Guild Wars 2

Zetsumei.4975:

Sadly the PvP farm does exist lol that’s the custom arena skyhammer thing I believe where they trade point caps. Looks like anet are happy as long as people are buying custom arenas.

Except this method takes a lot more time than actually playing in unranked or ranked normally. The only reason to do it is to NOT play pvp. I guess these people just like grinding like robots. Sad really.

Pistol AA is still bad, IP is stronger on condi builds that use pistol. Nothing has changed: what’s the point of over-nerfing a viable, but rare build (condi engi), just to slightly nerf a meta build (cele rifle)? I can’t understand the logic here.

They should definitely make it an AoE. I really don’t understand why it’s not in the first place. The other shatters are, and I’ve played mesmer for like two weeks before I noticed Diversion wasn’t. I mean, the animation even looks like an AoE.

As always, this video is a masterpiece! Keep up the good work!

Can I ask you a question, as a practicing shatter mesmer? I noticed that in that last video you changed your way of delivering your GS2-Blink-F1 opener. In your first vids, you blinked before the GS left your hand and ported in front of your target. In this last video you blink at the very end of the cast, meaning the GS is flying to your target while you are porting behind it (like in this very impressive double kill burst). Am I right? If I am, what are the pros and cons of both methods? Thank you very much.

laquito.5269:

I don’t wanna hate, but watching D/D eles is as boring as it gets, but maybe thats just me.

I don’t think it’s only you. Don’t get me wrong MrCameron, D/D is very effective. But I don’t think you will find people interested in watching that. I liked the S/F part though.

“You will most likely face premades”

Exaggerating much? It happens rarely, and often when it’s really a 5-man against a full solo group, the solo group tends to win, because their average MMr is much higher. The only games I find really unfair are the 2-3 vs 5 games, if the two partial premades don’t communicate well. But that’s even less frequent. Most people soloq in this game.

Fluffball.8307:

Selective memory and too small of a sample size. It’s not physically possible for everyone to be losing more than they win; both teams can’t lose*.

*Unless turrets are involved, then everyone does indeed lose.

You’re making too much sense for the forums! Leave before it’s too late!

Seriously though, nobody is going to complain here of getting good match ups. So obviously we only read about the poor, unfortunate souls.

Aktium.9506:

Sorel.4870:

But since they added the Soldier’s amulet

I don’t even

Soldier stats have been in PvP since launch.

Yes. Sorry, I meant Sentinel’s. Thank you for being attentive.

It’s probably just a bad streak, don’t worry. But I can see where your complain is coming from: the “average” meta has shifted to a lot of projectiles and ranged power attacks (I see more scepter elementalists than dd lately), so you might want to tweak your build a little to have more blocks/reflects/gap closers.

About the expansion though, you can expect at least one month of terrible imbalance, since they add so many new skills/mechanics to the game.

I won’t discuss your opinions about PvE and WvW, but about balance, the sad part is that in my opinion, we were in a great spot just a few weeks ago (and still are at higher levels). But since they added the Soldier’s amulet (edit: Sentinel, actually, thanks Aktium) (which is cool in Courtyard), turret engis have been even more broken that they already were. I, like you, hope the nerf comes soon.

Aenye.2390:

Ranger needs major overwork. MAJOR – it does not promote skillful play, which is bad; has tons of crap utilities which is even worse. Weapons aren’t good either – one or other bow and then second set some dodge, disengage and not real offensive possibilities (well gs is way better, but still, Maul suffers the same as warrior hammer). At least there is a place to work around.

Ranger does not promote skillful play, but I don’t really see how you could have a skillful ranger build without changing the mechanics of the profession completely. In addition, some players like to play at range, or the overall feeling of the profession (a lot actually: near launch, it was the second most played profession, and it probably still is), and it should be preserved.

However, I think you’re wrong on the “bad weapons” thing. Every weapon (except off-hand axe) is now useful and optimal in certain builds. The buffs to torch and war horn were needed, and are a model of good balance imo. I wish to see more small balance changes like that in the future, outside of meta builds.

Jekkt.6045:

elementalist:

flame strike (scepter auto: fire):
casting time reduced from 1.25s to 0.75s, burning duration reduced from 2s to 1.5s.

dragon’s tooth (scepter #2: fire):
this skill is a ground target skill now.

shatterstone (scepter #2: water):
applys 1s second of chill per pulse (3 pulses) in the area. cooldown increased to 10s from 2s.

lightning strike (scepter #2: air):
the skill will stay instacast but will get a 0,25s wind up time before it hits the target, producing black clouds around the target.

stone shards (scepter auto attack: earth):
casting time reduced from 1.5s to 0.75s, bleeding duration reduced from 6s to 3s.

obsidian flesh (focus #5: earth):
cooldown reduced to kitten from 50s.

arcane shield:
cooldown reduced from 75s to 60s.

mist form:
cooldown reduced from 75s to 65s.

glyph of elemental harmony:
cooldown reduced from 25s to 20s, casting time reduced from 1.25s to 1s.
protection duration increased from 3s to 6s.

cantrip mastery: water III
(currently cd reduction of cantrips) new: increases the range of lightning flash from 900 to 1200.

fresh air: air XII
when this trait activates black clouds will be generated around the player to indicate that the air attunement is off cooldown now.

feel free to discuss

I like some of these ideas. The invuln on scepter 5 doesn’t need a reduced CD imo, because it’s already really strong: the only invuln in the game that can somewhat compete with it is DIstorsion, and it’s on a 60s CD (or 45ish with 6 points in the last trait line), and you have to have 3 clones up and IP to reach 4s.The CD is already 50s on Obsidian Flesh. But the ground targeted dragon’s tooth is a must. I don’t play scepter elementalist that much because I always felt unnatural that this skill requires a target and phoenix doesn’t.

Roe.3679:

I find it interesting that some people seem to be equating more buttons with more skill required to press them. I personally don’t see it that way at all. I think running through rotations like you can with cele engi and cele Ele is very simple. They may have high skill ceilings but you can more or less mash buttons and remain somewhat effective because of the nature of the builds. They are forgiving. There is nothing difficult about playing the apex predator of PvP unless you’re doing it at the highest levels.

Most people seem to agree that mesmer is the hardest, but they don’t have many skills in comparison.

You seem to be confusing two things here: skill and effectiveness. But again, there’s a lot of that in this thread. Cele engi and elementalist seem so simple because they are so effective. Especially on ele, just going through a rotation will make you win against some players. I don’t play elementalist that much, so I just rotate the skills to stack might, and I get rekt most of the time (thank you Anet for not adding profession-based MMR). On engineer though, if you use a rotation, you’re definitely playing it wrong: heck, what’s the point of having no CD on kits if you’re gonna use a rotation anyway?

ronpierce.2760:

Puts not really possible to do get the leeching Sigil every 9 seconds… With 10 second swaps.

Do you even engi bro?

Covis.6037:

im gonna instant lord rush.

Better here than on Foefire I guess.

Rusc.4978:

A lot of true stuff

I like this list a lot. You’re especially right in saying that perhaps the only challenging condi build in this game is signet elementalist.

Just to be clear because there are so many people talking about this: it’s difficult to make zerker staff elementalist work in pvp, but less because it takes mechanical skill and more because it’s just bad. You’re better off with a celestial or a cleric amulet.

jportell.2197:

DeWolfe.2174:

Mesmer’s should never be meta. The entire profession is based around cheap and cheesy gimmicks. Which is really the point of these complaint threads. It’s not about balance, it’s about individuals demanding a face roll spec for their favorite or only character.

Cheap and cheesy? Mesmer is the HARDEST class to play right now aside from PU. Right now the standard shatter mes is so hard to play because of how much every other class shuts them out aside from DPS guards and some ranger specs. Really you are going to tell me mesmers don’t belong in the game, but turret engi is fine? Well you can go burn in a fiery pit then.

Difficulty is usually not a factor to take into account when balancing. You mentioned cele rifle engi being easy to play, and it certainly is compared to some mesmer builds (the two builds I play the most lately are shatter mesmer and cele rifle engi), but it’s still harder than:

- Most warrior builds
- Most guardian builds
- Power and condi necro
- Power, spirit and condi ranger
- Condition engineer
- Most condition mesmer builds
- Most thief’s condition builds
- d/d celestial elementalist

Note that I’m an average, but rather experienced player who has played most of the meta builds on most professions (still not used to necro). It might vary a bit if you’re more or less experienced than I am.

The fact that we have so many different professions and builds to choose from make it impossible for them to present the same challenge, especially if you want them to be thematically and mechanically very distinct. I love the fact that on my warrior I can just jump into the fight and eat half of the damage coming my way, while if I take my mesmer I must use every deception trick in my book to avoid taking a single hit.

That being said, there is probably a limit, where “easy” play becomes frankly annoying, especially if the effectiveness of the build is better than most “harder” builds. Spirit ranger had that problem, and now turret engineer faces it too. I hope the nerf that will come will be reasonable (there’s no reason to completely push them out of pvp), but I hope it will come soon.

Joey.2769:

I’m excited have they told us what size the teams will be?

Five. It’s in the unranked map rotation.

DeWolfe.2174:

Mesmer’s should never be meta. The entire profession is based around cheap and cheesy gimmicks. Which is really the point of these complaint threads. It’s not about balance, it’s about individuals demanding a face roll spec for their favorite or only character.

You’re entitled to your opinion about mesmer, but shatter mesmer is actually one of the best counter to turret engi. The fact that it is still an uphill battle is an illustration of the fact that turreter is, if not OP, at least one of the strongest on-point dueling spec in the game.

The hype is becoming a bit overwhelming right now, I must confess.

Coulter.2315:

They appear to be more evidence that power creep has gone too far, when reflexes are no longer enough to keep you alive. We need to review instant and proc damage – these runes gaining popularity is a really bad sign for the game. Its some very experienced people running vamp runes too so even the faster among us cannot trust their own skills to be enough to survive the damage this game offers.

Remove Fire+Air..

You got that wrong. This rune works best in team pvp, where some targets without many active defenses (mainly engineers and necros) can be focused to death in a few seconds by a coordinated burst. In soloq, if you get insta bursted, something was wrong either with your positioning (engaging in a 1v3), or you have slow reflexes or a bad awareness: how many players actually get killed by a shatter mesmer in 0.5s nowadays? The only cases where I saw a player saved by this rune in soloq was power necros I moaed. Focus is so bad in soloq it’s probably not worth it to use that rune.

You could do JP.

Sorry to hear that. You could try to send a mail to support. I’ve heard of cases, especially with ascended trinkets, where people got reimbursed. You have nothing to loose.

Archaon.9524:

Trust me spirit ranger still required more skill than turret engi…enough said i guess…

Hardly. I played both, and frankly turreter seems a bit more complicated, since positioning is more difficult (you can’t just run to the nearest team fight without your turrets). And spirit ranger was definitely a stronger build. It got nerfed, and it was about time. I wish turreter will meet the same fate. But I find funny that players who had no shame in playing spirit ranger are so prude about turreters.

Darkness.9732:

How many rangers played this Josh?
Can you explain me why so few rangers ?

Because you weren’t good enough to be qualified.

Kousetsu.1627:

1vs1 zerker thief > all cele builds

You can’t win against an engineer of similar skill on a thief.

Aberrant.6749:

Sorel.4870:

insanemaniac.2456:

NeroGuilt.4720:

Usually, if you have someone going out of their way to talk kitten to you and be abusive…you probably did something pretty stupid to deserve it. If not, are you the kind of person that cries when someone in life disagrees with you?

nah, i get called names for crating in 1v1s. i wont go in to why that isnt stupid, but it really isnt. oh, not a turret engi either.

There’s no shame in crating in 1v1, if it’s necessary to win the game. When I get that comment from necromancers, I find it hilarious.

Cond necro vs cond eng I would say no huge shame in using crate since it’s a hard counter… but eng v eng or even worse eng v thief… yea… no pride in that to say the least.

Pride won’t make you win. Crate will.

kirito.4138:

Noticed the default builds given to new characters are actually meta builds now.

More or less. A lot have the celestial amulet, but I think that’s more of a “jack of all trades” thing. But I did notice that some meta traits for every profession were incorporated, like IP on engineer.

I like “The Blazing Light” because it sounds so cool.

I like “Deer Commander” in pvp, using the Deer finisher.

I like “Mist Walker” when roaming in WvW.

I like “The Magnanimous” in WvW, when I feel like downing players and letting them rez up.

I like “Dandy”, because… dandy.

I would like to have “Champion Illusionist”, because it’s in my opinion the “champion” title that best fits its profession.

edit: sorry, “Dandy” is actually the french translation for “Fashion collector”. It’s much, much better.

Archaon.9524:

Stop verbal abuse…give us “report for being noob” option like on LoL that forces you out of pvp for 30 mins or more

Flame is a waste of time anyway

Wow, there’s a report option for being a noob? It should be constantly abused, right?

Subutex.2416:

Even here you can see how they enjoy shifting their blame. Their raging is frowned upon, all of a sudden it’s the broken mechanics’ fault.

Absolutely, even more so because forums tend to attract this type of people.

Archaon.9524:

let alone everyone is gonna flame you forever….for obvious and totally legit reasons

I don’t know about that. Every team was more than happy to play 1-2 spirit rangers for months prior to the nerf, so if turret engi fitted in a good composition, you can bet your boots it would be played.

Archaon.9524:

Ranks are totally meaningless since 15 april 2014 patch…no matter rank farm on not

They also were meaningless prior to that. They just indicate how much you’ve played. Surely, you won’t argue that the people now on the top of the LB are the best players in the game (I have nothing against them, it’s not their fault)? The skill is measured on the battlefield, not with a pretty flag.

Thank you for the info Josh. Is there some kind of announcement in game as well?

Shylock.4653:

Sorel.4870:

I’ve beaten my fair share of Legendary Champion terrormancers

With all the rank farm server nowadays Legendary Champion means not much. I have met really bad Legendary Champions which double caps points and did all the noob errors you can think of.

I gladly concede. I don’t blame rank farm servers though, because the only people who would want to go there would do it for the achievements/titles/finishers, meaning they are most likely AP farmers and PvE players. Losing every game in unranked is faster. But some people just don’t like to learn. I run into a lot of “Champion Genius” turret engineers lately (ok, I was one last night, but that doesn’t count), and it makes you wonder: if you only play that build, or spirit ranger, or hambow warrior, until you reach rank 80, you can’t possibly improve! It certainly have been the case of these necromancers. But you see, when I play my p/p rabid build, even the most braindead necromancer can kill me if he doesn’t completely mess up. So turreter seems a bit stronger in that aspect.

Sabre.8627:

Sorel.4870:

Sabre.8627:

Shylock.4653:

I have said a couple of times in the PvP forum that conditions are a very good way to counter the engineer. Engis have bad condition clear. Therefor most Turret Engis run Melandru Rune and Sigil of Purity. But even with that they are vulnerable to conditions. Of course you have to position correct. If you stand on the point and let all the turrets hit you while you bomb the engi with conditions you may die faster than the engi.

I understand this, and a necromancer can stack conditions and burst them at 900-1200 range pretty consistently, something other conditions builds can’t do as well. This is why i’m confused as to why they’re never specifically mentioned.

Because it’s still a better strategy to just avoid them! Even if you do win (and you should). It takes time, and the point stays in the engi’s favor. It’s like dueling a bunker guard or even a tanky medi guard on a mesmer: you’ll win, but while doing it the points tick in for the opposing team, and you’d be more useful elsewhere.

I’m more referring to the threads complaining about mutliple turret engi’s on a single team, where avoiding them isn’t an option.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think this build is a bit broken in soloq, especially when stacked.

If you’re in a team, a good option would be to make sure to let one engi on a point, and always bring the team fight where the other engi is. Turret engis are week in team fights when their elite is not up, and easily focusable.

Sabre.8627:

Sorel.4870:

I’ve been playing turret engineer for the first time ever last night, and I’ve beaten my fair share of Legendary Champion terrormancers. It sure is a counter to turret engi, but the match-up is nowhere as hard as against my celestial engineer, even with EG.

I’m confused, are you saying it’s easier to deal with a terrormancer on your turret build, versus your meta build?

I would have to play more of the turret build, because I only played a dozen of matches last night. But it certainly felt like it: my huge health pool, melandru rune and sigil of purity really helped me survive better, while still dealing a ton of damage and cc, which really messes up with a necromancer.

But again, cele rifle is the build I play the best, so it doesn’t surprise me too much to beat a necro with it. What surprised me was winning against them on a build I just picked up, where I need to pick up or explode my thumper turret to access my only stun-breaker.

pantsforbirds.9032:

And the production quality on the streams is on point! Anet seems to be stepping it up!

They kind of do. They added a nice traveling effect to the spectator mode, and now it looks like you’re flying over the battlefield when watching the streams!

Sabre.8627:

Shylock.4653:

I have said a couple of times in the PvP forum that conditions are a very good way to counter the engineer. Engis have bad condition clear. Therefor most Turret Engis run Melandru Rune and Sigil of Purity. But even with that they are vulnerable to conditions. Of course you have to position correct. If you stand on the point and let all the turrets hit you while you bomb the engi with conditions you may die faster than the engi.

I understand this, and a necromancer can stack conditions and burst them at 900-1200 range pretty consistently, something other conditions builds can’t do as well. This is why i’m confused as to why they’re never specifically mentioned.

Because it’s still a better strategy to just avoid them! Even if you do win (and you should). It takes time, and the point stays in the engi’s favor. It’s like dueling a bunker guard or even a tanky medi guard on a mesmer: you’ll win, but while doing it the points tick in for the opposing team, and you’d be more useful elsewhere.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2

There you go big guy! I think you will enjoy the new meta. Basically, most teams play good 1v1 builds with huge mobility, and even out the fights. People still complain, naturally, but it takes a bit more brain than other metas we’ve had.

FinalPatriot.8034:

Honestly, I just never “felt” comfortable with the class and don’t much care for the look of all the kits. Some of those skills are a ton of fun to mess around with – especially in EoTM where you can kick folks off the walkways.

Well, to each his own. A lot of people feel like you, and that’s probably why engineer is one of the least played profession in GW2. Apart from bad turret players wanting an easy win in soloq.

I’ve been playing turret engineer for the first time ever last night, and I’ve beaten my fair share of Legendary Champion terrormancers. It sure is a counter to turret engi, but the match-up is nowhere as hard as against my celestial engineer, even with EG.

FinalPatriot.8034:

I probably should admit that I created a turret engi simply because of how often it’s the daily and, lets be honest, I can drop turrets, go take a nap, and still win.

I will, however, be deleting her once the Revenant is available.

Why? Try a condi build, and once you’re comfortable enough, try a celestial or a berserker build. Engineer is a fun profession!

Nathaniel.4905:

But I wanted to see how zerker stacked up against Cele in a concentrated environment, and hands down Cele beat Zerker.

In 2v2 strictly. In 1v1, it depends.

Interesting, thank you. You’re probably still better off letting your thief/mesmer/guardian/ele/necro get there, or let your engineer pull them down, though.

I agree that it’s annoying, but don’t you see where it’s coming from? If that wasn’t the case, it could easily be exploited.

Make sure you always have a stable connexion when playing in ranked, especially in a party, and ask your friends to do the same. Frankly, it’s not that frequent.

As of why you should team up, having a decent team composition and no raging nerd/afker on your team is a good start.

Every day is turret day now.

Hachiman.2470:

Sorel.4870:

They don’t. Turrets are just not optimal for organized play. It only works in soloq, which is already bad enough.

Yeah I know it doesn’t say you can’t use turrets. That was kind of my point since other guy seemed to think it was banned. I agree, in soloq it is strong but that is because of a lack of team play/organization in soloq. I think that is a different argument all together. If you want to say it is strong in soloq that is fine but some peoples blanket statement that its so OP and needs to be nerfed when it is really only viable in soloq is an exaggeration.

You’re absolutely right. What is really on the table here is different visions about balance. For example, I like balance changes that make players want to try weapons or traits they never used because they were bad. For example, I really liked the changes about engineer’s shield, ranger’s torch, or mesmer’s sword for example. Maim the dillusioned or the recent Foot in the Grave trait for necros were also good changes.

In the same idea, I don’t think balance should only be about top teams and top players. Even those of us who play reasonably well like to soloq from time to time, and I’m sure everyone gets people in his team who find clever to duel a turret engi on a point. For those people, I think a change in turret engi would be a good sign, for example reducing the damage and the health pool of the turrets a bit, while reducing the CD, to make is more mobile and less insane in 1v1 on a point.

But again, that’s just an opinion. On this forum, you can read a lot of threads about people wanting to nerf/buff meta team builds over and over again, to shake things up. It’s an open debate.

Hachiman.2470:

Sorel.4870:

By the way, cele rifle was never buffed.

Well i’d say the mere introduction of the cele amulet is what has made rifle part of the meta as well as the other cele classes. All of which are better than turrets.

Not immediately. Cele rifle became meta just after the warrior nerf. Before that, condi was still the norm (it only made it out off metabattle in the beginning of 2015). And it’s easy to understand why: cele rifle is a build that relies on CC to be effective, and when warriors had easy access to stability and there were two of them in every team, rifle on engi was just not an option. Plus, with the bunker meta, there was not need for a somewhat tanky roamers. And you had these pesky axebow everywhere…

Nowadays, guardians play medi, warriors play shouts, and we barely remember what stability looks like anymore (except for the occasional Plague Form). No wonder celestial engineer is so strong. By the way, engineer was always extremely strong in 1v1, in its condi version. In the current meta, it just found its role.