Guild Wars 2

I think the damage is fine. You don’t need it to stun, evade, and also deal as much DPS as autoattack chain.

It’d be cool if they separated the stun and the flurry into a 2-part chain, other than that, the animation seems fine (nobody really calls blurred frenzy “clunky”). I wouldn’t mind if they moved it down to 5 attacks instead of 9, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

I’ve never seen anything weird happen with the evasion, other than the usual things regarding evasion attacks (Nightmare Rune procs, etc.). Maybe all you’re experiencing is some latency-related client-server desyncs. Evasion is evasion, nothing special about pistol whip from a programmatical standpoint, I’m sure.

Pistol Whip doesn’t need anymore buffing, it’s already really good against a lot of specs. Only real weakness is that it gets hunted by D/P.

Yeah, condition Necro is still the best way to go for high level teams. Power Necro is alright, but more easily countered by good players.

The high risk/high reward glass cannon builds are the hardest to play, since they require good game sense and fast reaction speed to get the most out of the builds, and small mistakes can be punished very harshly. D/P Trickery Thief, glass cannon Engi, shatter Mesmer, fresh air Ele are all pretty fast paced builds that require decent APM and good use of skills and cooldowns in order to play them at top level.

Sure, I recommend some small changes to your build to shore up your 1v1 matchups:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNApeSlUgyCHFyKEfYFRuAbBVFiH2DMmxOepgiPE-TsAA2CtIySllLLTWyssZNsYZxEEA

Here’s some highlights from my recommendations:

1. Use Focus instead of Shield. Reason being: Shield is more of a support-oriented option, which is fine for a bunker build, but if you want to win 1v1s, you need the extra clears and blocks that Focus can give you. Also, Shield of Wrath gives you some extra DPS if it isn’t used up, and it can be used as “pseudo-Stability” for an extra way to stomp/res.
2. Take the 10 points out of Zeal and get Altruistic Healing. Gaining that trait will give you some extra sustain, especially in teamfighting but also for 1v1s.
3. Change 2 traits, picking up Defender’s Flame and Writ of the Merciful. Again, you’re looking for a bit of extra sustain and damage to win your 1v1 matchups. Defender’s Flame goes nicely with Mace, Focus, Shelter, “Retreat!”, and Renewed Focus.
4. Change your amulet. Barb amulet isn’t generally a good mix of stats for PvP, since Precision is a weaker stat than Power. Berserker’s works better with the amount of Critical Damage you already have, and the rest of your build gives you some sustain to go with your offensive power.
5. Sigils of Fire are ok, but I find the biggest problem with this type of build is sticking to a target that’s trying to kite you. I think Sigils of Hydromancy will help you out in that regard.

Staff instead of Hammer is another option for this build, if you want to increase your support and get more synergy with Altruistic Healing. If you make that switch, lose “Retreat!” and pick up “Save Yourselves!”. Another option is Greatsword. I’ve played a build like this in the past, and it wasn’t bad. Good luck!

Re: Lyssa, I think the full condi clear is the most powerful aspect of the rune set, not the boons. Of the boons, Stability is the biggest offender, but I don’t think changing it to converting conditions to boons is enough of a nerf.

Re: Dodges, I believe the nerfs are in order. Guardians and Mesmers currently get enough dodges where they are often just used “whenever”, or as an ingrained part of rotations/combos. Using a dodge should always be an important decision, and reward the players that use them skillfully, and punish those who don’t. It’s true that dodging is important for those two classes, since certain traits like Deceptive Evasion and Selfless Daring rely on them. The Sigil of Energy change equates to 1 less dodge every 20 seconds — a significant change, to be sure, but not game-breaking. As for the Vigor changes, it depends on Boon Duration, but most builds will still maintain >=60% Vigor uptime, especially outside of sPvP. Suffice to say, I believe these nerfs are not too large in the grand scheme of things, and won’t be a big enough change to reduce the viability of those traits, and shouldn’t be enough where large changes in the amount of damage dealt should need to change. In the event that some adjustments to damage are needed after this change, that could be determined during playtesting or addressed in the next update.

Good suggestion on Armor of Earth, it was something that I’ve thought about in the past as well. I added it.

Yeah, I’ve already added a few things to help DPS Guard (including Traveller Runes), so I didn’t want to go too far.

It’s a common opinion that this GM trait is pretty useless for Guardians, due to our lack of good condition damage options. We can access a lot of Burning application, but we don’t have much to cover it with. For reference, here is the build that I believe is the best shot at getting Kindled Zeal to be useful:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-73dFk;0NFV10G3RG-90;9;4TT9;018B29A1;6VN-75;1sV2DsV2D5Bz

The problem is that I think running a x/30/30/x/x meditation build is just going to better most of the time due to the extra sustain it affords you — the extra damage gained isn’t worth the loss of utility. What do you think should be done with this trait, if anything? IMO, I think that condition Guardian is going to require too significant of a rework of the class in order to be feasible, and maybe we should just go a different direction entirely with the trait. My idea was to change it to be something like: “You deal 5% more damage when under 50% health, and heal yourself for the same amount as the extra damage dealt.” Thoughts?

Nikkle.4013:

cymerdown.4103:

Lightning Strike — Added a 0.25 second casting time.

Why do we need to make Lightning strike a cast? I feel like that would make air clunky. Can’t we make LS and ED like arcane blast? A fast travelling projectile? Still instant cast but dodgable.

Sure, I suppose that would be a good alternative.

My suggestion, from my balance document:

Decrease Passive by 1k/20s base, but increase Healing Power scaling: 342 (0.08), down from 392 (0.05)
Increase Active by 1k/20s untraited, slight increase in Healing Power scaling: 4275 (0.6), up from 3275 (0.5)

The goal is to nerf the heal for DPS builds, while keeping it about the same for bunker builds. Also, make the active good enough so that it makes more sense to activate when getting low on health.

silvershadez.8421:

Ether renewal short by 1 tick? Making first ticks tick smaller then last so we get EVEN MORE penalized then allready when interrupted? Where is that a buff exactly?

What? Read it again.

The change to Ether Renewal is a buff. And the restoration of the original Signet is a huge buff.

I don’t have trouble with them, it’s just that the instant burst possible by Scepter/X Fresh Air Ele is a bit high when combined with arcane skills, and if other classes are brought in line (as they are with my other changes), the instant burst possible here is also something that should be slightly adjusted. A 0.25 cast time on Lightning Strike won’t break the scepter, that’s hyperbole.

Yeah, MM Necro’s not viable in high level. It does provide a lot of damage + sustain in 1v1 for the skill required to play it, which is why you’ll see it a lot in solo q.

Mostly buffs, tiny nerfs. The changes to Signet of Resto, RTL, and Lightning Flash are pretty huge.

Warrior

Summary: Some of the Warrior’s best skills: Pin Down, Healing Signet, and Berserker Stance, saw some slight adjustments. Support abilities, like shouts and banners, were given some necessary buffs in order to make them more viable in PvP.

Pin Down — The casting time was increased to 0.5 seconds, up from 0.25 seconds. The skill’s animation has been changed to be more clear.

Healing Signet — The passive heal was reduced to 342 (0.08), down from 392 (0.05). The active heal was increased to 4275 (0.6), up from 3275 (0.5).

Berserker Stance — Now reduces incoming condition duration by 100%, instead of granting complete immunity.

“Fear Me!” — This skill has been changed.
“Fear Me!”
Induce fear in your foes. Allies gain Stability.
400-600 range – Fear: 1 second
200-400 range – Fear: 1.5 seconds
0-200 range – Fear: 2 seconds
Stability: 3 seconds
Radius: 600
Breaks Stun
Cooldown: 60 seconds

Inspiring Battle Standard — This trait has been redesigned.
Inspiring Battle Standard
Banners also heal and remove conditions.
Healing: 1300 (1.25)
Conditions Removed: 1
Interval: 10 seconds (The first pulse happens immediately upon summoning the banner. A short glow animation now plays on the banner every time it pulses.)

Ranger

Summary: Greatsword, offhand Axe, and dagger got some improvements. Lightning Reflexes and Signet of Renewal got some quality of life adjustments, and shouts were greatly improved. Spirit of Nature’s healing was adjusted to match the tooltip. Pets will now scale based on the Ranger’s stats, making lesser-used pets more viable and lowering pet burst potential from defensive or condition-based builds.

Swoop — Added 0.5s of Evade at the beginning of this skill.

Path of Scars — Added a Cripple: 2 seconds to the outgoing half of the attack.

Whirling Defense — Increased total base damage to 1158 (3.0), up from 1008 (3.0).

Stalker’s Strike — Now applies Torment(2): 8 seconds instead of Poison: 10 seconds.

Lightning Reflexes — Now also removes chill, cripple, and immobilize. The cooldown was increased to 45 seconds, up from 40 seconds.

Signet of Renewal — This skill now always transfers all conditions from you to your pet, regardless of range.

“Guard” — This skill now also grants the pet fury and might, but all boons are now granted when the pet detects a target within range to attack. The casting time was removed to make it similar to other Shouts.
Guard
Command your pet to aggressively defend an area. Your pet gains stealth until an enemy is detected.
Stealth: 10 seconds
Protection: 5 seconds
Fury: 5 seconds
Might(3): 5 seconds
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 20s

“Sic ’Em” — The way that this skill applies Revealed has been changed. Instead, any stealthed enemies within 600 range of the Ranger have Revealed applied to them upon use of the skill. The cooldown has been increased to 45 seconds, up from 40 seconds.

“Search and Rescue” — The cooldown was decreased to 150 seconds in PvP, and is once again affected by traits.

Spirit of Nature — The passive healing was reduced to 320 HP/s, down from 480 HP/s.

Nature’s Voice — This trait has been redesigned.
Nature’s Voice
Shouts apply protection, swiftness and regeneration to allies, and transfer 1 condition from each ally to your pet.
Protection: 3 seconds
Regeneration: 5 seconds
Swiftness: 5 seconds
Conditions Transferred: 1
Radius: 600

Pets — Ranger pets have been rebalanced to have their stats scale based off the character’s own stats, rather than having flat stats based on the character’s Level. Different types of pets scale differently with each stat. For example, condition-based Rangers will fare best when choosing pets that scale well off of Condition Damage, like Spiders, whereas defensive Rangers will do well to pick defensive pets like Bears that give supportive effects and scale well off of Vitality and Toughness.

Thief

Summary: Thieves recently had major redesign changes, so my set of changes is relatively light. Shadowstep, the current clearly best stunbreak for all builds, had its cooldown timer swapped with Roll For Initiative to open up more build possibilities and provide extra Initiative for certain builds that need it. Thieves Guild is rarely used, so it saw a small buff. Quick Recovery is much worse after the latest patch, so its functionality was changed to better synergize with other Acrobatics traits. Hard to Catch now also prevents CC to increase its viability, and Sleight of Hand was adjusted slightly.

Shadowstep — Increased cooldown to 60 seconds, up from 50 seconds.

Roll for Initiative — Reduced cooldown to 50 seconds, down from 60 seconds.

Thieves Guild — Reduced cooldown to 150 seconds, down from 180 seconds. Increased the HP of the summoned thieves by 25%.

Quick Recovery — This trait has been redesigned.
Quick Recovery
Gain endurance for each point of Initiative spent.
Endurance: 2

Hard to Catch — Now also prevents the disable effect from occurring. Raised the shadowstep distance to 900, up from 600. Increased the cooldown to 60 seconds, up from 30 seconds.

Sleight of Hand — Reduced the decrease on steal cooldown to 15%, down from 20%.

Mesmer

Summary: Mesmer saw buffs to their condition build options by having the Scepter skills improved. Some of the weaker skills, including Mantras, saw some needed buffs. Mantra of Pain was replaced by Mantra of Haste, giving the Mesmer a way to quickly recharge another Mantra or to quickly burst down a target. Confounding Suggestions was bugfixed, and some Vigor was removed from Critical Infusion. Deceptive Evasion was moved to the Illusions tree, removing some reliance of the meta shatter build from the Dueling tree and thus opening up new build possibilities. Prismatic Understanding was adjusted downward slightly, mainly for WvW concerns.

Ether Blast — Now also applies Bleed(1): 2 seconds.

Ether Clone — Reduced the casting time to 0.75 seconds, down from 1 second.

Confusing Images — Reduced the channel time to 2.25 seconds, down from 3 seconds. The first pulse now occurs at 0.25 seconds into the channel, with subsequent pulses every 0.5 seconds thereafter. Reduced the base damage to 760 (2.4), down from 840 (2.5).

Mimic — The first projectile absorbed is now also negated.

Arcane Thievery — The cooldown was reduced to 40 seconds, down from 45 seconds.

Mantra of Concentration — The casting time was reduced to 2.5 seconds, down from 2.75 seconds.

Mantra of Distraction — The casting time was reduced to 2.5 seconds, down from 2.75 seconds.

Mantra of Pain — This skill has been redesigned. It is now called, “Mantra of Haste”.
Mantra of Haste
Meditate, charging a spell that will speed up your actions for a short time.
Casting Time: 2.5 seconds
Cooldown: 30 seconds

Power Speed
Quickness: 2 seconds
Cooldown: 15 seconds

Mantra of Resolve — The casting time was reduced to 2.5 seconds, down from 2.75 seconds.

Confounding Suggestions — This trait has been bugfixed to work properly with Chaos Storm.

Deceptive Evasion — Moved to Illusions Tree’s Master tier.

Critical Infusion — Reduced Vigor duration to 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds.

Prismatic Understanding — The Protection granted by this trait has been reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3 seconds.

Illusionary Invigoration — Moved to Adept tier. The cooldown was increased to 90 seconds, up from 60 seconds.

Dazzling Glamours — Moved to Master tier.

Phantasmal Haste — Moved to Dueling Tree’s Master tier.

Necromancer

Summary: The support from Putrid Mark was increased. Lich Form’s autoattack damage was reduced slightly, and two of its other abilities were improved. The duration of conditions caused by Signet of Spite were reduced a bit to lower its extreme effectiveness, especially in 1v1s. Minion Masters saw a slight reduction in minion damage from Training of the Master, and Terror was moved up to Grandmaster tier.

Marks — Marks now start to appear as they are being cast. They start off as mostly transparent, becoming fully opaque as the cast time ends.

Putrid Mark — Now also transfers 1 condition from up to 5 allies within 600 range of the mark when triggered to enemies within the mark, in addition to the 3 conditions transferred from the caster.

Grasping Dead — Returned the 3rd bleed stack to PvP.

Signet of Spite — Changed the active effect to the following:
Damage: 263
Bleeding(2): 7 seconds
Blind: 5 seconds
Crippled: 5 seconds
Poison: 7 seconds
Vulnerability(5): 7 seconds
Weakness: 5 seconds
Activation: 0.5 seconds
Range: 1200

Deathly Claws — Reduced damage by 10%.

Marked for Death — Now gives Vulnerability(10): 8 seconds, instead of Vulnerability(8): 10 seconds.

Mark of Horror — Reduced the casting time to 1 second, down from 1.5 seconds. Now summons 6 jagged horrors, up from 5.

Training of the Master — Reduced damage increase to 20%, down from 30%.

Weakening Shroud — Now applies Bleed(2): 6 seconds, instead of Bleed(1).

Withering Precision — Moved to Master tier.

Terror — Moved to Grandmaster tier.

Engineer

Summary: Engineer AoE abilities are currently dominant in high level play, making them not only good for 1v1s, but also extremely dangerous in teamfights. As such, Poison Grenade and Concussion Bomb saw a slight reduction in AoE power. Med Kit was tweaked to be more competitive with Healing Turret, opening up its use as a support kit. Elixir R is currently still very powerful team utility, and thus was given back its stun break, but saw its reviving capabilities somewhat reduced. Gadgets were somewhat buffed, and Engineer now has a way to directly counter stealth. Supply Crate’s powerful impact in 1v1s was reduced, but its cooldown was also lowered to compensate, keeping it about as strong as before in teamfighting. More options were added in terms of condition removal, which is currently a weak point. Automated Response was changed to add a bit more counterplay to the trait.

Poison Grenade — Poison clouds now last for 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds, and deal 3 seconds of Poison per pulse, down from 5 seconds.

Concussion Bomb — The radius was reduced to 120, down from 180.

All Med Kit Items — Now are immediately picked up if dropped near an ally. Previously, the player had to move to pick up the item, even if it had been dropped close to them.

Drop Bandages — Reduced casting time to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.5 seconds. Duration was reduced to 30 seconds.

Drop Antidote — Reduced casting time to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.5 seconds. Now removes 2 conditions. Duration was reduced to 30 seconds.

Drop Stimulant — Reduced casting time to 0.25s, down from 0.5 seconds. Duration was reduced to 30 seconds.

Elixir R — Now instant cast and breaks stun. The cooldown was increased to 45 seconds, up from 30 seconds.

Toss Elixir R — Now revives 12% per pulse, down from 17%.

Analyse — This toolbelt skill has been redesigned. It now called “Deploy Detector”.
Deploy Detector
Deploy a detector that applies vulnerability and reveals stealthed enemies within the area.
Casting Time: 0.5 seconds
Recharge: 60 seconds
Range: 900
Radius: 300
Duration: 5 seconds
Revealed: 4 seconds
Vulnerability(5): 8 seconds

Launch Personal Battering Ram — This skill has been redesigned. It now knocks down any foes it hits for 2 seconds, does not cripple, and has had its cooldown increased to 45 seconds.

Supply Crate — Now drops a Rifle Turret instead of a Net Turret. The stun duration was lowered to 1s from 2s, and the cooldown was reduced to 150 seconds from 180 seconds.

Elite Supplies — Now adds a Net Turret to Supply Crate instead of a Rifle Turret.

Automated Response — Now reduces incoming condition duration by 100%, rather than granting complete immunity.

Scope — This trait has been redesigned. It is now called, “Antidote Pouch”, and reads, “Using a toolbelt skill removes 1 condition. (CD: 10 seconds)”

Guardian

Summary: Some of the weakest skills for Guardian saw some slight buffs, while the meta bunker build was slightly reduced in power. Purging Flames was made more useful for support in to open up additional build possibilities. DPS Guardians now have new powerful options in the classically weak Zeal tree. A bit less Vigor from the incredibly powerful 5-point trait “Vigorous Precision” will slightly nerf bunkers while encouraging DPS builds towards other trees.

Shield of Absorption — A bug has been fixed where cancelling the channel of the skill would cause the shield to become invisible.

Healing Breeze — The heal has been changed so that earlier pulses provide a bit more healing than the later ones, thus punishing the user less if the heal is interrupted.

Bane Signet — Lowered the casting time to 0.5 seconds from 0.75 seconds, and increased the knockdown to 3 seconds from 2 seconds.

Signet of Wrath — Lowered the casting time to 0.5 seconds from 0.75 seconds.

“Stand Your Ground!” — The cooldown was increased to 35 seconds, up from 30 seconds.

“Retreat!” — The cooldown was reduced to 50 seconds, down from 60 seconds.

Purging Flames — The casting time was reduced to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds. The radius was increased to 300, up from 240.

Zealous Blade — The healing has been increased to 50 (0.03), up from 25 (0.02).

Kindled Zeal — This trait has been redesigned, and renamed “Zealous Strikes”. It reads, “Deal 5% more damage when under 50% health, and heal yourself for the same amount as the extra damage dealt.”

Vigorous Precision — Reduced Vigor duration to 3 seconds, down from 5 seconds.

(Copy pasta from the sPvP forum, since it didn’t get moved.)

General

Vision: With this update, I am looking to lower the power of some of the strongest builds and skills in the game, while providing more build options for every class. Elementalist and Mesmer are receiving the most help, while Warrior, Spirit of Nature, Engi AoE, and bunker Guardian are seeing some slight reductions in power. In addition, access to Endurance is being lowered across the board to reduce the length of teamfights and the amount of sustain that certain classes have access to. A few ways to counter stealth were added to provide some additional counterplay to the mechanic. Also, some weak or inflexible skills and traits were targeted with redesigns, to increase their viability.

The 6-set bonus of Superior Runes of Lyssa has been changed:
(6) When you use an elite skill, lose 3 conditions and gain 3 random boons for 5 seconds (not including Stability). (CD: 45 seconds)

Superior Runes of the Traveler have been added to PvP:
(1) +10 to All Stats, +2% Critical Damage
(2) +10% Boon Duration
(3) +10 to All Stats, +2% Critical Damage
(4) +10% Condition Duration
(5) +10 to All Stats, +2% Critical Damage
(6) +25% Movement Speed

Superior Sigil of Energy — Now returns only 25% Endurance upon weapon swap, down from 50%.

Transforms — All transforms have been adjusted so that they no longer increase Power or Precision. Instead, their base damage has been increased to provide approximately the same amount of net damage. This was done to eliminate abuse of laying down an AoE, and then immediately using a transform to spike up the damage of the AoE that was previously casted (wells + Lich Form, Meteor Shower + Tornado, etc.)

Elementalist

Summary: Elementalist, as the class currently in need of the most help, is being targeted in two critical areas: sustain and mobility. Signet of Restoration was restored to previous levels, and Ether Renewal was improved. Ride the Lightning’s cooldown was lowered to add back more out-of-combat mobility. In addition, several skills on the Focus were either improved or made more easy to use. Lightning Strike (scepter air #2) was made to no longer be instant, to reduce some of the instant spike possible in the Fresh Air build, and Diamond Skin was redesigned.

Dragon’s Tooth — Now uses ground targeting.

Lightning Strike — Added a 0.25 second casting time.

Fire Shield — The cooldown was reduced to 30 seconds.

Freezing Gust — Now a piercing projectile attack, similar to Dust Devil.

Comet — The casting time has been reduced to 0.5 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds. It now uses ground targeting.

Gale — The casting time has been reduced to 0.5 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds.

Signet of Restoration — The passive healing has been returned to its previous level of 202 (0.1), up from 168 (0.08). It once again behaves the same as it does in PvE/WvW.

Ether Renewal — Condensed to 7 pulses instead of 8, but still provides the same amount of healing as before. The resulting full channel time is now 3 seconds instead of 3.5. Also, the heal has been changed so that earlier pulses provide a bit more healing than the later ones, thus punishing the user less if the heal is interrupted.

Ride the Lightning — This ability now has a 25 second cooldown regardless of if it hits a target or not. Previously, it had a 20 second cooldown if a target was hit, or a 40 second cooldown if no target was hit.

Lightning Flash — Now breaks stuns. Its cooldown was increased to 45 seconds, up from 40 seconds.

Armor of Earth — Reduced the cooldown to 60 seconds, down from 90 seconds.

Arcane Brilliance — The casting time was reduced to 0.25 seconds, down from 0.75 seconds.

Diamond Skin — This trait has been redesigned. It now reduces the duration of incoming conditions by 100% for 2 seconds after switching to Earth Attunement.

Should be alright after they bugfix Confounding Suggestions, which is in my notes (and is coming in the next patch anyway, per devs).

Hey, these guys work pretty hard to support the PvP community. Some people enjoy the entertainment they provide, and they don’t get much in return at the moment aside from knowing they’re doing what they can to help the game grow. Thanks, Jebro!

The reason why is because newer players start off with a decently high rating, according to a post from Justin a while back. Also, you start off with a pretty high volatility coefficient, since the system isn’t too sure of how good you are. If you win several matches in a row, the volatility of your rating makes it so that your rating will jump up pretty far with each win, so if you win 12 or 13 matches in a row your rating will end up being very high indeed. Ways to mitigate this would be to start new players with a lower rating than they currently are, and also raise the minimum number of games you have to play before you appear on the leaderboard (I think it’s currently 10, maybe raise it to about 30?)

If you enjoy watching good/fun players, check out Teldo’s stream! It’s a great way to support PvP and the game, and his commentary is not only informative, but extremely entertaining.

http://twitch.tv/teldoo

Welcome back, Teldo!

It’s not just about area denial. Most of the time it’s used for peels vs enemy projectiles. This type of defense is really important when going for a team hard res. Also, you have 3 other cooldowns for longer range condition removal, at a certain point stacking more of a similar ability has diminishing returns.

But yes, to each their own. I think you’ll find Sanctuary more and more appealing as you reach higher ELO team arena. It’s a long cooldown, but also situationally very powerful.

SY! is ok, but I think the other options you have for the last slot are all better. From my guide:

The final utility slot will go to a consecration, and the choice of which consecration should depend on the enemy team composition. The reason you shouldn’t slot a third shout into this slot is because both of the other shouts are fairly lackluster for a bunker build, and the consecrations are much more impactful options for this remaining utility slot. Also, with Absolute Resolution, Purity, and your other two shouts, you typically have conditions fairly well covered already. So, what consecration should we put in this slot? For general purpose, the overall strongest option is Sanctuary, because it has multiple uses depending on the situation that I will explain later. Aside from Sanctuary, the other consecrations have niche applications. I will run Hallowed Ground when the enemy team has 2 or more members that rely heavily on CC as part of their build (example: 2 Hammer Warriors). Hallowed Ground is already a decent ability (access to extra Boon Duration and Stability is very strong in team fighting), and the additional benefit of negating CC/damage against those team comps puts it over the edge. Purging Flames becomes good enough to run when you are against teams with 3+ members that rely heavily on non-projectile conditions as part of their builds (example: condi Necro + bomb/nade Engi + spirit Ranger). Against less than 3 of those types of builds, you shouldn’t need the extra condi removal over Sanctuary. Lastly, Wall of Reflection is incredibly niche in sPvP, and I would recommend only running it against weird team compositions that rely almost exclusively on projectiles to do their damage. Otherwise, Wall of Reflection is very easy for good players to avoid and doesn’t provide any other useful effects.

http://tinyurl.com/kenguardguide

So, IMO if you really need another condi cleanse, Purging Flames is generally going to be better due to the shorter cooldown and the -33% to incoming conditions. Otherwise, Sanctuary is more general purpose, and still offers a way to deal with incoming projectile-based conditions.

They use glicko2, which is a modern “improvement” on ELO that is used in leaderboards for a lot of different games.

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

Caed and Jumper were both always very high up there mechanically. If I had to give someone the edge, I’d say Jumper when he was at his prime, but it’s certainly debatable (don’t kill me Caed).

In terms of playing conquest and good teamplay, Caed is probably the best right now, but Toker is also very good and I don’t think he has hit his cap just yet. Sizer is also a good teamplayer from what I’ve seen of his stream.

Muffinz, Shad and Vanish are also good thieves which haven’t gotten enough mention.

Geez, the shatter vs shatter video is the most in-depth gameplay breakdown I’ve ever seen. If you make it a full series, it will be quite the collection for upcoming Mesmers. Pretty awesome work so far, very nice.

But, that’s not even true. I see at least 4 different teams represented in the top 25, and I haven’t played with about 12 of those people in the past month. On the other hand, I’ve played against most of those people at some point in the same time period. If you don’t think we play against each other, watch some streams sometime.

I just mean that the matchmaking algorithm is working as intended. Normally, it does make correct matchups and finds teams that are roughly equal in rating. It’s just when the queue timer starts getting high that it will broaden the search and cause these mismatches. Once ladders come out, it will probably bracket off the high ELO from the low and middle ELO levels so that matchups like this don’t happen anymore, or at least become a lot more rare.

Yeah, the matchmaking is actually fine. After about 10 minutes or so, the matchmaking will give up trying to find an even match and just find whatever matchup it can, that’s why you will occasionally go up against these kinds of players. If there were more teams around, this would happen a lot less often.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

cymerdown.4103:

Anastasis.7258:

Berserker Stance

Actually, if anything, it should be the other way around. The biggest problem other classes have dealing with a Berserker’s Stance Warrior is the fact that none of their condition-based CC options work, not even a little bit. A Necro’s fears, cripples, and chills do nothing to the Warrior that gets to faceroll their keyboard for 8 full seconds before the Necro can even touch him. Engis have a similar problem. It’s less of a problem that they can’t do any damage to the Warrior, it’s mostly the problem that they can’t kite at all using defensive condition applications to get some distance.

I’m on the fence with this. Do you think it’s enough ONLY be immune to the conditions that slow damage but allow FULL duration of the damaging conditions? Aka, you’d be immune to blind, crippled, chilled, immobilize and weakness, but you are vulnerable to spikes with bleeding, poison, burning, torment, fear and confusion. So now you’re still able to die to condition builds (you can counter spike), but you leave the warrior with the ability to get a period of time where they can spike someone out. It feels like that was the intended flavor of the skill.

I think -100% duration on all conditions would be fine. Keep in mind, after Dogged March, that’s a total of -133% duration on Immobilize, Chill, and Cripple. Since most builds only have a maximum of 140-150% condition duration, you’re still effectively immune to those 3 conditions. The only impeding conditions that would last for any significant amount of time during Berserker’s Stance would be Weakness and Fear, which I think would be perfectly fair to be honest.

Sol’s a cool guy, knows Ranger inside out and is a good communicator. Plays for keeps, great sense of humor too. Give him a shot!

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

FeelsAlright.5860:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

wow why zero score? O_O

Just out classed lol

but … 0 points !!!
what happened?

i.e.
1 went home, got killed by their far point assault before capping home? O_O
4 went mid, got killed by 3 mid fighters? O_O
then they split up and camped both entrances? O_O

i mean what happened during the 4 minutes? O_O

They played 3 points off the bat, sending 1 or 2 to far, 1 home, rest mid. They won all fights and triple capped, then they watched spawns and counted how many went to each point. They rotate the same number to wherever you try to go and win each of those fights for the rest of the match.

Happy Kid with the mad BM, as usual. :P

Rarnark.5623:

Amir.1570:

I want to say that your idea is naive, incompetent, amateur-ish, and hopefully ANET would not be stupid enough to listen to it. But due to ANET’s actions in the past? You have a good shot of gutting the class.

Let’s not get personal here.

I don’t believe Ken or anyone else is trying to ruin the efficacy of warriors in the tpvp setting. Being a pseudo multiclass and a main warrior I believe that berserker stance is 100% necessary to stay viable in the current state of the game. However, it’s nature is rather “brain dead” and is the lowest least skillful form of couterplay in the game (aside from passive trait procs).

If the reworking/toning down of berserkers stance were to lead to the “gutting” of warrior the it’s not a problem with warriors, it’s a problem with other game/class mechanics.

Thanks, Rar. Honestly, all I want is some good semblance of game balance as we approach the release of new game modes. I think it will attract a lot of new and old players to give PvP another shot, and I want something that isn’t a frustrating experience for those people. Also, Berserker’s Stance isn’t the biggest offender when it comes to balance, IMO. Like you said, it’s more about the lack of counterplay options that it affords certain classes (especially in 1v1), but if I had to choose only 1 thing about Warrior to change, it would be Healing Signet, not this skill.

It wouldn’t pigeon hole them into any weapon more than they already are. There are still 50-52 seconds out of 60 that Berserker’s Stance is on cooldown, gotta deal with conditions some way during that period, right?

You can disagree with my ideas, that’s what forums are all about, no?

My problem with the skill (and the Engi trait AR) is that it’s complete immunity to a certain damage type for more than a very short period of time. Several classes rely on conditions as part of their natural defense mechanisms, like Necro’s fears and other impeding conditions, and Engis have Chill and Blind. I think having skills and traits that grant complete immunity to these things are just bad for interactive gameplay — you just press a button, and then the other guy may as well not even do anything except try to dodge and run away till 8 seconds pass, there is no other meaningful interaction that he can do against the skill. If blind is too large of a weakness for Warrior, then we can do better to solve that problem than this type of bandaid solution.

Ok, it was updated, then, probably with the last patch, since it did say what the wiki says not too long ago. I’m not logged in at the moment to check. Sorry for the mistake.

I disagree that it would be gutted. “Uh oh, I’ve got a few of these short-lasting conditions on me. But hey, here’s a bunch of adrenaline. Hmm… what does Cleansing Ire do again?”

Keep in mind, the way it currently works does NOT match what the description of the skill says. According to the wiki, the skill is considered to be currently bugged.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Berserker_Stance

All I’m asking is for this skill and Automated Response to match the description.

So like, let’s say that an Engi has put 30 points into Explosives, granting him +30% Condition Duration. Also, he’s using 6 Nightmare Runes, giving another +10% Condition Duration. Adding this up, he gets 40% more duration than the base 100%, so a total of 140% Condition Duration. If he threw grenades at a Berserker’s Stance Warrior after my change, his conditions would last 140% – 100% = 40% of the base duration. Example: if he applied a Chill that had a base duration of 1 second, it would last 0.4 seconds instead.

If you changed it from complete immunity to -100% condition duration, most conditions would still not last very long, cutting down the length of incoming conditions by around 66-100% (with the main exception being a fear from a fully traited up Terror Necro, which would be a 50% reduction). Keep in mind: Dogged March. And, you still have Cleansing Ire, which Berserker’s Stance makes quite spammable. It would be a pretty tiny nerf, but considering the strength of the skill, a necessary one.

Anastasis.7258:

Rifle

The final trolling. Increase Volley damage??? Seems like you want to hit 1 button and kill someone on every weapon set. Also, 8 stacks of Vulnerability is a lot, that cooldown would be way too short for the skill. I could see lowering the cast time by 0.25 seconds or something, though.

Anastasis.7258:

Thief

And bring back immortal S/D Thief again? I dunno, I think the game is better off, honestly. In terms of initiative regen being too high, I think it’s something the devs are already watching, and if they decide it needs to go down slightly (maybe to 0.9/s instead of 1/s?), they’ll do it at some point. I think overall, though, the Thief update is going in the right direction.

Anastasis.7258:

Reaper’s Mark

Eh, I disagree with lowering the cooldown. It’s a really powerful skill, and the CD is traitable. 28-second fear marks? My body isn’t ready.

Anastasis.7258:

Doom

No way. I understand instant skills are impossible to counterplay against, but this is one of the very few emergency defense mechanisms that a Necro even has. They don’t have Vigor, and they have pretty mediocre stunbreakers, and almost no Stability. Doom is one of the only tools they have, and it’s already bad enough that it doesn’t deal with Stability or Berserker’s Stance. The only change to Doom that I could support is reverting its fear to a uniform 1 second regardless of range. Casting time needs to stay instant.

Eh, most of these changes are poorly thought-out, to be honest… the first time I read it, I sort of thought you were trolling, because I didn’t think you could possibly be serious. But you seem to be genuine, so I guess I’ll break it down.

Anastasis.7258:

Warrior:

Healing Signet…

Honestly, this is just the wrong approach to the problem of Healing Signet being too powerful. The reason I say this is because bunker Warrior should actually be a spec that exists (IMO, it only exists in Solo Arena at the moment; it’s currently not quite powerful enough in the right ways to be successful in high ELO Team Arena). Healing Signet is the -only- heal that could possibly be viable for such a build, because 1) it’s not interruptable, just like Guardian’s Shelter is hard to interrupt, and that’s very important for a bunker’s heal, and 2) it by far scales the best with Healing Power out of all the heal options. I think the correct goal here is to make it so Healing Signet only makes sense to take in Cleric/Settler amulet builds, and reduce its effectiveness in more offensively-oriented builds. For offensive builds, we already have 2-3 other heals to work with and make viable, we don’t need another. Another issue is this: the change you suggest won’t really change gameplay much, if at all. By that, I mean that most of the time, it’s going to still be correct to keep swapping weapons off cooldown anyway, and the heal will perform in actual gameplay just about the same as it currently does. If you’re Poisoned: so what? The best way to deal with Poison (as well as the other conditions you will be likely to have) is to use Cleansing Ire, and if your burst skill on this weaponset is off cooldown, guess what? You’re gonna weapon swap to use your other burst skill. I think your goal here was to add more skill and interaction with the healing passive, but in reality, it’s not going to change much.

To sum up, your change is wrong for two reasons: it nerfs the skill in the build(s) that it’s actually originally intended for, and because it won’t actually change its impact on gameplay very much at all.

Anastasis.7258:

Berserker Stance

Actually, if anything, it should be the other way around. The biggest problem other classes have dealing with a Berserker’s Stance Warrior is the fact that none of their condition-based CC options work, not even a little bit. A Necro’s fears, cripples, and chills do nothing to the Warrior that gets to faceroll their keyboard for 8 full seconds before the Necro can even touch him. Engis have a similar problem. It’s less of a problem that they can’t do any damage to the Warrior, it’s mostly the problem that they can’t kite at all using defensive condition applications to get some distance.

Anastasis.7258:

Defian Stance

Honestly, it’s going to be pretty hard to get a heal like this to actually be good in sPvP, because it counts on the opponent misplaying in order to get any healing from it. In zerg vs zerg, I could see this heal being ~4 seconds of godmode, but in sPvP it seems way too easy to play against, no matter what you do to it. Also, keep in mind that your suggestion basically makes this heal a strictly better version of Endure Pain. I’d leave this heal to other gamemodes, and work with the other 3 heals for sPvP.

Anastasis.7258:

Endure Pain

Another straight up nerf to bunker Warrior, which honestly doesn’t need any nerfs. It’s not invulnerability, so let them hold cap.

Anastasis.7258:

Fear Me

Ok, here’s the first part I felt like I was being trolled. So, just straight up, I’ll ask, “WTF?” A 40-32 second cooldown for up to 3 seconds of unblockable, AoE CC? Compare to Bull’s Charge. This is a ludicrous change, and I’m not sure what made you seriously even consider it.

Anastasis.7258:

Greatsword

This is the second part that I’m being trolled. Add MORE DAMAGE to 100b??? Are you aware that Warrior is by far the best DPS in the game in PvE? Is 100b downed body cleave already not insane enough? I think you want to wipe all of humanity when they try to res, rather than an entire team as it currently stands. How about asking for Bull’s Charge knockdown to go up to 3 seconds instead (a change that I’ve considered suggesting myself)?

Regarding the burst skill, it’s a bit too “magic-y” for the Warrior flavor in this game. Also, it just doesn’t really fit with the theme of the weapon at all. Greatsword is about all-out berserker-style offense, and to have the burst skill be a defensively-oriented skill it just not thematic. I really don’t think the designers would go for it.

Yeah, I remember this happened to Acandis several weeks ago. Far as I can tell, this is super rare and only happens in solo arena.

Probably not srs, but I guess I’ll bite anyways. I think after nerfing Healing Signet, Spirit of Nature, and reducing Endurance regen like I outlined in my doc, sustain will be in a better spot. Don’t think damage increases are needed, power creep, etc.

I’d argue that Thief was nearly required before December 10th, as well.

I think the build is pretty well-balanced, I would only make a few small tweaks, and very slowly to see the repercussions. I’d up the CD on Shadowstep by 10s, and possibly lower the CD decrease on Steal from Sleight of Hand by 5% down to 15% (I was debating putting that change in my document thing, but I decided against it for now). Outside of that, the build is powerful and useful, but it’s because of its combination of utility, decent spike, and map mobility. I think the right approach is to provide equally viable alternatives for other classes, without upsetting the important niche that the Thief is currently filling.

:P

In all seriousness, those nerfs are small and necessary

The trolling is strong with these ones. This thread is someone’s opinion, and he’s entitled to it. You can disagree, but chill with the personal attacks.

Holy ele buffs. Yeah, some of those are absurd, and never make this many changes in a single patch.

Agree 100% with everything Lumines said. SY! is only good in the AH build, where you don’t have any choice in order to achieve enough condition removal. I consider the AH build to be better in solo queue or lower ELO team queue, and the Virtues build pulls away in higher ELO where the additional support is most effective.

Wow, I don’t see where you get off calling my document the Engi holocaust. I’m only nerfing nades, bombs, elixir r, and supply crate… you know, the useful stuff. Buffing gadgets, though.