causalties are to be expected (and common) – the latter is nothing bad by itself, mind you.

Lastly, Trahearne. I didn’t really mind him, let alone going as far as hating him <lol> for “stopping” your character to become the special awesome snowflake in the PS or for “stealing” the sword. You may question why he was made the leader as a simple scholar(?) or if it happend simply due to the vision the Pale Tree provided, or why he appeared so late in the story for every non-Sylvari but he certainly didn’t stole it from the player. Your character actually recommended him for the position and Trahearne was – as far as I am concerned – most of the time grateful for what you had done and for your (moral) support and gave credits when due. Now, all the above is ignoring the question/complaint/concern whether he’s actually an interesting character or not. As I’m apparently quite easy to please in that regard, I won’t comment on it.

So yeah, the PS had its weak parts but it could be worse. I didn’t expect a SWTOR level of story telling (unless you totally hated it ^^).

I tried the trial for FF XIV at one time for a few days but as it was still during my “burn out” phase I also quickly forgot about the title. Plus, I desteted the idea of forced group instances during the leveling phase to progress the story, no matter how easy or fun the dungeons may be in reality. It’s not my cup of tea. I never tried ESO as I never got into the hype around Skyrim and its precedors.

insanemaniac.2456:

Mahou.3924:

style.6173:

Is the OP serious or joking? Condi engi is one of the absolute best professions for both high end fractals and for raids.

And not everyone cares about raids or high end fractals.

engi is great at everything else too …

and has low skill floor viable builds …

I’m not denying it. Just saying that at least in Tyria zones I also haven’t seen too many Engineers/Scrappers running around. That may very well partly be because I wasn’t looking at the 80 zones and played across my characters on the heart quest maps, though.
I’m playing Engineer too, btw, as I found the gameplay more fluid in contrast to the early Mesmer experience (who was the alternative for my last original chara slot) and finally unlocked the 3rd traitline.

As a PvE solo player, I love to have a companion in form of one of my pets, outside of the added meat shield bonus. And I enjoy the visual of the sword dancing Sylvari style when using 1-h swords despite using Greatsword more often. As I’m quite unskilled in gameplay and more than terrible with everyting related to theorycrafting, I better won’t try to stutter about it.

style.6173:

Is the OP serious or joking? Condi engi is one of the absolute best professions for both high end fractals and for raids.

Best =/= most played, especially when it comes to piano level of kit dancing. And not everyone cares about raids or high end fractals. And yes, your first question is out of place. He simply asked why and didn’t start an argument that Engi is the worst profession for both high end fractals and for raids, according to your second statement.

ProtoGunner.4953:

Lol another player who thinks the game is to blame. Those bosses are so easy, really. Either get some decent (zerker-)gear or change your playstyle.

Learn to read LoloGunner. It’s not about the difficulty.

Mez Koo.9510:

Honestly, go big or go home.

100$ pack absolutely recommended.

Lol. I personally find 100 Euros ridiculous to pay, notwithstanding 44€ for the standard edition but that part was discussed to death and beyond.

If you want HoT asasp, I’d go with the standard version if you don’t need the extra character slot right now and don’t plan to bother much with the cash shop. Check the official retailers for the cheapest offer. If not for the character slots, I’d actually never be tempted to check the in-game store but as I don’t want to delete my current characters, I’ll bite in the bitter apple. So in that regard, the $100 edition was never an option for me.

In the very early level range, I stayed mostly in Flamethrower Kit. Once I got Streamlined Kits I got lazy and stayed in whatever kit I had been when swiftness ran out. Personally, I found out that the Bomb auto attack packed quite a punch compared to Grenade 1 or FT 1 (even though I kew from reading that Grenade 1 was the best standard attack as filler).
I’m using Condi right now as an early-50 Engi because I have full access to the two important Condi traitlines. Before that I also used power-based equipment. A rifle with one of the sigils that procs element damage helped as well, gut-based.

CadeRG.4508:

Yay…?

It certainly has a lot of potential, but the game needs more PvP balancing before esports can ever be popular.

It is still worth the effort and GW2 is brave for trying to be the first mmorpg esport. How cool does that sound?!

Too bad that GW2 isn’t the first mmog e-sport. Blizzard with WoW was there before (and maybe another before them?)

My Norn Necromancer feels alright from the movement speed aspect. My biggest “complaint” was/is that Dagger DPS felt tedious – even though I’m quite aware its the best weapon dps choice – when I wandered downleveled in some zones while leveling up or to get to the next personal story point.

I don’t care the slightest about e-sports. Never watched it, I don’t know any of the famous pro gamers or teams and probably have never heard of the names before nor bothered to inform myself.

That being said, I’ll vote with “no,”not as long as Anet is not able or refuses(?) to balance PvE (yes, even againt brainless mobs, “we” prefer balancing) and PvP separately.

anduriell.6280:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Ah, you’re one of those who think HoT failed hard. Cool, saves me typing

dude if you have nothing useful\smart to say better to keep the mouth shut.

Dito. That guy is even worse in the various anti-HoT threads on the general discussion board. And here again he fails to see the most simple argument before generalising issues in a condescending way.

Nephziel.6053:

Congrats. You’ve won the most rediculous post reward of the week.

And you the post for the most useless reply of the week. Either try to be helpful or post nothing, troll.

“Lmao, you never played Rev before I assure you.”

I don’t know why this is “lmao” as there’s nothing wrong with not having played the prof before, so there’s no need to make it sound sneering. If he had played Rev before, he’d likely have had some prior knowledge about the rough in and outs.

I have never preordered an expansion and won’t ever do it. For me preordering isn’t worth it when I can simply pick the game up at a local store or by it online upon release. Should I really (really) want it, that is. No matter if the game in question is a GW2 expansion or something else.

runeblade.7514:

GreyWolf.8670:

We’re complaining because HoT introduced a lot of systems that make the game not the same as it was before the expansion released.

It is no longer “play how you want.” It is now “you must play with a huge glob of people you don’t know and do instanced content.”

It is not: I don’t want other type to exist or else I cannot feel like I can play how I want.

And such a sentence shows that you have missed the issue.

As a freshly dinged 80 Necro, I’m running full Zerker Minonmancer. Death Magic/Blood Magic/Spite. Flesh Golem, Bone Fiend, Shadow Fiend, Blood Fiend, Sigil of the Loctus. Dagger + Warhorn/Axe + Focus.
With that build it feels like the minions carry most of the weight in combat and give thanks to blood magic quite much survivability, unless I’m getting swarmed.
For reference: I also tried a more Death Shroud centric build by replacing Blood Magic with Soul Reaping, but it didn’t suit me too well. Life Blast was indeed strong but I dunno it somehow didn’t feel as smooth. That’s purely guts-based though.
All above is for Open World PvE, though.

I would already be happy if the story mode of the dungeons would be made soloable at least. As nobody probably cares about that “beginner” mode anymore. “We” are not demanding that the “solo mode” should replace the grouping. People find enough to team up and find out they have more fun in a group? More power to them! Leave exploration mode as it is so that the spirit of grouping won’t be destroyed for all I’d care.

That has always been the norm for MMOs. If people want to min/max, they’ll find a way. Be it best equipment and/or best rotation(s). That’s of course fine itself. You enjoy speedrunning or getting world/server first, have fun with it. In random groups however, you are expected to also act the same way. Otherwise you are “egoistic”, “bad” or whatever. Stuff like Weapon combi x being your prefered or most comfortable style but not uber stopped being important. “For that you have Open World PvE where everything works.” And here with randoms the usual clash happens. What may be fun for you, turns ultimately into an “anti-social” behavior while randomgrouping. Obviously a certain degree of fitting stats + skills should be doable for anyone.

Palador.2170:

Straylight.7529:

Ashen.2907:

In general the expectation is that products be designed and adapted to meet the needs and desires of consumers, not the other way around.

That might be true for a kickstarter project. HoT however is not a kickstarter project.

Besides, you can’t please everyone.

You can’t please everyone, but you can do better than ANet has.

How? Difficulty adjusters, for starters.

Imagine if ANet went back into the dungeons in the main game, and fixed them up. Gave them each a solo story version, and set them up for adjustable difficulty on exploration paths. Let’s say the difficulty goes from 0-5, with 0 being base. For every point of difficulty, you go through with a -2 to your effective level. Other changes may show up as well, such as a boss having new attacks or there being an unexpected ambush at one of several points, chosen randomly each time you run it.

They could even tie this to a Mastery line, with each level of the mastery allowing you to go to that level of difficulty adjustment.

I can’t help but suspect that such a thing would have been more widely acclaimed than raids, and would likely take less work than a single new raid does.

I would love this implementation to dungeon. Add scaling rewards (within the current nerfed version) so that players who love group play don’t feel like being slapped in the face for the added difficulty and even a dungeon-allergic like I would run a dungeon at least once (for the story).

OGDeadHead.8326:

Substance E.4852:

Scrimschaw.5784:

While I would like to think that Druid wasn’t nerfed BECAUSE of its strong place in PvP, (and the many PvP forum complaints) it most likely was. It was too strong of a bunker, and Arenanet is actively nerfing bunker builds right now because they are less exciting for viewers to watch. I prefer playing a bunker in PvP (old Bunker Guard here), but as a whole, PvPers and viewers seem to want fast, exciting action and not skillful support/defense.

2 Simple silver bullet solution to the problem:

A: Change Celestial Avatar heals so they either no longer affect the caster or severely reduce their heals.

B: Create a massive penalty to being in CA mode such as taking double damage or double duration of hard CC’s.

Either would effectively remove the concept of a solo bunker while preserving the team heals aspect of the class. These would probably need to be pvp only effects to preserve the viability of Druids in raids but it would work.

What the… Are you crazy?! Are you seriously suggesting something this stupid?

I’m glad the devs dont come pick up ideas from this forum. Christ.

I haven’t seen any actual suggestions or helpful comments to other suggestions from you. Just critcism.

Wahaha.7938:

foxcat.4096:

You either have 2 choices organize the map you are in and start taxing people or look in lfg for a taxi to another map . I haven’t had any issues finding organized maps and doing any events bar TD meta .

Really don’t see what the issue is ,there are plenty of people on the new maps and finding people for dry top / sw or any old content is easy as well.

This. It’s like some people live in an alternate reality.

You two are missing the point as it is usually indicated when people start or end their post with “Really don’t see what the issue/problem is[…]”

How about an interim solution so that the free stat swap for legendary weapons won’t feel too watered down? Something like making the stat change like a return ticket. Change to the stat of the insignia + a free change to its original stats. After that the insignia would have to be forged in the piece once again.

This would let the legendary weapons keep its additional bonus next to the skin and let ANet have a bone to keep the grind (if this was indeed their future envisioned gameplay mode).