Guild Wars 2

Anchoku.8142:

Badges may come slowly

I get a fair amount of badges on my wells Necro, even running solo in a Zerg actually, which is certainly not advised for bag farming.

The reason is simple: With the two large HP pools and high toughness even in a power build I can stay in the “hot” zone for a lot longer than most other classes.

Things are probably less peachy using a condition or full defense build though, but that’s more of a problem with how loot is allocated in WvW than the class.

As it stands now, tool kit is pretty much the only one that’s actually useful without speccing heavily into it. The change proposed by Taugrim would likely make the situation worse unless it’s accompanied by a substantial revamp of the kits themselves.

Technobabble toolbelt skill is another AoE Confusion on a 45s CD.

This entire concept revolves around Asura racial utility skills being infinitely more useful than pretty much everything the other races get and you can come up with something like this for most classes.

Kinda lame tbh, I’ll admit I sometimes use it on my Engineer and Ranger too though.

Finding some decent looking medium armour for an Asura isn’t easy.

Between the huge HP pool, additional HP buffers ( death shroud, Plague form ), decent healing ( Blood Well, Consume Corruptions and Siphoning – every little bit helps ) and the ease of working some substantial toughness into most popular builds Necros’ baseline survivability is argueably the best in the game.

The lack of tools to disengage means that if things don’t go your way you’ll be toast eventually though, while Mesmers and ( Daggerx2 ) Eles can just swoosh away and try again at a more opportune time.

Warriors excel in WvW, most of the more severe issues the class has in tPvP just don’t matter there. The ability to deliver substantial burst damage even in non glass cannon builds, thereby surviving the initial brunt of the enemy’s attack, is invaluable.

Unlike Mesmers ( portal ) and Elementalists ( protect siege/walls) Warriors do not have a signature ability that only they bring to the table though, so if you have a primadonna mentality you should probably pick one of these two classes.

Rezzet.3614:

coglin.1496:

Rezzet.3614:

must ve confused engineer with thief, However engineers cant contribute other than by killing roaming players as our Only ranged AoE is the grenades wich have terribly small radius compared to others’s ranged attacks when attempting to capture keeps or what not.

I love when poster falsely claim the engineer cannot do things that the rest of the community does on their engineers every day.

im not saying we cant but you cant compare grenades to the massive radius Eles and Rangers have nor the Mesmer clones you can simply warp into walls .

Grenade radius is fine, travel time is the issue.

What about the queues ? They are the most pressing WvW issue at the moment.

The queue bug doesn’t seem to affect all three servers in a match equally, so no matter how you stand on small or large scale fights it’ll have to be fixed.

You forgot the people playing in La-La-Land, claiming Engineers have the best dps, provide the most support and can cure cancer while they’re at it.

( the first two claims had actual threads here on this sub forum, go figure )

In WvW staff is almost mandatory. Personally I don’t tend to stick around in staff but to swap to it, drop the marks and swap out of it, but as the video proves there’s more than one way to skin a Charr.

Its less bad than the old method and I have no idea why anyone would claim otherwise. Combining what I see on the screen and on the minimap I get a basic idea of what’s happening now at least, when before huge zergs could pass by each other without even noticing.

Neither solution is acceptable though and its embarrassing that ANet look so clueless about fixing one of their game’s flagship features, when other companies have done a much better job a decade ago.

Necros aren’t a must-have class like Mesmers or Eles nowadays, but can be very useful nonetheless.

In organized Zerg vs Zerg warfare the boon><condition and aoe blind wells are extremely useful, as is Plague form ( mostly for the blind ) and the general tankiness even in a more dps oriented spec certainly helps. If we use flanking, I will usually stick with the Warriors and Guards breaching the enemy lines going for the glass cannons at the back.

In higher tiers the Zerg vs Zerg battles tend to be pretty short, so the cooldowns on wells really aren’t that much of an issue and I have the cd reduction trait too of course. One problem I see with a wells spec is that your traits will have to be all over the place. You’ll want ground placed wells ( in WvW, not necessarily in sPvP ), cd reduction on wells, larger marks – that’s already 50 points in three different lines and leaves you with just 20 to customize the build.

Condition builds are somewhat more flexible, but i don’t think the usually more caster oriented playstyle makes full use of the class’ strengths.

I generally wouldn’t recommend dagger main hand in WvW btw. Its main asset is the superiour damage on the auto attack chain and for that to land you have to be standing pretty much inside your target. In any realistic scenario other than a 1vs1 you’ll be out of range a fair amount of time, cutting down on your dps substantially. The other main hand options aren’t great for a power build either unfortunately.

I’m not making up excuses, I’m saying you should blame ANet for being cheap and not hiring more devs and coders, not the testers or the way testing is set up.

ChackO.2346:

Seeing as this is a non-subscription game, PTR servers make sense. Let players do the testing for you Anet! Things like this wouldn’t be happening.

I doubt it.

For some reason you guys seem to believe the testers at ANet don’t notice the new bugs and bug fixes not actually fixing anything.

That’s not how it works though, even in games with a public test server.

Dev resources are the bottleneck and they have to prioritize, meaning tons of stuff will go live buggy even if the bugs have been found and reported. If there are indeed just two devs responsible for fixing all class related stuff no amount of testers will speed up or improve the process.

Can’t say I notice a difference to be honest, any difference at all, other than healing turret.

If they actually did what they say they did in the patch notes that should give them a solid foundation to work from though. Generally speaking it’s imperative to get the basement right before building a sixty story building on it, even if it takes a little longer than planned before the tenants can move in.

I just wish it wouldn’t take that long…

Pretty much the same as in all the other game modes. Spend twice the effort everyone else does and you can do ok, but not great. The actual impact of most of the tools in the Engineer’s arsenal is just too low.

All the gimmicky stuff works best for roaming, when you have more space to kite and a larger time window. In Zerg vs Zerg situations you can add some buffs ( mostly fire fields for might stacking ), but all the damage options are poor even in glass cannon builds.

The core problem really is that most of the kits and weapon sets are almost completely useless without speccing and equipping heavily for them, while the devs don’t want you to stay in one kit, but expect you to swap between kits and weapons constantly. Maybe somebody needs to tell them Engineers don’t get any more trait points than other classes…

The current badge system is terrible and should not be the base for anything until it’s been completely reworked.

It rewards glass cannons and mindless damage spam over team oriented builds and tactical and objective based gameplay. That’s just ridiculous design in a highly objective based game mode.

You obviously have never been at the receiving end of a melee assist train in other RvR based games. If you think AoE in this game is a lawnmover, melee trains in DaoC etc. are 18 wheelers.

And no, they don’t take any more skill.

Nerfing AoE would just result in huge blobs of warriors and guardians slashing everything down in milliseconds.

Black Ice Spain.9753:

Plus ele is the most ridiculous thing in the world currently, if played correctly you are immortal.

Mobility and escape options on Daggerx2 Eles need to be looked at and probably require a severe nerf ( same goes for Thief of course ). That’s an entirely different issue from what we’re discussing here though.

Black Ice Spain.9753:

Personally, I like the change.

Currently just using AoEs in the middle of an enemy zerg lacks skill everywhere, and that considering you have to aim your AoE. The offensive part of a WvW fight is meaningless, the defensive is mostly avoiding AoEs.

Fine.

Fix culling and targeting issues and give Necro, Engineer, Ele viable single target options first.

Once that happened, we can talk about nerfing AoE.

Kaleden.9386:

For those who haven’t seen it, please view Jonathan Sharp’s latest response regarding AoE changes: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Is-AoE-actually-a-problem-Discussion-Thread/page/4#post1237623

No prob. Some classes have a ton of AOE, while others don’t have as much. So we’re not just going to do a blanket nerf to all AOE – that’s not fair to all classes. We’ll go on a class by class, weapon by weapon basis.

There can be only one conclusion: Nerf Engineers.

The game is already stacked in favour of single target burst for those classes that actually have it.

Bombul.2506:

AOE in this game is capped to the number of players it hits, but it hits way too hard. I do not use AOE because I am up against a large group of people, I use it because it hits hard.

I use AoE playing certain classes because the single target damage is beyond terrible. On my wells Necro, Grenadier Engineer and staff Ele I won’t kill anyone with single target abilities ever.

Nerfing AoE would require some serious rebalancing in other areas, especially considering Necro and Engineer have few viable specs to start with. I bet that’s gonna be on the backburner again though…

Not enough Thieves yet I guess.

Necro is middle of the road in WvW. Not one of the must have classes ( Mesmer, Ele, Guardian ), but with the area control, condition spread, some neat tricks and general tankiness even in offensive minded specs you can be quite useful.

Grenades are and always have been useless without Grenadier. Requiring thirty points into a traitline to switch in and out of a kit seems a bit steep and if you want to use pistol you have to invest heavily into Firearms as well, leaving you with little to spend on survival.

Going glass cannon usually isn’t a good idea on Engineer, the damage just isn’t there even going all out.

I recently switched to a pistol condition build. It’s not great, but at least I don’t have to play knots in my fingers for mediocre results.

On Rangers I agree with the above post, the December fixes have gone a long way to fix the most glaring issues and while they’re far from finished, they’re not in as bad a position as many still seem to think.

Probably depends a bit on your server and the tier you’re in as well. Currently I play against Vizunah Square and SFR and you basically can’t take a dump in the woods without stepping on an army or two of enemies.

Builds for roaming or small group combat really aren’t that useful under such circumstances.

Plus my computer can’t really handle it, so I’m usually playing my Necro ( wells build ) until we drop out of T1. Much better to both do damage and survive while it’s laggy.

The travel time on grenades really kills the Grenadier Engy under that kind if conditions.

As the posters above have pointed out, the trait really isn’t that useful. If you are specced deep in Alchemy anyway you’ll just use the trait for elixiers cleansing conditions and get a lot more mileage out of that. Most condition damage builds use a mix of direct and condition damage anyway, so this is not some sort of invulnerability or something.

Imo it highlights a core problem with the class actually. It’s a neat idea, sure, but the actual usefulness in game is rather limited for several reasons.

Of course SFR is where they are now because they got additional bodies. 24/7 presence is the only way to stay in T1 and you obviously got a lot more players than you used to have.

If you think your WvW players just somehow magically got a huge boost in skill you are deluding yourself.

It’s starting to show that Elona can’t muster the necessary manpower outside of holidays and weekends and that’s why we’ll go down again pretty soon. We’ll see if SFR will last, the last couple English EU fotm servers didn’t very long.

The changes in the December patch have gone a long way in bringing the Ranger class up to par. There are still some issues with bugs and certain aspects of the class underperforming, but it is in a lot better state than it was a month ago and even if you aren’t a top player you can do well with a number of builds in all aspects of the game now.

So if you want to go back to your Ranger, now would be a good time.

nakoda.4213:

Grenade speed was increased 10-15% in the Nov. 15 update.

That was limited to s/tPvP and noone in their right mind uses grenades in that game mode anyway.

Thenoob.1480:

blurps.2340:

Problem with grenades is the travel time, not the controls. The target can basically make a sandwich, have a coffee, read their favourite magazine and still have plenty of time to simply walk out of the circle without even actively dodging.

Longbow Rangers used to have the same issue, but ANet increased the speed of arrows and that simple change made a pretty big difference.

Was that a recent change?

Yup, the big December patch. Was a global change across all game modes too.

Guardians specced for consecrations are actually absolutely vital for sieges, in higher tiers anyway. The wall to reflect projectiles, staff 5 and AoE stability for when a door is broken from either side and Sanctuary are extremely powerful abilities that will regularly make the difference between taking/keeping a fortress and failing. Only problem is, the game does not reward that playstyle currently and I have no idea what the Feb patch will change about that.

Warriors with their versatility, high damage and/or good support are also very valuable assets for every group and zerg, but given the huge numbers of them on pretty much any server I’ve played on and against your individual contribution will probably make less of an impact. Longbow with the huge combo field on F1 and 3 as a finisher is actually superb in siege situations.

Yea, medkit works if you don’t wanna go the 30 alchemy route.

Basically you need 2xRune of Altruism, the sigil that gives might for using a heal skill and Enhanced Performance in the Explosives tree. Simply activating the medkit will trigger all the effects and in a lot of situations you’ll do that for perma runspeed anyway.

How many stacks you can keep up depends on the rest of your build and equipment, imo this is something you’d do if you use an Explosives build anyway rather than something you’d go for specifically to get the might stacking.

Edit: Only the Rune of Altruism effect will give might to your group though, the others are self only.

Problem with grenades is the travel time, not the controls. The target can basically make a sandwich, have a coffee, read their favourite magazine and still have plenty of time to simply walk out of the circle without even actively dodging.

Longbow Rangers used to have the same issue, but ANet increased the speed of arrows and that simple change made a pretty big difference.

The big advantage of grenades is, that they’re equally useful in pretty much all ZvsZ situations. Some of the fancier builds like healing bombs aren’t of much use when you’re stuck on a wall defending a fortress for example. Even popular stuff like Tankcat could work fine for roaming groups looking to pick off stragglers or flip supply camps, but will not help with some of the things you’ll probably want to do quite regularly when running with the Zerg.

In higher tiers of WvW with plenty of players about the servers seem to have a major problem with the travel time on Engineer grenades. I often don’t hit anything even if aiming right into an enemy zerg.

My well Necro is much better at doing reliableAoE damage.

( This is in EU T1-2 mostly, so pretty much at the very top. )

Probably refering to the extensive server hopping by the not language specific EU WvW crowd.

Basically some guilds join a server, bring it up to T2 or even T1 and then leave, resulting in the server dropping in the rankings like a stone. We’ve seen this same pattern with FS, Deso, Blacktide and now SFR.

Rifle is better if you use a kit as your primary damage source, the multiple CCs and good auto attack as a filler complement kits better. If you rely on your actual weapon for damage pistols pull ahead though, especially against more than one opponent.

Rifle 3 and 5 are not very reliable and overcomplicated to use outside of perfect and completely lagfree conditions ( i.e. pretty much never in WvW ), so in a non-kit build you’d be stuck with 1 for damage and that’s just not going to cut it. Pistol damage is pretty poor as well but sucks a little less with some mild speccing and equipping for it.

Nymph of Meliai.6739:

I have just fought a ER and a VZ – two small zergs who were working together to take bluebriar. I thought all this conspiracy theory stuff was a load of rubbish but I literally swear on anything you like… I just fought people with FR and DE in their tags fighting together against SFR – we still kicked them back into the lake but seriously guys? You both outnumber us hugely regardless of the number of pve players on your servers – it was still about 20 of you (combined) vs 9 of us. Admittedly when I normally see both your tags together you are fighting each other and I come in and take someone out on the sly… but this time you were genuinely, hand on heart, fighting together and not against each other… what gives?

Well, on SFR borderlands Elona has been getting hammered from both SFR and Vizunah for hours now, often both servers having forces inside of Ascension Bay ( being held by us ). Vizunah also have been attacking from the south constantly, owning Redbriar most of the time and capping Refuge more times than I could be bothered to count.

So if we’re starting conspiracy theories, it’s gotta be VS + SFR having a treaty rather than VS and Elona

skinnyb.5920:

blurps.2340:

You actually need to kill opponents to get bags, just tagging them isn’t enough.

Are you certain about this? Because I can drop into a zerg, throw on Dagger Storm, run out, and come back once it’s clear and pick up 5-20 bags depending on how many people I hit.

I’m not talking about delivering the killing blow, the target needs to die rather than be just downed though. Not sure what the deal with Dagger Storm is, I don’t play a Thief.

Signet of Stamina removes conditions on activation only though, which was kinda my point.

Removing all conditions on a long(ish) cooldown isn’t all that useful imo anyway, usually you don’t have more than two or max three on you but they will be reapplied very quickly. In theory there are some group makeups that could put a lot of conditions on a lot of targets ( involving classes putting the actual conditions on people and a Necro to Epidemic ), but I’ve never actually seen them used in game.

Removing one or two conditions on a very short cooldown is more important and a Warrior shout build with Rune of the Soldier and Warhorn with the appropriate trait ( Quick Breathing ) is the very best at that.

When not grouped I’d say LB Ranger, You actually need to kill opponents to get bags, just tagging them isn’t enough. Being grouped makes much more of a difference than class though.

Junkpile.7439:

New year’s eve and next day hangover capping for the win

So Elona’s ( comparatively ) small off hours presence may be an advantage this one time, everyone will be sleeping off the booze at the same time and be done with it while Vizunah and SFR will suffer all day

PS: Spent like an hour in the queue, couldn’t get in.

Graill.8596:

Of note: If this were Waterworld Engineers would rule, nothing beats an Engineer underwater, sadly, the game isnt based on this mechanic.

Ranger is an absolute beast under water after one of the recent patches, I could probably beat my Engineer with my Ranger.

As for the OP, Elementalist. Doesn’t suffer from a hybrid tax either.

Staff Ele has more 1200 range ground targeted AoEs, that’s a big advantage in siege situations. You can put them on the walls when attacking to hit siege equipment and defenders out of sight, or under the door from the inside when defending.

The Ranger can trait for ground targeted traps at 900 range, but can’t have that and a longbow spec at the same time. Longbow at 1500 range is argueably the best spec to stay in the back of a zerg and finish off downed opponents and you’ll have plenty of time to pick up the loot.

The real secret to farming bags is being in a decent group 100% of the time though.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

condition removal (oh wait…shake it off is all they have?)

No, it’s not. Warriors have above average active condition removal. They do lack the passive removal like Signet of Resolve though.

It’s not all that different from PvE, really. Both classes are very useful, Warrior even in support spec has more offense, Guardian more defense.

Depending on what you want to do specifically the lack of a viable ranged option on Guardian might be a problem. In siege situations you’ll mostly be supporting.

At WoW’s release Druids were just a bunch of completely random ideas bundled together with absolutely no consideration as to how that hodgepodge could actually work as a class competing with the much more focused ones. Another example of the very same issue is the Captain in Lord of the Rings Online. Took Turbine two expansions to get the class up to par.

GW2 has a class like that too, but it’s the Engineer rather than the Necromancer. The devs seem to have a pretty good idea what they want the Necro to be, thanks to all the bugs it just doesn’t work out that way in game ( yet ? ).

Well, during the day at least there were a lot more Arborstone players on their border than people from Elona both yesterday and today. For some reason they were mostly sitting in their towers and keeps farming attackers though, maybe that’s why you don’t see them…

Seems pretty obvious to me that swapping to Med Kit triggering “on heal skill use” effects is not intentional. This works with Enhanced Performance in the Explosives tree too by the way.

Better not get too used to it, it will get “fixed” eventually and looking at the current nerfs to actual bug fixes ratio probably sooner rather than later.

Anyway, if you want these runes, buy them now. At about 50 silver a piece the prices will only go up.