umm, no sir, that is not how you do the 10k damage. the only elixir you have is R. you’re other utilities…. I would love to tell you the others but i cant afford another 10% Nerf on my grenades. Its approximately 10k damage in ONE second. and its only one skill from the grenade kit with no buffs or conditions on the enemy except the vulnerability from the explosion. Oh and there is no points in arms. that’s a waste of 10 points and good power damage.
If there are other ways, that’s fine too, but the way I described is also 10k in about one second (the time it takes to Barrage+autoattack). I also don’t understand what you mean by a waste of good power damage, since the build I’m referring to has 3404 base attack (and, like the build you referred to, is not a glass cannon), and the only way to boost it higher would be using different runes than I used to use with it. But, I’m not here to argue about the Engi’s damage, because that’s completely irrelevant to your topic. I still can’t agree that the Engineer needs anything close to the buffs you’ve listed in order to be effective. They’re already a class in a relatively good state of balance when compared to many others, and many of the changes you’ve suggested, such as the various turret and cleansing changes, would detract from the class’s high skill ceiling. That was what I was referring to earlier when they said they’d be the new FOTM class, much in the way that people complain about Backstab Thieves, bunker Guardians, etc. being powerful without requiring much skill to play. I don’t personally want to see the Engi become that, and I don’t think most other Engineer players do, either.
10k damage with Grenades isn’t that unusual for a damage spec…I don’t know why you’re treating it like it’s a big secret. Max the Explosives line, take Grenadier, grab Explosive Powder, spec some in Arms, use some sort of damage boosting runes, and take Elixir B in your utilities for the Might and Fury. Grenade Barrage can hit for around 7k if you’re lucky, and a triple hit/crit with your other grenades can provide the other 3k. It’s not always easy to pull off in the middle of battle, but it’s not some super-secret technique that only elite engineers know. I used it for a while before deciding that Bombs and Elixirs were more efficient for my role in PvP. As you’ve mentioned previously, the 3k crit bomb autoattacks and 4-6k crit Big Ol’ Bombs are devastating and, in my opinion, much less awkward to use.
I admit that I’m a little confused about your posts, though – you’re claiming that Bombs and Grenades are the only viable specs, but you’ve stated in this very thread that the Elixir Gun support build is also absurdly powerful. Also, the Tool Kit was recently buffed, and many Engis are taking advantage of the 3 second block and 1200 range pull it now sports. Most point holder/tank Engis also make heavy use of Elixirs and the various CC utilities available. I do agree that Engi needs some help – Flamethrower could still use some tweaking, I already agreed that Turrets need some boosts, and some individual utilities could use some small buffs, but the scale you’re recommending buffs on is way out of line with what the class actually needs. Most classes only have 1-2 viable specs – Engis aren’t alone in this. That doesn’t mean the skills that aren’t being used need 50-75% cooldown reductions and other massive power boosts.
Think about other specs that aren’t popular in paids – what if I were to, say, reduce the cooldowns of Guardian Spirit Weapons by 50-75% without nerfing them in other ways? Or to increase their swing rate, like you suggested with some of the turrets’ firing rates? I imagine you want to be dealing with Spirit Hammer knockbacks every second or two (BWE3, anyone?) about as much as I want to be dealing with the Net Turret’s immobilizes every 5 seconds (3 second immobilizes every 5 seconds, before condition duration buffs, and in addition to traits like Knee Shot? No thanks).
More builds do need to be brought into the meta, and buffing underused skills is a good way to do that, absolutely. I favor Anet’s philosophy of buffing them gradually, though, because even though it may be frustratingly slow, it has a smaller chance of creating new monsters that will terrorize the game until the next monthly update.
Just going to say, your downed state changes make the Engi’s downed state almost identical to the Guardian’s in terms of mechanics, but far, far more effective. Wrath, the Guardian’s 1-skill in the downed state, is next to useless, doing minor damage without any bonus effect – I’d trade it for stacking bleeds and chills any day. Booby Trap, on a damage-specced Engineer, will crit for 3k AoE damage (much, much more than Wave of Light), it has a larger knockback than WoL, and it’s a Blast finisher. Symbol of Judgment and Throw Elixir R would basically be the same thing, so there’s nothing there to balance your proposed Engi downed state with the Guardian’s current one.
In general, I agree with others in this thread that a lot of these changes are overtuned. The bug fixes sound fine, of course, and I do agree that turrets could use some help, but the amount of help suggested here is excessive. As things stand, Engi is a class with a high skill ceiling. These changes would instantly demote it to the new FOTM build, since it would have absurd levels of easily-accessible control, cleansing, and damage.
I agree that Focused Mind could use a bit of reworking now that Judge’s Intervention and Contemplation of Purity are instant-cast normally, but ground targeting…how would that work with, say, Contemplation of Purity? Whatever it’s changed to/what’s added to it should be compatible with all Meditations.
As it stands, some builds do still find reason to take the trait for its effect on Smite Condition, and these applications are interesting enough to make me still want some way to make SC instant. When you’ve got Monk’s Focus, an instant-cast 2k heal is much more useful than a 2k heal with a cast time, since you can use it while stomping, reviving, or performing other actions, and in general, you don’t have to worry about dying while waiting for the skill to fire. Besides that, being instant cast lets you work it into burst combos, and glass cannon builds can use this to considerable effect by activating SC in the middle of Zealot’s Defense or Whirling Wrath. Add Judge’s Intervention and Virtue of Justice (also both instant-cast) into the combo, and you can put out some serious damage in the time it takes to use a single attack. I think that versatility is pretty cool, and if SC lost that, it’d hurt some of the Guardian’s offensive builds (which already struggle to find a place in anything above casual play).
I actually spent a good chunk of time last week developing an effective Spirit Weapon build for PvP, and I’m very satisfied with the results. There are surprisingly few resources out there for making SW builds (and most of the ones that exist are outdated), so I was also lost when I got started. Here’s how my build looks (copy/paste, as with your link):
This build has a heavy emphasis on control, and delights in racking up damage while the opponent can’t move or use skills. By bringing along lots of CC, you prevent your opponent from kiting your weapons, and the weapons can then CC your opponents to keep the ball rolling. Like all SW builds, it excels in dueling, but the monstrous amounts of control it provides, along with the Hammer and Shield’s array of offensive support tools, also make it a valuable contribution to team fights. We’re also packing Ogre runes, which boost your personal damage output while giving you yet another pet to wail on your opponents with (one that can benefit from your Virtue activations, I might add).
An important note – Spirit Weapon builds are unique in that they fill their utility bars with damage and CC, as opposed to the healing, condition cleansing, and support options Guardians typically run with. This creates a problem in their basic design – typical Guardian builds are heavily reliant on their utilities for condition cleansing, but the Bow of Truth is a weak utility, and you definitely want the Spirit Sword and Hammer in any sort of aggressive SW build. One utility slot won’t get the job done efficiently (and should be reserved for “Stand Your Ground!” anyways).
The solution to this problem lies in bringing a Knight’s Amulet along with the Purity and Absolute Resolution traits. The Knight’s Amulet gives us a big chunk of HP to work with, slowing the rate that condition builds can kill you. Purity will combine with the Signet of Resolve to pull 2 conditions off you every 10 seconds, which is nice passive cleansing. Absolute Resolution will give you both boosted Rejuvenation to mitigate small condition stacks and the ability to use an instant-cast cleanse/heal every 48 seconds. Renewed Focus is a great way to help make sure Resolve is ready to go whenever you need it, and it’ll also let you use your other Virtues to full potential. Although this amount of condition removal still does not compare to a bunker Guardian’s, you are capable of exerting much more pressure than a bunker, which will reduce the amount of incoming conditions. It balances out in the end.
The rest of the build is pretty straightforward – use the Scepter to harass from safety and to initiate CC combos on unsuspecting foes. When you’ve got the Hammer out, use the autoattack chain frequently for Protection (I can’t emphasize this enough), Mighty Blow with your Light fields for Retaliation, and the rest of your abilities to chain-CC targets for upwards of 10 seconds at a time. A sample rotation might be (starting with Scepter) Chains of Light > Hammer Command > Virtue of Justice > Smite > Sword Command > Zealot’s Embrace > Mighty Blow > Banish. Successfully executing this rotation will make your opponent feel bad about themselves.
Anyways, that’s what I came up with, and thus far it’s worked beautifully. Let me know if you want any more info, and I’ll do my best to help!
I’m pretty sure it’s intended, since it’s been a feature since beta. The intent is probably to encourage more strategy and diversity in choosing sigils, since before the cooldown was discovered, everyone running DPS just stacked Fire and Air sigils, while people without a high crit rate stacked two on-swap sigils, and that was the vast majority of what you saw. This way, there’s a much better reason to use passive sigils, and you have to consider the opportunity cost of taking different sigils (do I take Fire for more AoE or Blood for the healing? Before I could just choose both and be done with it, but now I need to gauge which I need more). It also helps balance certain sigils that everyone would be running if the cooldown didn’t exist, like Rage. Overall, I think it’s a good mechanic.
I run this skill/trait setup for PvE content (copy/paste if the forums don’t like the link):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAsdWlYg672FSEEfIFRWBRa9ggH0fYFw4lCHSRA;TMALIGWMhA
I initially designed this build as a PvE adaptation of my PvP build. The 1h Sword has some unique advantages over the GS, most notably the ability to benefit from Right-Handed Strength (and by speccing into 30 Radiance, you also pick up the superb Radiant Power trait). You can capitalize on this in two ways: the first option is to take regular offensive gear and reach a very high crit rate (typically close to or slightly above 70%, depending on your other build choices). The second is to move stat points you would normally put in Precision into your Power, Toughness, and Vitality to achieve superior defensive stats while still hitting around 50% crit. Some combination of Soldier’s, Valk’s, and Knight’s gear is probably ideal to achieve this distribution, but the specifics are up to personal preference. I prefer the latter route, myself, since it allows me to function in a more typical Guardian role in dungeon settings while still hitting very hard.
To explain the build a little, Sword/Focus is the primary set, and in spite of people’s preconceptions, it’s excellent for AoE damage due to the wide swing of its autoattack (slightly larger than the GS’s autoattack range), and because its 5 – hit chain lets a Fire Sigil proc basically on cooldown. Staff is there for ally support, ranged AoE damage against large groups of enemies (particularly in Orr), and high Swiftness uptime. If you take the build into WvW, you’ll typically use your Sword/Focus for small-scale skirmishes and the Staff for large battles, and swap in weapons like the Scepter or GS as necessary. From my experience, you can use the build for any purpose without having to respec traits, so you aren’t spending cash when you switch between WvW, dungeons, or whatever else.
Utilities rotate, but my three defaults are Save Yourselves, Wall of Reflection, and the Hammer of Wisdom, with Renewed Focus for the elite. Stand Your Ground frequently finds its way in for dungeons, as does Tome of Courage. Hammer of Wisdom, the least conventional utility, is phenomenal (even untraited) for relieving pressure in situations where you’re trying to solo groups of 6-8 enemies, and it’ll slowly eat through stacks of Defiant on champions and bosses, which sets up nicely for hitting them with the command.
In terms of traits, 30 Radiance is a given in this spec, and the rest gradually took shape based on what I found most useful in the widest variety of situations. 20 Valor is very important for Toughness and Crit damage boosts, with Purity for condition control. Retributive Armor deserves some special mention, since it lets you spend even fewer points in Precision while rewarding your investment in Toughness. The 10 points in Honor and Virtues are there for the excellent minor traits and to enhance your utilities, since each utility in this build has the power to change a fight on its own.
Finally, a Fire Sigil is great for boosting the AoE damage of the set, and Bloodlust will maximize your damage output (though Luck is a good option for MF). I’ve personally got Pirate runes on at the moment for the MF (since I’m poor, and the Might bonuses aren’t bad), but Divinity, Ogre, Pack, Traveler, and other similar runes are all very good choices depending on your purposes.
I will say that I’m a PvP player first and foremost, so this may not be a perfect build, but I’ve always found it to excel in all kinds of PvE content and to hold its own in WvW (especially as a skirmisher). Your results may vary, but for those interested in a 1h Sword build, I’d say it’s at least a good place to start.
(edited by Soryuju.8164)
As others have mentioned, IV gives you a lot more than just a personal power bonus. It improves your entire group’s DPS and survivability. In particular, it’s pretty much what makes Virtue of Courage worth using, since you’re just getting a single block once every 90 seconds if you don’t have IV traited. That’s nice if you can block a big attack with it, and it can take a little pressure off your team but it won’t help much if you’re getting focused. 5 seconds of protection can help you survive through tough situations and will help your team members do the same, and all you lose for that are 2 blocks from the passive over the next 90 seconds. Without IV, VoC is something that might occasionally be useful if you have good timing. With it, it basically becomes a free utility skill, since the opportunity cost for activating it is very low and the effect is very powerful.
Also, IV becomes even more useful if you’re taking Renewed Focus. Suddenly, you can quickly stack 10 seconds of burning damage on the next attack, 6 stacks of might, possibly two AoE blinds, a moderate heal, 10 seconds of Regen, 2 blocks, and 10 seconds of Protection per party member, all while becoming invulnerable for 3 seconds. That’s absolutely huge. Alternatively, you can achieve half of that effect basically for free if you don’t pop your virtues again after using RF. IV and RF have gradually become staples of almost all my builds – the fact that all Virtues are instant cast makes them very powerful, and when traited/renewable, they can make a huge difference both in solo and team situations.
Condition damage would probably need to be reduced across the board if Toughness got a buff, or conditions would probably start to crowd direct damage out of the meta. It’s also worth noting that what you’re suggesting would basically be building a mini protection buff into all professions, which could make the current bunker meta worse unless other adjustments besides a Protection nerf were made.
Additionally, if what I’ve heard is correct, the Fury only lasts for 3 seconds. Suffice to say, it’s an underwhelming trait that’s rarely used.
It’s unfortunate, but it probably has to do with the way they’ve done the system. As you’ve described, the situation occurs when the teams have an even number of players and one is losing. If you put the new player on the losing team, though, they can just switch right over to the winning one, because it won’t cause one team to have 2 or more players than the other. And if the new player doesn’t decide to switch, one of the other players on the losing team is still free to jump ship and go over to the winning side (until another player joins the game, at least). There’s no way to stop the winning team from getting an extra player until there’s an even number of players in the game, which may never happen. They probably don’t want to disable team-switching mid-match, though, because that can interfere with friends joining other friends in games (which I’m sure would cause its own little uproar, knowing this community). It actually kind of makes sense the way it is now, since by placing the new player on the winning team, you keep them from wanting to jump right out of the match again, and you prevent players on the losing team from bailing out on a bad situation that they’ve contributed to and stealing the win. It still sucks for the losing team, but unless they redesign the system, I don’t see a great solution.
To all replies – this thread is not about what I could have done or wore or traited differently. Its also not how i should/could have dodged. This is not my normal spec and was testing the toughness stat out itself. The point I’m trying t convey is that if someone maximizes toughness (2k is extreme), they should not take this much damage.
And the point of my post was that you are not testing the effectiveness of toughness by testing just toughness. Like all builds, stats and traits need to work with each other. You wouldn’t take all +crit damage if you have no source of fury, high precision or traits/utilities that give x% chance of higher crit. Have you not run into bunker specs? They run high toughness but also healing. Together the are very strong, but by themselves they are both kind of weak. If you ran without the toughness you would be complaining that you took 20k damage. As others have said including me, too much toughness not enough vital. Shaman’s is great for necro’s because they already have high hp, not so much with thief’s. Base of 18k compared to ele,thiefs and guardians 11k. Toughness is fine, thief’s are fine, your test build is not.
You’re still criticizing his build, though, when he’s criticizing the effectiveness of the Toughness stat. Even if he had 18k HP to go with that 3k armor, he’s still losing 14k of it to a single combo.
That said, OP, I’m not really sure how he hit you for so much. My Guardian half-bunker runs with 17.5k HP and 2996 armor, and a typical Backstab will hit me for 4k damage. The full combo may hit for closer to 7-8k, but I’ve never gotten hit for over 14k damage like your Thief. Even my glass cannon Mesmer build typically tops out at getting hit for around 11k BS damage. What was the damage breakdown between the skills in the combo, and are you sure there weren’t other factors that may have influenced the result (multiple hits of BS, maybe)?
In all seriousness, I’ve beaten Thieves underwater with an underwater downed state Ranger, which is, in my opinion, even more broken. You just play normally until the Thief manages to kill you, then spam your skills until your #3 is up. You’ll regenerate a couple thousand HP per second and slowly kill the Thief when they run out of initiative. The only way players have killed me underwater as a Ranger is when they’ve outnumbered me (typically 3v1) and also had sharks – just being outnumbered or having the sharks isn’t, in my experience, enough to overcome the healing.
And yes, UW combat is dumb.
It’s true that Zealot’s Defense is awesome against Karka. Have you considered that added damage might have been from reflected projectiles?
ZD just blocks projectiles, rather than reflecting them, so any extra damage you notice will just be from the sword itself. The 1h sword’s autoattack is one of the strongest in the game, so it wouldn’t be surprising if you see somewhat higher numbers.
Probably the easiest way is to take a Staff and invest some points in the Virtues/Honor lines. Symbol of Swiftness on the Staff gives 8 seconds of swiftness on a 15 second cooldown – 20 points in Honor will unlock 2-handed Mastery, dropping this cooldown to 12 seconds. From there, start putting points into Virtues for +% Boon Duration. If you max Virtues and pick up a rune set that gives you +20% Swiftness, you’ll have +50% total Swiftness duration. 8*1.5 is 12 seconds, giving you 100% Swiftness uptime with the Symbol alone. That leaves you 20 trait points, your other weapon set, your sigils, 4 runes, and your entire utility bar free for whatever else you want.
no best element in gw2 is me !
You are rapidly becoming my favorite troll on these forums, good sir/madam.
1: If you’re playing a bunker Guardian, you should be able to survive indefinitely in a 1v1 (and likely 2v1) situation so long as you use your skills appropriately and don’t blow your cooldowns too quickly. However, you may not be able to actually kill your attacker, because fully defensive Guardian builds have very low damage output. With a more aggressive build, you lose your immortal status, but your combination of sustained damage and mitigation will still win you most 1v1’s. Spirit Weapon builds, although not common in higher level play, are some of the most powerful 1v1 duelists in the game.
2: Absolutely. The Honor line is your best friend when making a build that uses a combination of the Staff, GS, and Hammer, since besides the obvious 2-Handed Mastery, it contains traits for Shouts and Symbols that are natural complements to these weapons’ playstyles. In general, the GS is about offense, the Hammer’s about control, and the Staff is about support, so your role on the team will be determined by what combination of these you take. There’s not really a wrong combination, so use whatever suits your fancy.
3: Not at all. Guardians have a lot more active mitigation than warriors do, which helps make up for the difference in HP. Blocks, blinds, vigor, access to protection, various interrupts/CC, bubbles, and so on will help stretch your HP pool out considerably, especially in a defensive build. In general, you’re playing dangerously if you have less than 16k health, though.
4: In a bunker build, it’s crap. Offensive builds, like Gahn said, don’t have much spike damage, but generally rely on high sustained output. Your GS, 1h Sword and Scepter are your best candidates for a DPS role. Our Power line, Zeal, is garbage, so most people taking this route spec heavily into Radiance and Valor. The remaining points either go into Zeal for the Fiery Wrath trait, or Honor/Virtues for extra defense and support. You can also spec to 25/30 in Honor to pick up the Elusive Power trait, which will give you a DPS buff alongside the extra HP/healing/whatever else from the Honor line.
5: This is sort of a tough question to answer, because knowledge of how to use your skills is really just something that comes with experience. It’s true that the Guardian is generally considered one of the easier professions, but that’s mostly because as a bunker, you’ve got so many different ways to survive and mitigate damage that it can be hard to screw up at your job, which is just a matter of holding the point you’re on. I think fewer people would agree that the roles of support Guardian and offensive Guardian are “faceroll” in the same way as the bunker style. I’ve recently been experimenting with different kinds of offensive Guardian, and I’ve found quite a bit more nuance and skill required for playing them effectively, since you’re not immortal in the same way that the bunker build is. You’re also responsible for killing opponents efficiently in 1v1 while holding out for a long time/killing in 1v2 situations, which can be tough with our limited spike damage. On the support end, skill is absolutely required, because if you’re just firing everything off on cooldown, you’re going to run dry quickly and be useless if your opponent reclaims the advantage. As I said up above, learning how to use your support skills is really just a matter of experience and situational awareness. I wish I could give you more specific advice, but there are too many different kinds of support and situations to really cover it here. Just keep playing, and it’ll eventually come to you.
Are you trying to make a PvE, PvP or WvW build? Which game mode you’ve got in mind will have a pretty big impact on traits, gear, etc, so it’d be helpful to know.
Just completed the client repair, and still got map stuck a few games after, so it’s not a fix that’s going to solve the issue for everyone. I really am curious why this has come back, though, and how the problem is different than it was last time if Anet is still gathering data and testing fixes. You’d think that identical bugs would have identical causes and solutions, but I guess coding is weird like that. =/
sword autoattack > GS autoattack when facing grp of foes
does not compute.
GS autoattack is AoE at any stage.
3rd chain strike gives might stack per struck opponent.
If you’re reliant on Autoattack chain for Sigil of Fire activation, then what is the rest of the hotbar for?Symbol > Whirling is a multihit skill capable of triggering the sigil effect just fine.
Sword is AoE at any stage too – try it on a group of enemies if you don’t believe me. Steps 1 and 2 in the chain have 150 range, which is larger than the GS’s 130, and they are very capable of hitting multiple foes. Step 3 has 300 range and can also hit multiple foes. The few short-duration stacks of Might the GS can put up will help, but are offset by the passive Justice activation that the sword will trigger every single chain.
Whirling Wrath can trigger the Sigil of Fire, sure, but it has a cooldown longer than the Sigil’s, unlike the Sword autoattack, and you will not always land the same number of hits with it due to the random directions of the projectiles. The sword completes its full autoattack chain in 2 seconds, and it won’t miss so long as you’re in range.
Like I said up above, GS skills 2-5 make the GS a better AoE weapon overall, and I won’t try to argue that. But if we’re talking about their autoattacks, the 1h Sword’s is superior due to its reach and 5 hits, and will lead to more consistent on-crit procs than the GS can secure with its autoattack and Whirling Wrath.
We might want to wrap this discussion up, though, since it’s drifting from the OP’s question, and I don’t want to hijack the thread. Maybe PM me if you’d like to keep talking about it.
(edited by Soryuju.8164)
I would currently rank the Ranger as my second-favorite class to play, right after the Guardian. I run a very successful Shortbow/Trap build in PvP, which is one of the (relatively few) Ranger specs considered viable in tournament play at the moment. I don’t think the class is fundamentally broken, though. I think that the main thing Rangers need are buffs/fixes to a couple of weapons, their utility sets (Shouts, Spirits and Signets), and fixes to broken traits. While these are in progress, I’ll happily continue wrecking with traps, though it’s easy to see how that’s not a satisfying solution for the majority of Rangers.
I will say that I’ve also read quite a bit about how powerful Pet builds are, in spite of all the hate pets get from the Ranger community. I’ve tried it briefly, and while I preferred my Trap build in the end, I will say that some pets hit incredibly hard with 30 points in Beast Mastery. Just another option for you to consider, OP, particularly in PvE, where monsters won’t kite your pets.
Unless you are running 10/30/30 you actually lose damage by going GS/Sword. If you’re going for weapon swapping in combat your average DPS between the two weapons needs to be higher than the DPS for just GS. 1HS actually only hits for 6 DPS more than GS in terms of the auto chain and doesn’t get any extra from any skills, unlike GS which has symbol and whirl. Sword auto does get one advantage over GS and that is Right-Handed Strength, so you pretty much need that trait to make sword useful. Even then it’s still weaker in terms of overall DPS than the greatsword, but it’s useful in PvP because it has better mobility. For PvE though I would use a mace (for defense) or scepter (for offense) since the 1HS offers relatively little over the GS.
Incidentally, scepter deals more than sword too, so DPS-wise that is a better choice even if you are 10/30/30.
Just curious, does this include passive Justice proccing on every autoattack chain for the 1h Sword, as well as the potential for more frequent on hit/crit sigil procs? The fact that the sword’s autoattack hits 5 times per chain is a big factor in its damage output, since you can count on bonus damage from things like Sigils of Fire activating basically on cooldown (so long as you have a respectable crit rate).
Also worth mentioning, the Sword’s autoattack has a slightly larger AoE range than the GS and most other melee weapons across classes. Besides the 3rd step being a 300-range conal attack, the first two swings are 150 range, as opposed to the standard 130. While the GS’s 2-5 skills make it a better AoE weapon overall, if you’re just using the autoattack, the 1h Sword actually surpasses it for attacking groups of foes.
As it was stated above, though, which you choose between Mace and Sword comes down to your build’s purpose. Mace all the way for a defensive/supportive build, and 1h Sword for more aggressive styles. I personally use Sword/Focus, since if you have at least 15 points in Radiance and preferably 5 in both Honor and Virtues, the offensive and defensive power you gain is truly exceptional, allowing you to wade into groups of 5+ enemies and rapidly kill them all, literally without taking a single hit.
Not sure about the aura, but two possibilities. One, one of his teammates used a ranged resurrection skill on him, like the Ele’s Glyph of Renewal or the Necro’s Signet of Undeath. Two, someone killed one of your other teammates some distance away, allowing the downed Guardian to rally (the range on the rally from a stomp is unusually large, and can sometimes occur from distant points on the map).
I can’t really help with the aura you described without seeing exactly what it was though.
Smoke bomb’s quite a bit less powerful now after the nerf. But still a decent survivability cooldown.
Double AoE blind with a 4 second Smoke field is still fantastic, especially since the extended duration allows for more stealth and blinding combo finishers, and 180 range will still cover most of a standard capture point. I haven’t noticed my survivability change since the nerf, honestly.
Weak damage? You guys should try the Bomb Kit in PvE or PvP. With a proper spec, your autoattack bombs can crit for 2.5-3k, which makes for lethal point defense. Big Ol’ Bomb is a 4-6k crit with that epic knockback. Rifle will average 1.5k on autoattack. And no, you don’t have to be a complete glass cannon to reach those numbers, especially with active mitigation like the Smoke and Glue bombs boosting your inherent survivability.
Copy/paste this link for the PvP build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlsp6ZnvSdF17IBIF51vie8Y9T5PKkbbB;TkAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1MsA
Usage is easy: drop bombs on contested points. Abuse Smoke Bomb and Big Ol’ Bomb. When you’re off point, facing ranged opponents, or need extra CC, switch to the Rifle. Make sure you use Elixir B frequently. PvE should honestly be even simpler, considering the AI and the power of Smoke Bomb.
I have a feeling that if you had to pay a monthly fee for this game PvP would be more of a ghost town than it currently is…
Agreed, this, far more than any bugs or gear treadmills, would be the death of GW2. Not to be rude to the OP, but I understand this thread as more of a general dissatisfaction thread than a serious suggestion (correct me if I’m wrong).
Just curious, OP, what class are you playing? Depending on your class, there are some ways to work around stat deficits if you use the right trait and gear combinations, so knowing what you’re trying to build would be useful for the discussion.
like Chaos.5893 said, 2v1 is simple. If you utilize your dodges, strafing and disables than you can outlast those that do not understand this. Here’s what you do…
1) memorize you CDs on your weapons so you dont switch into empty atks.
2) Your dodge negates dmg AND gives you a few more secs needed for CDs to end
3) Pay attention to your disables and how many you have + how long they last.
*ie… If my necro dazes you, than hits DS for fear, than pops staff fear (aoe) right before first fear ends, than switch to dagger for Immob’ing you… How long did I just keep you off that point I was capping? hint…Its mine now:)
2v1 is better because you can test your skills in what you’ll really find in Tpvp. Dodging one so you can take care of the other. Knowing when to use your higher dps on the target and the disables on the other guy. If youre on the recieving end, use your dodge first because you’ll have it again after you cycle through your disables, giving you more time and better control.
You can do all this even with little knowledge in enemy classes. But if you fight them long enough to know how long a thief takes getting to you once he stealths, or what the distance is a warrior needs to initiate his dps… youre better off.
This is assuming that the people you’re fighting will not use their own CC, dodges, and burst damage appropriately. While it’s true that player skill in SPvP is all across the board, it would be wrong to assume that everyone you’ll play there is bad, and winning those 1v2’s will often just not be feasible due to good control and mitigation from your opponents. If you’re referring to 1v2 exclusively against bad players, that’s fair enough, but the way you describe 1v2 in general as “simple” makes me skeptical, to say the least. I won’t even comment on Chaos’s post.
If improved communication with the community is a priority for the devs, may I make a suggestion? After patch notes affecting balance are released, it would be awesome if a representative of the PvP team could make a post in these forums briefly outlining the reasoning behind the different changes. This would lead to much more productive discussion on the forums afterward, since it immediately provides a second perspective for people who disagree with the changes to consider. There would be more arguments about the quality of changes and less whining about them, and based on what you guys have said here about the importance of player feedback to your discussions, it could be mutually beneficial. The community gets a better idea of where Arenanet is trying to direct each profession and PvP as a whole, while the development team gets more constructive and focused feedback to consider during balance discussions. It seems like a win-win situation to me, and all it requires is a post after each balance patch.
Flashing blade has a 12 second cooldown and is useful in combat. If you’re saving it just to catch enemies, you’re wasting utility.
Just for the sake of accuracy, FB is a 10 second cooldown. It is certainly a skill with potential beyond a mere gap closer, but I have to say that it does close gaps extremely well, and this isn’t a function you should be ignoring if you want to get the most out of the 1h Sword. The 1h Sword isn’t going to be doing much when you’re at a distance, and FB automatically gives you the initiative when you use it – your opponent has to react to the fact that you just instantly put yourself into a much more aggressive position, and the blind limits their ability to react. It’s an awesome pressure tool in this way. Most fights will last more than 10 seconds, so you’ll still have plenty of opportunities to use FB for pure disruption during the same battle, and the chance to start every fight in such a powerful way is too good to pass up.
Also, I’ll say that I’m not personally a fan of the Sword/Torch combination, but I think you’re missing the main point of using the two together. Cleansing Flame isn’t really a factor – Zealot’s Flame is the draw here. ZF is unique in that it allows you to keep nearby opponents consistently burning. This is good for putting pressure on opponents, but more importantly, it will activate the traits Fiery Wrath and Radiant Power, boosting your damage output by 20% when your opponent is burning. Add the Powerful Blades trait to the mix, and you’ve got a staggering 25% damage boost on your 1h Sword skills before any other buffs are factored in. Zealot’s Fire, the follow-up to Zealot’s Flame, will also benefit greatly from the 20% damage boost, and on top of that, you’ve got the damage from the actual burning condition. Should the burning be cleansed or run out, you can fill in with Virtue of Justice until ZF is ready to go again. In this way, the 1h Sword/Torch offers what may very well be the highest spike/sustained damage available to the Guardian, and that’s the real incentive behind taking the set. To address your concerns about the set being very damage-focused at the cost of control, consider that you’ve still got a second weapon set and a full bar of utilities to work with. The Scepter’s Chains of Light seem like a good match, Hammer and GS have a few different skills that could help, and the Guardian still has CC utilities like Bane Signet/Signet of Wrath and (if you’re feeling daring) the Spirit Sword/Hammer. These are all just possibilities, of course – I’m not necessarily recommending or discouraging any of them.
That said, I’m also a Sword/Focus guy. I’ll accept the lower damage in exchange for tremendous defensive power, excellent utility, and incredible synergy between skills. For PvE, though, I think Sword/Torch is fine, and I’m not going to write it off for more casual PvP, either. I think it’d be a shaky option in competitive play, but perhaps there’s someone out there who can prove me wrong.
I would agree with Ynna’s suggestions about RHS and changing your gear – I’d suggest either the Knight’s, Soldier’s, or Valkyrie’s gear for PvE (Knight’s if you want to focus on crits, Soldier’s if you want more staying power, Valk’s if you have a decent base crit rate and want more damage than Soldier’s, at the cost of armor). Also, your traits could use a little tweaking – Shimmering Defense and Retaliatory Subconscious are both weak traits in general. I might suggest switching your heal from Shelter to Signet of Resolve and then taking Signet Mastery as your first Radiance Trait, but if you’re really attached to Shelter, you could either go SM for SoJ or Searing Flames for the occasional boon removal. Radiant Fire might also not be optimal, since Torch cooldowns are pretty short as is, and you could probably get more use out of Powerful Blades, which can stack with the 10% boost your Torch and Virtue of Justice should be allowing you to keep up. In place of Retaliatory Subconscious, take Absolute Resolve – the passive healing boost will slightly improve your durability, and the cleanse will give you something to fall back on when CoP is on cooldown.
One other option, if you find you aren’t fond of RHS – move the 5 points from Valor into Honor or vice-versa, and pick up either Shout or Meditation cooldown reduction. Then, swap SoJ for a second utility of the appropriate type. This should improve the efficiency of your combo and bring some synergy to your build in general. Best of luck with it!
As Kasei said, Wall of Reflection is probably our most valuable tool for dealing with the new area. The Karka have a predictable attack pattern – toss down a wall a few seconds into the fight and watch them tear themselves down. If you’re using the 1h Sword, a Flashing Blade/Zealot’s Defense combo also works to negate the spike very nicely (with proper timing, of course). WoR is really the big one, though – I can easily fight 3-4 Karka simultaneously thanks to it. What’s more, I can typically kill them more quickly than I can normal mobs, since they’re each doing 10000+ damage to themselves at the start of each fight.
Veterans are trickier, but Staff is nice for safely interrupting their initial charge with Line of Warding. After the charge, get ready to put down WoR again and smile to yourself as you watch the 4k crits fly. And, of course, keep your stun breaks handy – if you’ve got room for it on your bar, Stand Your Ground is a great choice here.
Realistically, I’m expecting nerfs aimed at killing the bunker specs that are plaguing the PvP meta, which means that our sources of Protection, Retaliation, and healing are all prime candidates for changes. They promised lots of bug fixes, so I’m expecting a few of those for us, too. I’d really enjoy it if they cleaned up our traits, as others have discussed above, and I’ll probably be a little disappointed if we’ve still got tons of placeholders after this patch, three months after launch. It’d be nice if Zeal weren’t a joke, and there would be a lot more incentive to take the various weapon traits if they all offered the combination of a CD reduction and bonus effect. So that’s probably at the top of my wish list for this patch.
My fear is that in nerfing the Guardian’s defensive capabilities to deal with bunker Guardians, offensive and balanced Guardian builds are also going to suffer. These builds really aren’t prevalent in the competitive scene, but the style holds wide appeal, and it’d be a shame if they were made less viable because another style is overpowered. At the very least, I hope the Guardian’s offensive capabilities are buffed if their defense is nerfed, which may still allow for non-bunker builds to hold onto some place in the meta.
Warriors can’t use Vengence right off the bat when they’re down, you know. If I remember correctly (correct me if I’m wrong), it starts off already in cooldown, the warrior has to wait for a while before he can pop it. Anyway, if its a warrior you should expect it.
who cares if it has a timer? every downed #3 has a timer. how many of them let people get back up from a downed state?
if everyone were supposed to be able to get back up on their own then I suppose ANet wouldn’t have designed our #4 ability to be interrupted by damage, would they?
there’s no getting around the fact that it’s completely out of line from the intended design of the mechanic.
edit: of course I’d have nothing to complain about though if ANet would just give my necro access to some form of stability so I could stomp efficiently…
I’m confused why you think Anet didn’t intend for people to be able to get up on their own from downed state using Vengeance when they pretty much explicitly made that the function of the skill. Anyways…
Guardian’s Downed #3 produces a symbol that heals for 4k each second, uninterruptible, that is very capable of ressurecting if the opposing team isn’t paying attention, or if there’s only one other downed opponent nearby. Engineers can throw down their Elixir R toolbelt skill before they go down to self-rez before an opponent’s stomp animation can complete. So no, the Warrior’s not the only one that can get up by themselves from the downed state, and as others have stated, their ability to do so is not particularly reliable. For one thing, the Warrior is unable to prevent an initial stomp from more than one player. For another, even when using the #2 with proper timing, a single opponent who doesn’t waste time will finish you before you can use the #3 (this is consistent with the majority of downed states). Finally, you need 20 points in Discipline to guarantee that you’ll stay up even after you managed to get the kill. The only time the Warrior will have a consistent advantage is when both players are downed and there is no one else around, or when they have allies around to help them (in which case, Vengenance may very well not be necessary). Their downed state is subpar in all other situations, matching up most closely with the Necromancer’s.
So, to review, if you were going to lose a 1v1 to a downed warrior, you would need to 1) Waste a considerable chunk of time getting to him initially, 2) Fail to dodge/block his #2/blind him/apply stability/use Quickness, 3) Get downed yourself or 3a), have expended all of your defenses, so that when he gets up, he can kill you within 5-15 seconds, 4) have burned all of your CC or your own offensive abilities, so that you can’t snare him or just kill him outright after his initial invulnerability is gone, and finally, 5) Lose the coin flip that he’ll stay standing if he’s not traited – if the 50% chance falls in your favor, then it’s just a draw, regardless of any injured pride that may exist.
If you manage to mess up somewhere during each of these steps, I think that the Warrior deserved the kill, and should have a chance to stay standing.
Also, underwater downed states…let’s not even go there. Rangers and Mesmers in particular, I’ve found, are the Obi-Wans of the underwater downed states: when they are downed, they become stronger than you could possibly imagine. I’ve killed multiple full-health opponents fighting me at the same time on Capricorn as a downed Ranger underwater, surviving for 5+ minutes at a time with multiple rallies in between. If the other team doesn’t own the sharks, there’s nothing they can do but slowly die. It’s a similar case with downed Mesmers and their confusion spam, though that’s less about insane survivability and more about winning a war of lethal attrition.
TL:DR – I disagree that the Warrior downed state is overpowered or unfair to other classes.
I personally have no issue with this if it’s uniform to all attack chains. This sort of thing, as others have pointed out, is not remotely new in MMO’s or games in general, and I completely agree with the sentiment that it increases the game’s depth and helps to distinguish skilled players from others. Just think of Wavedashing in Super Smash Bros – players found a glitch in the game mechanics that eventually became the hallmark of skilled play.
Is dodging mid-attack chain intended? Probably not. Would I be disappointed if Anet decided to remove it? Sure, because it presents another strategic option during combat, and unlike many similar bugs, this one has a very distinct cost and benefit. A faster 3rd swing for a full bar of endurance. Spikier DPS for reduced defenses. In using this, you’re betting that you can land that third hit and planning ahead to know that you’re not going to be punished for sacrificing a dodge. This is by no means a glitch that should be used regularly, but has potential to become one of the clutch moves that decides close matches, either to the benefit or detriment of the user.
Also, if this is left alone, don’t expect it to become some little-known secret that only a handful of players are using to get the edge over everyone else. Much like Wavedashing, this will likely become a skill that will be reasonably common knowledge, that many will practice, and that some will master. Those who are dedicated to pushing their game to the highest levels will be rewarded. Once again, however, this bug is unique in that it doesn’t guarantee them the edge over someone not using it. I might have more mixed feelings about its existence if it weren’t for that fact, but I think Anet has a very interesting opportunity here, and I believe they should take it.
I also agree that a timer would be really lovely for Spirit Weapons, as well as any other skills in the game that might benefit from one. It can be hard to always pay attention to how long you’ve got left on your weapons in the heat of battle, and it’d certainly make it easier to get more out of the Command skills.
I have to agree, the sense of entitlement from some of the players here is ridiculous. God forbid your farming should be hindered for a mere two weeks while the developers are trying to fix other important issues in the game. Is that two weeks of your subscription fee you’ve been cheated of? If you’re hitting the DR’s, go vent your frustration in PvP or something, where you won’t have to worry about it.
And yeah, it’s frustrating that there are bugs. But some people here seem to have lost all perspective of the issue. The game’s a little more than a month old, and easily the most massive of the ones I know of that have released recently. It’s using lots of mechanics that are new on the MMO scene, so yeah, you should have gone in expecting plenty of bugs. If not, you were naive, and if you’re thinking of dropping the game over an issue like this, all I can do is wish you the best of luck trying to find another MMO. See if Blizzard can satisfy your urges for decent communication and customer service, maybe. Their forums are lovely, I assure you. Or if GW2 has put you off MMO’s, I hear that Diablo 3 has an awesome endgame, so maybe you could try that for something fresh and see how you like it.
It still just baffles me that people expected this game to be perfect and without serious issues on release. Most MMO’s gain their polish after months or years of trial and error, and I don’t see why GW2, regardless of its design goals, should be treated any differently.
I named my wolf Sebastian, and my Lashtail Devourer is Terry.
…What?
Honestly, if you’re going to buff SoA, you’re probably going to have to split the skill into different PvE and PvP versions. There’s no buts or maybes about it – in PvP, SoA is a phenomenal skill, so much that it alone makes the Shield the default choice for any Guardian build with an open offhand slot. SoJ isn’t really even a factor – SoA just brings so much to the team in PvP that it’s worth trading both skills from either of the other offhands for it, and if it were the Shield’s only skill, you’d probably still see PvP Guardians running it.
To elaborate, SoA’s utility is enormous. The knockback is excellent for point defense, helping keep opponents off the point long enough for you to almost neutralize it from full – any further CC will finish the job. That knockback can also be used as an interrupt, cutting off enemy heals, stomps, revives, and other channels. Combine this potential with one of the Guardian’s teleports, and you can pull clutch moves like warping to an enemy about to stomp a faraway ally, knocking them away, and then reviving your ally while the enemy is still trying to get on his feet. Did I mention that everything I just listed is the product of the knockback alone? Never mind the 360 degree projectile defense or the chance to heal or the Light Field the skill puts down (why hasn’t the Light Field come up more often in this thread? Do people not like AoE Retaliation or condition cleanses?).
I admit, I wouldn’t mind seeing SoJ as a circular AoE, because it is a little awkward to use – frankly, I use it more as a personal protection buff than anything, and typically just when the thought strikes me to do so, since SoA overshadows it so greatly. Cutting SoA’s cooldown, however, would make the skill absurdly powerful in PvP, so like I said before, a PvE/PvP split would be the only good way for that to happen, and I doubt Anet is going to start up with that so early into the game’s lifespan.
A (Hopefully Reasonable) Suggestion For Guardian Elites: Let Us Move While Channeling
in Guardian
Posted by: Soryuju.8164
I’m honestly not a fan of either Tome and only take them in sPvP out of lack of a better option. In PvE, I almost always run with a racial elite. They’re one of the most lackluster aspects of the profession. The loss of stability just puts the nail in the coffin for me.
I admit that I was mostly concerned with the sPvP perspective, since I haven’t focused quite as much on PvE. Being a level 54 Guardian who hasn’t reached Orr, Tome of Courage is still a very powerful PvE elite, since monsters hit slowly and don’t have many control effects to stop the full heal. I’ve heard there’s tons of CC flying around in Orr, though, so I can see where both tomes would become lackluster.
Any opinion on my suggestion about enabling movement while channeling? Too little to make a difference, too powerful for sPvP, or perhaps a good solution?
A (Hopefully Reasonable) Suggestion For Guardian Elites: Let Us Move While Channeling
in Guardian
Posted by: Soryuju.8164
In light of the recent nerf/rework to the Guardian’s Tomes, and the general dissatisfaction with our Elite skills, I’d like to suggest enabling movement during the channeling period of these skills or their associated sub-skills.
Let me begin my explanation for this suggestion with the Tomes. The loss of Stability is a nasty blow to each of these, since using a Tome now basically means painting a bulls-eye on yourself when you try to use their big skills. It’s possible to use “Stand Your Ground!”, Hallowed Ground, or even Sanctuary to compensate, but two of these skills have very long cooldowns, and the other packs so much utility that it’s not always easy to save it up for casting a Tome.
That said, I understand why Stability needed to go. The window for disrupting the Guardian’s cast was simply too short, because unless you could strip the Stability, the only way to stop the skill was to kill the Guardian. When you had multiple Guardians on a team chaining these hard-to-interrupt full heals and AoE Dazes, it became more than a little absurd. Taking away Stability makes this sort of abuse much less viable, and that’s a good thing, but the problem is that the longer casts on the Tomes can be tough to use effectively when rooted and vulnerable to CC. Tome of Wrath can speed up its casts via Quickness, but opponents have the option to simply run out of range in addition to CC’ing the Guardian. For Tome of Courage, the odds of avoiding interruption while rooted for 5 seconds are slim to none, especially with the nerf to Pacifism making it harder to protect your own cast.
This is where my suggestion comes into play: by enabling movement during the channels of these skills (and Renewed Focus, which I’ll get to later), you solve lots of problems all at once. Tome of Wrath, as mentioned above, currently suffers from the mediocre range on its Judgment skill, but it’s hard to increase the range without making the skill overpowered. By enabling movement during Judgment’s cast, you make sure opponents can’t just slip out of range while you’re charging up (thus making a powerful skill worthless), but you still need to position yourself carefully to maximize your effect in a team fight. Once Zealot’s Fervor and Judgment are cast, ToW doesn’t bring much to the fight besides some decent AoE damage and control, so I don’t see the skill becoming overpowered from this change – frankly, it’d probably still need some love afterward.
Tome of Courage just benefits in that you can actually avoid some of the CC thrown at you, while still remaining vulnerable to it. Being rooted makes a huge difference in the amount of control that affects you, and at the moment, trying to get off a 5-second channel without setting it up with one of the Guardian’s utilities beforehand is just unrealistic. No other elite skill that I know of needs to be “set up” in such a way for it to work effectively, and making utilities a requirement to use these skills properly just discourages build diversity. Enabling movement while channeling both Pacifism and LoD could also make Pacifism more practical for setting up LoD again – right now, all you accomplish is splitting a 5-second rooted channel into two parts, since Pacifism’s cast time is equal to the Daze time. If I can move while casting Pacifism, though, and I’m not just a sitting duck when using LoD, the Daze starts to look meaningful again.
Lastly, Renewed Focus. The main reason I’m suggesting enabling movement during RF’s channel is simply because it feels fairly underwhelming in its current condition, and because you need to take Virtue related traits to really make it useful (otherwise, the elite consists of getting a couple weak buffs along with a few seconds of rooted invulnerability – not a skill that makes me feel particularly cool or powerful). Enabling movement during the channel would give RF some decent utility, allowing you to use it to wade through heavy enemy fire or to escape from fights that are going poorly, and such a change might help to justify taking it over one of the Tomes.
To conclude, let me just say that since the Tomes were introduced, people have hated the lack of mobility inherent to the Guardian’s elites. There was a collective cheer from Guardians when the Tomes were made mobile, but making us stay stationary while casting undermines this mobility. Enabling movement does not lend itself to the abuse of the skills we previously saw, and is much less powerful in general than Stability, but it gives us a more realistic chance of making our elites useful in tough situations.
(edited by Soryuju.8164)
I reported this a few weeks ago when I found this as well. I don`t believe it is working like the above poster said though.
I’ve used the trait extensively in PvP to get a 49% crit rate, about one out of every 2 strikes. My crit rate would be 34% without it, much closer to one out of every 3. I tested my crit rate by swinging the Scepter at the Golems in the Heart of the Mists, and counting my crits, I found that my average crit rate was much, much closer to 1/2 than 1/3. Furthermore, the number of crits I land over time drops significantly when I take off the trait.
For the record, the crit boost from the trait has never been displayed in the menu – it’s been an invisible boost since the first beta, but test it yourself if you’re skeptical. Make a build with 30 points in Radiance and no other sources of Precision in the build – this gives you a natural 18% crit rate. Then attack the golems with or without the trait. The difference should be you critting roughly once every 5 attacks without the trait (18%), and once every 3 with it (33%). That should be enough of a theoretical difference for the results to make it clear whether or not it’s working.
Yep, it doesn’t show up in your stat window, but it’s working.