Guild Wars 2

I love it when the norn guards say “I was an adventurer like you once but I took an arrow to the knee” XD, It’s a reference to my favorite game Skyrim. Can’t wait for Skyrim 2 !!!

Being treehearnes side kick and pressing 2 to kill zhaitan is more important than real choices.

So I know a lot of things don’t effect phantasms so gearing is a bit different for mesmers, I’m wonder what signets/runes/orbs will give me the most dps.

Currently I’m using ruby orbs / might on weapon swap / precision on kill

Mesmers are in a bad place DPS wise thanks to most encounters killing our main source of dps (phantasms) rather quickly.

Group support I’m pretty sure we have the best aoe condition removal of any class, making us useful in that regard. Then we have TW, another amazing group buff even after Anet gutted it. Then we have tons of reflect, the boon sharing signet is amazing.

Mesmers are great to have in your party… you just dont want more than 1.

As long as you use TW, the buff signet, trait for focus reflect, retool accordingly for each fight (do you need condition removal / reflect?) than you are pulling your weight. If you aren’t then yes you are a waste of space and DPS.

This was a complete waste of your time anet.

There was 2 things that needed to be in make it worthwhile.

1. Completely instanced / new instance only accessible by being in the guild, or joining from a party with a guild member in it.

2. Needed to scale to the amount of players starting at something like 20 or 40?

Small guild have no way of doing these, what the hell kind of guild has 150 people online at once anyways? That’s not a guild. Its a megachurch.

For a game that is basically dress up simulator 2014 online, it doesn’t have a lot of options for armor looks. It seems once every 3 months a new set of cash shop only armor is released.

And yes an overwhelming majority of the female armor makes you look like a bus stop kitten lol.

Purple Miku.7032:

Zepidel.5349:

Maybe after Wildstar flops ncsoft will stop funneling the cash shop money there an re invest it into GW2 so the dev team can get something done.

If only.

They’ll probably just try to do the same thing with another game. :/

Aside from the living story it really does feel like the games been put into maintenance mode since fractals release almost 2 years ago.

Which means people leave for extended periods of time and come back to check out new content… that has all but passed away thanks to how the living story is handled.

Maybe after Wildstar flops ncsoft will stop funneling the cash shop money there an re invest it into GW2 so the dev team can get something done.

They were going to call it: Casual Wars 2: Treehearnes side kick – Grind n’ Cash shop edition

but Guild Wars 2 sounded better

IVIUIEI.9631:

Looks like it’s gonna be a long update

Hopefully, as the only things revealed thus far as quality of life things, and borderline bug fixes.

It’s no secret the patch is meant to counter the ESO release, but with ZERO added tangible content I don’t see it doing much.

Which is why every MMO ever has had PvP servers, common sense stuff.

PvEers, Roleplayers and Carebears have the majority of servers to be left alone.

PvPers have their own server to start kitten on

usually there is one PvP server, and one RP-PvP server for more hardcore roleplayers.

I’m not a RP person, but I always play on the RP-PvP servers because the communities there are awesome, epic guild/players rivalries etc…

I’ve got a better guide lol

1.) Apply for minimum wage job
2.) Work until you get a pay check (2 weeks / 80 hours)
3.) Collect your ~650 dollars and quit
4.) Buy 650 dollars worth of gems (80,000)
5.) Exchange 80,000 gems for 5200 gold
6.) Buy a legendary or two after two weeks of farming

EZ ~50 gold per hour, much higher than this guide!

You wanna talk about fairness? Look how neglected PvP was for years compared to PvE.

Most ppl don’t consider themselves only PvE or PvP players anyways.

Peetee.9406:

I made it to lvl 4 in TESO. The combat is terribly clunky and the PvE is beyond dull.
Honestly, I didn’t make it an hour. You’re not missing anything….

That was my biggest complaint as well, the animation and combat are almost inexcusably bad.

However I thought the PvE was great, there were some fetch quests, but the main story line was REALLY well done, I mean anything besides being treehearnes sidekick is good in my book.

haviz.1340:

Zepidel.5349:

What opinions? There is no reason to ever use anything besides zerk unless you are bad at the game.

You don’t see a problem with that?

Opinions that every build and gear should be optimal. Wishful thinking, nothing more.

Multiplayer games are a competitive enviroment, optimal builds will always be looked at as necessary outside of roleplaying.

TESO will definitely be fun for a month or two depending on how much you play, but whether or not it “beats” GW2 will be seen how well its endgame holds up, wile GW2’s endgame is pretty abysmal it does make it for it in some areas.

It seems most games these days including GW2 are marketed for the lowest common denominator, and fortunately(?) GW2 seems to be the least cancerous of those new wave of MMO’s, and as far as im considered it will be the best one out there until a decent niche MMO comes out and delivers on its promises (Camelot Unchained etc…)

Yes it easy to forget about rangers since I remeber grouping with one… maybe once every 3 months or so. whilst they complain about how kitten their class is lol.

Dalanor.5387:

Zepidel.5349:

Why are you linking to the wiki?

Challenging content means PvE encounters in the game that require you to play your best, and punishes you and your group for mistakes. Makes you milk every ounce of efficency out of your build (no fights do this). and for the first two things mentioned that’s not a lot of encounters in the game.

Flame shaman is up there, because if you do die from mistakes made by you or someone in your group not fufilling their role, the frequency of the same player being hit by the arrows etc… is higher making the encounter harder.

Same for aetherblade fractal, dieing in the cannon stage puts a huge strain on your party.

To learn about classes, since you have imperfect knowledge about them.
Your “awesome” team composition lacks stealth for example, which makes thieves required in a few places.
Rangers have unique damage buffs like Spotter and Frost spiritt, thus they are required for max dps. 1 warrior and 1 ranger max out possible unique buff, meanwhile elementalists can cap might and fury. How many guardians and mesmers you see here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBUZ3MbjEHg

Well Liadri supposed to be that and if i remember correctly even most of Anet inhouse testers couldn’t beat it, while every second person was able to kill her. -shrugs-

That’s true, but thats the case with a lot of encounter, isn’kitten

when was lupi ever considered hard? he’s soloable by anyone willing to spend the time learning the fight.

Liadri was another fun encounter I wish they had more of.

I’ll say that my group comp isn’t the best, I did forget about rangers, but thats offtopic to the thread anyways, I still say you cant make more challenging content without reworking class mechanics. Just changing encounters wont fix anything about the broken meta.

Why are you linking to the wiki?

Challenging content means PvE encounters in the game that require you to play your best, and punishes you and your group for mistakes. Makes you milk every ounce of efficency out of your build (no fights do this). and for the first two things mentioned that’s not a lot of encounters in the game.

Flame shaman is up there, because if you do die from mistakes made by you or someone in your group not fufilling their role, the frequency of the same player being hit by the arrows etc… is higher making the encounter harder.

Same for aetherblade fractal, dieing in the cannon stage puts a huge strain on your party.

You keep just saying “nope” without anything to back it up, at least try man.

And I’ve been pugging fractals for a very long time, at least 200 runs with pugs, only about 5 maybe runs have failed. I don’t think your average player has any problems with high level fracts assuming they have proper AR.

Thaddeus.4891:

Dalanor.5387:

Zepidel.5349:

You cant design better encounters with the current skill/trait/stat system.

Honestly, that’s not true again.

The best group makeup for challenging content is always going to be 1 ele 2 war 1 guard 1 mes all running full zerker (might stacking / banners / aegis and reflect / Timewarp condition removal and reflect)

Neither this.

I agree that both these statements are completely untrue.

1 Ele, 2 Warr, 1 Guardian and 1 Mesmer is not even a good group to begin with. There is not even a consensus on a best composition for a specific dungeon path, so suggest that there is a best composition for everything is not only bold, but totally untrue. Why a guardian in CoF if you talk about best composition? That make no sense.

if you bothered to read, I said “challenging” content. But considering most posts ITT you are par for the course in reading comprehension.

Dalanor.5387:

Zepidel.5349:

You cant design better encounters with the current skill/trait/stat system.

Honestly, that’s not true again.

The best group makeup for challenging content is always going to be 1 ele 2 war 1 guard 1 mes all running full zerker (might stacking / banners / aegis and reflect / Timewarp condition removal and reflect)

Neither this.

why not? that group comp has everything you would ever need, and the highest dps output to boot.

And encounters aren’t going to get much harder than they are now, flame shaman and the aetherblade boss fract are about as “hard” as content will ever get unless stats/traits/skill are reworked.

Guardian is probably the best class for new people.

Ele if you want to play the FotM OP class

Don’t touch Engineer/Ranger/Necro unless you don’t plan on doing and PvE.

Tyragon.2496:

Mobs needs to be overhauled, get better AI and overall use more skills players do. Condition removal, break stun, dodge, finishers and generally a lot more fast paced combat instead of slow 1 hit attacks that gets you to 50% HP even with 2000 toughness.

Overhauling mobs wont fix anything, everything you could add to increase difficulty is countered by using abilities or dodge, again useable to their fullest potential (in most cases) in full zerk.

You need to overhaul mobs AND stats AND traits AND skills AND how they all function together.

Dalanor.5387:

Zepidel.5349:

For instance takes wall of reflection for gaurdian, right now nothing modifies it.

I don’t know actually if it’s the case with WoR too, but for instance mesmers Feedback is affected both by crit chance, crit damage and damage modifiers. Guess what? Zerker is still superior, BUT the main reason you want to use any projectile defense, is to protect yourself or your team. Reflecting it is just an added bonus.

There are already good and usable builds for PvE.
Warrior and Ranger for offensive buffs.
Guardian and Mesmer for reflect and support.
Thief is a CC machine and stealth bot.
Ele provide offensive boons again along with their high dps.

Sadly Engi has a LOT of stuff in their pocket, but it’s very unlikely that their utility isn’t already covered by other team mates and they are on the low end of the spectrum in dps.
Necromancers provide very minor utility, that can be done with multiple classes, often even better with less effort.

Tools are given, design better encounters.

edit:

As people have said, the meta is zerker BECAUSE the mobs promotes zerker. The mobs themself zerk mindlessly in group and lets your Hundred Blades warrior just deal all the damage without the need of a stun or immobilize, nor do they remove it.

Move out from CoFp1 and Queensdale champ train and you will see thats not true.

You cant design better encounters with the current skill/trait/stat system. The best group makeup for challenging content is always going to be 1 ele 2 war 1 guard 1 mes all running full zerker (might stacking / banners / aegis and reflect / Timewarp condition removal and reflect)

haviz.1340:

I wish we had had so many opinions back in gw1.

What opinions? There is no reason to ever use anything besides zerk unless you are bad at the game.

You don’t see a problem with that?

People seem to be looking at it very narrow mindedly.

The thing is… besides dodge, the other big mitigators of damage are abilities like wall of reflection, veil, stealth, nullfield, shadow refuge etc… All of these abilities can be used in full zerk or full defensive gear, and they all work the SAME no matter what gear or spec.

Guardians / Mesmers are the defacto “support” classes, but that doesn’t mean they need to wear +healing gear or defensive gear. Because they are just as effective supports in full zerk. The difference is they can do 2-3x more dps in zerk gear… so why not?

In the current meta passive mitigation from hp or toughness is nothing but a crutch for non skilled players to use, as they become better (git gud) they move onto gear that offers more dps with less passive mitigation as they have become better at using active mitigation to completely negate damage that would otherwise kill them. PvP of course being a slightly different story.

Skills would have to be completely reworked to change the meta, as well as stats and traits.

For instance takes wall of reflection for gaurdian, right now nothing modifies it.

However if we wanted to change the meta… We could allow +Healing to effect it in some way, for instance whenever it reflects a projectiles nearby allies are healing for a percentage of the projectile damage based on healing power. In a zerk setup +power would effect the reflection damage to enemies. BUT these would be meaningful increases, meaning in a zerk setup the healing would be almost nothing, and the damage reflection in a healing setup would be nothing as well.

That’s just 1 half kitten idea for a single skill, you need to rework every skill that’s functions like that to interact differently with stats and specs.

Removing the zerker meta, or really the ’How can I do the most damage possible" meta would require re tooling every single encounter in the game, and changing the core class mechanics.

if you have been playing for the past… year? you would know the don’t have the resources to even begin the attempt that.

If go- guys could just get ascended armor from doing dungeons then how the heck is anet gonna make money off crafting boosters and gem to gold conversions for crafting mats?

You guys are really entitled

Stormcrow.7513:

Zepidel.5349:

Ascended gear already does a fine job of discouraging players to invest into it. Its a 750+ gold sink for 3 prof and 9+ pieces of gear, not to mention the time it takes to obtain those 9+ visions crystals.

I’ve been playing MMO’s since DAoC over 10 years ago, and I have NEVER seen a grind as large as ascended gear, or even the legendaries in this game for that matter. It’s disgusting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E&t=1m40s

Agree 100%. I have a warrior in Full zerker, with zerker armor as well. The grind for that was almost up to par with my legendary(yes I have no life lol). Reading about the zerker nerf did get me thinking about future nerfs. I am not too worried since I will always be doing damage but what if I had made a set of celestial ascended armor? Or maybe made a set of knights for my guardian and later find out that toughness is no more?
MMOs have always had nerfs and GW2 is no exception but the point is that I always recovered by easily getting new specced gear.
Unfortunately GW2 is way way too grindy for me to respec my zerker warrior to a new, as of yet, unknown meta or anything else for that matter.

I don’t think you will have to worry about that. The changes to crit damage were extremely lazy on Anets part, and don’t address the core problem with the game mechanics. This is just a half kitten d response to people complaining about the zerker “meta” which isn’t a zerker or gear meta, but a dps meta.

All the encounters in the game are made so the greatest portion of damage mitigation is done through active skills and dodge, these things can be used in soldiers gear, zerker gear, any gear, and any spec for that matter.

Meaning better players will use zerker gear or whatever gear gives the most dps potential, because as they become better at actively mitigating damage… they don’t need the crutch that is more hp or toughness. Why? Because instead of a 1 hour dungeon run, its done in 20 minutes for the same reward.

Zerker will still be king after the patch. The only possible setup to dethrone it is condition specs if the cap is removed, but still that’s a dps meta.

This is all a side effect of removing any kind of support roles from the game, trading the “trinity” for the “singularity” did nothing to advance the genre, although I will say on a gameplay level the game is much for fun to play than most traditional mmos, but i don’t see why fun combat like in GW2 cant be implemented into a trinity system.

Ascended gear already does a fine job of discouraging players to invest into it. Its a 750+ gold sink for 3 prof and 9+ pieces of gear, not to mention the time it takes to obtain those 9+ visions crystals.

I’ve been playing MMO’s since DAoC over 10 years ago, and I have NEVER seen a grind as large as ascended gear, or even the legendaries in this game for that matter. It’s disgusting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E&t=1m40s

Still nothing… I just want to know if I should use my laruels/splitter now.

The obviously weren’t thinking of RPers when they made this lol, sucks 4 u guys.

^

fractal skins and mini liadri

thats about it. At least things that take some measure of skill to obtain.

This question has been asked like 15 times since you released the post, do you guys not even watch the forums? Especially after a blog post…

You could work a week at a minimum wage job and spend that money on the Anet fun money store for a free legendary, or spend thousands of hours in game.

Your choice if you want one lol.

Alfador.7649:

Hmm… I didn’t even think about this. When I read it, I just unconciously assumed it meant crafted stuff. If they’re going that far, I suppose it makes sense that they’d do it with rings and such too, but I can’t say I’d be torn up if they didn’t.

It would really blow for me, having to do 500 fractals again to get the backpeicel on every character is NOT FUN

^

i kinda want to know this, kitten whoever wrote that blog post with vague wording

The forums are never a place of positive/happy people. THESE people are playing the game, not wasting time posting on the forums.

This is why the forums seem so negative, and theres nothing wrong with that. Angry people come here to whine, and happy people play the game and spend money.

Stooperdale.3560:

You still seem to be under the impression that the ‘current meta’ dictates the best build for PvE. In fact the content you are facing dictates the best set-up for that content. This is true for weapon sets, heals, and utilities. Different trait lines provide different benefits for different set ups and players can pick the benefits they want to see most often. In this sense, the thief is moderately well balanced across the class despite the dominance of beserker builds.

The meta, for competetive players at least is always “How fast/efficient can we clear x content”, and since there is no need for support or tanks in this game… zerker will always be king.

I guess im necroing this thread because a lot of work went into from multiple people, maybe someone else can pick up on it?

I was really disappointing with the ICD on the instruments. that takes about 99% of the songs you could play and makes them impossible.

cant even be hardcore with the flute

Draknar.5748:

Zepidel.5349:

But post ascended the game has become Pay 2 not Grind.

And that’s a problem…….why exactly?

I don’t agree with a lot of people in this thread, but this is just… I have to call you stupid I’m sorry.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Zepidel.5349:

World bosses are still loot pinatas, where I stand still, turn on my auto attack, check facebook, then collect my Anet™ approved 2 boxes and open the chest to find 3 blues and 4-6 silver. They could of added 1000 new world bosses and it wouldn’t matter, it’s a complete faceroll and waste of time for most people.

The new wings of those dungeon were nice, but could hardly stand on their own.

Clearly you’ve never been the the jungle wurm then. Good to know we can safely ignore this thread now.

Implying you weren’t going to dismiss it anyways.

repair costs aren’t the way to penalize bad players. Releasing content that is actually hard and requires skill / coordination / a brain is plenty. But so far I can count the encounters that require those things on one maybe two hands.

WingLegacy.7159:

Zepidel.5349:

WingLegacy.7159:

Wow! if your so fed up with GW2 wtf you still doing here?

RoS or really D3 in general was a massive flop, ESO is going to be SWTOR 2.0, I ripped at lvl 86 in the new HC league on PoE and cant find the determination to reroll … There really isn’t any MMO’s out there right now worth a crap. So I’m here, at the best 2014 has to offer unfortunately voicing my concerns with the game.

Is criticism not allowed here?

Nahh..if you have this many complaint then this game isn’t for you anymore. Simple as that.

You’re going to tell a stranger on the internet a video game isn’t for him?

I have tons of complaints for this game, if it hated it I wouldn’t even bother making this thread… I would just quit. If I loved the game I wouldn’t be here either, I’d be playing the game.

Zypher.7609:

Zepidel.5349:

SonicTHI.3217:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Factions
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Nightfall

Comparing those lists to GW2 shows how truly horrible GW2s list of added content really is. It doesnt even come close to one expansion, much less two that were launched in the same timeframe as GW2s “living” story.

Not to mention there wasn’t a cash shop nickel and dimeing the players at every chance they could. Just where is all the money going to?

Rude comment, but again most of your posts in this thread have been rather illogical. You really should take a step away from the computer for a bit. You do not have to spend a dime on the gem shop, you can use in game gold.

The truth is rude?

Pre- Ascended gear you statement was true. But post ascended the game has become Pay 2 not Grind.

40 dollars or 500 hours on the champ train for 500 proff

15 dollars for lvl 1-80 in 2 hours, or 48 hours in game. Granted leveling in gw2 is pretty fun… the 1st time.

WingLegacy.7159:

Wow! if your so fed up with GW2 wtf you still doing here?

RoS or really D3 in general was a massive flop, ESO is going to be SWTOR 2.0, I ripped at lvl 86 in the new HC league on PoE and cant find the determination to reroll … There really isn’t any MMO’s out there right now worth a crap. So I’m here, at the best 2014 has to offer unfortunately voicing my concerns with the game.

Is criticism not allowed here?

SonicTHI.3217:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Factions
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Nightfall

Comparing those lists to GW2 shows how truly horrible GW2s list of added content really is. It doesnt even come close to one expansion, much less two that were launched in the same timeframe as GW2s “living” story.

Not to mention there wasn’t a cash shop nickel and dimeing the players at every chance they could. Just where is all the money going to?

Max Lexandre.6279:

Temporary content was a big mistake, it needs permanent mini-expansions not temporary.

Temporary content is fine, it adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game via the living world. The problem is they seem to be using 100% of their resources for it, instead of developing permanent content along side it.

displacedTitan.6897:

Zepidel.5349:

CureForLiving.5360:

Although this might be a very out of place remark but the forums have a lot in common with American politics, everyone’s hovering around the extremes of their believes and ideologies and no one is willing to give a inch of admit they’re wrong. Which makes attempting to prove the other side wrong pointless.

Those that think GW2 is dead, with no end-game will always think that, those that think GW2 is doing fine with plenty of things to do at end game will always think that.

Arguing is futile.

There really is no endgame in GW2.

I can level to 80 then run CoF till my eyes bleed for a couple days and be in full zerker exiotic. Then there is no reason whatsoever to do any other dungeon unless I want the skins.

Then you move onto fractals, do about 300 of them and get the back piece.

Then you spend $50 dollars on the gem store to buy gold to craft up to 500 to make ascended gear, or you spend 500 hours on the jail train in FSG for that cash.

then you are done.

This is terrible progression.

So you want a gear treadmill ala WoW and you came to GW2… why? There are litterally dozens of MMOs out there if you want to feel amazing by increasing your numbers to fight bosses who just increase their numbers.

These “endgame” content arguments always end the same way, “endgame” content that is PvE is interesting until you beat it. Then its just farm status and boring. Go play some PvP if you want engaging content where you cannot just learn a fight once and do it that SAME EXACT way forever.

No I came to GW2 to get away from the gear treadmill because I remember a certain game called GW(1) didn’t have one. And GW2 didn’t have one until recently.

You don’t need gear progression to make new and challenging PvE content.

and I love PvP, but thats another story.