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VAULT Daredevil Damage

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Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

Well, I’ve clocked a lot of duels by this point, including against thieves, and not once has one of my dueling partners reset the fight, afaik.

Not every build is built to be dishing out 100% of the time. Any number of builds stealth or get some distance to get their cool downs back. Soft resets are vital to most builds.

Vault’s pretty mindless from what I’ve seen with no real skill required. If warriors could spam Earthshaker three times in a row, then use mobility to get away if it doesn’t land, then come back again, people would be salty about it.

Earthshaker is an AoE stun, attached to a class with the highest armor/health along with so many passive defenses they rarely need to activate their heal. On top of that, a Warrior can indeed drop Earthshaker then speed off into the distance. They can also Gun Flame at range for far more damage, Eviscerate for substantially more damage, etc.

I’m saying two vault spam thieves in a small group fight (say 5 people on each side) can do a tremendous amount of damage without putting themselves in any real danger and without having any real skill.

There is a reason most skirmish crews don’t run with a thief. Take a group like tRex… two thieves on the other side are free kills. Thieves have almost no synergy with other classes and do not elevate those around them. Add one Support Tempest, Guardian or Engi into the mix and two thieves Vaulting are just wasting their time. Give me one solid support build and a Power Mes and I will show you a bunch of dead thieves.

As a point of comparison, dagger (and even sword) thieves can be very lethal in those situations too, but they face greater danger and present a narrower threat.

DP is a far more lethal weapon set against a skilled opponent. You can make a strong argument that Staff DP is even more lethal but it isn’t because of Vault. It is because of stealth stacking.

It has a 1/4 second “hole”, right? That’s not really giant…. I mean, most skills don’t have evades built into them at all, and skills that do that sort of damage normally have a fully interuptable 3/4s channel. And that aftercast isn’t so much of a threat when your opponent is still recovering from their dodge to avoid the 10k hit.

The midcast and aftercast delays allow for field effects and well timed attacks to land including AoE stuns, blinds, etc. It also prevents Vault from being chained easily on a constantly moving target. This is why most good Staff users use Vault in rotation not as spam. The ability is fairly easy to interrupt so much so that I welcome Vault on my Int and Shatter builds. Its like players that sit in Black Powder not expecting to get hit when they use HS.

I’m with Cygnus on this, personally. Reduce the power scaling or base damage and otherwise leave the skill alone. It hits way too hard for a no cooldown and no-setup skill with a built-in evade, especially for a class that’s swimming in evades and escape options.

I still point back to the class it is on and its entire effectiveness in the meta. It simply isn’t overly effective in the meta like say passive defense is. Seriously, when was the last time you died to Vault spam in an even fight that didn’t start with the thief having an advantage? I get the complaints from scrubs but no decent player can say with a straight face the most dangerous build they run into is a Staff thief. Annoying when they hit and run I will give you but most dangerous? Come on…

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Leveling in WvW?

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Straegen.2938

Tomes are the fastest and easily acquired in WvW Reward Tracks. If that isn’t appealing, PvE is fast particularly in the new zones.

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Flax Fibres

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Straegen.2938

I am still bitter that our small guild had every guild upgrade and lost them all. For all I care the guild system can burn to the ground.

Sorry about the Fiber thing though.

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How to make DBL the best BL.

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Straegen.2938

So much is wrong with this map. One of my pet peeves is the huge towers. If someone is cata’ing a far wall by the time a player drops counter siege, runs to the supply, runs back to dump it into the counter siege, the wall is down. The other is that it takes far too long time to scout keeps. Swords go up and maybe three minutes later if someone is on site an all clear can be called out. More if the attackers are hitting air keep from a dozen plus hard to scout areas.

Seems very little thought went into actually how well the map plays and a lot of thought went into how cool it looks. It needs a complete overhaul.

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Does ANET care about roaming?

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Straegen.2938

For the most part, a lot of mmos are in beta right now. We’ll just have to be patient and hopefully get back to core gaming values instead of this flashy hype show we got going on over here.

There are few triple A MMOs with an RvR system in any stage of development. CU is probably the closest but it sports 2005 gameplay with 2010 graphics. I am sure old DAoC players will fawn all over it but ultimately a limited audience. Crowfall… that one has potential but a long way out and could easily be vaporware.

MMOs are huge gambles with costly budgets and fickle populations which is why few studios even bother these days. Much easier to re-roll a franchise game, do a MOBA-esk offering (even that isn’t sure fire anymore), kick out a small scale indie style offering or move onto mobile. About the only multiplayer growth sector that is producing seems to be PC card game variants.

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(edited by Straegen.2938)

WvW idea

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Straegen.2938

I think GW2 trying to emulate a less successful game and a less successful RvR mode is probably not going to happen. Lag in WvW can get bad but it seems positively fluid compared to AvA lag.

I would also point out that the combat design and system architecture in GW2 likely prevents scaling up of the maps in a serious way. GW2 active combat is an impressive feat but the drawback is a significantly more complex computational model.

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2 weapons for ele and engi

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Straegen.2938

The Ele is in fine form. It is a scary good point bunker and anchor is skirmish and in zergs it is the backbone of DPS and healing. It really doesn’t need any help.

Now Engi is interesting. Everything about the class is clunky. I don’t think adding another weapon to it will fix it but it and Necro both need some TLC in the fluidity department.

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Epidemic.

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Straegen.2938

Epi is not that strong as you guys think. Lot of people just neglect the counterplay against it
It has 1 second cast animation

Epi is strong because a little Asuran hiding in Tempest AoE field spam while occupying the same game space as a big Norn Guardian is able to drop a condition spike that basically drops 5 players with almost no counter play. Conditions are Damage Over Time and not meant to be spike damage. When a DoT blows up several players in one shot, something is wrong with the DoT.

I do not disagree that it requires good composition for it to be highly effective which is why it is not outright OP but once composition is attained the skill is way over tuned in the right hands.

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@Balance Devs... 22,829k opening burst

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Straegen.2938

I play Rev in WvW it deals 15k easily when running Marauders gear with Cav trinkets with furious Sharpening Stone running Invo/Retribution/Herald. No stars align…

This is true. We tangled with a Rev last night that was durable to power and hit like a truck. Their build had a huge hole in condi removal so a quick respec made it easy to deal with but the first couple fights were a lot of Discord talk trying to figure out what hit us.

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VAULT Daredevil Damage

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Straegen.2938

Except duels don’t mirror what I’m talking about. You’re generally not able to reset a fight or go far out of range in a duel if you run out of gas, otherwise people stop dueling you.

Duels often involve several resets on both sides particularly when stealth is involved. They typically operate more like bull fighting than a cage match.

You don’t have that restriction in wvw. You can just spam away, and then retreat for a bit just to try again when you’re ready. In a small group scenario, especially with two vault spammers, it’s not going to take any skill to clip a few people with 10k vaults.

Sure a thief can Vault spam three shots in a row… then a decent thief will clip him as soon he starts to run. Thieves cannot fight mindlessly like what is being portrayed here without getting blown up.

As the numbers on both sides go up a thieves chance for victory goes down. The thief is primarily an advantage class so yes two thieves fighting one player is at a massive advantage… so is every other class in the game.

So I’m not entirely clear about the argument you’re making here. I’m saying risk should match reward, and that vault seems somewhat off on that balance. Some people have identified the built-in evade, others the initiative cost, and others the damage.

And still others continually point out the massive tell it has and the fact it is easy to interrupt. Vault has holes… big giant holes. It even has a particularly nasty after cast that allows for big shots to crack it and prevents Vaults from being immediately chained together to hit different locations.

You seem to be saying none of that matters because thief gets pinched in other areas of the game and, at least when dueling, vault spamming isn’t terribly effective. Have I misunderstood what you’re saying, because this perspective just doesn’t make sense to me.

The thief has the lowest health pool, medium armor and typically relies on stealth, mobility, evasion and pressure to survive. Its only effective AoE is Vault and most of its spike has to be done up close and personal. Vault on a Warrior might be OP. If Vault were Ranged it might be OP. If Vault didn’t have a big windup, it might be OP. If Vault didn’t have a mid and after cast delay it might be OP.

Vault is nearly a perfect example of a skill that is lethal to faceroll players and builds but is quickly dismantled by skill. Now Shadow Shot and the Dagger Auto Attack DPS increase, I can have a field day griping about those.

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VAULT Daredevil Damage

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Straegen.2938

Speaking only from the perspective of roaming in wvw, I disagree.

I’ve regularly come across players who basically spam vault to attack and then use it (along with other abilities) to escape if they aren’t successful initially and need to regroup their initiative.

Staff is strong when Vault is primed in an attack chain but if a player keeps dying to Vault spam it is a training issue. We see it in duels… Vault spamming is weak play and cannot beat decently played small scale meta builds.

Most thieves die a lot mainly to other thieves and team composition but accept that as part of roaming. Other players from other classes get killed by some Vault spam and think it is OP because they mistakenly believe every build should be able to fight evenly with every other build.

The thief does two things well. Travels fast and kills players quick during an advantage (zerglings, wounded players, lessor skilled players, numbers advantage). Pretty much everything else a thief gets wrecked… and most thieves accept it. Changing that would mean Guardians should no longer dominate group play or Tempests should no longer be able to anchor skirmish play.

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@Balance Devs... 22,829k opening burst

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Straegen.2938

If you want to point at the problem it is the damage modifier calculation. Damage modifiers are multiplicative instead of additive. It is better to have more damage modifiers than increased power in the current system. Add in that some builds don’t need precision to crit or have strong built in mitigation and here we are.

Change the damage calc and suddenly those 10k hits will drop down to a more reasonable level. Course they will still get parked by condi in small scale but hey that isn’t the topic at hand.

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SO and I are looking to switch servers. Help?

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Straegen.2938

All the lower tier servers kind of suck right now. We switched to DarkHaven for a few weeks just to play with some different folk on FA. So far been fun.

Unfortunately, the best servers are locked right now and they aren’t matching lower tier servers up with them. Do not go to DB or link to them unless you play in off-hours. It gets steam rolled during NA Prime and the pug zerg on that server is kinda sad. Some good and friendly players but it is kinda a PvD server leaving NA Prime outmanned most nights.

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Just reached Gold Division with a P/D build

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Straegen.2938

Let me explain maths to you. Below 50% is below average, otherwise you’re above.

Got me there. Gold being the halfway point between crappy players and good players… guess you were beating the good players and losing to the crappy ones… wait… no… you were beating the crappy players and losing to the good ones… no wait… yeah I am clearly the moron here that needs “maths” explained to me.

Get to Legendary with the build and crow all you want. Even Platinum would at least show player skill or build meta worthiness. Gold just means the build has attained average-ness but doesn’t indicate exceptional player skill or a potential meta build. It is basically like saying the build works because you got third place over the guy that doesn’t really play much and the “special” cousin that keeps failing 3rd grade.

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(edited by Straegen.2938)

P/D Still Viable?

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Straegen.2938

It still works but under-performs thanks to the HoT meta. Basically the thief has a handful of builds that can tear it apart and P/D doesn’t specifically address those builds. Sure a player can out-skill another player that has an advantage but as soon as you run into a strong player in an advantage build they will beat the snot out of you or you will be forced to retreat.

At least that is my experience with it. In skilled hands against average opponents, works great. In duels with solid players or against strong meta HoT builds, not so much. Still viable just not optimal.

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Ascended stats for roaming...

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Straegen.2938

If you plan on using Exuberance (often underrated), Valk for sure. Otherwise the DPS of Marauders is difficult to ignore.

Hybrid builds use Viper for sure. Straight condi builds go with Trailblazer.

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Made the next skilless thief build [PvP]

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Straegen.2938

We run a similar build but with Air/Force, Energy/Hydro, Exuberance and Deadly Arts.

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Exotic to crazy P/P build for PvP

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Straegen.2938

Definitely needs stronger condi removal. At the very least take Escapists. Needle Trap isn’t doing much for you with such low condi damage. Trickery is also sort of a waste. You get one extra Unload and decent damage buff but no survivability outside of weak condi removal. Try Crit Strikes with Invigorating or Acro for the defense.

Unload works best with damage stacking bonuses. This build should maximize the big shots and be significantly more survivable. Shadow Trap can be potent on some maps. Ambush isn’t a bad choice since it often confuses lessor players.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAqaVn8lCFmilNB+NB8PhFeCbLNdAKQanpfQAYOB2ArgA-TpRBQBA4EAcu9H2whAwhlB0wRA4BPAAA

Not sure how it will play but worth a shot.

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Just reached Gold Division with a P/D build

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Straegen.2938

Are you dumb? There’s no way to climb ranks if you’re below average, since a win to loss rate below 50% will keep you in bronze.

I hope not. Getting to Gold means you have beat mostly casual and crappy players. Basically Gold means you and your build can beat scrubs. Getting to the next two tiers has significantly better players and builds to get through. I am pretty sure on play skill alone a decent player could get Gold on a vanilla necro.

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Flawless Strikes Trait - BUG

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Straegen.2938

This is where a combat log should suss out if the trait works properly. We should be able to export a combat log into Excel or similar and run the numbers. I suspect any number of traits do not work as they are described but we have pretty much no way to verify.

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Just reached Gold Division with a P/D build

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Straegen.2938

I think the point is that a player can get to Gold with below average play so using that rank as proof of a build concept doesn’t really work.

The overall point is that if a build is strong, players will see it replicated. If this build works well, top tier players will use it. Sure someone has to blaze the trail but many hours on P/D tell me it is still weak comparatively speaking.

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VAULT Daredevil Damage

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Straegen.2938

@straegen I’m all for nerfing things that are overtuned and buffing where needed. There’s no conflict between wanting to shave vault while also wanting to see the class get some love to improve value elsewhere.

I agree the thief needs adjustments but Vault isn’t the problem. The Auto Attack (particularly Dagger) on the thief is too strong for a basic ability. Stealth Stacking is a clear problem as well (Ghost Thief is an extreme example). However Vault requires skill to land against a decent opponent and has an exploitable vulnerability.

Players that get beat down by Vault quickly either weren’t aware of their surroundings as Vault has a massive tell, were probably standing still/moving predictably or just out of any useful defense. The ability can be leveraged to deal big hits but has strong counter play by most average or better players.

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How would you redesign the thief?

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Straegen.2938

Hate to break it to you, but the thief was way worse pre-HoT. Daredevil carries the profession so hard it’s ridiculous, even with the power creep on others.

The thief’s big nerf came with the trait rework when they removed stats from trait lines and forced builds into taking entire trait lines rather than partial ones. Prior to that (first couple years) thieves were a serious force particularly in duels and a lot more fun to play. The Dare Devil line brought back some of that feel but added a ton of strong builds in other classes to contend with.

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State of Thief

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Straegen.2938

If you want fun, go Staff and PP with Crit Strikes and Invigorating Precision. The funnest PvE build that I know off with a lot of flexibility. It is also a blast in WvW but good D/P thieves will have a strong advantage. Otherwise go DP and Staff in WvW and join the rest of the meta builds.

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WvW Staff-D/P Need help

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Straegen.2938

This build wrecks pretty much everything including other thieves and to my knowledge has no inherent weaknesses. When someone complains about how strong a Staff build is, this is typically what they just ran into. Bunkery (toughness, health, evades), slippery (chain stealths more than any build in the game) and hits like a truck (damage bonus stacking is ferocious). In some cases it might need to reset a fight and take Pain Response but that is pretty rare. Instant Reflexes is the Anti-Thief trait but as noted some builds like Condi Chrono have strong cover condi.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW4al0MhSnY5TwwJw/ELIFFXDEALQXIkBfwc7P/7PA-TlSBQBqQDBjUCugjEgIV+9gLAgGOoAeS9HAu/ge0NAgHAQAAEgf7b8NfDcezbezbezzNv5Nv5NvZpAEYrF-w

Movement is Dodge, Vault, Dodge, Vault which keeps speed and init up pretty much 100%. Same for attacks… Bound should always lead Vault even if you have to stealth to do it. The damage mods cause Vault to hit ridiculously hard with that guaranteed crit. Upper Hand and Staff Mastery gen more init than Trickery. Switch to D/P for resets and stealth Vaults. The energy sig makes for a relatively cheap BP/Bound stealth.

I hate fighting this thief build more than any other thief build.

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(edited by Straegen.2938)

nerf d/p and evades

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Straegen.2938

If they nerf all the passive defense junk both pre and post HoT from the other classes… they can have the thief evades.

I am constantly amazed a class that isn’t particularly good in sPvP, WvW duels, WvW skirmish and pretty useless in WvW zergs get continual hate for the ONE fighting element they do well… catching zerglings and killing injured players. Seems most players just want the class deleted which another year or so of typical ANet patches might do.

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Stolen Items needs rework

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Straegen.2938

Throw Gunk is fantastic. The Ele chill is probably the most useless to me. Essence Sap from the Rev is a distant second. Everything else has it uses or is outright great.

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Easiest class for Zergling? (Not Gaurd).

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Straegen.2938

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.

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F2P Accounts Conflicting WvW

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Straegen.2938

The tactics have fairly simple fixes. Don’t let most of them get pulled unless a large force is on inner. Doesn’t fix everything but it would help EWP, Chilling Fog, etc.

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Ghost thief needs to go.

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Straegen.2938

If there is a universal cheese build, Ghost Thief is certainly the poster child. Nerf stealth stacking or do some other fix but I agree the build is complete trash and too annoying to survive.

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VAULT Daredevil Damage

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Straegen.2938

I would point out we are talking about a class that is mediocre at duels (and that is generous), virtually useless in zergs and marginal at best in skirmish. It even mostly sucks in sPvP outside of Decap.

If the plan is to nerf it so zerglings can fight it solo, well then go for it. However any player getting blown up by Vault spam is a fairly crappy player or got caught on cooldown (as the OP was) which can happen with any decent build.

Staff thieves are so far down on the list of “hard to beat” classes in a straight up fight it isn’t even remotely useful what is being proposed here.

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World Linking 1/6/2017 NA discussion

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Straegen.2938

Stuck with DB for another couple months just sucks. Off hour servers are often a frustrating experience for NA Prime players.

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VAULT Daredevil Damage

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Straegen.2938

So a thief is OP because one caught you with everything on cooldown and you were on a high latency connection? With those circumstances pretty much any burst build will kill you with big numbers super fast.

Single shot skills like Kill Shot, Gunflame, Eviscerate, Churning Earth, Grave Digger, etc can hit harder. Channeled skills like Rapid Fire, Whirling Wrath, Hundred Blades, Volley, etc can hit harder (much in some cases).

I can go over the condi burst like Skull Grinder or Burn Guardians that can drop 10+ stacks of fire on you which will kill you in about 2 steps.

Basically in that scenario just about any class has the ability to drop you in a couple seconds.

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Looking for a good Roamer build

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Straegen.2938

The fact that anyone thinks thieves are good at roaming is baffling. Their ability to run away doesn’t make them good. All it does is run up, try to attack, realizes it does not deal damage to anyone with a brain, then runs away. There is nothing skilled about thief game play. I honestly do not remember the last time a thief was able to get me below half hp while I was roaming on my warrior, ele, or guardian before they either died or ran away.

Roaming is not dueling. Roaming does include fighting but also scouting, flipping objectives, running interference, etc. Thieves excel in flipping objectives, avoiding large groups and preying on zerglings and wounded players. They are also masters of slipping away as fights grow in size. What starts as a 1v1 often ends as a 3v1. Most classes cannot handle extra players being added on during a fight. In a straight up fight, thieves are middle of the pack when skill is equal between players. However a class cannot be ineffective and cheese. As I stated earlier a few defensive builds are every bit as cheesy as stealth stacking thieves.

Condi mesmer works very well for solo roaming, but it is literally the most cheesy build in the entire game lol. The clone effect of the mesmer is cheesy by itself, but that is the opinion of myself.

Condi Mesmer is second to Ghost Thief but yes I agree both cheese. Power Mesmer is an entirely different animal and difficult to master which is why there aren’t a lot of great ones around. Once mastered, it is beating the snot out of players in duels.

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Defend events.

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Agree with WP contesting issue being both annoying and allows one player to troll an entire server without repercussion.

I have long believed WP objectives should contest when they are breached and not uncontest until all breaches are sealed. The EWP would open up the waypoint for a specific amount of time when contested and could not be used unless it is contested.

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Bounties

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Straegen.2938

Isn’t it just a sure way to drive players from the game entirely?

Players would only be able to issue bounties against players that did the most damage to them when they died. Just because a player has a bunch of gold doesn’t mean they could issue a bounty on other players.

Also in a system I proposed above, only players that accept a contract given at random would be hunting specific bountied players. The more contracts put out on a player, the more bounty hunters would be looking for them. So basically only the most prolific killers would have a bounty problem.

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Why are thieves the biggest whiners in WvW?

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Straegen.2938

Just had a ghost thief call me cheesy (lol) because I stealth trapped him. I guess me bending over and rubbing the dirt for 4 seconds wasn’t a big enough tell for him

That one wins the jackpot. A ghost thief calling some other build cheese…

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thief vs warrior

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Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

If they are running rifle a/s build, you are at a massive disadvantage. The best is to keep them blinded (if your build allows) and chip at them.

If they are the stun lock variant, keep stun breakers (shadow step and bandits defense) up at all times. One Headbutt and the fight is over.

If they are Durability/Defender tank variant, there really isn’t a way to “win” that fight consistently. Warriors built to tank in the right hands can basically rotate defensively in a way that makes them near unkillable by a thief. On the plus side that fight is typically a draw since the Warrior will lack the burst necessary to kill a thief.

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Player thoughts on current state

in Thief

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

Happy, no. Content, maybe.

My gripes center around stealth stacking cheese, over reliance on AA and the systematic dismantling of various weapon sets over the years.

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Looking for a good Roamer build

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

Thief and mesmer are by far the two cheesiest classes in the game lol. Denying that is silly.

No point arguing this since we fundamentally disagree. Cheese can exist in any class given the right circumstances.

I don’t consider either of them to be good at roaming either. I frequently solo roam and lead a roaming guild that generally runs anywhere between 1 to 6 people.

Thieves are probably the best solo roamers in the game. I cannot actually think of a better one. Fastest class particularly vertically and easily the slipperiest for avoiding massively outnumbered fights. Scouts and flips small objectives with the best of them. In skilled hands is formidable even outnumbered and resets fights better than any class. It really has no roaming downside.

Mesmers aren’t far behind in the solo roaming category. They lack the mobility of the thief but otherwise solid roamers.

Now if we are talking skirmish crews or havoc squads those are different modes of game play. Thieves don’t have much group synergy but Mesmers have solid group utility with group stealth, solid group heals, good AoE control and excellent burst. Couple a Power Mesmer with a tank Scrapper/Tempest makes for a very strong roaming combo.

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Bounties

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

I was think more of a contract system where players would place bounties when they died for X number of deaths. Bounty Hunters would ask an NPC for an open contract. That contract would be for a random bountied player that is online. Whenever the hunted player got near any enemy NPC guards his general location would be sent to the hunter(s).

Players that get bounties would get notoriety ranks and players that collect bounties would get fame ranks. The rank would determine the number of active contracts a hunted player could have at one time. It would also determine the number of contracts a Bounty Hunter could pursue at a time.

It could get even more interesting if the system placed bounties on players that routinely flipped camps, killed guard scouts, tagged WPs, etc.

Basically an entire system revolving around notorious players being hunted and reveling in it all on both sides.

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Looking for a good Roamer build

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

So what you’re basically saying is that everything is cheese if you can’t easily beat it. Gotcha.

How did you get that from what I said? If a good player can make a build sing that doesn’t make it cheese that makes it meta. What often makes a build cheese is when a relatively bad player can make a particular build highly effective.

Also you condemned two entire roaming classes as cheese for being good at roaming. It is like saying every zerg Guardian is cheese because they are good at zerging. Not every thief or mesmer build is cheese just like every DH or Warrior build is not cheese. In my opinion there aren’t a lot of cheese builds and I can probably count them on one hand and certainly two.

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(edited by Straegen.2938)

Positive thoughts

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

I would like to point out that the negativity isn’t from a dislike of the game it is typically from the love of it. The forums are a reflection of the community ANet has fostered which has basically centered around apathy that ANet has with the WvW forums.

We are desperate to hear from the developers and their liaisons. Sure there are trolls and players that will never be happy but most of the positive players have been soured by the silence.

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Bounties

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

Monetizing “hate” just seems like a good idea in a fighting game. Lots of ways to exploit it though…

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Looking for a good Roamer build

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

To me, cheese is something that has a lot of access to stealth, mobility, and conditions. When I think cheese, I think the full pu condi mesmer, ghost thief, trap runaway ranger, etc.. Mostly mesmer and thief in general are cheese classes to play for most of the meta builds.

I think the semi-universal definition of cheese is a build centered around an overly effective and easy to use mechanic in a game. This typically involves a build being both highly effective at their task, very difficult to kill and with a low skill floor.

Your build examples are definitely in the cheese category. Ghost Thief is probably top of the list right now. Passive defensive builds in the DH and Warrior lines are cheese. Stealth stacking thieves, cheese. Condi Chrono, cheese.

Power Mesmer, not cheese. Most non-stealth Thieves, not cheese. Both classes require solid play to stay alive against a skilled opponent when they aren’t relying on high stealth uptime.

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(edited by Straegen.2938)

Bounties

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

What if players could place bounties on other players and guilds that killed them? I know it gets a bit messy in the implementation given the complexity of combat in the game but I do think this would create an entirely new reason to fight either for notoriety or the cold hard cash of collecting bounties.

Not sure it is feasible but an interesting idea I believe.

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Looking for a good Roamer build

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

Nah it only takes maybe an hour or two to realise nearly everything can kill you by breaking wind in your direction if you’ve been distracted or CC’d. Well, if you’re playing my variant of zerk scholar, there’s another build that is based on might stacking which uses marauder, I’ll dig it up for the guy, has lower cool downs on many skills so a lot more forgiving and still hits pretty hard.

With 25k health and Mantras that add 600 toughness in rotation my version isn’t particularly glassy but has nearly the same DPS as a glass cannon. It is also has strong healing thanks to Restorative Mantras/Illusions. The Zerk and Marauder variants are far more vulnerable.

The learning curve on the build is moderate and its skill depth is high mainly due to timing the shatters, mantras and mastering the interrupts. The build is only for those that like deep dynamic rotations with a lot of counter play.

The true downside to my variant is that it uses an expensive consumable.

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(edited by Straegen.2938)

Things to change- Moa

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

of all the skills to complain about…

It is on a massive cooldown and typically only works well when used at just the right time. Generally it is inferior to Gravity or Mass Invis.

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[Video] How to wreck plebs in WvW by yourself

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

Vault has a hitch that any solid player can exploit. Staff is very dangerous in the right hands particularly with Bound but this build is spamming Bound and Vault mostly. If you die to that especially with those numbers you aren’t very good.

Just for clarification, I would rather fight a Staff/Bound build than a really good D/P player any day. A good D/P will pick even good players apart and be stealthed for 80% of the fight.

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Looking for a good Roamer build

in WvW

Posted by: Straegen.2938

Straegen.2938

I agree with power mesmer. +1 ( but I prefer different armor and runes )

Certainly other options. I like Exuberance because it feeds Valkyrie and the Furious Maintenance Oil. Keeps blow up builds from powering it down instantly. Other options would be Marauders with Strength Runes, Crusaders with Defender runes or even head straight for Zerk and Scholar. Lots of options really.

Lol at the people suggesting Warrior thinking it’s not cheese.

ikr! Just this weekend I got a tell from a Warrior (Rifle, Sw/Sh with Durability) about how I was playing a cheese thief build. I was running a hybrid non-stealth interrupt build which this guy thought was somehow cheesier than his vanilla, passive Warrior build.

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(edited by Straegen.2938)