Guild Wars 2

Despite being a major problem in WvW, Dragonhunter will likely never see any important changes until it can find a meta role in sPvP. Stuff like the duration of LB5 and the lack of counterplay for Hunter’s Verdict are real issues to be addressed, but Anet would have to reconsider how they balance the game in order for this to be finally sorted.

Continuum Split is only questionable for double casting elites. Apart from that it’s not really an issue.

Power Mesmer does too much damage? I suppose power burst still hits like a truck if the Mesmer lands every single part of the multi-hit combo needed to produce a competitive burst. You can do equivalent damage with far less skill rotations on other classes currently, so I don’t think power Mesmer burst is much of an issue at all.

…….you had to make real sacrifices in your build decisions and active sustain was all about using a few things well, instead of just using lots of things all the time.

I guess this is essentially what subsequent elite specialisations will do, but I do like the idea of being denied base class weapon access when using an elite specialisation.

What I’d like to see:

- Centaur and Skritt camps repurposed or made significant somehow. I’d happily see them given mercenary status so there’s a reason to spend time in that part of the map.

- Something in place of where the orb used to be. Maybe put another objective there or just bring the orb back in some fashion.

What I don’t want to see:

- The new upgrade system. It still needs tweaking to meet the demands of the WvW populace. Removing the gold sink was great, but entirely removing the choices made for upgrades has effectively removed part of WvW – which I find really odd.

- The DBL waypoint system. Spending the time establishing a stronger foothold in an enemy borderland was a major accomplishment and provided a very clear and important aim for WvW players – this was signified by waypoint construction. We’re currently limited to only having a non-constructable waypoint in our closest keep which just isn’t very interesting at all. Again, the new system has just removed content from WvW.

I also observed how zergs seem more likely to chase roamers now. I think it’s a combination of: 1) damage is so high that it’s very easy to kill a roamer and not significantly waste time, 2) PPK, and 3) they’re just excited to see an enemy player to interact with between their hollow PvDing.

I think this will be relieved when Anet finally start to take stuff away from Scrapper. I imagine Defense Field could see either a cooldown increase or a duration decrease, maybe something will be removed or changed from Hammer too. I imagine both Alchemy and Scrapper traitlines are up for the chop in places although this isn’t particular relevant to projectile reflect.

Definitely new game time. There’s so many exciting and interesting games available right now (unless you only play MMOs). Your gaming time is your leisure time, so you should be enjoying it.

Reaper still manages to actually maintain its core weakness as a class though despite some really silly decisions with the elite specialisation.

However, Dragonhunter is all over the place which is indicative of its poor design. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to make it acceptable in the context of WvW, which is likely why balance decisions are mostly influenced by sPvP.

Welcome to GW2 post-HoT. What you likely saw was just the sum total of all the power creep that is attributable to the addition of far too much active and passive sustain options on classes and associated WvW mechanics. Don’t worry though, damage is also so high and easily deliverable now that you just have to get one of two CoRs in between the damage immunity to kill five or more people.

Well of course the only thing that probably needs some adjustment is continuum split and moa. But Anet have a tendency to nerf the peripherals and the underused, so quite literally anything could be up for the chop.

Removing direct damage from an attack entirely, just means we can use it without being revealed and that attack is nerfed severely in a hybrid setup – neither of those things are good.

I like your suggestion for Veil though – that could very interesting for WvW, although it would perpetuate Mes/Chrono utility bot nature somewhat.

I’m glad to see someone else who dislikes the addition of this guild buff. It just makes things tedious and dull by drawing out the relevance of NPCs. If this buff was only available if you’re outmanned it would be fine – but it can be used by a server that is dominating others by sheer number at which point it just makes things far too oppressive for a smaller population server on the offensive. Overall, it’s just another in a long line of unnecessary additions to WvW.

I’ve honestly won against other condishatter Chronos by simply bursting them after they have bursted me. My counter burst applies condis and cleanses their condi burst, whilst their shatters are still on cooldown from their initial burst.

Moa or its interactions with F5 might see some changes, but apart from that, I don’t foresee much in the way of nerfs. However, Anet nerfed some really random things last time (that glamour resistance nerf) so we might be unpleasantly surprised.

As for buffs, we all know what is in need of buffs – every single off-hand except shield – but likely we will see buffs to certain power orientated traits and also more sceptre stuff of course

Condi Reaper will likely see a bit of a chop in a few spots, but I can’t see condi output of Mes being touched at all. You might see a change to Moa or how it interacts with F5 however.

It was the March and June 2015 updates that were the nail in the coffin for my guild. We could no longer bust zergs because shared stability was gone in an instant and then the Specialisation update just removed many of the weaknesses of each class making it far easier for zerglings to create optimised builds with high damage and high survivability.

Then HoT hit, Hammer Revenants and Dragonhunters topped up the oppressive nature of the pirate ship and battles in WvW were irreversibly damaged to the point that no one in my guild plays anymore.

Nothing epitomises the sorry state of combat in WvW more than DH mechanics. I have been downed by the damage of a stack of traps from full health before the animations of the traps have even materialised. This happened to me twice within the same WvW play session and both times there wasn’t a single DH around and I fully resurrected myself. I was downed by someone who wasn’t even there – just eugh. Then there’s Spear of Justice that will likely not materialise for you on screen until you’ve been pulled out of your dodge. And then yes there’s the infamous Hunter’s Ward. It’s not bad enough that we now have a ranged Ring of Warding, but it also, for the most part, is invisible.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg of problems in WvW and why I really don’t think this game mode is salvageable.

I’m guessing we’re talking PvP here, but it’s not just Revenant that makes Berserker irrelevant – it’s Scrapper too. Current meta Scrapper is basically Hambow but with so many more ways to survive and completely negate damage. Anet has to nerf both Herald and Scrapper if Berserker is ever to be relevant.

If some of the more powerful Guild tactics and buffs were only usable whilst the outnumbered buff is present then it would be fine. But when stuff like Iron Guards, Hardened Siege, banners and chilling fog are used by a dominate server it’s just too oppressive for the weaker server. Even if the number of players on a map is roughly the same, these mechanics begin to cause problems by making elements of a siege more tedious than they need be.

Although locked to EB, Airship defense and Cloaking Waters need a rethink entirely.

Warrior, Guardian and Thief are all being denied meta roles by Herald. Actually for Warrior it’s due to both Herald AND Scrapper (the new hambow).

Azukas.1426:

Finally found the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS9W0R25ZK4

Took me awhile, but this video got glamour nerfed..

I can’t believe we used to die to stuff like that

I remember putting portals at choke points and then staff eles in zergs would die to like 4 stacks of confusion because nobody paid any attention to anything. I remember people complaining about it in chat on my server and when told about condition cleansing they would get irritated that they had to allocate part of their build to removing conditions. The game was still pretty young and very few people (including myself) knew how to play in WvW

But a one in three chance of being blinded every second for the five seconds we attacked the purple egg was too much for us to handle. After >3 years of oppressive RNG blind we have finally been liberated and the purple egg will no longer ruin this game!

Yes parts of the map are gorgeous. I particularly like the dune area above the fire keep and the cavern area around the north east camp. Also Air keep is pretty good looking despite being a chore to navigate.

I’d love for the DBL map to be redesigned to incorporate larger areas of made up of open rolling dunes.

Anet have made some poor choices with some condition applying traits, sigils and runes but generally condition application is tied to skills which are subject to the same or similar cooldowns as a power variant. For example, current hybrid/condi Mes gets almost all of its condition application from shatters. Instead of being hit with high upfront damage you are instead ladden with conditions of which you can then mitigate the damage with cleansing. Dodging both power and hybrid/condition shatters is the same.

Also, as condition damage is not attenuated outside of a few traits on specific classes, the stat that counters condition application can be commonly be thought of as vitality. Healing over time can also be thought of as an anti-condition mechanic if it proceeds per second. Then we all know about cleansing and resistance etc.

However, you do touch upon something else that’s certainly quite interesting – specific resistances to certain conditions. It would certainly be cool if this existed as something separate to class choice – as we already have % reduction traits across most classes. It would be risky though, as it’s only recently that condition builds are gaining relevance in sPvP and only really with Necro and Mesmer (sort of). Even these builds are using Mercenary’s as it’s a better choice than a tanky condi amulet.

It will get me a bit interested in the game mode again, but Anet still have to address the damage and CC issues in WvW if they ever hope to make combat in this game mode fun again.

I see what you mean with number 6. As there has been no player interaction in choosing the upgrade route, it can feel like you’re simply competing against a timer rather than a server’s work. It was improved with the introduction of the dolyak count, but I do agree that it needs a little something else to bring back the player participation.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

There have been times when condition builds were plentiful but this is not one of those times.

So much this. Conditions in WvW have never been an issue outside of those unfortunate 1v1s where you don’t have enough cleansing. When a battle begins to scale up in numbers and diversity of classes with copious AoE cleanse, the conditions users become almost completely superfluous. Anyway, condi food was already nerfed so nothing else needs to be changed.

The real issue in WvW right now is in fact direct damage or specifically, ranged damage.

Thief will never make it back into the meta until Shiro is nerfed – which is sad. Although it could be worse – Warriors won’t make in back into the meta until Scrapper, Revenant and Druid are nerfed.

When WvW offered fun fights like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsA6Iaym-Yo

Look at how people actually fought in melee range and how stat choice in WvW actually meant something (super duper tanky/support Guardian).

I started to like the game less when more of these visual changes came into place. Everything has just started to look so anaemic now. The game is losing its flare on the visual front.

Most of the recurrent guilds of the past 3 years on my server have evacuated WvW for promising new lands, so a server merge would be totally fine these days.

None of the skills/traits used by the Thief in that video have direct damage values so reveal is never applied. It’s why Anet put the direct damage on Choking Gas as it was quite abusive.

The problem is, if Anet put diect damage values on some of the traps they would simply never be used as the risk of being revealed prematurely as a Thief can be devastating. But unfortunately this means that you get horrible builds like the one the OP came up against. Just have to live with it and bet on rarely ever seeing it because it’s super boring to play – the guy in the video will probably never play it again.

The best counter to it is simply cleansing and moving away. If you want to kill it, get a Chrono to drop a double Gravity Well on the area of the traps and then nuke the wells. A static field immediately around you will also disrupt the Thief. I generally find they have no stun breakers so you can CC chain them to death.

On the flip side – as a signet it is now something you can track on a Mesmer’s buff bar and therefore know when/if a Moa Morph might be coming your way.

If the signet animation playing sooner makes it better to evade for some, then by all means go ahead. But I don’t think it will really help those who are already really struggling against Moa Morph.

I’d quite like to see PvP amulets implemented into WvW. Damage in WvW is just way too high so maybe this will reduce it somewhat. It would also allow new players to get into WvW as soon as they prefer without the fear of stat disadvantages other than those gained from food buffs, sigils and rune selection.

It’s still detrimental to the game mode and should just be removed or replaced. The stealth buff in the desert borderland is good because it’s localised and easy to counter by just taking a shrine. The fountain stealth buff is just silly because it allows entire zergs to move from stonemist to their chosen location with no threat of being spotted. How is that interesting or exciting for anyone involved? I didn’t even realise the fountain could be destroyed – surely that was a good thing?

Anyway, it’s just another feature that gets in the way of the player-player interaction that is the foundation of the game mode.

Is it the hybrid Chrono build you are having trouble with or a full condi build utilising sceptre? It’s important to know what sort of build you are fighting in order to know where the damage is coming from.

gennyt.3428:

Those are extinct.

They sure are, although I have seen some 15-20 comps, made up of mostly Hammer Revenants, Dragonhunters, Druids and Necromancers. Basically just a small pirate ship.

Massive ranged damage. Little to no coordination needed. Boring and terrible for WvW.

Someone posting an edited video of them winning duels is hardly evidence of any sort of imbalance. Power Reaper Vs. Power Chrono is a fun matchup. Can go either way depending on the individual skill of the players involved and the environment of the fight. Open field fights are mostly in favour of the Chrono, but using axe can somewhat reduce the risk of being kited to death by the Chrono.

Mesmer is way way down the list of things to worry about in the WvW roaming scene – if indeed WvW still has a “scene” because it’s just terrible right now.

PU actually does very little to facilitate a fight as the burst rotations will be exactly the same regardless. It’s mostly useful for disengaging where chaining stealth is actually beneficial.

Sounds like you’re likely having more trouble with CS and Mantra of Distraction which yes is pretty darn hard to counter at times, but – take it from someone who plays other classes in WvW – Mesmer needs everything it can get right now to be relevant at any level in WvW. Herald, Dragonhunter, Druid, Scrapper, Dagger Daredevil and condi Reaper will eat you alive in small scale roaming or larger WvW fights.

It certainly comes across as another one of the many skills on Revenant that seems to have been balanced around the lack of weapon swapping.

It’s quite funny in WvW. Phase Traversal + Surge of the Mists is often enough to completely down someone who is unaware and without stability.

Since the June specialisation update, as a zerker staff ele you can completely clear a wall of players and siege with a single Meteor shower. Large AoE radius and very high damage (7-8.5K meteors – more than pre-ferocity) for almost 10 seconds. The random nature of the meteor landing and long cast time are superfluous now that each meteor hits so hard. It used to be a strong large AoE radius denial skill that put pressure on people defending (was balanced) but now, it just destroys everything and you can easily down low-medium health pool classes with just 2-3 meteors.

When/if Anet ever get around to addressing damage inflation in WvW, then it will be substantially easier to defend in a traditional way, that is to say, without tactivator nonsense and other associated buffs that make sieges tedious.

Lack of reliable personal condi removal options on Revenant is poorly balanced at present. Expect to see some buffs in this area very soon.

It’s actually quite humbling when someone who mains a class is able to discuss when they think something could do with a nerf. Some people are more interested in the health of the game than the relative ease of which they can become successful with their chosen main.

I think for now, reverting to the ABL might actually be wise until the DBL is refined.

I was a big proponent of the DBL for a good 3 months after launch. But the more I began to understand the layout and mechanics of the map, the more I realised how flawed its design actually is compared to the ABL. In particular, there are major structural and pacing issues with the DBL map. The flow of battle is constantly punctuated by unnecessary geographical obstacles that simply isolate players. I’d hear of battles where I’m needed or see orange swords, but by the time I’ve navigated around a few cliff faces and perhaps had to destroy a barricade – all the fun stuff had passed me by.

Daishi.6027:

3. Have an option to remain in current time line.
-With increased duration have it be required that intentional activation will allow the reset OR the curtain must be broken (with some visible indication of HP on the UI). Along with the aforementioned elite skill activation.

I’ve always wanted something like this. Being able to choose to ignore continuum shift in moments where returning to your previous position is disadvantageous despite the cooldown reduction.

Blackjack.5621:

It was already broken with the regular cooldown.

Come on man. It really wasn’t. I like to think that after >3 years we’ve perhaps learnt as a community to deal with a single Moa morph every 180 seconds. It’s only with its interaction with continuum split that it’s become questionably broken.

Some sensible suggestions alongside some unnecessary ones. Seems a missed opportunity to not include Dragonhunter though. Longbow, traps, virtues and traits (Hunter’s Determination especially) all need to be addressed.

I can see how a double Moa could really dampen your mood, but everything else about the current meta(ish) hybrid Chrono is perfectly manageable if you just take a moment to consider what’s happening whilst fighting them.

WvW is all about instantly killing each other now. A Gunflame Warrior or a Staff/Sword Revenant could do the same damage in a similar time frame. You could be moving across a part of the map with no enemies but get instantly downed by a stack of DH traps. There’s no interesting fights to be had in WvW anymore. I recommend not playing it.