Guild Wars 2

Surprisingly, it has some very specific but useful uses. Soloing waves of veterans/elites which, unlike champions, don’t have defiant, for example.

But for the most part there’s no reason to PvE with anything other than GS, Axe/mace and/or longbow.

That said, I still intent to try a dungeon run with like, 3 or 4 hammer Wars or hammer AND mace warriors, just as a proof of concept, see if we can keep up more stuns/interrupts than Defiant can handle.

Depends. They’re both viable but good at different things. For example, mes is arguably the strongest 1 on 1 class in the game. Their one weakness? Thieves.

In PvE Thieves have higher DPS, and shadow refuge can be incredibly useful in some dungeons, to bypass some tougher parts. Mesmers have some of the best utility in the game (portal, timewarp, veil…), to the point where most serious dungeon runs take 1.

In WvW Thieves are better at roaming, while Mesmers are better as power multipliers in Zergs.

In PvP mesmers are generaly more used as duellers while Thieves are roamers/assassins.

At the end of the day: why choose? Get both.

“Guys, what do I like the most?”

We don’t know.

Curby.4897:

XD You guys are idiots. Do you really think I ment duel axes? HERPA kitten A. Cmon use that brain for something other then trolling. You all know exactly what I ment. Continue.

IDK what the offhand would be for both but on paper it seems like it would just roll over people or lower end dungeons.

Actually I’m pretty sure nobody is really sure what you’re saying cause that garbled mess of a first post was a godkitten disaster area.

My best guess was similar to Vanthian’s: You wanted two axe sets with 100% crit sigils for double eviscerate spam with 100% crit chance. I originally abandoned that idea because it’s stupid. Even if it worked (which it doesn’t – two sets of the same weapon still share cooldown, so if you used one eviscerate the other would also go on cooldown) you’d never catch anyone to try it.

So if that’s not what you meant then maybe you should humble the kitten up and explain it better! And try doing it in English this time.

Carpboy.7145:

I’ve been running something similar, but with hammer instead of Sw/Sh. Its the same traits as the generic hammer build, but it synergies really on allowing easy eviscerates with all the control. Not to mention 43% crit chance, 113% crit dmg, and 3300 armor are a tad OP. i can commonly get 10-15k eviscerate crits on people. Only downside is the low mobility.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAneSjkOFvpOqQMxBA0jrqiL1D7cLuUBxA-j0BBYfCiEHgEBBKzsIasNDFRjVbDTFjIqWGA9FA-w

Sorry but, Hammer and Axe in WvW…? This only works in the middle of a zerg, versus another zerg. You have 0 range and 0 mobility… There’s literally no reason to use axe over sword in a PvP build. Anything other than an NPC is going to kite you to death, or simply turn around and leave you to eat dust.

…wut

15chars

redslion.9675:

to avoid trashtalk.

…wat…?

… You’re intentionally under-performing so some random idiot on the internet doesn’t call you names or something?

…whatever floats your boat I guess…

redslion.9675:

Other than that, I’m trying to make it work in a soldier build in spvp.

That’s because with Blademaster you can still keep a decent crit chance without giving up too much armor. I used it before sword rework, I stopped after buff, now I’ll try it again.

Maybe with Might Stacking to beef up all damage.

Honestly, if you wanna do sword and soldier stats I’d recommend hammer on switch and something like 0/20/20/0/30 (at least 0/20/20/0/20, last 10 points can be moved around at will). That way you can take advantage of unsuspecting foe + Earthshaker to guarantee a 50% crit chance Final Thrust when you land a hammer burst. It’s what I’m running on my War in WvW with great success (although I have mixed stats, not full soldier’s… which you can’t do in sPvP).

Tryanis.2631:

I do love this build. It’s definitely versatile and fun, but only problem in your build. For your build calculator, you set up XI ’ Duel Wielding’ onto the build, which isn’t accessible because we’ve only got 20 points in Strength and it requires 30.. so, possible subsitution?

As the previous poster mentioned, this thread is over a year old. A LOT has changed since then balance wise. This is extremely outdated (for example, I don’t know how it was back when Defektive wrote this, but these days there’s no reason to ever use runes of the Dolyak. They regen they give you is a whooping 30 hp per second. Not even kidding. 30 hp/s… That’s nothing.

When I read “axe burst” I was expecting a stereotypical train-wreck… You know the ones. Built by PvE players who haven’t the slightest clue about anything PvP.

Fortunately, positively surprised. This actually looks like quite a viable, if not forgiving, build. You got the sword shield for mobility and defense, and you have nice setups for Eviscerate and Final Thrust. Thumbs up. Proxy approved.

(Extra kudos if your name is a reference to “The northern wall of Briggs”)

That said, I’m gonna leave you with a small variation I would do, in case you wanna try it out, see how you feel: Here

What I changed and why:

• Missile Deflection > Shield Master : You only have 1 blocking skill (Shield #5). While reflecting a high value projectile is always hilarious and useful, I find that Shield Master is simply more value for your points. This is a very melee oriented meta, not to mention a lot of ranged attacks that can’t be reflected (Mesmer’s GS, Necro’s staff and scepter…). The end result is that while reflecting attacks is useful, it’s less common to get one of those big payoff moments. I find that 20% faster cooldown on Shield bash and the block greatly outweigh the benefits of reflection in most cases. Additionally, since you’re on a full berserker build, those extra 90 toughness really make a difference, since the lower armour value you are at the more any toughness is worth in damage mitigation.

• Warrior’s Sprint + Runes of Lyssa > Signet Mastery + Runes of Divinity : First of all, I think holding on to Signet of Rage simply as a condi clear is “too expensive”. 30 seconds of swiftness, fury and 5 might stacks (175 power and condi damage) is something you wanna have with the highest uptime possible, IMO. You already have decent condi clear through Cleansing Ire + bursts and berserker’s stance, but you have no other source of fury, and no significant source of swiftness. Additionally, whenever you do have swiftness up, that overlaps with the 25% ms bonus, rendering it null.

With that in mind, Signet mastery is absolutely golden for SoR using warriors. 60 seconds become 48. 30 seconds downtime on all 3 boons becomes 18! You sacrifice the permanent 25% ms for a very high uptime on swiftness (33%) with the added bonus of an equally high uptime on fury (so very important on damage builds – that’s 20% more crits on eviscerates and final thrusts!) and 5 might stacks.

Since, in this case, SoR is something you’re gonna pop right before a fight or whenever it’s off cooldown during a fight, I figure I’d remove Runes of Lyssa since you can’t just sit on it for a condi removal. Cue runes of Divinity for more damage and a little extra toughness (every little bit counts in a berserker build). You can choose to keep runes of Lyssa and just have a semi-passive full condi clear every 48 seconds, but I prefer to have divinity in this case.

• Balanced Stance > Dolyak Signet : Since we’re now using Signet Mastery, the cooldown different between BS and DS is only 8 seconds, and DS gives you some super juicy passive 180 toughness… Together with the previous changes this pushes your armor while in sword/shield to a very respectable 2718! That is a huge difference in damage mitigation from the previous 2388. That’s over 15% damage reduction. That’s a lot of effective health, particularly given Healing Signet + Adrenal Health regen.

• Finally, sigil changes: +5% crit chance chance and +5% strength on both weapon sets : the crit chance sigils are to offset the slight loss from runes of lyssa. The Strength sigils, on a build with high crit chance and high multiplier moves, are always a toss up between them and sigil of air/fire. However, given that you rely a lot on 2 very hard hitting moves (Final Thrust and Eviscerate) I think you get more out of sigils of strength than out of air/fire.

Just a suggestion, an alternative for you to consider if you wish.

Good build. Cheers.

nicknamenick.2437:

Furajir.3815:

Final Thrust is great for power builds, quit being silly.

How is it great above 50% health in power/crit build?

Because

1: final thrust is only useful in power/crit build

2: its only useful below 50% health

3: above 50% you deal more doing just auto attack (like I posted it)

…Then do auto-attacks while the target is above 50% health… Use FS while the target is bellow that mark… What’s the problem? Is it hurting your brain that the skill has a specific use instead of just mashing it whenever it’s off cooldown?

FS is an “executioner”/“finisher” move, not a random DPS “press whenever the cooldown is up” button.

@OP: Only buff (or, actually, a fix) I think FS needs is the slight reduction on startup to actually be 0.75 cast time. That’s all. It’s perfect otherwise.

What are we talking about here? PvE or PvP?

For PvE: Not really worth it. Not that you can’t do well with them, but there’s no real reason to use any weapon set in PvE other than GS (Hundred blades + WW), Longbow (High AoE damage) or Axe/Mace (Highest auto-attack damage + vuln stacking).

For PvP: Completely worth it. One of our best 1 hand weapons for condi OR power (or both). Yes, the auto-attack damage is relatively lower than most, but not that much (specially since you attack fast), and your ability to stay on target due to constant cripples, burst immobilize and savage leap means that your “actual DPS” (i.e.: damage you’re going to put on the target) will be much higher than with most other weapons.

Additionally, while Final Thrust is fairly lacking for PvE (not useful on waves of trash mobs, and too high cooldown to “DPS” a big mob) It’s a fantastic “executioner” move in PvP. Get a target bellow 50% and any burst immobilize/shield bash/Earthshaker/whatever CC over 1 second you land gives you a free Final Thrust, which is damage comparable to a full eviscerate.

Additionally, even on a completely no-condition damage build, don’t underestimate the extra damage you get out of the constant stream of bleeds on the sword. Yes, you won’t kill anyone with the bleeds alone if you have no condi damage, but it’s not uncommon to get 5 or 6+ stacks of bleeds on someone while fighting them normally which, at 8 seconds a pop, is still 1700 – 2040 damage if they’re allowed to run their course… It’s not uncommon to see a target trying to run away be finished by the bleeds you didn’t even realize you put on them.

It’s my weapon of choice when running hammer on a warrior. Earthshaker means a free final thrust + a an auto attack or two, and savage leap gives me the mobility hammer sorely lacks.

ashtricks.3072:

need 1 more present to get the achievement.

Then donate… You need the achievement…

I swear, some people…

Conncept.7638:

Ephesus.7291:

Alrite, everything is there except Wintersday 2013 music. But clearly they should be uploading it later, thanks again!

Pretty sure the wintersday theme is exactly the same as it was last year.

As someone who spent quite a lot of hours listening it since last year: it is.

Ashabhi.1365:

I was kind of disappointed that Tixx didn’t visit the cities this year. He made a b-line for LA and bypassed everyone else… Maybe they were all naughty this year?

Same. I loved Tixx’s tour last year, was expecting the same this year.

dot dot dot

As for Warframe-style, what’s the point of suggesting something you’re so heavily against from the start? I mean, it’s pretty evident that Warframe’s system is fundamentally stupid… Warframe isn’t exactly a fantastic game… No, I don’t want it here…

PVStar.3658:

Of course it won, there’s was no competition in 2013 for MMOs.

This…

Don’t get me wrong, despite its (increasingly) large flaws, GW2 is still by far the best MMO I’ve ever played… But “best MMO of 2013” isn’t really an impressive a title as it sounds.

What was the competition? Seriously.

Neverwinter? Lots of potential, but very underdeveloped last time I gave it a chance.

FF XIV? An attempt to salvage one of the most amazing stillbirth fiascos of recent game release history (still second to the original APB though!). Much better now, but extremely unimpressive nonetheless.

Everything else are expansions to already existing MMOs, Marvel Heroes (ahahahah!) and Planetside 2, which despite being nice in its own right, isn’t the same kind of game as everything else on the list and I’m sure only made it in because the list maker was seriously grasping at straws to fill the spots with something .

If you say GW2 is the best MMO currently available, I’ll agree. If you say GW2 changed the standards of MMORPGs in a way the gaming world hadn’t seen since WoW, I’ll agree. Those are titles it can be proud of.

If you say GW2 was the best MMO of 2013… Meh. Congrats. You beat up a bunch of handicaps and infants.

I’m genuinely gonna try to keep this short because I’ve written too many words that seem to have been utterly ignored first.

“Know your audience”

You advertised a game with very little to no vertical progression, and all horizontal progression. That’s what I wanted. That’s what I bought into. I don’t know if other people want more or less grind, I’m looking for as close to “none” as physically possible, which is what was advertised and, in fact, was what the game was for almost a year.

Then you dumped Ascended crap on us, and everything changed.

I’d be fine with ascended if it was, as you advertised, horizontal progression – Same stats, but with agony resistance for those who want fractals, and maybe additional utility to justify their grind (say, for example, being able to change stats freely out of combat). If it was like that, then I wouldn’t even mind all the time-gated content-inflation bullkitten… It would be a matter of optional convenience. As it is it’s statistically superior, which for someone who enjoys WvW, makes it practically mandatory.

Some people like that. I don’t. I don’t think the people you originally advertised to fall within that category, but whatever. Just know who you’re making your game for.

Personally, I want ascended’s stat advantage to be gone, completely. Then give me a wardrobe system, where I don’t need to pay gems (requiring real money or a megaton of in-game gold by now) and burn my old look in order to use a different look. That’ll get me happy and spending money on all those gem-store skins and items again. Right now I want to buy that Phalanx armour, but why? I can’t use it. I don’t want to burn the look of either of my heavy armour users, and I don’t have space for more armour sets. I also refuse to spend money in this game with the current ascended stats issue.

That’s me. If you want me and people like me spending money in the game, that’s what you have to do. If you don’t, nice knowing you. Wish you all the luck.

Edit: And no, sub-classes are a terrible idea. It’s a built-in limitation on builds and gameplay styles.

Balefire.7592:

Hero-tron, due to his (its?) instrumental collaboration in defeating Scarlet.

I support this idea.

I’m fairly certain Scarlet can’t be salvaged as a character anymore, at this point her writing is just too bad, but at least she could be used to glorify a character that’s already far more interesting and better written than she’ll ever be. If she’s good for nothing else, at least she can be a stepping stone for an interesting character.

I appreciate the facetious style with which the OP is written, but the general message is still “appreciate this kitten , for in our day we had to make do with an even bigger, stinkier, kitten !”.

Still a kitten . We can do better.

bOgz.7263:

Half way? Thing has been barely up a day.
What? Halfway only means midpoint of something?

Er… By definition, pretty much. Yes.

bOgz.7263:

It’s unfair for them to patch the game.
Got it.
change = patch?

Again, by definition, most changes come with patches… Since, outside of very minor things, they need to patch the game to change it. And patching does equal change, by definition, since patching implies/requires some change of code, however minor.

You’re really struggling there… I’m not weighing in on the argument, but if you’re going to argue semantics please do it right…

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Many views, no comments, do you expect screenshots or what? Nasty boyz.

Given that this is easy to find in the game, and it has been “spoiled” and commented a million times over in the forums by now, yes. Otherwise – nothing new.

laharl.8435:

It’s not like draconic was known for looking good, that’s the former BiS craft armor.

This.

Previous BiS crafted gear all looked like kitten for the most part. Remember all of the crafted lvl 80 exotic gear? Pearl weapons? Yeah.

Think about it… Isn’kitten bit conspicuous that ascended weapons/armour started popping up shortly after most of the player base was “done” with their main gear? What was the point of ascended armour/weapons having higher stats other than forcing people to buy a whole new wave of Transmutation stones? Ascended gear was nothing but detrimental to the rest of the game… Or you can believe that it was accidentally lucky timing and misguided well wishing from them! Up to you.

digiowl.9620:

ProxyDamage.9826:

None. They’re all pathetically easy now. Just indistinguishable cannon fodder.

Warrior or guardian?

Warrior, Guardian, Ranger, Ele, Necro, Engie… Take your pick. As long as you know what you’re doing it’s not even funny anymore.

At first I thought it was just because I’d gotten better, had a better build and better gear since last year, but then I started comparing damage dealt/received and realized that, nope, they are far, far, far easier than before. For example, I can just facetank an entire toy soldier wave in full berserker with barely a scratch. So could a friend of mine in a lvl 46 character (forgot the class, but not a heavy class). 1 WW nearly instagibs that same wave. Pathetic.

None. They’re all pathetically easy now. Just indistinguishable cannon fodder.

It’s dangerous to go alone, take this.

Grimno.6172:

Just admit it… When you were looking over what was coming for Wintersday you all said

“**** YEAH! BELL HERO!”

No. Not really.

It’s a funny mini-game, thought, but that’s all it is.

I’m far happier at being able to complete my infinirarium mini-collection (supposedly, since Tixx’s dungeon is back…?), which also clears up some much needed inventory space, and that Scarlet won’t be back for at least a month.

jokke.6239:

It’s cool that you let Arena Net know when you are displeased with decisions they make. But for the love of god, please speak like you would do to a person in real life. It isn’t going to be less offensive because you sit safely behind your computers screens.
The forum would be a lot more enjoyable for both us and Arena Net that way.
I know a lot of people in game who stay away from the forums, because it’s to frustrating to read through all the posts. And can you blame them?

PS
Merry Christmas everyone <3
Lets all behave like we are suppose to this time of year

---

Post edited by moderator

You are incurring in the same fallacious logic many others do these days: You assume anonymity, and the associated pseudo-immunity, the perceived lack of consequences for your actions, turns people into monsters. You think it’s power that corrupts people.

This is the biggest lie you’ve ever been told.

Power does not corrupt. Power has never corrupted anything in history. It merely lets you be as corrupt as you’ve always truly been. People “hiding” behind anonymity posting horrible and heartless comments on the internet aren’t being dishonest. They’re dishonest the rest of the time, when they pretend they’re nice and play along because they’re afraid of the consequences, while silently wishing we’d all die in a fire.

You assume people hide behind masks to be someone else, when in fact, it’s only when they’re behind masks that you truly get to know who most people really are.

So you sit there and you wish we’d all act here as we act “in real life”, while I wish for the exact opposite. Show me who you really are.

But then again, the thing that bothers me when reading forums is when people are stupid. Stupid and nice is still stupid. If anything the moderation censorship bothers me more than people being “mean”. Those I can easily disregard.

> No Scarlet.

Best update hands down.

You’re in the right track ANet. Now just make sure she never shows up again and we’re golden.

Pennry.9215:

Sorry, but orphans burning each other is just in bad taste.

Not if you season them properly.

webtoehobbit.4201:

No, Scarlet wouldn’t have been alive. […]

the alternative, Abaddon, wouldn’t have had Scarlet in it.

> Implying ANet give a kitten about “details” like “she wasn’t alive yet”.

Buddy, nothing Scarlet has done so far has been even slightly justified. If ANet had made fall of abadon I guarantee she’d get shoehorned in somehow.

data.4093:

…kormir wasn’t around during the fall of abaddon…

Scarlet wasn’t supposed to be around for Thaumanova either.

Your point being?

Plot Twist: The elder dragons were working for Scarlet all along.

Megis.9264:

That way Evon can take the seat at the council, we get an Abbaddon fractal, and the Thaumenova fractal gets erased from history.

Why? So it turns out Scarlet was behind that too? That way we ruin GW1 lore too…?

Marble Daemon.7350:

ProxyDamage.9826:

…

There’s a very big difference between the so called evil people in real life and those in fiction stories, it’s called ‘real versus virtual’.

You clearly didn’t read a single word I wrote… so allow me to pay you in kind!

Obviously, after “genius girl” attracts a lot of attention to herself, AGAIN, because she never kittening learns, we find her tower, run in, and start tearing stuff apart. We eventually come face to face with her, again, and what does she do? She reminds us of all the annoying things she’s done lately (Scarlet, girl, if you go to trial, get a lawyer and keep your mouth shut… seriously…) leaves us alone with the only way she has to control the Krait, even though her entire military base and/or army couldn’t kill us at least 3 times before, and walks out with a “Oh I’ll get you next time Gadget!”. Why? Scarlet, what are you doing? What does anything she’s ever done have to do with her motivation or the character that’s drawn for her in that backstory? Nothing! Literally. kittening. Nothing!

And that’s why she’s a cardboard cut out of a villain. That’s why I hate it everytime she shows up! She’s a children’s cartoon! She’s a disposable Power Ranger villain. She’s inconsistent. She has no depth. All she does is just “being eeeeeeeviiiiil” for “eeeeeeviiiil!!”’s sake.

As to why I eat everyday if I’ll die anyways, because if I don’t I’ll die a lot sooner.

Why does Scarlet do any of the things she does? Nobody kittening knows.

As for:

Marble Daemon.7350:

I hope my answer is clear enough so that we should stop judging evil or villains as stupid. And ultimately, please show respect and stop treating the author of the game story as stupid. You are playing their game, their story. If they are stupid and you are so smart, why do you play their “stupid” game? And please be informed that you are not the “center of the universe” and you are surely not the most intelligent being in this world.

Actually I’m playing a whole team’s game. Based on the story, I’m actually more convinced that the writer’s are being called second to try to justify whatever the rest of the team feels like doing, and not the other way around.

And I’m playing the game because the gameplay is still good. Hell, I said it before, the tower itself is quite well done, despite its flaws. The story is trash. Which is a pity, because a good story would lend some meaning and depth to the gameplay.

Marble Daemon.7350:

You just show how successful Scarlet as an antagonist and in the way she makes you hate her. Villains are not invented to be defeated, they are there for people to wish them to go away

That’s what you’re not understanding. I don’t hate her. She’s a terrible villain in that she’s given me no motivation to see the story through. I want her gone. I don’t care about defeating her, I just don’t want her to show up again. I’ll accept a small note saying “Scarlet died of a heart attack while sleeping. Fin.” or “Scarlet decided she wanted to take up knitting instead.”… Or, kitten it, nothing at all! I don’t care where her story goes so long as she makes like the mother tree and leaves.

…Welp, this was a lot bigger than I expected, but hey! You asked.

3/3

…Shame that Scarlet has nothing to do with the in-game Scarlet! Scarlet’s supposed to be this genius inventor, driven sort-of-mad by this experiment, and violently rebelling against her parents because she’s a teenager no-… sorry I mean, rebelling against the mother tree, and general determinism. Fine. Let’s go with that… What does THAT have anything to do with what she has done so far?

Nothing.

Not. A kittening. Thing.

She got the dredge and the flame legion working together and attacking the norn… because… She is racist against Norn…? kitten it, I’ll take “experimenting with their technology and reasons”. Whatever. She did that. Let’s ignore how impractical the whole thing is, and that she’s basically doing the thing she hates and is rebelling against by trying to take control of people’s lives but whatever. Well, that kind failed.

Then… She kills Theo Ashford and released the Aetherblades! Because… Why? If the idea was to cause political chaos or have someone from her side (possibly Mai?) take over for Theo why the full blown invasion? Why the ridiculous scheme? Isn’t she supposed to be a genius? Are you saying this supposedly incredibly intelligent genius could find no better way to kill someone than a full blown invasion? Nothing a little less conspicuous? And she has access to unknown technology, teleporters, and someone on the inside… She’s not a genius she’s an idiot!

Fast forward… Queen’s Jubilee… Why? She was trying to take control of the technology? Then why the kitten would she announce it to everyyyyoneeeee? If you’re trying something like that to use later WHY in god’s name would you let anyone know? Are you trying to give them time to prepare? Why? She clearly didn’t give a kitten about Queen Jenna…. As an attack on anything it was utterly pathetic… Worst case scenario they could just close the pavilion and isolate the issue. She has no stake in human affairs…. She clearly had access to the kittening clockwork things, why not just steal a few and run your tests silently? Even if someone notices the robbery all they know is that it was a robbery. They have no idea what you’re planning. Exactly like the Aetherblades fiasco, she’s showing her hand before she plays it for absolutely no reason whatsoever. And she’s supposed to be intelligent.

Fast forward again – Invasions! Why? What does that have to do with her motivations? Or with anything, actually? kittened if I know! To be fair I don’t think whomever is writing this knows either! What if she successfully took over Dredgehaunt Cliffs or something? Gonna run over to the mother tree and go “Nuhu! SEE MOM! I took over some middle of jackkitten nowhere! YOU WERE WRONG! I’M COOL AND EVILL!!”. Sure makes her look like a villain! Once again, a complete failure for her, including her getting her kitten kicked in a few thousand times, but at least she’s still trying. You know what they say, the 874615th time is the charm! Glad she seems amused. At least someone’s having fun right?

Fast forward! Twilight assault! She knows a secret about Caithe! What is it!? Caithe wouldn’t want anyone to know! What does it matter to her “stop taking control of people’s lives” motivation? kitten all, but it’s totally douchy of her! And that makes her evil! Well, fortunately she seems to think so as well, because she never revealed it either. Just attracted a lot of attention to herself, got another one of her bases destroyed, and accomplished nothing.

…Where does she keep getting resources to do this? And why do people still follow her? Are these people like, the Guild Wars equivalent of WH40k’s Death Company ?

One final fast forward and we’re in our currently plot: The tower of nightmares!

Scarlet got herself another unlikely alliance! Apparently she’s a lonely 40-year old house wife because, by god, she loves match making! Someone should just tell her about e-harmony (or whatever it’s called), she’ll go mental. This time it’s the Krait and the nightmare court… Ok. And what is she doing? She plopped down a tower in the middle of human terrain… Because… of reasons… Seriously, why? She’s manufacturing this poison thing? Then whyyyyyyyyyyyyy would she start random attacks so near to her base? Drawing unnecessary attention to herself again! Scarlet, dear, “don’t kitten where you eat”! Why would you even put a tower there!? There are so many places far less… not outside of your enemy’s doorstep, for once! But whatever! She did that! Because “evil”!

2/3

Marble Daemon.7350:

cut for size

You have a lot of different arguments here, and I’m trying to cut down on “breaking posts up a lot”, so, if I forget something point it out.

First, I always hated bad antagonists. Even as a kid, Power Ranger style “villains of eviil!!” annoyed me. They’re simply lazy writing. “Why are you doing this?” “BECAUSE I’M EEEEVIIIIIL!”. Good antagonists (and notice I’m using the word “antagonist” here, not “villain”, a difference I stated in my previous post) make a story. They’re characters you get involved with as well, even if you want them to lose. They add tension and depth. Bad antagonists are the opposite. They’re so utterly unbelievable, so completely cartoony, that they rip you out of the experience, they make the whole story a sad joke.

Have you noticed that that never actually happens anywhere outside of poor writing? Ever? No one is ever “EVIL!!! Becaus of EVIIIIIIIIL!!”. Even Hitler thought he was doing the right thing, and he is often considered the most “evil” person in history. It was never “why are you killing jews?” “BECAUSE I’M EVIL!!!”. He thought he had a good reason. Of course I, and I think most sane and educated people nowadays, disagree. But he still thought he was right in what he was doing. Bad cartoon villains are evil “because of reasons”. Because the writer is too lazy or inept to give them a proper reason and to make them consistent characters, but they still need something to pitch the main character/s against, ergo evil person du jour who is being a tosser because he’s a tosser.

And allow me to predict a counter argument: Oh, but Hitler was a real person! Scarlet is a cartoon from a different race! She’s just crazy! GW2 is not real!

That’s a kittenty “cop-out” excuse. There’s a difference between being “realistic” and being “believable”. A story doesn’t have to be realistic, but it has to be believable – it has to be internally consistent. A good story can have dragons and magic, but if you get to a point where the main character stands face to face with the “incorrigible evil!” that butchered everybody they ever loved and they decide to just have a hug and the story ends “on the power of friendship!” you’re gonna roll your eyes and go “bullkitten”.

And being “crazy” isn’t an excuse either. Insanity may seem “random” to people who never bothered to give it more than a passing glance, but there is no such a thing as “random” in behavior (or, one could argue, anything at all, but that’s a different matter). An “insane” character, to put it in simple terms, can be seen a little like writing about a different species: They may not work by your laws, but they work by some laws which must also be consistent.

You want an example of a really good “insane” antagonist? The Joker, as written by Alan Moore in The Killing Joke (or whenever he’s written properly, really). The Killing Joke spoilersOh the joker does horrible things. He even does an evil little laugh! I wonder who Scarlet is based on... Anyways... Seemingly random acts of cruelty, evil laugh, having fun torturing others... Stupid cartoon villain right? Wrong. See, he's not doing all of that because "he's evil!!". He's making a point. He's a deeply disturbed individual, someone who is deeply emotionally and physically scarred, and he's just trying to prove, to the world and to himself, that he's actually not a freak. He's trying to make a point, no matter how good the person (e.g.: Gordon), all it takes is one bad day. He's trying to prove that the moral distance between himself and someone like Gordon is not that big. He's trying to exculpate himself. In his sick, twisted, mentally damaged way, he's just trying to prove he's normal, and that if it hadn't been for that one thing in his past, he could have been someone good.

See the difference? Why is Scarlet doing this? “Because it’s fun! Because she’s crazy!”. She keeps getting her kitten kicked, her plans keep failing, and she keeps trying it again with no justification. It’s fun to get your kitten kicked, lose resources and accomplish nothing but get a few random people she cares nothing for killed? And what’s with the stupidly convoluted plans? Is she kittened? Am I beating up a handicap? That’s not good… She doesn’t talk like she’s brain damaged, but she acts like it.

Oh, there’s that “origins” style text about her. Well, that is interesting. That has some depth at least… Shame that it is presented completely outside the game, as a “text dump” instead of merged with the narrative, but whatever, it’s there, I’ll give them that!

1/3

Hannelore.8153:

The problem is the game doesn’t teach the players these things. Unless you go to PvP or WvW or (later on in your levels) do dungeons, there is absolutely NOTHING that shows you how to use the game mechanics or how to do anything in the game. The personal story doesn’t even tell you anything, and its the first “quests” players take.

slurpey.6014:

I wouldn’t call the majority of players dumb, it’s more an issue of being ignorant.

I’m sorry but if you get to lvl 80 and haven’t figured out 90% of the kitten OP is talking about, “cognitively limited” is the best I can say about you.

How big a tutorial do you need for “dodge red circle that kills you!” ? If you need to hit a mine more than once to figure out “go in range, circle pops up, 2-3 seconds and you go boom” you’re not exactly bright.

In 80 levels you never had an hint that, maybe, dodging high damage moves is a good idea? You’ve never learned how rallying works? You’ve never had or witnessed a rally in PvE? I’m, therefore, assuming you’ve never done PvP or WvW at all, nor have you ever even gone through Heart of the Mists, since the first time you go there you’re treated to a mini-tutorial.

I never expect the average player to be as “good” at gaming stuff as I am. I realize that even though I’m hardly the best I do spend more time doing this than many other people… But good heavens, I’m not asking you to do a rocket jump railgun headshot or anything like that. I’m not asking for a sako-combo, or a godkitten perfect score…. Just be barely competent. It’s not that most players aren’t amazing, it’s that they’re kittening horrible…. They can’t figure kitten like “RED CIRCLES ARE BAD MHHKAY?!” out for months. How?

It baffles me that this has been out for days, and even on levels 2 and 3 (i.e.: not people that just walked into the tower for the first time) I see people continuously running into the mushroom-mines like lemmings. I saw people continuously dying to the first 3 bosses of the Queen’s Gauntlet! I see people dying to kittening VETERANS their level, one on one!

Good heavens, how do some people manage to not kill themselves on a daily basis?

Solid Gold.9310:

OK got that, two people are enough to do (Kill) all the champs, elites and trash mobs climbing the tower.

I’ll look forward to trying that tonight, but not much…………

Edit……….

Some video here would be good…………

Would love to, but my computer would roll over and die if I tried. I’m not exactly running on the best machine in the world.

Solid Gold.9310:

So much conflicting information here, “I ran it solo on my (Insert prof here) and didn’t die once”, “2 of us did it and killed all the champs”, get with the zerg, get a 5 man party and so on and on.

Just saying……………

There are a LOT of really terrible players in this game…

I’m stating as matter of fact: 2 people are enough to do the entire tower, with champions, without many issues provided both people know how to play decently. You can do it with more, but 2 are enough.

1 might be a bit too hard because some champions have mechanics that make soloing them quite difficult (for example, the spider wrapping you in the “cocoon” thing). 1 is doable if none of the “roadblock” champions spawn as champion (instead spawn as veterans), or if you’re lucky enough for all the aforementioned “roadblocks” to be open.

People claiming you need 5 or 10 people, or whatever, are just bad players that don’t know what they’re doing. Yes, the more decent players join in the easier it is (for the most part), but 2 are enough to do everything.

The tower is perfectly possible to solo provided that large amounts of people don’t spawn the champions then run off. If there aren’t large groups of people nearby, the champions will spawn as far more manageable veterans that can be soloed.

If they do, on the other hand, it gets very difficult to solo. However, 2 competent players are enough to do the entire thing without anyone else, including all the champions. I know because that’s how I did it.

Jorund Thorwalds.9165:

She isn’t so very intresting any more

Scarlet was never interesting… She had the looming promise that she would become interesting at some point in the future… That has come and gone and it was a load of hot air.

Honestly I don’t care about killing her. I just want her to be gone so we can move on to a better story line… “Proxy, don’t you mean ‘hopefully’ better storyline?”. Scarlet set the bar so low I’d be genuinely surprised if they manage to put out something worse…

There are basically three kinds of antagonists.

The really good ones will leave you with mixed feelings. You want to defeat them, you know it’s the right thing to do, but at the same time you can’t help but empathize with them, you can’t help but think maybe they have a point, maybe. In the very best cases you’re even left wondering if they were a villain at all. See, for example, Watchmen SpoilerOzymandias.

The ok ones are generally simple, linear, and just characters you simply dislike and want to defeat. They usually have an egoist and self-absorbed goal that disregards the consequences for others. e.g.: “I want to become more powerful even if that means killing innocent people or destroying their lives”. They’re generally not fantastic, but they serve their purpose in that, at the very least, they’re logical and believable, and you want to kick their kitten so you want to see the story through to the end. If they’re charismatic enough, they might even be enjoyable to watch, potentially memorable.

Then you have the Saturday Morning Cartoon villains. Their actions are usually completely unjustifiable, even by psychopathy standards. They’re not “crazy” or “insane”, they’re stupid. They’re usually intended to be “insane”, but are written by people who don’t know the difference between “insane” and “stupid”, so they become the latter. They have no character or goal other than “be evil”. They’ll go out of their way to kick a puppy just to show you they’re “EVIIIIIIL!!!”. They’ll make plans to “destroy the world!”, even if that wouldn’t benefit them in any way. They have no logic behind their actions, no motivation, no reason to be. They’ll capture the only person that can foil their plans, then spend 10 minutes explaining their “EVIL PLAN!!” before locking them in some contrived death trap that’ll take 25 minutes to kill them, maybe, instead of just shooting them in the face and getting it over with. They’ll repeat the same plan that didn’t work 153 times before once more, because “THIS TIME!!!”. They’re utterly cartoony and unbelievable as characters. They’re uni-dimensional, basic, and completely uninteresting in any way. This is Scarlet.

I don’t hate Scarlet. She’s not even good enough to hate. I hate that she keeps being put in the story in detriment of a more competent/well written antagonist. I don’t care about defeating her. I just want her gone.

….Why?

What have Destiny’s Edge, as a group, EVER done of value since the start of GW2?

Nothing.

They nearly get themselves killed in the dungeons, and you go save their kitten and complete whatever goal they had.

Logan nearly dies to cut one kittening rope. Thanks man, it’s not like the airship was loaded with people with large quantities of swords, axes, arrows, magic… just about anything that could be used to cut a rope from the ship… Real important “sacrifice” there.

And then they’re all reunited at the end! Where they sit in the airship like manikins and do kittening nothing at all!

So what have they accomplished in GW2? Whining like 12 year old girls, kittening, whinging, and being generally useless.

So why in the world would we want them back….?

Does anyone honestly care?

I’m serious, is anyone still even marginally interested in Scarlet for anything more than that morbid human curiosity that makes people slowdown to stare at a horrible accident? Can anyone tell me, with a straight face, without the slightest hint of sarcasm or schaddenfreud, that they’re looking forward to Scarlet’s next saturday morning cartoon?

Best thing Scarlet can do at this stage is fall on her keys off stage and reveal the “real” villain that was only using her, making her think she was going to take over the world, to cause a distraction so they could get along with their plans. Poor demented idiot thought she was taking over the world for her “master”, and instead she was just making a big mess and making people run around and take their eyes off the real master plan.

Yes, it would be a cop out, but anything is better than this atrocious disaster of a limp villain that is scarlet. You could find better villains on PowerPuff Girls for the love of god…

… I don’t get all the whining.

Every class has tools to get through the garbage. Stability, stun breaks, hard CC (preferibly in AoE), condition cleansing, dodges/evades/blocks, Stealth, movement skills… Whatever your class, you have something from that list. Use it.

Oh yeah, and dodge the godkitten flowers… I’m always surprised how many lemmings play this game. I swear…

Honestly, the biggest factor of my deaths in that tower has been trying to help other people. If I just run through it’s not much of an issue.

Post-processing → off.

You’re welcome.

MithranArkanere.8957:

That’s a sign of sociopathic behavior.

Actually, no, it’s just generic, garden variety, schaddenfreud (pardon my spelling).

…seriously? We’re complaining about Vets now?

Sorry, if you’re having those many issues with vets your build sucks.

bravoart.5308:

• Fear only pushes you in the direction of the nearest ledge no matter where you are in relation to a mob (if there is one, thx hallucination!)

Very likely viewer bias.

Fear will make you run away from the character that cast it, not from the actual source of the fear (i.e.: skill that caused it). Given that the Fears in the tower are quite lengthy, and that there is very little “safe ground” in there, statistically if you don’t stun break you’re bound to run into or off of something you wish you hadn’t.

bravoart.5308:

• Mobs seem to know when you are stomping and can force their knockback off cooldown to counter. There is no way a single mob can have 3 knockbacks chained.

The bolded part is bullkitten. Again, viewer bias. There are just quite a few mobs in there, and quite a lot of them have a lot of hard CC. There is no reason a mob can’t have 3 knockbacks or more.

As for the rest, I haven’t experienced them myself, but then again I haven’t really been farming the tower, so I can neither confirm nor deny them.