Guild Wars 2

Its a chain reaction.

1.) Hot needs a lot PvE and resoures (e.G. guild halls) to “Grind”. People are more in PvE till geting what they want.
2.) The new maps have to be learnd. People have a hard time to find their way at start.
3.) New maps have PvE gimiks which is not what most WvW players want.
4.) WvW is about strategic play, siege battles and support. So its about suplies , towers for strategic positions in taking keeps … The new map seem not to support this well.
5.) Autoupgrade is disliked. It takes off a player goal. Also it results im more upgraded stuff, making it more dificult for small groups.
6.) As result BL population decreases. Players don´t find groups or enemies to battle so they move to a map they know well and where more play—> EB.
Spiral started, lower population drives away more players. Players returning from PvE after some time might not be enough to stop it. They come and find a deserted desert, go EB or get totaly frustrated and the hole stays for the next reurning …

WvW burns down. And Cristmas is a deadly gate, where people might move on to other games if ther is nothing holding them back before.
I think anet wanted to release HOT to hype before christmas to hold players but for WvW this is going to fail hard.
And WvW is the end content for a huge numer of GW2 players.

I know that there are a lot of playes thinking that way. It´s legit.
But there are more players that don´t fall in the “elite” departement. Because systems where only “Skill” matters gets dominated by elitists and shrink to a small group of addicted.
It´s diversity and constantly adapting(using brains) , easy new player entry and a visible goal of being successful for small groups and solo players that makes a game grow and hold also casual players long.

While i personaly dislike grinding in PvE, i don´t like games where low latency (framerates, top computers …) and reflexes(skill) is the dominant part. I like to plan ahead, adapt to the environement and customize. For me class setup is the part that matters most and i love rock/paper/scissor systems if they have huge build diversity.
If i can get all gear i want for WvW without playing PvE i would be happy and totaly skip PvE but this needs rework of the gemstore, because i think ANet would lower their own income. Don´t underestimate the driver of gearing up to play this game.

But i answerd the question wrong. Standardized gear for WvW would not be directly bad for WvW. It could even get more players jump in WvW directly. But it would have a global impact on PvE and player motivation/interaction and a huge impact in crafting and resources. It has the potential to topple the world ;-).

There is a huge diffrence in earned and just available.
Also it is already quite als you say. IT is easy to acieve exotic gear and also most ascended trinkets. So people are already on a similar level unless going to WvW upscaled. A bit PvE work before reaching a competative level is OK. When i startet GW2 i needed about a Month to get exotic the equipement. Geting top gear is then a lot of work. I als owould like to run full ascended BUT:

Gearing the character for WvW is one of the major goals in this game which drives players!

Greetigns

Wolf

Very bad idea. Becaus you take away the full customisation of the character. People love to costomize their toons and i do not mean pure visual things. Customizing stats and playing the charcter they build/acieved in PvE is one important reason why people prefer WvW over sPvP. Its a no go to reduce diversity.
And it will have a negativ impact on economy for Anet so i doupt it will be done. People work and even pay for acieving the exquipement they want to use against others.

Depends on what they do with WvW.

Games that turn their back on small groups (2-5) are usually dommed unless they are single player games … GW2 was good in the small group departement but mad it much more unintresting with HOT which starts to loose players. sPvP is not the key of holding this small groups, because sPvP tends to be elitists. Many see WvW as end content, loved 5 player dungeons and runing with a friend is quite common. I say its the key to focus on this players. If focus goes on sPvP and huge Guilds all will be lost.
A game i know that focused on 20 player groups did go down in flames…
Never focus on the elite and huge groups. Doing it will bring armageddon.

Well i don´t play PvP much. Just tried a bit, but could compete with some obvious good players. I like full customization and such play as WvW roamer. I use a special condi tempest with giver weapons.
Its hard to translate to sPvP
This would be the sPvP version. I used rabid because did´t pay the 10g till now for wanderer, but its clearly the best amulet for me.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdn0XC9XiVYCOOA8RgFBAzN1+aztBBgCQRcIIsDSiA-TJRWABjWGAg9HQ5EAU4DAAA

Its more agressive and mitigation not regeneration.
I do small changes like air signet or shock/aftershock instead of cleansign flame or i might take power overhelming which is better if i fight only power builds.
Also rebound is quite fine in it. FSG´s CD is harsh but its very powerful in this build.
This also beats LB rangers and Guardians. Condi Traper druid is one of the deadliest enemies.

—> Earth sigil is really bad.

Why? on crit with 2sec CD if you have a good crit% this should be better then geomancy.
And Wanderer + soldier rune sounds pretty nice unless wanderer has wrong stats shown but its a good alternative to rabid.

Well camping(using only one element) an element is possible. Especially fire.
Camp fire: works well in PvE
Camp earth: works but you need forever to kill.
Water and air does not work well.

With 20 gold and a bit karma you can build a stable fire nuker.
One tip: When you get the last daily chest select pletiful laurel! You will need them when you know the equipment you want.

Thats how i got my first set: Karma merchants.

I suggest: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Keeper_Jonez_Deadrun
Start with trinkets from botom (backpack, earrings … )Till you run out of karma

I did choose vampire rune because it is cheap.
I would take hoelbrak (or expensive strength) rune in this kind of build but it costs.

The armor/weapons + sigild and runes can be bought at trading post.
Also the gems to put in the trinkets.

This setup is cheap and some kind of full automatic easy to play fire wizard with good defensive stats. You run around in air, fight in fire and use earth if you need to be more defensive. Of course its ood to learn all elements but this one is 90% fire full automatic.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFEQFAWhcMosh9NwtB0RMQAYRBIAsAmdwLIIITyOQJA-TBCBwAHV+pc/hFm/wp+DgLAAlHAQKdATUCSIgyjBA-e

I don´t run stability. I watch when to use an overload. The only in fight OL when i am alone or focused is earth. I use air and fire, but the timing is the key and if there is no window i don´t OL them. I consider overloads an option not the main reason for tempest and this works well. The utility that fits me more are the shouts and aura support. I killed with fire overlaod in a teamfight or scared off oponents with a starting air OL but i am not overloading as soo as i can.

The strange thing is that till now i can deal well with most reapers and i have only the followign condi removers:
Focus magnetic wave, cantrip cleansing flame, sigil of generosity and phönix.
Scepter/focus F/E/T (No diamond skin, i run stone heart and shouts).
No water, soldiers or eather renewal. Against the traper druid it is hazardous, but dragon hunters and reapers seem well managable.

Well bunker usually has a lot of cleanse and often beats condi and is about 50/50 to power.
Currently we have condibunker beats power if power is not loaded with condi removal/defence. The condibunker often looses against the hybrid power/condi build which is to glassy to hold against zerker builds. A support bunker holds long but dies to most offensive builds in 1:1. This sounds not to bad, but the old zek “Meta” complains to be riped apart by the condi bunker´s :-).
Maybe a hybrid build going carrion stats would slip inbetween beating down both condi build types ;-).

If there is a global Population loss after three years, then it might be time to drop one or two servers and merge. But the WvW dropout hit directly with the expansion and even when the game suffers a bit from its life time it should go up at least a bit after the first expansion not further down …

Well i met one yesterday with diamond skin and he won because of it. But i don´t use it and i also don´t use water or soldier runes and it works. Yes its hard against condi builds but playable. There are: Magnetic wave, cleansing flame and eather renewal which do a good job. I also use generosity sigil.

I play S/F and like it. I also used it in jungle and it works well solo.
But i did not build it full for PvE i use it in WvW roaming. Its a condi tempest that is very personal and works well for me. FSG can be changed to rebound or glyph. Depends on the situation. I prefer FSG but yesterday swaped to rebound for a fight i knew i won´t run away. I often swap cleansign flame for air signet for WvW. But that can loose me fights due to very low condition removal.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdn0XC9XiVYCOOA8RgFBAzN1+aztBBgCQRcIIsDSiA-T1RFABuo+DAnAAQ0Do0+DPp8L5HAQWKBDAgAwR35R35R3ZhAONBA-w

I like the map design. Basicaly they are good. But they need to be learned which turns players off from start. Also the maps need some reworking in keep/tower interaction. Autoupgrade is a handicap and turns players of.

Remove autoupgrade.
Remove some of the monsters and traps.
Put another stronger camp in the center instead of the laser event.
Make suplies more important (but please not by increasign siege weapon costs)
Look at the tower layout to make them a bit more compact and their strategic use by reaching important spots with siege fire. Camps, garrison ….
don´t make keeps waypoints contestet just by a few shots at the keep door or guards.
The waypoint should only be contestet if the inner defence is hit.

Well i did run WvW solo yesterday … One oposing server seemed to care about points and i fought back alone. Indeed got nice fights and played a hit an run tactics. Died to a group of 4 after their fourth atempt to get me and to a well played ele. Got a lot camps and points and killed a 2 player roming team. So while it was fun it was lonley …… I am a romaer and like this kind of play but its not a good sign to play alone in BL between 22h/23h on EU servers.

I guess you fight monsters that are to high in level. Watch the zone you are in. Fire is the best elemet for starting and leveling. Don´t worry. When you learn to move you won´t die to much :-).
Using staff to learn is a good way. I started wit hstaff and changed to scepter focus.
Stay away from the monsters at start of the fight. Use staff 4 if they beat on you.
When you get equipement choose strengh and precision. The third can be anything exept healing is weak.
You start learnign elementalist at level 31 ;-). And then at level 80.
The proces to 80 is like the introduction.

I currently go with giver weapons, rabid armor, dire/rabid trinkets. I think i like to go for a viper/trailblazer armor mix and put in 1-2 more rabid trinkts instead of the dire to keep more precision. This will give me 48% base condi duration.

I also don´t think i will change trinkets to trailblazer. I use the dire/rabid trinkets and a rabid backpack. I currently just think to make the armor a mix of viper and trailblazer.
Its tempting to get the armor higher but i think it is not as efficient as going a bit power with viper and more HP and Condi damage with the dire trinkets.

It can be argued that some burning stacks are to high, but otherwise it feels fine.
And the mentioned guardian. If i watch out a bit he is no problem. Just cleanse or dodge the heavy burn burst. My most death´s com from burning, when i don´t recognize it immidiately. Yes you can´t be on guard evry second and react perfectly. This is a bit the problem between trained and casual players. The traind have the screen in their view and watch enemys and own boons an conditions plus react much faster and coordianted. They lough at the burn guardian burst and kill him. The casual player gets rostet, he recognizes a huge loss of life and the second tick kills him because he is to slow for the cleanse button.
I needed over four month playing only one class/build to learn it to a level where i can say no problem annymore, easy dragonhunter handling now. Befor that i got rosted. Still not good enough but i am gettign a positive win stat now. Heavy L2P thing ….

Fine at least an answer :-). Yes WvW defence is low, especially when the oponent is expierienced and targets the mesmer despite clones. I know what i do in WvW with mesmers. I would definitly go with decoy. I don´t know meser to well so defence tips woudl be fine. If their clones don´t help distracting she dies.
But the rampager doesn´t seem to bad.

Strange that no one coments this build. To much out of meta? :-)

Yep. Condi tempest is great. I do it diffrent and use earth not arcane for WvW.

1) Dagger Focus like in the video for burn. I use scepter/focus
2) Fire Great Sword wins for me.
3) If you go dagger and burn Balthazar. But i prefer nightmare or even traveler. Nightmare can be comnined with trapper for a total of 25% condi duration on all condies not only burn.
4) Sigil of Doom is good, i use a good portion of precision and run torment and earth (or generosity but this is expensive). For pure burn in PvE use smoldering to save food money.
5) Not so important. I think i have an exotic condi one.

Video explains it great. Its propably one of the best PvE tempest build shown there.

Hi

I want to hear opinions on the following hybrid build my daughter plays. I was the one initialy doing the build on her requirements (staff, swords boon utility, she even wanted to keep lyssa runes when i suggested traveler i had left over).
I play elementalist and when i watch this mesmer i somtimes wonder what this can pull off. The hybrid damage sums up hellish. Its somewhere in between burst and full condi and hurts.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhUQNAW8cnsICFohFqBeqBMrhFcD6cGvo2lBIB/CNINZHA-TFDEABFcBAeR9nkVaQwBBAEdC1s/gBPAAtUi1hmAAOCgJoDUCClygAAIAszde0de0AA-w

This sylvari kills by just running by a mob … the mob shots at her, she dodges, i see the mob dying on the illusions while she just keeps moving her way .

A fight usual goes this way. Shot mobs at range, cast warlock, set up chaos storm when they are coming, port back when they reach her. Usually she only needs autoatacking till all is dead now. (warlock, defender, clone is in place).

If its a veteran or even champion pull out Swords …. leap, evade, riposte, summon swordsman and autoatack while all on CD.

She does not shatter for offense. She keeps the illusions and shaters to heal calling new ones immidiately like usind mirror image.

If loaded with condtions she moas the target. (Lyssa rune)

Very funny to watch this. Not a single stealth skill. Oponents are a bit surprised in WvW XD …. This criticals on nearly each hit and the illusions bleed you to death while she dodges and runs around ….

One thing i don´t know what to do. She works for map completion so chrnomancer will be possible. But the lines snergize so well and she doesn´t play shatter mesmer so i don´t know if crono even makes sense.

So how is this build?

Greetings

Wolf

PS: I personaly would put in traveler rune and use signet of night or decoy :-)

The expansion has many great things. Also some fails (especially wvw). And ist no depresion its more power creep. I am not happy with it but it could be worse.

i think its good to be spreaded. I woul like to have one with fire affect all auras. For only fire its to weak and the other traits way better.

So the question is which is the cheapest ascended and how much will ist cost :-).

Aleos.2195:

You’re right, I should’ve added my playstyle.

I prefer a support kind of playstyle in dungeons and raids. While in spvp I usually try to roam solo and cap points / defend them.

Guardian seems appealing. I’ve never really tried them.

I haven’t bought HoT yet but I plan on doing so in the near future.

You have an elementalist and he can do this well. I play a condi tempest and can solo and have team support. Very comftable to play for me.

The mesmer can also solo well and be a bit team suport using staff. I don´t play mesmer much but my daughter has a staff + sword/sword mesmer with no invisibility and i am often astounded what it can pull off without much effort.

Its hard to tell you what you should use. Just feel it :-). For me it is my tempest. A bit more buttons but especially when playing only one class this becomes more and more advantage.

Greetings

Wolf

When going to such a level in maximizing damage/efficiency its very important to split PvE and WvW (PvP). The max damage build in PvE would propably get torn to pieces in WvW.

Nash.2681:

Shadow Gathering.5649:

So the question you should be asking yourself is how long will you keep the unpopular new maps before pulling the plug on failed content?

Out of experience: ~3 years. If at all…

Wrong question. I look for options like EB. I still like WvW. The thing for Anet is for what i will pay in the future. Does the map just keep me playing or am i hyped to invest money. Currently its no hype but i still like WvW romaing.

Soon.5240:

I truly think that Anet has nerfed WvW for reasons similar to the Dungeons. Money. Or more specifically, the lack of money coming from WvW players.

As a long time, dedicated WvW player, one thing I notice (more so in hindsight) is that most of the people that I’ve played countless hours of WvW with aren’t really the ones who buy skins or knick knacks from the Store. Most of us are have settled on our looks long ago, and don’t really drag a lot of kites, balloons, minatures, etc. around with us when we play WvW.

It’s been ages since I actually bought something from Anet (excepting HoT) and yet I’ve played WvW for thousands of hours. I’m not the kind of customer that Anet needs.

There is a lot of truth in it. WvW players have other focus then shiny skins or dig in the gemstore. I think WvW is a huge amount of players and if you add the PvE players that go to WvW casual its maybe the largest part of players.
So WvW players would pay for things like strategic maps, guild expansions and gear that help in WvW. But they usually hate PvE grinding and pay to win systems.
So if you treat them like a PvE player you loose them. If you treat them like a PvP player they will get bored, because they are often players that construct and plan and like guilds. So they strongly like freedom in character building. The dont fiddle on their clothing they invest hours in cusomizing their stats.

So what can you give WvW players that they will pay for?

—> Fortress construction (a bit like guild halls upgrades). Would be a heavy to design module but unique and gorgeous. Crafting for diffrent parts. A complete build you castle as you want system. Details have to be specified would take a lot pages.

—> Siege weapon design. Construct your own blueprints and craft them.

Like PvE Players like to personalize their Look, WvW players will personalize their constructions. Wallpaints, diffrent bricks, roofs, palisades what ever you can imagine. Of course those things should use diffent resources, have diffrent toughness/HP but not to much. WvW players will build effective so invsting in hundreds diffrent pieces for the same thing would be lost effort 3-5 types and invest in customized paintings.

—> Guild upgrades. (This is already ongoing)

—> Diffrent Maps. Not to complicated, players must meet each other in resonable times and they must support a strong suply dependent system. If you do a large map you must put large reward for holding keeps/towers no one would normaly run to. E.g: a tower up at a mountain with a minute to run up would be intresting if there is a trebucet platform with range increase that fires at other keeps from above.

Also many WvW players would pay for good gear when he can skip PvE. Of course not to much. You won´t get a cent if buying an acended piece with gems costs 50$. Always remember the WvW player thinks more about what he is doing and he thinks efficient.
So its not the easiest group to deal with but you can get them pay :-).

I use more tanky gear and am fine with it. But it does not replace moving. You must move and dodge or no gear will help you. Also its important when you overload so this is learning by doing (dying ^^).
I dislike ferocity and while i like healing power its a bit meh and use more toughness and vit instead and focus on condition damage or power + precision. But this is also a WvW aproach.
For elementalists you can´t realy go wrong with celestial gear it fits the class so if you are uneasy which ascended trinkets to use get cele firs and maybe add viper armor if you can get it.

I guess they did it because its one of the most uses skills, but it destroyes the feeling of a staff elementalist…

I did not count the might. Stacking might just happens :-). I can go up wit hcondi damage but its not weigitng so much. I benefit more when i balance HP, Armor, Precision and Condi damage/duration. And i have 85% burn duration if i like to use my prickly pear pies. I build to aply alot condis not just try to max damage. I build to fight players not static mobs :-). I am fine inflictig up to 10k DPS on the Guards in WvW ….

i didn´t build to max stacks. Normal is 12-20 bleed stacks for me adding 2-5 burning stacks. If i overlaod fire and target stays in i regulary do about 4k burn per tick.
I have a WvW build and thus i don´t use sigils or glyphs have only abot 1500 condi damage and 35% duration (+20% burn dur). I can push this further with food gaining another 30% duration.

Hard … Do events in HoT map. Buy insignias and craft exotic. Information in wiki is unfortunately still very low.

EB map away is fine. Reuse the map.

Realm 1: Alpine
Realm 2: Reworked EB as homeland.
Realm 3: Desert

Woot. Off we go.

I am a small guild roamer and feel the pain of guild hall upgrades, auto upgrades and the lonesome maps….
But i can take upgraded camps solo … At least XD ….

The suggestion of +15% condi duration and so reaching +30 is realy good. This would give the rune good use. This would make it an even piece to leadership.
But i don´t know is this would push non tempests like condi engi, necro or mesmer even more ?

I did pick power overhelming and swap out for pyromancers when i use staff. Forgot to swap trait back and wondered why i blasted things to pieces much faster when in fire LoL ….
and trailblazer is so tempting …. I am just a fan having a good portion on precision …. But i think of geting trailblazer armor set with a viper headpiece…

This is the type of build i would have done too. I just focused on trying condi ele. but i like this one. I also used arcane + earth and traited arcane shield. I added brilliance and thus used cleansing flame not blast. Had great experience with the traited shield and brilliance :-).
the only thing i won´t have done is the hydromancy sigil. Would add blood or classic energy. Is it realy good ? Can´t compare since i ran focus and cripled or knocked down fleeing oponents.

Yep a bit trait tweaking and tempes is not only fun and will be competative.
While i am not the best player due to lack of practice (Only a few month WvW) i see when i stress good veterans seriously and even win sometimes.
And i often run havoc in a teamfight. It is a bruiser with well placed overloads that work well in small fights.
I did try my build in sPvP. My first eavening there. Regardless of loosing more due to not knowing what is best to do i could match me with good players. I did fight someone with a shield and imidiately kew he is a trained PvP ler. Lost the first fast but the following was great. It was a real showdown and i did hit him hard and defended well for a long time. Yes i lost due to him exactly watching what i do. He constantly used his shield to bunker and recover when i got him below 50% and i had to learn how to break this. I died when i swaped elements to fire for an asault when he comes out of his shield block. He attacked immidiatley droping the shield when i swaped out of earth :-). It was clear to me that i lost because he was the better player and i had a fully competative build. Nice that he bowed to me.

My suggestions:
Give tempestous aria 20% CD reduction on shouts
Make Rebound instant cast on 60s CD and a stunbreaker.
Make speedy conduit a 25% baseline speed.
Trigger latent stamina on auras.
Water overload needs some rework. Its a bit a hazzle. The 5s wait kills its most useful aplication. Heal on demand … The other way camping and then locking out of water is just bad. This is for dedicated healer´s and those don´t work well.
So water OL needs to be ready on swap or do something special like the suggestet invul. Maybe make the bubble like an arcane shield.

For WH i don´t know. While it has use in some support builds it´t not realy tempting. I thought multiple times if i can replace my focus with it, but WH lost.

I only run ele and also never use DS. It might be helpful to absorb the first try/condi burst and thus is helpful but it´s far from an autowin. I met an ele with it. First i wonderes if i can get him. His DS worked for the first 5-10 seconds …. Then i did hit him a bit harder and it was game over for him. Its an advantage and combined with strong condi clear anoying and an advantage against condi builds, but it will weaken you against power builds. And a condi build in sinister would propably never notice that the ele has DS … I use a mix of dire + rabid + giver and break it easily.

I prefer rabid armor + weapon , and the dire/rabid trinkets. (Personal taste is giver wepon is good with tempest)
Very good and cheap rune is scavenger. Add torment sigil and blood. Played that and it was fun. Traveler and Tempest rune will work too but cost condi damage.
Of course you can use burn runes but it prefer not to focus alone on burn.
Traitlines Fire/Earth/tempest or arcane if no tempest available.
Cleansing flame on the toolbar is great. Rest is personal taste. For PvE use glyph of storms!

the only good thing is you can fire it fast and have it next fight back… FSG has to much CD for that.
But it is not at elite level. It´s even weaker then other utility shouts with the 75s CD.
The easiest way to make it viable would be CD 60sec with +20% trait or 45sec and instant cast. Otherwise it should be reworked …

yes that is the problem. Wait time kills water overload. As imidiate rescue/heal option it would get great use.

Learnign when to use which is it. I am sucsessful overloading. But if i try it blindly or by force i die …
I am fine with overloads. Just water gets no use :-(.

Tempest rune has the wrong stats. It should be coni based with its condi duration. Cele stats is not helping tempest especially with leadership or scrapper runes available it will just loose.
I use nightmare rune ;-). Its better for condi duration ….

My definition for casual is less an 1h per day. And if you have RL (Work + Family) this easily becomes to much. I am in that department and feel like unable to get ascended armor. But i am fine with my exotic set.

A note:
I would even pay money in gemstore if it won´t hurt (i did i once by bying HOT ultimate). But when i have to pay over 10$ for an piece its no option. I am quite shure i woul buy a complete ascended armor set in gemstore for 50$.
And i think a lot of casual players think that way. It might lead to a bit ascended infaltion but would get people to spend money.

PS: Theres another thing i would pay up to 50$. To create a new account but being able to take characters (+their gear and map acievements) from my existing one for it.