Guild Wars 2

BrandonBandicoot.3968:

bhagwad.4281:

I agree. The first thing I thought when I saw the watchknights were…why boobs? I mean it’s ridiculous. Not form efficient. Poor balance with the wide hips. So stupid…

You should be more concerned about how it walks on two legs efficiently at all rather than how the aesthetic breasts affect that.
Why does it bother you so much? Honestly asking.

It’s just an incongruity. You want killer robots? That’s cool. Let’s say we have the technological know how to make it balance well on two legs. It makes sense. But I just don’t get what kind of person would put boobs on a robot. I mean…even wings would be awesome. But wide hips? What on earth for?

If they modeled the robot on a guy, will we start putting pricks on them next?

I agree. The first thing I thought when I saw the watchknights were…why boobs? I mean it’s ridiculous. Not form efficient. Poor balance with the wide hips. So stupid…

If you’re looking to see who would win in a duel, there’s pretty much nothing a thief can do against a good phantasm mesmer. Stealth is useless…even dangerous since the phantasms will burst you as soon as you get revealed and they’re AI so they don’t need to find you or target you first.

Your only hope is to kill the mesmer before they turn out two phantasms. In other words, within 5 seconds. Not gonna happen if the mes knows what he’s doing.

Exedore.6320:

On the other hand, you’re talking about slotting one skill to do two packs of mobs 20 seconds faster. The V-shaped attack is incredibly easy to avoid and if the 100blades warriors stand behind the elemental, it will never hit them. From a PUG perspective, seeing who can avoid attacks will tell you how smoothly the run will go.

If it was something like the end boss of the volcano fractal or the harpies in the crazed asura fractal, then I’d agree.

By the time you’re done with the second pack, wall will be off recharge and you can switch it out for a regular shout.

The idea is to switch skills between mobs and bosses to get maximum effect. Using wall for one fight doesn’t mean that utility slot is forever blocked…

Don’t CC a boss unless you want to interrupt some skill – and given the number of defiant stacks that’s not really an option. When you pull or push them away, you’ll break a warrior’s HB for example leaving them swinging at nothing but air

So don’t CC without cause. It’s not decent!

Wukunlin.8461:

you must have met this guy

I would start a vote kick the moment I see that sort of “just dodge” bs. It is one thing to not know things can be reflected (do you know guardian sword auto chain’s last hit can be reflected? ), in which case I am more than happy to share what I know, but it is something totally different to flat out refuse to help your teammates.

Although some newer or younger players might have something like "but I don’t like that skill " then I don’t know what to say or do anymore…

Ouch. Can’t believe the comments in that thread.

purgatoryz.6038:

Sounds like you met one or two guardians who refused to switch. Like the poster above me, some things that are reflectable aren’t extremely obvious, so if you kindly pointed it out I’m sure 99% of us would oblige you.

I always make it a point to be polite and frame it as a request like: “Could you use wall of reflection?” It’s just that some people get defensive and think I’m teaching them how to play etc..

I’ve met at least two guardians now who refused to use Wall of Reflection in fights where it’s kitten useful. One example is at the start of all CoE paths when you LOS the ice mobs. They have a huge attack that knocks you back that can easily be reflected.

When I asked them, they said “Just dodge”. So here’s why you should use Wall of Reflection in that situation.

1. Reflecting it is an insta kill for the mobs

2. If it hits warriors, it knocks back ruining their dps

3. If you dodge, it again interrupts a warrior’s HB – you lose anywhere upto 25k damage per warrior right there!

Now of course wall of reflection is useless in many fights. Like if you’re fighting alpha there’s no benefit. But for fights where it is useful, what’s the problem? One guardian I met didn’t want to change his skills depending on the boss. This isn’t GW1 where your skills are locked as soon as you step out of town! So what’s the problem?

Sure, you can dodge. And I will dodge when I don’t have a choice. But when I don’t, dodging just messes up the damage chain…and that’s the reason why warriors come along to dungeons in the first place.

I also play a guard and regularly switch in wall of reflection when the fight calls for it. So what’s the problem here?

I’m being bombarded with notices to vote from my guild and even here on the forums. I have a bunch of support tokens, but….what’s the point? I already have my minis!

Do I get loot? No.
Coins? No.
Skins? No.

In fact, turning in my tokens means I now have to discard two sets of items – the kiel badges and evon badges. What’s the point?

IMHO every activity Anet wants us to do has to have some benefit to us…otherwise why on earth will we do it? It’s like WvW. I get the feeling they’re expecting us to play for what…fun?

So I thought I’d finally do CoE or CoF story so that I can help with going inside every now and then, only to find that it’s nigh well impossible to find anyone willing to do it.

I think the problem is that anyone can enter a dungeon if someone else starts it. Make it so that everyone has to have story mode before doing an exp and things will be much better.

Or remove story mode entire. Does anyone even care about it?

I’ve grown tired and a little ashamed of beating warriors without batting an eyelash for so many months now. I’m the last person to deny them a good build even if it’s very strong 1v1.

I can finally use some competition with my mesmer. Go warriors! Show me what you got!

Currently I find that if I can get with a group where people know what to do, CoE 1/2/3 is ridiculously easy. Can do all three in one hour no problem. Also SE 1 and 3.

After running these I want some more variety. So I ask you – which dungeon paths are really fast with a PUG group without TS but where everyone knows what to do? I know there are some dungeons where coordinated groups have it easy and can finish it really fast but even knowledgeable PUGs struggle. I don’t want to run those since I don’t like talking to other people. I like text chat instead.

So suggestions? As of now I know about CoE all paths and SE 1 and 3.

In the absence of a dps testing tool like we had in the original guild wars, I find myself using a stopwatch on the time required to “kill” or “reset” a practice dummy in Lion’s Arch. Now this completely ignores critical hits so that’s a huge factor to take into account.

Since I’ve just leveled up a warrior and equipped her with berserker greens, I wanted to do a DPS check against my fully geared guardian running knights and bersker’s.

With my guardian in exotics using a GS, I was able to reset the dummy in 18 seconds. With my warrior using greens and GS+Axe I was able to reset it in 11 seconds. Does this sound about right taking into consideration the lack of critical hits and masterwork vs exotic gear?

In other words, my warrior did around 80% more dps in these circumstances compared to my guardian.

Zeke Azul Falcon.5176:

snaplemouton.1294:

I am not trolling no. It’s hard enough to to write a post full of rage about stealth (I hate stealth in every PvP game that incorporate this utterly annoying concept of being invisible)

Ghostwolf.9863:

Not necessarily.

Staff with runes and wells, direct counter to melee thieves.
The blinding well in particular is really annoying for dagger offhand thieves.

In condition builds chain fear and burst.
Minion builds are also pretty tough to fight as thief.

I’m condition heavy, but aside from having to use my utily wall, I need life force to go in death shroud for my fear.
And fear barely last long enough for me to land a hit.
I guess I’ll give a shot to the staff even tho I hate it with a passion, I guess the radius buff might make it more enjoyable.
I thought about the blind well, but on a 50 seconds CD he counters it with any stealth that isn’t CND.
And actually, the only time I nearly killed him was under my plague spamming bleed and blind, but then again he stealthed with one of his numerous stealth (He also had the ground AE stealth utility) and blinked with his bow… somewhere.
Also, I hate minion master.

Do you know if thieves can still perma stealth?

its better you should ask in Necro’s forums not thieves because it will sound like your really trolling, Necros are not designed to go 1 on 1, thats thieves specialty. You must remember that CnD can be used from any where to ambient creatures and all.

and yes there is still that stealth but i wont call it perma.

Every class should be equally good at 1v1 if they spec for it. If they can’t, then that class needs to be improved. 1v1 or teamfighting – each class should have the option to be equally good with either.

Being able to irritate two or more people with a single character is the definition of op. Two people should never have a problem with one person regardless of build and assuming equal skill levels.

I spec my mesmer specifically to counter thieves, so it’s no surprise that others do this too. I would never even consider bringing my guardian to WvW because of thieves. With my mesmer, I spec a pure phantasm build and feel confident I can deal with whoever comes at me even out of nowhere.

The reason why you’re having trouble is that people now build to kill thieves. It doesn’t matter that they don’t contribute to the team etc. People care far more about not dying 1v1 than about abstract goals like capturing towers or defending them.

If I choose the very last body type for a human, the size of the radiant mantle increases dramatically – too much for it to be reasonable. Here’s a side by side comparison of the two using the total makeover kit.

Here’s a comparison of the radiant mantle sizes when I choose the very last body type for human vs the second last body type.

The difference is remarkable. Presumably a bug

Tobbygnome.6793:

bhagwad.4281:

Tobbygnome.6793:

Whether the game is designed around team play is not the discussion here, because we already know that it is and there’s no debating it.

How do you know that the goal of PvP is teamplay? Intuition? ESP? Is it philosophical? I’m sorry, but all I’m seeing is two valid styles of gameplay.

I know that the goal of PvP is teamplay because when i went into my first ever PvP match i was told the goal of PvP is to capture and hold points with your team.

lol, geez, i didn’t say 1v1 wasn’t possible or it was a stupid idea and shouldn’t be in the game, it just currently isn’t in the game. I would love to see 1v1, then i could destroy people very hard without being hindered by clones, minions and spirits and people would go to the class forums all day to QQ that my class isn’t balanced in 1v1.

But would ArenaNet like that?

So it’s not that PvP itself is team based. What you’re saying is that there are no modes dedicated to 1v1 as of now. So all they have to do is add a 1v1 mode. That’s it!

Archer Henchman.2534:

but if the only thing you do is play hotjoins, you don’t really know how the class works

I’m more afraid to face a good hotjoin player than a tPvP one. tPvP players are used to hanging on to the coattails of their teammates and relying on them to make up for their weaknesses.

True skill is forged in the fire of hotjoin. Not everyone can take it. And those who can’t try and pretend that carebear tPvP is the best where people help each other out of scraps.

milo.6942:

Ashanor.5319:

milo.6942:

Ashanor.5319:

Best way to balance a game is really for 1v1 imo, it’s just that developers generally don’t like doing that because it is a lot harder to do, so they have convinced people over the years that it isn’t a good way to balance (they won’t tell you it’s because it isn’t cost effective though).

i hear this a lot, and maybe i’m mistaken, but that just seems to be a recipe for homogenization. if each spec was balanced to do equally well in 1v1 fights with any other spec, how are they contributing anything unique when it comes to team fights?

So basically, your argument is you need imbalance to make a game balanced? Not a very good argument imo.

Mesmers in gw1 were generally anti-casters. They often dealt little or no damage. Their role was to shut down the enemy team’s defenses. A warrior could absolutely demolish a mesmer in 1v1, but no one would ever suggest this was “imbalanced”.

edit: btw, this ties into my other point about there being minimal teamplay in gw2 as well, with gw1 as an excellent model for what it could have been.

Mesmers in GW1 could spec for either teamplay or for 1v1. I had beaten many a warrior in GW1 with illusion of pain, energy surge, mindwrack etc etc. The same is true in GW1. You should have the option to either build for 1v1 or for teamplay. The choice is yours.

Tobbygnome.6793:

Whether the game is designed around team play is not the discussion here, because we already know that it is and there’s no debating it.

How do you know that the goal of PvP is teamplay? Intuition? ESP? Is it philosophical? I’m sorry, but all I’m seeing is two valid styles of gameplay.

I’m pretty sure MF doesn’t have an impact on drops of kite fortunes. MF only serves to upgrade the rarity of an item drop. The type of item is determined first and the rarity depends on your MF level. Since kite fortunes are just one level of rarity, using magic find should make no difference to how many you get whatsoever.

I want to wear these so bad. They’re perfect for my human guardian. But…they’re just too kitten HUGE!

Fourth.1567:

I question the point that game is better designed for teamwork than 1v1.

There are huge mobility discrepancies between classes leading to plenty of 2v1 ‘rotations’. I don’t really consider having a build that runs faster to go around and find a numerical advantage great gameplay or entirely balanced.

Then there are bunker team comps that are just annoying. Somewhat balanced in the sense that if they don’t have a point capped to sit on they aren’t making great use of their build. But it just forces poor gameplay on both sides, switching the game from mechanical to tactical dependance when I really don’t feel the UI supports tactical gameplay, especially for soloque.

Then there is the downed state and rally mechanic. Who likes close fights snowballing based on one finish? Who likes winning a 1v1 to have someone come along and shadow refuge the downed player? Then there are huge discrepancies between what is required to finish a player. I’ll pass on all that downstate gameplay.

What about all that AoE and the overabundance of particle effects? Is all the truly fine tuned?

Now most of these problems come down to gamemode choice. Teamplay has the potential to be quite good, but not in a conquest setting. This is also hardly an exhaustive list of problems with conquest.

I agree. Who got to decide that GW2 is about teamplay? If 1v1 doesn’t help with teamplay, then teamplay doesn’t help with 1v1.

Both are equally valid modes of play and I’d like to see someone tell me why one is better than the other.

milo.6942:

swinsk.6410:

EvilSardine.9635:

EoNxBoNx.9213:

This would actually break the class. No more burst combos from stealth, I am honestly trying to figure out how many people actually play thief. You could say that is “counter-play” to stealth look at it realistically, and avoid try to avoid the damage.

Just as much as you guys are saying thief is spamming, you want this one thing to keep you safe, against damage that is 100% avoidable.

You’re not making sense.

This won’t break the class. It will only break those who spam backstab and don’t watch for the warrior blocking, or the guardian being SMART and using aegis on his dying teammate to save him from a backstab. The other players in this scenario are “learning to play” but the game favors the broken thief and let’s him spam an attack to clear aegis which won’t even reveal him. It’s quite stupid.

How is a backstab 100% avoidable if you can’t see it coming or block it? Really? 100% avoidable?

P.S. I main a thief. I think it’s absurd that I can spam my backstab like this.

Just because you play a thief doesn’t mean you know jack squat about balance.

Obviously you need to L2P. If you don’t like the mechanics, don’t play a thief.

Reveal only happens on successful hits, not failed ones. It’s how the game works and it’s balanced this way. Move on.

Every other class spam buttons, why should thief be punished for spamming buttons? Oh right, simply because you don’t like it.

L2P.

hahahahahhaha!!
wow that was hilarious
“lern 2 spam nub”

So you’re in favor of stealth skills like backstab having a cooldown? And before you’re tempted to compare BS to an autoattack…don’t.

Xirin.8593:

bhagwad.4281:

So if you want to keep them around, type “lol run”

You do you know enemies can’t read anything you say, right?

Well I’m more of an sPvP kind of guy

One way to prevent thieves from running away is to exploit their egos. Most thief players have some kind of Assassin’s creed fantasy and imagine themselves kitten. So if you want to keep them around, type “lol run” or /laugh. I’ve brought down lots of thieves who were initially running away only to get enraged by my taunting to come back and die.

Gotta use whatever tools we have eh?

The way thieves are talking about aegis, an outsider will get the impression that it’s some kind of super spammable skill that guardians can just put up whenever they want.

Time for a little education.

As others have pointed out, guardians have at most two or three aegis sources and you need to trait for it. These are on looooong cool downs. It’s trivial for a thief to break aegis, then stealth again in 4 seconds.

So what the hell is all this junk about aegis? It seems most thieves want to kill their target in two seconds and god forbid if they have to stealth again or display even the slightest amount of combat awareness.

Don’t compare long CD defensive skills with spammable stealth. It just makes you look dumb.

http://www.gw2state.com/events.html#

Vick.6805:

bhagwad, your guy looks like a GW Paragon.

Yeah I’ve been told that a lot

Nick Logan.6358:

bhagwad.4281:

Just bought celestial dye for 22g. Looks awesome with radiant armor!

Its not that great

You need to use Celestial dye on the right materials in the proper lighting or it doesn’t show off to maximum effect.

Lisa.6102:

bhagwad.4281:

Just bought celestial dye for 22g. Looks awesome with radiant armor!

Pic or it didn’t happen

It happened!

Eviator.9746:

Please excuse me for being a noob, but why do so many people care about glory and rank? Such things are not necessarily a reflection of skill but time played, so why does it matter if people are getting more of those fake currencies in sPvP than tPvP? And since I don’t think it does matter, I say we stop worrying about it in this thread.

Back on topic: hotjoin sPvP is currently our best place to work on 1v1 and small group combat skills that translate into WvW. That is precisely why I started playing it in the last couple weeks. So it has value to me, even if it means I’m not learning optimal conquest-mode strategies.

I like to rank up in order to show off. And if you think that showing off isn’t important, you might want to ask why MMOs are so popular in the first place. Loot, gear etc are all ways of showing off. Titles are a great way to do the same.

Just bought celestial dye for 22g. Looks awesome with radiant armor!

lordkrall.7241:

bhagwad.4281:

But I’m not pushing it on others. If my suggestion is implemented, then all playstyles will be equally valid and not just zerging. In fact, it seems that the status quo is pushing people into following a particular playstyle since zerging is the only way to get lots of loot in WvW.

No, if this is implemented zerging would NOT be “valid” since it would mean less loot and therefore people that zerged (quite usual for guilds to build smaller zergs and run around taking keeps, should we not be allowed to do so without being punished?) would be getting less stuff for the same “work”

But zergs also kill more people so it would even out no?

Neeho.3859:

Quit trying to push your playstyle on other people.

But I’m not pushing it on others. If my suggestion is implemented, then all playstyles will be equally valid and not just zerging. In fact, it seems that the status quo is pushing people into following a particular playstyle since zerging is the only way to get lots of loot in WvW.

lordkrall.7241:

So, basically getting punished for playing on an active server?

I’m sure if people spread out there’ll be lots of space for everyone even on an active server. And we wouldn’t want to zerg anyway because of the lesser loot. Isn’t it?

So I was thinking that the main reason people zerg is thakittens the only way to get lots of badges and loot. Soloing camps etc is fine, but not at all profitable for the time spent.

So…what if Anet were to implement the equivalent of the anti farming code, but made zerg size the restricting factor? Meaning the more people in an area, the less chance of a kill dropping badges/loot. Conversely, if there are just 2/3 people around, you’re just about guaranteed badge drops.

This should encourage smaller groups roaming around and lead to more tactical battles. It’ll also give people an incentive to come to WvW and engage in more skillful play rather than just mindlessly run with large numbers of people spamming AoEs and speed buffs.

Edit: Another alternative would be to do the opposite – grant a buff to soloers and 2/3 man groups. This buff would have say a 90% chance of a badge drop from another player plus a good chance of a rare. So instead of taking away from zerging, we’re giving more incentives for people to choose another play style.

Clockradio.3257:

bhagwad.4281:

I was thinking…how about we reduce the chances of getting badges and loot from an enemy player the more people are in an area? So…if you’re in a huge zerg, you rarely get loot from kills. But if you’re in a small group of 2-3 people, your chances of loot from enemy kills shoots way up.

I have a feeling this will encourage smaller scale battles all over the map. Whatdya think?

Why do you need loot if you’re doing something you enjoy?

I ran yaks with a 5 man team for two hours last night and didn’t get any xp, and maybe one loot bag, but I still had a blast hanging out with my guildies.

Not everything has to involve loot…

For lots of people (like me), loot is the only reason I do anything. I need my shinies as carrots dangled in front of me, or else I won’t play.

I was thinking…how about we reduce the chances of getting badges and loot from an enemy player the more people are in an area? So…if you’re in a huge zerg, you rarely get loot from kills. But if you’re in a small group of 2-3 people, your chances of loot from enemy kills shoots way up.

I have a feeling this will encourage smaller scale battles all over the map. Whatdya think?

Shemsu.8721:

Skye.4983:

Pavel.8531:

And I did say earlier “It’s logical to me that active blocks should trigger revealed, all other – not since the attack doesn’t connect”(not sure about aegis/guard focus block). I play s/p thief, with stealth only on utilities so I don’t care much about “that” thing especially, just following logic. AND by that logic – blocks should block attacks only from the front 180 degrees – you want to tell me it’s logical that you raise your shield/mace in front of you and suddenly you block attacks from all directions? Also, phantasms shouldn’t miss when the mesmer is blinded, warriors should… etc, etc. So yeah, logic sucks.

Let me try to make it simple for you, because you clearly don’t have a clue. We’re talking about whether or not an attack from stealth should reveal you, regardless of whether it actually connects with your target, the act of attacking itself should have an effect. Just like it does with every other skill/attack/utility (with the exception of warrior’s adrenaline, for those of you still clinging to that excuse). This is not about whether block should only work from 180 degrees or not, or whether or not stealth should even work in plain sight, or whether or not stabbing someone with a dagger should somehow make you invisible, or any other random, unrelated topic you’d like to throw out there. Logic, you haven’t got any.

Here’s the problem, your trying to apply your ‘logic’ from other attacks to backstab, without applying that same logic to all other systems. Since you didnt like my warrior example before, and since multiple people have used mesmer illusion skills, we will use that example.

Mesmer wants to summon a phantasm against a guardian, guardian pops aegis, mesmer presses #1 to counter aegis then proceeds to summon phantasm.

Thief goes stealth, guardian pops aegis. Now how does a thief counter aegis and retain his ability to use his stealth attack? same as the mesmer actually, he presses #1 to clear the aegis, then proceeds to backstab. If a blocked backstab caused reveal, what would be the counter to aegis? It would be an uncounterable defense against stealth attacks since anything the thief did would reveal him.

You’re joking right? Just wait till stealth wears off, autoattack and stealth again! It’s what every other class does. Be aware of your opponent’s boons.

It’s no use trying to reason with most thieves on this matter. They are the only ones who think that landing a C&D gives them the right to spam a hugely damaging skill regardless of blocks, misses, evades or any other skillful counterplay. They point to Aegis as if even guardians can magically press a button to get it when they can just autoattack once to remove it and then stealth immediately after.

Ridiculous.

My suggestion is to not look to thieves for input. I’d made the same point months ago on the thief forum here; https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Remove-stealth-on-miss-evade-block-1/first

Anet should just go ahead and fix this issue. If you listen to the thieves, they’ll never agree. And why should they? They have it good right now.

I have met some reasonable thieves who see the point and are actually happy to have more skilled play. Hats off to them. But those who enjoy the no skill play and the protection that stealth provides them while they hammer away the “1” key will cry bloody murder.

It’s kind of strange. I played nothing by PvP for 5 months or so. And I have 6.2k achievement points. Not sure what I did really.

As a PvP’er, I don’t like relying on other people to determine my performance. Hotjoin is awesome not only because everyone is looking out for themselves, but also because it gives superior rewards. You can get much more glory and rank points in Hotjoin if you’re good.

I got an invite from a friend to play tPvP today – just the two of us. I accepted against my better judgement, and it turned out as expected. We got crushed because the other team was a premade and they were helping each other etc, whereas ours was a disorganized team.

So my question is, why would any solo player ever submit themselves to a game format where they run a high risk of fighting players who work as a team? Isn’t it far better to just play 5v5 hotjoin where you can hone your dueling skills without having your fun ruined by your opponent’s teammates coming to bail them out?

Nik Rane.6431:

Paying into a super secret club isn’t a bad idea, but how would you enforce the regulations? Are you going to make a player send you 20c every 10 minutes, and if they don’t, they’re b&? Would you create a “tab” or quota of matches before a player is removed? How would you know that a player is even playing the games that he paid for?

It’s not a bad idea, but I don’t think that Anet has given the tools that allows this functionality to be done with anything other than the honor system.

No enforcement…just hoping people will realize that 1 silver per hour is pathetically low and not mind paying in for a 5v5 map without Capricorn. I should test it out and see!

Sir Vincent III.1286:

You may know your build and its weaknesses, but obviously you don’t know its strengths.

shrug. You’re welcome to find out for yourself

I want to make a custom arena with the following conditions:

1. 5v5

2. No Capricorn. Depending on whether I like Skyhammer or not I’ll choose to either keep it or remove it.

Personally this is all I want in my play right now. To cover the costs of hosting this arena would you be willing to pay 20c/match? That’s 1 silver for a full map rotation taking around one hour.

Does it sound reasonable? Something you would pay to use?

Direwind.8409:

Lets all play thiefs… I mean poping people like water balloons is a lot of fun.

but who would take the keeps? tank the lords, remove the conditions spam the aoe? wvw would be pretty boring.

But in all honesty, why would you want to take keeps or defend them? What do you gain? The loot is negligible. Unless you want WvW map completion, but I’m reasonably sure that most people in WvW don’t take keeps for that reason.

Ghostwolf.9863:

bhagwad.4281:

Ghostwolf.9863:

bhagwad.4281:

No single person should be able to take out two equally skilled players regardless of armor, traits etc. If that could happen, it should be nerfed no matter the class.

The game is not designed around 1v1 neither around 1v2.
If 2 players aren’t traited nor equipped for killing a D/P thief,
the thief can even be the worst thief in town and would still be able to
take them out no matter how skilled they are at their build.

Like staff Elementalist and one of the zerg Warriors vs. Thief.
Kite the warrior and kill the squishy staff elementalist, he mists away, you reach him before the warrior do and you stomp him. You then kill the warrior by kiting and backstabbing.

Or against turret engineer and D/D elementalist, you dodge stuns/immobilizes 2-3
times in a row, then they successfully start to lock you down and kill you in 3 seconds.
And they don’t even need to be skilled to do this.

If a single thief can kill two equally skilled eles and warriors with on par gear (appropriate to their level and skill level), then there’s something seriously wrong with that balance. Regardless of what people say, 1v1s matter more than any other form of balance. Which is why mesmers and thieves are getting nerfed. For example, the phantasm mesmer build is only good in 1v1s and a total joke in big fights. Why was it nerfed? Because 1v1 balance matters. Anet knows this.

In many ways, 1v1 is the only balancing that matters. People dislike losing 1v1s even more than they mind losing the match. I know I do.

Still nothing wrong with balance here.

If a skilled GC staff elementalist, which is built around staying ~1000 feet away from the fights spamming AoE’s highly damaging and supporting huge amounts of people, is able to kill an equally skilled 0/30/30/10/0 D/D or D/P which focuses around single target melee damage, stealth and possibly mobility, we do have a balance issue here.

If a thief which has invested in highly in mobility is unable to kite a warrior who has only invested a few things in mobility, and what he didn’t invest in mobility he invested in damage and defence instead, we also have a balance issue.

The point is, if the player don’t have the required weapon sets, builds and utilities to counter something, how should the player be able to counter it and maintain balance?

Staff Eles can change to a D/D build if they seek to be able to counter thieves and
many other professions easily, nothing hinders them. But by switching to D/D
he wont have the benefit of staying far away from the fight, and will instead
have to stay in the middle of the fight, which elementalists are less suited for in zerg fights.

It’s logic! Metaphorically speaking.
2 people throwing paper on a fire, since they don’t have water or anything to
choke the fire with, the fire will keep burning. If they have enough paper however
they might manage to choke the fire. And 1 person who was smart enough to bring
water with him will be able to put out the fire easily. But yet if 1 of the paper persons
go against the water person, the water may get mopped up 1v1 by the paper.
That’s how classes and different builds work in GW2.

I don’t mind one build beating another 1v1. Mind you, I said “build beating another”, not “class beating another” because every class should be able to build, trait, and play for 1v1 equally well if that’s how they choose to play.

So in your example of staff ele or warrior losing to thief, that’s fine and fair. But never should you beat two people. Beating one is fine. Beating two? Not right. And three? No way should one build ever ever be able to beat three equally skilled players no matter what viable build they’re playing.