Guild Wars 2

colesy.8490:

Dodge. Aegis. Reflects.

So that’s that’s what I’ve been doing wrong all this time. I haven’t been dodging, using aegis, or reflecting anything. What will you tell me next? That there are skills besides the auto-attack? So what are those little icons above my skill bar to the left of the big red globe that has numbers in it? Can I use those or are those just for decoration like everything to the right of the red globe?

Or they can dodge, you can give them aegis, you or they can use reflects and they all have access to their own burst heal if they drop low enough.

I’m aware of all of that, thank you very much. That doesn’t mean everyone in the group can perfectly execute all of those things 100% of the time.

There are numerous reasons why people may not be able to dodge or why their “burst heal” may not be available or why I may not be able to give them aegis. Many bosses shoot right through Wall of Reflection and other shields that guardians can put up. Aegis blocks a single attack, and then it’s out of commission until it recharges. A lot can happen in those 90 seconds while Virtue of Courage recharges.

In ideal circumstances, the rest of the group can use everything possible at their disposal to ensure their survival. Unfortunately, due to the nature of combat in this game and the fact that people have varying levels of skill, Internet connection speeds, and computer hardware, those ideal circumstances aren’t occurring throughout most fights.

Healing power is bad.

Did I ever say it was brilliant? It isn’t like I’m running around in full cleric’s gear and calling that support. If you must know, I use knight’s armor with soldier’s runes and a mix of trinkets. Healing power does indeed scale rather poorly. It’s been a major gripe of mine since the game launched. But it doesn’t seem like ArenaNet has any (public) plans to make changes to the way it works. I’ve taken that into account with my gear, my build, and my statements here.

No, you’re not “highly effective”.

Oh, well that settles that. Clearly I contribute nothing to the group at all. I just hang out in the background dancing while the real group does all the work for me. On the plus side, I’m a really good dancer now.

If your definition of effectiveness is limited to simply how much damage I do in comparison to your epic zerker build, then yes, I’m not effective at all. I’m not measuring my effectiveness just by the value of the white/red numbers appearing above enemy heads.

And why would you not try to kill something as fast as possible? Whether you’re in berserker or cleric, why would you not be trying to kill something as quickly as you can?

Clearly we have two very different lines of thought on what it means to be “effective” and what we consider to be fun. I dislike speed killing because I find it to be a mechanical, boring, and repetitive process. That doesn’t mean my groups don’t try to kill things efficiently and relatively quickly. We just don’t care about killing things at the maximum possible speed that the game allows.

cesmode.4257:

TBH, Ive sort of lost what the term ‘meta’ even means anymore. No offense to your post haha, but it is used in such a wide array of thought, I dont even know where to begin. Is it the “best things to do”, “theory crafting..”Im so lost lol.

Let’s confuse things a little more.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meta?show=1&t=1374688627

colesy.8490:

Raw damage is everything. I have hundreds of hours on my guard, and if I go full glass I still have access to plenty of support for my team without having to use junk non-zerker gear.

Good for you. I have about 1500 hours on my guardian. That time has been spent in all aspects of the game (general PvE, dungeons, fractals, sPvp, WvW). I’m hardly some inexperienced noob that doesn’t know how to play the game.

If I go glass cannon I can definitely do more damage and still have access to many of my support skills. That isn’t exactly a profound observation. It’s how the class works.

I’m also significantly weaker in terms of the amount of damage I can take and how much I can heal my group. I’m still highly effective and beneficial to the group if I use that “junk non-zerker gear.”

I think the Lupi speed kills are pretty much evidence of damage being everything, to the point it even lets you skip phases of a fight in that case.

Using speed killing as an example of damage being everything is laughable. Of course damage is everything if you’re trying to kill something as fast as possible.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Bottom line is, while you can be successful using any gear, beserker gear is ultimately the best.

Yes, berseker gear is ultimately the best…just for doing damage. It’s terrible for overall group survivability. I’m not saying it’s bad to have people in berserker gear. It’s great for group damage. But having everyone in that generally doesn’t work out too well.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

The problem ultimately stems from the fact that they tried to do away with the trinity without actually replacing it with anything. This leads to the situation we are in now that DPS trumps everything else.

Boss has a healing mechanic-> More DPS to outpace it
Boss Builds up power during the fight-> More DPS to kill it first
Boss Does powerful attacks-> Quicker you kill it the less attacks it does

There is no situation where having more defense is more helpful than killing things faster. Every class has the same access to CC/Ulility/Healing so you can have all that and still wear zerker and be the best dps as well.

Most classes can buff themselves and debuff the enemies just as well if they are wearing zerker or nothing at all. There is no need to bring in a support spec in a support set of armor because most classes can already provide their own might/fury.

Yes, killing stuff faster reduces the amount of damage the group takes. But guess what? Having a support character in the group can also reduce the amount of damage the group takes while actually increasing the amount of damage they do and how much they heal. There are very few situations where that wouldn’t be an advantage.

I’ve said this over and over again but DPS isn’t the only thing that matters in this game. Maybe that’s all that matters in the elite groups that are so kitten they never ever die. But for the majority of players out there (even many really good ones), it’s a limited and ultimately flawed viewpoint. More damage does not necessarily mean a group is more effective.

I play as a support guardian pretty much everywhere. I make a few tweaks depending on what I’m doing or the fight that’s coming up but my build largely remains the same. It’s absolutely viable.

I’ve said this many times on this forum and tend to get bashed for it (apparently my 1500 hours as a guardian with 90% of that being support means nothing) but raw damage isn’t everything. There are multiple factors that come together that determine whether a group is good. And I think DelOnasi managed to sum those up fairly well.

This skill is hilarious. It should absolutely stay in the game. It’s part of the way Southsun Survival is played. If you happen to be one of the remaining survivors, you need to find a way to deal with the possibility of someone throwing a karka at you.

I don’t think the results will be skewed as much as you think they will. I think people will place a few tokens for the candidate they don’t want simply to gain buttons that allow them to get all of the achievements.

You only really need 4 or 5 buttons (on the high side) to complete the achievements that require them. Most of the others can be done without showing support for any candidate at all.

Once you have the achievements for the “other side,” you can simply continue using tokens on whatever candidate you want to win. If both sides do this, then both sides will have slightly inflated tallies. As Pixelpumpkin said, they’ll cancel each other out. Hardly a big deal.

Lion’s Arch is run by ex-pirates. Pirates tend to like plunder. Of course people with money will have an advantage. It’s the nature of politics with ex-pirates. It wouldn’t surprise me if both candidates are cheating somehow and that it’ll be part of a future storyline.

Whatever the case, I highly doubt people will be throwing 1000s of gold just into tokens to vote for this. They drop from every enemy and you get lots of them just from doing the mini games. I can’t think of any reason to actually buy support tokens unless you just want to vote and don’t have time/want to play the game. Being able to buy them is a convenience but it’s far from necessary, and it definitely isn’t the smartest way to obtain the tokens.

Vahkris.6847:

Besides, incrementing a variable and logging an action are probably two of the first things programmers learn how to do, outside of Print “Hello World”. It’s used everywhere in GW2. Not sure why the question of whether they can track votes even comes up.

It’s stupidly easy to track votes. Incrementing a variable and storing the value in a database is something any competent programmer can do with their eyes closed (figure of speech — not saying ANet does this without actually looking…). We shouldn’t even need to worry about data loss. The amount of redundancy and backups in MMOs usually borders on “insanely paranoid.” In other words, there’s a kitten ton of it.

People bring up things like this because it’s yet another thing to complain about or because people don’t understand how programming works. It’s programming 101, though. The programmers for this game wouldn’t even be working at ArenaNet if they weren’t competent programmers. Game development jobs are incredibly competitive.

The amount of negativity in this thread is pretty ridiculous. You guys realize that this is intended to be fun, right? This isn’t an election for the leader of a real country or even the leader of Kryta. It’s for a city council seat in Lion’s Arch. Whoever wins will no doubt have an impact on where the story goes next but it isn’t like we’re determining the fate of the game or something.

I highly doubt ArenaNet has stacked anything in favor of Evon Gnashblade. They’ve presented two characters with strengths and weaknesses and they’re leaving the outcome to players. Just because devs have stated that they favor specific candidates doesn’t mean they are trying to get players to vote along with them. And so what if they are? The last time I checked, they play and care about this game just as much as us (if not more so since it’s their creation). They can’t vote or campaign along with the rest of us?

If your preferred candidate doesn’t win, are we going to be having threads about recounts, voter fraud, and so on? I really think people are taking this way too seriously. Support who appeals to you more and just have fun with it. The gem store will make ArenaNet money regardless of who wins. Enough with the conspiracy theories.

Bolt is vastly superior, imo. And I say this as a mace/shield guardian. Ultimately, I decided to go with the Bifrost (not remotely helpful in solving this dilemma, I know) since I almost always have a staff equipped and couldn’t justify making a legendary I’d almost never use (Bolt). Likewise, I can’t stand the Moot. It’s hilariously tacky but that doesn’t go with the look I’m trying to go for. That and I just couldn’t justify spending all that time and gold to make what pretty much comes to being a joke weapon.

Anyway, I’d make whatever you think you’ll use the most. Otherwise you could go through all the effort of making a legendary and have it end up collecting dust in your inventory. Legendaries are meant to be flaunted, not stashed away in backpacks and hidden from view.

Charak.9761:

Rangers do more damage with greatsword

stop spamming you shortbow, I hate you and you’re a wasted slot in the dungeon.

I’ll be sure to bring my shortbow ranger into dungeons with you in the future then.

I think sPvP is actually a lot of fun when you have decent match ups. Or rather, IF You get decent matchups. Usually it’s a clusterkitten whether you get a halfway decent team. Most matches are so horribly mismatched and one sided that calling it “competitive play” is like calling a cat kitten “fairly appetizing.” It isn’t fun for either team to dominate or be dominated in such a way. To make matters worse, you get slapped with terrible glory rewards, which can’t be used for much of anything. It’s pure random chance whether you end up on a good team, an adequate team, or a terrible team.

fellyn and Meglobob summed up most of the problems I have with sPvP in general. The reward system sucks. A lot. I recently opened my first monthly PvP achievement chest and ended up with a few glory boosters, a few arcane slivers, and some salvage kits. And that was it. Gee, thanks. That was completely worth it… In order to unlock halfway decent skins that aren’t from the Hall of Monuments rewards or the gem store, you need to grind for hundreds of hours to increase your rank. And even when you finally have a decent rank to unlock the gear you want, it’s random whether you actually get it. How is that remotely rewarding? On top of that, PvE rewards don’t carry into PvP at all. I get that players should be on equal footing stat-wise, but if I spent 100 hours farming the necessary gold and resources to craft tier 3 human armor, surely that must translate into PvP somehow, right? Certainly there are better ways besides skins to distinguish player prestige (or lack thereof) in sPvP?

In short, sPvP is a great beginning to structured competitive play but multiple systems need major revamps for it to hold my interest in the long term. It needs a better matching system that takes a look at player ranks/statistics, rewards that are actually rewarding, more game modes besides conquest, a better UI for setting up/joining matches, and an easier way to equip your characters with gear.

GW1 had an outstanding gearing panel that you could use to equip your characters. You could even save build and gear combos that you liked. This kind of thing is desperately needed in GW2. There were a lot of things wrong with PvP in GW1, but it also did a lot of things right. I think in order for PvP to be improved in GW2, a closer examination of what worked in GW1 is desperately needed.

TL;DR: sPvP is a great foundation for what could become a brilliant form of competitive play. But as it currently stands it desperately needs a better matchmaking system, rewards that are actually rewarding, a better UI for gearing characters, and more game modes. Those changes would be some great first steps. Right now the mode is just too broken and pointless to be worth a long term time investment unless you happen to enjoy the play style.

Galtrix.7369:

Alright, I agree that there must be somewhat of a tradeoff when it comes to doing more damage or surviving more. And I apologize, I misunderstood you at first. I probably wasn’t paying attention and I thought you said the Ranger class is perfect as is.

On the other hand though, there are very, very few builds that are viable to the Ranger. I think there are about two builds that actually work well. Compare that to any other class, and you’ll see why I think they’re useless. Even the best build on a Ranger is still mediocre compared to crap Guardian builds. If they’re not useless now, they will be soon.

No need to apologize. I wasn’t offended or angry. I just wanted to make sure you understood that I wasn’t trying to defend rangers as they currently stand. I just think they’re far from useless. They’re also far from perfect. Many of the changes to this class have been rather baffling to me and I can’t figure out exactly what ArenaNet is trying to do with them. The class certainly isn’t in fantastic shape compared to other classes (such as the guardian) that barely get any groundbreaking changes anymore.

Vayne.8563:

Rangers have nothing to do with ranged weapons. Rangers have everything to do with ranging the wild. They patrol rangers.

The term comes to MMOs from D&D and it came to D&D from Lord of the Rings. But Aragorn in Lord of the Rings used a sword, not a bow.

And even in Guild Wars 2, rangers are far more effective as melee fighters than with ranged weapons, returning them perhaps to the original and real definition of the word, instead of what the genre painted them as.

Somehow I missed that part of the OP (no idea how since it’s in bold text…) but yes absolutely. The term ranger doesn’t have anything to do with being a ranged fighter (although they’re often capable of it) and has everything to do with ranging, which is a form of patrolling/scouting over vast distances in the wilderness. Their skills therefore tend to match the skills needed for such a task: ranged weapons for hunting game/taking down enemy targets, traps for hunting/killing, melee weapons for close quarters battles, being able to blend in with their environment to avoid detection, tracking game/enemies, etc. A pet is often brought along to help with tracking and to ensure that larger threats don’t get too close.

Afya.5842:

And there isn’t any. Everything in pve is one shot. You dodge it or you down.

By survivability, I don’t mean being able to face tank a boss indefinitely. Although it is possible to do that in short bursts for many of them if you’re traited and geared properly. I’m talking about balancing damage with health and armor. If you just go all out with damage and don’t take anything else into consideration, your survivability will be significantly lower than someone that focuses heavily on armor, vitality, and traits that give boons/remove conditions. Your damage will be lower but you won’t be downed nearly as often. And as a result, you’ll probably be far more effective overall. Of course, player skill and experience come into it as well. So this is just a general statement.

Galtrix.7369:

Zedd.8239:

Rangers are perfectly fine in PvE. They certainly aren’t without their faults and there are things I’d like to see changed. But they aren’t useless.

Anet said I could play how I wanted and still be viable. I wanted to play with the longbow. My damage is almost non-existent. Oh, look, I’m no longer viable.

No offense, but people who defend Rangers are the ones that prevent the Ranger from being changed. I’m not trying to bash Rangers, because I really enjoy playing them, but It’s really, really difficult to enjoy the class behind the sound of my arrows striking my enemy for 1 damage each.

When Anet buffed the longbow, that was the happiest day of my life, until I saw that they increased the rate of fire, but lowered the damage. I then realized that Anet had no idea what they were doing. At all. There was no point to that change whatsoever, and I really wanted to smash my face into my keyboard badly.

You’re reading far too much into my post. I’m not trying to say that rangers are perfect as they currently stand. I agree that they need more work. But the class isn’t useless.

Regarding your first comment about ANet saying we can play as we want, well, yes they said that. But the catch is that you can play as you want using the mechanics established for your chosen class. As a guardian, I’m not incredibly effective at long range. I need to find ways to survive while in melee range or provide utility to those that are moving into melee range/staying at a distance. It isn’t always a completely fair balance since there are situations where melee range isn’t feasible. But I’ve accepted it as one of the weaknesses of the class and I’ve learned to work around it.

The tradeoff to using a longbow with a ranger is reduced damage but more range. Is that a fair tradeoff? I don’t know. At the very least it seems somewhat reasonable. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still require tweaking or that the class doesn’t need certain aspects of it buffed.

Raine.1394:

I believe here that the OP is referencing the mesmer role in the GW2 dungeon trinity, i.e., that the role is largely utility/support, which it is, and that is why the trinity works. Well, 33% of why it works. You really need to mention the guardian as well, as zerker warriors really don’t work well alone outside of cof1. (It’s actually rather shocking how quickly a glass cannon warrior dies when faced with sustained damage.) You need a quasi-tank. With the guardian, warrior, and mesmer in place you have a trinity that works in GW2.

If there is a problem with this, I don’t believe that reducing the DPS of the warrior profession will in any way fix it. It’s not as simple as light=more DPS, heavy=less DPS. There are a number of trade-offs, mechanics, and implied combat roles in play.

I do believe that there is a problem indicated when three professions rise to fill roles that others can’t fill as well. But, it’s not purely a DPS issue. It’s an issue of how combat and combat roles are conceived in the game and whether they are working or not. But, yeah, there are class balance issues as well. Rangers should do more DPS.

Now this is a post I can agree with. Or mostly agree with. I don’t know if there’s necessarily a problem with the roles the classes can play. Some more fine tuning is certainly in order, though. But yes I agree that it’s a more complex issue than simply increasing or decreasing damage output. There are far more things to consider than just damage when balancing the classes. Rangers could certainly do with a damage buff. Acting like they’re completely unusable now is a severe exaggeration, however.

And yes, it’s rather alarming how quickly glass cannon warriors drop with sustained damage. Glass cannons can work well for speed clears (especially in CoF1) and if there’s plenty of support in the group, but if a fight requires any sort of sustained survivability, it just isn’t going to work well at all.

Rangers are perfectly fine in PvE. They certainly aren’t without their faults and there are things I’d like to see changed. But they aren’t useless.

Khyber.2693:

Why else would you bring one along? They have utility and decent damage… but if you didn’t want utility and you wanted a mage what would stop you from bringing an elem?

You just gave two perfectly valid reasons to bring a mesmer along. The point I think you’re missing with this game is that all of the classes are viable classes in most areas of the game. It’s a rather limited view to just say that class X is only good for Y.

I’ve done every dungeon in this game numerous times and most of the time I’m not too picky about which classes I bring along. It’s more of a hit or miss situation if you’re PUGing it and I can understand being more careful about who you bring in those situations.

That said, I’ve had groups succeed brilliantly in fractals at level 48 with non-standard group makeups and I’ve succeeded and failed with “perfect” group makeups. A lot of the effectiveness of a class comes down to how well an individual person understands their build, class, and the mechanics of the game. You could have the “perfect” cookie cutter build and still fail horribly if you don’t understand how to play it or specific dungeon mechanics.

I’ve encountered plenty of guardians, for example, that drop faster than most elementalists. The gut reaction from a lot of players in that situation might be “the class is broken/why are we so vulnerable?” And to that I’d say that they need more experience playing the class to know what works well and what doesn’t.

Exploiters are completely innocent when it comes to any and all nerfs to loot drops. It’s all about ArenaNet’s poor decision making. The player is within his or her right to exploit anything in the game for profit and any negative consequences are only the fault of ArenaNet’s poor decisions and not the players’ for choosing to take advantage of said exploits. Is that what you’re saying? Because that’s what I’m getting from this discussion.

Mesmers are only picked for portals, Feedback, and Time Warp in dungeons? I won’t deny that those skills are extremely helpful but they’re hardly the only reasons why mesmers are good to bring along.

So player behavior has absolutely NO impact on ArenaNet’s decisions? They just make their decisions in a vacuum to screw over players and to prevent us from making money? I find that very difficult to believe.

If the event chain has been started, Arah becomes contested and you can’t enter the dungeon until the chain has been completed. So if there is a large group of people intentionally trying to drag out the events because they’re farming, it potentially hinders peoples’ progress in the personal story. Even if there are ways around this issue (just bring more people interested in completing the events), you shouldn’t have to compete with other players just to finish your personal story, enter a dungeon, or complete an event chain. The game is supposed to encourage cooperation.

Sylv.5324:

ANet nerfed pen/shelt and it’s that crowd trying to farm bosses that summon adds. As soon as one is nerfed, they switch to another spot to farm there. They are NOT interested in running around the whole zone and never have, and getting folks to turn out to take temples is always, has always been a pain. At least on my server.

I realize that. I was providing an alternative way for people to farm that doesn’t involve standing in one location for hours at a time. Farming the same event for hours isn’t even that smart because of DR.

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve read comments from people in map or local chat complaining about how boring it is to just stand around and farm a few events. If it’s so boring, why not shake things up a bit by doing a full loop around the area? You almost never waste any time if you time things properly, you help the server by uncontesting waypoints, and you get just as much loot (if not more) as you get from farming a single event over and over again. It seems to come down to laziness pure and simple.

If you take away loot from temple chain tables, you punish the rest of us who do the WHOLE chain for the loot, not access to the dungeon. If steps along that path are nerfed, I may stop going completely, as Arah, Melandru and Grenth are the best chains for loots in Orr now and getting enough people to bother to do them is almost ALWAYS a hassle as it is.

I agree, which is why I suggested adding a timer to the different events in the chains people are farming to death. It would encourage people to actually do the events and it wouldn’t punish people that are legitimately trying to do the chains.

IMO revert the pen/shelt timers. Some folks cannot spam dungeons and the open world IMO should be just as rewarding.

I’d rather see more interesting rewards added for doing a variety of things than farming two events for hours at a time. The achievement point rewards are a fantastic first step.

I don’t have a definite answer to this but it seems likely that any new legendaries added to the game will use unique precursors. All of the current legendaries work that way. It stands to reason that any additional legendaries will work like that.

Celebratty.1632:

What difference is there to the people wanting to do the story? If they weren’t here farming, they were going to be somewhere else, not doing this event.

They’re talking about people that want to get into Arah to complete their personal story.

Advent Leader.1083:

You know, investigating the event sequences, I think it’s bugged – since in theory, if you look at the bars, it makes sense that once the risen presence bar hits zero, the normal mobs that spawn after should be reduced in loot count (maybe drop zero loot since the mobs are newly spawned and not part of the ‘reinforcement count’ shown on the timer) and made substantially weaker as compared to the normal mobs that spawn while risen presence is at >0%.

So IMO this one definitely needs fixing, starting with fixing loot and NPC stat values for the enemies, with stronger and ones that give loot at presence non-zero, and weaker with no stats, but for added taste make them spawn in greater numbers/have random attack sequences/variance in spawns (think plaguebringer, noble, acolyte etc risen mob class) to balance the effect and to drive in that you -really- need to kill that giant ASAP.

I don’t think it’s necessarily bugged. There’s a set amount of risen that spawn that count toward the “risen presence.” Once those are dead, you just have the giant left to kill. However, more risen spawn while the giant is being killed. I suspect this is to keep the event from being too easy for a large number of players and to make it more difficult for extremely small groups of people to complete it.

Whatever the case, if you leave the giant alive and simply focus on the risen that spawn while the giant is still up, you can theoretically farm this event indefinitely, which I think is what people are doing. You don’t get loot from the grubs but you do get loot from the other risen.

As I mentioned above, one way to fix this without destroying the drops would simply be to add a timer that forces people to complete the event in a certain amount of time (perhaps the average completion time plus 5 minutes) or have it fail. This would prevent the indefinite farming situation, encourage people to work together to complete the event, and allow the chain to continue.

ArenaNet doesn’t need to nerf the loot for these events. All they really need to do is add a timer to each event in the chain to prevent them from being farmed for hours.

I don’t know why people feel the need to repeatedly farm a single event like this for loot. A great alternative is to start or join a karma train. The timing for events isn’t quite as good as it used to be but it’s still a viable way to get a ton of loot, experience, and karma. If you get a decent number of people to join up (say, 15-20), most events in Cursed Shore will scale up quite a bit, meaning more enemies will appear and more loot will drop. You avoid the potential problems with DR by never staying in the same location for too long, it keeps things fresh by actually having to move around the map, and you get to play through several events.

While this doesn’t necessarily solve the problem of players trying to prevent a large event chain from completing or being rude to those that want to complete it, it’s a viable alternative for those that want to farm. It also doesn’t prevent people from accomplishing what they want to accomplish since it opens up waypoints and locations and it allows people to farm as well.

I often try to lead the Gates of Arah event chain from beginning to end on Ehmry Bay multiple times per week. If there’s interest, I’m willing to lead more karma trains as well. Whatever the case, you shouldn’t need to guest on another server just to unlock a dungeon or do an event chain. I think that’s ridiculous.

If you want to do the events or simply want to unlock the dungeon, I’m more than willing to help organize that. Just drop me a message on here or in-game (see my signature) and we can figure out a time to do that. I’m even willing to guest on your server to help out. I might even be able to rally some of my guild to join us.

Yeah, unfortunately those giants in Orr don’t count as giants. It makes getting this particular achievement rather time consuming since there are only 3 enemies that count toward this title at this time. Hopefully there will be more giants added to the game in the future to make this achievement a bit more reasonable.

Meteor Shower definitely makes circles on the ground in most cases. Or it’s supposed to anyway. Whatever the case, the solution to this “problem” is quite simple. Dodge out of the way and then run out of the area of effect. I’m not sure why that’s difficult. :-/

I’m not sure I understand this complaint. People are receiving a backlog of chests from 9-10 months of play. That’s why there are so many.

If you don’t have a use for so many badges of honor, delete them or convert them to exotics to throw in the Mystic Forge. Or buy a new character some exotic armor. Or buy ascended trinkets.

How are free exotic skins that you can throw into the MF not a valid reward? You do realize that if you throw the exotic weapons in the forge you have a chance to get a precursor, right? Or if you don’t like the skins you can obtain with badges, throw those in the forge for different skins that you can sell.

Or if you really can’t stand being rewarded with free stuff, delete it all and the problem will be solved. Just because you personally don’t have a use for so many badges doesn’t mean other people don’t.

Happyfool.8951:

Don’t open the pvp chest then, as they stack. Or you can delete the chest outright.

also, the pvp skins you get from them are soul bound for some reason.

The PvP skins can be deposited in your PvP locker. Once you deposit them, they’re no longer soulbound until you withdraw them again. You can then deposit them again if you need to move them to another character, they lose the binding, and once again become soulbound on acquire. That’s how sPvP gear works.

Solo.9027:

I think they chose 20 because thats when you have all 3 utility slots unlocked, though I’m not sure it grants any skill points.

I used it on my warrior and it definitely grants skill points. I went from level 2 to 20 and 0 to 18 skill points. You get all of the benefits of leveling (trait points, skill points, skill slots) without actually having to spend the time leveling.

Tachenon.5270:

Zedd.8239:

There’s really nothing silly about it at all except for maybe the animation.

That’s what I’m talking about. The silly way the thing walks.

Then that’s something else entirely. I thought you meant the concept of a powered exoskeleton was what was silly.

locoman.1974:

Fantasy, as well as sci-fi, has been used several times as a framework to tell stories about real life situations and experiences.

The discworld series, for example, is high fantasy comedy, and the books have dealt with insurance companies, mail systems, free press, banking, religion, politics and so on. A Song of Ice and Fire (AKA Game of Thrones) is fantasy, yet you have politics, religion, trade and all sorts of stuff on it. The Black Company series of books are also set in a fantasy book, but the style and stories would feel right at home in a gritty war novel, just to name a few. And well, if you go to the basis, The Phantom Menace (I know, not the best example, but since star wars is considered a mix of sci-fi and fantasy) is all about a trade dispute.

Exactly. Just because something is high fantasy doesn’t mean it can’t deal with more complex issues. It’s all about how it goes about dealing with them that makes them entertaining or interesting.

I think the lore for Guild Wars 2 is fantastic. It’s some of the most interesting lore in an MMO in my opinion. The story itself is fairly straightforward and a bit predictable. And in some places (e.g., story mode for The Ruined City of Arah), it’s disappointing and anticlimactic. Overall though, I think that as far as MMO stories go, it’s decent. Brilliant? No. Adequate? Yeah. Can they improve? Absolutely.

Having said all of that, I still think that if you’re looking for really in-depth, complex fantasy stories that looking to MMOs or other RPGs is the wrong approach. Your best bet is to track down well-written books.

Tachenon.5270:

Zedd.8239:

The dredge mining suits actually have dredge inside controlling them…

Yes. And sometimes the player character has the opportunity to take one for a spin. Doesn’t matter who is inside controlling them. Once they start walking it’s like they are auditioning for a skit on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It’s just silly.

Have you never heard of powered exoskeletons/body armor that enhance human abilities? This concept isn’t unique to the mining suits. It’s a fairly common sci-fi concept, which may not even really be sci-fi in the next 20 years. Actual human controlled exoskeletons have been in development for years by the US military (other countries are probably doing the same). There are even working prototypes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_exoskeleton

There’s really nothing silly about it at all except for maybe the animation.

The dredge mining suits actually have dredge inside controlling them…

Ceallach.8740:

How do you know they’re not referring to the show? Many people know it from just or mostly the show and there’s really nothing wrong with that – after all, the show does have a story that has all the elements being discussed and could be used as an example in the same capacity.

Because they mentioned the books and George R.R. Martin right after mentioning Game of Thrones.

Whatever the case, that part of my post was intended as a clarification in case people don’t know what the books are called. And I was disagreeing that they don’t have much magic. Initially the novels don’t have much magic at all but that grows along with the story. The show has intentionally cut most of the magical elements from the books. The Stark wolf dreams (not just Bran but all of the Stark children, including Jon), prophecies, and actual spells. So in the case of the show, it’s more of a medieval thriller. The books, on the other hand, are a completely different matter.

Both the show and the novels are obviously fair game for making comparisons to other media. I just think there should be a clearer distinction when discussing them. It’s like using the Harry Potter movies or the Harry Potter books. They’re so different that they are barely related beyond names and very basic plot details.

And even if they weren’t there’s really no shame or particular stupidity and calling something by a colloquial and well-recognised name. If I talk about the song “Baba O’Reily” a few people will smile and nod and be happy that someone called it by its “given name”, but I’m not going to correct anyone who calls it “Teenage Wasteland” unless we’re playing trivia and they ask me.

I wasn’t trying to shame anyone or call them stupid. I was clarifying that Game of Thrones (the HBO series) is different from A Song of Ice and Fire (the novels the HBO series is based on). The plots, characters, and level of detail are different enough between them that it warrants clarifying which one you’re referring to for the purposes of discussion. The same is true if you’re talking about The Walking Dead (the comic book) and The Walking Dead (the AMC series loosely based on the comic with the same name). Otherwise it just isn’t clear what is being talked about.

The Bazaar isn’t a town. Therefore, waypoints cost money. It’s how it works everywhere in this game.

If you’re looking for a George R.R. Martin or J.R.R. Tolkien level story from an MMO (or a video game in general), you’re looking in the wrong place. The lore is often fleshed out fairly well in MMOs, and GW2 is no exception to that. But the stories are often paper thin. The stories are important for getting from point A to point B. That’s about it.

Also, George R.R. Martin’s series is called A Song of Ice and Fire, not Game of Thrones. The latter is the HBO series that’s loosely based on the former. A Song of Ice and Fire is largely about the politics and the wars that result from the game of thrones the high lords are playing, but the series features more and more magic as you get deeper into the story. A Dance with Dragons has a significant amount of magic that plays a critical role in the story and sets up the last two books to have even more. The series starts with very little magic. Then the dragons are hatched and the old powers begin waking up.

Molch.2078:

I had the imagination of myself fighting a mob with full health while a guardian in a heal spec trys to heal me. Our discussion was too much hate and too little information to clear that image.

That’s fair. Let’s start over…

So I will ask you straight forward: What is the build you’re using?

Edit.: 50/50 anchor? Kay, thats a build im running, too. You don’t need it everywhere, but it clearly has it uses.

At the moment, I’m running full knight’s armor with soldier runes, a few cleric’s trinkets, and 0/0/30/20/20 for my traits (AH as my grandmaster trait). I’m still experimenting with the amount of healing power I have and a few other things but that’s more or less the general idea.

I used to use full cleric’s gear but ultimately healing power kinda sucks as far as scaling goes and I’ve found that knight’s is just better all around. But yes, I usually act as an anchor and can take some pretty heavy hits. It helps take the pressure off of the rest of the group while they nuke a target down while I get beaten on.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.

Hunter.4783:

Heal support in PVE? Way to lose credibility and show you know jack about the class. There are other things in between 20/30/20 in full zerker gear and Healway.

The entire Idea is that a more tanky guardian running lets say a mix of knights/zerker (50/50) and soldier runes is way more beneficial to the party than a DPS wanna be guardian. The mere fact that the somewhat tanky guardian can take a hit, draw agro from the boss or mobs and live alleviate a great deal of stress from the party. Would you rather have that glass cannon warrior or mes kiting the boss/mobs or DPSing full force?

And yes, you running 50% knights gear with some points in valor will near you the 3k armor mark and that usually will make you the preferred target over other squishes.

Not to mention that soldier runes and PoV can hugely alleviate condition pressure like when someone messes up in the archdiviner.

“BUT…BUT…MY ULTRA MEGA AWESOME GULDIES DO THAT FIGHT IN 3.2324242 MIN AND NO ONE GETS HIT…EVAHHHh!” ….Yeah thats awesome, but in more down to earth and common scenarios you see people getting hit and downed and a tanky guard will be able to get them up while eating a few hits from the boss

And please, i don’t wanna hear anyone talk about Arah, it has been beaten to death and most bosses soloed at this point.

Note: When i say tanky guard i don’t mean full PVT gear, i am talking about 50/50 knights/zerker. I have to stress it again cuz not everyone here has reading comprehension

This. Thank you.

Molch.2078:

Our definition of “effective” differs, it seems.

And there’s a problem with that? I honestly don’t understand this attitude from a few of you. Support guardians are definitely a viable and effective play style. Sure, I don’t do as much damage as people in full zerker gear. So what? I still play an important role in my groups. It isn’t as noticeable as lots of red numbers appearing above enemies but that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything. Might stacks, lots of small heals, condition removal, etc.

I don’t think the OP’s claim about zerker gear being a bad idea in AR is valid. It has its place and those that know what they’re doing can be effective with it there. But other builds are also viable. Maybe not for you personally but for others. If that isn’t something that you can accept, then this is clearly a pointless discussion.

If we’re only talking about sPvP, I can understand the complaints. There aren’t really that many elite options there and I think that’s a problem. Not truly viable options anyway.

Molch.2078:

You’re still lacking evidence… where do you need a heal-support guardian? Where is a little bit of heal better than damage?

I need to provide evidence now? That’s amusing.

High level fractals, dungeons, WvW, general PvE. I use it all the time and it’s very effective.

If you want to use something else, that’s fine. I have a different play style than you, clearly.

Red bars to hit down, on the other hand, are everywhere…

That’s great. There are also green bars almost everywhere.

Clumsy.6257:

completely incorrect, the only boss fight i can think of in regular dungeons that isnt about raw damage … wait there isnt one

Oh so we’re only talking about bosses now? My bad. I thought there were other situations in the game other than that. Obviously my support build has absolutely no use in any situation in this game. Oh wait. It does. Almost everywhere.

Molch.2078:

If you survive in zerker as good as in knights as good as in pvt, whats the point in not running zerker?

Because not everything is about raw damage.

Maiden England.3491:

People talking about tomes as if they’re the best thing that ever happened… The amount of time they last vs the cooldown simply makes them not worth it for me. Even if you’re running small group wvw, there are more useful things you can do to help your team.

I’m pretty sure no one is saying that tomes are the “best thing that ever happened.” We are, however, saying that they aren’t “useless” and can be very powerful if used in the right situations.

haviz.1340:

Guardian is the easiest proffesion to play as full zerker. If “most guardians” can’t do it properly, they really have to improve their own survivability.

I said most guardians in PUGs I’ve played with that go full zerker. In PUGs, which is what you were referring to, many guardians have no idea what they’re doing. Sometimes you hit a guardian that is extremely experienced but it’s rare. I’m not saying you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve never played with you (as far as I know) so if you can go full zerker and not be a liability, then more power to you. It’d be nice to see that more often.

Whatever the case, they often just go full zerker, use a greatsword, and expect the group to carry them. That might work in CoF path 1 but it’s often a recipe for disaster in most other dungeons (especially high level fractals). And it definitely isn’t the best of ideas in AR if you don’t know what you’re doing.

haviz.1340:

Tell that to better than average pugger player. There’s no dungeon or fractal where full zerker is a bad idea.

I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or serious with this statement. If you agree with what you just said, then good luck with that.

In my experience, most guardians (or any class really) that use full berserker gear are a liability to the group. This isn’t necessarily true of people that know what they’re doing but most don’t have a clue. They believe that higher damage > everything else and then they die. And die. And die. Then they start getting angry at the rest of the group for “sucking” even though we’re all still alive. Or they demand that the group “stacks” (dumbest strategy ever in most situations in this game) so they can minimize how much they’re hit while the rest of the group goes down due to AoE stuns, conditions, or burst damage.

Molch.2078:

Since ever. And they still are. Damage > all in this game. One dungeon won’t change that.

No, it really isn’t.

wintermute.4096:

People who have run any higher level fractals won’t find this any difficult at all. If you need the training wheels that is non zerker gear feel free to use them, but don’t berate people who get by without them, kthxbye.

Non-zerker gear is “training wheels?” Wow. I guess I need to learn to play. Not everyone focuses on damage in this game. There are builds where zerker gear doesn’t make sense. And there are builds where it does. Your post is just as berating as the OP.

This thread already has some great advice so far but I figured I’d add my $0.02 to the mix as well.

Personally, I tend to use a fairly defensive/supportive build and usually use a mace/shield and a staff. I can swap to any other guardian weapon if necessary but those are the weapons I most often use unless the situation demands something else (e.g., I prefer a mace/focus for tanking in certain fights such as the Jade Maw in fractals or Mai Trin in Aetherblade Retreat).