Guild Wars 2

Warrior is easier because it’s so straight-forward. That being said, I’ve heard a lot of people get bored with their Warrior for that very same fact.

Necro has more issues atm, but is completely viable and more engaging than Warrior.

Time Warp is probably the best Elite in the game.

This has actually helped me too. I’ve had a lvl 11 Thief just languishing in a character slot because it seemed like fun but just wasn’t. Knowing they get fun at 30 makes me want to go back to him when I’m done with my Guardian.

Drapar.1589:

this game is awesome. really love it so far

But why not make more dungoens and like raids or sort of?
this would be so epic.

this game could be even better if you just add small things to it..

i dont understand why they wouldnt do it..

atleast we have and endgame then.

Pretty sure you can’t call something as massive as raids “small things.”

By raids are you referring to a bigger, longer dungeon with more players? Because if you want more players attacking a single beast this game has DEs which scale.

Even the biggest awesomest “dungeons” in GW1 were still with your standard sized party. But they were long & epic & sprawling. So is that what you want? Because I think that GW1 didn’t even launch with FOW or UW and I know they didn’t have Tombs or the Shiverpeak mines place (can’t remember name).

You can’t say we don’t have endgame. We have dungeons. We have more than Prophecies ever had. And we’re only 4 months in. Give Anet some time and we’ll see even more content. They’ve said that the spring will have patches that will include an expansion’s worth of new content.

krixis.9538:

what i want to know is

why do warriors have 19.5k hp naked at lvl 80

but

thief and ele have 10.8k hp naked at 80

Comparing 2 classes and using only HP as a measuring stick is really worthless.

Warriors have more health because their class design is to stand there and take hits. Their defense is high armor, high hp.

Thieves evade & kite & stealth. Their combat design is to not get hit. They shouldn’t need massive health pools. If they did and had stealth too and their evades, people would be crying.

Eles I’m not as familiar with, but I do know that they have a ton of slows, a whole attunement based around healing & slow (water), and one for defense (earth) that they can swap in & out of quite frequently.

Guardians are in the same boat. They have low hp, but their combat design is based around constant boons and regen and blocks. If they had the same hp as warriors they’d be even more unkillable than they can be now.

Profession roles are not dictated by your health pool or your armor class. They’re simply stats that vary between professions to create…variety. Stop screaming for all classes to be the same.

Actually, I think Anet has done a nice job for us altoholics.

They’ve made every area playable no matter how high your level. I haven’t had to repeat quite as much stuff with each new character as I have in other games.

Also, being able to up-level to 80 for WvW & PvP make it easier to get a grasp of each new profession in at least some way before dedicating 50+ hours into leveling one.

Being able to take all of the crafting skills on a single character without losing progress is a nice touch, allowing me to experiment and play without completely wasting my progress.

Only thing I’d like to see is some way to incentivise players with 80’s to play in the lower/mid level zones and the other cities. Often times, it gets empty in a level 40 zone and then again when I have to return to The Grove…nobody there. More incentive for 80’s to hang out in non-80 and non-LA zones would mean more social playing with every alt as I level.

The Dev post makes me happy. Focusing on improving the existing world & professions is what needs to be done right now, and that’s exactly what it sounds like they’re going to do.

I love the Sword. It’s been my go-to weapon since level 2. I keep GS or Hammer in my off-set for when I need big aoe, which while leveling, isn’t all that much. I find it quicker and safer to use Sword/Focus for 3 or fewer baddies. I really only break out the GS or Hammer during DEs. Sword can toss out 2x blinds, quick attacks for frequent burning procs, a gap closer, plus way more defense than GS allows (especially w/ an offhand).

Players forget that you can’t compare a 1h wep with a 2h wep because it’s not just about straight ahead damage, but the variable utility you can get out of a 1h wep paired with one of many offhands.

Kerithlan.1659:

Most champions have stability built in via Defiant, which ignores crowd control effects. This is a crowd control effect.

Of course, other players can dodge right thru the lines too. Which makes them doubley useless. The only thing they work on reliably are PvE trash. Ya know, the stuff you don’t generally need to herd up.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

How about they make guard a new f3 skill, seriously seems pointless to be a shout. Its the only way to make pets offensively viable for a longbow ranger sniping.

I liked the idea someone from another thread had about being able to temporarily stow your pet for a passive buff. I’m thinking something along the lines of a “Become The …” and you get a passive bonus based on which pet you stowed. Pet disappears, you absorb its energy, get a passive boost like swiftness from your Raven or +precision from your Jaguar, etc. You could use it like a CD if your build works like that or just when your pet is getting you into trouble or can’t reach the enemy. Couldn’t be kept up indefinitely for those “i want a petless ranger” people but would solve the issue of being gimped due to our constant reliance on our pets. Not to mention it could be really fun synergizing which pets you want for their F2 skills and which you want for their “infusion” bonus.

No.

The game requires all players to deal damage, throw out some heals, throw out some support, tank a bit, kite a bit. So while we don’t have the trinity, those roles are fulfilled to a lesser degree by a larger pool of players (ie – 1/5 the heals, but 5x the players doing it). I think the mechanics of the fights need to change, become more dynamic, require more strategy, require more synergy between classes. But the basics of how we as players are involved in combat should remain.

@OP: you used your opinions as fact to back up your other opinions. GW2 touts itself as a game without the ‘holy-trinity.’ It’s gonna stay that way. And that’s how I’m guessing most of the players want it too, since we all started playing knowing this fact. If you want the trinity, go play a game that has it. The PvE encounters may need polishing, but that’s not cause for completely changing the style of the game.

Wait, explain “teleporting.” If you’re talking about using a profession ability (like thief’s Shadowstep/Shadow Return) I don’t see that as cheating, simply utilizing game mechanics. Is there another way to teleport, like a hack?

I’ve loved my Porcine pets since day 1 and have posted many times about how great their Foraged items are. I’m glad someone else agrees.

Another good use in PvE is when fighting in melee (as I often do for a change of pace). Your pet will be right next to you so their item is easily accessible.

I will admit, as OGDeadHead said, that Forage is a bit clunky. For enemy players to be able to use it has got to be an uninteded bug. And while it’s nice letting your allies use it, that rarely happens. I’d be much happier if it replaced our F2 button with the Foraged item (like the Thief steal skill). Maybe make the buff items like the Egg or Plasma be ally-targetable.

Doesn’t Retaliation scale with the damage with which you get hit?

^ What they said.

Take a look through all 3 tiers of cultural armor. Preview them and decide what you like. If you love it, why not buy it? If not, find something cheaper.

For armor, take a look at the PvP lockers in Heart of the Mists for what armor sets you like best. They all have PvE equivelants. Then you can make an informed decision.

I’m sure it’s a result of:

- Christmas presents
- Amazon’s 1/2 off deal
- Existing players on vacation
- General game growth due to it being awesome

All buying gold to rush a character to 80 does is produce a player unfamiliar with the profession. In WvWvW, a fully geared 80 with no experience will get stomped quicker than an upleveled toon with experience & skill. Let them buy their 80s. Just more fodder for us. If they turn out to be good, well, now you have another person to party up with. Solves that “can’t find a dungeon group” issue quicker.

I feel like the player mentality has changed since GW1 launched. My favorite time was when it was just Prophecies and everyone was doing FOW, UW, & Tombs. Same dungeons over & over again, but they were fun, challenging, and had the potential for great chests/drops. Can’t even guess at how many times I ran each of them, and I had a blast every time.

Now, it feels like people only want to run fast dungeons for immediate rewards. When dungeons offer tokens upon completion, that’s all that matters. Get in, go fast, get my token, repeat. What happened to playing because it’s fun?? If it isn’t fun anymore, you’re either focused on the wrong things, or this game just isn’t for you. Cuz there’s plenty to do and we’re only 4 months in.

My favorite city is The Grove. Looks beautiful and is small enough that I can get from point A to point B without excessive waypointing or running.

I’d love to see more people in the other cities, but without incentive, nobody will go there. We need mini-games that draw players away from LA when they aren’t searching for dungeon groups. This is especially true now that the new Fractals are based in LA, clogging the chat channel with dungeon seekers instead of general chat.

What sort of things would make you feel like you achieved something? You say it feels like you’ve “done nothing” but you clearly listed a lot of things you’ve done. Played a lot of hours, amassed gear & gold I’m sure, crafting skills…do you find the game too easy? That your work didn’t require enough effort? Do you just want titles displayed on your character so everyone else knows what you’ve done? If that’s the case, you won’t have accomplished anything more, just others know how much time you put into the game. What kinds of rewards do you want? You have cool looking gear from conquering dungeons? You have a legendary (or 2) yet? People will see them and know you accomplished something worthy. Your 3000+ achivement points scream “achievements” but it seems like you want others to know of & praise you for what you’ve done more than being proud of yourself for what you’ve done.

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

moirweyn.9872:

Aw man, the short bow has a freaking unicorn on it? The long bow has flowers? What’s with all the little kid/girly looking stuff on some of these weapons? I’m gonna be spilling (virtual) blood with these not spreading love and peace.

Can we have skin options that don’t take much after we craft a legendary that looks stupid?

Come on, what’s better than spreading Doom and Destruction with the aid of your favorite unicorn Mr. Snuggles? Let your enemies tremble in fear at the sight of your mighty pink ribbons! Spread terror into their hearts with the Rainbow Of Despair! Let them shiver before your might!

You sir, have no idea how to spread true terror and chaos.

Yea…i’m with Moirweyn on this one. My BAMF ranger rocking a rainbowy flowery unicorn bow? Meanwhile other people are rocking mean looking legendaries like Twilight, Bolt & The Juggernaut.

I actually find the Guardian Elites more flavorful than most.

Renewed Focus is obviously only useful if you have your virtues buffed by traits. If that’s the case, you can benefit from spamming all of your virtues and then pick up the passive effect immediately or spam them again, gaining some potentially amazing group buffs. And oh yea, invulnerability for 3 secs is never something to turn your nose at. Immobile or not, take the 3 secs and use it to heal yourself or others or use any of your other utilities.

The Tomes are fun. And really strong. Tome of Courage’s full party heal is probably the most OP skill in the game and incredible in any situation (PvP, PvE, WvW). But it’s only a 1-time cast and #3 & #4 have longer CDs which basically means you cast it & hit 5,4,3 and then use only 2 skills strategically. So while it is all heals/defensive, you don’t become a fully functional monk healer. ToW is incredible and has a nice variety of boons and damage.

I love our Elites. The Tomes are very strong and benefit allies and RF is the rare elite that you can actually really work into a build, as opposed to ‘that strong skill that’s cool but doesn’t really have anything to do with your build as a whole’. Not to mention that Guards are (maybe?) the only profession with a trait that improves our elites. Nice.

Sword/Focus – fast attacks with a plenty of defense, & a gap closer on a low CD. plus, with my build lots of blind & vulnerability.

Also, swords look cool.

arrow speeds are faster now, which makes WvW & PvP dodging harder, so that’s good.
pet speed (both in & out of combat) is faster so they can now hit moving targets, so that’s good.
greatsword’s maul got a damage boost, so that’s good.
signet of the hunt is now a 25% speed increase (as it is for everyone w/ a speed signet), so that’s good.

conclusion: there were some really good improvements for Ranger this last patch. we’re still a pet class, but now our pet damage is actually hitting (as are our bows). still to come (hopefully) are trait retooling and adding flair to our utilities. all in all, playstyle has not changed, only our effectiveness. if you liked the playstyle before, you’ll be happier now. if you didn’t before, it’s still the same, just damage numbers more often.

Against 1 target, yea you’re probably right.

But whirling wrath blasts foes at a small range at 360 degrees. Also, you have to look at the other functions of each skill apart from the straight damage. GS gives you an aoe symbol that gives Ret not just for you but your allies too, gives you a gap-closer, a burn that can pull multiple foes to you at once, thus maximizing the GS’s abilities. it also has a light combo field, which is helpful when conditions get heavy (whirl) or inconjunction with allies.

I personally, haven’t been able to log into GW2 since the Wintersday Event began (stupid computer!!). But, judging by the forums, this event seems to be going quite well. Hardly any complaining, lotsa discussion about various games and items, a generally positive mood. Might I even say, a jovial holiday spirit? I love reading constructive, positive posts on the forum instead of endless whining.

Also, the profession adjustments and general balancing all looked pretty good to me. Classes that have needed some very serious love got just that. Major issues for classes like Rangers and Necros have been improved, a giant step forward toward total balance throughout the professions.

So while I can’t comment about my own personal opinions on this event, I’d say that ANet payed attention to the players and learned from its previous events what worked, what didn’t, and what merely needed tweeking. Props to you ANet.

I also appreciated the snippet the developers included in the notes defining the “roles” of the various professions. They outlined nicely the strengths & weaknesses of each profession, further providing justification for certain disadvantages certain players felt they were suffering, despite any advantages they may have been benefiting from.

And while I can’t log on to enjoy the new updates to my once-loved and now maybe loved-again professions, I will say again: props to you ANet for listening to your players and making changes where they needed to be made. This update has me very excited to play a game that I know I’ll be playing still this time next year. And probably the year after that as well. The mood on the forums today makes me think I’m not the only one.

Seems people only use food/tech for the +MF buff. As biggs mentioned, there are good foods that give some pretty awesome buffs other than MF. Vs Risen while in Orr will help you steamroll through them that much faster. I use both while leveling up to 80, not just for the +XP buff, but things like swiftness after a kill make leveling that much faster. People shoot for max gear & drop tons of gold for it. Why not a few copper for stat boosts?

I’m an altoholic when it comes to MMOs so I’ve been down your path a lot.

I don’t know what you did when you leveled your 1st 80, but I’m sure you didn’t do everything in the game. Each new toon I roll I make sure it’ll have a different story, a different Order, and usually a different race. It changes things up a bit, and directs you to different maps while leveling. Don’t do the same map zones you did with past toons.

Join an active all-level guild and ask if anyone wants company while questing. Go on guild dungeon runs. As you level, try different roles in the dungeons.

Don’t forget food and crystals for increased XP for kills.

You asked for non-crafting, but I went from 2-16 getting my cooking from 1-400 and it only cost me about 1g. I had a lot of the mats in my bank already from leveling my other toons. TP costs are higher now, but you can still do it for probably <3g. Don’t forget to use boosters while crafting.

Not sure what profession you’re working on but don’t do warrior or ranger, as I hear they’re the 2 more ‘boring’ professions to play. Give mesmer, ele, or engineer a shot. they seem more dynamic.

Seems that can help you a little, but if it’s really just the fact that you don’t have all your traits & utilities you’re kinda screwed. The only option is PvP or get to 80. Do what you can to make the journey more enjoyable. Good luck.

If you like (mostly) melee, heavy armor, lotsa buffs: Warrior
If you like (mostly) range, medium armor, using pets: Ranger

Both are straight-forward and easy to level in PvE.

Warrior variety comes with lotsa available weapons.
Ranger variety comes from all the pets you can shoose from.

I said ‘mostly’ because warriors do have ranged weapons & rangers do have melee weapons, both of which are actually quite viable in PvE too.

I never felt underpowered or outmatched while leveling my Guardian. While it’s true that Guardians truly shine in group play, solo they are fantastic too and can be very hearty. Focus or Shield along with a shout or 2 and a couple dodges and you can shrug off just about every attack on you. Not to mention passive regen & aegis every 40 secs.

My 1st profession was a Ranger and it does take time adjusting your combat style from ranged to melee. But once you do I think you’ll love Guardian. They really have so many more options than Rangers as far as useful utility skills & weapons.

Guardian.

Tho I’ll probably switch back to my Ranger if it’s ever fixed.

1000 Healing Power nets 180 hp heal….that seems extremely meager to me. That formula is just for Faithful Strike, but the “HealPwr x 0.18” is a constant for skills that heal afaik. I guess it can add up for Guardians, since we have so many heal abilities. But it seems really meager for other professions without so many heal abilities. Just me?

Simple…they just climb into their golems and crank the heat up.

Noviere.7309:

I guess we have to complain about something, right?

Yea pretty much this.

It’s common knowledge that Asura are the smart race, the sciencey race, the experimenters and builders. For the Asura to be on the forefront of any discovery or design or invention just seems logical. I could ramble on and justify this argument but really, I just don’t have the energy to defend such a silly issue.

Shikigami.4013:

Of course I don’t mind if they add anything, be it staff, sword or whatever.

But saying that “staff seems neglected” is pretty odd, considering that during the Halloween event only two unique full weapons with halloween skins dropped – Arachnophobia (a bow) and The crossing which was a staff…..

I was thinking the same thing. (The Crossing was awesome)

Until I looked at the available staff skins and cringed at the awfulness when compared to say, swords? I’m just glad I’m not a caster cuz I would do all I could to avoid staves…dey ugly!

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

No, Tixx’s airship flies very high. And fast. It is worth noting, however, that we could feasibly make this happen. I’m just not sure we get much gameplay out of it since the airship is too big to fly low enough to be interacted with.

This would be epic, watching a huge airship cruise across the sky. Isn’t there a 12hr downtime between cities? I can run across all of Tyria in less than 12 hours so i don’t think Tixx’s airship flies all that fast. A big golem shaped shadow trudging across the land would be neat, especially if festive music followed. We could have roving Wintersday parties beneath it. Like a pub crawl, but a city crawl. BYONA (bring your own norn ale).

The set-up is the risky part. After that, it’s just log, mine, bank, log. If you can set all your unused/forgotten characters up there it’s mad fast ore.

I used sword/torch while leveling till about 40 and loved it. The #4 skill deals a ton of aoe burning damage with a relatively low CD. I almost never used #5 though because of it being a channeled skill, but its strength is in condition removal.

Torch is obviously great for any burning build. However, since burning stacks duration and not intensity, it’s not as effective in groups as say, poison or bleeding. And while burning is the strongest condition, it is our only condition. I find that traited into Radiance & Virtues I can easily keep burning rolling on an enemy using VoJ without needing Torch.

After 40 I felt a bit too squishy without any defensive weapon skills on hand. Sword gave me a blind and a projectile reflect, but I needed more so swapped for focus.

That’s my $0.02

Reihert.1509:

I’m always with greatsword… wich is… the class symbol for warriors.

Isn’t the warrior icon a helm? Nit-pickin’

Anyway, I agree with the OP. I almost always use focus off-hand. Its abilities are fantastic (3x block, blind, regen & both deal damage). Shields aren’t bad, but just don’t measure up to foci. Focus #5 lets me stay in the fight and absorb some hits. Shield feels more like a retreat skill.

Welcome to Tyria Sora. Ignore the forums. 80% of it is complainers. In-game you’ll find many people who obviously love playing GW2. It’s very different from GW1, but a blast nonetheless.

Everyone is whining so much. It’s a business strategy to get more players. Don’t we all want that anyway? It’s a friggin hat you’ll wear for 10 mins and then forget about because NOBODY WEARS TOWNCLOTHES. Everyone feels so entitled, like Anet owes you something in addition to the game they provide for your 1-time monetary contribution. I bought the regular ed, and get a little jealous everytime I hit H and see that Summon Mistfire is greyed out. But I don’t think Anet owes it to me to give me a handout cuz “I want it and others have it and we all have to be the same!” Get a tissue.

At first when I saw Commanders i thought “that guy’s just showing off his bank account.”
Now I know that it’s important/useful in WvW and just see them as anybody else in the world. They can clutter up my minimap in cities though and I’d like the ability to toggle them on my map on/off. Otherwise, no problems.

In my opinion, MF gear is there for trash. When you’re running around Orr node farming or during easy trash in dungeons. However, when grouped with other players for dungeons, use your real gear. Don’t make the group suffer because you want a better drop. The effectiveness of a whole team with full MF gear vs real decked out gear can make the difference between a wipe and a win or a really long drawn out win vs a quick win that gives u more time for another dungeon run.

Narkosys.5173:

cc eva has stated that server status is directly related to the accounts on the server not to people playing or concurrency.

This is good because it keeps players from having to deal with login queues at peak times. But there needs to be another system in place to deal with inactive accounts. I understand not wanting to have more accounts on a server than it can handle if everyone were on at the same time. But it’s impractical because MMO populations fluctuate a lot and right now inactive accounts are making servers appear full when in fact they aren’t.

I suggest keeping the server status based on accounts assigned to it, but adding an open playable slot for every ‘inactive’ account linked to the server as well. What Anet deems ‘inactive’ is up to them, but this would seriously help. So for example (and with small simple numbers): if a server capacity is 100 accounts and it has 100 accounts associated to it (listed as ‘full’), but 30 of them are inactive for 2 months, the server will now list itself as ‘high pop’ and allow 30 new accounts to move to it. Anet can’t disassociate accounts from their servers simply because they haven’t been playing lately. So this is the only solution I can see.

I see what you’re getting at but I don’t like it. It feels too much like warrior banners (planting a stationary item down for boring stat boost) and having a single flair ability. As it is, pets have bugs yes, but they also add a lot of flavor imo. They have unique F2 abilities, as well as 3 other skills not player-controlled that add flavor to a ranger’s attacks.
What’s needed is simply a bug fix for our pets (and spirits since you mentioned them).

Don’t know how to obtain those, but it has the same skin as The Lover, precursor to The Dreamer legendary.

fantastic gallery & information! keep it up Dulfy!

I’d like to see this as well. I have the book on 2 alts but have since rolled a new guardian and he’s become my primary toon (so much fun!). but alas, no snazzy back slot item.

I’ve heard a lot of complaints that players don’t want to take a waypoint within the same map to get to a DE because the reward won’t even pay for the cost of the port. That’s sorta ridiculous imo.