Guild Wars 2

Staff is garbage. Why do people even think it’s any good? Because you can deal 5k damage with one of the most telegraphed skills in the game on the most squishy profession? Try using vault against a mesmer, I dare you. WATCH OUT FOR THE PINK MEN.

Welcome to Zealot’s Defense. Except with that skill you actually can’t move…

If Vault, say, refunded 2-3 Initiative if it the attack never damaged anything… maybe it could be used in serious PvP in place of Shortbow on Forest, maybe even Legacy. As it stands the Staff is pretty useless, unfortunately.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Mrbig.8019:

S/D-Sbow

DA/CS/acro-Trick-DD with bound, escapist absolution and weakness on crit

Shadow step, shadow refuge and bandits defense or impairing daggers, but ing signet is still better prolly ( i’ll prefer bandit’s defense)

That’s the only build that will ever see the light in PvP.

It may be good tho

Staff is terrible and, as i said before, people will just end spamming vault till no ini, cuz other moves are crap.

I disagree. You can’t defend a node with S/D + SB. Staff will allow you to defend what you captured since you rely less on stealth.

You don’t have access to stealth, but you’re not really compensating for it. S/D doesn’t rely on stealth that much, it has boon rip and good damage. Thief is just not built for holding points in general and Staff doesn’t give enough to change that.

Cynz.9437:

Staff seems like pve weapon to me. Animations are too long and not enough utility for pvp.

Physical are nice but locked to spec and can be countered by dazes/blinds/body blocking etc.

Traits are probably most interesting aspect, seems like it can go well with acro. However i don’t see that trait line going well with d/x builds. Meaning it is s/x or gtfo. Kind of boring.
Also, build has 0 team support which we really needed. SA is still superior in that area.

I can see why people are getting excited, but personally i don’t think there will be anything i will be using from new spec (sb, dp > staff, trait line selfish and only works with s/x, utilities not usable w/o spec), for team pvp that is. Disappointed~

My thoughts exactly. Nothing to add, really.

Thick Hard Wood

…

I’m 24

How about the devs balance the game instead? Having to introduce an analogue of a ban system in a game with so few classes and usable abilities is a disgrace.

Celestial Amulet offers a balanced stat distribution. Therefore Eles are balanced. They also can do everything like condi damage, direct damage, sustain, bunkering, support, mobility, projectile counters, stability, CC and french fries? I don’t get what you’re saying, sir.

By the way, Anet doesn’t really care. It’s not like sPvP brings them much money.

Zento.7401:

Please stop irony .

Anet may not understand it

It’s not like they read the forums.

Remove conditions when blocking attacks (1 per block, ICD 1 second). Receive 10% less damage when you have no conditions on you.

^Well, that doesn’t do anything. You can sneeze in this game without getting a debuff on yourself. Although it’s another buff to the only viable Guardian’s heal so I can’t complain too much.

Kocoff.7582:

I am officially satisfied from the traits and Physical skills.

By the look how low the staff damage is, those who do WvW will have to opt for Deadly Arts, Trickery and DareDevil. So glad I can get rid Basilik Venom. I can use Bandit’s Defense to counter against Thieves who are using the former Elite skill.

The whole challenge once again is good synergy with new utility skills, and finding a way to fit in a stealth mechanic in there. Cause that 2 seconds knockdown is a must have.

Heal skill is pretty amazing too. 5,520 HP heals with 3 pulses? that’s our whole life back mates. It could be easily interrupted I guess.

Now we wait for the way all those moves look and it’s GG for Anet on my end.

Uh it’s obviously spread across all 3 pulses.

Gotta love these “I’m quitting, but first I’m gonna tell you why!” posts. Sure, buddy, we all really care that you think your insanely overpowered class doesn’t get a smashy rock ability.

So long. The less eles in this game the better.

Dirame.8521:

Westwater.1095:

Using Rune of the Pirate so you can use Merciful Intervention on the parrot.

http://giant.gfycat.com/FoolhardySmartDobermanpinscher.gif

Haha, is that a good or bad mindblow?

Bad in my book. It would be cool in any other MMO, but in this game abilities compete with each other and blowing a valuable skill slot for an unreliable trick like that isn’t a good idea.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

skowcia.8257:

From what i also understand these bursts will count as 3 bars, removing 3 condi more often with ire. Guards will be jelly either way as they wont be a king of burn anymore haha.

unfortunately, i think only the “damage level” will count as 3 bars. for cleansing ire purposes i think it still counts as 1 bar.

that is what i think, at least.

That’s not what they said. This will make Berserker almost worthless in any PvP scenario, so I hope not. They will probably slap an ICD on Cleansing Ire.

Balancementalist’s Blind spam makes single target melee skills with a high cooldown totally useless in sPvP.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Looking at that torch skill a second time I realize +33% attack speed… With axe mainhand that would be absolutely brutal.

Not really. It just doesn’t do enough damage and gets kited to hell and back. Even if you had perma frenzy on axe it would still be bad. That’s just how broken this game is.

NinjaEd.3946:

I still dislike the strength of greatsword in general although every profession with it pretty much uses it (for power builds).

In the case of warrior, its mostly just the whirlwind attack hitting for so much while evading. I can understand if they had you against a wall or were immobilized to see some serious damage but just to be tapped by the skill is an easy 4k+ which is ridiculous. Combined with quickness on a short cooldown and a surplus of cc great sword is ridiculously powerful and easy to use in any game mode. I still prefer axe/axe though, hardly see anyone use it and its quite strong with the right build.

You think 4k is a lot of damage? It’s also the only skill that should consistently hit a good Mesmer, Thief, Engie and especially Ele.

Nothing today. Next revel in September.

Forge is a silly name. Maybe Forgemaster or something like that.

Well… you stun, then you 100b. Not much to say about it. The mace is just pretty bad bad. It’s full melee and gets completely shut down by blind spam, which is everywhere right now. You can make it work, but it won’t be great.

Black Frog.9274:

Melee staff is stupid. What could it offer that thief doesn’t already have? That’s what it comes down to really.

Defense and support options?

Holy mother. Like 80% of what you said is just dead wrong. Do you even play this game? Is this a troll attempt? Rampage is worthless… I’m dying here, man.

That mostly pertains to PvP situations. Hammer combos (Staggering Blow>Backbreaker>Earthshaker>Fierce Blow), stuff like Bladetrail+dodge into target with Reckless Dodge>weapon swap with Hydro sigil+Longbow 2 or Hammer 3. In PvE you do a lot of Whirlwind+Bladetrail+reckless dodge into the target in between your Hundred Blades. But yeah, not much to do. Just hit stuff and it dies. It’s PvE, it’s easy.

Rampage is fine. Maybe it’s actually balanced now. Honestly, they can butcher Rampage for all I care if they buff the rest of the Warrior’s kit which is kinda bad. E.g. axe sucks in PvP so godkitten much, since the damage just isn’t there and #2 and #3 barely do anything.

Tristan.5678:

Dagger/dagger !!!!
only Dagger Dagger other weapons don’t make sens with spec title
Takeing in consideration that Berserk implies rage endurance and face to face fight I find dagger to match it title perfectly
For example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiWdHxIEP4I vikings Floki fighting his reckless charcater perfectly matches a warrior that fall in berserk unconontroled rage

what else Staff >Berserk ? Aka Gendalf in blood rage beating enemies with wooden stick to the death nahhh
Short bow > Aka Legolas Melee short bow lol no way
Pistols > aka 777 Bond James Berserk bond non sens
Scepter > LOL Aka nerfed version of Gendalf beating monsters to the death with a shorter wooden stick?

Torch. We’re getting torch.

Yep, Fast Hands should be baseline. I honestly can’t see how that can be OP. Sure, it’s strong, but it’s needed. The Discipline line remains strong even without it, but I can at least start thinking about dropping it for something else if it didn’t have Fast Hands.

Plus it fits thematically.

Nerthus.3592:

Berserkers consisted in the cult of Odin, they were dying\killing on a battlefield for the glory of Odin and it’s known that elite bodyguards of King Harald Fairhair were Berserkers. So yeah, they are not a myth.

All vikings worshipped Odin, since it was their main deity. What I meant is that the image of a salivating mushroom chugging berserker without any armor is a myth. Berserker is basically a “champion”.

The actual historic berserker is a bit of a myth, by the way.

And the guy is clearly asking for a hug. I think we’re getting a support elite spec called “Cheerleader” who can heal and buff allies by giving them smooches. kitten as kitten.

Torch is a boring weapon and it’s pretty senseless as a weapon type. I mean, it’s a stick with some flame temporarily on it, a caveman version of a lantern. But I bet that’s what we’re getting.

I’d rather have Pistol with some mobility or CC options on it or Dagger with quick, powerful attacks, since all of our off-hands pretty much suck.

Tyr.6097:

YuiRS.8129:

The datamined stuff is pretty compelling evidence.

It means nothing.

Except that it’s already planned to be put in the game, sure.

SharpenedBlade.6803:

YuiRS.8129:

The datamined stuff is pretty compelling evidence.

What is it exactly that has been data-mined? some picture?? How is that evidence?
Weapons skills being data-mined would convince me more than that. And even that means nothing, ask all those elementalist that were convinced that they were gonna get main-hand swords.

Weapon skills would just be some numbers without names that could belong to any class. What we got was clearly Thief related Specialization art picturing a guy holding a staff and then we have exactly the same staff as on the picture already leaked in the game.

The datamined stuff is pretty compelling evidence.

1. Staff. Main role – active defense for yourself and your allies, preventing spikes. E.g. rush to a target area, granting every ally in the zone Invulnerability. Or spin your staff, creating a shield that blocks projectiles and pushes back enemies every 0.5s until the effect ends, you can move while spinning it, blocking damage for allies.

2. Greatsword. Because I love greatswords so much I kitten them. I have seven greatswords for each day of the week. A godkitten harem in here.

3. Now that’s a question. I say Steal will remain Steal because we have Improvisation, which is very specific and requires stolen abilities to work. Initiative may be replaced with a resource like Wounds, which requires you to take or block damage to generate it.

4. Mantras. Mostly defensive/CC.

5. Monk.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Auesis.7301:

EremiteAngel.9765:

ranger is getting staff…so no thief wont be getting it.

Both Elementalist and Necromancer got Shouts. Exclusivity isn’t an argument. I’ve actually never read or heard anything from Arenanet saying that 2 Elite Specialisations can’t get the same weapon.

true but Anet is too original for this. imagine giving 2 professions the same weapon for elite spec. this is too beneath anet’s originality.

so no they wont give same weapon to 2 different classes for their elite spec.
not their style.

also can you imagine, a focus offhand for thief.
immubing the power of dark magic, a thief transcends to become a Assassin Mage.

focus 4 = dark tethers grow on the ground, chill + immobilize on hit up to 5 opponents in a 380 radius

focus 5 = dark magic circle forms on the ground in a 240 radius, locking in all opponents without stability, if opponent breaks out with stability, instantly strip all stability stacks and inflict blind.

What, like they’d never give two elite specs shouts?

stof.9341:

I think ANet nerfed accrobatics cause they wanted to nerf all dodges. Ergo the base Vigor nerf for example.

Dodges were mostly a problem on classes like Mesmers, Engies and Eles that also get ridiculous defensive mechanics on top of regular dodges.

It’s the only good thing about a weak class. Before Eles and Mesmers are left as they are, Rampage remains fine.

Defensive Thief who can block and deflect attacks both from himself and his allies in a really active way would be sick. Monk hype.

Maybe 5 years later if GW2 still exists and they put some “Shadow Knight” in spec in the game.

pdavis.8031:

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

Why? Axe’s main ability is #1 anyway.

RJMazz.6798:

Against Shiro? It’s an extremely multi-hitting class, so the answer is obviously RETALIATION.

QFT

Reves will selfrek themsevles with that Sword 1.

Bearhugger.4326:

Focused Blade seems way too focused on defense. We don’t really have a defensive burst so I would at least add some blocks or evades to the skills of Focused Blade to make it more versatile.

Although personally I’m not very interested in samurais and katanas. I think their armor was hideous and rubbish, and while the katana looks like an excellent cutter, I find it quite short for a two-handed sword and its hand guard looks lackluster as well. And just in general, they have been given more than their share of glory in animé and Japanese RPGs so I’d like Arenanet to get us something more original for elite specs. I’ll welcome a samurai elite if we go to Cantha because it will be more in-themed there, but otherwise I’d rather they didn’t pull out a samurai spec.

Berserker? Well, it makes me wonder if our F2 will be an off-hand burst or just a “Berserk” skill that burns adrenaline. If it’s just “Berserk”, it better be an awesome berserk that does more than increase our damage by X% because that’s not going to cut it with an off-hand like torch. (Which is probably what we’re getting.)

They datamined a skill called “King of Fighting” that will supposedly give Warriors a PvE breakbar. It will probably be useless though because of the Mantra Mesmers who can frontload CC easily. CC the Warrior 3-4 times and he gets disabled for like 4 seconds, which is the backlash for draining the breakbar, and then 1shot him.

lighter.2708:

Tarkan.5609:

Zodryn.4216:

Also, besides likely having higher HP and armor, a DPS revenant can also swap to Jalis on the fly for extra durability or Ventari for heals. We’ll just have to wait and see what their damage is like, but I’m not optimistic.

or that guy that starts with M for condi remove/transfer

thing is though, they wont have the burst or the stealth of thieves – outshining S/D thieves anyway

out shining S/D? in what way? does it have vigor? 50% vigor effectiveness increase?
spammable evade on weapon set? boon rip?ignore immobilize? reduced chill cripple?

have you ever played a s/s warrior? yup, that’s what it’s like, except it’s power
and has no endure pain no zerker stance.

the only thing that looks like a s/d thief is the roll back.

That’s not S/D, that’s Acro, one of the worst trait lines in the game atm. If you go Acro on S/D you deal almost no damage.

What’s so special about this video? You fought one of the worst Necros ever to a draw and died from the condi bomb in the end. Could’ve popped Healing Sig to survive it, probably.

Zefrost.3425:

How about just deleting the skills and creating something new entirely. Rampage already does/IS these physical skills. Rampage does stomp, kick and bulls rush (who cares about bolas).

Physical skills are bad because they’re a 1 time skill of the calibre that you’d see on a weapon skillset. No other class has such garbage utilities. Engineer has kits that each have 5 skills. Warrior has rampage that does these skills.

Delete them and create an entirely new skillset.

Or, replace rifle butt with stomp, make rifle skill 1 a 3-attack chain where the 3rd attack throws a bolas with his arm (good skill/animation like shiro sword) and change rifle 4 into kick which also applies vulnerability.

There, rifle fixed and physical skills fixed. They are now on a weapon set where they belong.

Now let’s make new skills – minions or something idk. Or meditations to be cool.

Please no AI skills. But yeah, your suggestion is good. Thing is, they will never do it. The most we can hope for is a rework of what we have right now, plus they said they had the idea of endurance affecting physical skills, they just scrapped it for some reason.

SpookyPoo.8135:

how about Peak Performance being reverted to what it once was,
ie http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Physical_Training (+100% regardless of adrenaline)

and remove the “physical” aspect from Rampage.

I get the feeling that this profession is being balanced around one Elite.

Then nobody would spec Peak Performance and nobody would be using Physicals. Same as before.

3 out of 4 Physical skills don’t even do that high damage. If they’re used for something they’re used for CC.

You know what class also doesn’t have an easy access to Swiftness? Thief. Use blasts+highway if you want Swiftness.

There’s no Warrior class in PvP. There’s Rampage. If Rampage is nerfed Warriors become useless, because the class is fundamentally flawed. It’s a melee class with slow attacks that just doesn’t have enough cheese like spammable condi removal, spammable healing, instant stuns, stealth, high boon uptime, high condi damage etc. It’s just too straightforward for a game like GW2 where there are classes like Eles and Mesmers.

Weakness on disable is a terrible design, because a lot of that Weakness duration is lost when it comes to damage mitigation. Furthermore, the way Warrior applies disables is back to back, in combos, so all when the enemy recovers all it takes is one condi removal to get rid of Weakness. Plus apex classes spam condi removal anyway.

Also Vamp Runes with Defy Pain? What?

Akuni.8604:

Please, I expect some serious buffs to OH axe on ranger then as it would be pretty much Whirling Defense 2.0 after it even got nerved with the missing +range trait. Could you warriors stop asking for more? The class is overloaded as f already.

It’s really not. Should they nerf Rampage Warrior will fall out of the meta. And OH Axe is useless, so what’s so bad about making it actually not blow nuts?

Andred.1087:

Otaur.9268:

Kadsik.9281:

Don’t get me wrong, i think this shiro legend is awesome probably my favortie so far, but does this mean they will start releasing elite specs again, or will we have another long fuggin break.

Its been a month since the last elite spec, but it feels like it was this long….

Actually it has been 2 1/2 months.

Yeah I was about to say, no way it’s only been a month, lol.

Idk if anyone has said it already… (I hardly ever come here anymore because I’m not in love with being brutally censored), but what if the Revenant’s elite legend is Glint? That would be pretty dope just sayiiin

This is pretty much common knowledge. We saw a dragon shaped invocation by Rytlock in the trailer.

Rampage is godlike, other Physical Skills are subpar to bad.

A few months back during one of the streams it was mentioned that Physical Skills may get additional effects based on your Endurance. How about that comes back?

Having to save Endurance for some more power is a big trade-off, especially for a DPS Warrior who need Reckless Dodges to deal good damage. It makes the Warrior a bit more engaging to play too.

When you’re at 100% Endurance:

Kick – the knockback distance becomes the same as on Engineer’s Overcharge Shot. Great for peeling, knocking people off points etc.

Stomp – the stomp makes a cavity in the ground, creating a ring of rocks that’s impossible to pass. Same as Guardian’s Ring of Warding. Obviously useful and still pretty hard to land.

Bull’s Charge – the impact with the target sends out a shockwave that knocks up to 5 enemies behind the target. Good for team fighting and bursting several people down with your team.

Throw Bolas – the bolas pierces. < also, make it behave like Bladetrail so it doesn’t get stopped by little pebbles on the ground. Makes the skill more reliable and possibly devastating in a team fight.