Guild Wars 2

Vlad Morbius.1759:

First of all, you didn’t pay for my account, I did and that being said you have no business knowing anything at all about my account my characters my build my gear, anything. This whole need to know everything BS society makes me want to yak, who do you think you are that entitles you to know anything at all about me or the characters I play. I am sick to death with the presumptuous attitude of MMO players, stop with the false sense of entitlement; you have none when it comes to my characters!

Do you also try to stop people in the street from looking at you? No? Why not? They’re invading your “privacy” just as much. They certainly didn’t pay for your life! I don’t see you asking for the ability to just blank out your character so others can’t see it. Why not?

Did you know that in many societies you’re not legally allowed to hide your identity in public? Are you going to make an uproar and fight against that? No? Why not?

When you can answer that you’ll understand why your entire argument is simply dishonest bullkitten.

Ordika.9513:

I wasn’t claiming people don’t have multiple gear sets (I was being glib in a mock inquisitorial way). I am claiming that if someone specifically bought a set of Zerker gear (not intending to use it which would be a waste of gold) just to pass a ping, then it doesn’t solve the inspect issue either as they would just wear it for the inspect. If they turned inspect off after allowing you to see the Zerker gear, then that means you have to make a choice. Do you trust they didn’t switch gear, or do you kick them immediately for not allowing inspect?

But having this does not solve your problem. Your problem is really only solved by playing with people you trust, are familiar with, or have already coordinated builds with.

People can have multiple sets of gear and not wear one all the time. Plenty of people have a proper set of gear and MF for leeching. That said, your entire argument is hinging on a flawed point:

Ordika.9513:

If they turned inspect off

Abbawha? Turn it off? Why would they even be capable of that? lol… Go into PvP right now, see if you can turn it off. Can you? No. Exactly. I certainly never asked for a system you can turn off – that is inherently flawed, as you adequately pointed out.

No. I don’t ask, you don’t need to show. I check your gear and traits when I want – just like in PvP. You can check mine as well, whenever you want. The only people this system hurts are the dishonest. It actually makes it a lot easier on everyone else.

Ordika.9513:

How do they lie about the gear they have on, when it puts a link to it in the chat box?

Unless you claim they have a set of full exotics with runes and sigils just for the purpose of getting past the invite phase, then they will not be stopped by inspect. They will wear it for the inspect, then switch out.

You act like it’s particularly difficult or unheard of to have several sets of gear. Several of my characters have more than one set with them. Only one of them has MF gear though, and it was “cheapo” MF gear acquired specifically for the current Southsun supply box farming, but it wouldn’t have taken me a great deal of effort to simply transmute it into a “normal” looking set. I’ve seen several people with full exotic “normal look” MF sets.

Remember they don’t even need to equip it, just ping it from their inventory… Or even have copy paste ready with item-code links to the appropriate gear.

Edit: Since you edited as well – it tells me if they’re MF leeching at least. And why shouldn’t inspect let me see traits and skills? PvP one does. Seems simple enough to do.

Ordika.9513:

ProxyDamage.9826:

PS: Difference being only one of those groups wants to force the other to play with them.

From my previous post:

“If the argument for inspect is that you want to make sure someone has X gear before getting in your group, then simply ask them to ping (even make a /inspect which will auto ping your gear) or don’t invite them to your group.”

Neither group is being forced to do anything for anyone or by anyone. You have the tools to make the group composition as you see fit. An auto inspect feature is only for being able to critique someone else’s build, which is rude and presumptuous, unless invited by the person being critiqued upon themselves.

Big issue that renders your entire argument useless: People lie.

Your argument is invalid.

Jaall.3420:

Using that same example, people want to wear cheap clothes that look like the expensive brands but without the high price. If you invent a tool that when pointed at the clothes tells you that the quality is lower they but cheaper they will be judged for it therefore they’re affected by it.

No they’re not. They can ignore those people. Especially since this is a game world, so, while in the real world people could, at an extreme, physically force you to pay them attention, in-game they can do absolutely nothing.

Your argument is invalid.

Just one argument that even resembles some sort of legitimacy. You can’t do it, because there isn’t one.

lookitsandrea.8531:

The biggest problem, as has been mentioned a few times in this long thread, with an /inspect feature is the lack of privacy and user control.

What privacy? This is the stupidest argument possible… Am I “invading your privacy” when I look at your character in the game? I’m not reading your PMs or browsing through your inventory.

As mentioned before this isn’t like seeing through your clothes, it’s a pointing a machine at them that tells me what brand and/or material they are. You’re not even affected.

Uruz Six.6594:

Well, here’s the thing.

/e raises hand like Captain Kirk asking why God needs a starship

If neither group of players want to play with each other, then why is either group PUG-ing in the first place?

It sounds to me the more reasonable assumption is if you want to keep your teams to your own standards, you do it with friends and guildies.

Yeah, why is either group PUGing? It’s like…. I don’t know…. Sounds crazy but… Like you wanna meet and play with other like minded people… Crazy, I know!

PS: Difference being only one of those groups wants to force the other to play with them.

Sovta.4719:

You can inspect now (finally some site uploaded option) since API was released. Thank you Arenanet, finally.

Link for the love of god.

Uruz Six.6594:

Remember: If you’re against /inspect, you’re obviously a crappy build / bad player / leech. Oh, and you’re the elitist too.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna have to get my cognitive dissonance meter replaced. These suckers aren’t cheap…

If not wanting dead weight in my party is elitism I’m elitist as hell and proud. I’m not forcing you to play with me, but you are trying to force me to play with you. All I want is to play with likeminded people. What the whole “anti-inspect” crowd seems to want is to deny me that, to force me to play with them regardless.

Give me ONE legitimate reason why inspect shouldn’t exist? If what you people claim is right, and you simply don’t care and just “play for fun”, whatever that means – as if everyone else plays for boredom and frustration, then what will this change for you? You’ll be kicked out of parties you wouldn’t want to be in in the first place. You’ll be rejected from parties with people like me, whom you seem to hate and not want to play with. If you’re being honest about your reasons, you lose nothing. If anything we do you a favor. If what you say is true and you don’t need me and people like me to do your job for you, then why do you want? Why not just make a party with other people like you?

And don’t give me “privacy” bullkitten. I’m not looking through your underwear I’m learning the material of the clothes you’re wearing.

If it’s just PvE that’s concerning you, why do you care? Guest in other servers… Aurora Glade is doing pretty well outside of middle level areas (but, as everyone knows, they’re the bane of any MMO), and even those seem surprisingly populated on odd days. You can guest in 2 different servers every 24 hours. Go nuts till you find one you like.

This has been discussed to death and back.

It’s pretty simple: most people of any value or relevance think it’s a good idea, bad players and leeches think it’s the devil cause they’re afraid they can’t be carried anymore. Good players think it’s a good idea/don’t care because, worse case scenario, they just don’t party with people they wouldn’t want to party with anyways. Crappy players know they’ll take longer to find a party and it’ll mostly be others like them, so nobody will drag them along.

Done to death. This particular horse isn’t even a carcass anymore but a fine paste. Game needs inspect for better pugging. Will, hopefully, get it eventually, but hardly a priority. Meanwhile just try to stick with partying with people you know. As of right now I don’t join random parties unless I know more others in it, and that we’re all good enough to carry the rest. And usually when one of us is the leader so we can kick any dead weight “too heavy” to carry.

SadieDeAtreia.8912:

The RNG gods smiled upon you. What do you want from us? A “well done bro”?

Man, you must be the life of the party. Tell me, do you also wait around playgrounds, then walk up to children and deflate their balloons with a needle?

How does my guardian set things on fire underwater by bashing them really hard with a spear?

How can my necro make you bleed with a drawing on the ground?

How come any of the things in the game just…. are…. at all…

I.e.: stop applying real world logic to a game. “How” anything in this game? Magic. It’s a game.

Ema.4953:

The deaf people of the gaming community would disagree with you

They’re called “Subtitles for the hearing impaired” bro.

Ursan.7846:

This probably is an unpopular opinion, but I hope Anet continues with this method.

The fact that they’re going to do this model 3 times in a row is a pretty good indicator of how profitable they must have been. And I want this game to succeed financially so that I continue to get free content that I am not paying for.

Not being able to collect everything new that comes out bothers me slightly, sure. But if this means Anet is raking in the money off people who are willing to gamble? Go for it. They pay for the game so I don’t have to.

When have they used this system 3 times in a row? I can only remember them using it once before, for the fused weapons. SAB was a completely different, much better system.

If anything is any indicator of how much money ANet is doing is the price of gems. The higher it goes the more people are buying gems. And, actually the price of gems was dropping till they added the new items (like the sickle) indicating that people were hardly buying into the supply crates…

That said neither of us has definite numbers so let’s not pretend we know what’s better business. ANet has those numbers, along with people more qualified than you or me to analyze them, so they don’t need us to do that.

What I’m providing is costumer feedback. How I, as and individual costumer, feel about this. Of course I want ANet to be successful. I love this game. But if this is what they have to do for it… well, it’s a pretty kittenty way to do it and I don’t like it. It wouldn’t be the first game I quit because the way it finds to be successful is too distasteful for me.

Simple request: Please stop the RNG. Especially when it’s excruciatingly low odds RNG, on a limited availability skin, which is easily one of the most beautiful designs you’ve made.

I thought it was pretty crummy when it happened in Flame and Frost with the Fused weapons, but it seemed like a one time thing, and I didn’t really care for any of the weapons, and the trend didn’t repeat itself with Super Adventure Box, so… sod it.

But now you’re doing it again, with even lower odds – First you need to find one specific rare item, then get a super rare drop from the already rare drop… On top of that, to my personal nuisance, you’re doing it with what is, to my eyes, the most beautiful Greatsword design you’ve ever made. Sod the legendaries, I’ll take a Sclerite Greatsword over it any day. It’s beautiful. It reminds me of the “living blade” feel of Soul Edge/Soul Calibur (which I very much doubt whomever came up with the design never played, shoutouts to them).

It’s seriously disappointing… Super Adventure Box did it so very, very right too (except for the limited time of availability IMO) – You could work towards a concrete, guaranteed, skin, which is for personal, non-tradeable use only, and you be lucky with the RNG and earn a tradebable version for profit.

Instead we get this horrid double RNG system of a super rare within a very rare, an infernal lotto, an insane gambit no one but the most utterly gone gambling addict would take…

I love the kitten GS skin. When I saw what it looked like I was ready to do whatever it took (within reason of course, it’s a game not a heart transplant) to get it. Hell, even though I can’t afford to spare that much money with games now, I was ready to buy it to guarantee it if need be… I’ve been farming karkas day and night, across 7 characters. I’ve opened over 15 crates now and gotten absolutely kitten all… I have the most horrid luck when it comes to “RNG” systems, so I fear I’ll never have the kitten thing.

Please, no more RNG… If you absolutely must, at least make it so the skins aren’t limited availability… I don’t mind spending money on your game when I can, but I can’t afford (or am willing) to dump nearly endless money into a lottery system until I eventually, if ever, win. I don’t mind working to achieve to goals, but this is just a demonic treadmill of futility…

Cheers.

Edit: sorry, double post. Post glitched.

Lopez.7369:

The displayed damage was about 30 percent lower (about 270 damage).

[…]

The displayed damage was about 40 percent higher (about 350 damage).

Uh… but… a… what?

Kasama.8941:

Signet of Renewal is a waste of a utility slot, which is also why so many Rangers use Lightning Reflexes as a stun breaker. As said, the passive will not always trigger when you need it to, and a 60 second recharge is way to long for it to be reliable.

Hardly, it’s condition removal, on a class that barely has any. It’s not our best stun breaker, but it is a stun breaker, and it provides something we lack – condition removal. You’re seriously underestimating the ability to simply clear a condition every 10 seconds, which, by the way, is a continuous loop and not “clear a condition after 10 seconds”, so you’ll quite often have a condition applied only for it to be instantly removed.

Kasama.8941:

Healing Spring is a good skill, yes, but the recharge time is a bit too long, considering the initial healing amount is 7,260 health (with the regeneration). To get more out of it, you have to stand in the field for 3+ seconds, or use a leap finisher. Compare it to Troll Unguent which heals you for 8,560 health, and has a 25 second recharge time. Or ‘Heal as One’ that heals you for 6,520 health, with only a 20 seconds recharge time. These two healing skills will heal you for 6,024 or 5,040 more health a minute, compared to Healing Springs initial healing. So if you have a build that can’t afford to be stationary, then Healing Spring won’t be that good. It’s also worth mentioning that you can be knocked out of Healing Springs combo field, and that the regeneration can be removed, which greatly reduces the healing you’ll get out of it. So while the condition removal is good, the healing part of Healing Spring means that it’s not always the best choice.

What it does have over those two, on the other hand is, again, condition removal, and a water field for free extra regen/healing from finishers.

Keep in mind I’m not saying you should always take healing spring, but when you have no other source of condition removal… then yeah, healing spring is practically mandatory. Or you can just die horribly everytime a condition build targets you.

Yes, these aren’t the best options to tank white damage… Yes, you have better options for that. What those options don’t have, on the other hand, is any defense against conditions.

You can choose to disregard condition removal and fill up on “anti-power damage” defense, which makes it, indeed, problematic to take down with power based builds… but a pathetic target for condition builds. Or you can sacrifice some of that, still be very strong against power-builds, and at least have some defense against conditions. Your call.

I honestly can’t agree with “We don’t have great condition removal, so best to not take anything at all!” approach.

Yes, rangers have limited condition removal, but limited isn’t the same as none at all. Signet of Renewal isn’t fantastic but it’s something, and Healing Spring will usually guarantee at least 2 conditions removed. Just having the ability to quickly cleanse a condition or two is extremely important.

Also don’t forget HS is a water field, which means free regen and extra healing if you have a leap/blast finisher.

Epic.3950:

wall of text

Man, you really don’t get it do you?

You can’t compare weapon skills. You can’t even compare weapons. They’re completely different classes. With different skills, and traits, and class mechanics…

OMG, why doesn’t the ranger’s shortbow #1 bounce from target to target like the Thief’s!? Or why is the Necro’s Staff #2 a “one time pop” thing instead of a continuous DoT like Ele’s fire attuned staff!?

You can’t compare. They’re not the same kittening class!

Yes, the Warrior’s hammer has issues – it’s a low DPS, low mobility, “high risk/low reward” weapon that relies almost entirely on one mechanic that’s relatively easy to hard counter – stun locking.

Yes, the Warrior in general has issues – Early in the game’s “released life” (possibly even during the betas) they were neutered out of a LOT of their burst damage and they haven’t been adequately compensated in the survivability aspect.

No, this has nothing to do with specific weapon skills relative to similar weapons in a completely different kittening class. They are different kittening classes. You can’t look at individual skills, or even entire weapons, in a vacuum.

[&AgHldwAA] – Copy paste in-game in chat, then preview at will.

Honestly it’s one of the ugliest weapons in the game, as far as I’m concerned… But then again I think most legendary weapons are ugly as hell… But I’m not the one making it, you are, so… your call.

Cempa.5619:

I thought a ‘Finisher’ need a Combo ‘Filed’? I don’t have any fields up but each time the pet uses Tail Swipe Weakness is up!

I wonder if Condition duration increases it?

The weakness is not part of the combo, just an undocumented bonus. Yes, the tail swipe is a combo finisher and finishers need combo fields to do a combo.

And no, your stats are separate from the pet.

Veritas.6071:

ProxyDamage.9826:

Veritas.6071:

You forgot to compare skills 1,3, and 4.

And the entire class, and class mechanics, and traits… etc.

Comparing individual skills across classes is generally regarded as a “not very bright” move for a reason.

That was sarcasm

I know, I wasn’t knocking on you, I was knocking on the OP. Merely using your post as a segway.

Veritas.6071:

You forgot to compare skills 1,3, and 4.

And the entire class, and class mechanics, and traits… etc.

Comparing individual skills across classes is generally regarded as a “not very bright” move for a reason.

“Hey guys, look at my mesmer!”

Cristobal.8640:

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Bhawb.7408:

This has been said before. It was a terrible idea then, its still a really bad idea.

This x 2.

Remove a class mechanic that benefits every build in favor of benefiting ONE build, which isn’t even our best or most interesting, does not seem very intelligent, does it?

If you want that play Ranger. That’s their class mechanic for a reason.

MalkethTheDestroyerOfWorlds.7945:

Thanks for the advice. I guess I’ll continue to scavange till level 80. Is there anywhere I can veiw all the available level 80 gear and kitten my options?

You can use a build editor like GW2Skills (don’t forget to change it from PvP to PvE/WvW mode).

Not bad. A few things to point out though.

First of all – you have 2 “on critical” sigils on your axe/axe set. This is a mistake. On critical sigils share internal cooldown, so when one of them triggers the other one won’t be able to till it comes off cooldown. By having both you’re seriously crippling both of their activation frequency. Since mainhand is checked first, this means that more often than not, it’s sigil of nullification that’s going to waste.

Second, sharpened edges… why? You have no condition damage. Sharpened edges is a no internal cooldown 1 second of bleed. The point is to, essentially, add condition damage to your normal attacks. But you have no condition damage at all. Why not Pet’s Prowess? Free 30% critical damage for your pet.

I’m also not a fan of Shared Anguish due to the massive internal cooldown and uncontrollable use, and would rather have vigor on heal, but your call.

I’m also very much not a fan of Runes of Vampirism. Sacrificing too much for too little IMO. Either go full offensive runes here (or Orbs), or take something like Dwayna. Extra regen is always nice on a ranger.

Additionally, you have almost no condition removal, so I’d seriously consider trading Troll Unguent for Healing Spring.

Lastly, I wouldn’t pick off-hand axe myself. #4 is ok but unreliable damage, #5 roots in place, so it leaves you very vulnerable for the little defense it gives you. Personally I’d rather have warhorn. Better damage on 4, and 5 gives you extra swiftness and fury.

In PvE, yes. Especially in large events with massive mobs and lots of people.

In PvP, no.

Enmity.3428:

ProxyDamage.9826:

Daecollo.9578:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Furious_Speed
It should be moved to 100% chance on critical on “melee” hits. This will give it some flavor and make it an actual good trait choice for us.

With an internal cool-down of 1 second.

The funny part is that you don’t see the glaringly obvious issue with giving a class perma melee crits essentially for free…

I believe the suggested trait is to give a 100% chance to gain Swiftness on critical melee hits – not a 100% chance of critical hits for melee attacks.

Ah, fair enough. The wording is terrible then. That said, we already have that trait, give or take… It’s not that relevant to be honest. Warriors already can have swiftness almost permanently while fighting.

Daecollo.9578:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Furious_Speed
It should be moved to 100% chance on critical on “melee” hits. This will give it some flavor and make it an actual good trait choice for us.

With an internal cool-down of 1 second.

The funny part is that you don’t see the glaringly obvious issue with giving a class perma melee crits essentially for free…

MalkethTheDestroyerOfWorlds.7945:

Hi guys I’m a level 64 ranger

Then it doens’t matter. Get whatever you want. Leveling in PvE is kitten easy. If you’re having issues consider that it’s probably something about your core gameplay that’s lacking. When you get to lvl 80 you can decide on a build and appropriate gear (which depends on your build). Till then, whatever you find works.

Personally, having leveled all but 2 classes to 80 and fully geared, I’d say the best gear is power/precision based. Once you get to the level where you can wear triple stats gear, either berserker’s (Power/prec/crit damage) or Knight’s (power/prec/toughness) are your best friends. But that’s just my personal preference and, honestly, as long as you keep it somewhere within your level, whatever you get works.

Wolfield.9812:

Dont spam the skill.

Why not? It’s a cheap dodge, with some mobility, with high damage, that steals 2 boons per use, that I can spam almost indefinitely.

Give me one good reason not to?

As someone who is definitely using and abusing the new flanking strikes, it’s a bit much… Particularly the 2 boons stolen per use…

2/2

Gear wise I’d only make one change: change all the jewels in your knights trinkets to ruby orbs. Incredibly cheap/efficient way to get critical damage, and what you sacrifice in return is next to nothing. Remember, due to the way toughness/armor works, anything over 3000 armor starts getting seriously hit with diminishing returns. Overall, you’re sacrificing a whole 2% damage reduction for 18% crit damage. That’s a big damage boost for almost nothing sacrificed.

Skill wise I’d change 2 things. First of all, get rid of Signet of Fury. You don’t need the extra crit chance that bad. Personally my warrior never leaves home without Signet of Stamina. That’s extra endurance regeneration as passive with a full condition cleanse every 45 seconds, 36 (IIRC) if you took signet mastery. Conditions are a Warrior’s worst enemy, and we don’t have the same access to vigor as some other classes. Overall, this signet is a must for me.

Second, For Great Justice is possibly THE best PvE skill in the game. In PvP, having a whole skill slot used up for fury and might (especially when you already have other sources of both) is counter productive. Especially as you’re running a Hammer build with no sword/Greatsword on switch (so your mobility is very reduced), I’d personally switch this out for the evergreen Bull’s Charge. It’s a 600 distance quick dash with a hefty 2 second stun at the end. It’s a great opener, distance closer, and, in a pinch, get away. I’ve ran a similar build for a while and, trust me, you need all the gap closers you can get.

Lastly, my 2 cents on “Hammer/Longbow”: I’ve ran this for a while and it’s quite fun when it works, and frustrating when it doesn’t. Hammer is a weapon that suffers from lack of mobility, defense, and raw burst. Longbow helps this a bit due to the immobilize and decent power-scaling burst (I’ve found myself switching back and forth between this and rifle when I used hammer). It relies on hitting that one critical stun, then stun locking the enemy to death. When it works it’s brutal and you’ll laugh out loud when you lock someone down and pummel them into mince. The problem is that several classes utterly disregard casual stuns due to abundance of stun breakers or stability, and even when you land your stuns, if you don’t instagib your opponent they might still get away. Hammer relies, in my view, a bit too much on chaining stuns. It’s not your best DPS weapon, but when it hits it hits hard, and that catches some players off guard. It’s best used in groups, particularly small to medium groups, where your team mates can capitalize of that one landed stun and guarantee a kill. If you’re caught “one on one”, you’ll have issues, and you’ll need to play carefully and downright surgically – Make sure they burn their defenses and then land that ONE stun that starts the chain.

Hope that helped.

Not bad, but can use some tweaking. Some of it is personal preference, but some of it just outright needs to go.

First let’s cover traits.

Strength major trait – Greater Fortitude. Why? Waste of trait points. You’re sacrificing 10 trait points for 1k health. Not worth it. If you’re gonna go 10 points into this, you’re going for Berserker’s Power. Don’t worry, it’s applied before your burst skill lands so you will get those juicy 13% on your burst. If you rather go more defensive, then Restorative Strength is also an option, but honestly as an hammer build you want the damage.

Defense Adept Major Trait – Missile Deflection? Why? You’re not using anything that can block, so this is a completely wasted trait. Since you’re running Runes of Melandru Dogged March is a good option, as it provides good synergy. If you take this, though, don’t bother with restorative strenght above and just go straight out Berserker’s Power. You’re sacrificing enough to get rid of movement impairing conditions and it’s quite enough.

Personally I’d also give up the 5 last points in that tree, put them in either Strenght for endurance when you use burst skills, or Discipline, or something. Personally, I think it’s a waste of 5 trait poitns for minimal damage gain, but to each his own.

Tactics Adept Major Trait – Leg Specialist. Again, why? Leg Specialist is an amazing trait for most builds, if you’re willing to sacrifice the points into the atrocious tactics tree, but you happen to be running the 2 weapons that least gain from it. Longbow has no cripples and comes with his own immobilize, and hammer has 1 cripples, and the rest of it is all stuns. Is it really worth it burning 10 trait points here for it? Not really, IMO.

Remove 10 points, add up the 5 points you saved up above, and dump them all in the Arms tree. You get 10% increased critical chance on bursts AND one of the best traits in the game for hammers or shield – Unsuspecting Foe. Seeing as Hammer is such a stun-based weapon, virtually guaranteeing critical hits whenever you stun someone is downright mandatory.

Discipline Adept Major Trait – Warrior’s Sprint. I know, it looks good, but it isn’t. Mobility in this game comes from Swiftness and skills with mobility included. Those 10% don’t stack with swiftness and, honestly, are utterly meaningless for the most part. You want the 15 point minor trait, so I’d just switch it for either Heightened Focus or Signet Mastery.

1/2 (Message Body length must be less than 5001.)

Made a few changes to my Necro, now that I can afford the extra cultural pieces I wanted.

Just about perfect now.

Jester.1546:

“easiest open world PVE class” but I have no idea as to why this is said.

Eh… Neither do I, since that’s an outright lie. Easiest open world PvE class to level is, by far, the Warrior, followed by the Guardian.

That said, as someone who has leveled almost every class in the game to level 80 now (only 2 missing and on their way – elementalist and engineer) open world PvE is quite easy, and honestly spending money on leveling gear is generally a waste… It’s like buying a ton of expensive clothes to your newborn kid… blink and they’ve outgrown them. Anything over green for leveling is either bought bellow 10 silver or is a waste.

If you wanna focus on survival, making sure you absolutely don’t die, then some clerics gear with soldiers will probably be best. I will say that, in my experience, nothing beats berserker for PvE, but that is less “error friendly”.

As for build, don’t bother with 5 points in Marksmanship. If you go into marksmanship is because you want the major traits. The minor traits on that tree are all trash.

The things you really want will be 15 points in wilderness survival (for the protection on roll and the mini vigor from the minor traits + Vigorous renewel – vigor on heal), 25 points on beastmastery (similarly, you want both minor traits + pets healing more), and 10 points in Nature’s magic for the trait you already have there (Nature’s Bounty).

I’d also advise changing Signet of Stone for Signet of Renewal. PvE doesn’t have a lot of condition spam for the most part, and you already have Healing Spring for condition removal.

The rest is whatever really… Seriously, once you grasp the principal of it, PvE is quite easy regardless.

Enjoy.

Kasama.8941:

Yes, it’s quite ironic that the Ranger has the strongest build in the game at the moment, with the bunker-beastmaster build, alongside two of the weakest builds in the game, with burst and support builds. Says a lot about how unbalanced the Ranger is.

See, this is typical overreaction from bad players that have no earthly idea what they’re talking about…

The ranger has arguably, possibly, the strongest 1 on 1 build in the game. The BM bunker performance drops dramatically as soon as the numbers increase (and I mean for both sides, obviously not 1 vs many). It’s viable, it’s strong, but it’s only really borderline “OP” in 1 on 1s. In fights any bigger than duels the pet’s survivability drops massively (particularly if you’re running emphatic bond, one of the ranger’s much needed sources of condition removal) even without being focused and with it roughly 99% of the ranger’s damage. Without their pets BM builds are just damage sponges, and they can’t tank more than 1 player if they can’t kill them…

That said the ranger does have other viable builds, for example condition damage trap build, but they’re all defensive “bunker-ish” builds.

I wish people would at least try to contain their knee jerk reactions and actually analyze things for a second.

But rangers are good in s/tPvP now…?

People saying rangers suck are just bad rangers… Or are trying to play DPS ranger…

Evilek.5690:

Next time when you go dungeon please make a video.
I’m really curious about your performance: D

With full berserker gear and trait is thief sentenced to use the bow or pistil no melee weapons

Remind me of this in a few months and sure. I’m currently on a laptop that barely runs the game at 40/50 FPS. Running any recording program on top of it would kill it.

If the target isn’t moving (like in PvE) then the focus phantasm is the hardest hitting. In practice, in most PvP situations, it’ll be Greatsword’s berserker followed by staff’s warlock (with almost no conditions) and pistol’s duelist. Staff’s warlock has the chance to hit ridiculously high if the enemy is stuffed full of conditions though.

Nordic Natedog.4360:

That would make zero sense. The first hit for iWarden on the gate is just over 200, that would mean the next hit would be double that and so on. This is simply not the case when iWarden attacks. In my experience, I have seen the numbers go up, but they aren’t in some sort of addition progress but rather what looks like a variable addition to each attack that hits. In this case it was like 210, 232, 249, 269, … to 413.

Then you’re seeing things wrong, or factoring hits on multiple targets (which target has his own counter). The damage you see at the end of the multi-hitting attacks is the sum total of the attack.

It would be hilarious if it wasn’t though. A Warrior’s hundred blades would insta-gib champions and 3 shot legendary mobs and Ranger’s rapid fire would one shot any player.

Evilek.5690:

I’m not dying in dungeons, I’m just saying it frustrating that I must to go to full tank build and others class can play with berserker gear and traits.

Thief has low HP and low armor.

Your words, not mine. You’re having issues surviving with a full bunker build, and it is, according to you, impossible to survive with full berserker. To which I say – you’re doing it wrong. Very, very wrong.

All ranger shouts suck dongs. That’s why intelligent players don’t use them for the most part. Hint hint.

Evilek.5690:

I play with full defensive utilities,18k HP and 2.7k armor and barely survive in dungeons.
With full berserker gear is imposible play dungeons.

Other class with full berserker gear and traits farm all dungeons.

You’re doing something horribly wrong… I used my thief in dungeons when he was lvl 75, with kittenty gear, and a terrible build (for dungeons) without sword and I did decently enough.

That said, OP if you’re almost entirely PvE then it’s practically mandatory to try one of the “holy three” of PvE: Mesmer, Guardian and Warrior. Warrior is, by far, the easiest thing to level and PvE with in the world. Mesmer and Guardian will give you a bit more variety and are also quite easy to play. Out of the tree, Mesmer is probably the hardest to level (which still isn’t very hard) as it is the most build-dependent.

Suburbian.1023:

But as a warrior you have a trait skill that gives you +40 precision per unused signet. Doesn’t it matter then if i discard one signet?

That’s why you only change around level 60/65. See, the critical chance each point of precision gives you changes with your level , but the fury from FGJ always grants a flat 20%. At early levels the +40 precision from Deep Strikes for one signet will grant you more than 20% critical chance, but at later levels that same bonus will grant you considerably less critical chance. IIRC, around levels 60/65 is when it starts being worth more to sacrifice one signet for the temporary 20% critical chance bonus from fury.

As Ajaxx said, Signet build is good for all of leveling. Around lvl 60/65 you might want to switch one of the signets for “For Great Justice”, but other than that, you can worry about a proper build once you’re lvl 80.

The biggest issue warriors have is specifically PvP. s/tPvP, where, due to the nature of the mode, their lack of sustain becomes very obvious.

In WvW they’re not “top tier”, and they have issues ANet should (and hopefully will) fix, but they’re hardly unusable.

Rifle, specifically, is quite useful in WvW, and a weapon my warrior rarely goes into the mists without.

I’m currently using a sword/axe + Shield with a Rifle on switch build, but I’m thinking of trying a more rifle based build – go for Burst Mastery for those 8 second cooldown killshots.

The biggest thing to remember with the rifle is that it’s a “yomi” weapon. Both killshot and Volley can be avoided if just used “head on”. The trick is to bait your enemy into burning their defensive cooldowns (faking out killshot is amazing at it), then burning them down once they’re out of defenses. Don’t be afraid to miss volley, it has a low enough cooldown when traited to be spammed.

Also remember that both killshot and volley are channels. So they will track targets through stealth. If you think a thief/mesmer are about to stealth, especially if they’re out of rolls, go nuts.

As a warrior you do better in groups (even small groups) than solo-roaming.

Stooperdale.3560:

Wow that burning pitch is really misleading if it has the same icon as regular fire.

….Wrong thread…?

Stooperdale.3560:

Make it a champion karka and the thief gets rolled over. This is the heart of the problem. Boons based classes get full benefits when fighting champions. Thieves get effectively no defense by putting conditions on champion mobs (except cripple). This makes thieves a dodge based class and we only get the same endurance bar as other classes.

Thieves can and should survive against groups of trash mobs.

I’m sorry but this is utter bullkitten… If this is true for you then it’s your fault cause you’re using a crappy build for PvE or you’re facetanking everything…

Hell, my current PvP/WvW build (currently what I’m also using for PvE because… it’s PvE, it’s easy) is dodge based and I can maintain near permanent dodging nearly indefinitely. Between flanking strike, dodge rolls, withdraw, roll for initiative, slightly over 50% uptime on Vigor and high initiative regen I’m dodging nearly every second and healing every 15 if need be. Between that, stunbreakers and boon ripping I can solo anything bellow a champion karka without an issue. Even a champion Karka I can probably solo, but it’s not worth the time it would take, and a mistake could be fatal (like any other class really – you’re not supposed to solo champions).

The small karkas are stupid easy for any class as they telegraph their one really dangerous move (the spinal barrage). The bigger Karkas also generally telegraph their most dangerous moves (like the male vet’s roll) and the most dangerous thing they have is their boons (particularly retaliation), which, as a thief, you’re more than equipped to strip instantly and without issues.

There’s a lot of complaining about Thieves in PvE, but honestly they’re in the exact same boat as every other non “holy trinity” class (warriors, guardians and mesmers). They’re perfectly good at it if you build them appropriately, but why bother when the PvE content specifically targets the things those 3 specific classes are best at?

The biggest issue most thieves have is that they’re stubborn and keep trying to use their PvP build in PvE. Your stereotypical “assassin” PvP role does not fit PvE. You have other tools. Adapt or perish.

Dual.8953:

I think our problem isn’t so much survivability as it is our overall lack of group utility. Why take a thief when other classes can keep themselves and their party alive at the same time?

Why take anything other than 3 or 4 GS Warriors and a Guardian and/or Mesmer?

Again, not a class balance issue as much as a PvE design issue.

Edit: If you’re not speedrunning or anything, just want to be able to do dungeons decently, take a sword. Much better at PvE.