Guild Wars 2

I see it as resources.

The normal income of GW2 post launch limit the amount of resources they can put in the living story. An expansion boost their income and at the same time the amount of resources they can put in the game.

Of course it depend on what exactly they gonna put their resources. For your exemple :

Player A will be happy with expending what they already love. An expansion will probably add some functionality to sPvP, PvE and WvW to make their gaming experience better. It will also give them more new content and challenge to take on like new cosmetic gear, new profession to master, new achievement, etc.

Player B is probably not playing right now or playing just a couple hours every time a update come out. They will return to the game if only to experiment the new content. If we look at others game expansion or GW1 expansion we are still looking at a couple of hours if not a couple of dozens of hours of content.

I don’t see any problem with an expansion except if Anet screw it up. Its all about a boost in income for them, that translate into a boost in resources they can put into the game.

Buffing the party’s damage while having a mid-range damage themselve. This look exactly like the Warrior and Ranger right now doesn’kitten I see this profession as more of a sPvP one with the CC and conditions, but his place would be limited or it would replace an existing profession by talking its exact same role. It could have a role if CC was more important in PvE, so it could work if they change that aspect of PvE.

+1 Arietta.

Maybe the PHIW ppl have their toxic ppl, but we also have our share too.

Keep in mind that If Staff + Sword/Shield would be a terrible build for PvE, Greastsword + Sword/Shield wouldn’t be that bad. Yup you will lose some dps because focuse 4 and 5 are a small dps and surviability boost, while for the shield skill 4 is ok, but not that good and you shoundn’t use shield 5 99% of the time. But that base of the meta build is to use GS for the burst and sword auto-attack.

So if you use the right trait, gear are are using GS + Sw/Shield you wouldn’t be a lot less efficient than someone with the meta build. If you like the shield, there is nothing wrong with using it if overall your build is good. Of course some ppl will scream murder just by seeing you with a shield. But that I find horribly stupid is that most of the time those same ppl won’t scream murder because nobody have food or the right potion or the right composition, etc But all of those things are a far stronger impact than taking a shield over a focus just for the look. Pugs aren’t optimized so even if its a great idea to have a decent build, you shouldn’t feel obligated to optimize it to the max.

Shanks.2907:

Zealot’s Flame/Fire is great for both hybrid and zerk builds. Right now it’s the reason to take torch maybe over focus and certainly over shield. Some changes to Cleansing Flame (torch #5) I think would put torch in a good place to make an actual tough call between it and focus.

• Lower hits from 9 to 4
• Increase conditions removed per pulse
• Strip boon per pulse

As it is now, it’s a dps loss over AA and is a niche condition cleanse on party. It can be really powerful though, removing 50 something in total IIRC. Regardless, by lowering the hits and increasing the conditions removed per pulse it can still fill that niche with less of a cast time. In addition, it will serve as boon strip that could put medizerk/hybrid guardian into new roles.

Of course specific numbers are subject to balance but the idea is what counts. Right now guardian has a measly 1 boon strip every 10 seconds (which should be bumped to 2/10s or 1/5s) and is usually passed on for classes that can strip. With a boon heavy meta and how hard it counters medizerk (think d/d celementalist) I think it would put torch in it’s own.

That’s another good idea for the Torch. The long channeling and ordinary support that skill 5 provide is the reason why torch is left behind right now. Ya it still have a niche place, but it really need a bit of change to it to really make the torch a competitive choice in more than only 1 role. I don,t really mind what would be the change, a lot of options can be explored.

Acotje.5689:

Should have mentioned I was talking about their recent records.
Yes, you still pre stack(so you can open with ice bows with 25 might)
But for longer fights, the might will come from the warrior.

What make sense in fractal make also sense in dungeon with longer fight, its just that there is not that much of those. Blasting might without rune of strength is still 20sec, not that many bosses can’t be burst down in 20sec (27sec with rune of strength) or less in a dungeon record runs, but you are right, they exist.

Under 20sec and you are obviously better wihtout a PS warrior, higher than 27sec and you better with a PS Warrior. It the section between 20 and 27 that is more blurry. What would be better, ele with scholar rune with a PS warrior or ele with strenght but wihtout a PS warrior.

Saiyan.1704:

I’d have to show you game play footage instead of build theories. In TPvP I mainly use torch #5 to clean my partner’s conditions, not for dealing damage. If I see a warrior’s bow burn, ele’s fire circle, necro’s aoe condi burst or specific engi condi skills. I usually do a good job at looking at my team’s conditions and acting appropriately.
I’ll use it to cleave, when a Guardian pops sanctuary, when a thief enters Shadow Refuge. If I have no other skills up I’ll of course use it as a filler to deal damage or to attack when I’m not in range with my sword.
If #5 cleansed conditions on myself, or if you gave it 5 more hits in a short time span, it would be too powerful.

That’s why I would nerf its damage. It would hit a bit more hard, but for less time so that for the total duration of the channeling it would make less dmg than now, but it more target and remove condition on you. Like I said you wouldn’t want to make a burst dmg skill.

Acotje.5689:

Even w/o stealth, thief has its place. Superior single target and does more damage with the ice bow anyway..also pistol #4 to deal with defiance quickly.

Look at iV’s records. All of them used PS warrior.
This allows your ele’s to go with Scholar runes and both run staff.
Also warrior stacks might much faster in combat then ele’s do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aap1LeSm5Fg

Hell, even goku used PS for a duo lupi with an ele.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4ekUvFEYkU

In the very link you provide they still use Ele to stack might at several boss. Ok you got a point, I shouldn’t have said the word ’’never’’. What ppl bring to set new records run evolve over time as ppl bring new things and try new stategy.

I was as wrong to say they never bring PS Warrior as you were wrong to say that all records run bring PS Warrior.

Saiyan.1704:

Torch is fine, at least for burn builds. In TPVP you’re also giving your team (600 radius) 9 condi cleanses, which helps tremendously. 10x hits from skill #5 make burn procs that much desirable.

You’re trying to make torch sync more with Zerker type builds but unless you prefer a 3k crit ranged torch or a 3block/3k crit melee-ranged focus. that’s going to be your personal preference.

I know that Hybrid guardian build are receiving more and more attention these day and that they use torch. But torch like shield even if some build are using it in spvp are still very niche. That’s why I didn’t suggest changing skill 4 of the toch because it was alright like it is now. But can you link your hybrid build and explain how you use skill 5 of the toch with it? Because right now even if it hit hard, the skill 5 should make you highly vulnerable since its such a long channeling and don’t remove condition on you, so its usefulness seem limited to me since you rarely gonna have 3 enemies in front of you in sPvP and it seem clumsy to use on allies to remove condition in the middle of a battle. Maybe i’m wrong, but the change to the toch I suggest wouldn’t modify the main strenght of the torch for a hybrid build which is skill 4, while improving the skill 5 for both PvE and sPvP. But i’m really interesting to hear the spvp side of it since I use my guardian as bunker and are not really interested to try an hybrid for the moment.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Warriors were ridiculously strong before the several nerfs. No a class should not have the best support and one of the best dps in the game. If you were at launch you would know how terrible it was. 4/5 warrs per group just facetanking – facerolling everything.

They do still have a spot in PvE meta, and in the very very high end of it. A group with no warrior is losing SO much dps. Pretty much every speedclear group/record run grp has a PS warrior. Just because you can’t stack the class and be as effective anymore, it doesn’t mean that they moved to a lower end on the current meta. They were a joke class before the several nerfs.

Edit: I won’t comment on WvW zerg, cause there’s no meta for it. It is a zerg-fest, with the team with the most numbers being the winner. 95% of the encounters are fully 1sided. Plus it’s open world. None can tell you to go away because you do not fit in the “meta” lol….

First I want to make myself clear, I DON’T WANT the warrior to get back to what it was before stacking 4 of them. I didn’t say that they were on the lower end of the meta and its a bad thing. I think its a good thing. They are now on par with Guardian and Mesmer. Let me rephrase it. Warrior is on the middle lie of the warrior. Under Ele and Thief, but still higher than Mesmer and Guardian. It think its better that way. But just to be clear, its wasn’t a comment about the Warrior needing a buff or something like that. I think we both know the right situation of the warrior, just not saying it with the same word.

For your comment on PS Warrior. No record run bring PS Warrior as far as i’m concern. Don’t get me wrong PS warrior is so nice to have, especially in fractal. But in record run, its usually the Ele that bring the might and the warrior run the typical dps build. Its mostly because ele can bring the team at 25 stack just before the fight on a boss so they can burst him down quickly. In speed run they usually blast on the boss while he’s still green.

For WvW, I don’t talk about pugs. I’m talking about guild run, nobody care what you bring in a pug zerg. But in an organized guild group that will fight other organized guild group or fight pugs zerg 2 or 3 times larger then them, its were its important.

dominik.9721:

Aha.
On the lower end of the meta?
There are 8 different classes and 3 classes are always part of a meta group. Warrior, Ele, Thief.
The 5 other classes are only used if they are need for some special reason.
And now tell me why the kitten warrior should be at the lower end of the meta?
Because you don’t bring them for dps?
Guess what, neither Mesmers,Guardians,Engineers,Necromancers nor Rangers are brought because of the ability to deal dps.
You bring them because of their special “support role” at the same way you bring a warrior because of his special support role with the difference that you need this support all the time.

Elementalist is the only profession you really bring into the party for its dps. Ya thief have a better single target dps, but that doesn’t include Ice Bow. Without the stealth, we would not see as much thief in speed run. I consider Ele, Thief, Warrior, Guardian and Mesmer into the meta because they all bring something specific in the party that can help it go faster. Ranger and Engineer are good, but fall between two stools, they are good in speed run, but don’t bring something that another profession can’t bring better and that’s why you never see them in record runs, while necro well, its necro.

Shield :
Shield of Absorption should not root you and the second skill of the shield should not be detonate for heal, but to put your shield down so you can other action, but not being able to move your bubble any more. If you compare that skill to Shield of the Avenger. SotA have a 20sec duration while having a 60sec DC. If you want to apply that same ratio to the shield it would be 12sec, but that doesn’t work because SotA don’t push back and its protective bubble is not there 100% of the time. So i would say that 30sec is a better CD for that skill if you compare it to SotA.
Shield of Judgment is actually a nice skill in WvW since it can tough 5 enemies, 5 friends and yourself, while giving more protection than Hold the Line. With the moving Shield of Absorption Shield could become a valuable weapon in WvW IF and only IF they add a good main hand weapons to go with it because for now Sword can’t do it. Maybe adding a Axe build toward complementing the shield in WvW could fix that. Shield is already appreciate by some bunker in sPvP, making the change to Shield of Absorption would probably make it a more competitive choice over focus.

Torch :
It need a reason to exist. It should be a possible replacement for the focus for PvE Meta and Solo Guardian. To achieve that it need to have a similar dmg than focus, while giving that little thing extra that make you take it over focus. The torch can already do more dmg than the Focus, but the problem come from the Skill 5 that is a very long channeling that will prevent you from using more hard hitting skill of your greatsword and sword, while the focus have quick or instant skill that won’t delay you. To fix that, I would say that the torch need to hit faster, while hitting harder than the focus since it doesn’t have as much support as the focus. The focus can give block, blind and regen, while the torch can only give condi removal. No need to change the Torch skill 4, but the skill 5 yes. Right now it pulse 9 times, but can only hit 3 target in front of you and won’t condi remove on yourself. Lets make it a bit more like the shield so it could hit 5 enemy, 5 ally and yourself. If you then reduce the pulse to 3, it will keep about the same result, but in a way shorter time with a channeling of about 1.5sec. That transform that skill into a high burst similar to whirling Wrath, which is not a good idea for a off-hand. We would need to decrease its dmg by about 40%-50% so that it can reach or be a little under the max dmg of the focus, which is good since that in total the torch would have more dps than the focus, but have less survivability. That would make the torch the new meta in most situation and give a new team condi removal to the meta guardian in his support role. The focus would become more useful against hard hitting boss like the archdiviner, mossman, Mai trin, Lupi where the extra block/blind would be useful. But that situation really push the focus into a niche spot, the dmg of the skill 5 of the toch could be reduce by even more to balance the dmg between them so they became about the same in term of dmg. Focus would stay the main meta, while torch would be a good choice mostly when you lack fire or condi removal, while not decreasing your dmg output like it does right now.

Like I said, with those modification the guardian would need a new main hand weapons for WvW. The Axe/Shield combo would need to replace the GS or Hammer. Of course we can make Axe hit as hard as hammer in a static situation and we can’t make it burst as much as the GS. So the main goal here would be to have a decent auto-attack. Less burst than GS, but a better average dmg. Its basically like the sword, but it still need to be different. And that would be achieve with trait and skill 2 and 3. If Axe is a WvW weapons we need trait in Honor, Valor or even virtues that boost it, so its dmg is under the Sword in PvE, but over it in WvW. A master trait that reduce cooldown of the axe and boost its dmg by 10% in the Valor line would be perfect. That line was always strong because of AH in WvW, but weak in choice otherwise. What would be the skill 2 and 3. They need to be interesting for WvW. Blast, cripple, immobilize, chill, CC, block are all good choice to push the Axe/Shield combot into the meta WvW. GS/Staff would still need to be the higher burst, while AxeShield/Staff would be more of a support setup. Whatever the skill 2 and 3, its shouldn’t be a blast and a immobilize since its what the Hammer have and we should kick something out of the meta just to put another weapon in its place. A blast finisher and a Block would be my choice, but several combinaison could be done.

That what I would change the most on the guardian. To make more weapons good in specific situation.

The Necro is strong in this one. Can you feel it

Like Acotje said, Ele is a high risk/high reward profession. While it seem to have no consensus about whether or not its a hard or easy profession is because of the Celestial D/D elementalist build in sPvP and Roaming.

This buid is really hard to play right at the beginning, then you reach a plateau where your can rapidly reach the level of other profession with a bit less skills. But if you want to go further and really reach the skill ceilling, a lot of work will be needed. Since D/D Cele Ele is really popular in the moment a lot of ppl reached that plateau while a bunch are really good and are making a lot of casual/normal player rage. Its still a really high ceilling build.

The Elementalist is part of the meta in PvE and WvW, while being in the top profession for roaming and sPvP. Its the profession in the best shape right now.

Engineer excel in sPvP and Roaming because of their versatility. They are not the best at anything, but can bring about anything to a fight so you can almost always find a way to counter another build on the fly, something that very few can do.

As for dungeon, they are not part of any record run for that reason. That doesn’t mean that they are not good to bring in a speed run. With the third bets dps in the game in PvE they can bring might, stealth, healing, etc and well played can be the ultimate pug profession that can always pick up the slack when your party miss something in particular. Also if vulnerability is usually not an issue in organized group, it is in pugs.

For solo dungeon, its a really good profession. Probably in the top 4. And its one of the two best profession for Solo in condition build, which even if not optimal, is really nice to play.

For WvW zerg they can do pretty decent. They won’t have any spot in most organized zerg bursting guild, but you can do the job just right in a pug zerg. An advantage of the Engineer is that you can use with decent effect some of his roaming build in a zerg without risking to be instant kill or feel useless like other professions.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Thaddeus.4891:

They are still part of the meta in WvW Zerg and PvE, but they are on the lower end. Where they struggle a bit in sPvP/roaming, but they are not useless neither.

Can you please explain the part that I highlighted?!

How can a class be on a lower end, especially in PvE, when it is desired in pretty much every speeclear/record run group?!

They are in the META in WvW Zerg and PvE, but in the lower end. As in the lower end of the meta.

In PvE they used to be a big source of damage as well as buffing, now I consider them on the lower end of the meta because they are there only because of their banner.

In WvW, they are used to be the biggest part of the melee train. They contributed in a big part to the condition removal of the team, while being the biggest source of damage with hammer. As team got better and warrior dmg got lower, they shifted drastically in numbers in most zerg. The first push is the most important one and the nerf to the adrenaline mean that Warrior are no longer able to create that big first burst and got partially replace by Guardian which become more competitive dmg wise (especially on that first push). In the same time, melandru runes and lemongrass decreased the importance of the condition removal capability of the warrior. The guardian also lost that priority but the meta for the guardian was able to shift toward more stability and protection, while the warrior couldn’t as much. Add to that the fact that Necro became more and more important as dmg source and you see GWEN becoming more like GNEW these day.

I would say that Warrior is in the middle right now. It far from its glory from launch, they maybe overnerfed them a bit, but not by much. They are still part of the meta in WvW Zerg and PvE, but they are on the lower end. Where they struggle a bit in sPvP/roaming, but they are not useless neither.

They are still in better shape then other profession like the Necro (except in WvW).

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

Wish List
Precursor Crafting
Legendary Armor
Legendary Trinkets & Ascended Jewels
Legendary Dyes & Ascended Food
Ascended Salvaging
Guild Halls and Hall of Monuments (Player Housing)
GvG, Alliance Battles and Factions
Alternate Advancement
Raids/Guild Dungeons

Precursor Crafting : We can now kind of pieces the puzzle back together. They first announced it for the end of 2013, then announced that it didn’t work as intended and would be released later. Its probably ready to release now, but decided to keep it to the expansion.

Legendary Armor : I never liked the idea of Legendary Armor. The main idea of a legendary is the unique look, but with armor does that mean that everybody will look the same as a lot of ppl have their legendary armor as a goal? We already see SO much legendary weapons and with Legendary Armor i’m just afraid that every heavy will look the same in a year or two. Remember that they can add that many legendary armor, each time they want to add 1 choice, its 18 pieces of armor.

Legendary Trinkets & Ascended Jewels : I would prefer that to an Legendary Armor. Like an legendary amulet that could take both a Utility and a Infusion (or that you can switch between both) and this legendary Amulet could add an effect to your armor so that you could upgrade your armor, but not everybody would become a clone. But other than that, I don’t see why a Legendary rings/earings. I don’t want too much effect added to everybody.

Legendary Dyes & Ascended Food : There is no rare or exotic food already, so ya maybe better food from a level 500 chef, but that wouldn’t be ascended food. Legendary Dyes? What would they do different? Flashing Dyes? The higher tier of dye is rare for now, so that would seem weird. No need to add a tier just for the sake of adding a tier.

Ascended Salvaging : OH YA BABY.

Guild Halls and Hall of Monuments (Player Housing) : I repeat myself. OH YA BABY.

GvG, Alliance Battles and Factions : Don’t know about your specific idea. But I would like to see Alliance to have better coordination in-game in WvW. Right most communication are through TS with the chat between maps. And of course GvG would standardize the GvG we already have in OS with a in-game ways to fight team from all servers where nobody can screw things up in the middle of the match.

Alternate Advancement : Seem pretty much like the reward we gain from Achievement Points and Login-Rewards. Not really on-board with your idea here.

Raids/Guild Dungeons : It would be awesome, but… I don’t really want to end up with dungeon that need an organized group of 20 or more. 10 would be the max so that most guild could be able to perform in it. As of raids, It would be nice to see that concept expand around Triple Trouble and Tequalt. Seperated them completly from World Boss as they add more Hard boss that need a coordinated group to vanquish. The difficulty shouldn’t harder than Triple Trouble, nor easier than Teq. They could add tier of difficulty when the event is started by a guild. So a medium guild could start the easy version (like TEQ) and they could organized a pugs map to kill it, but a bigger guild like TTS could spawn an hard version (like Triple Trouble).

They always added specific extractor the next update after the release of the organs. So they will be release in the next update. When this will be? We probably gonna know next week or on the 24th.

I won’t make prediction for the content on the expansion. But I can relatively safely make those prediction.

1) On the 24th January Anet will probably make a big announcement about the game at PAX South. An expansion? Paid or Free? Standard Box or download? Something else completely? Not only we knew that, but with the announcement at the end of the last video of the 8th episode we know its gonna be about not only the future of the game but about the name Heart of Thorns.
Source: http://south.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/guild-wars-2-beyond-the-point-of-no-return

2) Whatever Heart of Thorns is, it will be advertises and will earn money to NCSoft, otherwise, there is no reason to protect the name with a trademark.
Source : http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2s9jp8/ncsoft_registers_trademarks_for_guild_wars_2/

3) NCSoft project a HUGE increase in income from GW2 in Q3 2015.
Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2rw901/gw2_forecast_earnings_for_q3_2015_is_45x_more/

So GW2 Heart of Thorns will be advertises, earn NCSoft a lot of money, and will be announce at PAX South on January 24th. If it smell, look, and feel like an expansion, its probably an expansion and It will likely be sold in 2015 Q3 so between July and September. My guess is that it will be released on August 28, which is the release date of GW2, its third anniversary.

Its still 6-7 months away. What will be happening between now and then? Season 3 most probably, but how many episode will we have. To which point the story of season 3 will go? We probably fight modremoth during the expansion, so season 3 will follow us trying to find a way to approach him and find the egg? Will we have some other break between now and the expansion? Will we have another feature pack or will they keep all that for the expansion?

GW2 already have a wide range of difficulty for different players. They will never make a content that please everyone. A tier system like Dry Top/Lion Arch and some ppl complain that they can’t reach the higher tier for the good reward because they never end up on a good map. A coordinated event that need individual skill and ppl will complain that they can’t do the event because of some of the player that are bad, like with the marionnette. Give a hard content like the Triple Wurm and ppl will complain that they can’t do it unless they join a specific guild. Give a easy content and ppl will complain its not hard enough.

I think the new event is alright. Not too hard that most map won’t fail it in a week, but not too easy as it became a afk fight like some World Boss. Not the best fight for me, but overall I think It can be appreciate by most ppl.

I really never understand why ppl go through 3 paragraph of complain, but never mention any detail. Warrior is balanced, but other profession are OP. Where are you talking about? WvW Zerg, WvW Roaming?, sPvP?, PvE?

Because in WvW Zerg, PvE and sPvP I don’t really have any problem playing my Warrior. Ya some unbalance exist in sPvP with engineer and elementalist these days, but its not a wide problem across all professions. Maybe your are talking WvW Roaming, it’s been a while since I last roam.

Like other said, I don’t suggest you to craft ascended gear. The advantage is minimal over exotic you seem to have a lot to learn before crafting it. You shouldn’t ask what type of ascended armor you should craft, you should already tested different type of armor and found what you are best with depending on what exactly you prefer to do and what build you want to use.

Ascended armor won’t make you a better player and you risk regretting the huge investment if you make a mistake when choosing the type of armor. Ascended is not for experimenting, exotic is.

http://dulfy.net/category/gw2/
Plenty of guide for content, but also for guide on each professions.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki
Here a site that regroup a lot of the most popular build for different game modes.

Best way to become a better player would be to practice. In PvE soloing dungeons and group content is probably the best way to be a better player, but since you are new start by doing by doing them in group. In WvW, to be a better player either you will roam and try to win outmanned fight or join a zerg bursting guild. In sPvP, well pratice and get better with different profession so you know how to play against each of them.

There is a lot of stuff in that game that can increase your damage. They all only boost your dmg by a little bit, but as you accumulate these little boost, you end up doing MASSIVELY more dmg. Gear itself with a big part of it, but there is a lot of other stuff. You could end up doing double the damage with exotic gear compare to someone with ascended gear if you go after all those little buff.

- Trait will be a major aspect and only partially because of the stats they can give, damage multiplier is a powerful tool to increase your dmg and meta build are currently are using them to their advantage.
- Runes is an aspect that ppl overlook when they start gearing up, but some of the most powerful runes can be almost as important as your gear.
- Sigil can also provide a big buff. You can specialize them to reach up to 21% more dmg from them, but most ppl go more general purpose so they don’t have dozen and dozen of different weapons.
- Food and Utilities is someone that most ppl just don’t use. But a small investment can bring 15-20% more dmg by themselves.
- Professions vary widely in term of dps. Even with their best build you can see as much as 50% difference in damage between profession like Elementalist and Necro in PvE.
- Rotation is one of the top reason between a good and great dmg. If you can recreate the best rotation for your build even in harder situation and not just auto-attack while trying to stay alive, this will make a big difference.
- Party composition and buffs. Might, Fury, Vulnerability, Banners, etc. That’s not just the responsibility of one person, but the whole group. A build could be ideal for one group, but not for another one. Not really something that any pugs will ever try to achieve, but in a guild group trying to maximize those buffs will make a HUGE difference, a difference that you can notice. Doing a path with a phalanx warrior for example and you’ll see notice it just by looking at your dmg numbers in your screen (and phalanx is an easy way to achieve part of it, its not the best). Not all party composition will be able to max out everything, some professions are more useful than other.

I’m sure that I forget some.

Don’t know for how long you weren’t in the game, but a lot of change got into the game. Some are not that good, other are really nice addition, but the vast majority split the community between those who like and those who dislike.

If I try to stay out of either fan boy or haters club. (My humble opinions)
- The game got a lot better at customization. More options and easier to use, change and experiment to make your character look like you want.

- The game added some content and improve the old content, but not by much. 3 new maps were added (1 of which you probably already know since its a long time ago), a couple of world boss were either added or revamped, only 1 dungeon path was added (but 1 was removed), a new WvW map was added (not the best), otherwise most of the content was in the Living Story and only the last 8 episodes are permanent (unlockable via login in at the right time or buy by gem afterward). Overall, if you quit the game because of lack of content, its still coming at a slow pace.

- Quality of live was also improved. A lot of little things that people forget, but make the game a better experience.

- Reward was improve for content that were left out before, but there is still inequality between content. PvE is still the most rewarding aspect of the game, but PvP and WvW players have enough reward to customize their stuff without doing much PvE at all, but it’s gonna take them a bit more time to do so.

- Megaserver bring everybody into one single server (except for WvW). This make sure that everybody play together into living map and don’t spread them in 40 different maps. The game feel more alive and fun. Some incovenient like for role-playing and the lose of server pride/community emerge from that, but most ppl I think prefer the new system to the old one.

- Leveling is a lot different that it used to be. This change received a lot of negative feedback from the community in general. A lot of ppl think that Anet destroyed the levelling experience by making it horribly annoying. Overall I don’t think that is too bad. They added some really annoying feature that don’t give a better experience, but you can bypass then without too much problem.

In conclusion, the game still have his core aspect that made this game popular in the first place and improve upon it. The game refine itself and feel come alive. But in the process did make some mistake. And there will always be the debate over how much new content is enough for a free to play game like GW2. Whether or not you will like coming back in the game depend on why you quit it in the first place.

- Dungeons Speed Runs : 10 Gold per hour if you have a good group for all dungeons. Can drop to 7 gold per hour when you pugs depending on if you are lucky or not.

- Silverwaste : I’m not sure of the exact number here, but around 9-10 Gold per hour, but mostly in drop compare to dungeon. The disadvantage is that you kind of need to be a kitten and tag all event while other ppl finish them. The advantage is that you don’t have a limit on it you can do that all day if you want and it drop a lot of different things like karma, dragonite, etc that can be useful outside of just the gold.

- Skills points : A lot of skill points recipe can yield between 50 silver up to 1 gold per skill point (it can go higher, but then you need to search more, wait for the right time and they are usually only in small quantity). The advantage is that you can yield easily 20-40gold an hour, the disadvantage is that if you don’t have a good amount of gold to start with you won’t make much gold and that its highly link to the market (read changing over time, you need to check you stuff on a regular basis).

There is 1 thing that don’t work in your stuff. If you are using mystic/master salvage kit on your rare. You shouldn’t get 1.5 ecto per rare, but 0.875.

That drop the gold/hour to 2.7-3.2 if i’m generous. But let say that you have the right numbers. That’s still 2-3 gold less than dungeon with decent pugs, 5 gold less than with a organized group.

If someone like doing fractals or need Karma, fractal is a good place. But it’s still lacking a lot in term of reward since Karma drop a lot and don’t have that much use except if you want to do a lot of legendaries. Its even worth now, since there is a lot of alternate source of Obsidian Shard other than karma.

The drop of ascended chest/weapons and fractals weapons is a nice addition that could make fractal as rewarding as other stuff in the game. But the fact that you most likely will get useless stats or fractal weapons that you already have, don’t make it that rewarding. If they could change it so we change receive ascended chest and fractal weapons chest and you could choose what stats and piece you want, now fractal could be rewarding enough. A bit like these two ascended armor chest that you receive after the ambrite and luminescent collection.

Solandri.9640:

Soldier’s gear (power, toughness, vitality) is actually ideal for PvE encounters against static bosses. e.g. Tequatl.

So its usefulness is very narrow, but it does have a place in PvE.

Thanks sherlock. I never say that it was useless in every aspect. I said that nobody min-max that gear. Yup it better to use Soldier than zerker at Teq if you are in the Zerg, to protect the canon, zerker is better. But most of the other boss are so kitten easy, that nobody change their gear for them. And triple trouble need zerker for the second phases so no soldier there either.

Maximum Potato.5923:

Don’t quote me on this, but I think warriors have a higher base damage? I’ve not rolled a warrior personally, but looking at the dungeon groups over the last year, there’s a clear favour towards warrior zerkers for dps, and there has to be reason for that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the ranger’s dps is bad – I’ve had 23k Rapid Fires in Arah before – I’m just saying that there are better DPS classes and use of Warhorn+Frost Spirit+Spotter helps to support those classes to reach their maximum potential.

This was last year. Warrior use to be view as the best dps in the game. It was easy to have a good dps with that, unlike the Elementalist. Since then, the warrior had been nerf a good number of time and dropped to the 5th place in term of dps. In september last year, the ranger was buffed to reach the 4th place in term of dps, going over the warrior. But like Lazze wrote, the Ranger fall between two stools (a bit like the engineer). It have good dps, but not good enough to replace a Ele or a Thief. It also have good buff, but not enough to replace a warrior.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s important only for record run. In pugs, guild or speed run, Ranger will do just fine.

Yup silverwaste farm is pretty selfish, but for now it work. The problem is that for it to work at its absolute best, you need a lot more ppl doing the events completly, because those who farm jump from map to map and from event from event to have the reward, but not actually completing it to the end.

That’s why i’m not a fan of that farm. But with everybody wanting to do their new round of organ in silverwaste for the next two week, the farm will be far more easy and less destructive.

It’s true that Teq and Triple Trouble need coordination, but Teq is been out for a long time and people can organized a random pug now that the Megaserver make Teq appear at specific hours. Everybody regroup on the map and it usually never fail. People are use to doing it now.

Triple Trouble is another level of organization. Even TTS can fail it from time to time so I wouldn’t trust a random map to organize for it.

Zietlogik.6208:

My main has burnt skill points on traits and bloodstone shards already (and I have no intention of going for a legendary) and currently still has (after those purchases):

1,422 Skill Points
397 Tomes of Knowledge
629 Scrolls of Knowledge

Please give me another use for these…or at least let me customize my PvP track to replace the Tomes with something more personalized for me.

:(

You know you can turn that into between 1800-2500 gold right?

Vukorep.3081:

Besides knowing your class and recognizing your enemies in pvp, is there any possible way to become the “best” in something that isnt pvp related?

The only think that help make you a better player in PvE is soloing everything you can and trying to get record beating everything you can. Dungeons, Bosses, etc.

A lot of stuff in dungeon, ppl just don’t see it when they play with 5 ppl. Fight are too short so you usually don’t go through all your active defence. You’ll have to make use you really understand an encounter because if you don’t, you’ll have to run again until you do, there is nobody there to rez you or to take the hit for you.

Good players can go through a dungeon really quick with a good group but will wipe with a bad group. Best players can leave baddies behind and continue alone if they have too. I’m far from being able to solo everything I plan to try, but that’s a nice goal if you want to be a better pve player.

If you have a couple of friends, trying to reach records run level in dungeon is also a nice challenge.

Artemis Thuras.8795:

The issue is quite simple:
It made it harder to find groups because people can only do each path once.
No one wants to redo to help their friends/guildies out.

This one thing is why dungeons are seen as unpopular. They are in no way worth repeating.
world bosses can be repeated without too much diminishing return.

Alternatively, we could make teq only give you spoons for repeat completions?
Grey junk items at others?
After all, there are other world bosses you could do, and that can take a few hours to do a full rotation.
Sounds perfectly fine to me

Dungeon was repeatable with profit and they changed it on purpose. But whatever, I don’t like to repeat stuff over and over again. I like doing some dungeons, then pvp, then going at silverwaste, then doing a fractal, etc. This system is perfect for me because I want to do a lot of different thing and not the same thing over and over again.

Dadnir.5038:

Ok it seem there are some misunderstanding here.

First of all thieves are top “burst” damage not top dps.

I recall that on reddit they did some parse and believe it or not Ingeneer are on top by a small margin and essentially due to additionnal condition damage that they gain from like every skill they have. I would also like to say that ingeneer can grant descent invisibility uptime and can replace ele for might combo. Saying that they are here to apply vuln is just a noob way to see things.

I would really want to see your source pls. I genuinely want to know how they did their test of math on that. Because from what I know, engineer is third in term of dps. Thief IS the best dps not burst, elementalist is the best burst with Glyph of Storm and Icebow. (You can put even more stuff in their for the burst, depending on your build). Elementalist is second to thief only if you don’t take into account their burst skill and thief is only first against 1 target. Against 2 or more, they drop significantly because they can only backstab 1 target. But I’m ready to be wrong. That’s my current knowledge, if you can give me a source that say otherwise and have proof, then I’ll be glad.

Who care about pugs? There is no holy trinity, bring whatever you want. I was doing pugs last night because all my guild was so much into silverwaste. I was the only one meleing the trolls in HotW on my zerker ele while warriors and guardian were chicken it out in range. Its all about skills of the player at this point, even a Guardian won’t help the team if he don’t know how to time his aegis. And its not like I’m gonna except a pug to help my survival in a dungeon. I see your point that Warrior and Guardian are easier to play decently for bad ppl, but they are pugs. You can get a really bad tanky warrior as much as you can get that super awesome ranger that can solo most of the dungeon, you never know.

Cornering is not the same as stacking. Boons sharing, rezzing speed, etc All that is because of stacking, not cornering. We started cornering because of the meta warrior that need a wall to reach their max dps. Without more than 1 warrior and no more fgs, there is a lot less reason to corner. Ya some specific bosses are still better cornered. Some other bosses don’t have much benefit except to make it easier. But the majority of them don’t bring ANY advantage in a corner. I’m just saying to use judgement and always ask yourself. Why do I corner that particular boss? Is it because I always did him that way or its because of that particular reason? Does cornering help me in that fight? And if so, how? Habit are hard to break for everyone.

ThePaladin.2140:

Let’s say for theorycrafting’s sake. Who here can make sentinel’s at least viable in pve ?

Anyone really.

Just put sentinel armor and go. You’ll be able to complete pretty much any content anyway. Ppl did some joke running Arah naked or in full cleric with the dodge disabled. It will take longer, but you’ll be able to complete about anything.

Artemis Thuras.8795:

You seem to have missed the key point.
Both reduced loots were on alts. Yes this limits the number of times you can repeat it. This applies to everything that is once/day/char.

edit:
I guess there is the number of times/day teq spawns.

But compare the second time around:

teq: 80% of the chests (realistically probably around 70% of the loot)

Dungeon:
33% of the tokens.
20% (or less) of the gold
0% of the chests along the way.

Ya but there is 24 dungeons path that give tokens. Ok there is like 6 of those paths that are not that nice to do with pugs and its hard anyway to get pugs for them anyway. That’s still 4-5 hours with a decent group. Unless you are telling me you that you do them all everyday and you want to do more, that’s a non issue.

I can’t talk for other, but within my group of player we pretty much all went more toward pvp, and it seem that we are not alone. When we do dungeon we usually play together so I don’t really pug ofthen. I didn’t notice a big difference when I do pugs, but like I said I don’t pug that often now.

2) Just ask around or just join a guild. For bigger guild, missions are just an 30-40min quest that everybody did several times, so that you are there or no, they won’t care. I used to invite random ppl helping us during guild missions so they could have recommendation. Smaller guild will have difficulty completing all missions so an extra help would be appreciate by them. Just talk to different guild leader and ask them.

3) Never saw a 100% repping guild saying anything about a guild bank. Most if not all of their officer probably have a guild bank of their own so don’t worry. But ask just to be sure, some ppl are weird lol.

4) Dry Top is mostly useful to craft Mawdrey (ascended back that also give you Mawdrey 2 to eat bloodstone dust) and to craft Ambrite Weapons. Each friday and sathurday 1 our after reset the guild DTOP make organized run, that’s the best time to go there. Silverwaste is one of the best way to make gold right now if you know how to run it. A couple of ppl in my guild are doing 100 gold per day there. Myself, I can’t stay in that map for that long, but it give you a idea. Even 1 or 2 hours there can yield a good amount of gold.

For what to do next it highly depend on where you are now and what do you want to do. The game is free to explore. You can do whatever you want. sPvP, WvW, Dungeons, Fractals, map completion, achievement hunting, jumping puzzle, EotM, farming, crafting, etc. The game don’t force you into a specific path, you choose what you prefer.

Its mostly a L2P issue for the mesmer as it’s one of the easiest profession to play full zerker. Sword/Sword will give him enough block to survive fight where he doesn’t have enough dodge.

Try to find out why ppl stack. At first it was because of the Warrior meta. Back then warrior was view as the biggest dps and a corner boost their dps even more. After it was the Ele FGS that needed a corner to excel. But now, you are often better to not stack and fight the boss where he is. You still need to stay close to each other and the boss, but you can walk around in a 300 range circle around the boss.

Some bosses still need to stack tight so he don’t more around too much or to pull him or to make him waste an attack , etc. But always ask you why do we pull in a corner? More than often you’ll see that corner is not as good at it use to be.

1) ToK and Scolls : I have use for all of them even if I alreayd have 8 character at 80. You can make gold out of them and I’m always in need of more skill point. I want more of these.

2) Gold : What is wrong with gold? I always have a project in the background, a legendary, an achievement, a nice skins, etc. Yup ppl used to have way less gold, but they used to not knowing how to make gold when the game started. You where not doing 1 gold at the end of a path in the pass, but every single veteran or higher were giving you gold back then. They were ways to make as much gold as today in dungeon, but ppl didn’t know them back then, that’s all.

3) Bandits Crest, Snowflake, Gift, keys and Silky Sands. I use them all, there is no problem with them. The new runes I agree are pretty pathetic and they went a bit crazy with the amount of winters weapons in the gifts.

4) Tier 7 material. On that I can’t agree more. I would prefer they gave us more ways to spend them because not everyone have them in large quantity, someone not doing dungeon or silverwaste won’t have that much of them for an armor and weapons. Mawdrey 2 and the Star of gratitude is of great help.

I don’t think that’s a big problem in the game. Most of the time its because ppl don’t know that a excellent use of some of the item exist in the game. But for some staff Anet just blow it up with a way too large source or not enough ways to use them. I see two major problem

- Under use of the wallet for all the new currency they add in the game.
- Way too many different currency in the game make then harder to balance so they don’t lose their value.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

Running Zerk-Meta means you invest all and everything in DPS ignoring any chance to repair or clean, and thus suffer an extreme high chance of dying vs any damage source for as long they can degrade or avoid your spikes. It doesn’t show you are highly skilled IMHO, it shows you want to go all in for a fast kill, and forget you are vunerable….. very vulnerable!

Extreme high change of dying? In new content for the first few try ya. But otherwise I look at animation and time my stuff right and I have no problem. That’s the beauty of the game, you can survive with passive stats or use your active ability. I prefer running zerker because the game become funnier when I need to dodge every single attack, while going way faster.

But no problem if you can’t run zerker, I don’t judge you.

If you all have too much ToK you could give them to me (sadly impossible). ToK is free gold. Make Key Run far more easier and skill point can be used to make gold in the mystic forge.

ThePaladin.2140:

I can pretty much survive on zerkers as I have a full set and I dont die often. My only goal was to find a good Sentinel’s build that goes with many tasks. Sounds like the consensus is that Sentinels = useless outside WvW which is a pity since sentinels frees up your last trait instead of opting for 300 vit.

That’s the thing, outside WvW you either need sentinels nor the 300 vitality from trait.

Not really. The point is that diversity in build come from Trait, Sigil, Skills and Weapons, not from gear. So your gear choice will only reflect a balance between personnal surviability and damage.

You can survive wihtout defensive stats and that your goal would be to any none by running zerker or assassins. Mix of those gear with some more defensive gear like knight are only good as you learn the game, content are profession. No need to go full zerker if its only to die often.

But as you get better, more defensive gear is totally useless.

Best Class for PvE Open World/Leveling
- Any profession

Best Class for PvE Dungeon and Fractals
1) Elementalist (Power/Support but its all gonna be that, so i’ll skip it for the rest)
2, 3) Thief and Warrior (Most party should have both in most dungeon, but not all)
4, 5) Guardian and Mesmer (Bring specific support needed in specific situation)

Best Class for WvW
1) Guardian (Tank, Power, Support)
2, 3, 4) Warrior (Tank, Power, Support)
2, 3, 4) Elementalist (Power, Support)
2, 3, 4) Necromancer (Power)
5, 6) Mesmer (Power, Support : Its a gank with veil)
5, 6) Thief (Power : its a gank/scout)

Best Class for sPvP
1, 2) Engineer and Elementalist are flavor of the month
3, …) Everything else depend WAY too much on your level of skill.

Dadnir.5038:

This thread hurt.

As for dungeon, I thought it was well known that they are oowned by the holy trinity guardian/warrior/Elementalist. Every other class (sadly) are optional.
- Thieves grant a descent dps and easy trash mob skip (not to say that they can perma blind).
- Ingeneer is a jake of all trade but sligthly harder to play that can fullfill an ele spot or a thief spot
- Rangers add a bit more dps but have it’s own issue (for example, newbie have a hard time controling their pet and even a hard time restraining themselve to not overusing LB#4)
- Mesmer grant easily some nice utility like timewarp and all the reflection stuff.
- Necro… well… no… let’s just skip the necro this poor thing add nothing to dungeon.

NB: cornering, except maybe for AC run, is still the best way to ease some fight mechanics like SE Alfa aoe. FGS was just usefull to hide player that don’t know how and when they have to dodge.

Wow THIS hurt even more.

- Holy trinity Guardian/Warrior/Ele and everything else is optional? You have five profession that are mostly use in dungeon. Guardian/Warrior/Thief and Mesmer bring specific skills to the table when you need them but you only bring 1. Elementalist fill the rest of your party for their DPS. You see WAY more Thief and Mesmer in records run than Guardian. Engineer and Ranger are optional, they both fall between two stools because they have better dps than Warrior, Guardian and Mesmer but not as good as thief and Elementalist. They also bring good utilities/buff, but not as good as Guardian, Warrior and Mesmer. They will do both the job in speed run, but…

Cornering is still the best way? It’s a decent strategy to make things easier like with CoE Alpha, but most of the time it bring nothing or hurt your team more than anything. That’s an old habit the way too many ppl still have and don’t question. We should all ask ourselves WHY do I corner here and does it bring something to the fight? I still corner some boss that i shouldn’t, but i’m working on it.

Neural.1824:

I
Is there any benefit to mixing gear types? (i.e. half zerker, half rampager, or all zerker, but knights trinkets, etc.)

Yes and no. It depend on what you want to achieve.

- Hybrid Power/Condition don’t really work well because condition don’t work well in dungeon. In PvP hybrid work very well (see the explosion of celestial Engineer and Elementalist in sPvP these day), but not in PvE.

- Hybrid Zerker/more tanky gear work well for ppl that are learning the game, content, profession or ppl that just want to have a good time in casual run. More tanky gear like soldier and knight are made for that exact purpose in PvE. But it is not the most optimal way to go in the end. As you get better you’ll slowly replace your knight or whatever gear to more and more zerker pieces.

- Zerker/Assassins. That’s more tricky. They both have the same purpose as in maximum damage, but which gear is better depend on a lo of things : your profession, yours build, what you use the most, your party, food, buff, etc. Whatever the best answer is for your situation, the difference between assassins and zerker is always really small, so I end up using zerker on most my character only for the sake of simplicity. Which one is better change too often for me to invest into assassin over zerker. But here some really simple guide line.

- Thief is always better with Zerker because it have so much crit chance in a meta build. You can go over 100% really fast.
- Engineer is usually better with Assassin gear because of all the good proc that you can do.
- Mesmer are usually better with Assassin gear because a good mesmer can reflect like crazy and that reflect is not affected by your power, but by your precision. The less you use your reflect and the more zerker will be effective.

Ya you find those kind of guys from time to time. The kind that think that only 1 thing work in the game. The kind of guys that freak out if you change only 1 little thing in 1 meta build they saw on a website event if that doesn’t necessary apply everywhere and with every technique. The kind of guys that still stack in corner for every boss even if FGS doesn’t work anymore. The kind of guys that prefer a bad player with the meta over a good player with a different build. The kind of guys that kick rangers and engineer without asking question even today.

Play How I Want ppl have their bad apples, but we also have ours.

If you are talking about role there two big category : Gank and Scout.

Gank : Your role is to target caster of the other side. These are Elementalist/Necromancer (and Engineer in pugs zerg). In a decent zerg, casters will spread so that the enemy’s melee train can’t focus more than one at a time. So that’s the gank’s job to find those solitary casters and put them down to releave your zerg from the range pressures (Meteor Shower, Lava Front, Static Field, Frozen Ground, Necro Wells and Mark, etc). Your role is also to finish downed players, because its dangerous for a melee train to stay in one place while they try to finish 1 guy. You also serve as an anti-gank to help your caster when they are being focused.

Scout : Your role is to scout the enemy. Roamer usually can give a good idea of where enemy’s zerg are, but sometime someone that can specifically follow an enemy zerg, go into keep before it flip, stay in front of the zerg to make sure they know what’s there or things like that can be really useful.

Lazze.9870:

Thaddeus.4891:

So they are excellent in speed run, but for now I never saw a Ranger in a record run.

They have been a part of then current record runs. I haven’t looked at the records for the current meta, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re full of war/mes/ele/thief runs.

I do of course agree with you, they fall between two stools, just like the enige. I just think it’s bad enough with all the rangers playing awful and giving the class a bad reputation. We don’t need people spreading lies in-game and on the forums on top of that like monepipi did.

True. Most players are always behind about what is good right now in PvE. In PvP, ppl tend to keep track more because if they don’t they usually have an hard time, but in PvE, ishh.

Some ppl still think that a party need more than 1 warrior or that ranger is one of the worth profession in the game or that we should stack in a corner for everybody boss, etc.