I use it for PvE a lot. It’s just a stupidly convenient way to acquire fury with a side of might. As a bonus it also gives everyone else the same buffs, so it’s hard to find a better choice of skill in PvE.
In PvP my build requires skill that aren’t “For Great Justice”, so I have to give up the nearly perma fury.
If there is some sort of “unspoken code” then I never heard of it nor do I give much of a kitten. I run it in PvE because, as I expect is the case for most people, it’s just stupid good. There is no point in “synchronizing” them anyways. They stack. So you can’t really “override” each other.
Yes. Sigils are active on the offhand as well. So if you have both, you get +5% crit and +5% damage.
I see many people hating on RNG.
BUT..
Life is based on RNG. Your conception was RNG. Out of 375 million sperm cells, one only get to fuse with one eggcell and formed you.
1/375000000. that’s still worse than the mystic forge.
Life also has no magic, no respawns, etc. But do let me know the next time you walk outside, gut a mystical creature and have it drop random loot.
No one here ever mentioned using only frenzy HB and nothing else.
Slotting frenzy/HB doesn’t magically disable every other weapon, skill or utility you have slotted.
But we’re not talking about the warrior in general. We’re not talking about a solid build that happens to have HB and frenzy. We’re talking about HB-centric builds. Builds designed specifically to deliver HB. If you have an otherwise solid build that happens to use both a greatsword and frenzy, and the opportunity presents itself, go right ahead. Of course. But a build designed around HB entirely sucks by default. See above.
It’s also not true Warrior cannot engage>spike>disengage.
Savage leap in -> burst -> WA+Rush away does exactly this.
Actually it covers a longer distance than shadowstep and doesn’t even take an utility slot.
If you add Bull in the scheme it gets even easier.
So you’re running GS+Sword and something… gg, no range. Get kited. “But I got all these leaps!” Cripple/chill. HB builds are made of paper so you can’t tank enough to get in.
Difference being that all of those are dashes while shadowstep is an instant double-stun breaker blink. And thieves have things like readily available stealth with condition removal, swiftness with every roll and shortbow’s #5…
You tell others to not embarass themselves and you don’t even know these basic things,
You’re comparing dashes with blinks. I rest my case.
going around to claim Warrior can’t get in/out at will, claiming frenzy/GS locks a Warrior into one skill…
Lol.
No mate, glass HB builds can’t “get in and out at will”. Not alive at least. Especially in team settings which is what PvP/WvW is. A bunker build, maybe… But a bunker build is not an HB build. Even then you don’t “get in and out at will”.
Let me clarify something again: we’re talking about HB-centric builds. Not builds that happen to have HB and frenzy. HB-centric builds are, by definition, glass cannons, so you can get the desired “insta-gib” out of it. Even if they are not absolute glass cannons, they are definitely more glass then not. As glass cannons they can’t trade blows. They need to leverage their damage. A lot of viable glass cannons do this by guaranteeing the initiative, they guarantee themselves the first strike, either through range (which you don’t have without rifle or bow), or stealth (which the warrior does not have).
An HB build needs to do this by sheer brute force: by guaranteeing they land HB, and therefore overpower the difference in defense. However, HB is a long kitten channel, so in order to land a significant HB you simply need to fulfill too many conditions to be reliable. You’re better off doing a spike build that doesn’t rely on HB. You get more bang for your buck.
Pretty sure PlanetSide2 is doing fabulously.
Is it? It seemed to have taken quite a hit last time I was there. Population across servers dwindled… Great game, mind you, but it had some serious issues.
If you like it that much, you should give TERA a try. They just went Free2Play.
Eh… It’s not the same. Tried Tera recently, and while I’m still hanging around while the “new toy smell” lasts, it’s nowhere near GW2… In fact I often find myself wondering “why am I not playing GW?”, and coming back here.
Every class can build bunker. A bunker of any class will always be tankier than a non-bunker of any other class. Stands to reason.
Necros are phenomenal bunkers because of the way the class works. Warriors can build bunkers too and they get innately higher armor ratings because of the heavy vs. light armor. Either ways, Warrior is the more offensive of the “heavy” options, with Guardians being the more defensive choice. The “heavy” armor only means you get innately higher damage mitigation, which is always an advantage.
This isn’t a “WARRIOR IS OP!” issue. This is a game design issue. Currently PvE is designed around Tank N’ Spank. Simply put Warrior and Guardian are the two classes that excel at it. Thus the current “perfect” instance set up: Triple warriors, one guardian.
They’re not OP. They just do their job right, and the PvE design overly emphasizes their job… Take for example Conditions vs. Power in PvE. In PvP the difference is perfectly simple: Power cuts through unarmored targets faster, conditions are better are killing heavy armor. There is balance. PvE mobs have very little armor. Their tankyness, when it exists, generally comes from their massive HP pools, emphasizing power in detriment of conditions. When they do have some form of mitigation it comes in the form of global damage mitigation, generally associated with the completion of some task. It’s not armor, it’s global damage reduction that also affects conditions, that needs to be removed through some task (like the Berserker in HotW that needs to be driven against a wall to lose his damage semi-immunity).
Thus, while in PvP Power and Conditions are overall balanced, with different situations favoring different choices depending on the target, in PvE Power > Conditions, because there simply aren’t significant situations that favor Conditions.
This is the same for many other areas of the game. With the current end game design being geared almost exclusively towards “Tank N’ Spank” warriors and guardians are it.
Quit trolling, all spike builds are “one-trick ponies”.
It’s not like you can use more than “one trick” in the 1-2 seconds window you are meant to spike the target in – that’s the whole point of spiking.
There is no shame in bursting targets it’s a strategy like any other, and a very effective one, guess you never played GW1.
All builds are built around one trick ponies.
Mesmers – mind wrack
Rangers – trap
wars- 100blades
thieves- backstab
engi -100 nades
guards- spin to winExcept for condi and sustained builds, all bursts are built around some 1 high damage combo.
Come on guys, don’t embarrass yourselves… There’s a very significant difference between have a trick and relying entirely on that trick. The problem isn’t being a spike damage build. It’s being a spike damage build relying on a single trick dependent on way to many conditionals.
Yes, most Warrior builds use Frenzy. Others use Bull’s Charge. Some use both. Yes, they’re very useful and, like any build, you’re weaker when one of your skills isn’t available. That’s why active skills have cooldowns. No, there’s a gigantic difference between being weaker when one of your skills isn’t available, and being completely useless. Hell, my warrior uses Frenzy. But I don’t rely entirely on one chain, and even if my Frenzy gets burned I’m still a threat and I still have survivability. At no point do I rely entirely on having it off cooldown (along with one or two more skills at the same time) to get a single target kill or be even the slightest bit relevant.
When you build a HB set up you build glass cannon, so you rely entirely on dumping the massive damage of the HB to make up for the fact that you can’t take a punch in return. You win a battle by killing them faster than they kill you. Except HB is an extremely immobile long channel. This is fine for PvE – AI doesn’t dodge. In PvP any player will just take a step to the side and rearrange your anus if you don’t set it up. So you need to set it up so your target can’t move for the entirety (or at least gross majority) of the channel, otherwise you can’t win. You can’t trade blows cause you’re paper thin. You need HB to leverage that in your favor. I’ve discussed above your methods for doing so, but, in short, given the length of the HB channel, the only methods you have to ensure a significant HB payload cripple you more significantly in every other area.
In short: It’s not about being a spike damage build. It’s about being a BAD spike damage build. If you want that you’re better off building a Thief. They’re designed to do what you’re trying to do: Get in, spike it, get the kitten out. They have the tools to do that right. You don’t. HB is not designed for PvP.
As others have explained, “disabled” is what’s known in other games as “hard CC” – things that temporarily remove your ability to control your character. Mostly this means Stun and Knockdowns (which, for all intents and purposes, count as a form of stun). In theory it should also include Fears, but I’m not sure.
Need more information. There are plenty of ways you could be “insta-gibbed”. Glitchy fall damage, downed penalty, quick insta-gib chains from bosses (or high burst ones coupled with downed penatly), known waypoint and skill-related glitches… etc.
Gonna need some context before I can try and extrapolate a reason.
It doesn’t suck.
Yes it does. It’s great for leveling up, particularly till 50/60. You can keep it for leveling purposes up to level 80 since, who cares, it’s PvE and you’re a warrior, just faceroll it. After that, and for any practical purposes, it’s a trash build.
The bonuses signets (and Deep Strikes) give are ludicrous at low levels, but they scale extremely poorly, becoming nearly meaningless at level 80. On top of that the bonuses and actives you get will be all over the place with few having a significant impact by themselves.
So yes, they do suck.
As most warriors know, Hundred Blades is a great way to quickly get your target’s health completely or most of the way down.
No it isn’t. You know why? Cause of the very reason you mentioned: you can’t hit it. In PvE the mobs just run at you and stay in your Hundred Blades to be minced. In PvP a decent player will just take a step to the side and maul you.
A skill can do a billion damage… If you can’t land it, it’s useless.
There are basically 2 ways to land a full HB, neither are worth it: “cheese” build, and setting it up with a different weapon set.
The first includes the “noob slayer” “cheese” build: Bull’s Charge + Frenzy>HB. This is exactly what it sounds like: a noob stomper. You burn 2 long cooldowns for a single kill, that only works if the enemy has no stun breaker or “safety net”, and is alone or nobody is paying attention. You cause the long knockdown with the Bull’s Charge, which is just long enough for a full Hundred Blades with Frenzy on.
The obvious flaws are that a) it’s a one trick poney, completely reliant on a loon cooldown setup that can be broken; b) only works if the target has no backup, otherwise you get mauled before you can finish them; c) requires you to build “all in” offensive, which means you have kitten all in terms of survival; and d) it’s extremely single target.
If you don’t have Bull’s Charge and Frenzy ready, you’re good for roughly nothing. If you DO land it you get to kill the one target and run away (or die). If someone breaks your combo (by interrupting you, dodging or getting rid of the stun) that’s it, show’s over. If the enemy has any allies around you will take a ludicrous beating since you’re made of wet tissues, particularly given that Frenzy debuffs you to take 50% extra damage (you can mitigate that with Feel no Pain, but then you’re burning 3 long kitten cooldowns just to get one kill, and you’re likely to die right after). If you can’t sneak in and nobody overextends you’re gonna have a tough time surviving long enough to even charge someone. If someone gets the initiative on you your chances of survival are grim… etc.
Still, if the enemy is caught off guard and alone, and/or doesn’t know better, it can quickly leave a less experienced player wondering what the hell just ran him over. And at least with this setup you get to keep a ranged weapon.
The other option is to have a second setup with a long stun/immobilize, like Hammer, Mace, Sword or Shield. The other obvious problem here is that you’re sacrificing any ranged options just for a weapon switch setup. It’s a bit safer than the above, since you’ll have more stun-related options to start the chain, but is still hardly reliable. Most setups still require Frenzy (either to land the full HB or to land the initial stunner/immobilizer), you’re still burning everything to kill one person and now you have no range on top of it, so you’re extremely vulnerable to range and kiting.
All in all, don’t bother with Hundred Blades for PvP/WvW. If you’re using a Greatsword, take it when you can get it (when someone gets chain-cced), but don’t bother making an entire build around it. It’s not worth the trouble. You have way more reliable and safer ways to burst someone down as a Warrior.
(edited by ProxyDamage.9826)
For PvE, Greatsword. Simply because of hundred blades. AI doesn’t dodge it, and a full HB to the face is arguably the single highest damage dealer in the game.
Axe has higher auto-attack and “mobile” damage.
First question: What are you aiming for? PvE, PvP, WvW?
In PvE, full glass cannon GS build warrior works well, if you know how to use it. In PvP/WvW it’s junk.
In PvE you can easily line up mobs for full hundred blades, and most of the hardest hitting attacks in the game are telegraphed, so they’re easy to dodge.
In PvP/WvW you can’t rely on people just standing in front of you in your HB attacking like Orrians. They’ll dodge, break stuns, CC you, kite you… etc. You can try the “cheese” build (catch someone running away>bull charge> frenzy + Hundred Blades), but honestly it’s a long cooldown, “one-trick poney” of a gimmick that only works in a very specific scenario, and is quickly destroyed by good players or by just having more than 1/2 clueless enemies around.
Which isn’t to say glass cannon builds can’t work in PvP/WvW, but you gotta keep in mind that you ARE paper thin, and account for it in your build. I.e.: Not the PvE HB-cheese build.
Either ways, I strongly recommend at least one ranged option (longbow or rifle depending on your build). Having range is just way too valuable in this game, in PvE or PvP.
Personally, since I’m big on the WvW aspect of the game, I’m running a half-berserker, half-knight build with rifle and axe/shield.
PVT gear is generally “starting point/middle of the road” gear. Simply because you have better offensive and defensive options. It’s more than serviceable for PvE, or just to “join in” WvW though.
Then again, maybe someone out there made a build that truly abuses whatever potential there is in Soldier’s… Who knows. Gear choice is terribly build-specific.
Wait…what?
Skills:
Consume Conditions – Removes ALL conditions – 25 second cd
Putrid Mark – Transfers ALL conditions from you to the enemy that triggered it (Unblockable and large AoE if you’re using Greater Marks, which you have to if you’re using the staff). – 25 seconds cd.
Deadly Swarm – Transfer up to 3 conditions to the enemy. – 18 seconds cd.
Plague Signet – Transfer your conditions to an enemy – 60 seconds cd.
Well of Power – Convert one condition per tick into a boon – 60 second cd.
Life Blast (Underwater) – Transfer one condition per attack to the enemy – no cooldown/auto-attack.
Traits:
Spite: III – Spiteful Removal - When you kill a foe you lose three conditions.
Death Magic: VI – Shrouded Removal – Lose a condition when you enter death shroud.
Blood Magic: XI – Fetid Consumption – Minions draw conditions. Each minion can draw one condition every 10 seconds.
Most classes would kill to have HALF of those options.
Arah explorable is the hardest dungeon in the game outside of high level Fractals, so, SE.
That said, consider buying the gear as well. I don’t know what look you’re going for, but if it’s not the SE look specifically you might have an easier time buying crafted gear as well, instead of relying entirely on dungeon runs. You can change the looks latter with Fine Transmutation Stones. You can make some nice coin running the dungeons, so you can convert some of it into extra gear to speed things up.
Not to be a dick, but how do you take 3 hours for story mode dungeons…? Most of them take up to 1 hour for first runners… Less if you have someone in your party that has done it before and gives you tips on the less linear parts. All you need is a solid build, a modicum of reflexes, and some basic knowledge of fundamentals: Know what your skills do, don’t have dead weight in the party, don’t pull more agro than you can deal with, etc.
By dead weight I don’t mean “non-optimal players!!”. I mean actual dead weight. Yesterday I was doing Caudecus Manor story with a couple of friends (one of them lvl 45) and we picked up 2 randoms. One of them was pretty standard, no complaints, but one of them was roughly as useful as a migraine. Some level 45-ish Elementalist whose entire contribution can best be surmised as: Run in > do nothing, or worse – pull agro like an idiot > die. Fortunately 2 of us were fully exotic level 80s (me on a warrior and a friend on a Guardian), our other friend is also a really good player just leveling an alt, and the other random pulled their own weight well enough, so we breezed through it, simply facepalming at the eejit, but that one guy was actually making the whole thing harder than it needed to be. If you’re with a lower level party, that guy could have been the difference between a normal run and a 3 hour run.
I guess the fundamental tips are to know your character (know and use all the tolls you have available), have a solid build (doesn’t have to be min-max perfect, just make sure it actually works, not “condition damage greatsword warrior!!” or “power build scepter necro!”, and don’t rush in “zerg style”. Take your time to read each mob’s info and what they do, and consider a strategy before attacking. If there are many enemies, consider just pulling a few at the time with ranged weapons instead of rushing right into them.
It also helps if you’re doing them with friends on some VOIP program, like skype or something, so you don’t have to stop to write once you notice something everyone else hasn’t noticed yet.
Goodluck.
Also, people have alt’s to run through the story mode to. Did arah last night and we moved through it really fast and it was a pug.
Just a side note but Arah Story Mode is arguably the easiest dungeon in the game. Also the most underwhelming. It only takes as long as it does because of some really cheap “time burners”, like the ships moving so incredibly slow you can play a second game on the background while you wait.
The complete opposite of Arah Explorable, which is by far the hardest of the dungeons.
It is easier because I don’t need to go back up the stairs or the panels since we can kill it in one go. Less risk of dying + faster kill time = easier. However amount of less risk or faster time itll take to kill the boss, that change still amounts to the meaning of “easier”. Is it as noticeable? Maybe not, but for groups who used to take 2-3 drop downs to only needing 1, thats a 100-200% risk increase of having someone make a mistake.
And, as I said, if you forced them to do it 1000 times then the probability of someone eventually kittening up once goes up. The actually challenge and difficulty didn’t. Not to mention you didn’t actually need to go up and down. With pugs I usually just did it 3-2: 3 people spamming the cannons and 2 DPSing. Boring, but completely risk free.
UNsigned.
This is a step in the right direction. Corpse running shouldn’t be an option. If anything they might need to rebalance or even remake some areas of some dungeons now (like they did with CoF path 2, which is much better now), but that’s nothing if not another step in the right direction.
I just hit level 40 and I’m a bit lost. I don’t know much about Necromancer and it’s not very straight forward to figure out by just looking at traits, weapon skills, utility skills, and such.
Er… Yes it is? They all tell you exactly what they do…? And it’s not like this game’s PvE is particularly hard or punishing. I leveled my necro to 75 with a lvl 40 staff (green one, mind you), lvl 20-30 accessories (blues and greens) and “whatever best power/condition damage gear I could find” for my armour, which rarely kept up to level. Still took on, and completed, content over my level. Hell, I only noticed I still had a lvl 40 staff when I started to wonder why it was taking me so long to kill veterans at lvl 70.
Now for your specific questions:
• Does condition damage start doing notable damage by 40? I’m most interested in a the Conditionmancer but I’m not sure when to start trying for it. I’m also open to the power burst build and the other notable one that I can’t name right now.
Conditions do good damage from level 1 if you know how to use them (i.e.: stack bleeds). However, conditions are designed as an anti-tank mechanic: They deal less burst/DPS than raw power attacks, but bypass armor completely. Thus they deal considerably more damage to heavily armored targets and less to unarmored targets.
In PvP conditions are invaluable to take down bunkers, who are traditionally heavily armored targets.
On the other hand this points towards a noticeable design flaw in PvE: monsters don’t have a lot of kittening armor.
Tanky monsters are tanky because they have a billion hitpoints to wade through, not because they have noticeable damage mitigation… I might be wrong here, but I haven’t noticed a lot of armored targets in PvE at least. Most of the ones with significant damage mitigation aren’t really using high armor, but instead some boss-specific mechanic you gotta counter in a specific way, and will otherwise massively reduce ALL damage, conditions included.
In the end this means that raw power builds generally kill monsters in PvE faster than conditions. Conditions can still do good damage mind you, but not as much as a raw power build.
• What traits and trait lines do you think will be best for this area? Up until now I just put everything in Death Magic and Blood Magic because they benefited my weapon skills the best.
Thing you gotta realize about trait lines is that the actual stat increase they give you is, for the most part, relatively marginal later on. Most of your stats come from your gear, not your traits. As such, you generally trait into areas that have the minor and major traits you’re looking for, and not because of the specific stats they might give you. Those are just a bonus.
What traits you pick, on the other hand, depend entirely on what kind of build you’re going for. Are you going for a power build? A condition build? What about skills? Focusing more on Corruptions, Wells, Spectrals, Minions…? All the skills tell you what they do, so you gotta think about what you want to build and then pick traits and skills that have the adequate synergies.
• I’m mostly a PvE/Dungeon player (dungeon master with 2 characters at 30+ Fractals). What build do you think works best in PvE and Dungeons?
I’ll leave this one for more PvE inclined players. All I’ll say is that power generally gets you better DPS, conditions generally get you better utility.
I run a bit of an hybrid, using power on wells and condition damage on marks and scepter/dagger( or focus) on switch. I find my build quite successful, but then again I’m more of a PvP player. Not a Dungeon Master nor do I do a lot of fractals. So “mileage may vary”.
• I rather like Staff more than anything. Is this viable for any build or am I going to be limited to the one-handed weapons?
Staff is an extremely good weapon to have as a necro, regardless of build, in my book. It is a weapon that synergizes mostly with condition damage, but with power as well, offers good life force generation, good control of a fight through everything being AoE: auto-attack pierces, AoE bleed+regen for allies, AoE chill + poison, a free AoE “ALL conditions” transfer (not just remover) that works not just for you but your team mates as well, AoE fear… It’s also the only long range weapon the Necro has.
All in all, while it’s not a perfect weapon (the staff’s auto attack is a massive dongsicle against fast and erratically moving targets), and it’s definitely not mandatory, it is quite useful.
I honestly do not understand the change to the daily’s. Before I just played, if I happened to hit my daily accomplishment, great! It was something of a reward, nothing I really paid attention to though.
Now though we have a list to tick off, gotta make sure I get that box checked!
…Why? Nothing happens if you don’t… They didn’t add a punishment for not completing dailies. They just added better rewards for those that do complete them.
Are you honestly so feeble minded that just having a check box forces you to do something you didn’t want to?
If you don’t want to do the thing then don’t. The exact same thing happens now that happened before: nothing.
“Everyone can tank”
Just a note: I’m pretty sure that when they said “everyone can tank” they meant “every class”. You still gotta make a tanky build if you wanna tank, that just stands to reason… you gotta play to your class’s mechanics…
I don’t remember any boss in Caudecus Manor, story or explorable, that will 2 shot a bunker ranger. Of course, most rangers don’t build into bunker. What’s your actual build? Having defensive gear and fully offensive traits doesn’t make you a tank in any way…
Easier doesnt mean hard before. If i find something easy, then they patch it, and i find it easier, at no point was it even hard.
Joke boss refers to the fact that you can kill him in one jump down now when it used to take 2-3 AT BEST. Ive seen people die more times cause they dont know how to get back up w/o dying pre patch than post patch cause now theres less risk of dying from going back up if he’s already dead.
But it’s not any easier now. It’s just less boring and repetitive.
And yes, if you forced people to repeat it 500000 times then you’d find a lot more people would die during that event. It still wouldn’t be harder as a challenge. Just more repetitive. And the more you repeat something the higher the chance that someone will eventually kitten up once.
A lot of the “bosses” in the dungeons were never really challenging to begin with, just grindy and boring. I’m glad they’re reviewing them and, at least, making them less tedious meanwhile.
Everyone derives enjoyment from this game in different ways. Your method seems to be belittling how others find that enjoyment.
Oh heavens no. My method is actually quite the opposite: If your method of enjoying the game can only exist through limiting other player’s enjoyment, then your method can go kitten itself.
I.e.: It’s not legitimate to say that other players shouldn’t have different ways of accessing certain content (that you’re not forced to use) because that somehow makes it less enjoyable for you that they’re also enjoying the same content.
But this isn’t actually what the thread is about, as we’ve discussed. The thread is about Fractal Weapons not having a salvage warning. Just wanted to clear that up that misunderstanding.
Yea bro, my 15 min guide run where we kill him in 3 cycles before the patch definitely means I thought he was hard :ugh:
Apparently reading isn’t your strong suit huh, “those people” usually doesn’t mean yourself.
> “So Evolved Destroyer is a joke boss now”
> Implying it wasn’t a joke boss before.
> Implying it’s easy now, not before.
This thread is so off topic, i dont know what to comment on. The actual thread initial post content, or what its become
Actually you’re completely right. Apologies on the complete off topic, it’s just one of those things I honestly can’t understand.
Yes, Salving Fractal Weapons, like any other exotic, should come with a warning.
There’s a way to stop dealing with speed runs: Don’t join them.
This.
When you’re looking for a party specifically request non-speedruns. Problem solved.
Rewards that show you did something.
…Won the RNG mini-lottery? That’s an achievement? If you really wanted something that showed achievement, that in any way reflected any form of “skill” of any kind instead of luck, wouldn’t you prefer the weapon to be sold for fractal relics? Cause that would, at least, show people you’ve done a certain amount of fractals. As a random drop all it shows is “I got lucky on a drop”. Gg…?
It does distinguish you from others.
I thought the fact that you achieved whatever it is you’re proud of distinguishes you from others. A few weeks ago, for a little while, I rallied my server under my command despite the fact that I’m not a commander (we had no commander available) and gained some significant ground for our world while outnumbered. That’s an achievement I’m proud of. I don’t see the need for an item or achievement tab saying “you did this!”. I know I did. I was there.
That’s also how I remember people worth remembering. I remember the victories Commanders like Disapoohval and Juvez have organized. I remember the massive abject failures of other less apt/intelligent commanders (whom I won’t name due to “name and shame” rules). I don’t remember anyone for an item they had. Nor do I know anyone that is remembered for their gear. Sometimes me and my friends might comment when we see a weapon we don’t see often, like a legendary, but it’s always a passing note on the item, never on the person. I can not remember a single time we even read the name of the person using the weapon in question, let alone remember or “distinguish” it.
So no, I still don’t get how it would “taint” the weapon in any way. Your gear does not distinguish you in the least, least of all RNG-based gear.
The rest of my post assumes you’re talking about story mode.
CM story is certainly not impossible for lvls 45s. I know because I’ve done it. It is, however, disproportionately hard given most other story modes at their respective levels.
On the one hand part of me is thinking “yeah, tune it down a bit so it’s a bit more leveled with other dungeons”.
On the other hand, it is a completely optional dungeon. Nobody said you HAD to do it at level 45 (it’s easy at level 80), it is possible at level 45, and it’s not a bad idea to have optional challenges in the game with different levels of difficulty.
So, you know, I’m fine with either.
You make them buyable and suddenly every low level fractal player grinds them out. They’d be everywhere.
Ok, I gotta be “that guy” here: Who gives a kitten? You should be concerned about how you acquire it, not anyone else. How do other people’s weapon choice affect your own? Are you one of those vacuous “jet-set” cows to whom someone else wearing the same dress to a party is a life changing trauma? Cause those are the people that don’t acquire things because they like them, but because they feel small and impotent, and see in these items a vicarious path to some sort of relevance: “Look at the thing I have and you don’t! Aren’t you jealous of the thing? Doesn’t matter what the thing is! It could be an aeroplane or a fresh kitten It only matters that I have it, and you don’t!”. That is one kittening sad way to just drag on existence in my book…
I’m sorry, and maybe I’m the weirdo here, but this is an argument I hear all the time for various things and I just don’t get it. I pick these skins based on whether or not I like them. If I like them I’ll like them just as much whether they’re 5 cooper a piece and everyone has one or if they’re legendary, worth 5k gold, and I’m one of only 4 people with them. The visual and aesthetic properties I found pleasing don’t change in any way based on whether more or less people own the item…
If you have a legitimate argument I’m ready to hear it. If your argument is “because I don’t want other people to have it too!” then I couldn’t give less of a kitten and I can only hope that’s the kind of kitten that’s never even remotely considered during the game’s development.
So, a fight that was easy and boring is now just easy…
Yeah, I can totally see how much worse it is now.
Not actual kill stealing per se, but things like someone stealing aggro from a mob when you are trying to get your dodges in, or stealing a player or npc that you are trying to heal for the daily. It’s getting ugly out there.
“Stealing” implies previous possession. You don’t own the mob/npc you’re “dodge/heal farming”. They’re not doing anything against the rules. They killed your mob? Get a new one. And I’m not entirely sure how they can “steal” a revive… but whatever.
Other players aren’t forced to play the way you want. Deal with it.
+1 for roughly anything that isn’t the current 2 traits in those spots. Particularly kittening Reanimator…
I didn’t refute the listed behaviors because if he had paid attention to how the jagged horrors behave he would see that it doesn’t do any of those things.
Right. Either you’re doing this out of ignorance or stubbornness. Either ways, whatever shred of legitimacy you might have had in this argument has flown out the window the second you tried to deny demonstrable facts.
And that’s “GG”.
The “ultimate” feel and long CD’s were by design. The real problem with elites is that most of them are lame, with some notable exceptions. The ones that are good are really good, but the rest kitten.
This. If you’re making a warrior you know which elite you’re picking from the start. Most characters have at least one useless lump of an elite.
I was just curious if condition damage is better then precision..
I will start replacing pieces just curious about the above
Depends entirely on your build…
“Mix and match” seems like the answer here.
@ProxyDamage.9826 in an ideal word yes but aknockback & you can forgeth your cast chain.
Hard CC is annoying, yes… It’s annoying for everyone. It doesn’t really destroy my entire game though, just slows me down a bit. Woopity-freaking-doo.
Edit: By that I mean a single knockback. If you mean chain-cc, yeah, that can kill you before you can react…. Which is the same for every single class! You either equipped a stun breaker beforehand or tough kitten. My Necro isn’t particularly vulnerable to it. If anything he can survive longer chains.
Im sorry what?
(looks even more kitten in white, dark red, silver)
I’m sorry, but I’m not sold. AND you’re not using the full thing. The full set looks like a raggedy stove with legs. Or a 15 year old kid’s idea of “cool”: LOOK, IT HAS FIRE AND FLAMES! IT’S AWESOME! EPIC!
Individual pieces may work, but the full set is an aesthetic disaster.
except for Flame Legion armor that is
I’m sorry but is that Citadel of Flame armour we’re talking about? Cause I’m sorry but that one looks like crap on everyone. No exceptions.
@OP: Human for me. But honestly Necromancer is one of those classes that works for every race.
Everyone levels fairly quickly to be honest… Not sure anyone levels condiderably faster than anyone else.
That said, if you don’t do PvP Mesmer goes right out the window. You’re left with Elementalist and Necro. Necro is better at utility and survivability (in PvE, in PvP they have different means of survivability which are better or worse depending on the situation), Elementalist is better at damage.
“Necro is my fav class to play in WvW. Heavy conditions build + epidemic = chaos.” – says the Necro who never leaves the fort.
This build is only optimal for defensive purposes, in open area battles a necro would absolutely be the first to get ganked.
And not a single kitten would be given.
Oh what’s that? There are 10 people attacking me? BOOM, Deathshroud > #4. Oh you’re all taking damage and doing kitten all in return? Oh but my Deathshroud is going down! Oh wait, Plague! Ah! What’s that? You’re all blinded, crippled and weakened, and hitting something with almost 4k+ toughness and 30k+ health? You’re doing kitten all is what you’re saying? Oh don’t worry, the rest of my team over there is turning to you now. Oh no, my plague is ending!? Whatever will I do!? There are still many of you left! Oh yeah: just stack AoE bleeds, poison, chill, and raw damage through wells, combined with condition removal, boon stripping and vulnerability to everyone! Oh yeah, and everything I do gives me health back! And back to Deathshroud if I need to.
Conclusion: On a good day you’ve shaved up to 50% of my health off, and you all died. GG.
Of course, if I’m alone against 10-15 players I will die, but so will anyone else.
As a Necromancer I laugh at Thieves and “cheese” warriors. In fact, any glass cannon builds are laughable for me. Defensive warriors are a little less laughable, but nothing serious.
Mesmers are more of a game of “whack-a-mole” than a serious threat. Once I spot the real one they have roughly the same chances of a snowball in an industrial oven.
Rangers and Engineers are just bumps on the road.
Guardians vary a lot. A really good guardian is a pain, and we’ll probably end up standing there with burned cooldowns looking at each other going “yeah….”. Mediocre or poorly built guardians just get kicked in the head for laughs.
Elementalists are annoying. A good elementalist with all cooldowns unlocked can be dangerous if you’re not careful, as they can unload a surprising amount of damage quickly. But then again you can do the same to them. On open map their ability to run away is countered by your ability to CC and freeze them, it being a game of “who uses their skills at the better time”. Near keeps they’re immortal so just take care to avoid or mitigate their burst and they’re forced back inside.
The downside is that you don’t have a lot of plain escape mechanisms or raw damage. You’re not gonna kill anything other than glassy builds very quickly, and if you find yourself in the middle of impossible odds you can only pray for the zerg to ignore you, at which point you can just survive 1 or 2 guys chasing you, or buy as much time for the rest of your team as you can. Comparatively when I’m on my low level thief and I see odds I don’t like, between stealths, swiftnesses, shadowstep and shortbow #5 I can get to the next timezone before the zerg crosses the road.
But yeah, the idea that Necro, in general, is not “equal” to other classes is laughable. Maybe your specific build isn’t. Or maybe you don’t play them well enough.
Since I have been told quite a few times today that “playing the game is not about loot”
Would you still play Guild Wars 2 if they took ALL loot out?
Yes. In fact, if my only reason to play the game ever becomes exclusively “loot” that’s the day I bid you all farewell.
Especially since OP’s question is about traits specifically, I seriously doubt it’s as black and white as depicted above.
Taking Mark as Blood as an example might nicely illustrate your argument, but at the same time it’s conveniently the only mark where the condition/direct damage ratio is so high. One might take Necrotic Grasp or Putrid Mark as examples and come out with the complete opposite conclusion.
Not really. Necrotic Grasp is the auto-attack (as mentioned above). Putrid Mark has an ok scaling, but nothing impressive. Its real use is the condition transfering. As a damage dealer it has way too high cooldown and not enough damage – miserable DPS and low burst. If you’re making a build around a staff exclusively there’s no reason to build power over condition damage. The damage you get on Necrotic Grasp and Putrid Mark if you happen to have Power in your build is just a bonus.
How all these abilities interplay with one another in a real situation is, in my opinion, very hard to judge and I’d welcome any attempt to do so. As such, it is also very hard to judge which one of the two will come out on top. For now though, we could have a look at what governs all abilities separately, (from 1 to 5, thus from low to high cooldown) that is: Power, Condition Damage, Condition Damage, Power, Power. To some approximation, this, for me, suggests that staff was actually designed to scale roughly equally well with both power and condition damage.
And this shows a complete lack of understanding of what the staff is. The staff is a control/support weapon. Its main damage comes from Mark of Blood, but the staff is not a damage weapon. What really makes the staff shine is its utility: AoE Chill ( -66% movement speed and skill cooldown) + poison (heal reduction) on 3; AoE all condition clearing and transferring on 4, AoE Fear on 5. The spammable AoE bleed + poison (+extra condition you should be transferring from yourself with Putrid Mark) + potshots with the auto-attack gives you decent enough damage for AoE, but by and large the staff is not a damage dealer on its own. That said, if you want to scale its damage most of it comes from Mark of Blood anyways, so you scale condition damage.
That all aside though, and remembering that the question was mainly about traits, let’s take a look at Mark of Blood again. As it so happens, Spite does not only increase power but condition duration as well. So if we have to make a choice between 30 Spite or 30 Curses, Mark of Blood would respectively deal 30% (from increase in duration) or 35.3% (300*5%=15 and 15/42.5=35.3%, notice that this goes down A LOT if you have other sources of condition damage) more bleeding damage. I’m pretty sure your increased direct damage overcomes this 5.3% difference (and remember that this is the mark that deals the most condition damage…). In return all your conditions are more effective (including chilled, poison, etc.) and you get more damage out of the rest of your Staff, Wells, Death Shroud, Lich Form, etc. (And for those that would argue duration increase is bad because of 25 bleeding stacks limit: outside of open world PvE, I have very rarely seen 25 stacks of bleeding on a target, let alone it being a real problem.)
Now if you would’ve asked: do I take a Berskerker’s or a Rampager’s Staff, that’s another discussion entirely…
Traits offer neglectful stats for the most part. In this game most of your stats comes from the gear. As such, you trait in whatever trees give you the traits you want to use.
Personally I run a mark+wells necro and I put 0 points in Spite. It’s not worth it. There are too many other traits you need and not enough reward for traiting into spite for my specific build: Greater Marks and Ground Targeted Wells are absolutely mandatory, and Vampiric Rituals (as well as other life syphoning mechanics there) recommended.
Depends on the well and the mark. Most of them do both raw power-based damage and something else as well (condition-based, usually).
Marks tend to scale horribly with power. The direct damage they deal is very low, because marks are used for their conditions and utility. For example, the damage in Mark of Blood comes from the bleed stacks it applies, and not from the laughable damage caused by triggering it. As such Marks scale better with Condition Damage (or nothing at all if you just want them for their utility).
Keep in mind that Staff’s 1 (i.e.: auto-attack) is a normal auto-attack that scales well with power.
Wells, on the other hand, come in 2 “shapes”: damage or utility. Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption deal damage per tick based on power, and scale well with it. Other wells don’t generally deal damage, and instead are used for their utility (blinding and condition removal), so don’t need to scale at all.
In very short terms: Marks > Condition damage. Wells > Power.
Yes, you can always not grind and do absolutely nothing, and that applies to both games. Your definition of optional is really warped. When doing something and quitting are the only two options, then doing something can’t really be considered optional to playing the game. It’s like saying shooting things is optional in call of duty. Yes you can play call of duty without shooting things, you just won’t go anywhere.
When doing something and quitting are the only two options,
…What in the kitten…?
Yeah, I think this says everything I needed to know about you. You’re one of those kids aren’t you? The “Call of Duty” generation. So formatted and creatively barren that the only way you know how to “have fun” is by having the computer constantly flashing “DING! YOU’RE DOING STUFF! HERE’S A … SOMETHING!” at your face. You’re not really having fun mind you, you’re just doing a chore you’ve come to accept as “having fun”. You don’t really care what you’re doing so long as it comes with some arbitrary fireworks saying “atta’ boy!”, “good girl!”. You don’t do things because you like them, you do things for external reward. There’s no trace of intrinsic motivation.
So there’s only grind or quit in this game? What the kitten game are you playing? See, I’m playing GW2. In this game, while there are some end game limitations, there’s definitely things that people can do and enjoy other than kittening grinding.
I’ve personally spent hours just discovering the land. It’s a massive, and fairly detailed at that. You can learn about the land and the people, the lore you could say, read about it in the libraries or talk to the NPCs to learn more about the zone. Exploration is worthwhile on its own in this game.
You also have all the varied instances, which you can do for reasons other than “grinding kittening tokens”. They have a story mode and, while some are more interesting than others, they’re generally interesting enough to explore.
You have WvW, where I’ve personally spent entire days not only exploring the land but my own builds as well. Testing, tweaking, adjusting, rebuilding my builds and strategies. Joining massive zergs or going on small group raids.
You can go to sPvP, which I haven’t fully explored yet. You can do this at any time, with no need for anything even remotely resembling gear or level grind at all, ever. Everyone’s level 80, with everything unlocked, and max stats gear freely available.
You can do jumping puzzles, ranging from “very easy” to “stupid, random and unfair” (kitten you Gryphoon Rook Run), and even some quite clever that involve no jumping at all (<3 to whomever thought of the lab one).
…I could go on, stuff like crafting and playing the market, but I think I made my point. There’s so much kitten you CAN do OTHER than gear grinding. Yes, you can work at acquiring more expensive but better looking gear. I’ve done some of that too, I’m ok with it in moderation, but there’s so much more to do that isn’t that…
If you can’t find anything else to do than “grind or quit”, I’m afraid that’s entirely your fault, not the game’s.
I had someone yell at me because I defended an NPC he was farming for “Healer”. That was pretty disheartening.
Don’t take it personally. Some people are idiots. It’s not personal, they just can’t help it.
I saw some kitten berating a new player yesterday at Diessa Plateau for the exact same thing. Since I happened to be on my lvl 80 fully exotic Necro doing the new living quest thing, I obviously did the only right thing: proceed to mock the idiot and AoE every living thing near the NPC till he kitten off, flipping him the metaphorical finger. And then we all had a laugh… Except the idiot. He was kitten which amused me to no end.
@OP: Whatever floats your boat really. Honestly I haven’t seen the need for it. The daily quest is small enough that I get it while just doing my “normal business”. Doing dungeon runs, going around Orr, attending [Group Event]s, or just walking around the world really… People inevitably make mistakes. Everyone does. Given that an alarming number of people seem to build glass cannons almost exclusively, they also tend to die a lot. Seriously, just go through some events in Orr and you’ll see people drop like flies. Or do some dungeon runs. If you don’t give half a kitten about the dungeon and just want the achievement I recommend Arah.
That said, if you just wanna grab a friend and trade some leaps of faith then go ahead. You’re certainly not hurting anyone. Play however you please.
Haven’t tried it yet. I like the concept, depends on how well it is applied.
I love the concept, so long as the dungeons have been altered accordingly (which they seem to have been).
Stuff like “Protecting Nagg” (or what’s his name) in Citadel of Flame path 2 was just corpse running, which is neither fun or challenging… However if they haven’t changed the challenge to match the new parameters then it’s just impossible to complete now. Simple. Some of the old stuff was just corpse running… Worse, it required corpse running to be doable… If they changed that, which, again, they seem to have, I’m all for the new changes.
(edited by ProxyDamage.9826)
everyone needs to kill enemies and dodge and all that,
Actually no, they don’t.
You can get to level 80 without killing anything, and you can make money by playing the market/crafting. Hell, iirc the first lvl 80 in the game got there mostly through crafting.
So, no, every part of the game is just as valid.