Guild Wars 2

deSade.9437:

Chwwwis ç_ç not only I can’t play the game atm, I gotta have nightmares about my druid being back to useless tier! I’m enjoying the “monk” reminescence… well, at least the part where I feel “needed” (not gonna last long) and save people [hunting things], definitely not the part where I can only play that and people blame me for everything that goes wrong, lol.

I’d like to seeee… more distinct phases. Like Lupi. Just more kitten. Less gimmicks, more boss actually being DANGEROUS. I wanna be able to see a boss and feel my knees turn to jelly. Like gorseval’s aesthetics, even if he turned out to be.. not that scary. A big mean boss needs to make you afraid to engage it head-on in melee. Yknow, having a kittenload of attacks, having multiple phases you gotta learn; the more attacks you give to a guy, the more it’ll feel like it’s doing different stuff all the time and you don’t know what to expect. It’d be nice if tells were clear and had a counterplay but you were never 100% certain of which attack the boss is gonna do next.
Could start by giving the boss multiple versions of each attack.

Sabetha just sits there and actually has ONE dangerous attack. It’s stupid. Environmental control and add spawn is fine, just… I don’t know! I just exhaled a mental /sigh whenever I had to fight that kitten. It’s not fun and I’m more afraid of my guildies tearing me a new one for failing to throw a bomb than the actual boss. /shrug

I hear I’m the only one; pretty much everyone else is in love with her and looks down at VG and Gorsepup.
I love Gorsepup. He’s adorable.
… why aren’t his phases more different -.-

lol, you know I wouldn’t want your ranger to be be useless. Just think though, you could do some damage in that fight

Gorseval is my favorite of the three right now, Not so much due to the DPS check as how he looks and the feel of the fight.

I still think a plant version of Lupi would be pretty cool, and your right more attacks with tells from lots of angles would keep us on our toes and make for some pretty fun fights.

I also like the use of mobility and fields playing more of a role. Always found it odd they moved away from the idea that light magic did more damage to undead. I guess because not everyone can have access to it now like in the first game with the subclasses. Still it would be kind of neat to see.

Kinda curious as to what kind of raid boas mechanics toy would like to see in future raids.

For me, I never liked the idea of healers in guild wars. Despite this raids are still my favorite part of the game. I wish they had been around since the start. I really enjoy the different mechanics and various approaches.

I was thinking that it would be fun to see a raid boss whose aura negates healing of all types. Kinda like the first part of the city of hope story. But allow for most of the attacks to be blockable. Possibly giving guards a fight in their favor.

Maybe allow for spike healing after the break bar goes goes down. Or certain objects that need to be destroyed to allow for healing.

Just wanted to bump this happened to my group again today. Rather annoying to have to repeat the story due to the party leader being killed and the rest of us still alive.

You all might or might not have noticed, but I have been taking a break from the forums for a bit. But I spotted a snowflake last night that I just had to share.

So I have been running alot of fractals lately. The groups have been pretty good, all things considered. Some friends and I were doing a four man and decided to pick up a 5th pug member. A guardian joined. He was equipped with a Moot and SAB shield and a ascended staff, but not the one with the good color.

He was just basically a slot filler, and we didn’t really “need” him so we didn’t mind.

He was running some kinda tanky spec. I want to say Clerics gear and three meditations, I noticed as he teleported from mob to mob with JI and back to us with MI.

So during the jumps the harpy fractal he didn’t give us any stability, shields or WoR. Despite having a shield equipped the whole time I don’t recall seeing him use shield 5 either. And perhaps not even shield 4 for extra the extra block.

The part that put the icing on the cake was the dredge fractal. We were planning to burn the Legendary Ice Elemental down. But we had to lose agro from the skip past the mobs going up the hall.

We all ran in and across the room, except for him. Who agroed the legendary elemental along with the mobs from the hall and started spamming staff at them, this wouldn’t have been so bad but he wasn’t leading them to the pots and he wasn’t well really doing anything but running around in a circle with them as we ask him to OOC.

Eventually he died and we finished the fractal. And got Jade

But he was the best snowflake ever!

Malthurius.6870:

Talyn.3295:

Due to active defense in this game we have never been required to carry dead weight if we were good enough to run full glass. Our defensive utilities are not tied to our gear.

Nothing about this should change. If people want to run tanker or healish builds, that is fine, they should have that option, but nothing should require us to take them. That would go against everything this game was sold on.

But that’s the rub. The timer on the boss makes it so that the raid has to achieve a minimum amount of dps to succeed. This is good, I like that, it’s important. But what that does is make it so that if the group has too much defense they cannot succeed. If the current balance is 1 support to 9 dps, then I think it should learn further towards support so more people that enjoy that role can enter the raid and still succeed.

What’s the difference between requiring 9 dps and requiring 3 supports?

You’re talking like DPS and Support are two completely separate roles.

They aren’t. I main a guardian, and I can tell you that I generally have 3 support utilities slotted, usually two at a min. Along with support Traits despite wearing zerker gear. It isn’t required that people wear Soldier or Clerics or nomads to give support to their team. The wonderful thing about guild wars 2 is that we have never had to choose between DPS and Support.

If they had 1:30 left on the even tankier specs should be able to complete the challenge

Malthurius.6870:

Rising Dusk.2408:

Taking defensive stats where they are not necessary in a raid is bad, has been bad in every raid since forever, and means that it is tuned appropriately.

This is a beta, so I think it’s reasonable to question whether or not the current minimum for the raids survivability is appropriate.

I think the minimum survivability required should be higher and the minimum dps should be lower. This isn’t WoW where characters have defined roles; so the mechanics have to enforce those roles instead. It doesn’t seem outside of the realm of possibility that a group of nothing but dps builds could clear this particular boss; defensive stats seem undervalued.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Note that when they finished they still had ~1:20 on the timer. That means slightly bulkier and lower DPS groups could still finish just fine.

This is good, but I still believe the balance of survivability to damage is still skewed too much towards damage. For example, WoW would have 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 5 dps, usually for a 10 man. 1 hybrid/support/tank/ect and 9 dps seems skewed by comparison.

The fight is balanced around the raid having survivability stats as well as damage already; I just think the importance of survivability should have a bit more weight.

Due to active defense in this game we have never been required to carry dead weight if we were good enough to run full glass. Our defensive utilities are not tied to our gear.

Nothing about this should change. If people want to run tanker or healish builds, that is fine, they should have that option, but nothing should require us to take them. That would go against everything this game was sold on.

Well done, you did a better job then most five man groups I have seen… I wonder if Guardian shield would be more worth it for that fight now that they changed it around a little….humm gonna have to play with it a bit…maybe….

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

The real question is: would you rather have an abandoned forum with no new dungeons/raids/fractals but with a good community or a toxic wasteland resembling of General Discussion but with new raid content?

I was just discussion that with deSade in game. At least with the good community you could get more out of it. General Discussion is just a dump most times.

I miss the days when threads would be discussions about the content from people who had spent enough time doing it to actually understand things. Or when someone posted here they were actually looking for help. Not the Random Kitten that has been here since the Raid hype.

We have people who know little to nothing about the game mechanics making all these crazy post as if they were the next coming and flooding the place.

Just…sad….panda.

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

Daharahj.1325:

Lol and I’m supposed to believe someone did the wisp part in under 10 minutes, you’re not half as good at trolling as you think you are.

We’ve hit rock bottom on this forum

Yup, we have. I think maybe its time to set fire to the trashcan.

Meh, will just wait for the next one. Can’t be bothered to try them now when none of my friends are available.

Congrats.

Evapor.6849:

Please get down from your high horse, are you really trying to say the circus is beneath you? you both would fit right in.

I would, but why should you be the only one allowed to ride a high horse?

dlonie.6547:

deSade.9437:

/twists dlonie’s nipples

Thank you sir, may I have another?

Now you two go play outside.

NW, I’m done. I’m annoyed enough at myself for getting roped back into the circus…

Told you all. There goes the neighborhood. Perhaps it’s time we moved?

deSade.9437:

dlonie.6547:

Heh, what a crazy weekend.

TIL:

Zaroua.2714:

NikeEU.7690, Pandabro.8743, Laggo.8973, Purple Miku.7032, HwaRyun.1807, TheFamster.7806, Brimstar.9036 and Zui.9245 all give off white knight vibes.

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at a couple of those.

Why am I not on that list? :<

Sorry you are a black knight like me. We are not cool enough to call out.

bladex.9502:

spoj.9672:

Iris does have a point. If people post a video then others will just copy the strats instead of working it out themselves. That said i dont think many will upload that fast even if they complete it on friday evening.

This is more of a courtesy request to keep it unlisted until after the beta. I dont see whats wrong with that? Or am i completely insane?

So lets say I have to work on weekends so I don’t have time to play raids myself, or I simply don’t have enough friends to test them out.
If I was in that situation I would love to at least watch a video about it, which saves me tons of time, but I still get an idea of what the content will look like.

OP is basically asking to take away the pleasure for all those people, that are forced in that situation, because she isn’t able to ignore a video herself, which is optional, nobody is forcing her to click that video.
That’s pretty selfish imo

My friend works 10 hour/day shifts in an animal clinic, and when he comes home he has a wife and kids he has to spend time with.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t equally excited for raids as we are, and nobody should make people like him wait till monday for their own selfish desires

I got CQ this weekend, just found out. Lucky me. So I will be spending 24 hours setting at a desk and then Sunday Recovering. So I won’t have much if anytime to enjoy the Raid content. I still don’t see a problem with her request. I will have plenty of time to peak at the content later.

Here goes the neighborhood.

Anet also thought dungeons would remain super hard as well….

Maybe they are still gonna push them up to 10% after all…

Unless there is AR or something I don’t know why you would need full ascended for raids. And from what I have heard, AR isn’t a factor for raids.

I know Obal makes it look easy here, but this is about as smooth a one shot as I have ever seen.

Adrenalin.5719:

Enlighten me if I’m doing something over-complicated, putting too much effort in it, but anyways, all this “press wall, yolo, win” is definitely wrong. Whether you have to add my stuff or other things which are not that hard, is up to debate, since this will not get solved until you stop doing this “I’m so good, you’re so bad” child attitude and actually contribute to the topic.

You are trying to make it sound a whole lot harder then it is. Even as someone who isn’t directly opposed to walling lupi I can say you are not doing your case any justice here.

On a guardian you can use Scepter torch or Scepter focus the entire 1st part of the fight. Then run up when he starts the choking and bam isn’t done.

I think we all know metalbattle won’t breed good players. Good players are only created by experience in playing the class. Know what skills to swap out, which traits to change and knowing the build damage rotations. Knowing how to read your party and tell if you need more damage or more utility, All these are important.

Even someone who has mastered one class won’t always be able to handle the same content easily on an alternate class. The tendency to blame others for failing is easier then blaming ones self. I used to see it happen in pugs from time to time. I got a few try hards now and then, we all have.

Meta damage rotations will always be better then camping Greatsword because your stuck with Staff on the off slot, in the case of guardian. I would equate this to a staff ele with all the right traits who camps earth or water magic the whole fight and doesn’t use fire at all.

khesi.2786:

AC meta zerk bla bla bla party (it was only group with full run so I joined I have meta build) so my only fault was using staff on guardian (it’s normal for me to use staff in pugs on AC mainly for might and skill no 5 to stop trash durring skipping in tunnels) and there was one ele

- staff on guardian isn’t meta.
- staff is useless
- You guys are not meta build group etc.

after first path (very smooth fast and without wipe) he left. we get another player and do p2+p3 even smoother than before.

But I wonder if ppl think meta it’s only one build for every encounter in game I mean I know there is no more too many places for staff on guardian except some tagging and swiftness but cmon if You know what you’re doing than there is no way You can play always with same traits and weapons yes You should be meta for efficiency but there are some encounters where You should change your traits/weapons and You should be able to adapt for rest of your group even on metabattle.com you have some other options for meta build.

I am all for changing my build up as need for encounters. I don’t see any justification for putting staff on my bar. Staff is a weapon that I never use unless I am running TA and need to do some lawn mowing.

I wouldn’t have lectured you in group, but the moment I saw you fighting with it, I would have been clicked party, leave group. Or if I had Been the one who started the group, would have kicked

People who ignore LFG descriptions are the reason I quite pugging.

I don’t mind if Icebow got tuned down. But I am so tired of Anet going from one extreme to the other. I don’t want to see Conjured weapons turn into Spirit Weapons 2.0

And another one bites the dust…. /crys

They will either be a wasteland or they will be so easy that it won’t matter. I don’t have high hopes for Raids. I don’t have high hopes for anything since I saw the druid…

Still, be interested to poke my head in when raids come out, since I can’t join Taku, any NA players interested in trying something similar?

Personally, I can’t wait for the videos of people low maning or soloing the new “challenging group content.”

Given that Anet made such a big deal of how hard they were gonna be. I think we all know it will happen.

Taku.6352:

EU tho.

Doh!

Maybe we should try to organize a NA side one as well? See if either side manages to do it?

Taku.6352:

So uuh, who wants to do a 10 hammer/mace guardian raid on Saturday?

Sounds like fun. You can count me in if you need numbers.

Meh, if they do change it to require tanks and healers Anet got the last of my money when I bought this expansion. I got other hobbies I can use to feed my addiction.

deSade.9437:

If you haven’t already, go check the chat of gw2 twitch channel – if… you wanna throw up your breakfast, that is. We’re seeing the “I play condi necro in fracs and I’m proud” parade atm.
My all time favourite up to this point: “You could play support thief and support your party with blinds, instead of being bursty dps”
!??!?!

I guess its time to realize that the majority of people are never gonna understand you don’t have to give up support to do bursty dps.

We only have this discussion in the meta-zerker is <insert random thread title> twice a week.

And people still refuse to understand.

I frequently run two accounts on the same network. So I know this shouldn’t be a problem. Unless it has something to do with Free Accounts. Is it always the same one missing the chest? Or does it swap between the two?

Exciton.8942:

Icdan Sevaen.4628:

Exciton.8942:

I just feel with the new raid content becoming the new PvE endgame. It’s time to lift the elitist status off the fractal content. Make it more accessible and more fun to run.

Didn’t Colin say they wanted raids as end-game for 10-man groups and fractals for 5-man?

For the record, I do not think that AR should be account-wide.

Well, let’s be honest. Even raid, as Colin said, won’t set any gear requirement. Why should fractals be the anomaly?

Plz tell me what’s the purpose of a gear requirement in this game? Just to help veterans to maintain their elitist status?

Yep, that’s the whole Reason. So we can keep our “Elitist Status”

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Talyn.3295:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

BrotherBelial.3094:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Both of you get a free account. Yours on her server. Hers on yours. Then you play together either on EU or NA. Or both get 2 new accounts, one on each data group. This is a lot easier and faster than ANet creating another server with no WvW access.

Or just let EU players to guest on NA servers, and vice versa. You could move between, US, EU and Inta with ease in GW1. I don’t see how GW2 is that different. Its a moded engine of GW1 after all.

I don’t know how Guild Wars 1 was set up but Guild Wars 2 has two data centers that store account data. One is in Austin Texas and one is in Germany. For one account to play on a different data server, the account has to be completely transferred over. No guesting is possible.

GW 1 had us all merged together. I have several friend who were in EU who I was able to play with in GW1. I realize that there are two different Server storage centers. But it feels like a step backwards rather then forwards.

Yes. But how many data centers did Guild Wars 1 have and if they had only one for Guild Wars 2 (in the U.S. of course) then what is the effect on WvW and PvP with the ping the EU people would have?

I don’t know what the effect would be fore GW2. I have been told the lag wasn’t as bad by players who played GW1. Of course to compare to the two would be comparing apples to oranges I am sure, in relation to their specifics.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

BrotherBelial.3094:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Both of you get a free account. Yours on her server. Hers on yours. Then you play together either on EU or NA. Or both get 2 new accounts, one on each data group. This is a lot easier and faster than ANet creating another server with no WvW access.

Or just let EU players to guest on NA servers, and vice versa. You could move between, US, EU and Inta with ease in GW1. I don’t see how GW2 is that different. Its a moded engine of GW1 after all.

I don’t know how Guild Wars 1 was set up but Guild Wars 2 has two data centers that store account data. One is in Austin Texas and one is in Germany. For one account to play on a different data server, the account has to be completely transferred over. No guesting is possible.

GW 1 had us all merged together. I have several friend who were in EU who I was able to play with in GW1. I realize that there are two different Server storage centers. But it feels like a step backwards rather then forwards.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Both of you get a free account. Yours on her server. Hers on yours. Then you play together either on EU or NA. Or both get 2 new accounts, one on each data group. This is a lot easier and faster than ANet creating another server with no WvW access.

Or just let EU players to guest on NA servers, and vice versa. You could move between, US, EU and Inta with ease in GW1. I don’t see how GW2 is that different. Its a moded engine of GW1 after all.

Aman to that. I got several people on EU servers I would like to play with. But I am not going to start my account from scratch when there should have been a way to play with each other from the start.

It’s been an issue with the Sword for a while. For almost as long as I can remember when using it. Can’t say I miss it since it fell out of the PvE meta.

deSade.9437:

Since the game is so slow and I’m getting desperate to actually dodge when I hit the “dodge” button, I decided to clear the cache folder and run a repair, in hope it could help a bit. Little did I know, I started doing the repair at 10 this morning… and as of now, 19.29, it’s at 54%.
I’m giving up. You win, alright? You WIN.

I did a re-spawn on my laptop the other day. So I had to reinstall everything. Then after waiting for GW2 to install I got that one file reaming bug. hope the repair fixes it for you though

dlonie.6547:

Taku.6352:

Lmao! Anet likes rangers so much that they won’t even give a PoI episode for Druid.

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/644904491263881216

The base class is in such a good spot, they probably figure the spec won’t need much testing. Drop a guard staff on a ranger, have a smoke, and call it a day. Problem?

Ryn.6459:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Leagues-1/first#post5511329
PVE is doomed…oh wait! We already knew that.

“PvP has been steadily growing.” Yeah, no kitten….what else are people going to do when PvE is stale as kitten?

Oh right. Stop playing.

But yeah, totally. Keep patting yourselves on the back for “growing” the PvP playerbase by making PvE unbearable. gg.

NikeEU.7690:

Lets keep the dungeon forum pity party train going.

Choo-choooooooooooooo!!!

But seriously, I think we’re past the point of pity. It’s more “point and laugh” these days.

And if you think that was crazy, just WAIT for PART 2!!! Hahahaha!! (speaking of, did Nemibro ever finish making whatever that point he was trying to make was?)

True enough. More likely to “point and laugh” to bad we are still hanging out on the same street corner.

deSade.9437:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Scrapper-is-a-better-Guardian

You see? Do you SEE THAT? I told you guards have some kind of… reverse hate for how much pugs get carried by them. Jesus! Hold your godkitten hyppogriffs! Rev is better, mes is better, blablabla… they all have UNIQUE mechanics. kittenmit.

I knew karma would punish me eventually. No good deed goes unpunished.

Happy to hear they got it fixed for you

See https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Confirmed-by-Colin-Dungeons-are-Dead/first

No changes coming to current dungeons

I used to be able to out run a Centaur like you…

…but then I took an arrow to the knee.

obal.3218:

In order of importance I’d say go for GS, Mace, Torch, Focus, Scepter, Hammer. You can just use an exotic staff since it’s not really for fighting as well as hammer if you’re just going to use it to blast or niche cc things. Same for sword and shield if you really want them. If they buff dragonhunter to the point of worth using a bow you can worry about that later.

Listen to this guy, and ignore anyone who says anything different. Sword and Shield have no place on a guard in pve, at this current time.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Might-needs-toning-down

Jerus.4350:

Talyn.3295:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

deSade.9437:

BUT the terrible exploit that hindered their precious gem store sales has been fixed. You happy?

arenta.2953:

agreed

which is why my Necro is a soldier vampire build xD

its amusing to be in a dungeon and solo the boss cause berserkers died in 1 hit. while i just go “that didn’t hurt >=D”

i’m currently experimenting mixing some knight gear in with the soldier to give me a bit of critical. but as it is i’m out damaging berserkers by a MASSIVE margin due to my durability, power, and vamperic dmg.

Please tell me he’s trollingggggggggg

No idea lol. GW2 community is hardest to read. Amount of ignorance is too kitten high.

They have to tell themselves things like that.

“Oh Those zerkers all died. But I stepped up and Solo’ed it. I sure as Heck-fire did! That’s why my way of playing is better, cause I soled it. Sure they did 90% of the damage and heck might have not all died if I had been wearing zerker gear and they hadn’t ran out of dodges! But that don’t matter a lick. I snuck into that evil zerker only group and lied though my tooth about the gear I was wearing cause they were trusting souls those evil zerkers. That will show em how my way is better. Bunch of elitist try-hards an all wanting to play efficiently”

Liars suck, and I agree with ya there.

But, the excuse that you died because you lacked dps is simply a silly one.

Outside pressure plate type gimmicks everything is soloable, with no other DPS, really no reason people should be dying if they properly prepare themselves. One of the few places I could see lack of DPS getting you killed is maybe on Lupi if you don’t bring your extra blocks/dodges/vigor and bet it all on a timewarp slowed kill or OS nonsense. There you can easily run out of dodges, but there really aren’t many places like that.

As for the quoted, I wasn’t even going to go there when I saw it, but it’s my experience doing a lot of PUGing that it’s often the zerkers finishing things off solo/duo while the clerics staff guard bites it as he eats the first half dozen attacks strait to the face.

P.S. Of course I mean no offense Talyn, I’m sure you’re a fine player (probably better than me ). I just hate that excuse.

No offense taken. I was making fun of Try-hards and the people who lie to get into the group in the same post.

P.S. – I am not that good. But I know if I can solo something and I died in a group then it wasn’t due to lack of DPS, because even if the whole rest of the group is wearing nomads then we got more DPS then just me in my beserker gear alone.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

deSade.9437:

BUT the terrible exploit that hindered their precious gem store sales has been fixed. You happy?

arenta.2953:

agreed

which is why my Necro is a soldier vampire build xD

its amusing to be in a dungeon and solo the boss cause berserkers died in 1 hit. while i just go “that didn’t hurt >=D”

i’m currently experimenting mixing some knight gear in with the soldier to give me a bit of critical. but as it is i’m out damaging berserkers by a MASSIVE margin due to my durability, power, and vamperic dmg.

Please tell me he’s trollingggggggggg

No idea lol. GW2 community is hardest to read. Amount of ignorance is too kitten high.

They have to tell themselves things like that.

“Oh Those zerkers all died. But I stepped up and Solo’ed it. I sure as Heck-fire did! That’s why my way of playing is better, cause I soled it. Sure they did 90% of the damage and heck might have not all died if I had been wearing zerker gear and they hadn’t ran out of dodges! But that don’t matter a lick. I snuck into that evil zerker only group and lied though my tooth about the gear I was wearing cause they were trusting souls those evil zerkers. That will show em how my way is better. Bunch of elitist try-hards an all wanting to play efficiently”

You can still use Hammer in fractals, if you need too. I only run hammer if fractals if I have to these days. Otherwise I stick with Greatsword. Best place to read up is at:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/page/8#post5453269

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Guardian-Dungeons-and-Fractals/first#post5364935

Should give you an idea of what you need.

runeblade.7514:

Just join the zerker group with whatever gear you want. They will not notice and most of them don’t run gear checks.

I regularly run with soldier and nomad gear and no one notice a thing. There was not a single wipe.

This is why you are on my Block list with a Kick on Sight Tag on your head. But thanks for playing!

Given that people only really want the reward and care little to nothing about the encounters those safe spots till be used until they get fixed. Which hopefully is soon.

After my fractal 50 today, which I finally had to remove the “no glitching Mossman” because it wasn’t filling. I tried again on a fractal 40. Again I set with my LFG up for nearly a half hour before I just gave up on the whole “No Glitching” and rolled with it, because I don’t feel like wasting hours trying to find players who are not lazy.

Guardians are popular now. Having at least one in a dungeon or Fractal can make your life a lot easier.

If you want fast paced you will want to avoid Hammer.

Greatsword and sword have fast animations, but Sword fell out of our meta. Mace and Scepter along with Focus and Torch are our main weapons along with the Greatsword. I would consider all of them to be fast to moderate.

As far as battlemage vs Paladin it depends on how you look at it. I run Meditations in PvP. It makes for a very highly reactive battle mage style. In PvE I use the defensive magic more because skills like Retreat/Wall of Reflection/Purging Flames are of more use to my group then meditations, which only really benefit me. While in WvW I run meditations or shouts depending on if I am doing large or small group content.

I perfer my Human guard to my Norn guard, but that is just me.