Guild Wars 2

Lily.1935:

I’ve played my necromancer for 1,813 hours. I’ve played my Mesmer for 442 hours. Guardian 255 hours. Engineer 535 hours. In total I’ve played 3,037 hours. A few of those hours are scattered between other professions I play less frequently and deleted characters. Out of all my main characters I’ve played almost as much on my guardian as you have played on your necromancer. And I’ve played 6 times the time you have on my necromancer and more on my engineer and mesmer.

With my time on the necromancer all of her skill rotations for me has become second nature to me. I have a great passive awareness of her cool downs as well as multiple combos I can pull off to avoid damage and pressure. But even with how good I am on my necromancer and how much more I understand about the profession then even my second most played, engineer, I have a far easier time surviving, dealing damage, escaping and overall supporting my allies with my other avatars.

I feel like a novice when it comes to mesmer. There is still allot I need to learn and I love that profession. But even with my lack of skill on a mesmer I far out preform while using my mesmer then I can on my necromancer.

/thread

Discussion over. OP, this is pretty much where most of us are at. It isn’t all hysteria and negativity feeding. There are serious issues with the class that aren’t all subjective.

Honestly, lately, I think I still play my Necro mainly for the challenge in PvP. When you outperform other classes, both you and your enemy full well know it was due to personal skill. That feeling is addicting, especially when winning matchups you had no business winning.

Very interesting and creative. Some might argue it’s a bit too complex, but I like the general idea of a “dance of death”, or a duel. It encourages the Necromancer to be a reaper of death, which I think is befitting. Could be a little too OP in the right hands, but that’s also true for Necros right now.

Certainly agree with you friend. Like Prototype mentioned, your concerns are also shared here, which I think speaks volumes regarding the state of the game. It crosses borders and two different cultures have the same opinions. What more do you need Anet?

Cbomb.4310:

- In PvE, yes, it needs some group utility, and prolly some more AoE

Did you really just say Necro needs more AoE? I’m sorry, but I can’t take anything else you say seriously.

Couple things here. Optimal and viable.

Is Necro optimal for Dungeons/Fractals? No. Is it viable? Absolutely.

You can save yourself a ton of headache by finding a Guild, or at least a group you can run regularly with that understand that you can run the content as a Necro. Most PUG groups will immediately whine about you not being viable because of the gospel they read on metabattle. These people are followers, and don’t understand the difference between optimal and viable.

I run Fractals/Dungeons absolutely fine with my Necro, and there certainly are cases where having a Necro onboard was a huge advantage. You’re going to work harder compared to other classes that have it a bit easier, and unfortunately you’re pretty limited in builds for what actually works in that content, but don’t be discouraged. It’s very rewarding to play against the grain of the “meta” successfully.

This event is pretty intense, and I like it. Unfortunately it’s mostly a bust without a sizable group of people and decent coordination. It is fun strategizing with people though, and defending the catapults. I agree for the most part though, it’s fun to fail once in a while in PvE.

The problem is the risk/reward ratio being immensely skewed with that build. Whether they’re aware of it or not, it’s why so many run it in tPvP. You can get away with being a glass cannon while having a ton of tertiary survivability through traits/skills making it a catch 22.

Forget your “it takes skill to pull off”.
Forget your “get more toughness” BS.
Forget your “use more situational awareness”.

It isn’t on par at all with other glass cannon builds. Yeah, Thief specializes in burst hit/run, but no other class or build comes remotely close, which totally screws over the “lack of a holy trinity” this game espouses.

Yes please. Give my CC/bunker Engineer Initiative. You will never stand up or move.

I’ve been saying since day 1 treb damage is a touch much. The knockback is plenty good and can decide fights all on its own for your teammates. The fact it has so much damage and knockback is why it’s such a focused necessity for teams right now.

If it had high damage, or knockback, not both, teams would have more freedom in deciding whether to ignore or utilize the treb in their strats.

Thanks for posting next week’s nerf notes.

I could do without CoD in my GW2, thanks.

I’ve noticed it myself, but not to the testable degree you outlined. My reaction? Wow. That is pretty bad.

What’s probably going on though, is that even though we feel like there’s a unique projectile path each time we throw grenades, in reality there’s a predefined arc that gets tweaked with the trait. I wonder if that should, or even could be changed or not.

Engineer rifle skills specialize in control and conditions, which is what Engineers do.

Warrior rifle skills predominantly deal damage, which is what Warriors (can) do.

I fail to see what doesn’t make sense.

If you don’t like the Engineer’s rifle, you probably don’t sPvP much.

Nozaku

Mortar becoming an elite kit would be more great and would see more use outside of WvW.

I personally love that idea, but given how difficult and how long it took for them to fix kits to the degree they have now, coding an elite kit wouldn’t be simple at all. But kitten does that sound nice.

It’d be just like in GW1 where some elites were near spammable abilities, and not always the token ability with a large cooldown.

GIVE ME ELITE MORTAR KIT!

^ Just rofl.

Guardians still have more than enough retaliation. Sorry you can’t have it 100% of the time.

That’s some awesome data mining. I no doubt believe Anet has done this themselves, so it’s pretty cool to see a player doing it and sharing the information. Mad props to the OP.

Those stats are interesting, but not all that surprising. I’ve suspected the same regarding Necros myself for some time. It’s usually black and white whenever I bump into one; the person is either extremely good or extremely bad.

Definitely roll with rifle if you’re getting power+crit, and as you mentioned the immobilize and knockback have glorious synergy with nades. Also, make sure to use grenade barrage with your rifle out. Since kits don’t receive damage from weapons, if you use it while your kit is out you will sacrifice a ton of damage. I like to nail them with net shot then rip out barrage for maximum effect when I can.

If you use goggles and pop an analyze on them along with the fury, the damage is just lols .. Completely skews any 1 vs 1 if you can land it.

I’ve got no problems with the Grenade 1 spam. Get a mouse with a button on the side you can press with your thumb and tada, you’re basically doing nothing while spamming like a mad man.

The OP clearly just started sPvP and is enjoying the low skill ceiling in beginner glory queues. Would love to hear his thoughts on Engineer after Deer rank.

You shouldn’t feel put off by it, as you clearly won the fight. There’s plenty other extremely annoying things people can do while downed, but the best use of throw S is for reviving downed teammates while you continue fighting. I absolutely love it for tPvP and bunker builds.

Proven.2854:

I bet Engineer will be next too. People are figuring out burst builds, chain CC builds, constant boon builds, and learning how to combine at least two of them well.

Yeah, Engineer needs to be nerfed more. The fact there’s been an Engi nerf in nearly every update since launch just isn’t enough. It took several weeks for me to tweak my CC bunker build to have adequate burst, so please nerf that as well.

Trick to using grenades underwater is not to use them at range. Use them like a melee weapon. If you can’t afford to get close to your opponent(s) then don’t use them, use the speargun, since they won’t be able to dodge those homing attacks. Better to have some damage than no damage at all.

Haven’t noticed myself, and frankly haven’t had the guts to even test it because I highly doubt it will work. We have no information indicating that it shouldn’t, so for now let’s just call it a bug along with the countless others.

If you’re dying primarily to the bomb kit alone … you are very, very bad. Bomb kit shines in team fights and against melee. That is it. Mesmers pretty much dominate every single 1 vs 1 scenario, so how could you possibly compare the two?

Ayestes.1273:

I don’t particularly think Guardians are that out of whack, but a Ranger Shortbow build stacking 25 bleeds on a Guardian is a bad idea if they have Retaliation up.

Er, um, yeah it is. Which is kinda’ why you make sure they don’t have it up before you unload your burst rofl.

Brutus, if you don’t have a mouse with enough buttons to rebind to, you can use Shift+ a key that’s easy to reach for you. I do it with my toolbelt abilities, and keep everything else close to my hand. You can also use Q, E, R.

I won’t argue the point that a team with a Guardian(s) against a team without are facing a serious uphill battle, but if you aren’t geared for dealing with Guardians in your team comp then that’s your own fault.

People don’t like Rangers much in tPvP play, but I’ll tell you what, the crew I role with decided to add one into our comp specifically for dealing with Guardians. With them being so prevalent in tournament play right now it’s extremely viable.

Stacking 25 bleeds in 3 seconds from range drops a Guardian in record time.

Not a bad build, but I tend to prefer straight power and crit with grenades over condition damage; just personal preference. The build I’ve been running the last week or so uses gadgets on low CDR: 30/20/0/0/20 with rocket boots and goggles. Plenty of CC removal, fury, stun break, and analyze for that extra needed burst. Having toolbelt skills on low CDR as well is amazing. I use medkit with it as well for the toolbelt heal, which is only on a 15s cooldown. I use 6 dolyak, so I’m still fairly tanky as well with 24k HP and 2.2k armor.

The build has been beast. I haven’t really felt the need to tweak it much, aside from swapping out some gadget skills for other gadgets from time to time.

Uh, keep playing. That’s all I can say really. If you want more challenge, try tPvP. Hotjoin is mostly fully of glass cannons which is probably why you’re killing quickly.

Good to hear you had some fun, but how long have you been PvPing? Just wondering what your accumulated glory amount is, because the more you get the more difficult things will become as you’ll be paired with people who have been PvPing for similar amounts of time. Turrets probably work in earlier PvP, but I can assure you they don’t fair as well against better players.

However, unconventional builds do shine later on, for the sole purpose that they’re unconventional. Higher tier PvP, especially tPvP people tend to know what to expect.

Currently riddled with a plethora of bugs as you can find in the stickied topic in these forums. Beyond that though, I can attest how fun it is to play compared to other classes (I’ve played Thief, Warrior, Ranger, Mesmer) all to at least 35-40 in PvE, and a bit in sPvP. It’s main draw is how versatile it can be, primarily through the use of kits. You can fill many differing roles with them, sometimes even on the fly during combat depending on the kit. At least in PvE, there’s almost no end to the amount of builds and synergies you can achieve with traits and setting up your own combo fields and finishers.

sPvP, they are certainly more difficult to play than most classes, which is probably why you don’t see many. Whether you’re good with a keyboard and mouse and twitch thinking or not, the class requires quite a bit more player input to achieve the same results as other classes, but the payoff can be huge. I don’t think many people have the patience for it to be honest.

All in all though, I’d say they’re worth trying out. I can nearly guarantee you’ll have fun with it. They’ll be even more worthwhile once they iron out the ton of bugs plaguing them though.

Geoff.6397:

There isn’t an overpowered class, just underpowered players…

Some classes are full of bugs whereas other classes are fine, It’s just plain fact your thread is useless since you just can’t deny it. That makes the game in its current state imbalanced, period.

That’s the end of the thread right there. The fact the OP relinquishes any fact that several classes have countless bugs detracting from their intended playstyle simply shows how ignorant the post is, and shows it for what it truly is: Soapboxing.

I’ve got plenty of hopes for the coming update on the 24th, as it sounds like it may be a chunky one. Hopefully we’ll see a lot of issues addressed tomorrow.

Mac.1936:

Also, if it was changed to a % of damage done it would just lead to a burst class ninja-ing by bursting down then running away leaving the other team to kill him and still not end up getting it. Which is worse than last hit gets points in my opinion.

Just have him regen after a time of taking no damage, or if the damager flees a certain distance his right of getting the kill is relinquished. Besides, if someone wants to run a glass cannon burst build to ninja mobs on that map then that in itself is a dynamic, at the cost of probably being kittened when fighting other people in tPvP at least. It’s almost like jungling.

/signed

The sooner I can feel like I’m playing half a class the better.

Agreed. Should work from a percent of total damage inflicted, you know, pretty much like how every other mob is treated in the game. You get rewards based on your own damage. If you did more damage to Svanir, your team should get the reward.

That’s just the common sense remedy, but I’m sure there are better.

Arcane.4950
Take elementalist first, spend 2 weeks playing it hardcore trying many builds and playstyles, mastering complex rotations and learning how to counter other classes and builds.
Then make a thief and faceroll everything np.

Lmfao. Did the exact same thing, only with Engineer. Ran pretty much every viable build for him for a little over two weeks, got fairly good, then tried out Warrior and Thief.

Hilarious. … Completely. Hilarious.

I almost feel bad when I play them. Playing Engineer for that long and forcing myself to get better was like weighted training.

Agree with the OP. You didn’t really whine; you at least mentioned valid reasons regarding those issues. I’ve encountered that Thief build you mentioned, or at least something very similar to it and I have to say, it is quite ridiculous. I haven’t complained about Thieves at all yet, but after doing more tPvP and running against builds like that a few times something just seems glaringly wrong. I’m pretty sure no other class can fit that much damage, CC, and survivability into one build to that degree.

Even if you outplay that Thief and survive his burst and CC and send him running, you’ll never get to finish him due to the all CC and swiftness he has. It’s basically a free kills + free get out of jail build requiring very little thought to play.

Get a bomb/grenade engineer and an elementalist on your team for team fight support damage, and at least two thieves to pin point and wreck the real mccoy mesmers. They need to be able to spot them well, and the rest takes care of itself. Haven’t encountered a good team that used 3 yet, but the above strategy works quite well on a team with 2.

Very good tip, and something not many are aware of I think. It’s pretty ridiculous we need to do this, but I’ve found it’s also better to rip out barrage with the rifle equipped anyway, as your enemy expects it when you have the kit equipped. That and they’re already primed for dodging your grenades.

If you want to get your feet wet in PvP, use a dual pistol engineer with slick shoes. Between that and glue shot, your feet should be coated pretty well.

I haven’t left a game yet, been playing since Head Start. You people take the PvP in this game way too seriously. Leaving a hotjoin match, really? What are your expectations going in? You should never have high expectations for PUB gameplay in anything.

The saddest case of leaving I’ve encountered so far was at least half the enemy team leaving after the first 60 seconds of a match when their team got rolled in the first team fight of the match. It pretty much ruined the entire match, because the teams were grossly imbalanced for a time after.

Rofl. I wonder if that was my brother playing last night? I don’t know his build 100%, but I know he runs it tank/high HP and he gets his burst through a pretty fine tuned rotation of utility skills and shortbow. He can only do it every 35-40 seconds, but I rarely ever see him drop in a 1v1, and some games he doesn’t die at all.

Yeah, turrets just don’t compare to pets/minions at all, that much is true. Whether they should or shouldn’t is the question. I think at the very least, like many have said they should be more durable considering the CDR many of them are on. If not that, decrease the CDR. They’re just not worth taking at all for anything outside of PvE.

JoxerNL.3752:

oh come on guys, grow up.
With 3 buttons you could easily heal over 16k in less then 2 seconds.

Mine Field -> Regenerating Mist -> Detonate mines x 4 = 4 heal waves, each being around 5-6k.

There’s plenty of posts on this forum boasting about this, and even some builds posted that abused this, if you think this wouldn’t get noticed your being extremely daft.

I’ve got no problems with the change; like others have said, it was obvious it was coming. But doling out nerfs without fixing any of the bugs that have been there since the BWEs? Ridiculous.

They’re basically fixing the positive bugs, and leaving the negative ones there.

Completely agree with OP. If the current bugs are taking time to fix, they shouldn’t bother with changes that result in nerfs until at least some of them are fixed. The class is already nerfed enough because it doesn’t work properly.

Seriously, who at Anet makes these decisions? It is illogical.

Either fix thekittenbugs, or ease up on the nerfs.

It’s just absolutely asinine. Why are they changing things related to balance, questionable balance at best, instead of fixing the copious amount of bugs plaguing the Engineer?

Seriously. I want to know. What justifies that?

“hur hur hur lets change dis skill and leave da udder ones bugged ehehe”

That’s about all I can come up with.

Mine fields are no longer a blast finisher.

Hooray! Let’s screw this class up even more! We should get a trend going with every update where Engies get shafted somehow.

Are you serious? I am getting fed up now. BoB is no longer a blast finisher, and now this? What the hell are they doing to this class? They haven’t even fixed any of the bugs that severely weaken the class so now they just detract more?

I’m so close to dropping my Engineer. I could probably switch and get something else to 80, then come back to Engie when they fix all of their bugs.