Guild Wars 2

Lets go through the pros and cons of both Search and Rescue and Function Gyro.

Search and Rescue

Pros:

- 1200 range teleport of a random ally away from danger
- Fairly short CD for it’s strength
- Provides regen and swiftness (when traited) to nearby allies, which contributes to Astral Force gain

Cons:

- Reduces pressure on enemies due to pet reviving instead of damaging
- Cannot stomp, let alone at range
- Almost totally useless with the actual Ranger’s res trait
- Cannot be traited to provide stability to the ranger and the pet

Function Gyro

Pros:

- Can stomp at range
- Can res at range
- Extremely short CD (or does it even have a CD?)
- Can be traited to provide stability to the Scrapper and the Gyro

Cons:

- Does not teleport downed ally or enemy
- Resses and stomps slower than players

As you can see, Search and Rescue is far better at the ressing job, but that’s all it does. It cannot stomp. It does not give stability, making the Ranger vulnerable and easy to interrupt. It’s more like Function Gyro 0.75 because it specializes in half the job.

The trick to fighting any mesmer is knowing exactly when to dodge. Most of their burst comes from shatters. This actually applies to any profession fighting them. If you can negate their burst, you’ll force them to run away or stealth. Be ready to CC or dodge them as soon as they reappear. You can also pop a CD and try to burst them away, but keep in mind that they can shatter and summon clones while stealthed. Learn to identify clones from the real mesmer. It’ll take a lot of practice.

If you’re caught in a moa, skill 5 is an evade, and 4 is AoE weakness. If hit by GW, you’re kittened unless in shroud and stability is off CD. If not, you’ll take a LOT of damage. Note that they can cast these elites twice. You’ll know if they’ll cast it a second time by seeing a some continuum thingie (forgot the name) appear by the mesmer before or while they’re casting an elite. This is the Chronomancer’s F5 skill, Continuum Split.

In the end, dodging and identifying the real mesmer is key. Mesmer defences are on fairly long CDs, but can be cast twice due to F5.

One last thing, unless they’re running the Inspiration tree, they have also no condi cleanse. Bomb them! Better yet, if they are condi themselves, send their bomb back to them! Just be careful to make sure you send the bomb to the real mesmer!

People really think thieves aren’t going to be meta?

The OMFG (mesmer guild) of rangers. Count me in!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWnUqA9Ci9sA2CCctglZBD+fmQfoPBg603yZqNnyalMtzA-TJRIABGVGw7nAAO7PAwlAAA

Cleric is likely to outshine Mender. With soldier rune, you can cleanse some condis and heal through the rest. CCs aren’t a big concern if you can use CA 5 (cast and immediately cancel for a free 2 seconds of stability while casting other heals), Protect Me, and SotP well enough and kite as well. It’s a highly survivable spec in team fights and can survive 1v1s against most classes on a point long enough for help to arrive.

And best of all, it does TONS of pet damage. Seriously, pet swap into Bristleback f2 is pretty major burst with that quickness. You can also use Guard and then cast your heal after the 6 seconds (which you’ll probably need after all the damage your pet will take) for an instant 25 might stacks on your pet for wild Bristleback burst. Follow up with Rapid Fire for vulnerability and you’ll have a downed or retreating focus target immediately.

Literally just confirmed that it’s just hotjoin after making progress from a regular unranked game. It’s just confusing wording that I saw.

Stand The Wall.6987:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8XnUqA1Ci9sA+CCctglZBD+fWQfoPBg603ypqNnyan480lC-TZBFAB0v/ABXAAgPIANcEAA4BAAA
paladin
you get 2 procs of prot from the rune (shh)

I’m curious whether the 4-5 extra seconds of protection is worth it over the extra hp and toughness with the condition cleanse for nearly allies on shouts from Soldier rune. With Herald, you can actually maintain perma protection, but you also lack condi cleanse outside of CA. Without WS, you only have Evasive Purity for condi cleanse and that is probably an overall downgrade from near perma vigor.

So the tradeoff is more protection uptime for less condition defence. I can see the condition cleanse being more useful in the end.

It turns out there’s a cap on reward track point gains in unranked, including hotjoin. Anet, do you honestly expect people to keep playing your game during the off season when we can literally max out on rewards for a day? Is this just to discourage people from playing all day? What’s the reasoning for this?

If this is in regard to 1v1s only, then my personal list is as follows:

Reaper > Scrapper, Herald, Dragonhunter, Tempest, Chronomancer, Berserker
Reaper < Druid, Daredevil, Tempest

Scrapper > Daredevil, Herald, Dragonhunter, Berserker
Scrapper < Reaper, Druid, Tempest, Chronomancer

Druid > Reaper, Scrapper, Daredevil, Tempest, Chronomancer, Berserker
Druid < Herald, Dragonhunter,

Daredevil > Reaper, Herald, Tempest, Chronomancer, Berserker
Daredevil < Scrapper, Druid, Dragonhunter

Herald > Druid, Dragonhunter, Chronomancer, Berserker
Herald < Reaper, Scrapper, Daredevil, Tempest

Dragonhunter > Druid, Daredevil, Tempest, Berserker
Dragonhunter < Reaper, Scrapper, Herald, Chronomancer

Tempest > Reaper, Scrapper, Herald, Chronomancer, Berserker
Tempest < Druid, Daredevil, Dragonhunter

Chronomancer > Scrapper, Dragonhunter, Berserker
Chronomancer < Reaper, Druid, Daredevil, Herald, Tempest

Berserker > …
Berserker < Reaper, Scrapper, Druid, Daredevil, Herald, Dragonhunter, Tempest, Chronomancer, Berserker (it loses to itself!)

Disclaimer: Most of these are likely totally wrong in reality. These are mostly based on theorycrafting and some experience in duels. Others are guesses! As you can tell, I have no faith in Berserkers still.

LughLongArm.5460:

Zintrothen.1056:

Hey everyone. A guild mate suggest this spec. Tried it and it’s awesome! As with most druid specs, you can switch between a couple different traitlines, and sigils are always optional. It uses Paladin’s Amulet, which the Build Editor hasn’t updated to yet. It has no healing power, but the healing you put out is fantastic anyway because you have so much survivability through CDs, 560 toughness, protection on dodge etc. You’re teammates can be kept up mostly unless they’re focused by 2-3 and don’t have CDs. I haven’t tried GS with it yet, but I’m sure that could work. Longbow has a strong AoE with cripple and a short CD knockback as well as strong range burst. But GS is a bit more defensive. It’s preference. I’m having good luck as longbow because staff allows me to escape to range and nuke from afar if needed. Overall, I’ve had more success with this than my old spec. It’s not as supportive through healing, but it’s as survivable for yourself while putting out much more damage.

Something important to note is that even if you take GS, don’t take the trait. The one below actually generates AF through the passive 125 healing your pet receives every second, so this spec also gains AF VERY quickly.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWnUqA9Ci9sA2CCctgFMBDum+TLqP3gVVkrZZNACAl480A-T5QIwAAuEA42fA8TAAA

Interesting build, so many new druid builds since last patch, “a golden age” ^^.
I think you should take CS over NS(you have swiftness all the time) also CS is an amazing survivability tool. WIth LB, Take marauder amulet, you need the damage, you have enough survivability tools from traits and utilities. Change sigils to air/fire on LB, air/boold in staff. Dont be 2 obssesed with condi clear(generosity), best way to play around a condi necro is to kill the kitten thing. Your builds puts tons of pressure on your pets(EB+BW+GUARD) not sure britsleback will be able to survive the heat, moreover, range pets are not optimal for the use of BW(perheps electric wyvern for the AS synergie).

I’ll give CS a shot. You’re right about the constant swiftness making the movement speed on NS pointless. The only reason for the trait is for the duration reduction on the movement impairing conditions.

I disagree about Marauder. There are too many times when Paladin’s has saved me. And a lot of times I might need to walk onto a point for whatever reason. The only thing Marauder has over Paladin’s is 560 ferocity. Though ferocity is good, it’s part of RNG whereas 560 toughness is always working, and it helps my healing on myself a bit, which is what this build is made for.

Even with extra ferocity, reapers don’t die quite that quickly! But yeah, 9 second ICD condi transfer probably isn’t going to save me and the reaper can just throw it right back lol.

I’ve been trying to find a pet that could replace bristleback. Something with a shortish CD f2 that times well with the taunt and is survivable while putting out good damage, and preferably with a CC. If only we could use two smokescales.

Hey everyone. A guild mate suggest this spec. Tried it and it’s awesome! As with most druid specs, you can switch between a couple different traitlines, and sigils are always optional. It uses Paladin’s Amulet, which the Build Editor hasn’t updated to yet. It has no healing power, but the healing you put out is fantastic anyway because you have so much survivability through CDs, 560 toughness, protection on dodge etc. You’re teammates can be kept up mostly unless they’re focused by 2-3 and don’t have CDs. I haven’t tried GS with it yet, but I’m sure that could work. Longbow has a strong AoE with cripple and a short CD knockback as well as strong range burst. But GS is a bit more defensive. It’s preference. I’m having good luck as longbow because staff allows me to escape to range and nuke from afar if needed. Overall, I’ve had more success with this than my old spec. It’s not as supportive through healing, but it’s as survivable for yourself while putting out much more damage.

Something important to note is that even if you take GS, don’t take the trait. The one below actually generates AF through the passive 125 healing your pet receives every second, so this spec also gains AF VERY quickly.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWnUqA9Ci9sA2CCctgFMBDum+TLqP3gVVkrZZNACAl480A-T5QIwAAuEA42fA8TAAA

There is one thing to do three times when fighting one: RUN! The first time is when they pop the elite shout. You’ll need to dodge this or pop a stun breaker/stability if you’re low hp. He’ll shout “Chilled to the Bone!” while casting. It gives the Reaper stability, and uncontrollable Reapers are deadly.

The second time to run is when Spectral Armor procs. The Soul Reaping traitline has a passive trait that procs Spectral Armor when struck below 50% hp on a 50 second CD (40 seconds traited). Though you can control the reaper (unless of course they just used the shout elite), you should still stay away from him because he’ll get 8% of his life force back every time you hit (on a 1 second ICD I believe), so there’s no point in staying close. Some Reapers may take the actual utility as well, so be ready for two!

The third time is during Reaper’s Shroud. This is the most deadly state the Reaper can be in, but it’s also one of the best times to pressure them. However, they can pop skill 3 for stability again. And if you thought a Reaper without shroud was deadly with stability, you should see them in shroud with stability! They might try using skill 5 on you in this state. Do not try to interrupt it. Just dodge/stunbreak and run the kitten away!

If you’re caught in a teamfight and you have enemies locking you down while the reaper is pounding on you, you’ll need to pop a lot of CDs probably. Just do what you can to stay away from them if you’re under focus fire.

Lastly, learn their shroud animations. They have long cast times and are easily dodgable. The absolute biggest thing to stay away from in shroud is skill 4. It spins the Reaper around and applies 12 stacks of poison that tick for well over 1k in addition to the power damage. Outside of shroud, watch out for condi bombs and try to LoS and survive until you can lock them down.

That’s all I have. It’s probably not the best advice but it should help you in the end. I don’t main a reaper but I have one and am familiar with their skills.

It is indeed annoying to have to look up when you’re trying to make a quick decision or reaction.

Being able to move around target windows would be amazing. Actually, more customization options should have been added long ago. We don’t all like the default and only setup for the game’s UI. Anet, I bet you would gain customers if they knew that you could customize your own UI.

What would also be nice is being able to see all the enemies on the side of the screen just like you can see your teammates on the left side, even if it’s just nearby enemies, like let’s say within 1200-1500 range. To see what boons and conditions all enemies have would be extremely helpful, and I don’t think it would lower the skill floor of this game. It would simply be a QoL addition.

Updating my list, based on theorycrafting and experience playing as and fighting against these professions. Specs won’t be specified but should be pretty obvious.

- Reaper
- Scrapper
- Daredevil
- Druid
- Dragonhunter
- Tempest
- Herald
- Chronomancer
- Berserk

Chronomancer and Berserk might switch places. DH and Tempest might switch places as well. Herald might push just below Druid.

My best prediction at this time for top comp is: Condi Reaper, two Scrappers (at least one as power), D/P Daredevil, and support Druid.

I thought about running that first spec before the patch went live, but I haven’t tried it yet. So that makes three builds to try and two variations of my current build. Is it just me, or do Druids have the highest build diversity in the game?

Scrappers rock! What traitlines were you running in this video?

Salamander.2504:

Zintrothen.1056:

style.6173:

I’ve said before that druid will be the place where all the old bunker mesmers run towards. We shall see.

Ha, that’s probably true. I played ChronoBunker, but didn’t really enjoy it, so played a little Tempest. Since Tempest likely won’t have a place in the next meta but Druid should, I went there. Not because I want to be OP, but because I enjoy playing support specs, and ones that are good.

I think it’s too early to say this…there are some really effective and surprisingly sustainy tempest builds running around unranked atm.

Very True! Actually, I found the same spec or similar to, using Sage’s Amulet, worked well. The only issues are that Reapers are tougher than ever with better boon corrupt and no Diamond Skin, and that Thieves, Druids and Scrappers are probably going to take their place. Though that leaves one spot, which, imo, will either be DH, Tempest or Rev, or doubling up on the previously mentioned professions. I can’t see Warriors or Mesmers being meta. But like you said, it’s too early to really tell.

style.6173:

I’ve said before that druid will be the place where all the old bunker mesmers run towards. We shall see.

Ha, that’s probably true. I played ChronoBunker, but didn’t really enjoy it, so played a little Tempest. Since Tempest likely won’t have a place in the next meta but Druid should, I went there. Not because I want to be OP, but because I enjoy playing support specs, and ones that are good.

The DH cannot move while casting it. And it takes about a second to charge up and then travel to you depending on your distance. This is a big enough tell and plenty of time for you to dodge or interrupt or pop a CD if needed. I’ll agree the 4 second CD is a bit too low for how hard it hits, if it hits. But Anet would just increase its cast time or some crap like that instead lol.

I started a thread for anyone who wants to ask or answer questions about countering skills. Feel free to ask how to deal with True Shot. You’ll probably get a nicer response from the community than in this thread.

There are a lot of threads complaining about DHs, Reapers and Thieves among other professions. So I would like to start a thread with the intention of collecting information, by whoever wants to give any, about countering profession mechanics. If we can get some info in one thread, perhaps some players will look through it instead of making a new thread. It’s not foolproof, but it’s worth a shot.

Some common complaints are DH traps and chaining them together, Reaper condition bombs, just about anything Thieves do, Mesmer shatter bursts, and so on. Just think of one, mention it, and then write up how you counter it or how players counter you if you play the profession in question.

If you just have questions about how to counter, ask them. There are no bad questions.

One thing to avoid is just mentioning dodge. Instead, say when you’ll likely cast a spell and when to prepare to dodge. Sometimes you may need to dodge in anticipation. If you can, even try to describe a skill’s tell so players know what to look out for in game.

I don’t know whether this’ll help many players, but again, it’s worth a shot!

So I’ll get started with a couple questions. How do you deal with Reaper condi bombs. Should I dodge in anticipation, and if so, when is the best time to do that? And what do Reapers do after the bomb to try to prevent the player from cleansing them or reduce the impact of cleansing? Though I have a Reaper and know their skills, I don’t know the rotations, so any info would be helpful.

Oh look, another person who just says L2P instead of actually explaining how to counter.

OP, I agree that traps are OP, but I don’t think the size is the problem. The problem is that they can be chained together because of their short cast times or lack thereof. What class do you play? If you have any kind of companion like mesmer clones or ranger pets, you can send them in ahead of you to take the effects of the trap. If a DH leaps onto you, try dodging. You might just avoid the daze altogether. If you’re stunned, wait for the traps to trigger before popping a stunbreak (unless it gives you stability)

But as OP as traps are, DHs are sort of weak without them and are somewhat prone to pressure. In the end, the guy above me is right that we have to adapt and counter it however we can. Anet won’t balance them properly so we’ll have to make do with what we have.

Evasive Purity moved to WS.

Either don’t lose AF when leaving CA, or cut the reduction in half, or allow us to activate it above 50%.

Slightly reduced cast time on We Heal as One. It’s so easy to interrupt when your character literally announces the cast.

I heard it was possible before gliders with some careful jumping. But who cares about that. You can glide there now!

They were there out fear of thieves. They knew they would be buffed.

So there are several things to try here then. Mender’s with my current setup, or MM over WS with Crusader Amulet.

I can see Crusader Amulet with MM working fairly well for a more damage oriented build, but I don’t see it being more defensive. My concern with this setup is that I won’t have the 3 conditions cleared to the pet every 10 seconds and I’m still sitting at 17.6k hp, so condition defence won’t be as high. Plus my pet absorbing a small CC isn’t all bad. The main reason for taking that trait is because there’s nothing better! Given that the spec is more focused on dodging, it would make more sense to have the condition removal on dodge trait in WS instead of NM.

All these decisions could probably be based on what the enemy team has. A condi heavy team might favour Mender’s. A power heavy team might favour Cleric. Lots of experimentation needs to be done against various teams.

Healing power may scale poorly, but it’s the most useful stat for team support as a Druid. With the MM Crusader setup, I won’t be able to sit on points to do damage without taking too much. I know the toughness is good, but Cleric also has it and it’ll allow me to heal from a distance when needed. But like I said, this might all be situational.

I like that we have several options now for fairly similar supportive play styles. I would encourage all of you to try out Cleric with WS in addition to Mender’s with WS and Crusader with MM to see what works best against what. Then we can post here with results.

Lastly, let’s not underestimate the ability knock multiple foes off point with Glyph of Tides!

Protect me is still a stun breaker. It also has a lower CD, taunts the next player who attacks you, and provides 4 seconds of protection. You can also use it on a point now without losing the capture. It’s a rework, not a buff, not a nerf. But imo, it’s improved strongly!

Jocksy.3415:

Hello!
What I meant about the traitline was that you rely on pet for damage on the one hand, yet you rely on hurting the pet for automatic stunbreaks and condi cleanses. Condis might be just blind that would make your next pet attack useless, if he takes it from you, or it may kill it, while you would have few or no way to save it. Plus, stun and dazes that the pet takes from you stop it’s attack. Sending them to pet in a non-BM build is a good option… Sending them to pet in a BM build has always seemed counter-productive to me. If you’re good with it, and you did take it in consideration, then go with it…

About sigils, in the patch note after they the runes and sigils were re-worked, or in the explanations they gave surrounding the sigil change, Anet stated something that two runes of the same category wouldn’t stack, just like on-kill can’t stack, or two same quality air sigils share the same CD.
Can’t find the post, it was too long ago for me to remember precise words to look for it.
About power, your power is 1900 unbuffed. which mean a basic maul would do only average 1200 damages, so not even a 2 k critcal hit.
Why waste a sigil for 3 crits that will not even give you a 1.5k bonus in the standard swipe (749 base + 375 crit), hilt bash (390 damage +190 crit), maul (1247 base, plus 623 crit) rotation (damages are the one indicated in the build editor). It is even worse on staff. 3 crits per switch on a low damage build would have a meaning with on-crit bonus (from traits or sigils), which you do not have.

Heal is really a matter of preference.
Many prefer your choice to survive to high-damages/bursts classes.
with staff you do have a water field anyway, and with allies, you might even benefit from explosions in your celestial water.
These are all just options worth considering. For mobility, I prefer the shout. For point bunker, I prefer the trap.

As far as bug goes, I never experienced the bug where it would not trigger. I did sometimes have one where standing inside, it wouldn’t trigger.
Note: The trap design prevents the old regen stacking from the source…

I see what you mean about the traitlines now. I compared the them again and found that BM would work better still due the shouts trait (I’m using 2 utilities and the elite), the GS trait and the taunt on f2, which can act as an interrupt. Overall, those 3 traits work better in helping me keep myself and allies alive. The condi removal is invaluable with reapers terrorizing everyone. Blind isn’t too bad because the smokescale and bristleback attacks fast. Also, most CCs going around are short so those aren’t too impactful on them either. So that’s my reasoning.

For sigils, I swapped to Transference and it worked great! I see what you mean about Intelligence. My pet is my main damage source too so Intelligence is pretty poor in that regard. Also, it must just be weapon swap sigils that stack.

The trap heal worked great in some games today. The extended CD wasn’t much of an issue overall, and I could tell it was helping keep my team alive, especially with Sigil of Transference. Could you clarify about the “old regen” thing?

Another question: what are your thoughts on Rune of Leadership over Soldier? The traited elite shout is a CD of 48 seconds, which times perfectly with Leadership. I’ll also be running the trap heal, and the teleport res won’t be used for the condi cleanse. Only protect me the elite would be useful for that, and the elite with Leadership would cleanse two and turn them into boons (possibly 2 seconds of resistance from chill).

Ok, that’s enough internet for me today.

Did you win against those two DHs?

nottsgman.8206:

healing spring is not triggered by enemies iirc, because it is not a damage trap, but by you and your allies. it only triggers if you/allies have less than 100% health.

Well that’s confusing! That would explain why it seems to only trigger when I’m on it. The tooltip doesn’t explain that only allies can trigger it. Plus, it’s technically not a trap when it can’t be triggered by enemies! But that’s nitpicking. Thanks for explaining this. I really had no idea!

Confirmed this. Will only trigger if you or an ally is below 100% hp. If you’re at 100% and taken below while standing on the trap, it won’t trigger.

Quick update. It can actually trigger even if an enemy has never even gone over it. It’s like it triggers based on the ranger’s actions, not the enemy’s. I’ll be editing this post with minor updates unless I find a breakthrough.

I looked for an already made topic but couldn’t find one. I’m in HotM and the ranger skill Healing Spring still, randomly, isn’t triggering. The bug fixes from the patch says it’s fixed, but it’s not. This is easy to test for yourself.

I placed the trap ahead of time and it wouldn’t trigger when enemies walked right through it. I also placed it on top of them and it usually didn’t trigger. Sometimes you need to move the enemy off it and back on and then it’ll work.

Jocksy.3415:

OK. First. There are a few things that I find off with your build.
Beastmaster/druid, OK. But Why wilderness survival? It hurts your damage source.
It seems to me that nature magic line would better harmonise to the two other traitlines, while still being defensive. Skirmishing, with quick draw, can also help with survival (eg, when using staff 3 or staff 5, the staff 3 (combo heal / explosion in water field) or GS 3 or 4 as first attack) while also being offensive (staff 4 and GS3 can help your pets land hits).

I also see that you use sigil of intelligence. You have no power. No ferocity. Nothing that triggers on critical hit. They are swap sigils, and you can only have 1 on swap sigil trigger per switch. Permanent bonus sigil of transference might be better. Or the on-hit sigil of ice. Your GS could be sigil of air and sigil of intelligence, and leave the healings sigils on staff. I keep mixing good and bad sigils, so don’t take my word on which sigils are best.

As for fighting. GW2 is made in a way that there are always going to be builds against which we are strong or not.
As a BM, your purpose is to keep your pet alive and help it deal damage, while keeping the attention of the ennemy.
DH. Know their traps. If you are up against a DH, do not try to cross the sword wall animation. You can evade in the sword trap (never cross it!), block with GS, evade with staff 3. Keep protect me to break that stun (if DH traited for daze on trap activation ^^. Get to know the trap laying animation…
If you feel heavy condition damage might be a thing in a given match, I would advise you take healing spring, which cures some conditions. you can also blast it with staff 3, and jump with GS3 for more heals. You can also swap your glyph with glyph of empowerment which gives you 2 condi cure on 16 seconds CD.
The best is still to find the dangerous attacks tells and avoid the arresponding attack. EG, necro might self inflict alterations to send them to you. blind him on th spot, get your pet to taunt them, dodge if you have to…
As for thief, depending on the build, they are pretty easy to make out. I see one goe in stealth, I slowly count until attack. next time I know attack will likely be on the same pattern, allowing me to dodge. Your build migth lasts some against thief (taunt wisely!), but you do not have what it takes to get one of pretty much any builds down. Call for help^^.

Hope it’s intelligible and it helps. I’m not a PvP expert, but I enjoy dueling with my guildies. Take my words with a grain of salt, and practice, practice, practice…
If you can, try to whisper someone who keep killing you to ask if they would be nice enough to do a few duels against you after the match. They could explain what they do, so you can improve. In my experience, most players are nice about it. It really is worth it to try, and really helps to get to know the dangerous things to avoid.

Hello! Thanks for the tips!

I’m using WS because I found it provides increased for both power damage and conditions. Though NM has some good traits, such as Protective Ward and Evasive Purity, WS provides a couple seconds of protection on dodge, 5% reduced power damage with regen which is gained from shouts, 3 conditions transfered to my pet every 10 seconds passively, perma 20% endurance regen rate increase, and a CC is taken by the pet every minute. While Skirmishing provides improved offence and some defence options, it just wouldn’t work overall and most of the traits would be useless to my spec. My goal is to stay alive and help keep my teammates alive while letting me pet do most of my damage (seriously, my The Needler and Lets Me Stealth are awesome!)

I agree somewhat about your point on sigils. I don’t have ferocity but Cleric Amulet has 900 power! So not sure where you got the no power idea from! I just tested in game and you actually do maintain both on swap procs. So I would have 3 crits and 900 life leech from one swap. Though I never thought of how useless Sigil of Intelligence is on staff. I swapped it for Transference.

On that note, does anyone know whether the 10% healing bonus applies in CA and if so, whether the bonus is specific to my equipped weapon at the time of changing into CA? Like, will I have 10% bonus when switching to CA as staff but not when switching as GS? Edit: Nevermind, it does affect CA healing and is dependant on the weapon used with CA.

I’m glad you mentioned taunt. Since I’m using the BM trait and Protect Me, I have access to two taunts, which is taking me a while to really get down using properly. I haven’t had too much trouble against traps that are already placed, but rather when they’re placing them and chaining them together. Taunting won’t work, I might be out of dodges and the CCs are so short that Protect me would only help because of the protection boon. This game is just loaded with quick CCs that are just reapplied the instant I use any stunbreak. So I’ll just have to be more careful with my dodges and save them for those traps and taunt for thieves and reapers.

You had mentioned Healing Spring. I had thought about trying it, but a few concerns come to mind. The shout is nearly half the CD and also cleanses a condition with Soldier rune and provides healing to my pet. On the other hand, the trap can be placed ahead of time to trigger early regen and the 10 second water field. It also has half the cast time making it tougher to interrupt. Plus, it can be used in CA to blastSo is the blastable/leapable water field, half the cast time yet twice the CD worth it? Edit: it seems to be bugged to sometimes not trigger when placed ahead of time. In fact, it doesn’t even sometimes trigger when placed on top of an enemy. Seems highly inconsistent. I just looked at the bug fixes from the patch and it actually says that this trap was fixed but it wasn’t! Edit 2: It’s actually not bugged. The tooltip just doesn’t state that it acts nothing like a trap and only triggers when dropped on you or an ally below 100%. It won’t trigger if you are at 100% and on the trap. So that was confusing…

Thanks again!

Marksmanship: Long CCs
Skirmishing: Anything useful for me?
Wilderness Survival: Everything useful for me
Nature Magic: Corruptable boons
Beast Mastery: Making OP pets more OP
Druid: Massive heals

I just recently started playing Druid. Here’s my setup: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARWnUqAlsi9sA2CCctgFMBrZZNACAP3gGQkDum2TLql480A-TJBHwAFeCAAuEALLD0b/BA

Now being inexperienced, I don’t know how to survive very well, especially when getting stunlocked by DH traps, or pressured by a good thief or condi bombed by a reaper.

So let’s say SotP is on CD and CA isn’t fully charged. How could I survive those 3 classes?

Also, are there any reasons to take Signet of Stone over the knockback glyph with its 80 second CD? I understand 6 seconds of power damage immunity is awesome, but the glyph traited offers an AoE blind, small heal and of course the knockback.

So what I can do?

Is there an entry cost?

Serious Thought.5394:

Have you tried stunburst Berserker? Its way tougher than you give credit for.

I’ve been toying with mace/shield and hammer, taking Discipline, Defence (Rousing Resilience and Berserker (Dead or Alive), in HotM and it’s stun potential is amazing. Your target will die if they don’t have stability or a bunch of stun breaks. Using Paladin’s Amulet and taking many stun breaks, especially Outrage, which times almost perfectly with RR trait. Now I haven’t tried this in an actual competitive environment, so I have no idea how well it’ll do against real players.

Well these kind of threads are always fun, even when it’s only been just over 24 hours.

This list is strictly from theorycrafting and a tiny bit of experience.

- Reaper
- Druid
- Daredevil
- Scrapper
- Tempest (Yes, I’m serious. It’s not that bad)
- Herald
- Dragonhunter
- Chronomancer
- Berserker

List is subject to change at any time.

This would make sense too. You’re character would know where the attack is coming from, so why shouldn’t we? Our characters don’t rely on turning around a camera see what’s behind them.

On the other hand, most range attacks have projectiles or giant beams, so you could use that as an indicator too. It’s either realism, or a tiny bit of skill.

Coulter.2315:

Zintrothen.1056:

This thread is for players to give they’re idea of the best pip system. Criticisms are acceptable, but must be told in a kind manner and explain why the idea may not work. That is obviously easier said than done on these forums. Don’t feed the trolls. All trolls must die.

My biggest fear with this is that Anet will ignore all ideas and do what they want. But my greatest hope is that they maybe be able to use some ideas.

If you think of more ideas, post them in a separate post, so Anet doesn’t miss it.

To me, the best pip system is:

1- Rewarded for winning streaks
2- Punished for losing streaks
3- Never lose pips for winning
4- Never gain pips for losing
5- If someone DCs, leaves or is AFK and you win, you gain a pip
6- If someone DCs, leaves or is AFK and you lose, you don’t lose a pip
7- If someone on the other team DCs, leaves or is AFK and you lose, you lose a pip
8- If someone on the other team DCs, leaves or is AFK and you win, you don’t gain a pip
9- DCers don’t lose pips, but leavers and AFKers lose three. There should be zero tolerance for these kind of players.

2 will make people sad and quit (don’t do this)

6 can be manipulated (having a friend queue with you and be at a break point if the match goes badly they leave, you cannot then lose a pip)

8 can let people spite you (“kitten you, haha DCing myself no pipz!!”)

9 the game cannot tell the difference between DC and leaver so you’re going to punish a lot of innocents (bad idea)

I liked the idea for win streak bonuses though

Agreed on all. I had a feeling the game couldn’t tell the difference on #9. Thanks for pointing that out.

I believe Anet attempted to add a win streak bonus to the game recently. Not sure how that went.

Just to clarify, my ideas are for TeamQ only. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a working system for both SoloQ and TeamQ without someone being needlessly punished. So scratch my ideas because Anet won’t separate these two so most of them won’t work. Thanks everyone for pointing out the flaws. Maybe another player can use this knowledge to think of better ideas.

Anet won’t change to a completely new system, but they have made attempts to fix the current one, so let’s at least try to make this one work better, if that’s even possible with this toxic community.

fishball.7204:

If someone on other side leave and makes it 5v4 I don’t gain pip for wins? LOL you can’t be serious.

Go into more detail as to why you should gain a pip for winning so easily?

I can see it being a problem if the other team force DCs (like what the poster above you pointed out) just before losing, so that you don’t gain a pip. So I guess DCers will need to be punished too. Tough luck for them.

Come on everyone. Don’t just counter my ideas. Say what you think should be done in place of my idea, or make a list of your own. This is a strictly constructive thread for Anet and players to invent reworks to the pip system.

lloydst.6985:

I only disagree with being punished for loss streaks as most of the solo queuers would get punished for that as you cant control getting kitten players on your team+ no solo queuer would be able to advance past ruby due to the 50%win cap

Yeah, that was something I was thinking might not be good in the end. It would sure be nice if they could separate Solo players from team players, but I think Anet is afraid of queue times becoming too long.

I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Which part about not losing pips when losing games? Could you clarify that?

And yes, I agree there should be more pip gains than losses, and that’s what I’m trying to achieve without being too rewarding. My main concern right now is being punished for losing, or even winning, unintentional 4v5 matches.

This thread is for players to give they’re idea of the best pip system. Criticisms are acceptable, but must be told in a kind manner and explain why the idea may not work. That is obviously easier said than done on these forums. Don’t feed the trolls. All trolls must die.

My biggest fear with this is that Anet will ignore all ideas and do what they want. But my greatest hope is that they maybe be able to use some ideas.

If you think of more ideas, post them in a separate post, so Anet doesn’t miss it.

To me, the best pip system is:

- Rewarded for winning streaks
- Punished for losing streaks
- Never lose pips for winning
- Never gain pips for losing
- If someone DCs, leaves or is AFK and you win, you gain a pip
- If someone DCs, leaves or is AFK and you lose, you don’t lose a pip
- If someone on the other team DCs, leaves or is AFK and you lose, you lose a pip
- If someone on the other team DCs, leaves or is AFK and you win, you don’t gain a pip
- DCers don’t lose pips, but leavers and AFKers lose three. There should be zero tolerance for these kind of players.

Spartacus.3192:

Zintrothen.1056:

Ah, a game with 4 other pugs! Perfect! Now I’ll leave and punish them for not doing anything wrong! Hey, maybe they’ll even win still and not be rewarded for winning a 4v5! kittenolol lololol lololol!

Hes talking about people in your “party” not team. So if you duo/triple queue and leave mid match then you and your party members lose pips. The solo queues (pugs) in your team will not lose pips.

Ah, I misunderstood him. Thanks for clarifying!

Ah, a game with 4 other pugs! Perfect! Now I’ll leave and punish them for not doing anything wrong! Hey, maybe they’ll even win still and not be rewarded for winning a 4v5! kittenolol lololol lololol!

I like the idea of the person leaving losing pips, but if the others on the team stay, they should NEVER lose pips, ESPECIALLY if they win. Evan, do you have the tech to recognize whether someone DCed or not?

So you either have to go for heavy condition cleanse and extra heavy boon application to fight a necro, or heavy condition cleanse and as few boons as possible. Might corrupts into 10 seconds of weakness! Weakness is a powerful condition. And a necro has plenty of cover conditions to help with keeping it on.

With boon corruption becoming more frequent, condition cleanse now becomes more necessary than ever, or else you’ll almost always have weakness, chill and poison on you, which imo are the three most powerful condition. They reduce the damage you deal, the frequency you dodge, your movement speed, your cooldown speed, and the healing you take. Anet, please…PLEASE don’t give more condition cleanse next balance patch. For the sake of this game, reduce boon application, boon corruption, and maybe even condition cleanse.

What I think will be best specs for each profession will be in brackets.

Top professions:
Reaper (Condi, Corrupt Boon)
Daredevil (D/P, Bounding Dodger)
Druid (Healing and damage hybrid, Mender’s Amulet)
Scrapper (Also healing and damage hybrid, Mender’s Amulet; or power damage, Marauder’s or Paladin’s Amulets)

Middle professions:
Dragonhunter (Smite Condition, either damage or bunker)
Tempest (Either Fresh Air or Earth/Water depending on thieves. Might become bottom or top profession)
Herald (Shiro/Glint, power over condi. Also might become bottom profession)

Bottom Professions:
Chronomancer (power burst only)
Berserker (Rifle maybe? Might become middle profession)

I would be more concerned about your Punishing Strikes crit for 2.

I’m confirming this. Triple blink is possible with the combo: CS – Mimic – end CS – Blink – Mimic – Blink – Blink. You maintain the Mimic boon after CS ends. Make sure you cast Mimic and then CS immediately, if you have no illusions. Casting CS first will result in Mimic’s CD not resetting due to the aftercast delay.

Make the 40% protection trait a GM and make the stability on overload passive. All of a sudden you have to choose between 40% protection or healing on aura. Stability on overload made passive through GM minor trait. Diamond skin can changed to resistance so boon stripping can counter it. 90% hp changed to 75% hp or perhaps 3-5 seconds of resistance when 3 conditions are applied on a 5-10 second ICD.

Imo, changes like these will solve the main issues with Tempest (though no solving the issue with only having one viable spec) in pvp.

These are simply ideas. Constructive comments are welcome. And then if we can all come to an agreement, we can make a thread about what we as a collective believe to be the best changes. They changed Well of Precognition based on what the community saw best, which REALLY surprised me and gave me a little hope.