Guild Wars 2

Rasalhague.8270:

Guardian staff swiftness = crap.
Unless you waste your upgrade slots for boon duration, which should bring it from 4 to 6 seconds, staff swiftness wont matter and wont let you escape nor catch other classes that are out of teleport range.
BUT other classes can catch you even if youre out of 1200 range.

About the staff heal?
Staff is so bad for roaming, it is only used for aoe might/small heal in WvW.
Guardian staff = i could care less.
I see myself being MUCH more useful with Scepter/Torch and Greatsword.

As a Warrior I can outrun ANYONE from the zerg or escape anyone in SPVP, including thieves and mesmers.
Horn 5, Sword 2, GS 5, GS 3, bullrush, Sword 2, GS 3…..wait a few more seconds for Horn 5 and start the cycle again.

Its not rocket Science :
Lower cooldown is better than higher cooldown
Higher health is better than lower health
More weapon choices is better than fewer weapon choices
Not needing to spend traits to fix things is better than having to spend traits to fix things
Many rushes and long jumps are better than 1 long jump
Low cooldown for swiftness with decent duration is better than medium cooldown for swiftness with short duration

warrior weapons :
Axe/Axe = it rocks, aoe, range, retaliation, cripple
Mace/Sword = so many blocks that a guardian can feel jealous, range, bleed
Mace/Shield = awesome
Mace/Mace = blocks, interrupts, so many good stuff
Sword/Sword = Has it all
Hammer = MOAB, aoe kb, FUMBLE!!! (-50% received damage : way better than crappy Protection), weakness (makes the other guy not being able to dodge, specially in fights that last more than a minute)
GS : awesome
Bow : Awesome in WvW
Rifle : Awesome in 1v1, cripple and bleed
Sword : bleed, long jump with 2 for escape and chase
Horn : swiftness

Guardian
Staff : mostly crap, only good thing is aoe might/heal, which lets you vulnerable.
Scepter : good, multihit with 2, paralysis with 3
Torch : by far the best damage weapon for guard, excellent pair for scepter, low cooldown (miracle?)
GS : The only mobility move and BAIL OUT for Guardian, high damage, number 5 pull has short range
sword : decent, teleport does not work without target, number 3 does good dmg
Focus : number 4 is crap and slow, number 5 has a nice block with HUUUGE cooldown
Mace : protection is bad in comparison to FUMBLE, symbol is crap
Shield : pbaoe kb is decent, protection is bad in comparison to FUMBLE.
Hammer : crap. SINGLE target kb instead of aoe kb like warriors, number 3 paralysis is hard to land, autoattack last hit is ULTRA SLOW, number 2 has 300 range what is this a joke?, number 5 takes so long to draw the circle by the time it finishes the enemy has already escaped, not to mention the long cooldown.

This is not an ego fight guys, equally skilled players, the warrior will win.
Guardian can only kill bad players.

Ouch.

You think maybe Arenanet will offer an item in the Gem Store that will allow people to change their class to Warrior? I would imagine they would make a tidy sum from it.

Thanks.

Hmmmm….

I would have to say:

1.) Initiative – EASILY the best and most powerful class mechanic as it bypasses the cooldowns every other class has on their skills. Since cooldown times are part of the overall balance of skills, this means there can NEVER be a true balance on skills that use initiative versus skills that do not.

2. Attunements/Tool-Belt – Having access to almost double the amount of skills that other professions have simply HAS to be one of the better profession mechanics in the game. Are you waiting for some of your fifteen skills to come off of cooldown? No problem! Engineers and Elementalists still have access to another ten skills you do not to carry on the beatdown while you wait for your cooldowns to process. The only reason I did not put their mechanics at first is due to the high skill ceiling they have in managing all their skills. Not quite as good as just spamming all your skills like initiative allows, but still quite good.

3.) Adrenaline – As pointed out above, keeping it simple makes this one a great profession mechanic. The Warrior suffers no penalties for using their profession mechanic. Even if they miss, they still get to keep their adrenaline and attempt another burst with it. Easy to acquire, easy to manage, WAY easy to use. No drawbacks to their profession mechanic at all.

4.) Ranger’s Pet – I know the Ranger Pet gets a lot of hate on the forums, but let’s face it – fighting two things is almost always harder than fighting one. A constant companion that adds to your survival and DPS while also bringing other abilities for you to use is just darn good to have. Not to mention the ability to have them resurrect you from a downed state. And you don’t get just one pet, you can swap between two different ones for even more variety. I realize the AI on them adds some downside to them, but overall a really good mechanic to have.

5.) Mesmer shatter – Another good mechanic and I place it towards the bottom of the list due to it having downsides (as do the two at the bottom of the list). Like the Guardian and the Necromancer, the Mesmer has to give up something (in their case it’s their clones and therefore a good amount of their offense/defense) in order to use their shatter mechanic. This also means they have to use their mechanic wisely and cannot spam it like the Warrior can. A really good mechanic, just has a downside.

6.) Guardian Virtues/Necromancer Death Shroud – I have to put these two at the bottom of the list simply due to the downsides that both professions have in using them. While both of them are good mechanics in my opinion, both the Necromancer and the Guardian have to give up something in order to use them. The Necromancer has to give up access to their utility skills (cannot even see their cooldowns while in Death Shroud), access to healing, and cannot interact with their environment. Guardians have to give up access to the passive effects of their virtues to use them. After using all three of them, they simply become a much lesser Warrior with no burst and no health. Since both of these mechanics come with huge expenses to the profession for using them, they have to be at the bottom of the list even though they are actually powerful mechanics to use.

Just my thoughts.

Thanks.

Frenk.5917:

Domzz.1260:

I’m lookin for the class which is more versatile and needed throughout all aspects of the game.

In terms of niches, I’d like to excel in:
tPvP / sPvP

-snip-

Before listening to all the “Ele > Mesmer” crowd (with which I agree, btw) you should really consider the fact that SPVP balance will probably change. If you asked the same question some months ago, for example, Mesmer would have been the answer. Now it is Elementalist, but the point is that things changes.

QFT. I think this is the best answer to this question.

Thanks.

I actually enjoy viewing PvP videos as I find it helps me with my game. I don’t watch tournament videos though because I cannot stand listening to the shoutcasters tell me what I am seeing. I can see just fine and really do not need obvious things explained to me by people watching the exact same thing I am watching.

I tried watching some of the previous tournament videos, but had to turn the volume off so that I did not have to listen to descriptions of what I was seeing. As far as I am concerned all any announcer or shoutcaster has to say is:

“Did you see that?!?! So did I!!”

And they’re done…

Thanks.

panicbutton.1053:

^I suggest making a thief and trying it out before saying that. See how well you do Possibly even post a video of anyone you manage to down?

Thanks, but no thanks.

I tried a Thief but the mechanics of the class just ruins any fun for me playing it. When I go into combat, part of the thrill is not knowing just how it will turn out.

Will I kill the other player?

Will they kill me?

Will we in those wonderful but oh-so-rare moments manage to drop one another at the same time and have to fight it out with downed skills?

Knowing that I control every aspect of the battle and that my win (or easy retreat) is almost assured just is not fun for me. I know there are people that do enjoy the confidence that comes with that style of combat and for those people Arenanet made the Thief.

It’s just not for me is all.

Thanks.

Aomine.5012:

When facing coordinate teams, they can usually spend 2 people and chain CC/ immobilize the turreter and spike him down very quickly due to the lack of invulnerable, lack of block, lack of stealth, blink/movement skill, and lack of stability,
The turreter will have half of it’s dps cut in around 40 seconds.

Lack of invulnerable:
Elixir S
Self-Regulating Defenses

Lack of block:
Static Shield
Gear Shield
Armor Mods (gives Aegis)
Gadgeteer (gives Aegis upon Throw Mine)

Lack of stealth:
Toss Elixir S
Cloaking Device
Various smoke fields plus blast/leap finishers

Lack of movement skill:
Elixir H (randomly)
Elixir B
Drop Stimulant (with Med Kit)
Elixir F (with Elixir Gun)
Toss Elixir B (randomly)
Infused Precision
Speedy Kits
Experimental Turrets (upon using Net Turret)

Lack of stability:
Elixir X
Mortar
Rumble (tool belt skill for Thumper Turret)
Toss Elixir B

Yep, they sure are lacking access to any of those… Only a few traits and skills for them…

Now it is true that a Turret Engineer won’t have access to ALL of those, but they are not as vulnerable or as lacking as you are thinking they are.

Thanks.

Chokolata.1870:

Warrior is OP by numbers, Thief is broken by design, but not necessarily OP. No cooldowns, super mobility and stealth will always be complained about. And for good reason.
It just makes for unsatisfactory gameplay. *

As Colin Johanson asked several times about the game, “Is it fun?”

The answer to continually dying to mechanics that have very little counter-play (and NO I do not count “spam AoE and hope you might hit something” as counter-play) has to be a resounding, “NO!!” in my opinion.

Thanks.

Ezeriel.9574:

So I hopped on my thief for karma train nite, and got destroyed by an ele, and I thought wow, hey!, we got something here!

..so I whispered him, and we was standard spec’d D/D zerker ele.

Turns out I was just rusty, I only play my thief on karma train nights, but soon enough I was back in form, killing people 5 and 6 at a time.

Ele’s have long cooldowns, on complicated combos….

…as a thief, you can just cloak and dagger people to death. When you’re landing 5k crits, it’s not hard, half the people you fight won’t even be able to attack you without a target.

…perfect your timing, and nothing can stop you.

Wow. I find it awesome and quite refreshing to see someone who actually plays a Thief post with such honesty and without fear of word getting out or the “nerfbat” coming into play.

Most Thief players seem to somehow equate their constant wins with superior skill on their part and not on the class mechanics themselves.

Well done.

Thanks.

uberkingkong.8041:

So much easier than having to time dodges and staying alive under 25% hp so my automated response would work.

Yes, when I assault a point that has a turret Engineer on it I actually consider it a personal victory if I can get them to dodge at least once. If they dodge twice then I have truly won against the build even though there is zero chance I am actually going to kill them and take the point.

It is especially awesome if I can get them to drop their Supply Crate. Nothing like having more turrets on a point than the actual number of players you have on the map!!

It’s the little things sometimes that mean so much…

Thanks.

Darnis.4056:

Thief is for sure the hardest fight and while the situation is ridiculous this game isn’t balanced for 1v1.

In fact it’s balanced so that thief ALWAYS has a good chance to win any 1v1s because of his class role.

Unfortunately, I believe this is true. However it is not always bad. When I find myself in a 1v1 against a Thief I know I can take a quick break from playing and go get some coffee or something as I do not really need to waste my time trying to actually win against Arenanet’s “balanced” mechanics.

Take the good with the bad. Silver lining and all…

Thanks.

This is the latest official design philosophy for the Engineer from Arenanet based on the June 13 Ready Up Developer Livestream notes:

•Official design: Condition overload – it is by design they don’t have a lot of condition removals but we don’t want conditions to be a hard counter for engineers. You can counter the conditions with your hard and soft CCs (i.e. stuns, cripples). The issue is when you fighting multiple opponents that you can’t really counter all the conditions. Limited spike potential – we want to make sure engineers don’t do too much spike damage as there was a time in the past where this was an issue. Versatility through utility skills. Difficulty from disengage from a fight – harder than thief/mesmer.

So, I don’t think you are going to have much luck in getting them to up the Engineer’s condition removal. They are weak to conditions by design. Working as intended.

Thanks.

This is the latest official design philosophy for the Engineer from Arenanet based on the June 13 Ready Up Developer Livestream notes:

•Official design: Condition overload – it is by design they don’t have a lot of condition removals but we don’t want conditions to be a hard counter for engineers. You can counter the conditions with your hard and soft CCs (i.e. stuns, cripples). The issue is when you fighting multiple opponents that you can’t really counter all the conditions. Limited spike potential – we want to make sure engineers don’t do too much spike damage as there was a time in the past where this was an issue. Versatility through utility skills. Difficulty from disengage from a fight – harder than thief/mesmer.

So, I don’t think you are going to have much luck in getting them to up the Engineer’s spike damage.

Thanks.

I would say it depends on one crucial question…

How do you feel about dying? Do you hate it? Is it OK more or less?

If you absolutely abhor dying, then Thief is definitely the profession for you. Between their constant evades, blinds, and stealth the only thing they really have to fear is AoE damage and often even that can be negated with careful dodges.

Elementalists have their heals and Earth attunements, but in the end they are squishy and will die. The chances of a hit landing on a Thief (other than AoE) is almost 1 in 100 due to their class mechanics.

So, if you just cannot stand dying. Go Thief!!

Thanks.

Charak.9761:

I made this for you:

http://youtu.be/sWble1vKpP8

Awesome! So I only need to get a Legendary weapon, full set of Traveler’s runes, and full set of Berserker ascended gear (with a smattering of Solder and Valkyrie in it) and the Pirates are doable.

Good to know…

Thanks.

I think for me, my top three peeves about the game all come from Arenanet themselves.

1. “When it’s ready.”

I don’t know how many times I read this response from Arenanet about when Guild Wars 2 was going to be released, but it was a LOT. Time and time again I read how the game was not going to be released early and was only going to be released when it was ready. So, this is “ready”? Bugs still pervade the game almost a year after release. Culling and clipping are rampant throughout. Many of the dynamic events break constantly. I don’t know about the MMORPG environment, but if I had released something this buggy and then called it, “ready”, I don’t think I would have my job much longer.

2. “short duration, hard to apply, situational, large impacting boons and conditions”

You mean like the Engineers and Elementalists who can generate and maintain 25 consistent stacks of might with ease? You mean like the current condition spam-fest that is going on now? The chain-crowd-control? I am just not seeing in this game what Arenanet said would be in it.

3. “damage, control, support”

The death of the “holy trinity”. Except that control and support are pretty much non-existent in the game. Damage is king, almost everyone uses berserker gear, and defense consists of dodging instant-death mechanics or dying. Several weapons have crowd control skills on them that make them useless on most Boss fights.

There are other things as well, like not being able to make any money with crafting and the whole RNG monetization of the game, but I think those are my top three. It just really seems like Arenanet had these really good ideas about their MMORPG and then someone else came along and just swept all of those really good ideas out the door.

Thanks.

DevO.9854:

Michaeas Magister.1589:

DevO.9854:

If warriors are balanced then I’d say Rangers are close to that, really Rangers have no real gimmicky stuff like some of the other classes, if anything I’d say Rangers are where they should be and warriors should be brought up to our level, which would be a few little buffs here and there.

Really? Evades on weapon skills that cost no endurance to use and allow you to damage people while remaining invulnerable to attacks are not “gimmicky”?

To quote the great Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Thanks.

your kidding right? You talk like they are spamable or something, we have less Armour and do less damage, I see no reason why we shouldn’t evade a little more and heal a little better. Not to mention the fact that I said warriors would need a couple buffs to get up to our range.

I know how much you expect to have no skill and win as a warrior so everyone must stand still and let you hack at them.

Also no evade skill we have does a lot of damage, your talking nonsense and trying to act cool on the internet you win….

Nah, just pointing out that your idea of “gimmicky” and mine are not the same is all.

But thanks for the “win”!

DevO.9854:

If warriors are balanced then I’d say Rangers are close to that, really Rangers have no real gimmicky stuff like some of the other classes, if anything I’d say Rangers are where they should be and warriors should be brought up to our level, which would be a few little buffs here and there.

Really? Evades on weapon skills that cost no endurance to use and allow you to damage people while remaining invulnerable to attacks are not “gimmicky”?

To quote the great Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Thanks.

Nukk.3492:

You can’t run a melee DPS in the state the meta is in atm… too much AoE and condi spam. That stuff isn’t fun for anyone so why even promote it? Just cut it out and you don’t even need to buff warrior (much).

I just hate the way they’ve promoted the most cheesiest builds they could think of. Why did they think it would be fun to fight a highly mobile constantly healing boon popping bunkering ele? Why did they think it would be fun to fight rangers and their pets with constant prot & regen & huge evasion? Why did they think it would be fun to fight against evade spamming thieves? Why do they now think its fun to fight against AoE spam or condi overload? ITS JUST NOT FUN, and a million miles away from e-sport land. In fact at this point I don’t think the devs know what that would even look like – and this is coming from a huge a-net fanboy. I am so disappointed.

QFT!

+1

Thanks.

samo.1054:

I remember a game, where conditions weren’t AoE and it was usually pretty important not to spam them, but rather use it at appropriate moments. That was really awesome…

Jeez what was the game called…. Hmmm… Let me think a bit more… ah there it comes, almost there… YES, IT WAS GUILD WARS 1!!!!!!!!

What happened to the ‘short duration, hard to apply, situational, large impacting’ boons and conditions ArenaNet were talking about prior to beta? I often feel I am playing a completely different game than what was advertised to me.

Anyone else feel like they have been given the old “Bait and Switch” routine?

samo.1054:

I strongly agree with exactly what Geff and Empathic Fighter said.

Warrior is actually how all classes in GW2 should be. No cheap moves, no cheap AoE, no 1 button miracles. Work for the kittening kill!! That’s how true e-sports should be like.

Tone down aoe, tone down stealths, illusions and all the crap that’s poluting the game, and we might just see some playable spvp then.

This is SO right on the money. It is almost like they designed the Warrior and Guardian and then outsourced the design of the other professions to the “B” team.

I really find it hard to believe all the professions were designed by the same team.

Thanks.

Derps.7421:

You do understand you can still hit people in stealth right? They don’t get some sort of immunity. Theirs a reason you can use your 1 attack without a target or you could just put an ground target aoe on yourself their is literally hundreds of ways to deal with stealth and qqing on the forums isnt one of them

Literally hundreds of ways to deal with stealth? Literally?

KK, I would very much love to see such a list posted. And that list should contain at least two hundred ways to deal with stealth since you reported there were “hundreds” of ways. Now, you mentioned just spamming your auto-attack (#1) skill and ground targeting an AoE on yourself, so that’s two of them.

What are the other one hundred and ninety-eight of them, please?

Thanks.

Yes, I am not quite sure why Arenanet has not just come right out and made the Thief immune to all damage. Would certainly not be too far from what the profession is and can do now. Just give them permanent evade along with their permanent stealth and be done with it.

Thanks.

Pendragon.8735:

Stealth is a pretty poor mechanic in any game that doesn’t have detection abilities to provide a skillful means to counter the stealth.

If you are going to have stealth without detection, it should not be an ‘in combat’ tactic, that forces opponents to be endlessly reacting to the stealth, and doing silly things like casting randomly at nothing hoping to hit where they lost saw a thief, or where they have to guess at where he might be.

Stealth without detection should be limited to a combat opener mechanic, or perhaps also be used to escape out of a combat, but then go on a long cooldown.

Not only is it a balancing nightmare, but even when it is balanced, it produces very un-fun frustrating fight mechanics for anyone that is not playing the stelather.

I totally agree. I have played many MMORPGs that incorporate a form of stealth, but ALL of them allowed a chance for detection or a means to break the character’s stealth. In Guild Wars 2, you have NO chance at detecting a stealthed character and even if you set them on fire, they can still just turn invisible on you. All of the control mechanics for stealth are on the side of the Thief.

Raven.9603:

i really dont have a problem with perma stealth. the only problem with stealth in GW2 is that they ignored one thing every other game got right:

limited in-combat vanishes.

with cloak n dagger or bp+hs, thieves can stealth as often as we want. so we do. stealth, backstab. stealth, backstab. now youre low, maybe get lazy and heartseeker.

from the interviews on SOTG, Anet comes off as claiming that this makes the class a conundrum that is hard to balance (we cant make them tough because of infinite vanishes, but we cant take away their vanishes because theyre not tough).

in reality, if they only had 1 or 2 in combat vanishes, they could be balanced around being exposed more often. maybe higher base HP, better avoidance mechanics, something.

limiting the amount of re-stealths limits the amount of hugely powerful openers, which makes gameplay more involving for the thief (do i use my vanish for a second huge backstab or do i save it to escape), plus combat will last longer in general. it also limits escape potential, which makes it more rewarding to engage thieves.

the current state of not being able to kill any thief who doesnt want to be killed, not even remotely acceptable.

QFT!! Especially the last part.

Thanks.

Greetings Arenanet,

I enjoy this game a great deal and really like the combat mechanics you have developed. Unfortunately, I play from New Zealand and the resulting latency simply makes PvP quite an uphill battle for me. While the latency can also be a bother in PvE as well, it really shows in PvP when I am hit with five or six skills in the time it takes for me to get two or three activated. With active defenses, this often means that while I react on time, the latency simply makes the skill activation too little, too late.

I have played MMORPGs and PvPed in them before, but most of them have some sort of global cooldown mechanism which can help (but not remove entirely) the effect of playing on servers located on the other side of the planet. Guild Wars 2 has no such mechanism to level the “latency playing field”. I had hoped from reading about the game development that players with very low latency would not enjoy the benefits in PvP that players did in Guild Wars, but alas this is not so.

Now, I know you cannot move the servers and I know you cannot do anything about physical limitations. While I would LOVE to see Australian/New Zealand servers, I know that possibility is probably quite low. So, I was wondering, do you have any plans to help people from the Oceanic time zone with this disadvantage?

Many MMORPGs designate certain servers or worlds as being “Oceanic” for players from across the ocean, but as the mists and sPvP are across all game worlds, I don’t see that as a viable solution for Guild Wars 2. You could possibly designate certain arenas as being for Oceanic players, but there would be no guarantee that only Oceanic time zone players would play them.

I enjoy this game very much, but am getting a bit frustrated in sPvP with the disadvantage my latency gives me.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Engineer: Another profession that can really do a lot in sPvP. The current meta is to run an HGH Engineer, but they can also be quite effective as bunkers. Like the Elementalist, they have access to more skills than the other professions do and they can swap their weapon kits with no cooldowns on them allowing them to get maximum benefit from “on swap” weapon sigils and traits. Their skill ceiling is also quite high, but they have access to most conditions and LOTS of crowd control at their beck and call.

Necromancer: Necromancers have come a long way since the game started. Most people play them as “Condition-mancers”, but I have also seen effective minion masters, well-Necros, and life-stealing power Necros played as well. Necros do have it rough when it comes to escaping though, and you will really need to be able to dispatch your opponent as you will probably not be able to get away should the fight turn against you. This is probably my least played profession, so I cannot really offer much more insight than this.

Warrior: The Warrior is generally regarded as being the least effective profession in sPvP at the moment. Although I have seen some really good bunker Warriors, they do need some attention for sPvP. Currently, melee classes that don’t get the nice teleports and evades that Rangers and Thieves get are rather hopelessly doomed against all the speed, mobility, and kiting that the ranged professions currently possess. I know that all professions can be ranged and melee, but I think you will find that both the Guardian and the Warrior lack just a bit on the ranged side. Currently, ranged professions have multiple abilities and speed boosts to effectively kite a melee profession nearly indefinitely while the Guardian and Warrior only have a few skills to close gaps with. Warriors at present only really make good bunkers and I have seen some really good ones keep people off of a point for quite some time until help arrives.

Guardian: My most played profession and the one I really like playing the best. Guardians unfortunately suffer like Warriors in not really having a good ranged option. They are primarily a melee class and while they make EXCELLENT bunkers, it is quite easy to disengage a fight from a Guardian and they are quite easily brought down by ranged professions. It often takes two or three of them to do so, and you are some kind of tough, but you will be very lucky to actually get many kills with one.

So, that’s my insight. Your mileage may vary. Hope it helps.

Thanks.

Well, I have tried all the professions in sPvP, but have the most experience with Guardian. So, take what I write here with a grain of salt…

RACE: I have heard and read from people about the advantages of Asura in PvP. In fact, there is a post about giving them some disadvantage on this very forum: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Asuras-need-a-disadvantage/first#post2181396. I have not seen a post about any other race needing a disadvantage, so take that for what it is worth.

PROFESSION: A lot of what you want from PvP will depend on what you get from the various professions. I do believe that currently some of them do much better in PvP than others do. Whether or not Arenanet balances this out in the future, I cannot say.

Elementalist: One of your better choices for a PvP profession. They are mobile, can heal, evade, damage, bunker, are VERY hard to kill and have access to 25 skills due to their attunement mechanic. Their skill ceiling is rather high as you have to know when to swap your attunements, but properly played, they are a PvP nightmare.

Ranger: Arguably the best profession for PvP at the moment. They have great ranged power, have evades on their melee weapon sets so they can melee without taking damage and without having to dodge, have access to multiple crowd control abilities from their pets, and can even send their pets on you from far away while staying beyond your range to damage them.

Thief: Although many people will tell you that Thieves are no good for sPvP as they cannot cap a point while stealthed, you can always cap the point after you have dispatched your opponent and nothing kills faster or easier than a Thief. You get stealth, fast attacks with no cooldowns that hit HARD, melee attacks that you don’t need to be close to get off as they will just teleport you to your target to attack, evades on your weapon skills so you can evade damage while dishing out your own without having to use your dodges, and you can reset any fight you are in to get your advantage back in it. Of all the professions I tried, the Thief was the easiest to run with as all of its skills are designed for max damage with max evasion.

Mesmer: Another profession that can be difficult to play, but well played is a nightmare to fight. They can burst down most other professions quite easily with skills that are on very short cooldowns. They can summon up to six clones to shatter on you and confusion is on of the best conditions in the game as it punishes you for attacking while the Mesmer and their clones continue to whittle away at your health until you are dead. Even healing hurts when facing a Mesmer.

I am happy to read that Guardians and Warriors actually have good places and uses in WvW. I have not tried WvW yet, but chose to get my “feet wet” in sPvP with my Guardian, and OH MY GOD THE PAIN!!!

While they are really good for bunkering, they really do not have any other use in sPvP and you can really only be a good bunker with a good team to back you up. I like the way the Guardian plays, but get very frustrated at how easy it is to disengage from a Guardian and reset the fight

Thanks.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Leo G.4501:

DiogoSilva.7089:

Leo G.4501:

So now we’ve condensed your suggestion to “Make the enemies easier”?

Easier difficulty, or easier to enjoy the game? Because currently, the cc spamfest is a challenge to enjoyability, not to actual difficulty. :P

You offer no real solution, just what you think is unfun.

You can’t be CC locked so having mobs throwing multiple CC just means you need to avoid them. Apparently you don’t like to avoid attacks which is the mainstay of this game.

Perhaps you’d be more interested in another game instead? Or better yet, post a video showing just how common it is for mobs to control you.

We’re talking about how excessive they are, not about how easy or not they are to avoid. And yes, taking away control from the player is largely unfun for the majority of the playerbase for the simple fact that taking away control from the player contradicts the purpose of a video game (which is to give control to a player). It’s disruptive. At the right time and in the right quantities, it’s important and acceptable. But when two or three dredges or two or three orr spiders are kding or pulling you over and over, it’s quite annoying, regardless of whether you can dodge and stun break them, or not.

The solutions exist. There are several conditions that weaken or nullify the player’s options without taking away control from them. Blind, weakness, cripple, etc. There’s boons like aegis, retaliation, etc. All those make the game more strategical, because the player must improvize their playstyle. It’s much better than a cc spamfest that demands from the player to spam dodges and stun breakers against mobs that are otherwise easy, and prevent a situation that otherwise is always disrupting the game’s flow.

Not only is the “dodge” argument terrible, but so is the “go play another game” argument. People criticize this game because they care about it, and they want to see it improve. Constructive criticism is healthy. Meanwhile, asking people to leave is not.

Quoted for truth.

+1

Thanks.

digiowl.9620:

Dodge, dodge, stunbreak, stunbreak, stunbreak, die because everything is on cooldown.

Ah, someone ELSE who has fought the gravelings in AC!!

LOL

+1

Thanks.

Quarktastic.1027

I don’t think I’ve ever been chain stunned by anything, not even the holo mobs. Sounds like a L2P issue to me.

Ah, another one. However, this time it is more of a learn to READ issue on your end. I have never stated that I have ever been “chain-stunned”. Although I have, I have never stated in on this post. But, for the record, head over and try to take down a Veteran Basilisk along with its spawns. Or, you could try to take on several of the Inquisition as many of them also have stun abilities. I would suggest you first learn to differentiate between “chain crowd-control” and “chain-stun” but after that, head out into the world and fight some more “multiple MoB” fights and you will see what several of us are posting about.

Thanks.

Anna Kruse.3941:

this might sound rude. and im saying this as nice as possible…. L2P. stability stun breakers. blinds. oh yeah. and DODGE…

Ah, the old “Learn to play” retort.

How much wiser I now feel after having read such a brilliant response. You could have just kept on playing at your Godlike level and ability and just ignored a mere mortal such as myself, but no. You actually took the time out of your amazing game play to pass on this pearl of wisdom to us less fortunate and less skilled plebeians who are so inept that we cannot handle using three stun-breakers and two dodges to counter the chain crowd-control skills that are relentlessly hurled at our characters. Bless you… Bless you…

However… In my own paltry defense, allow me to state that I am not adverse to having crowd-control effects on MoBs. I actually CAN and DO regularly thwart such attacks with stun-breakers and dodges. This thread was not about crowd-control, but about CHAIN crowd-control and getting endlessly locked down. I highlighted the word “chain” in bold as you were obviously so busy dazzling the rest of the MMORPG gaming community with your brilliance that you failed to read the original post thoroughly. You’re welcome.

I do feel that crowd-control effects have a place in this game and do not object to MoBs having access to such abilities. What I AM advocating against is being CHAIN (highlighted that again for you) crowd-controlled and turning the game into just a video that I watch as my character gets knocked around like a Ping-Pong ball by multiple MoBs that have far more access to these crowd-control skills than I have access to counters.

But this is obviously not an issue with someone of your immortal caliber of game-play. I do thank you however for deigning to come down from on-high and attempting to educate us poor, mere mortals with your impressive and obviously superior wisdom on the game mechanics.

Thanks.

I would also welcome this change.

Even though I do find it quite funny to see everyone come at me after the match has ended and I have stopped playing.

Thanks.

I will have to agree with the OP. Knockdowns/knockbacks/stuns are way to common in this game. Many of the holographic MoBs only highlight this issue more.

Sure, I can just load all of my utility slots with anti-crowd control skills. After all, I did not want any kind of choice in my selection of utility skills.

Oh, wait…

I have two dodge moves I can also use. Good thing the holographic MoBs are not transparent and are easy to see.

Oh, wait…

Well, at least I know that after I have used my dodge moves and all of my utility skills to help me avoid the crowd control that at the least those crowd control skills will be on long cooldowns and won’t be spammable.

Oh, wait…

Actually, I just wish to request that the next time they feel the need to program an achievement like this, that they just give me the option of paying three gold straight-up to get it rather than my also having to waste game time as well.

Thanks.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

When you read gaming blocks or reviews about all games, it is pretty much a central theme most constructive criticism high lights out…that stealth in a player vs player game is usually a bad idea.

I have never played stealth classes myself as they have never fit my personal style of play. Having said that (or in this case, typed it), I have fought against stealth classes since my early days of Dark Age of Camelot and from the many gank-fests I experienced on the battlefields of the Old and New Frontiers, I do know that the ability to attack, fight, and kill someone without any personal risk to yourself does have a very high appeal to many people.

Thieves in Guild Wars 2 actually have three class mechanics at their disposal and not just the two that Arenanet asserts they do. They have steal, the initiative system, and stealth. And while it is true that all the other professions can obtain limited amounts of stealth from skills and combinations, only thieves have nearly unlimited access to stealth from a variety of skills and mechanics.

Stealth is a VERY powerful mechanic in an MMORPG. Many games have had their try at balancing the mechanic, but none have made it as powerful as it is in Guild Wars 2 and that, I believe, is the heart of the issue with Thieves. In games past (at least the ones I have played, your mileage may vary) stealth was a resource used to attack without warning or to enable a squishy melee class to get in close enough to unleash their attacks of opportunity. It has almost ALWAYS come with a downside or a price to it, such as not being able to attack while stealthed, being able to be knocked out of stealth, or even a small chance for the opponent to detect you while stealthed. Guild Wars 2 has NONE of these downsides or prices to their stealth.

Stealth in Guild Wars 2 actually has benefits to it rather than downsides. Thieves that stealth in Guild Wars 2 can cleanse conditions, heal themselves, gain might, gain initiative, move faster, blind, or gain 100% chance to crit on the next attack. Now granted, they cannot gain ALL of these benefits while stealthed, but still it shows there is no downside or price to pay for using stealth and instead there are HUGE benefits to using it and using it constantly.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that ONLY the Thief can break their own stealth. They don’t even break stealth if they attack and miss!! That’s right, if you dodge that initial attack or you just happen to have a block up when they strike, they get a free “do-over” and don’t break stealth. You cannot even knock them out of stealth by setting them on fire!! The only thing that breaks stealth on a Thief in Guild Wars 2 (other than a timer) is if they attack and actually do damage.

Arenanet was not even kind enough to give players a chance to detect a stealthed Thief. They are impervious to detection means while stealthed. All of the control is on their side with no chance at all for the opponent. NO other MMORPG that I have EVER played has stealth been such a powerful mechanic. When a Thief stealths in Guild Wars 2, they hold all the cards and you as their opponent hold only one: randomly swing or use your skills and hope you hit them. This is a HUGE imbalance and I will never understand why Arenanet thought it would be good idea. Certainly they could have at least LOOKED at some other games and seen how stealth was implemented to see the good and the bad that goes with it. Perhaps there is some marketing information out there that I am not aware of the shows that more people prefer to be able to attack, fight, and kill people without any personal risk to themselves than prefer to actually engage in epic battles and duels with one another. Who knows?!

Sadly, stealth in this game comes equipped with a red cloak with a large letter “S” on it and given how it has been implemented, I don’t really see any way that power is going to be mitigated. Certainly the “revealed” condition is a good start, but again that condition is all on the control of the Thief. They could possibly make stealth break on damage, or at least give us a small chance at detection, but I don’t see them going that way either.

For now, I just remember that when I get ganked by a Thief that if and when I die, it is not due to lack of skill but an imbalance that Arenanet has purposefully implemented in their stealth mechanic. On the other hand, when I do actually kill a Thief, I can also glow with satisfaction that I have beaten the intent of the developers and triumphed where I should not have been allowed to.

\rant off

Just curious, is this within the Terms of Service? It looks promising.

I had hoped that the developers were going to keep to their design principles and make a game where people with both high and low latency could compete in PvP, but sadly I have found out that is just not the case.

I have read on their web site about how it improved latency for people in New Zealand (where I play from) and was wondering if it was considered “legit” by Arenanet?

Thanks.

KK, thanks again for all the replies

I have recently discovered from doing some reading and discussing this issue with others that the macros and programs are not the issue I thought they were. While I am convinced it still goes on, it has come to my attention that the biggest issue I am facing is that I play from New Zealand. I was unaware that our latency would have such an effect on the game as Arenanet had stated several times that the reason they had limited interrupts in Guild Wars 2 (as compared to the prevalence of them in Guild Wars) was that they wanted to make PvP combat viable for people with higher latencies and the interrupt system in Guild Wars favored those with very low latencies.

From what I have read and experienced though, this is not the case and the issues I am seeing most likely stem from my network latency. Many players I have spoken with from New Zealand and Australia have commented that they often get “insta-gibbed” or near-“insta-gibbed” as by the time the server acknowledges their input, the fight is over. For melee characters, I was told this will make most of PvP an uphill fight at best.

So, while macros are out there, they are not the issue that I thought they were. The primary issues are twitch combat mechanics and an inevitable network delay due to my physical location from the servers. I knew I had a higher latency, but had thought Arenanet was going to take that into consideration when programming the game from what I had read of their design philosophy. I was wrong.

My bad. Thanks again for all the replies though. I appreciate everyone’s input.

Thanks.

LoneDeranger.5963:

Or make it so that using them costs endurance as well.

Yeah, I agree. Let them keep the skills, but make it so the evade part only happens if they have the endurance to pull it off.

Wow, so many more responses than I expected. Let’s see…

@Deimos Tel Arin and the rest who want to know how I know some people are using macros, I would have to reply that I don’t actually know people are using macros. I am making an educated guess, but I have been playing MMORPGs long enough to know the difference between “human” reflexes and actions, and “machine” reflexes and actions. I have played PvP in almost every MMORPG that I have played and stayed with Dark Age of Camelot the longest simply because of its PvP game. When playing that game, I never actually knew when people were using mapping programs to determine my position, but I could easily make an educated guess when I could break line of sight and loose my opponent only to have him/her zone in on exactly where I was moments later with nothing visual to guide them. Sure, I guess they could have just gotten lucky or gotten a hunch. But when it keeps happening time and time again, you begin to suspect something.

We used to have a saying in the Navy, “Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence. The third time, it’s enemy action.”

By that standard, when an opponent can consistently unload multiple skills on you in mere fractions of a second, he/she can either be part cyborg, or they are using some sort of assistance. Whether that be a macro, or some programmed button or programmable keyboard/mouse, I do not know. I am not after their secrets, just after some means to actually make the playing field a bit less askew.

@Zodian, I have thought about reporting them, but with the advancements in gaming keyboards and mice, any programmable key or macroed key would be indistinguishable on the server side from a user actually pressing the keys manually, with the possible exception of looking at the time it takes. Even then, the player could just make the claim that they are just “that good” and can actually press keys and mouse buttons with the same speed and rapidity that a program or macro can. Heck, I own an Razer Anansi gaming keyboard that is quite capable of having its buttons programmed, so I know the technology is out there.

@Rallad, yeah I definitely will need more practice, there is no doubt about that. I recently moved several of my keybinds to make them more accessible and am struggling with old muscle memory of where they used to be. I will keep trying, but I know that no matter how good I get, I will never be able to actually pull off combos as fast as a program or macro can. I am only human after all.

Thanks again for all the responses!

Greetings all,

I have noticed in several sPvP matches that I sometimes get into combat with people who are obviously using macros and/or keyboard/mouse programs. As I just have an ordinary keyboard and mouse, I was wondering if there was any way (within the Terms of Service) to somehow level the playing field against such players?

I know I have room to improve on my muscle memory, especially since I just re-arranged my keys to help my playing a bit. But even with that I do not think I would be able to compete with someone who can unload all of their skills on me from a program or programmed device. Am I just doomed to be on the losing side of such technology?

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Chopps.5047:

They’re all easy to beat with every profession you just need to modify your approach.

Melee’ing drakes, for example, and you might have a bad time. Or just be smart and avoid them if you don’t think you can do it. Or ask experienced players with your profession what they do. Learn and grow from others.

GW2 is a skill game so don’t get discouraged when you lose the first few times. Just be honest with people about being a new player and needing assistance. There is more to gw2 than spamming auto with your dps slot skills equipped.

If you’re a ranger, why not use sun spirit to blind? Because spirits aren’t cool? If you’re a warrior, why not try a condition damage weapon and spec? There are other ways to secure victory than just face tanking and eating damage. Approach it like a puzzle “hmm drake has this attack and this attack, what can I do to mitigate that? Aw yeah! Blind! Interupts! Why didn’t I do this before?”

And suddenly you’re a better player.

While I think this is good advice, I do believe players will find it hard to follow when they have been chain-pulled by several drakes and spend much of their time simply on their backs watching their health quickly disappear or end up having to double-dodge a barrage of spit from a karka only to have another one spit at you again after you have used up all of your endurance and take several thousand more hit points of damage than your character actually has.

And while I am quite adept at using dodging and stun-breaks, you will find those will be on cooldown far more often than the drakes’ chain-pulling/stun attacks or the karkas’ multiple spit attacks are. I really don’t mind challenging content, but I despise dying to a MoB while completely helpless and unable to do anything about it. Instant death mechanics belong in FPS games and not MMORPGs, in my opinion.

Thanks.

I am wondering if maybe the servers are just too full? Maybe Arenanet over-estimated the player load that each server can accommodate? It seems to me from what I have experienced and seen in Lion’s Arch, Southsun, and WvW that there are just too many players for the servers to adequately keep up with. Last time I logged in and checked the server population status, they were all Very High or Full.

Maybe Arenanet needs to reduce the maximum players per server and open up some new ones to accommodate the numbers. They don’t seem to be able to adequately tweak the game engine to currently work well with the current numbers.

Thanks.

Audrena.8604:

And of course after I exit, naked, broken and defeated, immediately after the loading screen I am two-shot by a mass of karka right there at the entrance.

Something that was supposedly “fixed”.

Done with this crap, I really am.

They posted not once, not twice, but THREE times that they had “fixed” the bug where Elementalists would not have an attunement. They “fixed” the Engineer turrets until players brought the facts to their attention that they had not been fixed. I sometimes wonder if what is put into the patch notes actually gets tested and if so, HOW it gets tested as they seem to “fix” a lot of stuff that still seems broken after they have announced the “fix”.

Thanks.

digiowl.9620:

Had a bit of luck the other day, and was able to study a “retake Steampipe” event up close while it was idle.

I was counting multiple groups of 6-7 L83-84 young karka, alongside a mix of hatchlings, poppers and the odd veteran young karka.

And i have seen a projectile burst of a single such karka eat through 19000-20000 health.

Meaning that getting the aggro of a single such group, could see damage in around 114000 or more. Yes, there is dodge. But as far as i can tell, dodge do not allow you to avoid the whole projectile burst. And with multiple karka firing at once, you are going to get hit no matter what.

Strang thing is that i have also seen the event barely sporting any karka at all, and at level 80 at that.

I wonder if culling is what is tripping us up here, in that both the area inside the camp and outside (perhaps as far as the veteran karka in by the waterfall) are taken into account for scaling.

Also, i have actually seen on more quiet repetitions a smoke/dust plume before karka appear inside the camp. So i suspect that the designers tried to put in a kind of “burrowing” element, but the culling (or what i wonder is some kind of inefficiency in loading game elements) causes the karka to appear as if they instantly spawn. And the warning that the plume is supposed to give before the karka attack do not happen, resulting in people being insta-downed form barely appearing mobs.

Meaning that the event designers seems unable to deal with the limitations of the game engine, or there is some kind of unknown issue with the loading of game elements (models, sounds, particle effects) that interact with culling to cause the game to be harder than it should during larger events.

Maybe this is an indication that it might be time to open up some more servers?

There are many indications that the game code just cannot keep up with the sheer number of players that are currently playing. (culling, rubber-banding, stop-motion animations, etc.) Last night, my wife never even SAW the Karka Queen on her monitor until near the end of the fight.

The fact that all of the servers show as “Very High” or “Full” plus all the complaints relating to game performance should tell Arenanet that it is time to quit attempting to get the game code to accommodate more players than it actually can.

Thanks.

Theplayboy.6417:

As far as people on your team talking kitten. Its going to happen. Every one will place the blame on something and it usually isn’t themselves.

Yes, unfortunately many hard-core PvPers will blame ANYONE but themselves for any mistakes that happen in a game. I always think of this comic whenever it happens to me…

http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20120328

:)

As far as the verbal abuse issue goes, I ignore them and THEN report them as well. I know I won’t have to read their trash anymore, but I also might as well get a report started to stop them from abusing others as well. The really sad part of it is that for many of these people who trash-talk you in PvP, belittling you in order to make themselves feel superior to you is the only real highlight and accomplishment they will ever get in their lives. While I understand that situation, I still do not believe it is a reason to excuse their abuse.

Thanks.

digiowl.9620:

Jack of Tears.9458:

killcannon.2576:

Agree with Vayne, it’s times when I am mobbed by enemies that I feel challenged as a character and have a feeling of accomplishment when coming out of the battle alive. It can really test your abilities as a player sometimes.

I agree, like I said 12 Skelk at the same time going D/D Thief – it was an intense fight – I’m totally bragging.

Shelk are ok, as they can’t stun lock you once all your stun breaks are on cooldown. So there at least you have a fighting chance, or potentially a escape if you find you are in over your head. But drakes, risen, or anything else that spams stuns, pulls, knockdowns or similar are just lazy game design. Especially when aggro-ing one also aggro anything similar within earshot.

QFT!!

I personally hate spending two-thirds of my time in game on my backside because I only have two dodges and all my stunbreaks are still on cooldown while my enemies constantly spam their knockdown/stun/knockback attacks. I am not sure who convinced the developers that instant-death attacks made while you have no control over your character were “fun” mechanics, but I personally have to disagree with that assessment. I don’t mind dying and I expect to die at times when I have over-aggroed or made a mistake, but to die to mechanics simply because they can spam them more often than I can counter or respond to them is simply not fun for me. I at least want a fighting chance and not simply have to watch my character lie on his back and get chain knocked around while his health melts away, or better yet, get pulled into a stunlock and get pummeled for twice what his health is in less than a second.

These mechanics are almost as much fun as walking into a dungeon back in the days of pencil and paper Dungeons and Dragons and having the Dungeon Master announce that a trap has insta-killed the entire party with no save. Makes for a VERY short and not-at-all fun game.

Thanks.

Varonth.5830:

Yeah, for me it also happens on my weapon swap. Pressing ^ then try to do a specific defensive skill, just to see myself casting something offensive because I didn’t switch weapons is just aweful. And it really just started to happen recently.

This has recently also started happening to me as well. I go to swap weapons and use an ability and I am still on the same weapon. I have also found that, just recently, my character will not always start a finishing move when I press the key as well and I often have to press it a couple of times to get him to start one.

I am in New Zealand and have always dealt with the latency differences, but this appears to be something else. It especially seems to be prevalent when I get immobilized by some ability, but I have seen it happen without any immobilize as well.

Thanks.

Thanks for the answer. I did find out myself after running around a bit, but I appreciate the information.

Are the crabtoss events necessary to complete Southsun? I did not roll an Asura, so I will probably not be able to win the event. Can we just skip it and still get Southsun Stalwart?

Hoping so…

Thanks.