Guild Wars 2

Still using the same build I usually do. Haven’t changed it at all but I also never use/d Eternal Champion, Rousing Resilience or Dead Or Alive.

I’ve been asked about my choice in runes/sigils and such before but I’m confident in it’s efficiency. 96% Precision when in Berserk and a bit of a Ferocity bonus from Blood Reaction is really nice with the weapons I’m using. It means that Gunflame almost always crits and the same with every shot from Volley which can do upwards of 14k on squishies. I lose a very small bit of Power to gain a small bit Ferocity and much higher critical chance.

Sun Lian.4075:

Sigmoid.7082:

Sun Lian.4075:

Don’t count out vanilla necro? What?

There’s absolutely nothing about Death Shroud anymore that makes it worth.

You miss 6 whirl finishers on top of aoe poison.
You miss 20% dmg and condi dmg reduction.
You miss an aoe fear.
You miss a chill field.
You miss faster auto atks incase you thought burning is nice.

There’s not 1 build that works with Death Shroud, not for power and not for condi.
If power, you can’t use greatsword and if condi you miss your biggest condi dmg: bleed.

You can just as easily say you miss stuff when taking reaper. Goes both ways.

You miss whatever traitline you gave up
You miss 1200 range instant fear
You miss 600 radius 5s reveal
You miss aoe immobilise.
You miss a a strong ranged homing attack
You miss LoS ignoring 600 radius attack

etc etc

Reaper and its shroud is designed for melee combat. DS is more of a medium to long range shroud. You will have an easier time not being kited on DS than RS.

Also really depends on what game mode you are in since the OP didnt specify.

Sure you can turn it around just as easily, but the difference is that all of these things are worse than what you gain in Reaper, doesn’t matter what situation.

I don’t know why anyone would try to prove this wrong.

Reaper isn’t such a huge upgrade that it completely overshadows the vanilla spec like Thief and Guardian for example.

Reaper is like Scrapper, it’s an upgrade but the vanilla spec is still comparably strong if used right.

I disagree that it’s so significantly worse that you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage by using it but I do agree that Reaper is better in the majority of encounters.

Dawdler.8521:

Play a necro instead of a silly reaper?

Mmm, I like this ^

Intelligent use of Dark Path + Spectral Walk/Wurm jukes save me from being kited a lot. The only kiter I can’t keep up with is a decent Druid but I’m learning to slot Plague Signet before an engagement so I can transfer the immob’s.

Besides that, Foot In The Grave + the aforementioned skills do a great job of preventing kiting. Tainted Shackles + Chills to keep them in range which ends in Immobilize is also great.

Reaper is great and all and generally easier to use, especially if you’re condition, but don’t count out vanilla Necro just because it’s old.

Chaba.5410:

Fivona.5061:

Clearly i don’t understand how people got 10k ranks.

Not many people do. It’s rare even among vets.

For those that have registered themselves on GW2Efficiency, there are I think 19 people currently at 10k with how ever many more that haven’t registered. So it’s rare but not as rare as you might think.

Five of those are on Maguuma, lol. I believe I’m 6th or 7th highest on my server and top 30 in the world. Used to be top 20 some time last year.

Strider Pj.2193:

Fivona.5061:

Pips unfair. Making warbringer will take ages like this.
I can’t spend my entire life on wvw.

My account 3 years old. Spent 2458 hours in game.
Played every content. PvE, PvP, WvW, Open World.

And my WvW rank is 820. Clearly i don’t understand how people got 10k ranks.

Rank 1780 here. I get one more pip per tick that you. I am on the diamond chests now. I likely won’t finishe as I haven’t been able to play today. I STILL get skirmish tickets even if it’s not the MAX. And that’s OK. It means it will take me longer.

People that haven’t made WvW their primary mode for years never saw an issue with the rewards in WvW. Few who did, are complaining now. I and many others are happy, and OK with it taking a long time.

There is no reason these skins should be acquired any faster.

The problem is that a lot of players who are interested in these new rewards are looking at it as a short term goal and not a long term one. A lot of people are grinding WvW when they don’t enjoy WvW and it’s sucking the fun out of the game for them.

IMO, the rewards and the time it takes to get them are fine. People just want instant gratification and because GW2 is so full of that, people are upset over something that they can’t get in a few weeks.

People need to remember that most dedicated WvW players don’t do much else in GW2. Like myself and many others I know, 85%+ of my time is spent there. These rewards were designed for us. For the veteran players, the people who have stuck it out and will continue to do so. It’s long term goals so we have something to work towards, the carrot on the end of the stick to keep us around.

For people newer to WvW, or more casual with it, it’s a grind. It’s unfortunate for those that don’t enjoy it so much but it would be difficult to have a happy medium.

It will take a long time for anyone to get the new rewards and there’s nothing wrong with that. Think of it as something to work towards, not something that’s out of reach.

DevilishLyx.2340:

Some of us arent in it for the rewards though

Had a friend asking me about pips, what I’m going to buy with the new rewards and if I like them.

What I like about the changes to WvW is that it revitalized the community. I care nothing about rewards or score. I play WvW because it relieves stress, it’s good for socializing and it’s the only aspect of GW2 that I genuinely enjoy and rarely get tired of.

I played when it costed money to repair armor, when there were no reward tracks, when you had to pay to upgrade objectives and when you had to PvE if you wanted certain gear and items. The only thing I care about rewards is that it brings more players in to my favorite game mode.

Sometimes when I say things like this to people, they can’t wrap their head around it and it makes me chuckle. I understand the want for loot and rewards but it’s unfortunate that more people won’t do certain content if they’re not showered in gifts.

Eater of Peeps.9062:

-snip-

Your answer is in your response. You play fine without Teamspeak and, according to you, better than most. Why do you need it, then? Validation? Because you think you need to prove something to people?

I’m a mute. I have the benefit of being able to use TS to listen, but I can’t talk. Even so, I never use TS because I don’t care to. I don’t care if I’m not invited/kicked from squads and I don’t care if the commander thinks badly of me. I’m not playing to impress anyone.

I’ll give my best effort because I don’t want to be a dead weight, not because I give a kitten whether I’m good or not according to someone else’s standards. You might want to try that some time before always playing the victim.

I find it funny those that claim EOTM isn’t WvW because of ktrainers, meanwhile, in EBG/the BL’s, zergs are doing exactly that all day long. Being in EBG/BL’s does not suddenly mean you aren’t with a ktrain.

Prior to the WvW patch, there were plenty of fights in EOTM, even if the skill floor was noticeably lower, they were there (since the patch, EOTM has been a ghost town). The days of avoiding other zergs to PvD ended a long time ago and EOTM had become like a WvW training ground with less skilled groups but similar politics. People just hate on it because of the stigma that it’s a ktrain map for PvE’rs when in reality, the exact same kitten goes on in EBG/the BL’s.

Since the patch, I’d say “real” WvW is closer to being like EOTM than it’s ever been at this point so I don’t understand what the problem is with giving EOTM a watered down version of pip rewards. It should absolutely have reduced rewards since it’s score doesn’t contribute to the over all leaderboards but that doesn’t mean it should be left out entirely. If people want to be more casual and are willing to spend more time to get their rewards, let them. It frees up queue space and everyone’s happy.

Teamspeak matters and it makes a difference. If you’re following a commander who’s asking you to use it and you’re not, expect to a) not be invited to the squad/kicked from the squad or b) put in the trash group with all the other folks not on TS or using non-meta builds.

It isn’t a personal assault if any of these things happen to you and you shouldn’t take it as such. Some people have their reasons for not using TS, others just don’t want to. You’re not forced to but you need to understand that it’s the difference between winning and losing when it comes to serious fights. You can push PUG’s without TS all day long but when it comes to organized groups, and/or groups with most in TS while yours is not, yours is a lot more likely to lose.

TS does not automatically make people play better but it does allow for instant communication which in turn means faster and more co-ordinated play. In an environment where standing in the wrong position for a quarter of a second can be the difference between life and death, verbal commands can save a lot of lives.

With all that said, you can absolutely function and contribute without it. You are not useless if you are not in TS but you are at a disadvantage. This means you need to be extra alert and depending on your own instincts to survive while also trusting the commanders decisions and trusting your group to support you.

Some people cannot use TS for a variety of reasons but that doesn’t mean they need to act entitled. If you have a child, if you don’t want to listen to people yelling on TS, etc. etc. that doesn’t mean you need to attack people for telling you to get on TS when you can’t/don’t want to. Accept that it plays an important role in higher level zerg play and learn to function and contribute without it if you choose not to use it.

This is just a game after all and if you want to play it casually then you’re free to do so. You don’t need anyone’s validation if they think you’re useless without TS. Just remember that you’re still a part of a working body in a zerg even if you don’t want to use TS. You should want to do your best so as not to be a dead weight regardless of how/what you choose to play.

Justine.6351:

Lahm.7056:

Justine.6351:

Necro is a team player. People who don’t understand this want 1v1 buffs. People who do understand it are sick of condi reaper+tempest crushing small scale.

A necro crushing in small scale requires good teamwork and peel from allies, the fact you mentioned a Tempest is really a whole other level of babysitting and shows really how necro is fragile, which is why it will get absolutely rekt before it can do anything in a coordinated gank thanks to the limited non-existent defensive tools necro has, by now everyone and their grandma realizes that necros can actually bite if left alive for too long so catching people out of guard won’t be as easy.

My gripe is why most necro mains are asking for nerfs when secretly they enjoy playing this kind of build and want it to stay like this, it’s specially stupid to ask for nerfs when you know Anet is dodgy on that regard and can actually make or break builds and considering the past history with necros it’s usually the latter. I guess people want necro to keep being kitten on forever and live as a walking meme.

You seem to think making reaper condi more reasonable will nerf their survivability.

No point in trying to reason with them.

The problem is that condi Reaper is deadly even in the hands of a moron, which most are. It’s an uphill battle just like it is against condi Mesmers. Give it to someone who actually knows how to use it and the problems become a lot more apparent.

People here think it’s weak because they have no idea how to use it. They open palm mash their keyboard and bad players die but when they’re against someone who knows how to deal with them, suddenly they feel “weak.” Just because something can be countered doesn’t mean it’s weak. You can counter condi Mesmers as well and I do so quite often, many other educated players do as well. Against a good one, though? Same story as against a good condi Reaper, they can make way, waaay more mistakes than you and are so much harder to bring down if you don’t play perfectly.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with conditions or Necro or what ever else. Few things I find broken enough to complain about. I’m just agreeing that condition Reaper is overtuned at the moment and needs some shaves.

Roaming Guild

• Captures objectives. Occasionally makes a move on larger objectives such as keeps or SMC. Capable of defeating resistance.

• Often times uses a similar composition to zergs but with less players. Frontliners, backliners, etc.

• Tagless, rarely being followed by outsiders.

• Always on the move, rarely lingering in any particular spot or on any specific map.

• Kills what gets in their way, will engage larger groups.

• Will show up to zerg v zergs to support the pugs and provide a more co-ordinated bomb.

• Often runs between 5 and 10.

Gankers

• Captures supply camps, rarely attempts anything larger.

• Doesn’t usually have defined roles although more co-ordinated groups sometimes will. Said roles are similar to zerg roles but with more self preservation in mind. Rezbots and glassy ranged builds are common.

• Often tagless but occasionally will attempt to rally pugs.

• Often lingering in high traffic areas such as between a spawn and a waypoint or other important objective like SMC.

• Kills anything that moves. If they can catch it they’ll hurry after it. Engages larger groups only if they’re distracted.

• Occasionally will show up to large scale zerg v zergs to focus bomb vulnerable/low health targets or to CC/corrupt spam commanders.

• Often runs between 2 and 6. Depending on the guild, up to 10.

“Roaming guild” can by some be considered a PPT guild. They will make a focused effort to capture objectives but are not unfamiliar with fights. Cross their paths or try to prevent them from reaching their goals and they will likely kill you but will not be distracted.

“Gankers” are strictly KDR farmers. They don’t do much besides running after anything that moves and contesting objectives to bait scouts.

Roaming guilds are rather uncommon at this point in GW2’s life. There are only a handfull that come to mind and most are crappy fighters and very PPT focused. There are plenty of gankers about however, many of which frequent roamers will recognize. Most people dislike these groups because of their high level of aggression and strategies of baiting and hard focusing.

How do I feel about these groups? I think they both add a dynamic to WvW that people should be aware of and that they, like everyone else, contribute in their own way.

Don’t threaten a roaming guild if you’re not prepared to fight back and don’t fall for ganker traps if you know they’re around. Support your roaming guilds by communicating with them and making co-ordinated attacks. Respect and pay attention to your gankers and use them to your advantage.

I agree, Holl. A lot of other people disagree however because they don’t want their easy mode taken away from them.

As a long time Necro main, of course I don’t want Reaper nerfed in to uselessness. Something needs to be done about the current state of condi Reaper in WvW, though. Anyone logical should be able to see that it’s overtuned at the moment and needs a couple shaves.

Rifle Butt’ed someone from the diving point of Inferno’s Needle in EOTM just last week.
If you ever been to the top of that diving point, that’s a pretty darn long way to be punted. He landed some where outside the gate and I laughed myself to tears.

Mesmers have a lot of skills that require targets which is why Thieves tend to give them trouble. As a Scrapper, make intelligent use of Toss Elixir S and Sneak Gyro and they should have a much harder time pinning you down.

I tend to camp under Sneak Gyro against builds I really don’t want to get hit by (meaning builds where I can’t afford the damage they’ll put out) because it allows me to reposition and hit and run more easily.

I don’t want to press my heal 3 times.

Drop.

Overcharge.

Blast.

No.

I got my Champion Genius title in PvP with an oldschool Static Discharge build that used Rifle. I’ve used it in WvW with some success as well but, because condition builds are more prevalent, and because most people are running damage reduction foods or pumping out a ton of heals/other sources of damage reduction, it can be rough to play.

The benefit of the Static Discharge build is that the damage comes so suddenly, most players won’t have time to react (it is akin to shatter Mesmer burst in that I can literally 100 – 0 anyone that isn’t running some kind of defensive food/gear) It also does plenty enough damage to bring people down to critical health even if they’re tanky. Of course, this also means you die to a stiff breeze and will probably have terrible condition removal unless you want to sacrifice Toolkit/Elixir S. Which you probably shouldn’t in a burst focused build.

I sometimes use Rifle with my tanky Juggernaut build, though Hammer synergizes with it’s traits and utilities far better, there are some match ups where Rifle is a better choice. Primarily against Thieves, Rangers and Necromancers. It lets me keep the pressure on the first two and lets me kite the third one.

Hammer is pretty much all around better but Rifle can be a smarter choice in some situations like I’ve mentioned above. If you want to use it, you should. Don’t worry about optimal, play what’s most fun to you. If it’s dying that you’re worried about, practice makes perfect!

K THEN.5162:

BeepBoopBop.5403:

Invocation sword/shield staff revenant. It has a higher burst potential than thief (maybe not as high as Mesmer) without any stealth carry. The reliance on active evasion and blocks brings me back to old sword dagger thief.

Another thing is I really like the attitude you need on revenant when facing all the condi kitten in WvW (thanks dire and trailblazer!). You can hardly outright cleanse: you need to think of other ways to handle condis, whether it be infuse light, waiting out confusion and torment stacks using shield 5, etc.

And you need to play aggressive as hell which is the primary reason I love power revenant. Kill the kitten out of them or be killed, that’s how I play.

Interesting, I did not know one could enjoy Rev so much after the nerfs (you must be quite dedicated!). I’ve been thinking of taking up the class for a while now and I’d love to know how you feel it fairs against the other classes.

If you feel comfortable enough with something, the state of it won’t matter to you.

I’ve been playing roughly the same build on my Necromancer for 3+ years only making small changes here and there after balance patches.

Which, to go with the topic of the thread, is probably my favorite build. It’s a vanilla Necromancer Scepter/Dagger + either Staff or Dagger/Warhorn, Blood Magic/Parasitic Contagion vampire build. I have health regeneration akin to Healing Signet if I maintain enough condition pressure via PC + siphons and/or Wells and decent Life Force build from Spectrals and Marks/MH Dagger/Warhorn.

It is obviously a very niche personal build, I’ve never seen anyone else using anything similar, but I love it regardless. At least when I can handle my targets (meaning they’re not blasting through my health in 0.5 seconds) by kiting them properly and playing intelligently, I can sustain myself for an incredibly long time. I’ve had many, many 1vX fights where the other players simply couldn’t bring me down. The most memorable time this happened was against a heal support Guardian and meta Berserker that were roaming together. I had seen them a few times through out the night but only wound up forced in to an engagement with them once. Basically the Guardian was boon buffing and heal/cleansing the Warrior while the Warrior did all the damage. The 3 of us fought for at least a good 15 – 20 minutes before I literally walked away because they couldn’t kill me and I couldn’t kill them, lol. For some people, that’s a crappy fight, but I love long fights, so I found it really fun even if it was a draw.

I find it more useful against Mesmers who are trying to retreat to stealth to recover/reset than against Thieves. Since a couple seconds revealed to a Thief just means they mash dodge for a few seconds and evade everything until they can stealth again, if they even need to.

Muscle memory relearning is all it takes. I didn’t like it much at first either but after practice, it feels just the same as it used to. You can even pick it up after it overcharges itself without blasting it to keep the 15 second cooldown instead of 20.

You’ll get it eventually.

Svarty.8019:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Sviel.7493:

So many people missing the point here~

The problem isn’t that the gate eventually falls, but that there’s no player interaction in it falling. All defense is just stalling—that is enshrined in the mechanic of supply. A well-played defense will always lose when it doesn’t have the supply to keep going. It can lose even faster if the offense manages to break something open before the defense can adequately respond. In the case of 5v40, the strength of the offense is such that they will very likely break something before the defense runs out of supply. Unless they’re dumb.

That’s all fine.

The problem is when the defense is present, aware of the attack and unable to do anything meaningful about it. By meaningful, I mean there should be some avenue, provided they have enough time, to repel the assault. That doesn’t mean that they need to succeed at repelling every assault—that would be ludicrous and boring. It just means that for every offensive assault, there must be a defensive action which can theoretically repel that assault.

The issue with PvD is that the only defensive action is attempting to repair the gate. Even that fails when the attacks coming through it are too much to get close. Thus, there’s nothing for the defense to even attempt to do. They’re helpless to watch as they lose the keep.

If the enemies had thrown down 8 rams and 3 shield generators, the gate would still have fallen and much quicker…but the defender’s objective would then be to destroy the siege. It would be very difficult, but it gives them something to work towards.

I literally said a lot of what you said in the first part of your comment.

I wouldn’t be against the idea of gates not taking damage from players but that is the only defensive buff I would be in support of. If you prepare properly, PvD isn’t an issue. I’ve been a part of a lot of keep assaults and 9 times out of 10, it requires at least 3 or 4 attempts before getting through inner even when it’s only half a dozen people defending. If the enemy is determined, they’ll get through eventually no matter what. People need to let go of the idea that they should be able to hold objectives from forces triple their size. It sucks to be in that situation and I’ve been there many times myself, but if nobody can win, everyone loses.

Sviel is 100% correct.

I disagree with you, Spell, when you say,

• “they’ll get through eventually no matter what”, and,
• “People need to let go of the idea that they should be able to hold objectives from forces triple their size”

Bringing us back on topic, these situations are perfectly defensible if there is no skill-damage on gate.

It simply comes down to a supply mitigation game. Remember the tower in question was tier 3. This means that the defenders should be able to build (as well as the pre-prepared siege already built and refreshed) more siege than the attackers can.

My point is that the game in this instance isn’t 60vs20. It’s 1 piece of siege vs 1 piece of siege. It’s the siege and countersiege game. That’s what’s evening this situation up. That’s why it should be theoretically feasible for these defenders to be able to counter this particular outnumbering force.

And that HOPE is what gives defenders motivation to persist. If you take away that hope, as you propose, you take away defenders, pride, rewards and fun – and without those, you have no game.

And my point is that if defence is made to be too effective, you’ll have servers that will never leave their objectives even when they have equal or greater numbers. Why risk getting killed when you can sit inside perfectly safe.

Again I’m not saying I’d be against the idea of making it so that only siege can damage gates. I was just pointing out that defences are already plenty strong, especially if you have players who know how to properly build siege to repel attacks. Just consider that something as small as disallowing PvD could make a bigger impact than you might think. As far as I’m concerned, most people don’t enjoy being showered with a million arrow carts, mortars and other siege while they try to get in to an objective. It’s certainly not going to make new players want to stay and in the state that WvW is in, we need all the new people we can get.

I was off topic yes, but I wanted to remind you guys how strong defences already are compared to how they used to be.

Sviel.7493:

So many people missing the point here~

The problem isn’t that the gate eventually falls, but that there’s no player interaction in it falling. All defense is just stalling—that is enshrined in the mechanic of supply. A well-played defense will always lose when it doesn’t have the supply to keep going. It can lose even faster if the offense manages to break something open before the defense can adequately respond. In the case of 5v40, the strength of the offense is such that they will very likely break something before the defense runs out of supply. Unless they’re dumb.

That’s all fine.

The problem is when the defense is present, aware of the attack and unable to do anything meaningful about it. By meaningful, I mean there should be some avenue, provided they have enough time, to repel the assault. That doesn’t mean that they need to succeed at repelling every assault—that would be ludicrous and boring. It just means that for every offensive assault, there must be a defensive action which can theoretically repel that assault.

The issue with PvD is that the only defensive action is attempting to repair the gate. Even that fails when the attacks coming through it are too much to get close. Thus, there’s nothing for the defense to even attempt to do. They’re helpless to watch as they lose the keep.

If the enemies had thrown down 8 rams and 3 shield generators, the gate would still have fallen and much quicker…but the defender’s objective would then be to destroy the siege. It would be very difficult, but it gives them something to work towards.

I literally said a lot of what you said in the first part of your comment.

I wouldn’t be against the idea of gates not taking damage from players but that is the only defensive buff I would be in support of. If you prepare properly, PvD isn’t an issue. I’ve been a part of a lot of keep assaults and 9 times out of 10, it requires at least 3 or 4 attempts before getting through inner even when it’s only half a dozen people defending. If the enemy is determined, they’ll get through eventually no matter what. People need to let go of the idea that they should be able to hold objectives from forces triple their size. It sucks to be in that situation and I’ve been there many times myself, but if nobody can win, everyone loses.

insanemaniac.2456:

Obtena.7952:

insanemaniac.2456:

drop healing turret late in the might stack. the fire field will be older and you’ll still blast might, and if you don’t suck at spamming you might even be able to kill your turret before it drops the field.

I don’t see how this is an issue. you know game mechanics right coro. you know blasts go by field age right.

Facts matter little to people that don’t like change. Be careful before presenting facts gets you labeled a troll.

I would urge people to think about the changes before crying wolf. I mean, the bottom line here is that this is simply a matter of relearning timing and playing smarter. I know that won’t appeal to people that just want to faceroll to victory but in all honestly, there is no argument that makes sense for supporting facerolling to victory. Claiming this is ruins healing turrets in WvW because of field overlay is a proclamation of being unwilling to think about what you do when playing.

you know, i have been thinking. theres a front-page-of-the-reddit thread right now speculating that this patch is directly paving the way for the next xpac. and elite specs are advertised as huuuuugely changing class mechanics, and one of the complaints about scrapper is that it actually doesnt do anything to the toolbelt. why? well, turrets had to be usable, and with no/different toolbelt, there was no detonating turrets. now there is, and all utilities will be entirely usable in the absence of the toolbelt (or rather, perhaps, in the presence of shatters/virtues/attunements/etc instead of a toolbelt). so while turrets are moved from one unacceptable state to another equally unacceptable state, this new state allows holosmith to be something scrapper couldnt be at the time and was complained about not being.

The way you described it, for some reason I imagined Toolbelt skills being replaced with little dots similar to Mesmer. Instead of illusions, we get holograms that have various, more complex than attack/shatter, abilities. Perhaps akin to Function Gyro in that they can revive allies or, maybe even mimic our own skill rotations for a brief period. Like say I Elixir Gun 5 → 4, my hologram does the same?

I have no idea, lol. Just felt like saying what this comment made me thing :P.

apharma.3741:

zinkz.7045:

Svarty.8019:

This is a problem because THERE IS NO COUNTERPLAY.

There is no problem, because the counterplay is to stop hugging siege in your tower, go out and fight them, you know, what you are supposed to do in a PvP game mode…

Doesn’t work when it’s 5 people and 10 headless chickens defending vs a group of 30-40 fully supplied with those gawd aweful necros plaguing WvW atm.

I mean I’d happily fight them all 1 by 1 if they’d form a nice orderly queue….

If that’s the case, you should lose it. Defensive upgrades and siege already make it possible for that many people, or even less, to hold an objective from a group quadruple their size.

It sucks to be outnumbered but objectives will fall whether you like it or not. It doesn’t matter if you outnumber your enemy or they outnumber you and it doesn’t matter how much siege is in it. If you’re caught off guard or if your enemy is determined/organized enough, nothing is immune to being captured. That’s a part of WvW and there have been plenty enough defensive changes over the course of it’s life time.

Being able to stand on the walls would be a nice change but besides that, I think there’s more than enough ways to scare off outside groups far, far larger than those inside. I mean I’ve pushed zergs off Veloka by myself many times because it has so few spots that are out of siege range coupled with fortified walls and all that other hoo ha.

EDIT: Side note after reading through more comments here. As far as I’m concerned, though I could very well be wrong, siege and fortifications were only made to stall the enemy zergs, not to stop them. These things are there to buy you time before your own zerg can show up to help. But because of lop-sided matches, that’s not something everyone has the luxury of. In which case, you can’t keep asking for more defensive options or servers that do have enough players to fight back, but that prefer to sit inside and not fight, will do that. We have enough siege wars as it is. If you’re on an under populated server, I’m sorry but you don’t need bigger guns so the bigger servers can use them better than you.

It’s fine. It was a bit jarring after the patch but it only took maybe a day to get used to. Just need to force your muscle memory by being more conscious of the timings for a while.

It certainly feels a little awkward still but it’ll become natural again eventually.

Practice, guys.

mazut.4296:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I run an off-meta build in WvW that has a lot of siphons and small heals. With Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric and Vampiric Rituals + Plaguelands… The heals in zergs is just ridiculous. No complaints from me but I will say that at this point I feel like I rival Adrenal Health, lol. Plant a Plaguelands in the middle of a group, throw a Well of Corruption somewhere else, get a solid Epidemic off, watch your health shoot up faster than people can take it down.

you need to run to the middle first its not ground target

Just gotta be tactical :P.

I went to EOTM immediately after the patch to try some things out. A group was pushing up a bridge, I dropped Plaguelands at the end of the bridge, dropped WoC behind them, Epi’d someone and pretty much laughed as they struggled to kill me while they all died, lol.

coro.3176:

couldn’t you always do that? 2 fields, 2 blast finishers.. same as before?

The difference is that now you can’t use the heal turret blast finisher for another existing field because it’ll drop its water field on top when you deploy it.

No, you could blast Regenerating Mist with other methods but not with Healing Turret’s Deteonate Turret itself. Because having the turret active would replace Regenerating Mist with the Detonate Turret skill.

This means that you can: Blast Regenerating Mist with Healing Turret if for some reason you decide not to Detonate the turret right after placing it. And can also blast Regenerating Mist a second time, if you’re quick, with another blast such as Acid Bomb for example.

EDIT: Just made a .gif, here’s the example.

What I’m doing is placing the turret, it then automatically creates it’s waterfield. I blast it with Flamethrower #2. I wait a second until the waterfield dissipates, then I activate Regenerating Mist and blast that with Detonate Turret.

Sorry for the awful quality. I know there’s a better site for video -> gif but I don’t know what that site is, lol.

I am easily most satisfied with the Troll Unguent change, personally. As it is my favorite heal, I really like the reduced cast time and increased effectiveness over a shorter duration. Not a huge change but still a very nice one.

Smokescale nerf is my biggest gripe. I believe it has been said enough in the past, stop nerfing HoT pets start buffing pre-HoT pets. It was done with the last balance patch but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have continued with this one.

I run an off-meta build in WvW that has a lot of siphons and small heals. With Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric and Vampiric Rituals + Plaguelands… The heals in zergs is just ridiculous. No complaints from me but I will say that at this point I feel like I rival Adrenal Health, lol. Plant a Plaguelands in the middle of a group, throw a Well of Corruption somewhere else, get a solid Epidemic off, watch your health shoot up faster than people can take it down.

Note also with HT:

Was messing around with a bunch of Engi’s in LA and realized that if say for example you overload your HT but don’t detonate it, you can still then blast Regenerating Mist. Which means you can drop HT, blast it with say Acid Bomb for example, leave the turret active for a second, then activate Regenerating Mist and blast that field with Detonate Turret.

So that’s kinda fun.

The turret change concerns me. I’ve yet to sign on and try it but I’m a little miffed about how Healing Turret might perform.

With a potential expansion on the horizon and all the buzz about it, I thought I’d make a thread with all the ideas I’ve shared in the past. They’re not all great ideas, but maybe they’ll inspire some of your own (:

New Elites

Signet Of Trauma
Conditions removed: 2
Interval: 8s
Recharge: 40
Activation time: Instant
Passive: Periodically remove and preserve conditions up to a maximum of 3.
Active: Your next attack applies your preserved conditions.

Well Of Summoning
Recharge: 50
Activation time: 1/4
Summon skeletal hands to periodically knockdown and immobilize foes.
Immobilize (3s)
Pulse: 2s
Duration: 8s
Radius: 240
Combo Field: Lightning
Range: 900

Signet Of Trauma would be nice in tandem with Corruption skills. You would be able to cast a Corruption, have the signet remove the conditions passively, then later on get a bigger burst with a single attack. Eg. Blood Is Power w/ Master Of Corruption -> Signet Of Trauma removes the Bleed x2 and Torment x2 -> Activate Signet Of Trauma during the final attack in the scepter auto attack chain -> final scepter auto now does: 1 Corrupted boon, Bleed, Poison, Bleed x2 and Torment x2.

Well Of Summoning would be really nice both defensively and offensively. Either you could use it for kiting multiple people or you could use it to lock people down. First they get knocked down, then they get immobilized = great for keeping people still while we wind up one of our tremendously long cast time skills (Executioner’s Scythe) + with a leap like Death’s Charge = also dazes them from Lightning Field.

New trait and utility mechanics
__________________________________________________________________

Well Of Darkness

• Cooldown increased to 60 seconds
• Pulsing Blind and combo field removed
• Duration, cast time and radius remain unchanged

New mechanics

Well Of Darkness now functions similarly to a Smokescales “Smoke Cloud.” As long as you are standing inside the well, all incoming attacks will miss. This does not effect other allied players.

Vampiric Rituals increases the radius and duration of Well Of Darkness instead of adding siphons and Protection.
__________________________________________________________________

Unyielding Blast

Shroud skill 1 now has an explosive PBAoE effect that can knock targets back once every 3 seconds. This effect is represented by a dark cloud quickly emanating outwards from the source.
__________________________________________________________________

Speed Of Shadows

• Movement speed increase has been removed

New mechanic

As long as your target is effected with a movement impairing condition (Cripple, Immobilize, Chill) and you are in Shroud, you gain 1 second of Super Speed at 2 second intervals.
__________________________________________________________________

Soul Comprehension

Gain 2% Life Force for every condition applied to you.
__________________________________________________________________

Signet Of Undeath

• Active skill no longer revives fallen allies
• Cast time reduced to 3/4 second
• Recharge reduced to 50 seconds

New mechanic

Activating this Signet will sacrifice 15% of your Life Force to convert it to health.
__________________________________________________________________

Plague

New ability

“Petrifying Plague” Add Slow to your Plague
__________________________________________________________________

Unholy Blood.

Renamed from Unholy Martyr.

Every stack of Bleed you apply increases your Healing Power and outgoing Healing Power. Bleeds that are applied to you have a percentage of their damage converted to Life Force.

As has been said, it’s pretty much useless in most PvE encounters. In WvW/PvP however, it is amazingly useful. I cannot express how much I love this thing or how many times it has allowed me to win outnumbered fights because it would finish someone for me while I was fighting someone else. Or even times I needed to revive a friend extra fast/have them revived while I distracted an opponent.

It certainly isn’t a complicated device but be sure to remember that it’s there. It can be a huge asset in situations where you need another helping hand.

No. As Justine has said, it’s about the same as WvW rank.

Skill is determined only by effectiveness in battle not by rank, title or possessions.

I’ve fought players with PvP wings, X Legend titles and all that other crap that were horrible. Just like I’ve fought players that looked like they were completely new and yet happened to be extremely skilled.

“Always assume your opponent is a genius until proven an idiot.”

Choppy.4183:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I used to not think Berserker was that bad but after playing it… Just wow. The faceroll is so real. Adrenal Health and the massive amounts of damage you can pump out carry so hard. I also think that Defy Pain needs to be reduced to proc’ing at 20% health because I’ve tried not using it and it makes a gigantic difference. If you haven’t tried before and you play Warrior, I urge you to try some fights without that passive safety net and tell me how much of a difference it makes.

Indeed, most people don’t realize just how big the difference between vanilla and berserker is when it comes to sustain and offense.

That said, your recommended change to Defy Pain isn’t the way to go. Instead, the surgical nerfs needed to Berserker are:

1. Increase the CD on Headbutt by 5-10s (start with 5s)
2. Decrease the power scaling on Headbutt (from 3x to 2x)
3. Decrease the range of Arc Divider (from 450 to 150-180)
4. Count primal bursts as 1 bar of adren rather than 3

The above represents a substantial offense and defense hit to Berserker without touching vanilla, it still keeps Berserker slightly more powerful than vanilla, and Berserker would still be viable.

That said, in fairness, some other classes should get similar shaves to deal with the cheese they’re able to dish.

Shaves are definitely needed to Berserker but Defy Pain is also a huge offender here. I regularly slot Sundering Mace or Armored Attack and you really notice not having that safety net. You can just face tank damage to 50% and, if you’ve recently landed a burst, heal right back to full by the time Defy Pain wears off. Then you still have your manual Endure Pain and probably a Shield Stance as well which can make it really tedious to get a Warrior below 50% health.

Maybe my suggestion isn’t the proper way to adjust it but I feel that something should be done to reduce the effectiveness of this particular trait. It allows me to win far more fights than I should when I do decide to take it.

Prysin.8542:

-snip-

Sadly, it seems you struggle with conditions to such a degree that you find them “OP”. Unfortunately, i cannot and will not help you with that.

But as you can guess, i’ve been playing this game nearly since launch, i am not a “novice”. I know how this game works, almost down to the game engine level.

Lol. I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that I think conditions are OP but it is actually quite the opposite. I may have made a poor assumption about your own opinions as well but the fact remains that you are not supposed to be trying to cleanse everything. Saying that you can do so isn’t hard for me to believe however considering how many builds can maintain such high Resistance uptime or shed conditions like nothing. Which is exactly why I can never wrap my head around how some people think conditions are OP. This is why every time the topic of “nerf conditions” comes up or someone insinuates they are better than power builds I have to assume they’re a) an idiot, b) new to the game, c) all of the above.

Prysin.8542:

Ragnarox.9601:

coro.3176:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TobRShd-5as

Fighting a guild-mate warrior in our arena. I think he has roughly 30 seconds of continuous resistance.

dont forget 30 sec of 2stack of stability and retaliation. Pretty much immune to everything.
Boon bots with extreme dmg. They should and must be toned down.

I play mostly shout warrior, but even with shout and WH and Ire cleansing, you cannot “out-cleanse” any decent condi build… Sure, you wont get knocked over, but you’ll melt against condi users…

That’s because you’re not supposed to “out cleanse” them. Just like you’re not supposed to out block/immune physical damage. You avoid the hard hitters and recover from the ones you can survive.

That kind of mentality is exactly the reason so many people think condition builds are OP. Because they think they should be able to cleanse everything and kill them in two shots. Figure out what the biggest threats are and avoid them. Save cleanses for when they’re needed instead of trying to get rid of everything that hits you. You’re not going to go an entire fight without taking a few ticks of condition damage just like you’re not going to go an entire fight evading/blocking every single attack from a power build.

I feel like Medkit should allow us to click on allied players and throw Medpacks directly on to them as though they’re enemy players. The Medpacks can’t be dodged or negated by allies but can be by enemies. It would make more sense being able to directly throw heals on to people, imo.

And the AA would be nice if it could perhaps instead shoot healing darts at allied players. Maybe we could just repeatedly fire small heals at people instead of trying to Febreeze them with the crappy mist that we currently have.

coro.3176:

It’s true. We don’t know much. However, I think we can assume the range is at least 1200. If it does nothing else other than have a generic damaging autoattack and no other skills, it will already be a problem when combined with the rest of thief’s kit.

Imagine glass pew pew rangers but you can’t chase them down because they have stealth and 3x as much mobility.

I was honestly imagining Gunflame Warrior but with Thief’s mobility + stealth.

I don’t fear what a rifle Thief might be because I have faith in Anet that they won’t make it like that. But if that were what it wound up being… Well I would say that any complaints made about it would be entirely relevant.

I agree completely with TheDarkSoul, though. People are getting ahead of themselves complaining that it needs nerfs before they even know what it’s going to be like. It’s reasonable to be concerned about imbalances but idiotic to act like it’s already killing you.

As always, the one you’re best with.

In terms of general effectiveness assuming the player using it is of average skill however:

1. Thief
2. Mesmer
3. Druid
4. Warrior
5. Engineer
6. Guardian
7. Elementalist
8. Necromancer
9. Revenant

Mobility and adaptability are key to being an effective roamer. You need to be able to disengage if you’re taking too much pressure/if you find yourself outnumbered and to be able to fight a variety of builds effectively. Skill will always be a big factor in whether or not you can do these things.

As for the reasons I’ve listed them the way I have:

Thief because it has plenty of skills that work in most situations coupled with high mobility, damage and stealth. It is objectively the best roamer even if it’s 1v1 capability is up for debate. I’m talking engaging and disengaging, surviving/winning and having an ace up the sleeve against nearly everything it meets. Not necessarily that it’s the best fighter.

Mesmer for similar reasons to the Thief but with less mobility, more sustain and effective 1v1/X potential.

Druid again for similar reasons to the Thief but with nearly the same mobility, better cleanses and high sustain. It’s skills/traits are much more situational but overall, it does well in most encounters despite being on the weaker side in 1vX unless very heavy kiting is going on.

Warrior because of it’s durability, damage and passives. It’s a powerful fighter that can be extremely difficult to bring down or even get close to but it struggles in 1vX unless it can kill it’s opponents in less than a minute. It has a lot more situational skills and thus why 95% will be running identical traits/utilities and is easy to overwhelm once those skills have been put on cooldown.

Engineer, despite having lower mobility, has incredibly high sustain similar to Druid with skills that are relevant in most situations. It is highly adaptable but suffers from skill demanding gameplay with less pay off than other professions but excels in unpredictability and 1vX. In my own personal experience, I in fact find that I do better against multiple players than just 1 on 1’s.

Guardian, also like Engineer, suffers from a lack of mobility but of which can be remedied with skillful use of 1h sword and Wings Of Resolve. Since it has such high access to powerful defensive skills much like Druid, it can adapt well to dealing with most builds and can survive being outnumbered for a good deal of time. High cooldowns and reliance on proper blocking and healing are however, the bane of it’s roaming effectiveness.

Elementalist has potential to be a very strong roamer. It could honestly be placed much higher on the list but only with certain builds that are well played. It has potential to deal with most encounters effectively but suffers from poor mobility without sacrificing utility. Ele is a bit of a wild card in the sense that it can be extremely strong and a great roamer in the right hands but very mediocre – poor in average hands. Which again is why I made this list assuming average skill.

Necromancer has poor mobility (albeit decent land speed) and doesn’t generally fare well against multiple players. It can be an extremely dangerous opponent but is easily overwhelmed by simply disengaging and forcing cooldowns. Although if you over commit, a Necromancer can seem like a very strong roamer, it still lacks much of what makes a good one. Situational skills and obvious tells are just a few things to note when considering it’s place on a solo scale.

And finally Revenant. Because most will not have any cleanse, or very, very little, they are straight up hard countered by condition builds, which there are a lot of. It’s mobility isn’t the worst but it isn’t a lot better than Guardians and it doesn’t tend to last very long in 1vX. Although it can deal massive amounts of damage and played well, it can pull itself back from the brink of death (hence the name “Revenant”), it still suffers greatly from lacking a lot of the key elements that make a great roaming profession.

Note:
I have seen at least one of each of these professions used to great effect in the roaming scene. I have seen Necromancers consistently winning outnumbered fights, Revenants that were impressively quick, Guardians that seemed unkillable and Elementalists that always had a back up plan. Although some professions are strictly better than others for the things they have access to, in the proper hands, the things they don’t have access to won’t matter.

Some of us were speculating and joking about possible elite specs on Mag last week. I think I had the biggest laugh when I said what if rifle for Thief was a healing weapon. Then someone said “watergun.” Then I said imagine a watergun rifle with Shadow Arts.

You never know. Just look at longbow Guard and how many people were sceptical about that.

RodOfDeath.5247:

Warriors seem to own the roaming scene currently. Insane amount of passives incorporated into their builds. You can pretty much go autopilot with the meta build and down like 55 people.

I don’t feel that they own the scene. I think that title belongs to condition Mesmer and has for a very long time. All the elite spec did was make them twice as hard to kill. 9 times out of 10 if I see a Mesmer, I know they’ll be condition and I know there’s a chance they’ll be condition bunker. The bunker ones are the worst offenders because they’re hard enough to kill as it is without having perma-every boon in the game.

But back to Warrior – I was using an oldschool Cavalier + Arms build for quite a long while. I’ve shared the stats here a number of times because they’re so ludicrous and yet… I recently went full berserker Berserker with the typical GS + Mace/Shield set up and traits (though I’ve been using hammer mostly lately) and it manages to be more effective at everything. I don’t have nearly as much armor, health nor do I have 100% guaranteed burst criticals but I’m still stronger in every way with Berserker than I was with a high stat vanilla Warrior ( click here for said build – also keep in mind that Precision is 50% + during combat). The uptime on Adrenal Health, the ridiculous burst damage + range on most of the skills, Headbutt and Taunt on entering Berserk are all just so much better. I used to not think Berserker was that bad but after playing it… Just wow. The faceroll is so real. Adrenal Health and the massive amounts of damage you can pump out carry so hard. I also think that Defy Pain needs to be reduced to proc’ing at 20% health because I’ve tried not using it and it makes a gigantic difference. If you haven’t tried before and you play Warrior, I urge you to try some fights without that passive safety net and tell me how much of a difference it makes.

roamzero.9486:

Top tier cheese: Condi Mesmer, Boon Warrior
Mid tier cheese: Staff Druid/Daredevil
Low tier cheese: Condi Reaper, Dragonhunter

I would say this right here is most accurate. All of which can be highly difficult to kill while also being an extreme threat even in the hands of an idiot.

Most of them probably are adults. You might be shocked at how many people are in their late 30’s to early 40’s that rage and bicker at the slightest hint of confrontation. It’s not something that’s exclusive to younger people.

If by chance you just mean a server with more mature people, you probably won’t find one. I suggest taking a vacation to another server, hop around a bit until you find a place your comfortable.

Choppy.4183:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Also turns you in to a Salmon if they get you while you’re already in the water.

Then you have to watch out for bears? XD

Choppy.4183:

While getting double moa’d after a condi bomb is almost sure death, as a public service announcement, remember that water ends the moa prematurely.

So if you’re near water, take a bath and go back to killin’.

Also turns you in to a Salmon if they get you while you’re already in the water.

All I’ll say is that this picture sums up my feelings about Marjory and Kasmeer’s interactions pretty nicely. If only there was an impatient toe-tapping emote.

As I’ve heard, there is apparently nothing currently in the works for WvW nor planned for the next XPAC. Of course that isn’t necessarily true but I wouldn’t rule it out either, at least with the history of how WvW has been treated.

What concerns me is that by the time WvW does get some attention, it may not be until the 3rd XPAC. At which point the community will have probably died down to 3 active servers with the rest being as dead as dead can be. Meaning 10 – 15 players tops on each side at any given hour.

Threads about WvW dying have been around since it’s inception. I’ve been around since shortly after GW2’s release and it hasn’t been up until the past couple months that I’ve felt it truly dying. Activity is noticably lower. I don’t know what could be done to draw people back but we are at the brink of it’s extinction as far as I’m concerned. I apologize for being over dramatic but I don’t feel it’s untrue.

babazhook.6805:

Choppy.4183:

babazhook.6805:

I would suggest if a thief made the claim he could dodge or block every potential stun that comes his way there would be an uproar and a call to nerf.

Can’t they already though? With Bandit’s Defense on a 15s CD, dodges on tap, evades on some weapon skills, shadow step, and then general disengage, I mean.

There aren’t really a lot of options for locking down a Daredevil who doesn’t want to be locked down, at least, not compared to an engineer (which is what he’s playing).

Nope they cant. They can certainly trait up lots of STUN BREAKS but the person posting did not want to take stun breaks.

If they could dodge every stun few would take BD or shadowstep or hard to catch. There not many thiefs that do not take stun breaks. Addd to that if one focused on just dodging the stuns, all the other stuff would get you (arc divider , shatters , your fellow thiefs vaults DH traps , Condi bombs and so on)

Adding to this, sometimes you need to eat the CC’s to save your dodges for other skills. Eg. sometimes I’ll eat a Shield Bash if I have a stunbreak ready so I can dodge the follow up, instead of expending two dodges and leaving myself vulnerable. Honestly unless in a zerg fight (or you’re a Thief), you shouldn’t ever spend two dodges back to back anyway.

As for Thieves, it’s true that it’s pretty much impossible to lock a Thief down. But that’s why you either need to know how to bait them, or when to follow their example and run the opposite direction as soon as they disengage. A lot of the time, I won’t wait for or chase after a Thief as soon as they make a break for it. I’ll go hard the other direction and call it a draw or see if I can get lucky by pulling them in to a place that’s more advantageous to me.

Last week or so, my game will occasionally go to a black screen. I can still see the in game cursor but I can’t see anything else or bring up any menus including the options. I can move the cursor but can’t do anything else. The only way I can close it is by exiting the program.

Nothing else on my computer seems to be effected and there aren’t ever any warning signs. It will just suddenly black screen and won’t correct itself.

Does anyone know the cause or how I can fix this?

I’m playing on a low end Asus gaming lap top and the computer is roughly a year old. It supports GW2 just fine with 50+ average FPS. It hasn’t been until this past week that I’ve been having issues. So far it has happened 4 times, 3 of which have been in the last 2 days.

Chorazin.4107:

This right here, WvW is the large scale format, PvP is the small group format. Anet do not care how classes perform in a microcosm in reference to WvW. You just need to look at the Acro line for DD’s, how much condi mesmers kitten or how over tuned zerkers are to see they give zero kittens about WvW balance when scaling down to 1-5ppl in a mode designed for large group conflict.

Which is why people need to accept that no matter how much they beg or plea or cry, perfect balance will never be achieved.

It’s something all of us want but not everyone understands that it doesn’t come without consequences. Changing one thing can drastically effect another and because of this, WvW has to have one definitive purpose, which is large scale combat, where professions and abilities are considered.

Players need to understand that small scale WvW does not always come down to who is the better player. Sometimes, in fact most of the time, it’s who is using the more effective build for the encounter. That may suck for those who don’t like to lose based on mechanics (I’m one of them) but we are all given the option to disengage, or to not engage at all, if we are too outmatched to win. Just like we are all given the option to design our own builds that can operate viably in various situations. I have for example created a build for my Engineer that works nicely no matter how I choose to play WvW and it has a fighting chance against the majority of builds that I encounter.

Players need to stop seeking to bring things in line and instead need to accept that roaming is a matter of rock, paper scissors. If you enjoy small scale, take the proper precautions to defend yourself against what you know you will find. I never design a build with out condition removal and I never design a build without either mobility or sustain. If my build cannot easily escape, it should be able to withstand heavy pressure to compensate.

Some players like to take the path of least resistance while others choose to swim up stream. You can play off meta builds and challenge yourself if you like, but accepting that they are suboptimal, and that you are putting yourself at a disadvantage, is the first step towards having a better time. Being defeated does not always mean you were outplayed but outplaying does not always mean you are smarter.