Guild Wars 2

Behellagh.1468:

@Thunderbrew, I don’t know who you are directing this toward but nearly all of the GW2 hype I heard leading up to it was pushing how it was going to be a more player friendly MMO than ones that came before. That to me sounds more like it’s targeting casual players than hardcore ones.

Read the OP. It clearly is someone saying that the content is too hard for them. After reading your reply and once again the OP, I realize where the problem is: How you are
defining “casual gaming.”

Casual gaming has nothing to do with the difficulty of the game itself, but the time
required by the game to experience everything it has to offer. I good example would
be in WOW, where you had to be in an end game raiding guild and playing 5 nights
a week (due to mandatory attendance) in order to get “the best gear.”

Research all of the “casual vs hardcore” debates and you will see this has nothing
to do with how easy a game is. I cannot devote 40 hours a week to this game either,
but when I do play, I would like to see SOME kind of challenge for my time to be
worth it.

The only hard part of this game are some of the jumping puzzles (especially the
clock tower one for halloween). If you run fractals with people using TS or Ventrilo,
they are not hard. WvW I dont even need to comment on, and the end zones
are solable by any class.

This whole topic confuses me. Seriously. I can promise you
that first person shooters, and other games like SC2 and Rift
require MUCH more understanding of the game to play at a
good level.’

Why would you lead a crusade to dummy games down?! WOW did
that and caused me to quit after 6 yrs of playing. There are much
easier and simpler games out their, that dont require skill levels
if you are looking for a timesink to relax.

Jorno, thanks for the link. That was a very well written post
that guy made.

I have sympathy for the OP but did you ever thing perhaps
MMOs are not for you? I mean that politely.

The last thing I want to see is the game “dummy downed” like
WOW was. Most probably dont remember when the talent
trees got cut in half because players found them “too complicated.”
I could give many more examples, but dont need to.

IMO Rift was a challenging and more complicated game (the skill
level in PvP was much higher). I want to see more challenge in games.

Good idea, but some of those links when I go to them
dont show the point allocation, they are just blank.

IMO a forum of guides should be actual guides and not
just showing where the points go. There are allot of guides
out there that actually talk about the build AND playstyle,
which is what I think people look for to make them better.

Just my 2 coppers.

Ive heard the same from guildies Lord B, in terms of mass badges with
a Necro. I have over 1500 hours on my Ele Staff and my main gripe after
hitting Tier 1 in WvW is that 75% of the battles (if not more) are always
moving so most of your long casting AOE misses the opponents.

I love the staff ele, dont get me wrong, buts its best uses are defending a
place like hills, where all of the enemy is bottlenecked in a hall or bridge.

My main reason for not leveling my Necro is the lack of escape mechanisms.
As a Staff Ele I rely on Fiery Greatsword to get away. For the past 2 weeks Ive
been playing my geared Thief, and I think its lame that I tag more enemies
with close range Cluster Bombs, used multiple times (which do high damage
even specced only 50% gear berserker), than I can with my staff ele. Poison Gas
is also instant cast, and a few can cover an entire zerg.

Go to each other profession forum, and look around. You will see
a topic with the same heading.

It should be titled: Not all are useful or used. I play a 80 Ele, War
and Thief, and know that 50% or more of skills are unused.

Well, I also think that it makes zero sense how they made a caster
classes most effective and well rounded spec a melee build(d/d).

< Over 1500 hours on Ele so Ill throw some input in:

1) I dont like how 1 spec seems to be the dominant (d/d). This
is what the vast majority of the flame posts are referring too
when it comes “OP.”

2) Staff Ele is what I mainly play, but its true strength is running
in zergs or defending/assualting a keep. Its weakness is most 1v1.

3) I do not like how we have 4 elements, but dont have any true
“ice mage” or “fire mage” builds. Maybe Im biased on WOW, but
I think there could have been more ways to specialize in a particular
element for different playstyles.

4) Lastly, there is a very limited effective range of weapon styles, and
even those depend on the situation at end.

I enjoy playing it, dont get me wrong. Its more in depth than my Warrior,
but I think I speak for all of the classes who are asking for more variety.

Ok thanks, Im new to a thief and couldnt find answer elsewhere.

Im confused on whats breaking stealth, and what isnt.

When I use Infiltrator’s Arrow, it shows my guy leaving
stealth but the buff is still on me. I was assuming this might
be the graphic bug similar to Shadowstep (which looks like
stealth is down but isnt). However, I tested the arrow movement
near a pve mob, and he could see me.

Im not sure if this is due to the stealth change with mobs, but my
MAIN concern is: Can enemy players see you when you use Infilt
Arrow while stealth is on you?

I tried S/D for a few weeks in WvW, and the main reason I went
back to Staff is the following:

1) The Scepter has a very powerful combo in fire attunement,
ill give it that. When things are on CD though, everything else
is lackluster (Im referring to the combo RtL – Updraft – Dragon
Tooth – Ring of Fire – Phoenix – Fire Grab).

2) When CDs on fire are down, nothing with the Scepter impresses
me. With the Staff, you can rely on auto attack air when
CDs are down for allot of damage over 3 targes (specced the way I
am.)

3) A big problem with S/D is that it is a range/melee hybrid. Yes you
have a taste of both formats, but its doesnt do either well, unlike
Staff which excels at range or D/D at melee.

4) When you analyze every ability in S/D, there are actually very few ways
to deal damage outside of the fire attunement combo.

This is unfortunate, because I liked the idea of having some range along
with melee, depending on the situation, but in reality it doesnt do well
at least in WvW compared to what else you can be doing.

HOWEVER, it is very good in PvE when played well. IMO, any spec works
in PvE though, so I dont even consider this.

I find myself relying on air auto attack more than any other
skill when running zerg wvw. To elaborate, the majority of battles
are constantly moving in open field, thus reducing the effect of
many of your casting time AOEs. In addition, when you zerg camps
or keep lords in numbers, you wont even get AOE off before
everything is dead.

Yes, I use all of the AOEs I can, but at the end of the day, my air auto
is used probably the most since it hits 3 target for great damage. This
is one problem I have with Staff, even though this is the spec I like the most

We trade the ability to get fast AOE off (like Necros) for more abilities
at map movement and the removing of conditions.

There was nothing wrong with the last system in place for
dailies, bottom line.

If we assume a limited amount of man hours that can be
invested into enhancing the game, as some argue, than spend
them on things that actually make a difference (like profession
balancing, exploiting, hacks, WvW improvements, etc.).

Thats the thing. That was two patches ago, and this most recent patch
did not fix it. Attention to detail = fail.

I wouldnt be complaining if they didnt show it in
last patch notes, than do nothing about it.

Eliyahu.1467:

Are you serious?

Dailies are now “Pick any 5” instead of “Do exactly these 5.”

They’re less difficult now and more flexible.

Im not talking about difficulty. Im talking about time.

I just did it. Easy, yes. But took much longer than the last 60
days of me doing it. Get 3 skill points? Map completion already
for me, and Im not going to make a toon just for that. Run a
fractal? No thanks. kill xxx mobs in xxx zone? Even worse.

All Im saying is that Im surprised things went in a more time consuming
direction.

They made the dailies much more of a grind now.

WHY?

Yet another thing that was supposed to be in LAST months patch,
and still not fixed. Im referring to the people who had the Endless
Halloween Tonic before the original fix to make it sellable.

/scratch head

Ive been only Staff for over 1000 played hours to date. I have
not played it in sPvP, only WvW.

Two things worth mentioning:

1) You can have great escape as staff. Use Fiery Greatsword as your
elite, and when things dont look good, I drop Mist Form and than
cast Fiery Greatsword (dont think many know this, but this protects
me while channeling the cast for Fiery Greatsword). As soon as Im out,
I use 3 and 4 on sword, along with Lighting Flash to outdistance anyone.
If this might not be enough, I hit my map key and TP to a waypoint as
soon as Im out of combat.

2) Staff has an amazing nuke, even if you are not fully glass cannon. I run
full berserker gear and trait 0-20-0-30-20. Use Signet of Earth to root
target, cast Lava Font than immediately Arcane Blast for a blast finisher,
than Flame Burst followed by either fire auto attacks or switching to air
for Lightning Surge and auto. I can bypasss the Signet of Earth if needed,
since thats mainly best against runners. When defending I can get the AB
blast finisher off fast enough because the second Lava Font drops Im using it.

The main power though of Staff is zerg vs zerg of course, I avoid 1v1 fighting in
the open world.

Razor.6392:

ChaosDoom.8459:

@Thunderbrew and jque

Thanks for the input. That’s nice DPS output.

I hit 115% with food -_-

Of course, when you put another 10 points into Air, use the
best food and have an asecended item or two. Im trading some
of that for the ability to remove so many conditions which has
kept me alive countless of times (especially in tier 1 this week
WvW where there were so many necros in the enemy group).

I watched that several times and dont see it going off, maybe
Im just slow. Im assuming that was it though.

Quote:
So, how are we supposed to deal with this guy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHOpACoX4ic

Interesting video, but I have to ask this as a player not knowing
a thief: In the back half of the video, when he downs someone,
he stealths to finish them, however, I dont see him use a single
ability to stealth. A good example of this is at 11:23 minutes, but
is almost in every one. Is this from the number 5 skill on a dagger
and Im just missing it?

ChaosDoom.8459:

Thunderbrew.7034:

^^ On paper that sounds good, but after spending all night
in WvW, Im sticking with my 30 in water. The enemy zerg had
6 necros working in perfect unison, and the allies on my side
(including me) found it common to see 7+ debuffs on us. As fast as
we could get rid of them, they were back. They were part of a 30
man zerg by the way, not alone.

This is the only reason why I go water. The 3k HP buff and the ability
to remove so many conditions, when coupled with the other traits,
allowed me to live in situations that it would not have been possible
without mass condition removal. It could be argued that Ether Renewal
could achieve this same effect, but I still think 3300 attack, 53% crit, and 99%
to crit damage is more than sufficient traited 0-20-0-30-20.

There are many different play styles, and any of them work with a skilled
player. Just find the mix for your own self between offense vs defense.

Hi Thunderbrew, no offense please. Can you share your build as of how to get 99% crit damage please? I am playing around with build editor but can’t get it to that level. I am also trying out crit build but seems not to be able to push up my crit damage that high. Thanks

Sure thing. The 6 piece armor is berserker, with Ruby Orbs. The Accessories
are Berserker, and the back piece is the one that gives crit damage (spinal). Staff
is berserker. Than you have the 20 points in Air line for another 20%. That will
put you at 93% crit damage. I use food that gives an additional 6% but take note
that there is a better one than that. Total is 99%.

One thing to note is, if your testing this in the Mists you wont get the same stats
because of the options available. You have to do it with real gear outside the mists.

^^ On paper that sounds good, but after spending all night
in WvW, Im sticking with my 30 in water. The enemy zerg had
6 necros working in perfect unison, and the allies on my side
(including me) found it common to see 7+ debuffs on us. As fast as
we could get rid of them, they were back. They were part of a 30
man zerg by the way, not alone.

This is the only reason why I go water. The 3k HP buff and the ability
to remove so many conditions, when coupled with the other traits,
allowed me to live in situations that it would not have been possible
without mass condition removal. It could be argued that Ether Renewal
could achieve this same effect, but I still think 3300 attack, 53% crit, and 99%
to crit damage is more than sufficient traited 0-20-0-30-20.

There are many different play styles, and any of them work with a skilled
player. Just find the mix for your own self between offense vs defense.

I agree 100% to Deniara Devious number 6 points on WvW. Every
single point except for the idea on anti zerg balls. If you remove
the AOE cap, that would solve that issue.

There is no reasoning behind AOE cap. If 30 people want to stack
on each other, than they should be punished by AOE. Any player
with any type of skill will not stand in AOE to begin with.

^^ Summed up very well. As a staff ele in WvW, I wear berserker
gear, but Im traited 0-20-0-30-20. I still have over 3300 attack
and 99% crit bonus with food. The 30 in the water line I cannot
do without because of the low hitpoint pool (which makes you
very susceptible to dots), and removing all conditions quickly
is key.

I can tell you after 600 hours on my staff ele, that its imperative
that you master map awareness and positioning. Both of those
account for 95% of your survival. In fact, I would say both of those
are more important than any defensive skills I have. Use Ride the
Lightning when traveling in the open, and in mass battles, make
sure you always have an exit strategy. Sitting in one spot removed
from other people is begging to get jumped by thieves.

Arcane Blast is the only one I use as a staff ele. Very short CD,
and ideal at getting instant damage for kill credit, or that last
needed burst on a fleeing enemy.

Good points awge, but its also worth noting that many
classes like an Ele have to blow defensive CDs to survive
the first battle (ie Arcane Shield, Lightning Flash, etc), and
those will be on CD when the second fight starts 5 seconds
later.

“Well I die at the end…? Here it goes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2rkN8jZBFA”

I enjoyed the video and the music, but I must ask this:
Can any other class chain drop people like that besides
a thief? I would say know, and that combined with the
culling issues in WvW is what has peoples upset.

I have over a thousand hours in WvW, and I can tell you
positively its a mixing bowl of issues, mainly culling and hacks.

In several dozen instances, Ive seen myself getting attacked
in big bursts, and not only dont see the thief, Im finished
without him ever coming out. Im assuming this is a culling
issue.

What I am trying to get a video on, is what I beleive to be
a major hack: instant kill. What Im talking about, is getting
from 100% to 0% instantly, and NO damage or attack is
shown in your combat log. This happened twice this week
already. I believe it would be a thief doing it in stealth.

Im a pretty hardcore MMO player, so dont bring any of this
up to QQ, since I always adapt to a game. My only confusion
on a thief though is the potential of opening damage. I play
sPvP and am a bunker ele with 1900+ toughness. I was hit
last night from 7518 backstab that I never saw. That plus the
2500 steal before it sealed the deal. That is what my problem is
with parts of the game, toughness at the level should reduce more.

^^ Couldnt agree more. After 5 years of a warrior in WOW
than 2 years of a rogue in Rift, I thought it time for a “mage”
class in my next MMO. I never would have believed that that
translated to the most effective build being a bunker “tank”
build on a caster.

Im still firm in the belief that AOE does not need a nerf
across any of the classes. Its so easy to avoid it, and I have
no sympathy for people who stand in it (reminds me of the
WOW days when 50% of players would stand in obvious AOE).

As a Staff user, I can tell you that its effectiveness is
dimished in anything other than defending or assaulting
a keep. In open world battles, the zergs are constantly
on the move, which results in most of your AOE not
hitting. Necros dont have this problem since their marks
trigger so fast.

The Scepter/Dagger is fun, but when you really look at
the damaging spells on the scepter, they are very limited.
Some great comboes with fire, but most of the time you
are waiting on those CDs, and the majority of the other
spells are lackluster.

As said above, allot more attention has to go into the
weapon lines on Ele. With other alternatives coming in
the future like Elder Scrolls online, I think its in their best
interest to address things much faster than currently as opposed
to fixing bug in dungeons that most people dont care about.

Speed hacking is the most common hack I see, and there
is also one that allows you to teleport to anywhere on the
map.

One thing I can tell you as a staff WvW player, you definitely
will want to cycle through all 4 attunements when going
against zerg armies. Simple reason is spreading out AOE
all over an area.

The number 2 skill is an AOE in all attunements dont forget,
so that supplements all of the other AOE as you cycle each
attunement. The strategy is to cover a large area quickly as
opposed to stacking all your AOE on one spot. Why? Because
zerg army battles are constantly moving, and if you try to
stack in one spot the army has already moved out of that area
more times than not.

Blasting Staff doesnt affect Healing Rain. It only affects
7 of our 20 staff abilities FYI.

Still no fix, and its been weeks since patch.

Any word on this?

Its also worth mentioning what ACTUALLY happens in big melees. We have
been fighting this week in Tier 1 WvW, and even in those battles of better than
average players, not many people every get around to the back line to drop
the range. If they do, we have people protecting the backline anyhow.

Personally, I have settled on 0-20-0-30-20 with all berserker. I trade off some
power and precision with my traits, but it insures that even when things go
crazy I stay alive to do even more damage.

^^ This is true. I run as a “backline” staff ele, but Im also on teaemspeak
with 25-30 other people in preplanned groups with specific roles. Under
those circumstances, the staff ele shines best.

Keep one thing in mind, and for this example Im going to make
a number up. Lets say the chance of getting a exotic drop is even
1%. I say this for example, because I think its much lower.

Now lets say you have 100% magic find gear. That increases the chances
to 2%. So you get an extra 1% chance under this scenario. If the drop rate
is actually HALF of a percent, you are gaining half of a percent.

Just wanted to clarify, because MF looks allot better on paper than what
it actually gives.

Simple answer for me: I drop Fiery Greatsword when I need
to get to a battle quickly OR away from it. Outside of that,
dont use them.

The end of your post Kaleden sums it up. The people dying so much
as Staff ele are playing it wrong. Just finished another 4 hour wvw in EB
tonight, and this time I died 2 times do to strange culling (still not sure
how the patch changed it). What I should have said in the earlier post
is how many times I went into the downed state. Tonight was probably
8 times, but I am always near guildies to bring me back.

I would have to say that in 95% of the zerg battles its two groups moving
in unison. The battles are never 25 people scattered all over your viewing
space preventing you from getting a handle on whats going on. Stick with
the group and move with them, and know when to get out. I play with the
mindset of a cowardly thief in the shadows: I attack when the opportunity
rises and run or hide otherwise. Play that way, it makes a world of difference
as a GC staff ele. You skills will safe you countless times (Lightning Flash,
Mist Form and Fiery Greatsword for movement).

By the way, this “25 people stacking on one space” tactic doesnt work
against GOOD people. We saw it countless of times tonight and rocked it.
Its a elementalist’s dream come true though, lol. The enemy did that every time
we ran across them tonight.

Sorry, meant Endless Halloween Tonic

Yea couple posts on this, doesnt work.

Title says it all, I made the post here again from general
forum since apparently its still not fixed.

Glad I wasnt the only one, Ill post this over in bug forum.

I have and Endless Tonic in bags and still cant sell it since
the patch. It was used once, but doesnt show thats its
account bound. Does that matter?

Fair enough on company response, but please actually
include ALL of the changes made in the patch notes.

Kodiak, I probably will go back to all zerks. As of now, I use
all zerg armor and trinkets, but specced 0-20-0-30-20.

Urinfamousr, I hesitated to even post that because I knew
what the response would be. It sounds like Kodiak plays
the same way I do, with the same results. Alas, it is true, but
perhaps I have the edge with who I run with on SOR (FEAR).
In those 4 hours the 25 man zerg never once whiped because
of the skill of the guild player base.

Even if thats not the case though urinfamousr, trust to it if you
follow these guidelines (and I have no shame saying these).

1) Use dagger OH when traveling far for Ride the Lightning
2) Fiery Greatsword Elite is there for the escapes on it. It has saved
my butt dozens of times.
3) If it looks like a fight is being lost, I leave. I dont fight to the death.
If leaving means getting out of combat and TPing back to zone in,
thats what I do.
4) As I said, knowing at all times whats going on around you, 360 degrees.
5) I dont fight unless Im going to win or Im with other people. Period. I cant
tell you how many enemy this week charges into 5 to 1 odds and die
right away. In fact, hundreds of players play that way. I dont.

If it helps I’ll get a stream setup of 2 hours of video, but I doubt many
are that interested. Hopefully Kodiak chimes in about it as well on his
experience, because I can tell you there are 5 staff eles who run in our guild
with the same results.