Guild Wars 2

Wasn’t exactly sure where to put this topic so I figured in WvW where I’d like to use it would make the most sense.
Superior Sigil Of Torment says that it has a 50% chance on critical to inflict AOE Torment for 5seconds. Superior Runes Of Torment say that they increase the duration of torment. Will these runes increase the duration of the Torment applied by the sigil? Or only by skills separate to the sigil that inflict Torment such as for example, Tainted Shackles? I ask because I’m currently using a Sigil Of Torment on my shortbow with my trapper Ranger. It works quite nicely but I was wondering if the runes would make the damage provided by Torment that much more lethal.

It would be awesome if instead of Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency in Skirmishing they were instead in Marksmanship replacing Remorseless and Piercing Arrows.
The traits which Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency replace could be up for debate but I really see no reason for these two traits in particular to be in a tree which has nothing to do with condition damage or duration.

Tuomir.1830:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Tuomir.1830:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Tuomir.1830:

Let’s use the numbers Jim Hunter suggested earlier for simplicity’s sake. If a ranger with a bow is assaulting a tower in WvW, and is shooting, he deals 70% of his potential damage if the pet doesn’t reach. If the ranger would use a bird, he’d do 100% of his potential damage. A warrior with a hammer would do 0% of his potential damage, for comparison’s sake. I find those to be pretty major differences. So, what would justify the bird to have such an improvement over the cats?

Warriors have access to bows and rifles. if they don’t want to use their range attacks that is their decision. However if they are using a ranged weapon they are dealing 100% of their damage.

So, you seriously claim that a warrior can deliver 100% of his potential damage when using a bow or a rifle? You’re a funny guy.

Don’t try to balance Ranger’s around a Warrior, please. God forbid another profession has access to something a Warrior does not. “BUT I WANT TO HIT PEOPLE ON THE WALLS, TOO.”
-1 week later, Warriors are now able to scale walls to Hundred Blade all foes within the structure.-

How hard is it to stay on the topic and not stick to one sentence brought in to broaden the view… it’s not a case of “rangers shouldn’t get this because warriors don’t!”, it’s a case of countering the potential outcry “we don’t want to lose a chunk of our damage when attacking people on walls!”. I chose to refer to warrior, because I figured that’s what most of people are familiar with, regardless of whether or not they play one themselves. Hint, I don’t play a warrior, nor do I want to.

Besides, if hitting people on walls is what you want, you already have pets with ranged attacks. No need to mess with AI scripting, pathing, and every single bump on the game for that. It would be an element with a very situational value with no way of setting a number on, nor any equivalents on other professions, therefore, a hell to balance.

I stuck to that topic because it was poorly written and I decided to respond in a similar manor.

Also on the subject of +40% condition duration foods, I have a thought for you… You can get what, 3k power with a power build without food buffs. Or somewhere in the ballpark of 3k. Ever tried getting 100% condition duration without foods? Can’t be done. Maybe if they made it possible for every profession to have access to 100% condition duration if they spec’d properly I’d be okay with them removing +40% condition duration foods. Until then, no thanks… Otherwise I’m stuck using conditions that burn out in 3seconds if uncleansed and in 1second if they are cleansed. What would be the point.

GW2 is a game made for casuals… Being “good” in this game is little more than playing for 4 or 5 hours a day for a month. No matter how many hours you sink in to this game casuals can still ruin your day. The sooner you accept the fact that a toddler could master this game in a few months time the sooner you’ll stop crying about conditions being OP.

I like that so many people complain conditions are OP meanwhile on the power spec side of things this stuff is going on… Make up your minds folks, if you keep saying this is OP and that is OP we’ll all be throwing teddy bears at each other by year’s end.

It’s true that the character creator leaves a lot to be desired, but I just find that the overwhelming amount of identical characters is a bit irritating. As I’ve stated if someone enjoys making their character look that way all the power to them. I was just curious whether or not anyone else was bothered by how many characters look like this (the first photo of the 4):

Except more often than not I find they have either light or dark blue hair. I don’t know why it bothers me but it really, really does, lol.

Here are my characters, though. The first is my Necromancer who, as I’ve been told, has a relatively cookiecutter face and I can understand that at first glance. But I actually put a lot of effort in to this character’s appearance (in the facial region). The second is my Ranger, two shots of her because I have two different outfits that I put a lot of work in to. One is a pirate/bandit type style the other is more native to her ethnicity (and her name, which is Cherokee.)

I remember this kind of thing in DCUO and people would either harass you for duels or mock you until they found something better to do if you declined. IMHO it only fuels those with an over inflated ego from winning too many duels to become even more self absorbed and kitteny. I would be okay with designated areas where dueling could take place, such as Heart Of The Mists for example. But open world I would be totally against.

Grats for sure but… I look at that and all I see is GOOOOOOOOLD, sooooo much goooollddd.. If I had all those in my inventory, even after all the work I went through to craft them, my temptation to just sell them all and get stupid rich would be uncontrollable.

I don’t want to say. If I wrote it down I’d want to hang myself… I’d ballpark it in the 400 – 500 range though, depressingly enough.
What is money for if not to enjoy spending it, but half of that has been spent on make over kits and hairstyle kits -__-

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNEQNAnfVjMq0ta5Kurw1aABhaVA0+FS2umkittenBbQBTqA-TViAABJcIAm4BA01+DAcCAkRfQYK/OS9H2UCy9RAIAACAzcmDdmDdmFCYxaA-w

A few very important things to note with this build… You have no stunbreakers. You want to start fights with Rampage As One and end them as quickly as possible otherwise you’re extremely vulnerable to CC’s. Your only condition cleanse is through Healing Spring which means you have to use it wisely. Generally I prefer to use it around the time I dip to 80 – 90% of my health, so that (unless I’m against a high damage opponent) it will be off cooldown by the time I need it again.
You also want to keep the poison pressure on to stop those who have high Regeneration uptime such as a Warrior, Ele or Guardian. Dropping Viper’s nest under their feet as often as you can is the best way to do this.
Generally I roam so this build is geared towards that, however, it is actually quite effective in zergs so long as you do what you can to avoid the hammertrain. Dropping traps everywhere and using axe #1 (Ricochet) will get you a lot of tags and a lot of bags.
After a lengthy period of using this build I’ve learned the following: Your chances of winning a 1v1 decrease significantly the longer you let the fight draw out. Do not ever get greedy with this build because there is little room for error. And lastly remember to use your Wolf fear and Raven blind properly (interrupting heals and mitigating damage received.)

Lmfao, I remember one time the Grub had somehow managed to make it’s way over to Bravost and it was attacking people ramming the gates. I have no idea how it got so far from it’s spawn but it was hilarious watching it down people who were trying to take the tower.

Golem Master: (Total cost: 75. Incremental cost: 5/10/15/20/25)
-Reduces fall damage taken by 50% while in a siege golem
-Increases movement speed by 15% while in a siege golem
-“Whirling Assault” now adds 4seconds of burning to foes
-“Shield Bubble” lasts an additional 4seconds
-Reduces physical damage taken by 5%

That was the suggestion I had written in another thread. Some are very similar to your own suggestions but I find these to be slightly less OP. Golems are already very powerful siege engines, buffing them to any serious degree would be game breaking.

Straegen.2938:

Valentin.2073:

it doesnt matter what class you play, if you’re bad youre bad. the class isnt even relevant. i kill warriors, thieves and guardians in wvw all the time, and i’m playing a zerk ranger.

The problem isn’t scrubs… any good player is going to bring some life to the Ranger party. The problem is when the Ranger runs into someone who knows what they are doing. Then the Ranger is at a decided disadvantage in WvW.

So very true… I by no means consider myself a good Ranger, but I think I can confidently say I’m still better than the majority since on my Ranger, I kill other Rangers quite often, as well as other professions. But as soon as I run in to someone who’s actually using their skills at the right times (Necro interrupting heal with fear, Warrior pinning down when trying to get range, etc) instead of just spamming and hoping to win, it makes it exceptionally more difficult to come out on top. It doesn’t matter how hard you try, if your opponent has any kind of clue how to use their profession your chances of winning go way down.
Now again, I’m not an amazing Ranger, but it doesn’t change the fact that even one that is amazing will have a much harder time against someone who’s very average with their profession.

At the Fallen Halls Of Glory POI, where the sparring NPC’s are, there is no Ranger.

Rezz.8019:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Rezz.8019:

I win most of my team and soloq matches so I never experienced this problem. I would suggest choosing a more viable build and adjustic your tactics in a way that will give you more chance to achieve a victory.

If I were good enough to carry my team, I wouldn’t be posting this thread. Your condescending tone does not provide me with helpful advice. But congratulations on never experiencing this problem. Maybe when you do you won’t be so apathetic.

You don’t have to be good enough to pick a “winning” build. It has nothing to do with your skill. I am not trying to make any comments about your skill, because I can’t know if you are the best or the worst player ever. It makes no difference.
Pick a good (op) build and you will win at least 50% of your matches no matter how good or bad you are.

In that case I apologize for my hostility but I still disagree. Although I understand the “meta” is generally more effective than other builds, the one I’m currently using has served me very well. It has a good mixture of DPS and sustain although more on the DPS side. I main a Necromancer and the Necro meta is Minionmaster, which, I personally wouldn’t ever use if my life depended on it… I’ve given it a go and I just do not enjoy using builds that take no effort because I don’t find it engaging.
Still, I am partially at fault for refusing to use a meta build but that doesn’t mean I’m an incompetent player (not that you were accusing me of being.)

Rezz.8019:

I win most of my team and soloq matches so I never experienced this problem. I would suggest choosing a more viable build and adjustic your tactics in a way that will give you more chance to achieve a victory.

If I were good enough to carry my team, I wouldn’t be posting this thread. Your condescending tone does not provide me with helpful advice. But congratulations on never experiencing this problem. Maybe when you do you won’t be so apathetic.

Meglobob.8620:

No a long losing streak is very possible if you keep being matched with players who don’t know what they doing, players experimenting with builds (so don’t really know what they doing), bad team composition (3 mesmers, 3 eles, 3 thiefs or any combo there of), afk’ers, leavers (so you 4v5), a doom merchant (you lose initial rush for pts, starts trash talking putting team down), getting sky hammer 6 billion times in a row and so on…

Was in a lot of games in a row over the weekend where I scored more points than anybody off either team and won 90% of my battles but my teammates were so inept we lost…

Yep, pretty much what happened… Kept getting matched with players that had no idea what they were doing and about 4 or 5 times was matched against this guild that had their strategy down to a science…

I understand there have been many other complaints about the match making system and I’ve read many of the threads… For the longest time it wasn’t that big of a deal to me, I can handle having a bit of a losing streak and I understand it’s probably difficult for ANet to introduce proper match making… But 2 days ago I lost 16 consecutive matches and I had to leave the last 2 of them because they were so embarrassingly horrible I didn’t want to stay until the end which left me with Dishonorable.

Are there any plans to tighten the match making system in the near future? Because I can honestly say that was the single worst experience I’ve had in this game… By the time those last two matches came around I felt like it was some kind of sick prank.

Troll.4237:

Tuomir.1830:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Tuomir.1830:

Yeah, it might be cool… but a hell to balance.

Why? Ele’s can do aoe damage to people and siege on walls that are out of sight, our pets would be doing single target damage. Pets are also supposed to make up something like 30% of our damage, I’d argue that it would make up for the damage handicap of having a pet.

Pet A can fly. Pet B can not. So, how much worse stats do you put on pet A to make their total value equal?

I’d rather keep my bird as it is, thank you.

Very few people even use birds so such an attribute would give alot more people a reason to take a bird over a bear or wolf.

I actually love using birds. I go Wolf and Raven personally and although yes they’re extremely squishy, it feels like birds are much more accurate with their targets. Like instead of attacking, missing, pausing, repositioning, attacking like most pets do when someone moves out of their hitbox, birds attack, reposition, attack. Not to mention most people seem to forget they’re there.

Tuomir.1830:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Tuomir.1830:

Let’s use the numbers Jim Hunter suggested earlier for simplicity’s sake. If a ranger with a bow is assaulting a tower in WvW, and is shooting, he deals 70% of his potential damage if the pet doesn’t reach. If the ranger would use a bird, he’d do 100% of his potential damage. A warrior with a hammer would do 0% of his potential damage, for comparison’s sake. I find those to be pretty major differences. So, what would justify the bird to have such an improvement over the cats?

Warriors have access to bows and rifles. if they don’t want to use their range attacks that is their decision. However if they are using a ranged weapon they are dealing 100% of their damage.

So, you seriously claim that a warrior can deliver 100% of his potential damage when using a bow or a rifle? You’re a funny guy.

Don’t try to balance Ranger’s around a Warrior, please. God forbid another profession has access to something a Warrior does not. “BUT I WANT TO HIT PEOPLE ON THE WALLS, TOO.”
-1 week later, Warriors are now able to scale walls to Hundred Blade all foes within the structure.-

Yep, same thing here. I don’t know what it is about Ranger but it’s just so much more fun to play than other professions. I’ve given every profession a fair try and although I main a Necromancer (because it suits my playstyle and I feel a lot more “comfortable” so to speak playing it) but I always come back to my Ranger every now and again because it just feels fun to play.. Even though I’m really not that great with it, lol.

My Siamoth is named Pat Fenis.
It’s funny to me because I have a juvenile sense of humor.

I know Warrior’s Hundred Blades and a Thief’s Heartseeker can hit some crazy numbers, and I’ve seen videos of Maul pegging people for 30k pre-patch, but this is pretty nice considering I wasn’t using Moment Of Clarity and only had a few stacks of Might.

Anyway, since this thread doesn’t really have much relevance to anything, share stories and/or photos of your Ranger either dealing massive damage or melting people in seconds ( :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fREQRArY7djc00Tb5NG3wfbCchaqnA6BIAi2o/gJIfB-TlyCABAcQAO+BAQ1+DIfCASR7AWK/8R9H90BMmSwpPCABAQAYmzcozcozsQALWDA-w

I enjoy experimenting with builds and have made many different roaming variations for my Necromancer which I main and spend the majority of my time roaming with. This is the one I’m currently using, and have used for the longest with little desire to change. It has two stun breaks, lots of cleanses, transfers, high damage, great survivability and lacks only mobility which Spectral Walk can somewhat remedy.

Two scepters is just personal preference. If you would rather use a staff by all means do so. I have just never enjoyed staff other than in a zerg scenario.

Johje Holan.4607:

The only new masteries I want to see are anti-mastery masteries.

E.g. anti-AC mastery: Each rank in anti AC mastery negates the corresponding effect of AC mastery. Anti-treb mastery, etc.

If that were the case I would really hope anti-mastery’s would cost double that of what they were negating. It’d be really unfair to spend 75 ranks in Arrow Cart Mastery for a somewhat new player who has spent all 75 ranks they have and then for another new player to completely defeat those efforts with the same ranks. 150 ranks for said mastery may sound high, but it’d be the only way I’d consider it fair to have in the game.. Otherwise you may as well not have mastery at all.

Add another effect to Siege Bunker and Siege Might for starters.

Siege Bunker: (Total cost: 32. Incremental cost: 2/4/6/8/10/12)
-Reduces damage taken while on siege equipment/reduces damage taken to siege equipment while in use
Siege Might: (Total cost: 80. Incremental cost: 5/10/15/20/25/30)
-Increases effective range of siege equipment/increases effective radius of siege equipment

As for new mastery’s, how about;

Golem Master: (Total cost: 75. Incremental cost: 5/10/15/20/25)
-Reduces fall damage taken by 50% while in a siege golem
-Increases movement speed by 15% while in a siege golem
-“Whirling Assault” now adds 4seconds of burning to foes
-“Shield Bubble” lasts an additional 4seconds
-Reduces physical damage taken by 5%

Yak Master (Total cost: 30. Incremental cost: 2/4/6/8/10)
-Reduces damage taken to yaks by 5% while player is within a 1,000 radius
-Increases yak movement speed by 5% while player is within a 1,000 radius
-Reduces damage taken to yaks by 10% while player is within a 1,200 radius
-Increases yak movement speed by 10% while player is within a 1,200 radius
-Yaks will deliver an additional 20 supplies upon reaching their destination

Roamers Defense: (Total cost: 75. Incremental cost: 5/10/15/20/25 )
-2% reduced damage from enemy players while less than 6 allied players are within a 4,000 radius
-4% reduced damage from enemy players while less than 6 allied players are within a 4,200 radius
-6% reduced damage from enemy players while less than 6 allied players are within a 4,400 radius
-8% reduced damage from enemy players while less than 6 allied players are within a 4,600 radius
-10% reduced damage from enemy players while less than 6 allied players are within a 4,800 radius

I feel that golems are powerful enough as it is so I haven’t suggested anything too extreme with golem mastery. Speed has always been a problem with golems but it’s also to give the enemy time to prepare for their arrival. So a 15% increase would still make them slower than a player not piloting a golem.

Yak master couldn’t be anything too extreme. There isn’t much you can do to improve the quality of a yaks life so I feel that reducing damage taken (including condition) as well as increasing their movement speed would make escorting a much less tedious job. Also for the final bonus, yaks deliver 30 supplies from an un-upgraded camp and 70 from an upgraded camp. Delivering either 50 at a time or 90 at a time depending on the status of it’s camp of origin could mean upgrading towers that much faster. Which I would consider very worth the ranks to get.

And finally for roamers defense, I think of it as a “Koda’s Armor” you can bring with you anywhere given you have the ranks to afford it. It wouldn’t make an exceptional difference but I’m certain for a player on the lighter side of defense it would be a much needed boost to survivability.

Bhawb.7408:

Yep, Path of Corruption was a timely addition, with how strong might stacking is atm.

And a note to everyone, if you watch ToL you’ll notice the few Necros who made it to the last few rounds all pretty heavily prioritized boon stripping. One even went so far as to take focus, Chill of Death, Path of Corruption, Corrupt Boon, and a boon stripping sigil.

Debuffing is my favorite thing to do in just about any game and a big part of the reason I love being a Necromancer so much. Although I don’t use the sigil, I use all those other things and honestly if you’re a conditionmancer in tPvP I think it’s absolutely necessary (though not mandatory) to have as many boon strips as you can.

Godkitten it I love Necromancer so frigging much, lol. I don’t need to be reminded how great the profession is but seeing videos like this makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

#NecroForLife

Lol, I was trying to give some helpful advice until I checked back on the thread to see OP throwing a tantrum.
It’s all coming together… You’re not used to not getting your way so you’re throwing a fit over it. Not everyone has to enjoy what you enjoy. As I’ve said in my initial post, some people like karmatraining, EOTM is the best place to do that, group wiping karmatrains in EOTM is actually a lot more pathetic than the karmatrain itself.. There’s no challenge, no reward and I can’t see it being very fun for any longer than an hour. All you’re doing is griefing people. Go to a real borderland and challenge yourselves against people who actually want to fight instead of being a pest…

EOTM is a PvEvP environment, similar to that of quote-un-quote “normal” WvW. The reason I say “normal” is because EOTM is not a competitive WvW format, the score counts towards nothing, and is therefore meaningless. I cannot say that playing street hockey, for example, isn’t fun because it’s not the NHL, but the points don’t matter therefore most people won’t take is seriously.
A lot of people enjoy karmatraining. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not what ANet had in mind when designing EOTM, but it’s what those people enjoy doing. I don’t think they would do it every day for hours a day if they didn’t. I understand your desire to engage in large scale player versus player, but the vast majority of people don’t enjoy doing that in EOTM. Forcing what you enjoy on these people makes you no better than they for forcing what they enjoy on you. It’d be like if they came to Eternal Battlegrounds and complained that people were defending towers. People would call them noob and whisper them cruel things, because that person would be a fish out of water so to speak. You’re no different doing what you’re doing in EOTM.
Beginning with something that shares little in common with “normal” WvW isn’t a good way to learn. Join Eternal Battlegrounds or a borderland, you don’t need to be an expert to participate. Do what you please and if you enjoy defending things or attacking other players it’s much more acceptable in a regular WvW zone.

Let me be clear, I understand your wishes to have EOTM operate more like traditional WvW. The fact of the matter is, unfortunately, that the vast majority in EOTM disagree and they enjoy doing what they’re doing. It really isn’t fair to ruin their fun in favor of yours.
I rarely ever set foot in EOTM unless I’m waiting on a Q for exactly this reason. I don’t enjoy karmatraining (or not for long periods of time) so I don’t stay there any longer than I have to.

As many have already said, heavy AOE damage and debuffs. If a Necro knows what he/she is doing, they will also lay Spectral Wall infront of their zerg similarly to how a Mesmer places a Veil before enemy contact with an offending zerg, as well as blind spam with Plague form to further mitigate damage to the team.
An organized zerg doesn’t need many Necro’s to be effective. But Necro’s are also one of the few professions that wouldn’t get worse the more were present. A zerg with mostly Necro’s would be extremely powerful, where as a zerg with mostly Warriors would run out of steam pretty quickly (even if their initial attacks were very powerful.)

Lopez.7369:

EverythingEnds.4261:

I wouldn’t be that hard with conditions.

The problem is not that condis are not good, it’s just the fact that most of the teams run a lot of bunkers / defensive set ups.
This means that there’s a new space for condi specs in a team and in addition, the opposing (euqually tanky) team will have a lot of condi remove and stuff.

If you have 4 bunkers / almost bunkers in your team and expect the same for the enemy team, a thief which brings some burst/stealth rezzes/decaps might be more usefull than a necro.

Condis still are strong, but not as strong as a team full of bunkers.

This could not be more wrong. The main role of conditions and necromancers in particular is to counter bunkers.

The bunker teams are actually so strong because they don’t have to worry about necromancers as much as they used to. Corrupt Boon and Well of Corruption don’t factor in when necromancers aren’t viable in the top levels of play.

^ Exactly. I eat bunker builds for breakfast because I have so many boon strips and condition transfers. I personally don’t understand why Necromancers aren’t needed when they can provide so many debuffs on point bunkers.

I don’t know if anyone has discussed or noticed this before, but as someone who primarily roams/scouts I’ve noticed the following;
Hylek are the only mercenaries that will repeatedly attack a camp until they’re neutralized. Dredge will attack a few times and Ogres only once. What’s up with this? I do a lot of WvW and I’ve been aware of this for quite some time, but it has only recently been bothering me. Does anyone know the reason for this? And if not, it would be great if the merc camps could get a bit of dev attention. As is, Hylek are the only valuable mercs to have, Ogres will basically come and attempt to flip the camp, fail and never come back. Dredge are kind of middle ground, although they succeed at killing all the NPC’s quite often because of how tanky they are.

Trafficone.5301:

One could say the same about greatsword using warriors who make numerous unsuccessful attempts to use hundred blades on me without pinning me down. Every profession has people who know how to play effectively and people who don’t. I try not to let it bother me. An easy kill is an easy kill, and if someone is better than me, I’m likely an easy kill. Doesn’t matter, really.

^ This, lol.
And @ OP, although yes I agree completely Rangers who refuse to weapon swap in melee range are slightly handikitten.. If they actually know how to kite you’re going to be the one that will need to learn to weapon swap. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lol’d at Warriors trying to hammer-stun me to death but they can’t get in melee range because I keep kiting them. And I can’t help but think “you know you can use something other than a hammer, right?”

Porcine “Forge” is actually frikkin’ amazing, lol. The pet itself isn’t so great but the knockdown comes in handy quite often, as it seems to act very similarly to the wolf in that it will often either make it’s first attack a knockdown, or it’ll knock someone down mid-heal. As for the F2, tuft of hair, feathers or plasma = stealth or all boons. Pretty decent IMO.

But I do somewhat agree that pets F2 abilities could be reworked or at least improved a bit. The majority of them don’t have much use at all. Still, play around with your pets abilities from time to time, you’d be surprised which ones are more useful than you might have first thought.

How aaabbooouuttttt… Torment in Viper’s Nest. Lol, could you imagine xD

Prysin.8542:

a t s e.9614:

Spirit ranger or reroll class. Rangers would be at bottom tier if they didn’t use a condi bunk spirit build.

Spirit ranger ONLY applies to PvP. In WvW it is horribly weak outside 1v1 or 5v5. As for PvP, you will find that the railgun LB (air+fire 60260) is equally efficient as any spirit ranger build. Trapper is simply a beast.

As for personal skill – it matters, yes. Knowing the other professions do also matter. Knowing their rotations only matter when there is rotations to watch for.
A DD ele has a rotation, a DD thief has a rotation, a hammer warrior just bashes face at keyboard and hopes to win….

Trapper or bust. If you’re roaming or in small groups, trapper will destroy people. Every fight I win with trapper I lol a bit because of how ridiculously hard it hits. It’s not bad in zergs either assuming you know how to dodge. If you keep dropping traps everywhere, and you’re using a mainhand axe, you’ll get a LOT of tags and a LOT of bags.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNEQNAV3fjMq0ua5Kerw1ag8ga5EEANHitl9GcCtQBrSA-T1SBABGcBAqa/hmPCAMYix5DCATKxeR3gXKP6R9n0UCCwDAIAACAzcmDNZWIgFrBA-w

I threw this together myself and while it hits like a truck I find relying so heavily on buffs a drawback. To get the most out of this build, I need all my stacks of Corruption, Applied Strength, Rare Veggie Pizza and Master Tuning Crystal. Otherwise, my condition duration is only 20%, 30% with my axe and torch.
So my question’s are these;

1. As a primarily condition build, with a bit of power sprinkled on top (maybe 70/30 condition/power), would it be better to just go full condition damage?

2. If question 1. is applicable, should I use Orr, Nightmare or Krait runes?

3. Does the Sigil Of Force in my shortbow make a significant difference or should I replace it?

I’ve used this build quite a bit in the last few days, and I’ve been very successful with it. So I’m not questioning the builds viability so much as I am it’s drawbacks of relying on buffs.

P.s. The reason I have decided to add a bit of power in to the mix is so that my traps/initial hits with “Ricochet” from axe deal that much more damage on top of conditions. I also managed to burst down a Thief today without even moving from where I was standing :P. I had lain down all my traps at my feet while I was talking in /map, I got hit by a Thief who took a ton of damage from the traps, I dropped “Bonfire” and he was dead, I didn’t even move xD.

sephiroth.4217:

Roaming is dying, well solo roaming anyway…

Go to a BL and run around for half an hour before finding 5 enemies running together reflipping camps and sentries you have taken, if you engage them from boredom and die then they all throw siege and jump on you.

Go to Eternal Battlegrounds, solo flip some camps while 1 enemy watches you, just as you get it done you get rolled by a 40 man zerg, go flip a sentry then get rolled by 10 man “roaming groups” that emote you after they kill you….

Yer it’s either be apart of a decent WvW guild then raid with them, zerg and get tons of rewards or roam and get laughed at.

Personally I just started getting back into PvP, WvW is just a karma train comparing it to a year ago when it actually felt like a warzone and people wanted to win and not just reflip your own BL keeps every 20 minutes.

I can confirm that running in to small groups of people who enjoy taunting you like they’ve accomplished something is true, but I can also tell you that solo roaming takes practice. I rarely encounter this problem anymore because I’ve been roaming for quite some time. Although I still make mistakes from time to time and have to deal with people like this, it’s a part of my job as a roamer and a scout. I roam on a Necromancer and I can manage to stay alive and avoid being killed even when tapping enemy keeps or flipping fully upgraded camps right under their noses. You just need to know when to do those things. Checking your map constantly and never letting your guard down are two of the best ways to do that. Always check your flanks even when you’re in combat.

I agree that it’s powercreep, and that all the available buffs in WvW make a significant difference, but I love my buffs… So I don’t want them removed. I’ve never once been killed by someone and thought “omg I had no buffs, if my food hadn’t run out!!” I can’t really justify using as many buffs as I enjoy using, because to those that aren’t a high enough rank or don’t have enough gold to afford it will be at a disadvantage but… a) it’s not my fault ANet has made it an option to use these things in WvW and b) it’s not my fault I’ve put a lot of time and effort in to the game to have the ranks and gold to afford those buffs and other players haven’t.

Also, while I’m thinking about it, WvW is kind of like an every man for himself anyway. It sounds goofy but I totally like to pretend we’re being attacked by hordes of zombies when defending SMC. The enemies are ruthless, brainless monsters that will do anything to sink their teeth in to your flesh. Why would I not use everything I can to my advantage in order to survive such an ordeal? When roaming out in the open, I could be swarmed by any number of enemies. When zerging I could be picked off, who knows. Best to be prepared and bring all the buffs you can.
ZOMBIES MAN.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Coverage.

I’ve seen higher rank server’s zerg being utterly destroyed by a lower tier server’s zerg, yet the higher tier server has more points.
This is because the higher tier servers have more players throughout the day and half the time they are doing PvD because the lower tier server may not have anyone on at 3am in the morning.

You see this a lot especially on german servers; they seem to get up really early and golem rush everything. This allows the server to have a high ppt for quite a few hours in the early morning sometimes even upto the afternoon.

After coverage is numbers.

So even if you have some players on at 3am to fight the enemy server, what good are 10 players versus 30-50?!

So in the end, even if you have very skilled guilds with very skilled players, there is pretty much nothing they can do when they are outnumbered or offline.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Isaac.6041:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Everything is good depending on what you enjoy doing most. The only thing you should avoid purchasing is Supply Capacity which increases the amount of supplies you can carry. It sounds great, but for 5 extra supplies it costs 300ranks, which is not worth it until you’ve purchased all other upgrades.

Nah Supply capacity is very useful and I suggest getting some around ranks 600-1000.

I’m currently rank 831 and still haven’t spent a single point in it. Guild +5 OP.

It personally took me 5 days. Some people completed it in just 1.
Really it depends how often you play, for how long and how much you’re trying to complete it. For myself, I did the same thing as I did season one, I just got them as I went without trying for anything in particular.
EOTM is probably your best bet, though. Look for karmatrains, hop on and enjoy the ride. If you spend a few hours with a good zerg you should get a lot of it done.

Forgetful Phil.6370:

Sesbog.8705:

you are sure that you know what to do?

if you are not asked to teach, then do not do it. It is annoying

It’s annoying because people don’t like being told what to do? Aren’t you telling him not to do something yourself?

On topic, I’d just say keep it to casual pointers. You definitely get some clueless players who are kittens (mainly the wvw lot I have to say), but you may as well try instead of forfeiting the game. Some of the newer players do pretty well when they listen to rotations.

Also drawing on the minimap is quite effective

I agree. I hate to admit, but I personally get extremely offended when people are trying to tell me what to do even if they’re trying to help. It’s just always been a pet peeve of mine and a lot of others, although maybe not as severely as myself, share this problem. Being casual about it is a much better approach. I find suggesting things to be a lot more effective than stating them. Saying “that won’t work” just makes me want to challenge it where as if someone says “it’s not great but if it works for you” I’ll be a lot more inclined to work on my strategy. Everyone has preferences and telling people something is bad or won’t work or anything in relation to that can sometimes provoke people to challenge you or get upset. It’s a lot better to suggest things and sprinkle advice on top of your conversations than to give matter-of-fact advice, even if that advice is 100% true.

Fear, immobilize, chill/cripple spam (when I say spam I mean stack as much of it as possible because they cleanse cripple when they stealth) and anything that might interrupt (Spectral Grasp) or completely negate (Well Of Darkness) their damage. Thieves are extremely vulnerable when they’re unable to move. If you immobilize them (or Fear them, although that’s technically moving it’s still beyond their control) don’t just stand there and let the duration expire, pressure them as much as you possibly can before they restealth.
Also, food for thought. Torment is a powerful condition which we have access to through Tainted Shackles, which is also an immobilize. If you take Sigl Of Torment in your weapon of choice, you can have even more access to Torment. Torment becomes more potent when the recipient is moving, which means first using Tainted Shackles, then using Fear to force them in to moving will cause a lot of pain for them. If you’re a condition build especially, topping this off with Dhuumfire from Life Blast will be extremely lethal to the Thief. Torment first, then Fear, and you’ll get the most out of both conditions.

Everything is good depending on what you enjoy doing most. The only thing you should avoid purchasing is Supply Capacity which increases the amount of supplies you can carry. It sounds great, but for 5 extra supplies it costs 300ranks, which is not worth it until you’ve purchased all other upgrades.

Personally, I find Applied Strength, Applied Fortitude, Build Mastery, Repair Mastery, Supply Master, Siege Might, Siege Bunker, Arrow Cart Mastery, Ram Mastery and Cannon Mastery to be the best things to purchase. Although cannons are usually the first thing to be destroyed when a tower is attacked, if the enemy neglects to destroy the cannon, you have mastery and siege might, you can absolutely demolish an entire zerg in just a few shots. Everything else I mentioned is viable in a lot of different ways and I would highly recommend. Cannon Mastery is just a personal favorite that I only recommend if you don’t mind not being able to use it very often. But the times you can, it really pays off. Same with Burning Oil Mastery, actually. Although managing to use a pot of oil is probably even less common than a cannon, so just keep that in mind when spending your points on either of those things. It’s kind of like you’ll rarely ever get to use cannon or oil with mastery so it’ll be a pain, but the times you do get to use them you’ll laugh like a maniac. Driving away 50+ people with a cannon just by yourself is pretty satisfying trust me.

Dietzen.6127:

So the question from me is, is it better to spec for Dark Path, or to keep Dumbfire? With my current 30/20/0/0/20, to maybe turn it into 20/30/0/0/20 since I’ve already traited for DS abilities. Hmm tough question, and I mostly run sPvP.

Dhuumfire and Path Of Corruption are in different trees, you can have both.

As far as Dark Path goes, it’s one of my favorite skills. Second only after Corrupt Boon which is my single favorite skill of any profession in the entire game.
Being able to gap close, apply conditions, slow your enemy down, and scare the bejesus out of them by popping up right in their face is awesome. I frequently use Dark Path just after fearing someone who’s trying to kite me.
Thanks to the Necro’s lack of mobility and disengage, I think I can confidently say if you’re not using Dark Path on a relatively regular basis (in a WvW or PvP environment anyway) then you’re missing out on one of our best abilities.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Stealth and high damage aren’t OP, line of sight abuse is. Mesmers and Thieves can port all over the kitten place and regardless of how good your reflexes are it’s incredibly difficult to get a clean shot on them. The only thing that really hard counters either of these professions is an immobilize, unfortunately a) not every profession has a viable means of access to this and b) most of the time they can just port right out of it.
Anyway, once upon a time when I was a wee scrubling… I hated Thieves and all their stealth and wah wah they’re OP plz nurf. But now that I’ve learned to play I understand these things aren’t at all OP. The line of sight thing is, however. Have you ever fought a d/p Thief? It’s like a game of who will trip over their own shoelaces first.

Amurond.4590:

I don’t know, it depends on the situation.

1v1 etiquette as I see it

Planned – running not acceptable

I initiate it – they can run if they want, I expect some to, others won’t. Not like they asked to fight me.

They initiate it – they run, if I end up killing them I will corpse jump them, spam /laugh, keep an eye out for them in the future, repeat process if they run again.

+1, said much better than I had failed to say it, lol. But this is almost exactly my train of thought in regards to 1vs1’s.