Guild Wars 2

Labjax.2465:

I feel old talking about this, even though I’m not. It feels like there’s a generation of gamers that has replaced the one I was once a part of. Some of them even people who played back in the day, but have forgotten what it was like. The new generation is desperate to prove to themselves and everybody else that games are amazing right now. Because they so want to believe it, in the way that the guy who paid $20 for a theater ticket wants to believe that what they just watched was good, even if it was crap.

Some days, I really feel like a stranger here.

This, this, this, this, this….

+1

Nocturnal Lunacy.8563:

….3k burning damage per tick….

Only 3K per tick? Man, my Engi Dire P/P Rocket Boot must have been having an off-night…..

Are you the one I dueled outside of SM?

Having fun in WvW is not ALLOWED!

Reported!

When Gyros explode, they do far more damage than listed in their description. And all Gyros, except for Blast Gyro, don’t register their damage in the Combat Log. NPC don’t even acknowledge that they are taking damage. This is clearly a bug. A bug in our favor — but a bug nonetheless. I think the Gyros are very bugged with regards to exploding damage. I also don’t think that Daze always occurs when they are exploded.

I’ve not noticed being adversely affected by a delay with casting “Bypass Coating”. I often use it for the Heal that proc’s with the Trait Rapid Regeneration. It’s good for about 8oo to 1,200 heal. And when I use it for Stun Break, it works as I expect it – at least for me.

Haralin.1473:

Bwadark.2519:

.. Perhaps a dev will jump in and clarify….

This was a good one

It did make me chuckle…

Takoyakii.2146:

Soon.5240:

saturn.4810:

Soon.5240:

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Because you need an organized group to complete the meta events.

No. It’s because the maps are empty. Why aren’t there queues to get into the new maps of the first expansion to be issued in 3 years? Why hasn’t Anet needed to create new servers to handle all the traffic from new customers?

Megaserver won’t let you in the populated map most of the time…..unless you LFG :/.

But Megaserver was only created after it became apparent that customers were not continuing to play, and PvE maps on low tier servers (such as the one I was on at the time, Ferguson Crossing) were empty.

If the game/expansion were wildly successful, Megaserver would not be needed.

saturn.4810:

Soon.5240:

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Because you need an organized group to complete the meta events.

No. It’s because the maps are empty. Why aren’t there queues to get into the new maps of the first expansion to be issued in 3 years? Why hasn’t Anet needed to create new servers to handle all the traffic from new customers?

Zypher.7609:

Not really, I use LFG everyday for HoT meta maps.

Ask yourself why you have to use LFG everyday….

Haralin.1473:

Seems we must get use to it, that GW2 is more towards PvP and PvE (casual/raiding).

I believe GW2 is actually heading in the P2P (Pay to Play) direction. Someone correct me if I’m wrong —, but I believe you can now buy Ascended weapons and armor from Raid vendors? 20g each?

This explains the Damask Patch change to crafting Ascended items, the nerfing of Mat drops across PvE and Dungeons being tossed on the scrap pile.

Certainly new players will take one look at the grind need to craft Ascended and get out their credit cards….

Frankly, I don’t care if people can buy Ascended (or Legendary) items. My only concern is the funneling of people away from WvW to PvE and how that impacts WvW.

Lol,
Good question. I’ve only ever thought about the Trait as it pertains to a Rifle, Pistol or Hammer.

Azure.8670:

Playing at medium range feels weird to people, people want to rush in or be at max range.

While I love Engi, and don’t play anything else, it does require an active play style. To be successful you must learn to fight from from all three ranges: Maximum > Medium > Melee > Medium > Maxium. And Engi are more suited to do this than any other profession in the game. We always have the right tool for the situation.

Plus it’s funny! Belt buckles that fire bullets. Drop nails to slow people down. Personal battering Rams. Acid Bombs. Rocket Boots. Wack people with pry bars. I enjoy it for the humor as much as the challenge.

Sinbold.8723:

Have you seen what a charged lodestone sells for on the TP lately?

But most veteran WvW players don’t typically lack gold.

Everything that Anet does is to make money. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. It’s what every good business does. They aren’t running a charity.

WvW doesn’t make money for them, so it’s low priority. Always has been.

I fill my void with….

1) Reading and Posting in ALL the Fourms
2) Late night dueling in EB (if i can find it)
3) Fallout 4

I truly think that Anet has nerfed WvW for reasons similar to the Dungeons. Money. Or more specifically, the lack of money coming from WvW players.

As a long time, dedicated WvW player, one thing I notice (more so in hindsight) is that most of the people that I’ve played countless hours of WvW with aren’t really the ones who buy skins or knick knacks from the Store. Most of us are have settled on our looks long ago, and don’t really drag a lot of kites, balloons, minatures, etc. around with us when we play WvW.

It’s been ages since I actually bought something from Anet (excepting HoT) and yet I’ve played WvW for thousands of hours. I’m not the kind of customer that Anet needs.

Nilix.2170:

I would argue that Thieves are currently in the same spot that we were in at launch (Karma’s a real kitten).

Hahahah

Boy, does that bring back memories! I’ve run Engi since day one — and those Thieves could drop 21k of damage on you before you knew they were even there!

And repairs used to cost money, which no one really had at the time….

The V.8759:

Having a 1.5k damaging bleeding ticks is more worthwhile than you think

+1

Pistol 1 w/Krait Runes (or Elixer Gun 1) can easily keep 8 to 10 stacks of Bleed going. Meaning Pistol 1 Elixer 1 can do 1.2k to 1.5k damage per tick that ignores Toughness, Armor and Defiance Bars.

But, per the OP, Shrapnel really only makes sense with Grenades.

Nate.8146:

@Soon
You might have forgotten (or were not around) when Anet introduced character advancement changes a while back that had a similar gated mechanic in core GW2.

Nope. 4,800 hours in the game, here. Been playing since the three-day head start.

Anet also CHANGED that foolish mistake, didn’t they…..

Paradox.1380:

You can still do everything you used to do!.

Uh, no you can’t.

Prior to HoT, one could chose to ignore LS1 and LS2. If that type of platform-skin-chasing-game-play was not what not you wished to do, it was entirely optional, and had no impact on those of us which focused on PvP and/or WvW for our end game content.

With the issue of LS3 (…I’m sorry, I mean HoT…) you must do the content to unlock a core mechanics (i.e. the Elite Trait line for your profession). This is an entirely different direction that the game has taken. And yet, you seem to just gloss over this fact….

mexay.3902:

THIS does not require effort or anything other than pressing F and making 2 clicks each day for 12 days. Nothing legendary about it.

I agree with you. I crafted both Exotic and Ascended Celestial armor and weapons for my Engi. Talk about a time gate! We’re talking, what, 3 or 4 months…..?

But I didn’t care. I knew full well that Ascended was only marginally better than Exotics, but I had the time and materials. And the NBA Finals were on and I could watch them and farm at the same time….

It just kind of amuses (and to be fair, irks) me to hear people (not you!) hold Masteries, Elite Traits, Ascended and Legendary items in such high regards and think that their acquisition is a “moral” accomplishment.

The fact is, these high-end gear are nerfed on all but a few maps in the game, and a good player in PvP or WvW, with nothing but exotics, can whoop some millennial who buys ascended and legendary gear with his daddy’s credit card. As someone who has spent more time in WvW than any other map, I never felt that I “lost” an encounter because I didn’t have high-end gear. And, in fact, I didn’t craft anything other than Exotics till after 2 1/2 years of playing the game.

Lately, too much emphasis has been placed on the wrong things in this game. Imho.

Sir Morgan Malory.2069:

“Death to the Berserker meta. We want the ability to be healers, tanks, control and condition damage!” was the community outcry.

Flash forward to day 1 of the raid and all you have is Berserker trying to play the raid.

I guess what the outcry from the community meant was “Death the the Berserker meta. I want to play Berserker, while other players fill out the diversity roles.”

Lol. +1

NIMBY
(not in my back yard)

Legenadaries are no more powerful than Ascended. I find it amusing, all the people responding to the OP “Please don’t expect to….”

Lol,

What possible difference does it make if someone acquires a Lengendary or not? Btw, I have two and only went after them because I was bored waiting for the expansion.

But I don’t see my having them as actually having “accomplished” something in life. In fact, not having equipped them, I plan on selling them once the market for them goes up.

Had the HoT expansion been successful, Anet would have had to ADD servers for the influx of new players. But as we all know, that did not happen. HoT maps are largely empty – and people need to rely on LFG….

Anet cannot start closing servers — that would be the kiss of death. It’s would be an admission that they are not attracting new players, nor retaining existing ones.

The Megaserver was not a grand, strategic innovation. It was instituted because the PvE maps in the low tier servers were empty. You could roam for hours and see 5 people. But because WvW is tied to servers, they just cannot close them.

I’ve used it successfully, but it is hard to find the “sweet spot” where it prompts you to use the Gyro. It’s a common complain on this forum, hopefully Anet will introduce a fix. It’s pretty cool and res’s fast.

displacedTitan.6897:

I never realized how much of the PvE playerbase in this game wants it to be Skyrim instead of an MMO. Everyone here says “exploration exploration exploration” as if that means anything more than pressing 1 as you watch Netflix and your map % goes up.

Everyone has that first game in a genre that they slowly realize isnt the genre for them. Fallout4 just came out for the people who want to wander around a world on EZ mode just to see some sights. Personally I love those games and put 60ish hours into Skyrim and the second Fallout4 goes on sale I will buy it and put 60ish hours into that game as well.

What those games do NOT have, however, is any reason to play them after you have seen the story. There is zero challenge, even on the highest difficulty, and once you have done some number of “oh look a cave.. oh wait its procedurally generated with 3 mobs and nothing here of value” you realize how shallow THOSE games are and quit.

I like that GW2 is semi-casual PvE, good sPvP and has a third game mode of WvW for when I get bored of the first two.

Your post is fair, and as someone who enjoys the RPG elements of MMORPG’s, I’ve become disappointed in HoT.

It was when I got to the point in the Personal Story that was leading me out of VB and into AB, that I looked back at the VB map, which I had at 100% completion, and said, “Is this all?” I did enjoy gliding, I did enjoy mushrooms jumping, updrafts, etc.

But, I have no desire to do any of it again, much less numerous times to earn XP to earn access to Vendors, etc. I did go on to get AB at about 85%, but it’s been day’s since I gone back to the maps.

The maps are just small. I love the hard combat, but I never was one to farm Silverwastes, and that’s all the new maps really are.

I can appreciate that some people enjoy platform gaming, and doing events/Adventures for skins, status, etc., but 3/4’s of my 4,700 hours in the game has been spent in WvW – and now that’s been largely rendered unplayable, and certainly underplayed.

Haralin.1473:

If you are running a Confusion Build with perplexity rune shield can be an option cause you have 2 interupts on it.

I hear you, and the new Gyro’s also proc Daze and, often times Interrupts, when exploded (although I think this may be bugged and/or inconsistent). They work well with Shield 4/5 and could work with Perplexity. But I don’t believe that Perplexity can come close to the type of damage that Burn does.

And, as I mention in an above post, right now Gyro’s do detonating damage that is ridiculous – which, if bugged irritates me because I don’t want to use an exploit and I don’t think I really need it.

Kitiara.2706:

You have no clue that 95% of this entire thread was sarcasm…. Are you a dev?

+1

No.

Really.

No /sarc.

Labjax.2465:

I don’t know why there are displayed ranks in the first place, …..

I agree. It’s pure Vanity. Pride goeth before the fall.

Lol, I remember in the early days, before anyone really had Map Completion, that we WvW players who had MC felt that displaying the “button” in our tag would draw undue attention on us in the WvW maps.

But, since the game’s turned into little more than a grind for skins and titles, what else can you expect….

hotcarl.8621:

…. but pistol/shield builds are dead.

I’d love to find a viable excuse to use my Shield — especially with my four gyro build. But I just can’t justify it.

With the Shield’s Blast Finisher and Daze/Projectile Finisher, it would work well with all the Lightening Fields and Water Field (Reconstruction Field – Tool Belt skill for Medic Gyro). If the CD’s for Shield were reduced to 12 sec and 16 sec, I might do so.

But Man, that blowtorch burn is hard to give up….

lordhelmos.7623:

Somehow, at the start of Living Story part 1, the core developers left and the people left behind had this idea seeded in their head that everything was wrong with the core game and that it needed to rapidly change to survive.

You completely nailed it. +1

This was my first MMO, except for about 60 hour in Final Fantasy 14 (prior to it’s reboot). I love games like The Elder Scrolls, Gothic, etc. – RPG’s which offer large maps with plenty to explore.

When Living Season 1 was issued, I was completely turned off, and just spent all my time in WvW and farming PvE largely to support WvW.

They threw out everything that made the game such a critical success and turned PvE into little more than a platform game.

Well, it kind of brings to light the fact that the whole Mastery System is little more than a Vanity System – like grinding for skins.

Having a 150 Rank (no matter how earned) doesn’t automatically mean that you are a good player – it just means that you took the TIME to earn them.

The Hearts were replaced with Adventures — which are little more than amusement park rides and/or state fair midway games. You pays your ticket and tries and wins your goldfish.

The link was bugged for me. Couldn’t view the page for some reason.

Tommyknocker.6089:

And then on the other side is me.

I took my time on the new maps and I am still unlocking the first areas. Did a few of the story missions and as many events as I can find on the map. Sitting at about 30 mastery points even though I see over 100 sitting above many others.

My point is that if you want to rush everything to get it “done” it is your own fault if it is over far to quickly. I prefer the journey, but if your only shooting for the destination then don’t be to disappointed when it arrives far to soon.

I think that once you actually get map completion on VB, you’ll realize just how small the expansion maps really are. I understand that they probably seem huge and overwhelming to you right now but, believe me, that will change. Once you get the “big picture” of how the expansion maps are structured, you’ll realize that they are not in fact big – they are tiny.

What’s sad is that Anet should publish their own Bug List for the Engineer. They know what bugs they are working on – obviously – and they should let us know too, so that we won’t waste our time on posts such as this.

They should let us see their own list, and tell us what they are prioritizing in way of fixes, and communicate to us the time-table and dead-lines that they have established for their own employees to resolve the issues.

The way that we – the paying customers – are being treated is similar to dropping a car off at a mechanics’s shop, and never being told what’s wrong, what it will cost to fix or when the car will be ready for pick up.

We’re all mature enough to realize that bugs are inevitable with the release of a major expansion. Transparency would go along ways towards establishing both respect and patience between Anet and their paying customers.

Tao.1234:

Daredevil with perma evade.

What exactly are you “evading” ? /sarc

Maybe Anet will grant us one level of XP towards Masteries if we spend one hour roaming on a WvW map undetected.?

Naw, too easy….

Then they’d have to explain why they charged us fifty bucks for 32 hours of new game-play.

Won’t happen.

And maybe Anet can develop and release an App that will alert us — 1 hour prior to reset — which server’s NPC beat the other two server’s NPC’s in the prior week’s match up.

Hopefully the App will alert our smartphones and not our PC’s, because I’ll be using my computer to play Fallout 4.

No one is playing because it is automated. More automation is not the answer, it’s the problem.

I think Arantheal makes a good point, that it can be a good build in a coordinated team setting. If you are just LFG’ing Dungeons, then you’re going to get mixed results. Some runs will be better than others.

My advice is to get yourself Toughness. Maybe switch to Dire Armor/Weapons and use Superior Runes of the Undead. This should help things a great deal in terms of surviablity.

Nutjob.9021:

The problem with merging Tyrian and HoT mastery points and xp is that everyone would just go spend the next week in CoF, farming xp.

So what would really be wrong with this? You aren’t in competition with them. The Masteries are just core mechanics needed to navigate the new maps – nothing more. If Masteries were easy to acquire, that would not be an exploit that would hinder your game play.

I’m not arguing that Mastery acquisition should be easier, I’m just wondering why people hold ideas similar to yours regarding the virtue of new system? Even if you could purchase them with gold or gems, how would that effect you?

With more testing, I see that the Gyro’s are probably bugged. Every Gyro – when detonated – is doing around 2,300 to 3,000 damage across multiple targets. And only the Blast Gryro is showing any damage in the Combat Log. The Gyros will not only vary in their damage when detonated, they can also proc Incendiary Powder and Sharpshooter when detonated.

Arantheal.7396:

that is because blast-gyro does not carry over player-stats (appart from healing power & condi-dmg).
it’s the same as equiping turrets.
Regardless if you run a power or condi build, blast-gyro, shredder gyro & turrets will always hit for the same amount.

I’m not following you on the Blast Gryo. The damage is not always for the same amount. I’ve tested this in PvE and the PvP Lobby. And it’s greater than the 1,065 listed in the skill box.

You know your stuff!

I did use Mortar specifically to proc the Krait Rune, since Mortar has no cool down where as Sneak Gyro does. But ultimately I switched to Sneak Gyro because it’s FUN, and it has a heal tied in with it.

Kaboom!

But more seriously, Sneak Gyro also de-targets you momentarily from what ever is doing you the most harm. While Sneak Gyro is active, you seem to pop-in and pop-out of being a “target”. This can be useful if you are in need of a heal or to elapse a cool down during a NPC battle. I’ve been farming CM dungeon, and it’s pretty darn indestructible and highly supportive.

Blast Gyro does good because it can basically side-line multiple NPC for about three ticks — due to Daze. If you are proc’ing 3,000 Condi, that three tick “pause” can add up!, especially to NPC who are less than Veteran, Elites or Champs. I’ve also seen my
Blast Gyro lower the Defiance bar by 70% or so on numerous occasions. More investigation is warranted…

I just finished dueling in WvW EB, with this build, and lost one match in six.

There’s a lot going for it. For some reason, Blast Gryro seems to “crit” for over 3,000 damage more times than not…..

The Tool Belt Skill for Blast Gyro has a Stun Break on a 30 sec cd (as opposed to Reactive Lenses 40 sec) and it also Heals for around 1,200 via Rapid Regeneration and Superspeed.

The Tool Belt Skill for Sneak Gyro has a Reveal on 20 sec cd in lieu of the Reactive Lens 40 sec. Good for WvW, but not so much for PvE. And Sneak Gyro, coupled with Krait Runes, proc’s 8 sec of Torment, Bleed and Poison. I pop this for the Condi then pop it again for heals. Exploding Gyros for Health is a very useful thing to do. They all are on such short cd’s.

Furry (via Reactive Lenses) just doesn’t do much for me, since nothing I do relies on Crit.

Bunker Down will usually have 3 or so Med Kits laying around and, coupled with Rapid Regeneration, this means that Heal is always at hand. And the bombs are just icing on the cake.

And — I gots to admit — the Blast Gyro offers a much needed CC — something which I lack. Now I just need to learn to avoid being “That Guy” who knocks NPC off of AOE like <<ahem>> Rangers….

I have used Elixer Gun (for years actually) and Acid Bomb is a good finisher for Lightening Field proc’d by Gyros, but for now, I’m content with staying in Pistols.

This build is just Tough. With lots of Heals. It does lack Condi Removal, but condi in HoT (the first two maps at least) don’t seem to be that big of an issue. I can “out heal” them. Same for most of the core PvE.

Edit: Reading your statement a little more closely that, “Streamlined kits will give you perma-swiftness so you could swap that speed sigil for corruption, also it would give you the immob-trail from EG’s kit-refinement proc.”

One thing I don’t like about Streamlined Kits is that they proc outside of combat. This drives me insane. If they would change it, I would seriously consider what you suggest.

My bad. I mean Incindary Powder….

Here’s the build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqancoCtoi9dBGpCEqiF2iiu3H+lH8DLxAIcpuoXD-TxhAABJqH4U1fi4EAIpSQAeAA8s/gYK/IEwi1A-e

One thing that I do is use Superior Sigil of Speed because it will proc a small, but constant Heal, when coupled with the Scapper Trait Rapid Regeneration. And the Final Salvo Trait also provides Superspeed which in turn proc’s with Rapid Regeration. So you can get about 475 heal per tick.

Are.1326:

Soon.5240:

above me.

But, all in all, Pistols are in a pretty good place in HoT right now.

Correction: Pistol offhand #4 is good for condi specs. Pistol mainhand is horrible now and leaves no room for pistol+shield builds.

At least with Coated Bullets (the pierce trait) we could use pistol mainhand in power builds for the double hit when attacking from above, just under max range or when your enemies are up against a wall. It was a fun playstyle, not the most viable, but it did add some unique strategies for every encounter.

I’m not trolling you, but right now, in HoT, I’m running an Ascended Dire Pistol/Pistol build with Rocket Boots + 4 Gyros + Krait Runes.. I kid you not, I’m just bleeding and melting everything in my path. I don’t hesitate to solo Champs, herds of Veterans, etc. I’m proc’ing Bleeds at around 9 to 11 stacks and Burns from Rocket Kick, Incendiary Ammo and Blowtorch. I’m easily maintaining around 4,000 per tick damage from Condi alone – and it all bypasses Defiance. Often I take down enemy with the Defiance bar at 75% or better.

I don’t know… I think Engi – at least Condi Engi – is in a pretty good place right now. I’m running Pistol/Pistol + Rocket Boots + 4 Gyros in HoT and I’m pretty much Burning and Bleeding my way through the Jungle. I don’t hesitate to solo Champs.

Also, I’ve melted quite a few wanderers in WvW.

I don’t think that turrets were ever a “build-defining trait” – for good or bad. I suspect that with the focus on vertical Maps, turrets are going to be phased out.

randomly.6395:

Pistol 1 and 2 do not pierce anymore and the trait has been removed. I’m not sure why they would remove it though, to be honest.

If I had to guess, it’s probably because of the vertical nature of the terrain in HoT, and the difficulty of aligning shots. I notice that, at least graphically, my Blowtorch sometimes seems to fire right into the ground when I’m targeting an NPC slightly above me.

But, all in all, Pistols are in a pretty good place in HoT right now.

I had an opportunity to use the Function Gyro, and while I think it works GREAT trying to see it and start it is very hard in combat.

Also, Flamethrower is largely a pure Damage weapon (not really Condi). It benefits from Power, Precision and Ferocity.