Guild Wars 2

Caedmon.6798:

There are some skills with insta cast,even if they showed it you won’t ever time that right in regular fights,unless long cast skill offc.Most interrupts are pure luck besides some heavily telegraphed skills,from which there arn’t enough imo.

While it’s true that some skills are not telegraphed enough, you’re doing something wrong if you use luck to time your interrupts. Even timing a CC just after a dodge is not “luck”: you can predict that most people will use a skill after dodging.

GW1 had something like that in the form of skillbars (over the player’s head). Anet decided to replace that mechanic by giving every major skill a distinct animation (in general, I know some skills are problematic from this perspective), which is in my opinion one of the main selling point of this game, and one of the reason people have played in pvp for many hours: it raises the skill ceiling. I don’t see why they would change it now, since it’s working so well.

Some people will quit, some people will comeback, who cares? As long as my queues are short and my games balanced, I’m happy. That other game you think about looks fun, in a very different style than GW2. I might try it.

alain.1659:

Lol, not everyone wants to be a pro. I like passives. I like the randomness of some traits. They should not be removed.

I totally agree! I like the autobomb dispenser for example. I even like things like Incendiary Powder or even Chill of Death. But passive invulns like Defy Pain or Self-Regulated Defense are not random: they proc when you reach a certain health limit, and basically save you without any effort.

zinkz.7045:

But like I said earlier, the other thing people don’t get, other than pressing a button != skillful play in itself, is that when they design a game that is marketed as a casual MMO they have to provide a variety of builds that cater to people of different skill levels and to all different game modes (try working out how elixir S trait relates to large scale WvW), it seems some people don’t understand that very basic reality, and are under the delusion that the game is purely designed for a small section of players try-harding in PvP or delusional enough to think that a 4 year old game with 2k viewers on its tourney is an “e-sport”, ,and really for those banging on about “skill” why are you even playing GW2 at this point, if you genuinely wanted a game that required skill you would be playing something else.

Pardon me, but I thought that one of the things that people like about games and sports is the idea of improving, of going from total beginner to mastering advanced techniques. Passive invulns procs (I have no problem with Elixir S in itself, I play it in about half of my engineer builds since 2013, I only have a problem with the passive trait) don’t even require you to push a button to survive sometimes very skillful plays: a good reflect, a nicely timed interrupt, a coordinated burst, etc. I don’t find it fun, and I doubt that a lot engis playing that trait really find it fun, or flavorful. It’s just effective for no effort, that’s what I’m playing it and that’s why it’s played competitively, but in the end we don’t want to try-hard, we don’t want to win: we want to have fun.

From the point of view of a solo/duo roamer and pvp players, the stab changes are rather good. For example, when running away from a zerg, two stacks of stab now mean I’m actually immune to CC for at least one second, which is often enough to get out of line of sight. Also, I like to melee train sometimes, and things have definitely improve a lot on that front.

However I feel like 0.75s is a bit too long. 0.5s would be more reasonable. In spvp, it is impossible to interrupt a druid in Strength of the Pack even with three players if you don’t have access to boon removal! For 10s!

ThomasC.1056:

That’s the pessimistic analysis. That may not be accurate, but it’s no less accurate than saying 75% “overall players” are happy. A broader sample is needed. Why not publish polls through in-game mail with another option like “I don’t care, I don’t play WvW so much” ?

Well, it is possible for the development team to see how people responded per server, so I wouldn’t be too worried about little servers being drowned into all the “yes” votes from the larger servers.

That being said, your idea definitely has value. The mail could be sent to every player entering a WvW map during a time period, so that it wouldn’t bother players that are not playing WvW at all (I can already read in my head the dozens of QQ threads posted by role players if Anet was to do something like this). It shouldn’t be too frequent, because no one likes polls, but once in a while on important matters, I think the community would be thrilled to be asked for its opinion.

The Ventari Ele.5812:

What if those 75% of votes are from PvE players there to cause trouble?

You know it’s wrong because of Occam’s Razor. Sure, it’s possible that a horde of players who have no interest in the game mode, but somehow still hate the WvW player base so much that they are wanting to go on the forums to voluntarily implement a change they don’t want. But it’s more plausible that the WvW community (at least, the minority reading the forums) actually took the time to answer the poll.

When I think about what the typical PvE player in GW2 must be like, I think of WP or Aurora Peachy. They seem too nice and candid to be the evil master minds you imagine they are :P

trunks.5249:

191 matches and stuck on sapphire tier 2 lol

Don’t think of it as stuck, my friend. Think of it as getting even matches. Do you really care about what people think of the little symbol on your name tag?

I’ve never played a build where Rapid Regeneration was worth taking without any access to Superspeed. If you play hammer with Perfectly Weighted, then the might on stab trait is really strong (provided you have a bit of additional boon duration), same if you play a build with Elixir B. I guess the second trait doesn’t really work in most builds (we have a lot of knockbacks, but not many dazes and stuns), but if you play an hybrid build with one gyro and hammer without Final Salvo, it would still be better than Rapid Regeneration.

lLobo.7960:

- Jumpshot gains 2 blast finishers (on lunch and on land) becoming a tripple finisher skill (blast, jump, blast)

I don’t think that’s the way to go. For one thing, because it would be OP, but also because leap finishers are more reliable for getting stealth. If you leap through a smoke field now, you gain stealth even if your landing hits. If the landing was a blast finisher, you would get revealed if you were to land inside the smoke field.

zinkz.7045:

It’s there (along with things like the smoke bomb trait) because the design of engy only having one weapon means there is huge pressure on the utilty slots and one of the things that leads to is a difficulty in fitting in stunbreaks, so no it and a fair few other passives in this game could not simply go unless you redesign some of the classes. (granted nightmare rune could definitely go, but many passives could not)

I would argue that the smoke bomb trait and even protection injection are not as problematic, even though they are passive, since a lot of the engi gameplay is passive anyway, and that it is sort of compensating the weakness to CC chains engi has had since the beginning of the game. If anything, these traits are more balanced than the ridiculous amount of stability scrappers dish out these days. The combination of Protection Injection and Stability is way too much, and Perfectly Balanced probably needs a rework.

These traits have obvious counters: for the smoke bomb trait, you need to think about a way to clear the blind just after a CC (like a weapon swap sigil or something, the way you would get rid of a guardian’s Aegis) before landing your big hits. For Protection Injection, you can either boonstrip or try to CC as little as possible. What is really unacceptable is Self-Regulating Defense (or the passive Endure Pain for that matter): there is absolutely no counter play if you don’t play a very specific type of build: condi burst with a lot of cover conditions. Traits like this one need to be rework first.

Abaddon.2105:

As I am not in favour of playing condi builds, will be impossible to play solo arenas without frustration and hate towards everything and everyone.

I don’t understand. The meta builds for thief, ele, ranger, engineer and revenant are not condi-based. Guardian, even if it’s not meta, has a strong power-based build. That’s two third of the professions. Nobody is forcing you to play mesmer, and if you want to play warrior or necro, power alternatives are viable in the MMR bracket you play in. Sure, you face condi builds often, and you need to think about it when crafting your build, but you are really not forced to play condi to be effective.

And frankly I don’t care. I don’t play often, and I’m glad that since the beginning of the season, most of my games have been balanced. Compared to last season, where I had to win 40 games almost in a row to just begin to face somewhat worthy opponents in Diamond, I’d say the matchmaking is much better. The people complaining about not progressing should quit this MMO mentality and realize that in the end, getting good games is all that matters, and that winning is just an added bonus.

Ellie.5913:

Also the lobby in HotM is looking very empty compared to the way it usually looked before. So yea something is definitely very bad that hardly no 1 wants to play it anymore.

I don’t necessarily disagree with the point you’re trying to make, but I just want to point out that if I had a gold for every time I read that in the last three years, I’d be drowning in Legendaries.

insanemaniac.2456:

came into thread expecting rocket turret, rocket boots, and aim assisted rocket.

Don’t forget Mortar Kit. I feel you. I was kind of disappointed as well.

I like your build Novuake, thanks a lot for posting! However, it felt a bit lacking in pvp when I tried it. I tried a lot of different utilities in lieu of Elixir S and Rocket Boots: Flamethrower, Bombs, Elixir C, Tool Kit, but nothing was really shining that much: less presence on point, less teamfight utility, and paradoxically less sustain than the meta build. Still somewhat viable, I would say, especially in 1v1s and 1v2s, and definitely great fun.

I think your build would really shine in WvW roaming however. With Celestial gear, and maybe Tool Kit over Elixir S, to prevent kiting. I liked the Tool Kit synergy with your build, since it’s in nature an hybrid kit, and Pry Bar has a great synergy with the Sigil of Intelligence. I was thinking of Rune of the Traveler in that case for the mobility, but if you don’t mind blasting your lighting fields, maybe rune of the defender? The Aegis on heal would have a great synergy with the instacast heal gyro.

edit: One more thing: have you tried to run Heavy Armor Exploit instead of High Caliber? I haven’t, but right now I’m thinking it could give you more sustain through Rapid Regeneration, and give you a nice little stack of swiftness to escape if things get rough. But here again, you may not have enough precision. Overall, I think one of the main problem with your build is the lack of an appropriate rune, as you mentionned.

basz.6129:

Elixir c is extremely situational. I would bet good money that a player like Chaith does not camp that every match. Viper/sinister for pve

You need it most games these days. There are a lot of condis flying around.

Class stacking can be easily prevented by playing more than one profession. I don’t know why Anet would do anything about it. In virtually any other team-based game, good players in soloq play more than one role, so they can adapt to their comp. Do the same.

Class stacking is a problem we created. Now that most professions are viable, there is no excuse not to switch if you are too many of one profession on your team.

That’s like in Overwatch: sure, you can play two Widowmaker if you want, but no team plays that because one of the player will switch. I don’t know why GW2 players are incapable of doing this.

is that half of the players lose in every game. Since every player deserves a win/loss ratio over 88% because they are holding people 1v6 far and their bloody team mates are brand new players that can’t even win the rest of the map, Anet is obviously doing something wrong by giving victory to only five players in each game!

Better yet, my proposal of algorithm for season 4: make me win, make other players lose.

P. S. I get new players in my team every game, but pvp in this game is dying!

Drussthelegend.2630:

The problem with A-net is they don’t nerf hard enough most of the time and they are the kings of power creep.

I think you’re right. Maybe they don’t want to alienate people by nerfing stuff? Well, they are certainly not pleasing me.

Zelulose.8695:

I would ask the balance teem to re-look at their pvp because the last poll done had over a 70% dissatisfaction rate.

Don’t you think there is a bias in your sample? Like the fact that you asked THE FORUMS?

lighter.2708:

yea, right..well gs will never be viable, no reliable damage, always get you out of point, people can avoid it by walking and landing full damage is close to impossible in real fight, gg

GS is already great in WvW roaming, and it’s certainly not because of Whirlwind that it isn’t quite there in pvp: it is actually the only way to deal serious damage in duels, along with Arcing Slice, weapon swap sigils and dodges (if you play Strength).

The tears… the taste…

Turret engi would certainly not work these days. For one thing, it relied on taking the tankiest possible amulet (sentinel), which was removed. Also, everyone has too much sustain.

On the other hand, scrapper (with hammer) would probably offer an “interesting” new playstyle for turret engi: a block, a strong cc with AoE damage, evades, and a reflect to counter ranged builds (who could beat it in the old days). Scrapper also gives a lot of self sustain and damage reduction.

Just for the lulz, I made a build of what a modern, post-HoT turret engi would look like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASlUUhKrYtVwmKw6FLVGl4yEAlH9eX33dY+EWfFA-TJRIABgdBAkvMQJ7PAwDAAA

Forestnator.6298:

Uhm I tested this in sPvP some days ago and acid bomb removes a condi when trained.

Could you check? It’s not consistent with my own results.

After further testing, I’ve found the following. When you have Alchemical Tinctures (later, AT) traited:

- Acid Bomb never removes a condition (which is a shame, if you want my opinion, since it works with HGH), and naturally the tooltip shows nothing special.

- Healing Mist and Elixir Shell remove a condition in both pvp and wvw, and the tooltips are correct.

- Super Elixir removes 2 condis (one baseline, one with AT) in both wvw and pvp, but the tooltip in wvw is wrong and doesn’t show the AT condition removal.

For more coherence, I think it would be better if ALL elixir skills worked with AT. One more condi cleanse on a 12s CD is far from OP, and it would be a lot less confusing.

mexay.3902:

Not all heroes wear capes <3

SOMEONE SAID CAPES?!! Capes as season 3 rewards confirmed.

Ghazan.9213:

They should do 50 / 50 like every other online gaming Mmr

Hearthstone match-making works kind of like season two MMR used to. You get super easy games until you reach a certain point corresponding to your skill level.

I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I know Sunfish played a condi LB warrior. It was VERY effective, thanks to the player probably. He consistently won his 1v1s against the mesmer from team PZ (I think it was team PZ?). But his team played a Shadow Art thief and had two new members, so it naturally lost the game.

emkelly.2371:

That would not promote skilled gameplay, regardless of how you slice it the new mechanic not only works, but also is rather interesting. I’d actually like to see more mechanics along the same lines as this. Give me a trait that activates when i manage to pull off a skilled maneuver.

Exactly. I like that you are rewarded for actually landing your bursts. And I’m also one of those warriors who loved the adrenaline change: it was more thematic and more interesting. Risk/reward. I honestly think that warrior is the best designed class these days (it used to be engi, but hammer, passive S and clunky gyros kinda broke it), because of all these clear weaknesses and this timing-based gameplay. The balance team should look at what they did with warrior and extend on the idea.

I’ve had it plenty of time as well since I started playing warrior again after the Adrenal Health change. It always happens immediately after a weapon swap, so I suspected a skill queuing issue (I play engineer a lot, so I know that those things often get broken after patches).

Tien.3865:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Scrapper_-_Marauder_Explosives

Thoughts on this build? Some people have said it might become meta in S3. Is it possible or nah?

Also, would this build work for WvW roaming? A number of people have said that scrappers are too easily kiteable, so maybe grenades could solve that problem.

It’s a good build, but it won’t be meta: power glass engineer was never meta because thieves hard-counter it, and now revenants are even more of a threat. I run something like that in spvp, and it’s currently one of the best scrapper build for soloeq in my opinion, because of it’s great team fight pressure.

It could work for WvW roaming, sure. You would have to make a few changes maybe: Medic Gyro over the turret, because the cast time is too long, Sneak Gyro over Elixir X, and maybe Tool Kit or Blast Gyro over Bulk Gyro? Something that would pack a punch: you don’t have time for long fights in WvW.

You said “no Viper”, but not “no condi”, so in doubt I’ll give you my build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdQQJAqancoC9dhlcBubBEqiF2iiO4H+lXsjminA8DLxAA-TViHABnpDgJlBlo+DlKBtQLBAPAA02fY5TAwRK9IEgi1A-w

The two celestial pieces would be better in rabid, but I’m cheap. This build has great condi pressure if you land your weapon swaps and your hard-hitting skills (Blowtorch, Rocket Kick, Pry Bar), and probably has the best mobility you can achieve with Traveler Runes, Rocket Boots, Elixir Gun and Final Salvo. The only 1v1s that are really hard to win are against condi builds, especially mesmers and necros, but you can usually just run away from them.

It’s great in outnumbered situations, but only if you keep calm, since you can apply moderate AoE pressure with geo procs and the associated IP proc (skilled gameplay), but need to land your single target burst skills to finish someone.

Chaith.8256:

Been bugged since the beginning, Function Gyro doesn’t give stab when traited to do so, and the F-Gyro tooltip is bugged to say that it grants 2 stability when you have Perfectly Weighted trait equipped, as you’ve noticed.

The F-Gyro tooltip should mention 1 stack of stability in blue when traited with Final Salvo, (and actually give stability) and not ever mention stability when Perfectly Weighted is equipped.

It’s completely confusing and buggy and has been for months

I think it worked when the stab on function gyro was a minor trait? But yeah, it’s bugged now and I’ve lost several outnumbered fights in WvW because of it.

ArchonWing.9480:

Acid bomb isn’t thrown or consumed, so it doesn’t remove a condi. It does give you might though because of HGH

I am pretty certain that Elixir Shell cures a condition with Alchemical Tinctures, and it’s not consumed or thrown either.

Thank you all for your answers! Since there is no consensus yet, I will test all of this later tonight, and let you know what I found. It might be a good occasion to update the wiki page:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Alchemical_Tinctures

It has its uses… but it’s rather ineffective most of the time, yes. The immob should be longer, and the projectile speed a bit higher. Otherwise, I like it flavor-wise.

The main problem with Rocket Boots as of now is that it lost a big part of his value: the fact that it was the only leap in the game that was not affected by chill and cripple (it removes them prior to the leap along with immobilize). So really, while other leap skills just have a different functionality now (ex: warrior’s “Rush” travels a shorter distance with swiftness, but goes further than it used to when affected by chill and cripple), Rocket Boots was just plain nerfed by this change. With the recent change to Slick Shoes, gadgets are once again useless.

That’s part of the fun. Frankly, it is rather easy to land bursts on warrior, especially Arcing Slice, and yeah, dodging them is the best strategy to win against a warrior.

If you are having trouble landing your Arcing Slices, I suggest you slot a Sigil of Agility (Speed in spvp) to your GS, and land those quickness bursts with ease.

Tristan.5280:

In WvW maybe it’ still a thing, but still people has too much condi immunity and condi removal

Give it a try, you’d be surprised. I find that for roaming it is still the best option, because hammer can be kited too easily.

santenal.1054:

With alchemy (Alchemical tinctures) healing mist removes 1 condi and super elixir removes 2 condies non of the other skills remove condies on your self. Without alchemy only Super elixir removes a condi on your self (only 1 this time). There are many tooltips that give wrong information. Sigil of cleansing is also a good condi remover in wvw.

So you think it does remove conditions but only the tooltip is wrong? I might need to perform further testing, but I could have sworn Acid Bomb didn’t remove any conditions on me when traited.

Also, thank you for your advice. I do run Sigil of Cleansing and it is a blessing, especially in dealing with confusion.

Hi all,

I’ve been playing engineer in pvp almost exclusively for the past year or so. With the server mergers and the rewards giving a second life to WvW roaming, I’ve dusted my old condi roaming engineer build. It uses Elixir Gun and Alchemy, but the tooltip for Acid Bomb and Super Elixir don’t show the text “Conditions removed: 1” associated with Alchemical Tinctures, while on the other hand it shows in the tooltips for Healing Mist and my other elixirs. Furthermore, it seems to me that those two skills simply don’t work with the trait: Super Elixir only removes one condi, and Acid Bomb simply does not cure any condition.

The worst part is that it worked fine in spvp, at least the last time I’ve played this game mode. Have you noticed this? It’s rather game breaking, since I’m not forced to use Medic Gyro as my heal skill (the cast time on the turret makes it useless in outnumbered scenarios), and I often find myself short on condi removal.

It’s not PvE if it is maneuvered by a player. I like this idea: after an upgrade, you could use supply to build such a cannon (or better, a themed weapon, since you would be forced to build it inside the tower), and it would give a purpose to these towers. Sure, changing the layout of the map to allow trebbing would be better, but it’s not gonna happen, realistically.

Sich.7103:

On my side I hate the 3 side map and I want to play at “home”.
But if you want more activity on a map you need more connection between structures… Each thing you take should help you or be under pressure from something else. This mean you are never completly secure and have to always fight.

You’re completely right. I prefer the DBL over the Alpine one, but I still think these useless towers and the way everything seems unconnected is a major design flaw. I hope Anet will be able to fix it when the DBLs rotate back.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Sorel.4870:

Anet said in the ask-me-anything on reddit that they planned to rotate the BLs every three months.

and that’s a really stupid decision.
Even if the impossible happens and they manage to fix the map so much that it is finally functional, a quarterly rotation is still way too long.
If they can’t do a weekly rotation then they need to quarterly rotate that crappy map with their other crappy map in eotm and leave WvW alone until they design a map that isn’t completely broken for WvW.

For the most part it looks like the people running things now have a much better head on their shoulders than the previous crew so hopefully they won’t stick to that terrible plan.

I tend to agree. I would prefer having the choice between the two borderlands better than having a rotation. If it’s impossible, rotating every week or every second week would be much better imo.

Anet said in the ask-me-anything on reddit that they planned to rotate the BLs every three months.

Thanks everyone! I’ll give dagger another try then. I don’t think I can get rid of the warhorn though, so maybe not GS, even if it looks magnificent.

Cerby.1069:

Sorel.4870:

I’ve been running hydro and leeching for ever, but I recently swapped leeching for agility, and it makes a world of difference! With the new Adrenal Health it’s vital to hit the bursts reliably, and the quickness Arcing Slice is just too good. You can also have the first hits of your 100b coming out faster. It’s so fluid, that even if leeching gets fixed I probably won’t go back.

-How do I equate 250 power to 1 second quickness…?
-How do i equate 2900 damage and 2 second chill and an adrenaline proc to 1 second quickness…?
-How do I equate an extra dodge to 1 second quickness?
-How do I equate….

I mean for the sake of argument ill try it out on a gs…since i have 3 ascended zerker ones ….4 if i count the marauder. It would have to make my fighting super fluid though in order to justify me doing this.

Edit: its not as bad as I thought it would be. worth considering…..plus its fun with the extra control it gives you.

I understand your doubts. I myself wouldn’t have even looked at this sigil if sigil of leeching wasn’t broken, and the fact that some good on-swap sigils don’t exist in pvp. One second of quickness looks like nothing on paper, but it really feels fluid once you play it.

It’s still worse than hydro (which is still a go-to sigil for GS in pvp/wvw), and I personally don’t like bloodlust because it makes me fear death, which is detrimental to good WvW roaming. So it’s the next best choice imo.

Wings are overrated. The new armor is pretty sweet, and the Hero version will certainly be ascended, which is almost as good as a legendary armor (you’d have to change the runes every time anyway). Plus, with reward tracks, we basically have 9 new armor sets obtainable with WvW alone.

Another form of legendary backpack would be cool though. Something with your guild blason maybe? Like A CAPE???? (one can dream)