Guild Wars 2

OddHood.8062:

http://youtu.be/Vkh6kpV2Fz4

Ironically, you’ll die as fast as the golem did with this build.

I don’t understand why it would be a big deal. In fact, there’s no reason that all PvP only skins shouldn’t be available in PvE and all PvE only skins should be available in PvP! This game launched with the idea of playing how you want to get what you want, and exclusivity in certain modes kills that. If you want to make it prestigious, make it so you have to be in certain places in the leaderboard and be doing Soloqueue/Teamqueue. Also, MAKE IT SO TEAM QUEUE IS FOR FULL TEAMS ONLY!

With Runes of Strength + Sigil of Battle + Sigil of Strength alone, you get like 12 stacks of might from just fighting, sometimes more. Add in Enhanced Performance and you creep on 20 stacks. This is WITHOUT HGH. There’s not reason to run that skill in PvP as there aren’t enough conditions for it to be necessary and there are methods of getting high might stacks without it. Also, healing turret is more than enough.

It’s also false that it’s more damage. The best damage for engineer is swapping through high damage cooldowns on multiple kits. I generally go Rocket Turret, Grenade Kit, Elixir Gun in PvE and swap between all my high damage stuff. The DPS is crazy. If I was just running Rifle + Grenade Kit with HGH, my DPS would suffer.

/thread
/15char

Uhtameit.2413:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

healing turret, which is 2 condi clears per minute and transmute

Healing turret has 15 or 20s CD. More like 6 or 8 condition removals per minute. It’s okay though, you don’t have to know how to count.

It’s called a typo. 2 condis per use, 8 condis per minute. Do you just hunt for tiny details to nit pick?

The engineer’s ultimate weakness, even with AR, will always be conditions. They have healing turret, which is 2 condi clears per minute and transmute, which stops the first condition that hits them and a random one there after. AR is only affective at 25% or less and DOESN’T remove conditions. Thus, wait for them to pop healing turret and burst them while they are above 25% health with conditions. If you are running a power build, don’t bother fighting them. It takes for friggin ever and they’ll have the point by then. Just push something else. They suck in team fights. The only think that should stand up to that build is something with a lot of stun breakers and stability OR a very bursty condition user. Necromancers are amazing for this. I’ve also wiped the floor with some decap engis on my condi engi.

1. Healing Turret is a staple healing skill in pretty much all modes. You generally only want to go Med Kit if you are running solo and a lot in tools. You never want to run Elixir H or AED as they provide less healing over time and less condi clears over time. Even in Might stacking builds, go healing turret. It’s that good.
2. You’re giving yourself way too much defense. Conditions in PvE are fairly rare and generally non-threatening. Taking Elixir C, Automated Response and Elixir Gun is total overkill in that department.
3. You really lack damage in this build. Rifle alone is not that good damage, nor is Elixir Gun. The true key to great damage with an engineer is taking a bunch of skills that deal high damage and swapping between using them. I highly suggest taking grenade kit and/or bomb kit in addition to elixir gun. Elixir Gun’s acid bomb hits really hard in power builds. Flamethrower can also be fun and synergizes with your traits in Firearms. Focus mostly on using skill 2 in flamethrower if you take it rather than the auto attack. Drop Elixir C and Rocket boots for this.
4. Mortar is only barely passable in one situation: Enemies are coming to a predetermined location that you must defend and have the ability to pull you to them. Even in this situation, Mortar is very buggy and will often stop firing even when you hit the buttons, putting them on a FULL cooldown. Take either Elixir X or Supply Crate. Mixing Elixir X with Big Ol Bomb (The toolbelt skill from Bomb Kit) will do crazy damage (12k+!). This is because if you get tornado from Elixir X, your power goes to insane levels (double!). Supply Crate is just great all around. Fantastic CC and drops bandages that can heal for about 1k each.
5. If you want to deal damage in PvE, going deep into the explosives line is highly recommended. I always go 30 into that line for PvE for grenadier. If you want to go completely damage, go 20 into tools. Speedy Kits is an amazing trait and always prepared is good in stacks if you happen to go down (heals allies if you move a bit). If you take Tool Kit, Power wrench is amazing. In Alchemy, Deadly Mixture was a great choice. I suggest keeping that and taking both flamethrower AND Elixir Gun. The final build would be something like this:

This

Now you have extremely high damage, very high power, and support:

1. Support – Healing Turret, Super Elixir (Elixir Gun), Supply Crate
2. Damage – Flame Blast (Flamethrower), Grenade Kit, Rifle 3 and 5, Acid Bomb (Elixir Gun).
3. Control – Net Shot, Overcharged Shot, Air Blast, Supply Crate (Stun and Net Turret).

tigirius.9014:

DargorV.8571:

Best heal in the game? If you play against brain dead people maybe.

Even in PvE mobs kill it in 2-3 hits max

Or do you only use it as detonation? In which case its 3 cooldown to result in less healing than a warrior’s banner (which they just toss somewhere and forget about it).

Subpar it is.

A turret shouldn’t be used only to detonate, if thats how Arenanet sees the ability then it needs to become just another elixir that is used in 1 button press and then give engis an ACTUAL turret.

Don’t forget that we have to use a three button perfectly timed maneuver just to get the same healing affect as other classes 1 button skills.

Perfectly timed? You just spam it. Wut.

It’s a healing skill with a half second cast time, AoE healing, a water field, AoE condi cleanse and an AMAZING recharge. How is this not the best heal in the game?

I like Captn Crunch. Just today I had some. It was berry berry.

There are a lot of factors that go into what damage you deal. There’s a random variance to all skill damage because you have a weapon that deals a random damage between two numbers. Next, there are things like the target’s armor that change that number. Also, vulnerability, weakness and protection change this. Furthermore, you can crit sometimes and raise that damage.

The engineer is a utility class that specializes. They generally have a lot of different things that help the team and cover a multitude of aspects, not just super focused like the ele with AoE, Burst, Healing and Defense (Fire, Air, Water, Earth). Instead, you have tools! Took tool kit? Now you have high damage, defense, and CC! Take Flamthrower? Now you have high damage, CC and conditions!

The trick to maximizing damage on the engineer doesn’t come from any one kit. It comes from swapping between multiple kits to pick out the high damage skills and quickly move on to the next. Could you keep it simple and simply spam grenades or bombs? Sure, but you deal less damage over time that way. My build in PvE is this:

Rifle – Rocket Turret – Grenade Kit – Elixir Gun

Every single one of these kits have high damage in them.

1. Rifle – Blunderbus (4k), Jump Shot (3k then 7k)
2. Rocket Turret – 2k from Rocket Turret, 8k+ from Rocket toolbelt ability.
3. Grenade kit – 3-4k from Shrapnel Grenade, 3-4 from Freeze Grenade, 8k+ from Grenade Barrage
4. Elixir Gun – 2k ticks from Acid bomb (5 times = 10k damage AoE).

When I’m in PvE, I’m constantly rotating between all of these skills. If you look at all the kits, they ALL have damage in them. All besides med kit.

1. Tool Kit – Pry bar hits for 6k
2. Bomb Kit – Auto attack hits for 4k, Big Ol Bomb hits like a freight train.
3. Flame Thrower – Flame Blast hits for 8k+ if you can do it right.

What’s great about kits is that, yes they bring you high damage skills, but they also bring you utility. Bomb kit has a blind field and cripple field! It also has a fire field for might stacking. Flamethrower has the best knockback in the game and AoE blind. Elixir Gun has a great heal and some of the best condition removal I can think of.

I’d also drop pistols. Rifle has a lot more utility and a lot more power damage. Jump shot at close range is crazy strong (2.5k damage total on tooltip with vulnerability!). The auto attack also pierces on Rifle.

In general, conditions are weaker than power damage in PvE. In PvE, you can stack vulnerability and might to really blow out your damage and the damage happens faster. Dead people can’t kill you. Dead people rally you. What a lot of groups do is they stack in corners and burst everything down with power damage and just rally off the creatures that die in the stack. Even if you are in a group that DOESN’T do this, you still are better off because the enemies will die faster. The only time this isn’t as good is in long battles where the toughness you gain from being condi actually helps. Conditions are also a LOT easier to put on an enemy so battles that require a lot of attention are better with condis. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case in PvE. It also accounts for why Condis in PvP are so common.

Uh, no. I didn’t create an AoE knockback on a 15 second recharge with no cast time. I wouldn’t make that because that’s blatently OP. I wouldn’t create a trait that makes you immune to conditions at less than 25% health because that leaves no counterplay. I wouldn’t create a game where the intended design is for all classes to be able to support but in reality only a few can actually do it. I didn’t make Doom instant!

If you aren’t running apex predator builds you have no one to blame but yourself. It’s stupid not to.

Exactly. That’s bad game design. I didn’t make the game.

They want there to be some easy builds that are moderately effective. Unfortunately, they made them WAY too strong and now they’re dominating everything. Nerfing things is hard because people get kitten and their company policy is to be really slow and calculated with their nerfs. It’s not that they want all this bad design, it’s part the company policy and part…well bad design.

Aedrion.6483:

Warrior / Necromancer — 18372 Base HP

Ranger/ Engineer / Mesmer — 15082 Base HP

Guardian / Elementalist / Thief — 10805 Base HP

Come somebody explain to me why there is such a huge difference between some classes? And before you say that some have better healing and/or defensive abilities: That is untrue, warriors have some of the best defensive abilities in the game and necromancers have Death Shroud. Whereas Elementalists have mist form, which completely disables them and doesn’t allow healing at all.

A full glass elementalist can use Meteor shower and hit for a good 8k per meteor if they use tornado.

That’s why. Sure, warriors can hit for 8k with eviscerate, but a good fiery rush spike with just DD can hit for 8k AoE as well. This will come out of no where if you use your lightning flash correctly.

Elementalists also get to bring healing, damage, spike and defense BY DEFAULT!

Thieves, you know their deal. The point is to stay out of battle until the time is right. If thieves could just hang out in the middle of a battle and deal so much damage from stealth, it’d be insane. (oh wait S/D).

Guardians have a crap ton of defense.

Yes, warriors have a lot of defense and stuff. That’s why they’re OP in PvP, PvE and WvW right now.

Part of what makes a skill OP is not just how powerful it is, but how easy it is to use and how hard it is to counter. There use to be a build where engineers could one shot people by going into stealth and using minefield to instagib squishes. This is OP in the damage and counterplay department, but super glassy, low utility and SUPER hard to pull off correctly. Done right, it’s unstoppable. Done wrong, you die.

This is not the kind of OP we have in the game. We have OP stuff that is easy to use and hard to counter. Doom requires a target. They will take a ton of damage if you have the trait and they become CCed. This is literally instant.

If we were to buff everything to the power level of these types of OP builds and skills, the game would get easier and easier over time because there is so little counterplay. Every mistake made by the devs would require a buff to every class until they literally couldn’t make things stronger.

That’s why this will never work. You have to cut the OP easy builds. High power should require difficulty to use and high counterplay. Simply buffing everyone else is a bad solution to the problem.

Nope. Don’t hate the playa, hate the game. When you put in optimal strategies, you can’t get kittened if people start using them.

Here is why this is true

If they didn’t want balance, they wouldn’t be nerfing AR this coming patch.

So instead of working on balance changes, you want them to work on something that lets someone else do balance changes for them? It’s not going to happen. It’d be cool, but it just won’t happen. They’d have to go through every single skill in the game and create these tweaks and nobs, create the UI for this and change CAs to allow for this functionality. There’s so much involved in this change.

kirito.4138:

cheese.4739:

kirito.4138:

Hype.8032:

Decap is still too strong, nerfing AR won’t fix it. That is all.

I’m new to gw2. what is a decap engi?

An Engineer with huge access to knockbacks, launches and immobilise – they can build to be pretty reasonable bunkers and then cap points while bunkering due to their incredible amounts of CC.
Automated Response (AR) is a grandmaster-level trait that currently stops new conditions from being applied to the Engi while they’re under 25% health – this means that condition users can’t take advantage of the Engi’s lack of condi-cleansing options.

Hopefully with AR changes we’ll at least see some people moving away from this terribly broken build type, since most players running condition-heavy builds (especially Necromancers) will be able to take them out easily.

What is CC? credit card?

Trolololololo. Ugly thief, stop picking on the noobies. (don’t stab me)

Jelzouki.4128:

PLEASE DON’T LET THIS COMMENT GO IGNORED:

Please…we don’t need more stat combinations for build diversity, there are tonnes of different builds to utilize with stat combinations.

Please give our classes new weapons!

Weapons require animation, balancing, effects and a lot more designing. It would also require them to make a LOT of skills. Even if they just made an offhand for elementalist, that’s 8 new skills. For thief, a new offhand means they have to create 5 new skills (dual skills). All other classes it would simply be 2 new skills. So at the very minimum of design, that’s 12 + 5 + 8 = 25 new skills added to the game. This is a ton of work.

New amulets require an icon and some forethought. This is an afternoon’s worth of work.

Just adding a new stat combo for PvP can change everything. Imagine if they added a stat combo that was Condition Damage, Condition Duration, Precision. Now you’d see super glassy condition builds! What about Healing Power, Boon Duration, Vitality? New healing power builds! Stats are a HUGE part of your build and just adding one would do wonders for the game.

Lightlord.4752:

Power (Main) +Vitality/Toughness

cough

I would love to see some amulets that give boon duration and condition duration in PvP. I think these are very forgotten stats and it would be cool to see things like:

Caretaker’s Amulet – Great for low vitality supporters

Boon Duration +30%
Healing Power +569
Vitality + 569

Monk’s Amulet – Great for high vitality supporters

Outgoing healing +20%
Healing Power + 569
Toughness + 569

Healer’s Amulet – Middle ground

Healing Power + 798
Boon Duration + 10%
Outgoing healing + 10%
Vitality + 300
Toughness + 300

Bleeder’s Amulet – For YOLO condi builds

Condition Damage + 798
Condition Duration + 20%
Precision + 569

I’d also love to see some more precision main combos. Assassin’s would be great to see in PvP!

It would also be great to see some runes that help the damaging supporter, sort of like power engis in PvE with elixir gun and healing turret:

Power + 798
Precision + 569
Healing Power + 300
Ferocity + (Crit damage + 5%)

Hit the enter key. kitten .

Two players who have played the same amount of time aren’t necessarily as skilled as each other, thus the ranking system changing is fine. That’s all you had to say.

Aedelric.1287:

Thanks but no thanks.

-1

Totally agree. This game is srs bsn so anything that isn’t srs bsn should not be done.

Ever.

Fun sucks.

Also colors.

I will never understand where there aren’t ways to get legendaries thought ONLY WvW and ONLY PvE and ONLY PvP. I hate WvW, so I’ll never go for a legendary.

December.3946:

Ozie.4176:

+1 I need dem hoodies.

I understand what they are going for. They want to make this feel like you are leveling in PvE. Rank 80 = Level 80. Of course it’s going to take a lot long to get to rank 80 than level 80, but I’m guessing they want a similar feel to that system. What they don’t understand is that the current system caters to a certain type of player. Not everyone wants things easy. Some players love what’s called “effort justification”. They put in a lot of work and time and they want a reward that proves that. If there is nothing in the game that can show that experience and effort, then it sucks.

Personally, I don’t like the change. I love hearing stories about players we all know getting to rank 70 and I was hoping to hear a story about rank 80. It was truly the legends of this game. It gave the game a sort of…mystic quality? It was so cool to hear that someone finally got dragon rank in GW1 and to see it for the first time was so cool. Now…everyone is going to be stomping with dragons eventually. Rank 55 isn’t that hard to get. I’m almost there after about a year. That said, I barely played PvP the first few months AND the amount of rank you could get per match was WAY lower.

I felt like this game already lacked rewards like the ranking system, and now that one is going away too? What happened to things like in GW1 where you could get a cape lining if you were a great player who won in tournaments? What about the statues that got put up in your honor? There’s like only one because there’s hardly any sponsored tournaments. It’s rewards like the rank system that put the best/most active players on a pedestal and say “See, it is possible” to everyone else.

Not everything should be achievable by everyone. There has to be some rewards that only the elite few can obtain! Pokemon doesn’t hand you pokemon in stacks of five to make the climb to catch them all achievable by the average player!

Only some classes have the ability to do this. They are listed below with all of their methods. Stability does not work on her.

Elementalist

1. Use Mist Form for while stomping.

Engineer

1. Use Elixir S while stomping.

Mesmer

1. Get up some clones and use Diversion while stomping.
2. Place a portal far away from the fight. Run in and place a portal BEFORE stomping. Stomp, use the portal and use the portal again while stomping.

Thief

1. Start stomping. Use shadow step at max distance (1,200 range away). At the end of the stomp, teleport back.

PvPers should know these already I have not tried quickness stomps, but if they are possible, Rangers and warriors would be able to execute these, leaving Necromancer and guardian as the only classes unable to stomp her quickly.

People found this…Hard?

Who said they’re trying to decentralize LA? It’s just a really good target for Scarlet to attack.

Elestian.6134:

Access to stability in GW2 is limited, as it should be. This strikes a great balance with access to CC with some exceptions, but again, room for improvement. Being knocked or pulled off a cliff has the feeling of circumventing GW2’s combat system altogether, and I imagine that to be the greatest source of frustration. The skills, utilities, and tools at the disposal of your class (and their balance with those of other classes) don’t have a chance to shine.

The source of frustration is that you are being CCed, and some players don’t like that. They think there’s nothing they can do about it. The point of this post is that they are completely wrong and there is actually A LOT you can do about it. You also have to realize that this isn’t circumventing GW2’s combat system. It’s a major part of it.

Elestian.6134:

The problem isn’t that pushing players of cliffs is “cheesy” or “takes no skill,” but that there is not necessarily equal access to such knock backs or pulls across professions. Consider a d/d ele, who cannot swap in combat to staff for Gust (which is a horrible skill anyway and basically requires that an enemy be standing still) and otherwise has access to only a single launch of 200 on a 40s CD (Updraft). Compare that to, say, GS mesmer 5, LB ranger 4, or any Fear.

Granted these moves are still pretty easy to anticipate and avoid, but it’s just one more thing that one profession must heed mid-fight that the other might not, and I can see why it could be incredibly frustrating for new players especially, who may not be as familiar with other classes.

As a staff ele, you also have huge access to healing fields, fire fields, walls and blast finishers, making you a huge team asset. You also have tons of AoE damage for huge fights, access to some of the best and cheapest skills ever (Frost Bow and Fiery Greatsword) and great condi removal.

You are basing a build’s strength in how good it is against and with CC. On skyhammer, I can see that. On EoTM, there is so much more you can do.

Qaelyn.7612:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

A lot of people say that trying to throw someone off a cliff is “Cheesy” or “requires no skill”. These are false.

Stealthing and then yanking/knocking someone requires MASSIVE skill!

Only a problem on Skyhammer with stealth pulls. On EoTM, you still need to be near a cliff side. EotM is also huge, so you can see someone stealth from far away. The likelyhood of someone actually getting a stealth CC is extremely unlikely on that map if you pay attention.

Rottaran Owain.6789:

Should probably add to the list of notable CCs, the fear thieves get from necros.

If you don’t know where his fingers have been, you should assume the worst.

It’s fear me with a cast time. Just dodge it

A lot of people say that trying to throw someone off a cliff is “Cheesy” or “requires no skill”. These are false. If you know how to properly use your environment, there is nothing those tossers can do to you. I will only say stability once. That was right now. It isn’t needed to be successful on a map with falling to your death mechanics. A player using none of it can beat an engineer going full CC if you know what you are doing.

General Tips

1. Note what could be the largest distance CC they could have, and stay that far away – Is an engineer coming after you? Nearly all CC they do is melee ranged (400 or less). The exceptions are magnet (a pull) and Big Ol’ Bomb (Make a sandwich and dodge)
2. Use Walls – There are walls all over the place. If you hug right against it, you need multiple CCs or a pull to get you out of there. Use that to either waste their cooldowns or regain some health before going for a spike.
3. Note their weapons – An engineer using two pistols doesn’t have overcharged shot. A guardian in staff can’t banish you. Watch their weapons and play accordingly.
4. Keep them between you and the cliff – There are only two skills in the game that can CC you off a cliff alone while the enemy is between you and the cliff. Those are temporal Curtain (has a telegraph) and throw mine (has a telegraph). Technically there is Deployable turrets + Accelerant Packed Turrets, but that’s really rare.
5. Know the Chains – Guardians like to Shield of Absorption first, immob you with the chains of light and then send you flying off a cliff with banish. Engineers will pull you with magnet, push you with Magnetic Shield and then air blast you with flamethrower. Mesmers use bait you to a cliff and throw you with Temporal Curtain. Don’t let them set you up!
6. Travel in Packs – In PvP, pushing someone of a capture point is EASY. Engineers can decap anything they want if it’s 1v1. Add in another player and it becomes nearly impossible. Numbers help resist CC, if only because they have too much to worry about to get their combos right.
7. If the enemy stealths, get away from cliffs and prepare to dodge – Mesmer poofs? It’s probably going for a temporal curtain pull. Dodge and run. Engineer go invis? Wait 1-2 seconds and dodge. It’s probably a magnet pull.
8. Stay away from cliffs – If someone is running a CC build, they have to be near a cliff to be effective. Fight on your own terms. Fight where you are most effective. Are you a condi build with 0 CC? Don’t fight near cliffs! Set your self up to be fighting in the most advantageous place you can find.
9. Sometimes it’s better to run – Perplexity Engis are a tough fight, especially if you have almost no condi removal. Maybe let him win this round and come back another day. Better than making the long trip back.

Notable CCs and how to counter them

1. Temporal Curtain – This has a 600 range to it and a 1s delay after being placed. It can be triggered anytime afterwards. If you are right next to it, double dodge away from the cliff. If you are maybe 300+ range from it, dodge once away from it. It might even be worth it to use an invuln to ensure you escape. Keep in mind, it’s only a 450 pull distance, so if you are a good distance from the cliff, it can’t throw you off. Some people tend to think the pull is strongest on the inside, but that’s not true. Once you see this being used, get away from cliffs.
2. Magnet – Watch for the gray beam of light that takes a full second to get off. It’s very easily dodgable when you know what’s coming. Make sure when running from an engineer using this that you keep watching your back. Set a key bind to look in back or simply click and drag the screen to see in back of you while running away.
3. Fear Me – This is possibly the most OP CC in the game in these types of fights. The key is that the further away you are, the less effective it is. This of course is easier said than done as warriors are really good at engaging enemies with leaps and immunities. Thus, your main options are stun breakers and simply keeping the warrior on the wrong side of you. Also remember, the faster you are, the faster you run away!
4. Doom – Same as Fear Me.
5. Point Blank Shot – If Doom is the Zhaitan of CCs, Point Blank Shot is the Deep Sea Dragon of CCs. It’s super deadly, but people forget it is there until it’s too late. This is a 900 range shot that can throw you quite far. It is also only a 1/2 cast time. Check if the ranger is using a long bow ahead of time.

Qaelyn.7612:

And combat too often becomes not like two martial artists sparring, but like two martial artists each trying to throw the other down a flight of stairs.

Welcome to the most important lesson to learn in martial arts: Use your environment. Someone using a lot of projectiles? Use the walls for cover. Someone trying to teleport to you? Get on a rock so they can’t anymore. Someone trying to throw you off a cliff? Get away from the cliff or get at an angle so they can’t do it effectively.

Helcor.9527:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Helcor.9527:

Harbinger.8637:

Pro tip: Bring stab or a stunbreaker.

So you mean bring certain professions. A true testament to balance.

Every single profession has easy access to stun breakers. Every class has at least a moderate amount of stability. Every class as the ability to dodge. But most importantly:

Every class makes the choice to stand near a cliff.

Need to get that gate down that is on a bridge? Use a catapult instead. Want to kill that guy near the edge? You are taking a risk and probably falling into a trap. Worried about stealth throws? Bring stability, stealth or stun breakers and stay away from ledges. Travel in packs. You can’t be surprised if you constantly lose 5v1s, so bring your friends along with you! It’s more fun that way.

This is not logical.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stability

Given that information its obvious that some professions have it a lot easier than others in the stab department. And even than the amount of stability you can apply doesnt match the ridiculous amount of cliff avoidance you have to keep in mind while playing this map. I’m willing to bet that future wvw maps will have this same game play in mind.

Bout to blow your mind with this one. Stability isn’t the only way to avoid falling off cliffs. There are only so many CCs that you actually have to worry about. Almost all CC in the game has either a cast time, a travel time or a really short range (600 or less). Most also require that you actually aim your shot to get them off. The only exceptions to this rule are:

1) Point Blank Shot (900 range)
2) Fear Me
3) Doom

Literally every other CC in the game is telegraphed in some way. So if you see a ranger with a long bow, a necromancer or a warrior, be a little bit careful near cliffs. Make sure you aren’t in a place where one shot of those skills could possibly kill you. The farthest that someone can CC you is magnet, banish and Temporal Curtain. Just know these skills’ tells and dodge! Magnet has a clear animation. Banish is melee range and requires a hammer. Temporal Curtain has a 1 second wait time before the pull. Double dodge.

Helcor.9527:

Harbinger.8637:

Pro tip: Bring stab or a stunbreaker.

So you mean bring certain professions. A true testament to balance.

Every single profession has easy access to stun breakers. Every class has at least a moderate amount of stability. Every class as the ability to dodge. But most importantly:

Every class makes the choice to stand near a cliff.

Need to get that gate down that is on a bridge? Use a catapult instead. Want to kill that guy near the edge? You are taking a risk and probably falling into a trap. Worried about stealth throws? Bring stability, stealth or stun breakers and stay away from ledges. Travel in packs. You can’t be surprised if you constantly lose 5v1s, so bring your friends along with you! It’s more fun that way.

Cactus.2710:

Diversity in a game should be synergistic, not conflicting. I’ll bet nobody at ANet even understood that comment.

Probably because it’s a really complicated way of saying “Achievements should encourage teamwork, not conflict.”

This mechanic is absolutely required, because if it didn’t exist, the only method of stopping an invuln, portal or teleport stomp would be to res the person, which with the AoE cleave and lack of res skills, would be nearly impossible.

Justin ODell.9517:

Jinx.7258:

That diminishes the mirroring of players skills on the leadboards. Why are those players at the top when the gap with those at the bottom is low? Lucky wins can get you higher place while unlucky loses can get you down?… Pointless to show and rank us with something that is not properly stating who is this player and how skillfully he’s playing along the match…

What I meant to say is that the gap between #1 and 50% isn’t as wide when you also consider their deviations.

Take this example:
Powerr has a rating of 1800, and a deviation of 30.
Flux has a rating of 1500, and a deviation of 200.

Powerr’s filter range is 1800 +/- 30 * 2 or 1740 – 1860.
Flux’s filter range is 1500 +/- 200 * 2 or 1100 – 1900.

Even though Powerr’s rating is significantly higher than Flux’s, since Flux has a large deviation, they could still end up being matched together.

To put this another way; Powerr’s MMR is stable enough to say he is a skilled player, but we don’t enough about Flux as a player. So even though the matchmaker would try to find a better fit for Powerr, he might still get stuck with a Flux every now and then.

It’s fine if a couple of bad players get into a high ranked match (Kind of), but once they are in, there has to be a system to make fair teams with those 10 players. The first picture has two rank 1s on the same team. Even if the actual skill level of those players was higher than the rank 34, it doesn’t matter. The perception is that the match making is broken. It needs to order the ranks from lowest to highest and deal one to each team repeatedly. It creates a perception that this is a much fairer match and when/if they lose, it’s more accepted that it was their inability to carry their bad players, rather than an inability to get lucky with the Match Making System.

Stonecaduceus.5638:

aspirine.6852:

Marionette is a great fight. The randomness of the platform ruins it completly but its better than all other bosses.

The platforms aren’t random.

Yes they are. The bosses aren’t, but the platform you get is.

Aenesthesia.1697:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Casual content. Many casual players feel really left out of this update. All they really got was the power core farming stuff. Marionette I think is a bit too hard to be call casual content. Especially when so much rides on you during the boss fights.

I think marionette can be completed easily by casual players. The wardens are easy enough, and the event only penalizes entire group fails, not individual fails (except for people kiting warden II away from the mines, argh)

The wurm can also be completed by casuals, but they probably won’t try enough times to beat it. I think we can all agree that carrying toxins to the extractors is not a terribly difficult task.

Shatterer is casual content. There is no chance that will ever ever ever fail. Yes, even with the timer. Marionette fails all the time. It’s not casual content. When people are talking about “Omg my server finally got it once!”, it’s no casual.

The wurms are not casual content. I’m not even going to bother backing that up with facts.

Fluffball.8307:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. New fail mechanic. It really brings agency to keeping the event from failing.
2. Puts a lot of agency in the hands of the players.

What the heck is “agency?”?? I can’t figure out a word that makes sense there. Control?

A feeling that your actions effect the outcome of a series of events.

Sinikka.2794:

Elbegast.6970:

Thanks but no thanks. I won’t even try to target the Wurm so long as auto-targeting is broken.

I don’t use gimmicks in fights, either, even if the fight requires it. I only use my own abilities. I will never grab a barrel, harpoon gun, siege golem or anything else on a world boss fight. If my daggers and arrows do 0 damage to the boss, then tough luck. ArenaNet needs to redesign the encounters.

So… when you need to clear leaves from your lawn, you use your bare hands? Is a rake a gimmick? Is a fork? Is any tool that’s needed a gimmick? I honestly don’t understand this opinion.

“Hey I’m going to be late to work today.” “Why?” “My car broke down and buses are gimmicks.”

Elbegast.6970:

Thanks but no thanks. I won’t even try to target the Wurm so long as auto-targeting is broken.

I don’t use gimmicks in fights, either, even if the fight requires it. I only use my own abilities. I will never grab a barrel, harpoon gun, siege golem or anything else on a world boss fight. If my daggers and arrows do 0 damage to the boss, then tough luck. ArenaNet needs to redesign the encounters.

They aren’t gimmicks, they’re mechanics. That’s really odd thing to do that makes the fight harder for no reason. How do you beat any game with that kinda mentality?

Amber is the only wurm where you have to specifically target the wurm to do the main mechanic. I have had multiple occasions where I was commanding and got the entire zerg into the wurm. I checked and literally everyone that I could see grabbed a harpoon gun. I yelled multiple times “HARPOON HERE! GET IT!”. Everyone left the wurm with FULL health. How many shots got off? 6.

SIX

No, not sex. SIX

I have done all of the following to circumvent this:

1. Telling players to look straight up and hit tab before shooting him.
2. Telling players to get 900 range from the wurm (SUPER CLOSE)
3. Telling players to get out of the wurm with full health.
4. Telling players to use stun breaks.
5. Telling players to not use kits, weapon swaps, transforms or conjure weapons until you fire.
6. Repeatedly telling them that you only get one shot while outside the wurm and to use it on the wurm.
7. Telling people outside the wurm to stay away from the spot that hit spits players to.

None of this has done anything. People don’t know how to target the wurm. So, as a PSA, this is how you target the wurm:

Look straight up and get the entire wurm’s model in your screen view. The higher the better. Hit Tab. You have now selected the wurm. If you are in a group, hit Ctrl + T (or however you bound targeting) to call a target for your team. The rest of the team can now hit T to target the wurm.

These are general tips to fight the Amber Wurm in the new boss encounter.

General Idea

The wurm eats players who have the Attractant Buff on them. This buff is obtained by killing a Risen Plague Carrier who has an icon on the mini map. After killing this creature, you stand in the light blue AoE field to get the buff. After getting the buff, you must stack on the arrow in front of the wurm so you can be eaten. Once eaten, grab the harpoon gun from the skeleton and start shooting the valve. You’ll be spit out and you can shoot the wurm.

Specific Tactic

1. Stack on the commander.
2. Ignore the first Plague Carrier as it is invulnerable and gets eaten by the wurm.
3. The second Plague Carrier spawns to the left of the wurm. Destroy it and get the buff from him by standing in the light blue circle. AVOID TAKING DAMAGE. Taking damage can remove the buff.
4. Stack in front of the wurm. Use AoE healing skills to keep players healthy. When the wurm is about to spin, dodge. If you know the tell, say DODGE in all chat to help the unskilled players.
5. When eaten by the wurm, you must get the harpoon gun from the skeleton and shoot the Pyloric Valve to escape. Make sure you and all nearby allies are at high health. Use AoE Healing and regen to ensure this. You can use the harpoon gun to shoot the valve infinitely and it is the best damage you have (about 1k damage).
6. When shot out of the wurm, stun break and charge at the wurm. Avoid any spins it might do and get close to ensure the shot hits. Make sure you have him targeted.

Advanced Strategy

Once players start to understand how to survive and ensure a harpoon hits, you can rotate between two groups of 20 or so. Being spit out puts a debuff called Upset Stomach on you for a minute or so and you will be unable to get the Attractant Buff.

Helpful Hints

1. Stun breaking the spit allows you to get near the wurm quicker and avoid any spin attacks.
2. Bring res skills such as Toss Elixir R or Battle Standard. They really help when the group starts to wipe.
3. While stacked up and waiting for the wurm to eat, AoE heal AND range attack any creatures nearby. If you can immobilize them, that helps as well.
4. A decent burn takes about 15% of his health out. If your group can get him vulnerable about every minute or so, you will probably beat him. The higher the burn, the fewer times you need to get him vulnerable. After 3 burns, my group got him to 60%.

Reslinal.2359:

I don’t understand, why can’t you just go when it’s near the whole hour clock, like 6 (for wurm) and 7 (for scarlet) etc? That’s when the two bosses spawn.

This. It’s not hard people. Even number hours are wurm. Odd are scarlet.

Megis.9264:

Am I the only one who likes this patch?

Yes.
Standing around for 2 hours waiting for it to begin, and still not having been let in when the fighting stops is not fun.

Why are you standing around for two hours? You know you can show up later and make it right? They both spawn every two hours, so just show up like 10 minutes before to set up.

Soulstar.7812:

What are the reward drops for bosses?

Blues and greens? I need to know if I am wasting time with this.

If you are playing this for rewards, don’t, and go do dungeons. If you are here for hardcore content, welcome to the party.

Because the only reason to play video games is if it gives you rewards. Definitely nothing else. This is elite content. Same as Tequatl. If you complained about the difficulty of Tequatl, just save your breath.

It has not started yet. Just wait. You’ll probably know.