I agree elementalists have a high skillcap. I do however think they are somewhat unbalanced with the defensive builds they can do (as with guardians). Being a 75% offense, 25% defense thief (I dont run haste atm). I can’t bring a good one under 40%. They will always outlast me due to my limited survivability. I can last quite a while with stealth and withdraw, but my pressure is not enough.
guardians are worse because its basically a defensive elementalist with permanent retaliation, but overall it seems to be getting to the point where in a 5v5 I have to literally just avoid both classes and hope they arent stacked on the enemy team.
Trying to fight a bunker 1 on 1 on a point they control is not what you are supposed to do. A few builds can do it successfully in a reasonable time period but it is still better in most cases to attack with more than 1 person.
Since beta, Retaliation has gone from nearly useless to a state which many consider too strong. I believe it has already been toned down once recently, mainly reducing its duration on some abilities.
Many players who dislike retaliation do not like the fact that they feel they are forced to take that damage since their opponent can maintain so much uptime, and thus they can’t wait simply wait for it to fade.
I feel that there is a simple solution which would allow for more depth in game play and make balancing retaliation across the different professions who have it much simpler. The solution is to make retaliation stack in intensity and make it the defensive equivalent of confusion. The duration of retaliation would need to be dramatically reduced for most professions which have it, but the skillful use of it would have a much larger impact than it currently does and would leave people on the opposing side with only themselves to blame for hitting a target with retaliation up.
I also think that it should not scale with power, I feel like retaliation is a bunker build buff and should be effective with all the bunker builds, so I think it should have flat damage.
I don’t really have a problem with retaliation the way it is but I feel like a change to a system like this could create some interesting new situations in combat and make retaliation something one must be aware of rather than a sure buff to see on a bunker at all times.
I think Cleaning Formula 409 may have some issues. It says removes conditions but does anyone know how many conditions it is supposed to remove? I was hoping it would remove all conditions based on the wording but I have noticed times where it does not even remove a single condition. I have noticed this most frequently when using tossed elixirs when trying to remove poison, even with poison being the only condition on me it doesn’t want to go away.
I hope that the issues are fixed and the wording is fixed to accurately describe what it is supposed to do.
I tried using the mortar for mid fights in Foefire and besides having a slow travel time and long cool downs, the abilities seemed to do pretty minimal damage as well.
It isn’t the random aspect of elixir x that makes me stay away from it, its the fact that all the forms suck with I guess an exception for bunker engis.
So you won each of those easily, right? A team of 5 thieves should be easy to take down.
Seriously, those are probably the biggest “give me” wins I could imagine.
Zyrusticae, a huge portion of the thieves perceived effectiveness is based on people running bad builds (largely glass cannon) in hot join. Thieves do not have the same impact in TPvP (although they are still great roamers) since they get rocked by tanky builds.
The thief is much more effective at lower skill levels than other classes, I’m glad you have found a class you enjoy playing and are finding success.
Back to map exploits for a bit … that’s a joke of a fix. How about a game breaking exploit like Flesh Golem charging the Treb in Khylo?? INSTANTLY BROKEN TREB! 100% competitive play right there! XD Just send a necro in, charge treb with golem, leave. Something like this going unfixed will meta a necro into every team, which goes against Arenanets philosophy, if I’m not mistaken.
The flesh golem doesn’t 1 shot the treb, but yes it does significant damage. A necro isn’t any more effective than a staff ele is, a staff ele is probably even better. It is not “game breaking” as you decribe it in anyway.
Your tears about boons seem excessive too.
[quote=247526;Jesiah.2457:]
twitch.tv/seetherrr
I stream 4 days a week playing tournaments with my guild Imperial. I have been playing engi for only about a week but I think I have picked it up pretty quickly and play it fairly effectively and I find it to be a lot of fun to play.
My build is a slight modification of Erho’s build who is also an amazing engi and I recommend checking out his stream as well for some great engi play.
Bunker engis can be viable in TPvP and can be a real pain to deal with. With that being said, compared to most bunker alternatives they are somewhat “selfish” in the sense that they don’t really provide valuable buffs to teammates.
There is a bug which causes people to not be teleported back to the starting area during the beginning of a match. I don’t know how it is exactly done but it has happened randomly to various members of my time since release.
I have never tried to recreate this bug or exploit it but I have heard from other players that it seems to have some connection with being in mid-air during the time in which it would transport you to your starting area.
While I would hope teams would not try to recreate this bug to use maliciously in tournament play I guess there are those who are not able to win straight up and must resort to these tactics. Hopefully the bug will be dealt with swiftly and we won’t have to worry about this issue when competitive play arises in whichever form it may.
Fanboys are funny. Nice way to shift from attacking a poster to providing cover for ArenaNet by using the “every company does it” line of reasoning.
People who assume that someone is a fanboy because that someone is tired of reading everyone else’s constant whining are funny. This game is far from perfect, and ArenaNet is far from perfect. Hence the reason for every class to have a bug sticky, some with over 100 bugs currently. However, they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt with me because of the track record they had with making pvp in GW1 so darn enjoyable for me. And it’s been 29 days. 32 with headstart. How was Warcraft doing in its first 29? Rift? Diablo 3? Star Wars? Tera? Secret World? Do people seriously think any other developer has been perfect? If so, why are they not playing that game instead of this one? Other than maybe the fact that it’s died out. Even the great “DAOC” had its issues.
Ah more fanboy defenses. You are characterized as a fanboy because of the method of your discourse. You made a point, your point was proven incorrect, and rather than say something along the lines of “you were right, they did say it would be available in a few days 10 days ago but it isn’t a big deal” you craft a defense for ArenaNet based around “other companies do the same thing”.
Yep. You do. Good job.
ArenaNet is also the first company to release an update saying that something is coming later than expected.
But ya got me.
/hattip.
Fanboys are funny. Nice way to shift from attacking a poster to providing cover for ArenaNet by using the “every company does it” line of reasoning.
Nothing like some relaxing TPvP after spending 10days writing a blog post.
they’ve already answered to the “pvp whiners” call.
Patiance to wait is up to us.
The blogpost will come: what i’m REALLY hoping to come is a big balance patch, in order to nerf those ridicolous mesmers/guardians: because till balance is like this, a ranking system is kinda useless, since “competitive” teams wil simply play a triple guardian/mesmer – double guardian/mesmer team and roflstomp anything.
I think its pretty funny you said they already answered the “pvp whiners call” which is a request for competitive game systems and then you make your own giant whine. Patience is fine, I just know that making a blog post doesn’t take over 10 days to create especially when it is likely just an overview of what they have been working on for some time.
PS: You should really learn how classes work together, while mesmer phantasms need a slight adjustment, guardians are nowhere near the impervious class people make them out to be, people just aren’t building comps to counter them easily. I personally love to see a double mesmer and double guardian team because I know they will absolutely blow in group fights.
Apparently if you place a portal directly on the treb, grab the repair kit, activate portal, use the portal and repair the treb and then use the treb you can use the portal back and still use the treb.
This is extremely cheesy and I am surprised Paradigm would be using this “method” of using the treb. The issues surrounding mesmers and the treb need to be addressed in some manner.
When is it coming? Does Arenanet even care about this aspect of the game? TPvP wasn’t available until multiple days into headstart. Then the entire reward system of TPvP was FUBAR for a long time period with nearly 0 information from Arenanet that they were working on it. Then when they released their original “fix” they managed to break tournaments entirely for the first non-headstart weekend of release.
TPvPers were told they would not be reimbursed anything for their lost rewards.
While their were some complaints, the TPvP community was overall muted on the issue because a lot of people love the game and don’t care about cosmetic rewards, as long as they are able to play the game and enjoy good competition.
The problem is that it is exceedingly difficult to enjoy good competition in this game. Tournament PvP for competitive guilds involves waiting and smashing pugs as 80% if not more of their gaming experience. Smashing pugs doesn’t really increase our personal abilities and I am sure that the opposition doesn’t like being kept to under 50pts and being essentially spawn camped when it was a few friends that wanted to play together.
We need information and we need it soon. I believe it has been over 10 days since the initial post detailing an in the works blog post which was only going to detail what was on the horizon not something that was going to be imminently released. I understand that Jon Peters probably has many responsibilities he must uphold for Arenanet but I for one am sick of being treated like the red-headed stepchild of this game and answers are needed.
This post might come across as a bit whiny but it is only because I see a game with huge potential yet has made continual missteps since release and the positive opinions of Arenanet in the TPvP community are beginning to sour.
I understand that they want people to either buy golem bankers from them or have people spend the money on porting themselves to a bank. However, I think PvPers should have access to a bank in the mists.
My solution is to put the banker in the far end of the map near the test npcs of each class as the distance of the journey my detract from PvEers using the mists as their standard banking area while allowing PvPers who don’t want to leave the mists to have bank access.
Eles might be in need of a buff but if its anything its only a slight buff. In TPvP, eles are one of the best roamers if not the best roamer option. I point to Phantaram of Team Paradigm and Prince of Imperial as examples of eles that play well and destroy. Staff support eles perform amazingly as well with Mianhe from Team Legacy being a great example of great ele play.
I think eles should have access to a viable condition build which I do not believe they really have right now. They could maybe also use a small increase in base hp or armor but I am not sure if that is really warranted. The fact of the matter is that there really aren’t any mediocre eles, they either dominate or get blown up constantly, it has a very high learning curve and I don’t know if that is a bad thing for the power a strong ele has.
So if you down an ele, ranger, necro… and immediately go to stomp, theyll die.
Do this to those other classes, and to varying degrees you will fail.
Wtf are you even talking about man, have you played the game recently? Ranger has an AE daze on the #2 which is available immediately and necros have a fear on the #2 which is also available immediately.
Eles are the only free stomp in the game. They probably deserve some sort of single target interrupt on their downstate, but they have so many get away/survival options built into their class that I think their current downstate skills might be justified.
I don’t even really understand your sentiments OP. I haven’t seen a build in this game which did not have a very strong counter to it.
I like how his team beats everyone because they are skilled, but the people they lose to are using comps that “can’t be countered”.
While I am happy about the acknowledgement of what is going on, its a little disconcerting that we are told a blog post will be up in a few days when I believe a week ago we got pretty much the exact same message from Chaplain himself, but still no blog post.
I would like to give you guys the benefit of the doubt but after how Trion strung PvPers along in Rift with future promises, words just aren’t good enough for me to believe game devs.
OP, I used to agree with your position when the NPCs used to be 40pts each but I think that at 25pts the impact of a snipe can easily be dealt with.
No enemy cast bars, the enemy HP Bars/Status bars are at the top of the screen which is terrible because I have to actually watch their character for dodging etc.
Having to watch the characters to see what they are doing instead of having ez mode cast bars telegraphing it to you is what they were aiming for.
Elementalist is best suited for WvW – think of them as a very squishy AoE ranged class.
Lol, that is nothing like what they are in the hands of serious players in TPvP. Eles are very very strong in the right hands either as DPS or support, check out players like Phantaram (Team Paradigm, scepter/dag), Prince (Imperial, d/d) and Mianhe (Team Legacy, staff).
It is a much different story in tournaments and no one takes 8v8 hot join seriously when considering balance.
For those unaware, before tournament matches you have a staging period before the match which does not end until every player in the tournament hits the “I’m ready” button or 5minutes pass. 5 minutes on its surface seems reasonable, some people may have slow computers and need extra loading time, were afk or had something come up in real life that needs to be taken care of.
I would argue that the most common reason for 5 minute waits prior to the start of the match is from people simply forgetting to press ready up, it is in a small box in the left side of your screen. This box needs to displayed in a much more prominent position and should be accompanied with an auditory cue every so often, hopefully using a voice as grating as “Your base is under attack!”. Another large cause of 5 minute waits are people who want to troll, if you ask in any fashion, regardless of how politely it is done, a large portion of the time the other team will troll you and not ready up despite fighting your team randomly around the map or them even telling you they are now going to make you wait. I will never understand the mindset of people who wish to waste their own time simply to waste the time of another persons, but while the troll may think they are only annoying the team they are facing, their delays slow down the tournament overall. I would say that while “playing” tournaments maybe 50% of my time is spent waiting.
I see two potential solutions, one which is drastic and another which is not quite so much. The drastic solution would be to axe tournaments completely and go to a queue based matchmaking system (hopefully using a rating system soon to be implemented). This would limit any troll groups effect to just 1 other team and would encourage less pre-match afks since people would conceivably not queue until they were all ready to go. My other proposed solution would be to simply lower the pre-match time period to 3minutes.
(edited by Seether.7285)
I really like your proposed changes to renewed focus.
Use dodge or stability?
2.1k armor is pretty kitten glass cannon. Maybe consider using something that isn’t a berzerker amulet…
The following opinions are written from the perspective of someone who plays both DPS and Point Defense guardian for a competitive tournament team.
I think everyone can agree that there was definitely a need for changing Tome of Courage, prior to the change there was no decision when it came to elite skills, ToC was far better than ToW and Renewed Focus. The AE daze combined with the complete heal allowed for only a small window in which you could be Moaed or boon stripped and interrupted.
After the nerf I played around with the different options. A defensive guardian with +boon duration could still use “Stand your ground” and get off a full heal or you can use Hallowed ground or sanctuary. These abilities can essentially guarantee a complete cast but use a very valuable utility, two of which have very long cool downs. Tome of Courage is still a useful elite but it requires much more planning/effort to use it effectively.
Renewed focus has become my new favorite elite for my point defense guardian. One of the primary values of the book was to keep yourself alive while waiting for help to arrive and renewed focus does this job pretty well. However, when you are actively using renewed focus you do not count as being present in the point, I am not sure if that is by design or a bug. Traited for virtues and boon duration you can get off a nice set of boons on allies while putting out blinds + aegis + stability + 3 condition removal.
After the patch I gave Tome of Wrath a test for the very first time, and seeing as though no one was running it before the Tome nerf I have no idea why they decided to remove its stability. The damage is mediocre, the #4 ability is decent I suppose since quickness = good, but the #5 has to be one of the most worthless I have come across. You are rooted in place for several seconds for a 600 range AE KD with some decent damage if you manage to get it off and have anyone still within range.
While not having the power of the old Tome obviously weakens guardians overall, point defense guardians are still in a good place overall with stability utilities and b/c renewed focus is such a solid alternative. However, DPS guardians are now left without a truly viable elite since most do not spec extensively into virtues, limiting the value they get from renewed focus or having to make a major utility sacrifice to use ToC or ToW effectively.
I don’t have any great proposals for solutions, I just want to get the idea out there that the book nerf hurt DPS guardians the most and has kind of pushed them into unviable territory when compared to other profession options.
I’m definitely happy with the Dev response, I just hope that we see the follow through that everyone wants to see. I think ArenaNet has a great game on their hands but showing continual, tangible progress over the next couple months I think will be key to building on the great PvP community that has established.
I was talked into playing Rift after a long MMO hiatus and their dev team were masters of public relations and kept feeding the PvP players bs month after month and never delivered. I have faith that ArenaNet will come through, especially when I have seen devs playing in tournament pvp (actually got in a match against Chaplain!) but the community can be only held up by words for so long.
Guardians are able to bring a lot to a team and can be built effectively for DPS or Support/Point defense roles.
I play both roles and if you would like to see them in action in some TPvP you can check out my vids at twitch.tv/seetherrr
DPS ele is probably one of the most challenging professions to play effectively. Top level eles however, are some of the most dangerous players in a match. Players such as Phantaram of Team Paradigm (uses scepter/dagger) or Prince of Imperial (d/d) can wreck teams thats aren’t careful.
If you are approaching the game as a progression from “quest hub” to “quest hub” then you are doing it wrong.
Learn to use condition removal and stop crying.
Spectator mode, private servers and ratings/elo of some sort, the first one combined with any of the last 2 would be great.
They are running through it if they have stability active, that’s how all guardian area denial abilities operate.
Thanks for the info guys, this is a rather disappointing revelation, I was really hoping to sport our guild emblem on my new armor.
My guild has the guild emblem and guild armorsmith. I looked at the armorsmith and he sells an item for each armor type which states it will transfer your items stats to it. So my question is, are you able to put your emblem on any armor set by buying this or does it only work on a specific armor set? Is this a PvE/WvW only feature or does it work for SPvP?
Thanks for any info.