Guild Wars 2

MF is useless anyway because rare, exotic and ascended drop rates are so low. I buffed myself + mists buffs from 118 to 320 on many occasions and noticed no difference.

The dishonour system is coming back with PvP leagues. This should help some. But then the people who deliberately leave will just afk (usually at home base) instead. Hopefully they will introduce an anti-afk mechanism as well.

Anet’s silence on this is disturbing, they admitted conditions were now doing too much damage over 2 months ago, and then did absolutely nothing about it.

The track reward progress bar doesn’t seem to reflect the bonus. It’s difficult to tell as there aren’t any numerical values associated with the track bar, but you would think you would notice a +50% increase. However the progress bar just seems to increase by the normal amount.

Overall Chron feels good to play, the “time marches on” on trait is my favourite, and means I can finally have an armour set without travellers runes on. Clone and phant generation is good.

Wells in general still suck because of cast time, best effect is at the end, and will generally only hit for 1 tick in pvp because people just move out of it. I made a lot of suggestions for BWE1 so I won’t fully elaborate here, but making the well radius bigger would help. Gravity well and calamity are the only ones worth slotting, but not both at the same time. As they are now wells are better for PvE and maybe WvW zerging.

Shield: I just don’t like the way this functions as an off hand. Likely better suited to premade teams but not pugs. Not enough damage on the phant, and the block skill is just awkward to use. Likely to replace off-hand sword as worse off-hand, i.e won’t get used. Tides of time is okay but the block/phant skill kill it for me.

I would say in PvP 1v1 condi mes have an advantage over a power mes. In group fights I find power mes are much better than condi mes. So chrono would just add to that.

OP burning is helping to sell HoT, as 3 of the elite specs are built around burning as their primary condition.

I don’t understand how this system is better than no system. It is terrible.

I would prefer a continuous block on the shield. In general I think the shield is junk for PvP pugging, but likely much more useful in a premade team that actually work together. Since I primarily pug, all off hands (except sword) are better than shield, and I won’t be equipping it as it is.

The OP is right, conditions are ott at the moment rivalling direct damage, which I don’t think should be the case for something that is a passive application with a supposed attritional effect. This is the worse case of passive play in the game atm and encourages easy and lazy gameplay. Cover the entire ground in oversized aoes condition fields (wells, traps etc.) and just walk away. Anet have no clue how to balance this game at all. All the applications of multiple conditions with one skill, especially transfer conditions and convert boons to conditions need to be looked at. To me this a ridiculous situation which Anet just makes worse with each balance pass.

Unfortunately I don’t think this is a mac only issue. I’ve created a thread with the same issues, and I’ve seen numerous others like it in the past for PC computers. If I can play Witcher 3 on high settings and other MMOs on ultra settings just fine, I’m guessing this is a problem with the game engine/game code. Most people say you have to turn some of your settings down to play a full Teq or a full WvW map in a zerg fight without crashing. Hopeful they will try and do something about it. I presume the problem can easily be recreated as quite a few people seem to get this issue.

On a side note, if you get a cannot read memory address error run a memory test on your ram to make sure it is not faulty. Sometimes this can be the problem.

After playing with shield more in PvP, I found that not equipping it makes a far more effective build. It is more of a support off-hand, but not a very effective one. There are far better off-hands for chronomancer from the existing stock. What would be far more useful is if the block was continuous, or if kept as it is provides the block to near by allies too. But as it stands I can’t see myself equipping it in any of the game modes I play. Pity As I had a nice skin for shield.

Despite some people always asking for harder content and cheer when they are one-shotted, if the content is too hard or frustrating to play the zone will ultimately become deserted by the majority of players.

MailMail.6534:

Vague Memory.2817:

We definitively don’t have enough condi cleanse/condi resist now since the changes to conditions. Inspiration trait line is your best bet, but even with that I find there isn’t enough to deal with a necro who can convert boons to conditions and also transfer their conditions to you as well. It will be worse when HoT goes live with elite specs and the new condition additions.

This has always been the most inaccurate statement ever. It annoys me for some reason. It’s not that we don’t have enough condi clear at our disposal. It’s that in order to play a zerker build, you can’t afford to take condi clear without doing at least one of the following: 1) taking less offensive measures (inspiration over another trait line i.e. Domination) which is why you’re presumably wanted on a team in the first place 2) taking a utility spot that could otherwise go to Blink/Portal/Decoy, all highly competitive utilities for good reason.

I’m not sure how to solve the issue, but it definitely isn’t to “give us more condition removal tools” which is what you imply when you say we don’t have enough. Unless using Blink/Decoy removes two conditions, we’re always going to be a class that has difficulty handling conditions. I’d actually say we’re pretty balanced when it comes to condition removal, but that’s just my opinion.

I haven’t had the chance to attend beta event, but in its current state, I honestly feel like Inspiration trait line in combination with Restorative Illusions is more than ample condi clear for your typical pvp match.

No my statement is pretty accurate actually. I was including inspiration line. People make this sound like this line is is amazing condi clearing, it isn’t, it’s just the best we’ve got. What you are looking at is 2 condition clears when healing, and 1 on shatter. If you play PvP you would realise this is still very poor removal especially now. You would have to use healing and pretty much all your shatters to remove 1 multiple conditions application from 1 necro. This is regardless of running zerker or not. Mesmers were designed to have limited condition removal compared to other classes in a by gone age. That philosophy just is isn’t holding up any more considering the changes made.

Wells functionality is not that much different from the first BWE. So they still suck.

Pay to win, no. Pay for an advantage yes. Elite specs are not normal specs, hence the name: elite. At the moment some of the elite specs are definitely OP because they haven’t been balanced properly, and as a side effect more people will buy HoT so they can have an advantage in any game mode. I suspect as soon as HoT drops some of these specs will be nerfed into the ground, if not you can throw what little is left of balance out the window. I find it curious that even though Anet know burning is OP at the moment they haven’t touched it for about 3 months, why, maybe it is because three of the new specs rely heavily on burns. Maybe this is too cynical, or maybe this is straight up 101 marketing and economics.

We definitively don’t have enough condi cleanse/condi resist now since the changes to conditions. Inspiration trait line is your best bet, but even with that I find there isn’t enough to deal with a necro who can convert boons to conditions and also transfer their conditions to you as well. It will be worse when HoT goes live with elite specs and the new condition additions.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It’s up BECAUSE of the beta weekend. They are beta testing Stronghold which you can play with any character, beta or not. They want people to try it so they activate the buff.

That’s illogical. They want people to try it out yet BWE beta testers don’t keep any progress from the PvP rewards track.

Seriously guys could you not time it so the “Call of the mists” PvP buff isn’t up the same time as beta. It’s bad enough we can’t keep our progress from beta, but it’s worst if we have to choose between testing beta and pvping because the buff is up. This happened the last BWE as well. Sort it out please.

Although we are talking about pve, I have to say that in the last BWE I found not using the shield made a much better build. This is for the reason the op pointed out, that there was too long a delay on phant casting, and also its attack speed. I just found the phant to be too much of a liability. Maybe these two factors can be adjusted to make shield more viable (phant cast time and attack speed – especially after the initial summoning).

Personally I think selling spots kills the spirit of the game. But I don’t blame the op or anyone else for doing it. The practice of using the official LFG tool for advertising should have been stomped out by Anet ages ago, but it wasn’t, and thus has been legitimised. When I was a new player to the game, I almost quit the game when I saw this thinking what kind of game allows it players to use its LFG UI to sell spots for doing dungeons to new players.

They should have new raid skins as rewards and not lock lengendary armour/precursors behind it. Why? Because raid communities will typically only be done by the smallest section of the community. Apparently there won’t even be a LGF for it, so it will be for premades only (which makes sense since it will not be puggable).This group, after the first few weeks will be smaller than the current fractal population. This move by Anet is illogical, they should concentrate on improving content and Rewards for the masses rather than the minority of minorities. Raids usually require a long time to learn, coordinate and complete. That is why it will always be the smallest part of the gw2 population. Gating lengendaries behind it is not going to change that.

It’s always been good for a stealth build, but as the op notes the torch phant is abysmal, even after the changes to it. Possibly the worst phant of all.

It isn’t just lag, there are specific parts of certain maps that seem bugged for stomping. Sometimes it seemed like a terrain issue, others seem to be very close to non-desctructable objects.

My take on it, is they are saving the most op and controvisabe until last. I’m pretty sure Druid will fall into that bracket. I mean look at dare devil on top of a thief’s already ott evade build. Good luck if you ever manage to hit one at all now.

I think the op is right. New players should at least have a map wide new player channel which vets can have turned on or off. This just seems like a common sense addition. New players will need help like in most games to avoid a frustrating experience.

Jerus.4350:

Vague Memory.2817:

Interesting how excited everyone seems to be about raids. The reality is raids will be an even smaller community than fractals which in turn is smaller than dungeon runners, then www, pvp and finally pve with the largest community. So in essence raids are being developed for the smallest section of the gw2 community that most people won’t play because it won’t be puggable.

I’m still not convinced that dungeon runners are a smaller number than PVP, and I’d wager that WvW is larger than both. But, with that a lot of people play various facets of the game maybe with a preference for different portions that could even possibly change at times. I know I had my WvW phase but mainly a more instanced PVE guy (I want to but just can’t get into the smaller scale PVP in this game for various reasons).

Any game mode that requires having to make a team which has advanced knowledge of an instance’s mechanics will inherently have a lower population than ones that don’t. This is mmo law.

Interesting how excited everyone seems to be about raids. The reality is raids will be an even smaller community than fractals which in turn is smaller than dungeon runners, then www, pvp and finally pve with the largest community. So in essence raids are being developed for the smallest section of the gw2 community that most people won’t play because it won’t be puggable.

Apocalypse Azza.5734:

I have noticed an influx of clueless players in ranked. I’m all for f2p and I think it’s fantastic, but more effort needs to be put in to explain basic mechanics to new players. I’m sick of games recently where like on Legacy of Foefire we’re winning 350-100 only for the other team to kill our lord then storm ahead because my team has no idea what the lord is!

Make it rank 40 to do ranked not 20!

I agree, rank 20 is too low imo. But at least it will stop people from farming dailies in ranked on classes they can barely play. Rank 40 sounds about right to me.

I just don’t see why wells aren’t made in to glamour fields (preferably not just ethereal ones). This would add more utility to them, considering most people didn’t seem that happy with the way they functioned. A lot of good suggestions for wells were made after the first BWE but no notable changes were made.

Well they are giving the core game away for free with HoT for new players. It is a short logical step to give the core game free to anyone who wants to play, which would equal F2P (minus the expansion).

Robert Gee.9246:

From a design perspective, Mesmers are more about providing fields and less about activating them. It’s not just blast finishers, Mesmers lack reliable sources of many other finishers too. Necromancers fill a similar role. By contrast you might notice that Warriors have lots of finishers but not many fields.

We don’t always get this balance right (and I think there is a different discussion to be had about when we don’t) but I hope that clarifies what we were going for in the case of Mesmers.

Thanks for answering. The thing is I’ve watch a few elite spec POIs of other classes, and the impression I got was the elite specs seemed to be adding more options of finishers and fields, in addition to those they already had. This coveys quite an advantage to those classes. If this is the direction of gameplay then all classes should be able to do this to near the same extent.

Looking at the specs (including the elite specs) for the different classes it seems as though almost all have ample fields and blast finishers, which means they can blast their own fields. Why do we have so few finishers?

Sin.3042:

If you stay in same place after first skill touched you, consecutive ones just maintain their trajectory and if they hit you also their trajectory is reset, but really channeling skill need to be fixed, they always hit you even in hell if its begin to be cast on you.

No this has been while moving, I been getting hit with several skill activates that require targeting while in stealth. In the example of Heartseeker, I entered stealth during the first hit, got behind him/her and then got hit by Heartseeker 2 more times while in stealth. This means I was targeted twice while in stealth.

I’ve noticed this a few times now. As I understand it if you are targeted and a skill is activated just before you go into stealth then the full skill effect will still hit you. However further attacks that need a target should not hit you when in stealth. But I’ve noticed that when I’ve just entered stealth I’m hit by different/same skill activation by the same attacker.

This is most noticeable when attacked by a ranger or thief. I’ve been hit 3 times by a thief in quick succession with Heartseeker despite going into stealth during the first hit, but the thief is still auto tracking/targeting me in stealth for another 2 Heartseeker hits. This requires 3 independent skill activations.

When hit by a ranger with Rapid Fire in stealth, I’ve subsequently been hit with Point Blank, while still in stealth.

The only reason I can think of why this happens is if targeted skills are activated back to back they ignore subsequent targeting. I’m pretty sure this is not WAI, unless something has been changed. Has anyone else using stealth noticed this?

Teutos.8620:

Vague Memory.2817:

I’ve been hit 3 times by a thief in quick succession with Lotus Strike despite going into stealth during the first hit, but the thief is still auto targeting me in stealth for the last 2 hits.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lotus_Strike

Lotus Strike does not need a target. You are invisible not invulnerable. Every good player will still spam auto-attack on your position. (not only to hit you, but also to kill every clone around).

When hit by a ranger with Rapid Fire in stealth, I’ve subsequently been hit with Point Blank, while still in stealth.

The projectile of point blank might already be in the air. Add a bit of lag, and it might feel he started the attack once you were already in stealth on your screen, but might not be the same on his.

Thanks for pointing this out, I got the name of the thief skill wrong, it was heart seeker that was used (i.e., when they jump through the air and attack you – distinct sound). Although you can use heartseeker without a target, it is targeting skill, as you can auto track your target with it and attack behind you. I’ll change the skill name in the OP.

As for rangers, I’ve noticed I’m being attacked well after entering stealth by the same player with a different skill. In the case I mentioned with a Rapid Shot followed by point blank, this has happened several times, but I haven’t noticed any discernible lag.

I’ve noticed this a few times now. As I understand it if you are targeted and a skill is activated just before you go into stealth then the full skill effect will still hit you. However further attacks that need a target should not hit you when in stealth. But I’ve noticed that when I’ve just entered stealth I’m hit by different/same skill activation by the same attacker.

This is most noticeable when attacked by a ranger or thief. I’ve been hit 3 times by a thief in quick succession with Heartseeker despite going into stealth during the first hit, but the thief is still auto tracking/targeting me in stealth for the last 2 hits. This requires 3 skill activations.

When hit by a ranger with Rapid Fire in stealth, I’ve subsequently been hit with Point Blank, while still in stealth.

The only reason I can think of why this happens is if targeted skills are activated back to back they ignore subsequent targeting. I’m pretty sure this is not WAI, unless something has been changed. Has anyone else noticed this?

Edit: corrected thief skill name and clarity.

Unbelievable. Just realised this when a guard and necro got up from downed 3 times.

Chokolata.1870:

You are forgetting the passive procs from the trait lines. Also, aside from the shatter spike the Mesmer has sustained damage and more utility.

I was taking traits into consideration. How can you not? The point is a thief doesn’t have to worry about his single attack being divided into 4 smaller attacks, or put up 3 illusions in the first place. Nor can you proc air and fire sigils on shatters. As for sustain, an evade thief has on demand dodges, which no other class can boast.

Chokolata.1870:

Actually, the mesmer can spike far harder then the thief, and has more survivability. This is why PU is OTT.

This isn’t true. Pound for pound a thief has better spike damage, a +4 shatter is about equal to a single backstab, but a mes has to make sure each illusion hits the target. Note each illusion separately can be mitigated with dodge, evade, block, CC, conditions etc. So a thief burst is more reliable in getting the full damage.

How would you know if you have a high or low MMR? Is it based on game win ratio and/or personal match scores?

Embolism.8106:

If you’re playing the build on Metabattle with its almost non-existent condi removal then of course you’ll have problems with condi builds. If you must run Power PU then you can’t run Inspiration, so there’s nothing you can do really.

If you read my post, I am running inspiration, and that isn’t enough. I’m specifically talking about boons being converted to conditions, not condi builds in general.

JonPeters.5630:

Just getting these out there so we know we are all in agreement:

1) Conditions seem a bit strong
2) World bosses are currently too easy
3) There are some bugged skills and traits
4) There are some overpowered builds

We won’t fix it all at once but these are four large topics we are talking about. In the meantime keep the feedback and bug reports coming, and I guess farm up some world bosses. We are dedicating time towards these issues and are intending to resolve them as quickly as possible. As we have said before, the live environment differs too greatly from anything we can reliably simulate internally so big changes like today’s build will cause things to sometimes change at an alarming rateTM.

Thanks for your patience,

Jon

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Things-we-know/page/11#post5384665

So are the devs actually going to deal with conditions or not? Especially burning. The other issues have been tinkered with but I haven’t seen any mention of conditions from the devs since the above post on the 24th June (almost 3 months ago).

Have they decided to keep them as they are or are they working on them still. An answer from a dev would be nice.

No, I’m running power shatter PU. The issue seems to be the boons mostly from PU being converted, as I noticed they have all gone and I have 5-8 conditions on me in an instant.

I use blind but it’s hard staying close to a good necro without dying, especially one running signets. They are very tanky and pretty resistant to burst, and can lock you down pretty fast with CC, only blink seems to help get some ranged damage. It’s a difficult fight especially with PU, just don’t have enough condi removal to deal with them up close. Trying to fight two necros is just futile.

Running as a PU mes these skills seem a bit too powerful. One sec you have 5/6 boons on you and the next sec they are converted to conditions, add another 2-3 conditions and there is nothing you can do to clear them in time. Even with the inspiration line mes just does seem to have enough condi clearing for this. Usual I have to blow a heal and my shatter skills to try and clear them. When you have chill, burning and torment combined it is fairly problematic.

Not sure how many other classes have these skills, but necro is obviously one and another class, but couldn’t pin down which class it was. I guess I could run without PU, but wondering how others running PU deal with this in PvP.

I have managed to get out of some of these situations, but in others it seems as it if there is nothing you can do about it. Possibly temporal enchanter might help with the resistance it gives.

Substance E.4852:

Try using the -repair tag on your bookmark.

It sounds like you might have a damaged file/s in the gw2.dat.

You may also be running out of RAM if it only ever happens in very large scale fights.

I ran the GW2 repair and it didn’t work, I reinstalled the whole game and that didn’t work either. I have 16GB ram on a 64bit OS system on a decent computer, but I get 5.6MB OOM (out of memory) error, which makes no sense. Only had this happen in Teq, but it is always on a full map (i.e. the mostly likely time Teq will succeed).

So I’ve started doing Teq recently and realised I can’t finish the event without the game crashing. I’ve been advise to lower some of my graphics settings to prevent crashing (this is after already repairing GW2, and reinstalling the whole game).

I was wondering does everyone lower their settings for Teq to prevent crashing on a full map?

Thanks for the feedback. My rough estimation was 2.5K for phants in PvP (except defender). These guys are essentially the equivalent of a single skill use they pop so quickly, even when traited for more health.

I’ve tried to use this trait several times, and it is quite difficult to make it effective. You have to be under attack to evade in the first place. Most of the damage has already been done by the time it procs. The timing has to be pretty precise to make it work at all. A junk trait imo.

It’s hard to test this without third party software. Does anyone have precise values for the base health of phants?