Guild Wars 2

You should reroll.

colesy.8490:

Solkard.5136:

Warriors, Rangers, and Guardians are good martial professions that can easily be solo’d and still useful in groups. A Guardian’s role becomes more support focused than DPS when in a group though.

DPS and support are not mutually exclusive, a competent guard will run either 10/30/0/30/0 or 10/30/0/5/25 while in full berserker, giving you strong DPS while at the same time being able to support your team efficiently with condition removal and might stacking or faster consecrations.

I did not mean they couldn’t dps, just that they would be expected to take on support duties as well. I have a friend who plays caster classes but refuses to do anything beyond dps because he doesn’t like to multi-task.

For PvP,

Mesmers excel in a small area and small skirmishes. Their illusions are powerful, but the ai isn’t smart enough to function well in larger areas and fights. sPvP or WvW roaming.

Thief excel with large areas to maneuver in stealth. They have a much harder time in smaller areas where enemies can spam AoE to still hit them while they’re in stealth. WvW

Engineers are versatile enough to do well in either situation but are not innately dominant. How you do will depend entirely on your own tactical proficiency in picking the right kits to run with and the skill to use them effectively.

Isn’t tooltip damage pre-armor reduction though? It would be one thing if healing amount didn’t match, but it’s hard to claim direct damage amount is incorrect when it’s susceptible to reduction by your target’s defenses.

Is there a way to actively target friendly units with direct attacks, as opposed to targeting with the ground or a nearby enemy with AoE? I ask because staff Water 1 auto attacks would be nice for healing if it could be directly targeted at an ally.

So… your friend who hasn’t played the game agreed with you while you were complaining about something? That sounds more like social courtesy than unbiased vindication.

The “tone” of a person’s written message is first and foremost determined by the reader. If someone thinks there is some sort of hidden subtext attacking them, they should first examine themselves, as they are the ones drawing horns and mustache on their mental image of the other guy.

I find it funny when people try to claim the “high ground” in such exchanges, as if they weren’t just as thin skinned or emotionally vulnerable as the other person. Letting themselves be drawn into a hostile exchange simply shows how “sensitive” they are as well. Why? Because they didn’t just walk away. They had to get the last word in or used the situation as justification to unleash their own pent up frustrations.

Things devolve because both parties are “sensitive”. One person thinks they are being insulted and lashes out, causing the other person to lash back because they feel insulted.

Elementalist, they have 4 flavors.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Baladir.2736:

We have a Renewing Stamina and Zepher’s Focus that give us alot of endurance for dodges.

So do other classes. I can pretty much keep Vigor up for like 90-95% of a fight without really sacrificing anything on my other character. So i again dont count dodging as a reason for the low health, as all classes can do this and most(if not all) have access to Vigor

Which classes would those be? The Necro class you seem so fond of has NO dependable vigor sources at all.

The only other classes that have access to sustainable vigor boosts are classes that have similarly low hp.

Guardians only have 10k base hp at lvl 80.
Mesmers have cloth armor and lack the constant self heals of Eles.
Rangers must juggle bird pets or take a crit hit.

anyways, list of how to grant vigor is here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigorous_Training

Just for that, we’re hiding your name on other people’s screen’s too. :P

I know the devs like to throw out how many skills we have with all the attunements. But has anyone evaluated how many of the 20 skills are either worthless or redundant versions of another skill in a different attunement? How much of the “balancing” the class received of late, do you think is really just an attempt to increase the value of filler, by devaluing more useful skills?

Which weapon set are you interested in? Since you can only have one set equipped at a time, there are very specific playstyles that go with each.

Or rather, what is your preferred playstyle?

ThiBash.5634:

Staff has AoE blinds and Magnetic Aura, focus has invulnarability and 2 anti projectile skills, and daggers allow you to get close quickly so your melee defense (Shocking Aura) will work.

First, the class does not have an alternate weapon set for access to all different skills spread across different weapon loadouts you mentioned.

Second, staff’s ranged counters are Lightening Surge and Magnetic Aura. Magnetic Aura is 5 second duration on a 30 sec cooldown, and does not seem to work against all types of ranged attacks (ie. Air Raider’s channeled Arc Lightening) .

Lightening Surge’s blind only cancels one damage application. This makes it ok for telegraphed one shots that you could dodge anyways, but drastically less useful against channeled multi-strike attacks that can not be wholly dodged and are commonly also homing attacks.

Third, focus’ Swirling Winds is the only one I feel is a viable ranged defense skill, but using a focus sacrifices a lot of damage output and mobility, which is a problem for the class because we can’t swap to another weapon set during combat.

Lastly, getting into melee range is not the issue against ranged attacks, as our weakness is our inability to sustain our own hp long enough to finish a fight, prior to sizable investment into the traits lines. Once you get deep into Arcane and Water traits, you get a butt load of healing. But until then, you are made of tissue paper.

ThiBash.5634:

There’s a 10 point trait in Arcana that will give you vigor on critical hits, which in practice will give you permanent vigor.

Earliest level to get Renewing Stamina is 20, and that’s forgoing other self-healing traits that would add more reliable survivability.

I stand by my previous statement that the class is only really solo viable once you start unlocking traits. Until then, its survivability is inferior to that of other classes, and requires very fickle hit and run tactics to accomplish what other classes can just barrel through.

On a side note, anyone else concerned that the class could easily be completely negated if the devs ever just futz’d with the Arcane or Water trait lines? Are there any other classes that are so completely dependent on one or two trait lines to be viable?

Warriors, Rangers, and Guardians are good martial professions that can easily be solo’d and still useful in groups. A Guardian’s role becomes more support focused than DPS when in a group though.

Necromancer is a easy solo caster profession and can bring good sustained DPS in groups.

The other professions are still mostly viable, but can have inconsistent power progression, making them somewhat difficulty to play initially.

imweird.3197:

Ok, sweet. How about PVE and dungeons?

Not sure about dungeons because I haven’t done any either. PvE Mesmer can be a bit annoying because your illusions disappear when the target they were cast on dies, forcing you to restart whatever combo you were trying to build up. But since you are playing together, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Fast play options are Warrior, Elementalist, Engineer, or Mesmer.

Warrior gets strong very fast.

Elementalist is even squishier than Thief until you start investing in traits.

Engineer will feel incomplete until you start unlocking gadgets and kits.

Mesmer supposedly also have issues at the beginning, but I haven’t gotten that far with them yet.

Greatsword damage for Mesmer is based on range. Tell her to take a few steps back because it does more damage when farther away; it’s kind of like the longbow for Rangers.

Mesmers aren’t great in WvW zergs but are good in small duels if you guys plan to play as roamers.

I think it’s due to the healing. I’ve noticed while playing Necro that the blood fiend is almost always the first to be targeted. I couldn’t say how the AI prioritizes agro, but you could try doing nothing but healing next time and see if that still draws you agro, even though you’re not hitting the boss.

Every weapon? Even Scepter and Focus?

There are some X/X/X/X/20 builds out there too.

I’ve yet to see one that’s not at least X/X/X/10/20 though.

Just a though, what if they changed the base attunement timer to 10 sec and change the Arcane trait bonus to 1% per point? Would that allow for more variety in builds?

Generally, you need dagger off-hand in PvP to maintain mobility and burst damage. You might be able to pull off focus in WvW, as long as you’re running with a large group. Otherwise, even a staff offers more mobility than focus.

The core of the class’s survivability is based around mobility and self heal/cleanse. The actual defensive skills of the class are not sustainable, and thus unreliable as a means of surviving enemy attack.

I wish your pets at least scaled up in size like Ranger pets. Anything but an Asura MM Necro looks ridiculous towering over their minions.

In general, or with this specific class?

Individual trait slots can be switched on the fly, as can your equipment loadout.

Your trait spec seems optimal for team play and support. If that is your goal, there’s not much to improve on. A more solo spec could do with 10-20 less in Water, distributed between Earth and Air, or all into Air for the “Fresh Air” build.

I think he is just trying to level up, in which case staff is probably one the safest. Fire is good burst damage. Earth and Air are nice for kiting. Water is pretty much skippable until you start investing in traits.

PvE:
One point I’ve accepted is that the class is a lot weaker starting out than other classes. You must pretty much use hit and run tactics if you play solo. Every other class I’ve been able to either roll or tank through enemies head on. Ele is the only class that I have to worry about pulling out of a fight if I accidentally pull too many enemies.

Specifically, you are very weak against other ranged enemies. you have very few defense options against ranged enemies. Your few defensive skills that would be useful are short in duration and on relatively long cooldowns. You also aren’t able to maintain vigor for consistent dodging either. I would not recommend taking on groups of ranged enemies.

Against melee, you have the option of kiting.

I think the Devs need to re-evaluate how they perceive the attunement swapping mechanics, as they are currently balancing all of the class’ performance around it. We can’t swap between weapon sets because each attunement is seen as a new set of weapons. Yet, because all the attunements are expected to synergize together, they all function in the same capacity. Even worse, rather than balance each attunement’s cooldowns as its own weapon set, they are balanced as if you have concurrent access to all 20 skills; contradictorily treating all 4 attunements are if they were one weapon set.

If the class is viable at all, it is solely due to the synergy of passives offered by its trait lines. Playing the class becomes a grueling experience as acquiring and unlocking trait points is much more difficult than slotting in a new weapon or just roaming for skill points.

I remember in the recent Dev video, they mentioned that they knew people had concerns about not being able to just use one attunement, and stated you were kind of expected to swap between all you attunements to be viable.

If that is the case, why do we still need to spec into Arcane to reduce the attunement cooldown? If it’s considered a core mechanic to constantly be switching, shouldn’t the cooldown be short to begin with?

None of the other classes are “expected” to constantly swap between weapon sets to be viable. As someone has already stated, swapping weapon sets for other classes allow them to adapt to different combat styles (ie. melee and ranged). An Ele’s skills in a given weapon set are all designed for one type of combat. A D/D Ele would need to escape from combat entirely, so that they could slot in a scepter or staff, if the flow of battle suddenly changed from short to long ranged engagement. In that sense, an Ele swapping attunements is not the same as every other class swapping weapon sets.

The only other class in a similar situation is the Engineer, but they at least have the use of kits that function as alternate weapon sets, and can be slotted and used independently of their equipped weapon set.

While the Ele’s skills do come with a variety of utility effects, that they are all balanced around a specific range/style dictated by the one weapon set you are stuck with in combat. This effectively limits the class’ versatility.

Until they fix Necro marks, Eles will still be useful for condi removal. Mesmers also have that portal thingy that coordinated zergs love to jump through.

Know what would be funny? If the other team was 5 Eles.

Kalarchis.8635:

Nothing we excel at? In 15-20 seconds I can:

- Apply swiftness, might, protection, soothing mist, and regeneration to a large area and heal everyone up to full and remove all of their conditions.

- Inflict burning, bleeding, blindness, cripple, chill, immobilize, and stun to a large area with lots of DoT spells, which do plenty of damage I assure you.

- Manually burst any field I want.

- Create constant combos with other players.

I can do all of that at the same time. And you’re complaing about feeling ineffective? What?

The issue is did you intend to do all that at the same time, or did most of that just happen as a side effect of you going through a rotation that a macro button on a gaming keyboard/mouse could have done?

Doing a bunch of a stuff is cool, but being able to do something when and where you actually need it, is better. In most instances, inflicting conditions is better than not inflicting conditions, but how many of those stuns, blinds, cripples were actually used at max potential and how many were tossed out “just because”?

If ever there was an encounter that required you to not inflict blindness, chill, or dropping a combo field, could you manage it without severely crippling your performance? The class has effective variety, it lacks controlled versatility.

I feel that the class has conflicting design issues.

Each element is set up to serve a different function for the class; fire for offense, earth for defense, water for healing, air for mobility. But rather than attuning to each element uniquely as a situation dictates, the skills themselves seem balanced around manically switching between each element and just jamming every button as quickly as possible, before switching to the next.

The end result is that while the class does have a lot of utility built into their various skills, they are for the most part wasted to just eek out a bit more dps.

I meant as a transfer destination to make your home server.

Before anyone suggests TC, please be aware that it is listed as full 99.999999999% of the time. I got the game last month and spent 2 weeks trying to get on there before I gave up and went elsewhere.

Have you considered taking 10 out of Water, putting it into Stone, and slotting Stone Splinters for the damage bonus? Seems like it would be useful for your D/D loadout. You could swap it for Serrated Stones when you use staff or Obsidian Focus when using a scepter (Stone Shards and Arc Lightening are channeled).

Adamantium.3682:

Solkard.5136:

…

I’ve just started the class, but it seems rather lacking of any real burst damage ability.

This comes later I promise. Using a Zerker Static Discharge build, you can easily drop 30k damage in a couple seconds even without the best available gear.

From what I understand, the SD build is based around a trait spec that is considered the “glass cannon” build. I would hope the class has some core abilities that would provide some of that aspect without the need of specialization that would lock out other builds.

I find it hard to kill PvE enemies that can heal or regen, simply because I can’t burst out enough damage to overcome their health gain. I generally end up having to change my loadout for heavy conditions, so that I can stack enough bleed and burning to widdle through their replenishing health.

Given the aesthetics of the backpacks and deployables of the class, I would suggest Norn, Human, or Charr for race. Asura technology looks a lot “slicker” than the patchwork styling of what the class drops down.

As you are leveling, unless you’re into pvp and will be charging into matches as early as you can, I would suggest unlocking all the kits first. Where as other classes swap between weapons to change up their playstyles, Engineers are much more reliant on abilities from their kits for versatility.

Early on, turrets are rather lackluster compared to the pets, minions, and summons of other classes. They are remarkably effective at drawing aggro, but will only survive one or two hits, so are generally only effective as decoys.

Flamethrower is excellent for solo PvE roaming. Grenade kit is good for group events. Bomb kit I find really effective for kiting melee enemies; just drop them as you run and the AI will walk right into them.

I’ve just started the class, but it seems rather lacking of any real burst damage ability.

I think engineers are the most unconventional of the classes. Their weapon abilities are relatively weak and limited, compared to other classes. Rather, their potency comes largely from unlocking new kits and deployables. And unlike Elementalists that can switch between attunements in combat, an Engineer’s abilities are tied to their utilities, which must be carefully prepared before engaging.

SlowSteady.9483:

Solkard.5136:

TC dropped to very high for about a min last night. I immediately deleted all my chars to try to transfer there, but it still cost 1,500 even though I had no characters. How does the pricing work exactly?

kitten , I can’t believe it. In what time zone do you leave?
If you delete your characters the transfer should be free.

It was around 2am PST time. It was just to TC too. The transfer cost to any other server was 0 after I deleted my char. But then TC still tired to charge me. Is disappoint.

TC dropped to very high for about a min last night. I immediately deleted all my chars to try to transfer there, but it still cost 1,500 even though I had no characters. How does the pricing work exactly?

Hello,

I just got the game and was trying to pick a server with a fun community. Most of the threads on picking a server revolve around having the best WvW ranking, which is not really a priority for me. I’d rather be on a server with kitten pvp rank, but fun pve and active ingame community. Empty zones with everyone akitten town, waiting on a PvP queue is not my idea of fun.

I know that Tarnish Coast is the best RP server, but it’s always full so that’s not really an option. I suppose I could always guest over for rp, but I’d also like a stable “every-day” server I can just log into without having to worrying about guess passes. If there’s some erp there too, that would also be a plus.