Guild Wars 2

Lahmia.2193:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Crinn.7864:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Crinn.7864:

DS 2, 4, and 5 need to be reworked. None of them are even worth the time it takes to cast them.

2 isnt bad

DS 2 is bad on anything that isn’t a Core NPC mob.

It’s connection rate is horrendous, and the projectile is so slow as to make the value of the teleport questionable.

Honestly the connection rate is much better than rs2. I would say i hit close to 100% of ds2 when i played pre hot

Agreed. While rs2 is far better as a gap closer for general use, it has a habit of shooting off in random directions at times. The speed on ds 2 could be improved though.

Properly using it is all it takes. I would love to see the velocity increased but the fact that it’s unblockable and applies Chill is really nice. Can’t tell you how many times in a day it allows me to win my fights against Dragonhunter’s or Warriors by keeping me on top of them when they want me to stay away.

Overall, Necromancer is, obviously, much weaker than Reaper, but it’s not terrible. It just takes a bit more discipline. And I still love vanilla Necro dearly.

Fay.2357:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I’m of the opinion that I’d honestly rather no one tag on either side. Tagless blob fights are the most chaotic and the most fun. They also usually last for an incredibly long time because not enough people will die at once to make a full push.

If I wanted to waste my time without accomplishing anything I’d play PvP.

That’s why I said “of the opinion.” I don’t care about accomplishing anything. I just enjoy fights, large and small. Capturing things and pushing keeps is, most of the time, unappealing. But I understand that most people need their lewtz and XPz or “gaem is ded.”

I’m of the opinion that I’d honestly rather no one tag on either side. Tagless blob fights are the most chaotic and the most fun. They also usually last for an incredibly long time because not enough people will die at once to make a full push.

I’m always having a blast when Mag, TC and/or BG all blob up but there doesn’t appear to be a leader on any side. We just open field skirmish for up to an hour at a time and it’s amazingly fun.

Also I kind of like this

Heibi.4251:

“We can’t have pin sniping. What will we do with leaderless zergs?”

“As long as you run big zergs, I will order the killing of commanders at the beginning of every battle.”

Stop rolling in 80 man blobs, start having multiple tags. No one likes fighting lag.

No more sinners on our good Christian server, please.

Sarrs.4831:

The most obvious thing that should happen is that 4 and 5 should have their CDs reduced to at least match RS 4 and 5. 30 second 4 means a lot for Transfusion.

Another thing I would think about doing is increasing the raw output of Tainted Shackles, perhaps adding another Torment stack or two on the final explosion. According to the wiki the damage is calculated based on unarmed damage and this is obviously an issue which drastically undercuts the potential damage of the skill, and this should be fixed.

Life Transfer is already a fairly strong ability but I would perhaps consider adding a baseline Vampiric effect to it.

Doom is fine. I would perhaps consider removing the “under 600 units” condition and making the 1.5s fear full range.

I would think about changing Dark Path to a ground-targeted projectile instead of a unit-targeted projectile. With the heavily range oriented Death Shroud we have now, Dark Path makes little sense in its current incarnation.

For Life Blast I would either change it into a beam or an exploding projectile rather than a piercing projectile.

No please for the Dark Path thing. Increasing the velocity would be perfect. Otherwise, this is the skill that makes a lot of fights possible to work if you use it properly. It’s clunky, yes, but I don’t think changing it to a ground target would be a good solution. My opinion may not be the same as everyone elses, especially considering I’m one of the weird ones who prefers vanilla Necro over Reaper, but I’d really hate to see Dark Path become a ground targetted skill.

Everything else you’ve said sounds good, though. However I think Life Transfer would be great if it siphoned health instead of Life Force. It would be a nice to be able to pull a bunch of health out of someone before dropping Shroud instead of increasing your time in Shroud by 2 extra seconds which is what it pretty much does now, unless you have a ton of targets around you.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Electra.7530:

Highest and worst damage ever done to me was vault, hit me for around 9k. I was appalled. But, the numbers on the screen shots in here are way more appalling.

Kinda like how this number is appalling? Or 20k Gunflames, or 15-20KCoRs or any other number of classes and skills that do more damage?

This game is a joke all around, with every class. Thank the balance Devs

Alright, whoa, now…

While I agree Gunflames, CoR’s and Vaults are ridiculous… Things like Maul bursts or Mesmer Shatters are a different story. That requires blowing multiple cooldowns and preparing to burst someone or gambling your chances and hoping it lands (which is never wise might I add, because then you’re sitting on a ton of cooldowns).

I’ve seen some insane Maul bursts, same with Drake Tail Swipes. Both are gimmicks and useless in the vast majority of scenarios. To top it off, the victim in that picture is an uplevel, I’m about 90% sure of it.

I understand the point you were trying to make but I just wanted to point out that a Maul burst is a lot different than just pressing literally one button and doing insanely high damage.

SkyShroud.2865:

Derail? I am showing your flaws in your argument.

Probably because most of the sources of boons that are an issue; Guardian, Revenant and Tempest, apply their boons via shouts or insta-cast skills. Mind you, Facets are not insta-cast but they are still pre-cast and often already pumping out boons long before a fight happens.

I don’t think comparing condition awareness to boon awareness is fair in that sense, although yes you do have a point.

I’ve long since run out of ways to argue against this but I do want to say;

The majority of the time I’m with a zerg, I’m without TS and without a squad/party, often using a vanilla Necromancer or vanilla Ranger. I can literally count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been Epi bombed so hard I insta-downed and WvW is all I do in GW2.

Not being in TS or a squad/party means I can’t rely on team support cleanses. Although I do obviously get them, it just means that the likely-hood of being condition nuked by Epi is that much greater. And yet, it still has only happened a very small number of times, most of which have been the result of standing near a champion or siege loaded with a ton of conditions.

I don’t deny that it’s a powerful skill but it just boggles my mind how people think it’s so in need of a nerf. I’m just not grasping how this can be such a big deal for people who are probably in a squad and TS, also probably using a proper zerging build, but not an issue for someone who isn’t.

I made a thread not long ago with suggestions for proper ways to balance Epidemic without gutting it that you can find here.

There isn’t any way I can prove that I rarely get one-shot Epi bombed but I just feel that under the circumstances and how often I play WvW… If it’s not an issue for me it really shouldn’t be for most other players, with some exceptions (new to the game, group support build with little personal support, etc).

Fluffball.8307:

I’m sure this is great but don’t open your video against a F2P player. I was all hyped up and then “bronze squire” is the first person we see.

I’m friends with said Squire rank as well as acquainted with his friend. It’s an alt account and he’s on two servers atm, so as Kiri has said, he isn’t F2P.

Just wanted to confirm this since I know it for sure.

Kaizoku.1298:

No, make them non projectiles

Ivantreil.3092:

However, a thing that could be added is an indicator “Hey, a teammate buff will land here!”, just for give an example of what i’m saying.

I agree with both of these. Make them non-projectiles and give them a white ring that’s visible to allies. I also feel that changing Toss Elixir H to something different would be nice. I’m not entirely sure what but at the moment, a 20second cooldown on a skill gives a random boon and removes 1 condition when traited is pretty “meh” to me.

I think something like a unique buff that increases your Healing Power (250, does not stack with Energy Amplifier) for say, 5 seconds? after throwing, this also effects allies, would be a nice change.

I just want Well of Blood to be usable, personally. It’s just one of those skills I don’t even have a second thought about taking. It’s just a “nope” every time, no matter the situation.

I think good changes for Well Of Blood would be:

• Reduce cooldown from 35s to 25s.
• Change field from Light to Ice.
• Slightly increase healing per second.
• Change functionality: Heals Shroud equivalent to health if in Shroud while standing in the Well.

I do think a Water field would be nice, but considering our only leap and whirl finishers are in Shroud, I don’t feel we would get much benefit from it. An Ice field however could synergize nicely with things like Cold Shoulder and Bitter Chill, as well as further reducing damage while in Shroud if leaping through it.

The cooldown can’t be too low and the duration can’t be too long if it’s changed to heal Shroud while in Shroud or it would make us monsters (not that I’d disagree with that, but for the sake of balance). But I think having something that could extend our lives weather it’s our health or our pseudo-health would be a good enough change to warrant using this skill from time to time.

For now, let’s just call this buff “Undeath.” When Undeath is affecting someone, they slowly revive allies in a radius around them. If someone reaches the defeated state while they are under the effects of Undeath, they will revive a nearby downed ally.

This buff functions differently for the Necromancer, however. While a Necromancer is under the effects of Undeath, nearby downed foes drain health from other nearby foes.

A few things to note:

• This buff is similar to Alacrity in the sense that it is not a boon. It cannot be extended or removed but it can be shared.

• The buff does not get stronger if multiple Necromancers are bouncing the buff between each other.

• The rate at which downed players are revived by this buff is half that of manually reviving someone. Multiple players stacking near a downed player with the Undeath buff will increase the rate at which the downed player is revived but only up to a maximum of 5 players to prevent insta-reviving.

Just an experimental thought I had and wanted to share.

Cygnus.6903:

Ben K.6238:

Cygnus.6903:

And that’s the problem. You could make every skill on thief deal 10k damage, the class is still poorly designed. Because you are solely reliant on reflexes, use this or that teleport/evade/stealth in time, or you just die. Other classes get WAY more room for mistakes with all the passives, not even talking about the fact that for thieves to do meaningful damage, you have to be insanely glass to begin with.

Pretty much sums up my attempts to use thief.

I have more survivability on a naked ele. Thief requires good reflexes and low latency to pull off. It’s a fascinating class though, so I haven’t given up just yet.

And you shouldn’t. Even though I believe that almost all classes have been broken (either OP or just no fun) by HoT, especially what used to be my main, Thief is still very enjoyable to me. And I don’t have superhuman reflexes at all. Running almost full zerk+scholar in WvW.

You develop a sort of spider sense over time; where you will do what others would classify as ‘random dodging’. But it’s rather about positioning and knowing that if you take a hit or a CC at that time, it would be over. Luckily, thief has an insane amount of dodges.

It’s being familiar with your limits. You’ve tested them enough times to know how far you can go before you can’t come back. I have the same thing on my Necromancer from having done so much roaming with her. I run a vanilla Necro and I know exactly when I’m crossing the line between “I can come back from this” and “too late now, YOLO.”

Straegen.2938:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Actually I’d place Flamethrower Engi ahead of Necro and just behind Guard. Honestly maybe even higher than Guard.

To me Necro is a tag beast as its Wells typically hit more than 5 players due to the pulse, are long range and are Unblockable in most zerg builds. They basically have a half dozen long range Unblockable AoE’s, a close range elite that pulses for 20s and an AA that is long range which also hits 5 targets.

They may not win the tag count in melee zerg fights but they own long range pirate ship ones. Oh and they often boon strip which can turn the tide.

Very true. I suppose it all depends on how you go about tagging people as well. I’ve been playing a vanilla condition Necromancer for 3 years. I dislike Reaper and I’m not particularly great with vanilla power Necro although I do like it. So most of what I have to work with is Epidemic, Well Of Corruption and Corrosive Poison Cloud. All of them hit multiple targets and such but conditions simply don’t haul in as much loot as direct damage.

So, I’ve just been camping my Engineer lately as I’ve found it to be the most effective at loot collecting. Maybe it’s how I play it, I’m not sure. But I’m literally getting triple the amount of bags during fights that I ever have on anything else. Flamethrower manages to hit like every single person on a push it seems.

And to be clear, I’m not disagreeing with you. Just in my own experience, Engi + Flamethrower has been a monster at tagging and bagging.

Turk.5460:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Clownmug.8357:

What’s with this “stand in black power” idea? Are there thieves dumb enough to use it so close to another player?

Since 90% of the thieves that run that build don’t have a brain people actually consider this to be a counter. The problem is it’s absolutely not a counter when you run up against a competent player that decides to run ghost thief for a laugh because they are bored as kitten of the terrible combat we’ve had to deal with since HoT.

If you’re not good enough to fight this build, or smart enough to figure out how, then just don’t deal with it and run in the opposite direction. Why waste your time trying to kitten measure in a 1v1 you’re not skilled enough to win, then due to lack of understanding, complain later on the forum?

There is no profession that can’t run away from this build.

I honestly agree with this for the most part. Although more than a few professions can’t escape a ghost Thief so it’s not really right to say everyone can run from it.

Still, it’s incredibly easy to beat the majority of them. As I’d said in my comment explaining ways to fight back against them, unless they’re actually good, most of them won’t give you any trouble. And I’ve fought plenty enough to know that even the good ones aren’t that scary. They simply don’t have enough sustained condition pressure.

The build lacks counterplay which is why it needs to be fixed. That doesn’t mean it’s unbeatable unless you’re a zombie. In over 7k hours spent strictly in WvW, and a lot of it roaming or small scale, I’ve literally only ever met one that was so good I got completely destroyed. And guess what? He wasn’t even a 100% ghost Thief, just a really good D/P condition Thief that had an impressively good understanding of how to maintain significant condition uptime. I could see him plenty of times during the fight but he was simply too good to pin down (and this only happened like 2 months ago).

For clarity, I am not defending this build. Just stating ways to fight it, if you so choose.

Most of these Thieves are smart enough to stealth stack some where in the distance or behind an object, etc. This can make the first thing difficult but not impossible.

1) Keep your eyes open for that little red circle, Black Powder. When you see it, hurry towards it and stand inside of it. This will, most of the time, cause the Thief to hit you as they’re leaping through it which will Reveal them.

Although this will only Reveal them for a brief time, it’s enough time for certain builds to kill them outright or to send them running for the hills. If your build is incapable of bringing them down within a few seconds, this may not be the best strategy but it’s good to know this information regardless.

2) Either be prepared to listen for traps being set or look for a very brief visual tell. The sound is identical to that of Ranger traps and the look is a small white wisp on the ground. Both are subtle but not unrecognizable with practice. This will allow you to either avoid the traps completely, if they don’t set them on top of you, or to evade through them.

3) Let them condition burst you. If you have ample condition removal, you can just clear their burst and walk away. They have poor sustained condition pressure after their Steal -> Trap burst and will only keep a few Bleeds or Poison on you until they can retry their burst. This should allow you enough time either to escape or to knock them out of stealth.

4) The least favorite of the options is to bring a Stealth Distruptor Trap. It is not viable counterplay but it is effective if used correctly. Many of these Thieves, even if intelligent, are greedy. They think they’re god-mode because they can’t be seen and even if they watch you place the trap, a lot of them will trip it anyway. I’ve fought plenty enough of them to tell you that very, very few have tip-toed around it or left me alone. Set the trap, AFK on top of the trap and wait until they push their luck and trip it. Either they run for the hills and never come back or they try to fight and, assuming they’re bad since most who run this build are, they die.

This build is not OP. It lacks counterplay is the problem. It has poor sustained condition damage and a moderate burst if the target stands in Caltrops and doesn’t clear any of the conditions. It is strictly a gimmick troll build that a lot of players don’t know how to handle. Yes, it should be fixed but no, it is not impossible to defeat. It’s just not worth your time to try if you don’t like doing it. Personally I enjoy it because the fight isn’t over in 5 seconds, like most are, and I get to think outside the box while I try to outsmart them. It’s frustrating when they play it semi-well because they have such a huge advantage over me but I only have myself to blame if I fail.

Jeknar.6184:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Still, I’ve been using it a lot lately and although it has no place for support/in the meta in zergs, it’s incredible for tagging and bagging. I just mash Flamethrower #1 and haul in bags by the hundreds.

You can run HGH FT and drop potions for boons in your allies to not feel you’re selfish for not helping your group. Not a high end build and far from being optimal, but I used to run somenthing similar back on vanilla and it worked nice.

At the moment, I run a Commander/Soldier/Celestial build with Durability runes, Scrapper, Alchemy and Fire Arms of course with Juggernaut (very similar to the build you linked).

To be 100% honest, I literally never make builds with group support in mind. I just play what I enjoy, avoid being a rally bot and help anyone I can without getting myself killed in the process.

Over all, I really like Flamethrower in zergs. It’s frigging amazing at tagging and the perma-Stability just makes it all the more fun

Imho, they should add the +5% damage from Two-Handed Training to greatsword as base, increase the Fury duration from the trait from 3 seconds to 5 seconds and increase the chance on hit from 50% to 66%.

Would be a nice buff to both the trait and to greatsword without changing much on either of them.

I do agree with Eleazar though, greatsword is a defensive weapon. Sword should keep it’s DPS role while greatsword maintains it’s passive and burst role.

Joshhh.2076:

It’s also the second-best class for tagging stuff after Guardian.

Actually I’d place Flamethrower Engi ahead of Necro and just behind Guard. Honestly maybe even higher than Guard.

Flame Jet hits 5 targets per second on a 2 1/4 second cast. Especially with Quickness, you can get a ton of tags. The only downside is that you will absolutely destroy your own health bar on Retaliation if you get greedy.

Still, I’ve been using it a lot lately and although it has no place for support/in the meta in zergs, it’s incredible for tagging and bagging. I just mash Flamethrower #1 and haul in bags by the hundreds.

I’m still on the fence about this skill. I like to think I’m pretty fair when it comes to claiming something is OP, because I very rarely make that claim. I practice and practice and if I don’t see any improvements or, if after I’ve repeatedly tried to exploit what should be a weakness to no avail, then I’ll usually start to question the balance.

I know there’s a frame of vulnerability during the Vault animation and I know Thieves run out of endurance just like anyone else. But it seems no matter how much I try to predict and counter, there’s no reward. They just Shadow Step out of range, stealth, Steal or what ever other ability they have available to slip out of my fingers, which it seems like they always have at least one. It’s not so much the damage with Vault I have a problem with as it is that not only is it highly damaging, but staff abilities return Endurance for Initiative spent and Channelled Vigor grants Endurance. So between staff evasions and endurance bar evades, it’s a nearly endless cycle that you can’t rely on to pin them down.

I’m not going to ask for nerfs because I don’t think Vault in particular needs it. But I do think something to do with staff and the amount of evades it can provide needs to be looked at. I’m going to continue practicing but it’s rapidly becoming one of those things I’d just prefer to avoid if I can help it. It doesn’t feel challenging or enjoyable, it feels like a guessing game where they always have an ace up their sleeve.

Honestly, staff Thieves in general are the thing that currently gives me the most trouble. I’m aware of the animation lock and when you can interrupt their Vault and I’m also familiar with fighting Thieves in general. Most, unless very good or Toughness stacking, don’t give me trouble. As soon as I see a staff though, it’s rare I’ll come out the victor unless I’m on my condition Necromancer or the Thief is really awful. Otherwise, I seriously don’t understand how to lock these guys down when they’re in an almost endless evade frame and even if you manage to hit them, they’ll ususally Shadow Step out of reach and come right back to spam more 5 – 10k Vault/Bound crits.

I’m on the fence about saying it’s OP since I know you can’t just mash evades and win, there’s skill involved in making it work properly. But the more I fight it the more it feels like total kitten. Anyone mind giving me some tips?

I main a vanilla longbow/GS Ranger and before anyone says “that’s your problem” I know! :P I have little trouble against anything else, though. Well played Dragonhunter’s are the only other thing that I have a hard time bringing down. Otherwise I do just fine against any other build. Staff Thieves, though… I’m just lost on what do. I usually try to camp greatsword but even if I land a Counterattack or Hiltbash I can’t get enough burst off for the duration of the stun to kill them.

Although I strongly believe this skill is fine as it is, I can practically smell an incoming nerf. So, I’m going to make a few suggestions here in the event that ANet sees and uses said suggestions.

Epidemic currently has a radius of 600. That’s a pretty massive radius when you consider that things like Well Of Suffering only have a radius of 240. I believe that a fair nerf would be to reduce the radius to 360 which is the same size as a Meteor Shower.

Another fair nerf would be to disallow it from working on inanimate objects such as siege or on champions with high health pools. It was a nice change allowing conditions to affect siege but it inadvertently gave Epidemic a massive buff by allowing it to be cast on things with maximum condition stacks. I think it would be absolutely fair to change it so that Epidemic cannot benefit from this.

Reducing the amount of Burns it can transfer by two for every condition it transfers. This means that say for example it transfers Burn, Bleed, Poison, Confusion and Torment. The Burn stacks from the source are at 20 but because it transferred 5 conditions, it only transfers 10 Burns. Burning is a powerful condition and when combined with Guardian Purging Flames, this is when it can make Epidemic a real issue.

And lastly, reducing the amount of conditions it can spread to 5, but not the stacks. This would allow things like “Save Yourselves!”, Druidic Clarity or other skills that remove large amounts of conditions to more easily counter Epidemic without neutering the skill completely.

Epidemic is a powerful skill, there’s no way around that. It currently sees a lot of use in both large and small scale play as a way to counter the bunker meta. Some people dislike this skill because they feel that it has too much reward for too little intelligent play but as someone who has been a Necro for over 3 years, I guarantee there is skill, how ever little, in choosing the right targets for the most payoff. There are a lot of things that can go wrong during a 1second cast time and things often do.

I think a lot of people would agree that it’s boring to circle each other for minutes on end with no one dying because the bunker meta is too strong. Epidemic is one of the skills that prevents situations like this from happening by punishing poorly co-ordinated cleanses and spending too much time kiting. It is a valuable skill and one of the few that Necromancer has left that allows it to make a difference in large scale combat as well as in certain PvE situations such as raids.

Please, Anet… I beg of you, balance this skill properly without gutting it completely. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about it lately and while I do understand how it might seem overpowered, I strongly believe it only needs some small adjustments such as what I’ve suggested here to balance it.

Thank you for your time. If you wish to discuss different ways to balance Epidemic, please visit one of the various other threads on the topic. I’ve racked my brain on fair ways to settle this debate and I’m honestly not looking for any other input unless it’s discussing the meta or ways in which this skill is beneficial to the meta. No “nope needs to be nerfed harder” or “I like these ideas but how about -proceeds to suggest things that will make Epidemic never used again-.”

What condition meta? The Epi Necros in zergs, condi bunk Chronos and ghost Thieves in roaming?

Those 3 builds constitute a meta now?

Hate to burst your bubble but condition builds are a niche in WvW. OP and 90% of the other people making complaints are probably just pugs falling behind their zergs getting picked off by roamers and are unable to deal with the conditions because they’re running a zerging build that rely heavily on teammate support.

Power and bunker is the meta, not condition. Two professions are over performing with condition builds, Thief and Mesmer, the rest are far outclassed by their power build counterparts. Any builds other than Thief or Mesmer using condition are only good for killing bad or unprepared players. There are so many ways to cleanse or deal with conditions now that they’re only relevant if you leave the player applying them unchecked.

Please, people… When making complaints about conditions at least try to make a more valid argument than “condtions too stronk, need nerf. Maybe remove condi stats or add another way to counter conditions” (on top of Resistance, evading, blocking, invulnerability and cleanses because apparently that’s not enough).

ProDecius.2609:

ninety percent of soloroamers nowdays, are using one of these two stats on either a Thief or a Mesmer.

Yes so it’s only logical that we nerf conditions and the armor that benefits conditions so that these two specific professions are brought down to a manageable level while all other professions that aren’t these two are no longer able to use condition builds viably at all. That seems like a kittening great way to balance the game.

Not all professions do as exceptionally face-rolly well as Thief and Mesmer do with condition builds. It’s not fair to nerf across the board just because two professions are over performing. It would be like reducing Power’s effectiveness by 50% because Warrior’s Gunflame can hit people for up to 20k.

Rhego.6590:

Hello all,

Me and a couple buddies are starting back up a zerg busting guild. Planning on running 18-20 players, guild builds, discord, etc (definitely contact me if interested)

My question, however, is what is the best tier/server for such a guild? Maybe the lowest server of T1 or T2? Somewhere where finding fights won’t be an issue. Let me know what you all think!

To zerg bust, you’re better off rolling smaller rather than larger. Some friends and I do it quite often during prime time. It’s usually between 3 and 6 of us and we pick off the backliners and offsiders until they’ve thinned out enough that we can kite, bait and finish them off.

Large zergs don’t usually pay much attention to a couple players poking their tail while they’re fighting another large zerg or trying to take a structure. Some of them will squirrel off and get killed but that’s about it. It’s not as offensive as being TS co-ordinated with planned bombs and such but it works much better because you only have to worry about a few players at a time. And as a few others here have said, zerg busting doesn’t work super well anymore. I mean if you and your guild are already doing it, great, but then I’d have to ask why you’re looking to transfer.

Anyway I’d say T2 would be the best tier to zerg bust. I’m not sure which server specifically, any of them but JQ, probably. Since JQ is the dominant force in T2, you should want to be fighting them not fighting with them.

martin.1653:

Condi is fine, it’s just that some builds aren’t.

I’ve been saying this… Over and over and over and over again but no one seems to agree. I wish I could say I’m done trying to prove the point but I know I’ll get sucked in every time I see this same old complaint. I’m just worried ANet will eventually cave to the cries and WvW will be boring because it’ll be even more a game of who one shots who first than it already is.

If I can kill and deal with the vast majority of condition builds, regardless of profession, on a glass vanilla longbow Ranger with 16k health, paper armor and 3 cleanses… Either I’m extremely good or I just know how to properly manage conditions. And it’s definitely not the former. So I’m pretty darn sure people just need to learn how to dodge the hard hitters and how to avoid panic cleansing when they have only 1 condition stack on them. You should be blocking and evading the hard hitting condition skills the same way you should the hard hitting power skills but no one does it then they cry when the damage catches up with them.

Or… Stay with me on this one… You could try not rolling in a group of 6 – 10 spawn camping?

This is like those players that send me hate whispers when I sit inside a supply camp and stare at them until they stupidly decide to fight me with all the NPC’s on my side, then they die. I didn’t make them do anything. I just sat there in a spot that was advantageous to me and they took the bait.

Don’t fight people near portals or better yet, don’t expect people to want to fight you at all when you have a group of friends behind you. Hope you were a part of the farm fest last night by the way. It was great cornering [QQ] in their spawn with my friends until you guys took a different exit. Doesn’t feel very nice does it.

I’m honestly glad that as far as I’m concerned, ANet doesn’t give a flying kitten how much you cry about Dire/Trailblazer or conditions in general. They’re here to stay. So get gud or get dead.

There’s nothing wrong with Dire or Trailblazer the same way there’s nothing wrong with conditions.

There are specific skills, traits and utilities that need to be adjusted. Not a nerf across the board.

Mesmer needs to have something done with it’s ability to maintain nearly permanent Confusion and Torment stacks, for example.

D/D evade spam Thief is irritating but not OP. It’s a very troublesome and annoying build but no where near the level of broken that condition bunker Chrono is. There’s a reason it has been meta in roaming for so long – because it’s faceroll easy and extremely effective. It would be ridiculous to nerf/remove an entire stat set from the game just because one profession gets so much benefit from it.

Yes other professions can use Dire/Trailblazer effectively as well but there are far more OP power builds out there than there are condition. The condition builds just seem to stand out more because people hate them a lot more. They’re irrelevant in zerging, unless you’re a Necromancer, and Thieves and Mesmers are the only ones that ever use them in roaming. Burn Guardians use Carrion or Viper, condition Engineer uses Viper or Rabid and Druid uses Viper, Rabid, Apothecary or something with Precision/Healing Power involved.

Straegen.2938:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I have trouble against good staff Thieves with it but otherwise Thieves, even decent ones, are not an issue. You’re absolutely right that it can be torn apart but only if played improperly. As I’d said in the disclaimer, it does require a degree of skill to be successful with. Against good Thieves, I usually need to fight them more with GS than LB, but I’ve met few that have given me so much trouble I couldn’t fight back. Again it’s just staff Thieves that I have issues with but that’s a matter of practice.

Any D/P stealth stacking gank build will be on top of that build before it sees it and drop a Backstab then Shadowshot it or AA it to death. If it misses, it will stealth up, reset and go again especially since the build cannot actually run from it.

Condi thief is either going to stealth to it, steal to it or just use Bandits to close the gap then dump condi all over, watch it run through its utility only to load it right back up again evading the entire time.

Staff is going to evade and blind it dropping big shots as soon as its dodges are done.

Heck even S/P will burn through the stun breaks until a full PW can cycle.

There is virtually nothing in this build an average thief isn’t going to tear apart much less a pack of them. Go Druid for roaming, at least then the player can stealth without having to hit a target, extra big heals, better condi removal and easy ranged damage mitigation.

As I noted a build like this is fierce if they aren’t focused, once a blow up build locks on this build is toast.

And as I’d said, it requires skill to play properly but it can be done. I know when I’m outmatched and I know I’m not an amazing player. But I have tons of success with this build against all types of Thieves and other professions. I agree that it’s easy to be focused down, I almost never win outnumbered fights unless things go just right. 1v1’s I win plenty though and D/P or condition Thieves are rarely ever a threat unless they use Shadow Shot and Head Shot properly. Staff Thieves are the ones that give me the most trouble but in time, I hope, that’ll change.

I don’t expect OP to pick this build up and do as well with it as I do but it’s bothering me that you’re being so dismissive. I’d have changed my build by now if I felt it was too terrible to work with. If you think it’s that bad then either I’m a lot better than I give myself credit for (which is definitely not the case, because I know I’m very average) or you’re not being realistic.

Straegen.2938:

Do not roam that build above in any tier with decent thieves. The first gank D/P or Staff thief will crack that build apart in a couple seconds. Any condi chrono or condi thief is going to melt it.

In a zerg or skirmish seems workable but don’t roam on it.

I have trouble against good staff Thieves with it but otherwise Thieves, even decent ones, are not an issue. You’re absolutely right that it can be torn apart but only if played improperly. As I’d said in the disclaimer, it does require a degree of skill to be successful with. Against good Thieves, I usually need to fight them more with GS than LB, but I’ve met few that have given me so much trouble I couldn’t fight back. Again it’s just staff Thieves that I have issues with but that’s a matter of practice.

Condition Mesmers are easy unless they’re using Time Catches Up. Those ones can be a pain because it’s almost impossible for me to kite the Phantasms. Otherwise I simply kite and outrange them and rarely get enough conditions on me to be in too much trouble.

It’s a “bad” roaming build in the sense that it’s easy to get destroyed on if you’re not good with it. But it’s good in the sense that it provides high damage, good condition removal and good mobility, it’s versatile. You just can’t expect to melt everyone with 1 Rapid Fire because some players aren’t totally braindead, that’s where practice and skill come in to play. I’m not an amazing Ranger by any stretch of the imagination but I promise you I have quite a lot of success with this build even against skilled players. Honestly it’s good Dragonhunters that give me more trouble than condition Mesmers. Between them and staff Thieves, I die a whole lot more than I win. But maybe in time that will change.

Anyway not all builds will carry your success. Since OP was asking for vanilla Ranger, I provided my favorite build. It requires a lot of discipline on the players end to use properly but I’m pretty confident that it’s a good build, it’s just not easy to use.

Quick Draw Skirmisher

This is the build I use and have been using since shortly after HoT release.

With Fury, Hunter’s Tactics and Spotter you have 100.5% critical chance. With Plate Of Roasted Cactus you have 224% Ferocity. With +7% damage bonus from Ranger runes, +5% from Force sigil and +10% from Steady Focus you have +22% damage. The damage modifiers make up for the Power you sacrifice to gain extra Precision.

Quickening Zephyr + Rapid Fire will usually do between 16 and 21k in 1second depending on your targets defences. I regularly (I’m talking many, many times a day) kill Thieves and Guardians who don’t see me coming or who I interrupt at an opportune moment with one Rapid Fire taking them from 100 – 0. Long Range Shot on glassy targets will do about 3.8k – 4.1k per hit at max range with all Bloodlust stacks.

The greatsword is Knight stats to give a little bit of extra defence while in melee range. With Signet Of Stone not active, that gives you just under 2.6k armor. Quick Draw is a massive saving grace with this build which allows you to Swoop x2 or Counterattack x2 which can make a gigantic difference in whether you live or die during a fight. Swoop x2 is particularly powerful as it allows you to get some pretty huge distance between you and your target if you need to kite or run.

Smokescale and Wolf compliment each other extremely well. You can use different pets if you like but I find these two to be the most effective. Since this build doesn’t use Beast Mastery, I choose my pets based on their utility and not their damage. Smokescale will always start with Smoke Assult or Takedown at certain ranges and Wolf will always start with Brutal Charge at a certain distance. Knowing when to send them in to attack can allow you to chain knockdowns and CC’s on people. I have successfully knocked someone down twice back to back followed by a Hilt Bash stun and Wolf Fear. It’s a pretty nasty combo if you manage to land it all.

Obviously the build is pure glass, low health and tissue paper for armor. You’ll die to a stiff breeze if you don’t have eyes on the back of your head so it’s important that you’re always aware. You should have a huge advantage against anyone you get the first few shots on if you’re good at kiting. Just get familiar with (if you’re not already) sheathing your bow because there are a lot of reflects out there. You’ll need to put your bow away real quick if your arrows start coming back at you because they will hurt like a mofo.

Disclaimer
This build isn’t perfect and requires skill to use properly, I know. It’s what I enjoy and what has brought me the most success however and I felt that since OP is asking for a highly damaging build, this would be valid.

Hope you enjoy it if you try it and good luck.

msalakka.4653:

Nikkinella.8254:

Simple answer, because there’s so many condi trash mesmers around. DH has the chance to kill mesmers, so if you dont want to play a lame condi build, play dh. Thats why I play mine anyway, its satisfying blowing up those keyboard turning baddies in dire gear that think theyre actually good.

Oh, the irony.

Nikkinella.8254:

I’d love to be able to have an invisible tag and still be able to put markers. The markers are extremely useful. Dropping squad and rejoining just so a guild can run around tagless without noobs running around is a pain. The markers are way too useful, so I just said, screw it and keep the tag on now. Squad is closed, I announce in map chat that its closed guild only raid, noobs still follow and get in the way and im bombarded with annoying pms insisting i let them join the squad. Alot of people just can’t take a hint.

If they wont let us have an invisible tag, let us have a guild debuff around us that gives -10k hp and -100% movement speed to anyone that insists on following us around and isnt in the squad. then maybe people will take the hint and buzz off. Downing a key enemy target only to have them rally off the death of a noob with a bad build that insists on following is frustrating. Alteast they only rally 1 guy now, but still it’s a pain.

I agree that guilds deserve to play as they like and without interference.

However, you’re one of those folks who thinks people who follow are dead weights when a big part of the reason they’re dead weight is because you don’t communicate with them.

If someone wants to join in, of course you’re entitled to turn them down. But just keep it in mind that allowing them in your squad and in your teamspeak will very likely turn them from “noob” to asset.

It’s like the commanders who will only let Guardians, Necromancers, Elementalists and Revenants join squad but will deny everyone else, then yell that they’re scrubs for dying. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because they’re not getting heal and boon support or verbal commands be it in TS or chat.

Just go the extra mile to help them out a little and you might be surprised how much of a positive impact a random zergling can make. They can’t know what’s up or survive if they’re being completely excluded from plans and support. Why are they to blame for being a problem, then?

If people are dropping stealth traps to kill you, I’d bet good money you’re a ghost Thief that spends 95% of a fight in stealth dropping conditions on people. In which case, I think it’s perfectly justified to be laying traps.

MidoriMarch.8067:

Really?

I recently made druid and its op asf.

15 sec of celestial avatar doesnt even feel like its nerf gives me super speed + stealth so often i can kite and heal for days.

25 solo might stacks , massive regen and heal , good mobility , great kiting , great pet damage , easy access to stability , good amount of soft cc’s stealth and yet u expect more buffs on druid lol not even funny

They want buffs because they don’t like being useless in zergs.

Personally I don’t see the problem with being meta in roaming and unwanted in zergs. Thieves, Warriors, Engineers, Mesmers and Rangers are all top tier in small scale/solo. Why that’s bad, I don’t know, at least Ranger/Druid isn’t useless in both large and small scale… Mesmer is probably the only one that can be relatively effective in zergs as well but it’s only real role is a Veilbot and boonsharing (which was recently nerfed).

Druid isn’t OP (anymore) but the cookie cutter Soldier/Zerk (or a similar variation such as Commanders/Marauders, etc.) – Beastmastery/Nature Magic Druid, is still extremely strong and easy to play. It might not do a great job healing in zergs like some people want to do but there are other classes for those roles. You can’t have everything but some of these folks seem to think it’s their god given right.

Unfortunately a lot of the regular posters here are so incredibly deluded that they won’t believe anything but “Ranger sucks and ANet hates us, waaaaaaaaaaaaah.”

Offair.2563:

Still waiting for that one “roam” video where they don’t edit their kittenups out.

They’re the [QQ] of EU as far as I can tell. Egotistical group with most of them never roaming without company and are only slightly better than the average PUG.

Of course some of them are skilled but not nearly as much as their popularity would have you believe.

And the intro with all the ultra-meta human females… Ugh, I puked a little.

Then don’t play it. GW2 is pretty alt friendly, you don’t get punished for making a bunch of characters, especially if you’re doing PvP where you don’t even need ascended gear.

I understand that you may be in a position where you want to like Necromancer but if it’s unenjoyable for you, it might be better to set it aside and revisit it at another time. Perhaps get familiar with a different profession, spend some time looking for what suits you.

Necromancer definitely has some glaring weaknesses that put it in a really tough spot, at least in PvP and PvE raids. But it’s still an extremely powerful, and for most who play it, an enjoyable profession.

I’ve stuck with Necro and Ranger for over 3 years. If you’ve been here that long, you know how bad those two professions have had it through out Gw2’s lifespan. There have been times it has bothered me, absolutely, but I value the fun I have with these two professions more than I value their efficiency. That’s just personal opinion, but I’m just saying that it’s important to remember why you play this game – to have fun!

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Natto.5819:

I was told on TeamSpeak that BlackGate all transferred to Maguuma. But when I try to transfer to BlackGate, it’s still full. Does the server take a while before the free slots open to the public?

Actually, no, the Tarnished Coast’s master race guild, TORK, and their leader, Zog, have transferred over to Mag.

Now you get to watch Mag crumble to T2 frequently.

Zog has been carrying us to victory all night, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Since when did Maguuma need help? Did you guys lose a bunch of players or something?

It’s a joke, we have a bunch of mimic guilds. Our TORK is mostly VR and they all made identical characters to Zog, lol.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Natto.5819:

I was told on TeamSpeak that BlackGate all transferred to Maguuma. But when I try to transfer to BlackGate, it’s still full. Does the server take a while before the free slots open to the public?

Actually, no, the Tarnished Coast’s master race guild, TORK, and their leader, Zog, have transferred over to Mag.

Now you get to watch Mag crumble to T2 frequently.

Zog has been carrying us to victory all night, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Swagger.1459:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Kovu.7560:

It’d be silly to say that Celestial Shadow is more accessible than the options that thief and mesmer have. I dislike that the whole CA mechanic suffers because of that trait.
As it is now I wouldn’t even take Lingering Light if it were competing with the other Master traits. Or at all.

Pretty much agreed with Draeyon.

~ Kovu

I said cheap and accessible, reading comprehension is a wonderful thing, let’s see stealth on a 10 sec Cd before nerf that isn’t tied to any Weapon or utility skill, that provided AoE stealth and Superspeed that’s uninterruptible.
While Thief has to Use use 9 Initiative (effectively a 9 sec CD on most skills since Initiative only regens at 1 per second in most builds) that is tied to all its weapon skills, that can be interruptible, doesn’t provide Superspeed, the only saving grace is the return Thief gets by being able to stack Stealth off of one BP making them pretty combat ineffective since no Initiative.

And I never said anything about Mesmer since they get multiple CDs and shortened CDs of Stealth if spec’Ed for it.

You play thief and are complaining about ranger stealth?

Your “uninterruptible” comment is funny considering all stealth skills have the same counters, and there are a ton on movement imparing conditions to spread around in spvp and wvw. None of which rangers are immune to…

You are prime example of a non competitive player who doesn’t improve and decides to complain instead. Druid has been out for over a year already, so way past time to pay attention and adapt.

Also, nobody is buying your sad portrayal of the thief profession just so you can make a flawed argument… Yeah, I (and I’m sure many vets do too) have all professions at 80 and am fully aware of the capabilities of each, so save your “pity thief” spin doctoring and focus on being a better player instead.

Edit- I’m willing to bet you are a thief main, and avid dueler, that sees the game through a 1v1 lense. If so, you should break out of that and start looking at the bigger pictures.

The people who cry the loudest about nerfs are usually the ones who were carried by the imbalance. Just like all the PU Mesmers that threw a fit when their stealth uptime was nerfed.

Welcome to effort.

They are in abundance in WvW and PvP so that PvE players explore those areas of the game. PvE players know that if they want easy tomes, they can PvP or WvW to get them.

Tomes have value outside of levelling your characters. You can consume them for Spirit Shards which can be turned in to gold or you can use them to make alt characters without having to grind other content to level up.

Although I agree that they throw a few too many at us, I’m also glad they were added. Turning Tomes in to a currency would be a really nice change but I’m not sure that that’s something Anet will ever do.

It would be great if we could exchange Tomes for Blueprints, traps and tricks (Stealth Disruptors, Siege Disabler’s, etc.) and/or Exotic/Ascended level armor and weapons.

With that said however, I can see how it might feel a bit unfair or might upset the market to do so. Still, I’m allowed to dream! I have over 2 thousand Tomes that I’ll keep holding on to until they fill an entire bank tab.

flow.6043:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

flow.6043:

But there’s one very obvious buff they could add rather easily: stability on Tainted Shackles. 3 stacks, 3 seconds, so it basically covers the time between cast and the immob hit in the end.

I feel like I would prefer that Tainted Shackles became instant-cast since it barely has an animation anyway, just an irritatingly long aftercast. Instead, give Stability for Life Transfer so you can’t be interrupted while siphoning Life Force. And perhaps increase the Life Force gain as well.

The whole point of having stability on Tainted Shackles would be so you could use it while casting other skills – like Life Transfer – or during stuff like rezzing/stomping.
After all, that’s one of the main reasons why Infusing Terror makes RS so much more superior to DS.
Stability on Life Transfer, however, would just protect Life Transfer, nothing else.
So Tainted Shackles really is the obvious solution here.

Hm, I didn’t think of it that way, very good point.

I stand by the fact that Tainted Shackles needs a reduced aftercast, though. It feels like this skill interrupts itself sometimes and it drives me bonkers. I don’t have a problem like this with anything other than this particular skill. I just have to mash it a hundred times until it fully casts or sometimes it just won’t. Though I obviously haven’t ruled out that this may strictly be on my end, I find it strange that it’s only this skill.

Either way, I really hope some buffs come to Death Shroud sooner rather than later.

flow.6043:

But there’s one very obvious buff they could add rather easily: stability on Tainted Shackles. 3 stacks, 3 seconds, so it basically covers the time between cast and the immob hit in the end.

I feel like I would prefer that Tainted Shackles became instant-cast since it barely has an animation anyway, just an irritatingly long aftercast. Instead, give Stability for Life Transfer so you can’t be interrupted while siphoning Life Force. And perhaps increase the Life Force gain as well.

Dark Path needs to either: be faster or gain a more punishing effect. I love this skill like crazy but you can literally walk to your target before it connects and without Path of Corruption, it’s effects aren’t very potent. It’s just nice for popping up in your targets face and ignoring blocks.

Doom is the only skill that doesn’t need to be changed. Everything else could use cast time adjustments and/or stronger effects like Stability, additional conditions etc.

Fluffball.8307:

Crapgame.6519:

Wolf is clutch when timed and it lands.

Ya, I really can’t play PvP without it. SS is an A+ pet as well though.

I use both in WvW, personally. Smokescale is first out for most fights and I have Wolf on swap with Clarion Bond for the unblockable Fear/knockdown. If I’m against a Thief, I start with Wolf instead so I send the Smokescale in for unblockable Smoke Assault when they try to run away.

I’m almost always using one or the other. The buff to Call Of The Wild giving it the Unblockable effect made using them together quite a bit stronger.

Krispera.5087:

Dagger is actually a very sad weapon. We have Torch as the supreme condi offhand and Dagger that does nothing. Low cooldowns, but not usefull (Look I don’t care if your niche build work with Dagger, we know it’s not a good weapon)

I just want to add that dagger is a good weapon for a power build. Although it does apply 3 different conditions, Crippling Talon hits quite hard and is good for keeping your target in or at range. Stalker’s Strike is an evade and debuff, not a damaging skill. Sword/Dagger is a really solid duelling weapon pairing for a power based Ranger. Warhorn is more about support and well, as has been covered, offhand Axe is just generally pretty awful.

Either it’s stupid OP – full condition cleanse, full heal (albeit a long channelled one), stunbreak, Super Speed and stealth every 10seconds in small scale/solo or it’s “just right” for a zerging heal build.

Everything has a place in WvW and Druid, Thief, Mesmer and Warrior are all excellent small scale roamers. I’m not entirely certain why everyone seems to think if their profession isn’t meta in zerging they should be buffed. There are many more things to do and roaming is as important as blobbing, just less appreciated.

Move to the winning server if winning matters that much to you. You get no benefits for it other than moving up a tier or maintaining your tier.

The smart players have learned to let go of score and have turned their focus on fights and having fun. For those that have their fun affected by wins, they can move to the bandwagon servers that fail 90% of every fight they don’t massively outnumber their opponents with and PvD all night while everyone’s asleep. I won’t be the judge if that’s what you like but what is victory without purpose – and there isn’t much of a purpose to winning in WvW.

I agree that this change is a silly idea but OP and all the other players that still cling to their PPT dreams need to move on. As soon as you let it go you’ll have a lot more fun.

Choose your fights more wisely is the best advice I can give. You don’t need to fight everyone you see and not everyone will see you if you’re wise about how you travel.

I understand your gripe with high mobility classes that can abuse their speed to bandage their mistakes but that’s the difference between WvW and PvP. You are not required to stay within a small circle while fighting someone. You have the entire map at your disposal and people shouldn’t be punished for using the terrain intelligently.

If someone runs from you, you should run too. Chasing them just means you’ll be kept in combat and they’ll come back to attack you after they’ve left combat. Consider them running a win and run as well so you can regain your health and re-engage them at a more advantageous time if they choose to come back.

Most players count on you chasing them when they run, just remember that.

flow.6043:

I know, core builds are still being played today, but none of them because anyone prefers DS over RS.

I… I hate to be that person but, I actually do prefer Death Shroud over Reaper Shroud. At least in WvW and PvP.

In PvE when I’m full glass, I enjoy Reaper Shroud more just because it’s easier to demolish mobs. But over all, I’m honestly not a fan of Reaper Shroud. Dark Path is one of my favorite skills the Necromancer has access to despite it’s slugglish velocity. I also love Doom because I can use it while CC’d, it has a low cooldown and punishes my targets the closer they are to me by increasing the duration.

I agree that Reaper Shroud is better in every way but it might be a stretch to say that no one likes DS better than RS. And if I really am the only one well… Guess I’m weirder than I thought :P.