Guild Wars 2

I’m a member of a very small guild consisting of friends and family. Tonight we tried our first BTM. I was surprised the time allotted to find and kill the target was only 15 minutes, but we found him in time. But as soon as we started the fight (Diplomat Tarban) we were all downed almost instantaneously. And unfortunately we never found him again.

I was under the impression these things were implemented for small guilds. Did we do something drastically wrong? Or are these things a lot harder than was implied? Thanks.

exelion.2369:

Think of the charr as a confederation of three different nations. There is no one ruler of all the charr but they work towards mutual benefit.

I was under the impression they had a stratocratic system with the heads of the three Legions working together sort of like the Joint Chief of Staff, with Smodur the Unflinching taking (or being given) the dominant position.

Diy.5296:

Anyways, CoF p1 really needs to buffed to make it harder.

I agree, but these forums are going to insufferable for a few days after the increase in difficult is implemented (if it ever is).

Morrigan.2809:

Actually most engineers hardly use their weapons- this is the class mechanic much like attunements for Ele’s.

Once again, this is conjecture. Neither you, nor anyone else not an ArenaNet employee, can say with any credibility “most engineers hardly use their weapons”.

Morrigan.2809:

I guess you don’t play an Engineer much?

My level 80 engineer gets as much playtime as any of my other four characters.

Jester.1236:

The age of Engineer is upon us

Can’t be; I distinctly remember people lamenting the death of the engineer after last month’s patch.

From another topic, and in the interest of not derailling that topic, I present to you an idea I’ve long held but never voiced.

darkace.8925:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

I’ll add as an aside, in 5 months of play I have yet to see the Krait witch near this vista not up, nor have I ever seen it even damaged or engaged. Not once.

Perhaps rethink content that is so odious that no one wants to bother doing it.

I’ve personally always felt they should implement a system wherein the percentages of good loot (up to and including precursors) dropping from a champion increases gradually the longer the champion has been alive.

To listen to you guys talk, you’d think the engineer doesn’t even have weapon skills. I guess it’s “kits or go home”? An engineer not seeing his Legendary while in kits is no different than any other profession not seeing Legendary while weapon swapping to something else. You guys really are making a big deal of nothing.

Tolmos.8395:

The problem I have with the warriors in the scenario of that speed run is much the issue I have with DPS players in trinity based MMOs who want speed runs.

The mesmer in that situation had almost all of the hard parts that required perfect timing and excellent knowledge of the situation. The warriors were, for the most part, a peanut gallery. Compared to everything the mesmer had to do, their part was a cake walk.

It’s no different, IMO, to a DPS player in a trinity system whining and complaining because the tank lost aggro on a single mob during a full room pull of 20+ npcs or the healer couldn’t keep the tank up in that situation. All they have to do is just follow their rotation mindlessly, so they are the last people I want to hear any kind of criticism from against the people who ARE doing the difficult work in the group.

I don’t mind an elitist healer if I’m the tank or an elitist tank if I’m the healer, but if I’m the only person, or part of a pair out of 5, that is doing all the difficult work, I don’t want a hear a peep from the rest who are have simple jobs that barely require them to look away from whatever TV show they are watching while running.

/slow clap

Grounder.7381:

hey…. should’nt this thread be in the dungeon sub forum? all it talks is about cof.

No. It’s a discussion about the community, not about dungeons.

Assume someone were starting from scratch and didn’t intend to farm any of the materials needed for a Legendary weapon. Would it be cheaper to purchase the precursor and materials or just buy the Legendary outright? Note, I’ve neither the materials to craft nor the gold to purchase a Legendary; I ask solely out of curiosity.

How does Legion logistical support work? Is each Legion independently responsible for its own supplies? Or is some government official responsible for ensuring each Legion has what it needs?

So you were kicked for costing your team what sounds to me to be a matter a seconds on a speedrun? Yeah, that sounds about right. MMOs will always – ALWAYS – attract kittenes like the ones you’ve described. But luckily for us the community in this MMO is comprised mostly of friendly and helpful people.

Rozbuska.5263:

Legendary kits is solution. I dream about FT what instead basic flame release some flame snake with dragon head:-)

Legendary utility skills? No thanks.

For me, it might as well be impossible. But that has nothing to do with server transfers. As long as there are people who know Obsidian Sanctum inside and out camping PvEers like myself (who have no clue what’s going on) it’s going to be impossible for me to get 100% map completion.

TC’s “problem” is one based entirely upon conjecture.

Okay? They’re in the top ten. New players aren’t. What advantage does their status on the leader board afford them? Get back to me the moment the answer to that question is anything other than “nothing”.

Hello all. I’ve not played mesmer. I’ve barely even looked at them. I’m wondering if a lockdown build – lots of dazes and stuns with all synergizing traits – is a worthwhile endeavor. It seems to me that such a build in this game isn’t as effective as it was in Guild Wars. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still be effective.

How would a build featuring Mantra of Destruction paired with Harmonious Mantras, Signet of Domination, Confounding Suggestions with liberal use of all the Diversion skill, all the “X on interrupt” traits one I can get my hands on, and 6/6 runes of the mesmer work?

I’m primarily a PvE’er, so even if such a build worked well in PvP or WvW I’m afraid it would be, unfortunately, completely useless for my needs. It would be a nice change of pace in playstyle from my current characters, but I can’t imagine it being at all practical. But I’m still wondering if it can work. Thanks.

I would love to have customizable weapon skills. The reason I doubt it will ever happen is that ANet designed each weapon to fill a certain play-style. Weapons might be designed to excel at direct damage, condition damage, defense, crowd control, or group support. And as such, the weapons (more or less) do a good enough job of this.

So adding skills to a weapon that fall outside of a weapon’s designed purpose probably isn’t going to happen. And adding skills that fall within a weapon’s designed purpose would be redundant and/or present balancing issues (i.e. why take that great sword skill when this one is clearly better).

But as a man hoping to one day have an actual blocking skill on my guardian’s shield, I hope I’m wrong.

Sirendor.1394:

darkace.8925:

PS – Engineer’s rifle also has Net Shot. That’s two crowd control skills. If you can’t get it done with two cc skills on one weapon, they you’re doing something wrong.

Sorry but I don’t agree with that. If you have 2 CC skills, that leaves 3 damage skills.
The n°1 rifle autoattack hits a single target for 1,5k per hit.
The n°3 spread-shot hits several targets for 3k max.
The n°5 has a delay, which makes it hard to actually get it off right on the spot where your enemy is standing. If it does hit, it hits 3k max.

All in all not very impressive. Imagine following scenario:
You’re the engineer, you see a warrior. You pop net shot, try to get n°3 off but ooohhh the warrior breaks out of it with a nice stun break. Next thing you blow him away, actually knocking yourself down? Not an advantage to you either. You then have one last big damage skill but due to it having a delay before hitting, the enemy can easily dodge out of the way. This leaves you with 4 skills on CD, your enemy with all skills ready and he only lost 1 stunbreak. Guess who wins.

How is that not an advantage. Setting aside the fact that you get to your feet before he does, you’re still keeping him at bay, all the while the short CD on your Net Shot is recharging.

And you’re not comparing apples to apples. Because you gave the warrior a utility – a stun-breaker, conveniently enough – it’s only fair I give the engineer a utility as well. If I choose Net Turret for that utility, what, then are you going to do with that stun-breaker on cooldown?

Vayne.8563:

darkace.8925:

Vayne.8563:

They tried this in beta, before the trait change, and it didn’t work. There are always going to be more powerful traits and those are the ones everyone used, because they didn’t have to sacrifice anything to use them. Build variety went down, not up.

It’s nice on paper, but when it was tried, it didn’t work.

I might not have explained things clearly. I’m not proposing a removal of trait tiers; I’m proposing a removal of train separation. Instead of 12 traits per trait line, I’m proposing 60 traits in one large pool from which we can freely choose the adept, master, and grandmaster traits we want. You would still need 30 points in a line (any line) to slot a grandmaster trait, etc.

I understood you perfectly but that’s what led to the problem.

No, you didn’t. And you’re still not. The system used in the BWEs is not the system I’m proposing.

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

The worry is, is that people will see achievement points as the measure of player ability and skill, leading to discrimination and general meaness

They already do this based on professions, so I fail to see how this could possibly make things any worse.

Siphaed.9235:

Maybe they designed it so people weren’t stockpiling them and were actually spending them as intended? Just maybe, maybe they wanted people to use the currency earned.

Where in all the known universe did ArenaNet say they didn’t intend for us to stockpile Laurels? Why are Laurels different than any other currency – gold, karma, influence – in that they can’t be saved and spent when the player finds something worth spending them on?

pahldus.1678:

MiLKZz, what about going a glass cannon build with rampager gear or do you hamper your total damage too much?

If he’s going for melee-ranged condition damage, a glass cannon build probably wouldn’t be the best way to do. The thing about damage over time is, well, it takes time to damage. So I’d think a S/S warrior would want enough defense to ensure he survives long enough for his dots to do their thing. Again, if he’s going for a condition build.

Azmuth Divarchchron.8059:

darkace.8925:

Edo.5862:

I’m tired of seeing Warriors chop up Engineers like Garen on steroids. Giving engineers a Minigun to keep them at bay would balance things out.

Is there a reason engineers can’t use a rifle to keep the warrior at bay?

Rifle may have knock back but not all the time its effective due to the warrior able to pop stability especially since theres a cooldown for knockback on rifle.

So you’re proposing a crowd control skill with little to no cooldown and the ability to bypass Stability?

PS – Engineer’s rifle also has Net Shot. That’s two crowd control skills. If you can’t get it done with two cc skills on one weapon, they you’re doing something wrong.

In several threads I’ve seen people express the desire to play centaurs. I don’t want to hijack those threads, so I’ll ask here. Why do you want to play centaurs?

I’ll set aside that they’ve been established as “bad guys”, because lore can be written to make anything happen. So let’s focus on their physiology. Being quadrupeds, in my opinion, means they’ll never be a playable race. Think of the design problems of making leg armor for four-legged creatures. Think of how silly they’ll look swimming underwater. Think of all those jumping puzzles with tiny little platforms on which a centaur can’t physically fit. Do you think centaurs are going to stand on their hind legs during jumping puzzles?

Moving past the problems presented with the models, what exactly is it about centaurs that makes you guys want to play them? Is their lore any more interesting than the dozen or so other non-playable races already established? Is it their culture? Their homeland? What? To me, and I recognize this aspect of my case against them is subjective, nothing about them is particularly interesting. But obviously some of you disagree with me.

So, why centaurs?

I see the expansions playing out something like this (in no particular order):

First Expansion
Elona, Crystal Desert, Jaka Palawa Joko, Kralkatorrik.

Second Expansion
Cantha, Tengu (playable race)

Third Expansion
Maguuma Wasteland, Fire Isles, Mordramoth

Fourth Expansion
Deldrimor Front, Blood Legion Homeland, Dwarves (non-playable), Primordus

Fifth Expansion
Far Shiverpeaks, Kodan (non-playable), Jormag

Sixth Expansion
Endless Ocean, Largos (non-playable), Deep Sea Dragon

There are plenty of people to blame for the lack of build varieties. First, obviously, is ArenaNet. They’ve not even fixed, let alone balanced, all the traits that would make varying builds viable. The process of fine-tuning an MMO is a slow one, it would seem.

Second, and equally guilty, is the community. I’ll wager half (okay, not half, but more than a few) of the characters in this game were built using build sites with little to no thought going to the why or how the character is built the way it is. MMOs have and will always be played by people chasing the Flavor of the Month build.

The last person to share blame in your problem is none other than yourself, though to a much more innocent degree. If you primarily play WvW (or any one aspect of the game) you’re limiting your exposure to builds that might work much better in the other areas of the game than in the one you’re spending most of your time.

Vayne.8563:

They tried this in beta, before the trait change, and it didn’t work. There are always going to be more powerful traits and those are the ones everyone used, because they didn’t have to sacrifice anything to use them. Build variety went down, not up.

It’s nice on paper, but when it was tried, it didn’t work.

I might not have explained things clearly. I’m not proposing a removal of trait tiers; I’m proposing a removal of train separation. Instead of 12 traits per trait line, I’m proposing 60 traits in one large pool from which we can freely choose the adept, master, and grandmaster traits we want. You would still need 30 points in a line (any line) to slot a grandmaster trait, etc.

Edo.5862:

I’m tired of seeing Warriors chop up Engineers like Garen on steroids. Giving engineers a Minigun to keep them at bay would balance things out.

Is there a reason engineers can’t use a rifle to keep the warrior at bay?

Mada.5319:

Any method that is profitable won’t stay profitable for long. Simple supply/demand.

It’s simple supply and demand served with a rather large heaping of impatience.

Would you rather have the option to choose the Trait line you want based on stats and plug in major traits from a universal pool? So instead of going into X trait line for Y adept trait and Z major trait you could go into any trait line for its stat increases and plug Y into the adept slot for that line and Z into the major slot for that line?

The upside would be more flexible builds and more customization options. The downside would be…what?

flow.6043:

If I had to pick one I’d take the trident.

I tend to forget the underwater Legendaries even exist. Yeah, Kraitkin has the look of “necromancer” to it.

Set aside the prestige associated with Legendary weapons for a moment and pretend all weapon skills were available for purchase from any vendor for 1 copper. Would any of you necromancers actually want one? The staff, the scepter, and the focus seem to clash dramatically with the look and feel most necromancer’s seem to favor.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Please keep it coming.

Setun.4368:

If anything just give it a whirl and see how you like the feel of it compared to mace! =)

Unfortunately I don’t think trying the sword is going to be fair to the weapon. I’ve been rolling the mace/shield since my days in Queensdale. I have an intimate understanding with the weapon – its timing, it’s situational functionality. I can squeeze every last bit of potential out of the weapon. On top of that, I’ve got an exotic berserker’s mace.

If I just picked up a sword to test it out the best I’d get would be a masterwork. And comparing a masterwork weapon with which I have no familiarity to an exotic weapon I perfectly understand isn’t going to give me a very clear “apples to apples” comparison. It would be like parking the Corvette you’ve been driving for years to test drive a Camaro.

akamon.2769:

depending on how you’re setup, symbols can do a lot of damage, especially since most mobs are rather stationary when you fight them. plus it gives you more staying power and survivability. definitely not as mobile as the sword obviously. both are nice weapons but i am personally more partial to how the mace plays.

I’ve got my symbols traited to be bigger, last longer, and inflict Vulnerability. The problem with this, though, is it’s left me with a dismally low critical hit chance and critical damage.

Mace’s 3rd chain healing with the regeneration from 2 and VoR means I can face tank just about anything PvE can throw at me. And I love – LOVE – mace’s 3rd skill. A quick block that inflicts good damage on a short cooldown is fantastic; and it greatly eases the pain of not having a block skill on the shield.

I designed my guardian to be a “tanky” character while still having enough offense to cut through trash mobs in PvE. But I’m realizing more and more that most situations in PvE are better handled with a “just kill it and be done with it” approach. If I switched to a sword, I’d obviously lose a lot of defense (2’s regeneration and 3’s block), but I suspect the added critical chance and the ability to spam VoJ would make open-world PvE so much quicker.

I’m torn between sticking to what I originally wanted my character to be and being practical about what I need out of the profession.

BoomSeal.4058:

Sword actually works pretty well in groups too. with the might to allies on crit, you can keep an extra 5 stacks of might on your team with no skills used. That plus Altruistic Healing gives you a heal every second.(the might on crit has a on sec cooldown) I like running this with a shout or two as well. I’m very hard to kill with a friend around.

I’m in a small guild with family and friends, and I play more than they do. So I spend most of my time playing solo. As such, support isn’t much of a concern for me; I’m looking to find the sweet spot between offense and defense that will allow me to roll PvE as quickly as possible without compromising too much of what I wanted out of the character when I created it (i.e. the shield stays, no matter what).

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Please do keep it coming.

LameFox.6349:

I think before even comparing the weapons directly it’s important to figure out if you’ll be reducing its cooldowns. Because that’s at least 20 points you therefore can’t put in an offensive line, and the massive 20% boost only applies (or so I’ve read anyway) to enemies under stun/daze and knockdown, which really don’t last long or apply often

Currently I’m running a 30/20/0/0/20 build. I don’t spend adrenaline, but I’ve got traits giving me a 12% increase to damage and a 9% increase to critical hit chance. That, with 10% blanket increase to damage inflicted by the great sword, a 20% reduced cool down time on the already short timer of Hundred Blades, and Might on critical hits stacked with Runes Strength leads to some fantastic damage output.

If I made the switch it looks like I’d still want some points in the Arms trait line and I’d want to get some points in the Defense trait line. Doing so, as you said, means sacrificing some offense. And the damage I would output with a hammer would be conditionally nerfed (depending on enemy Stability and/or Defiance).

LameFox.6349:

Also note that if you’re farming lots of weaker enemies the horrendously slow attacks will make tagging things in a hurry somewhat troublesome, although the F1 is alright when it’s there.

I run a longbow for my event farming. It’s not great for tagging mobs, but neither is it bad. And I do have other level 80 characters with better options for tagging in DEs for those occasions when I specifically want to farm.

Dyroth.5063:

In PvE I think almost hands down the great sword will win out in pure dps. It just fits into offensive traits well, has a lot of mobility to help compensate for less defensive stats. The main advantage of the hammer is control and allows you to obtain decent damage while mostly defensively traited. The big downside to PvE with the hammer is anything with defiance is going to greatly reduce your dps.

Losing the mobility of GS’s 3 and 5 will certainly hurt. Like really hurt.

I’ve no doubt the GS is the better PvE weapon, but it’s boring. 5 > 2 is how most fights usually go, with a > 3 > 4 > 2 if anything is still standing. I appreciate (respect) the massive damage increase from the Berserker’s Power and Heightened Focus traits, but I’m not sure sitting on adrenaline (the profession’s defining mechanic) is the funnest way to play a warrior.

Worse than that, though, is the GS doesn’t fit the vision I had when I originally created my warrior. All of my characters were created with a specific playstyle (and aesthetic look) in mind. My norn warrior was to be a barbaric brute, smashing things apart with heavy hits.

Where I envisioned my thief to fight speed and finesse, I envisioned my warrior to fight with devastating power. I wanted to use a two-handed axe, but that’s obviously not an option. So I settled for the great sword. But what I wound up with was something that plays more like a samurai, utilizing speed and mobility more than sheer, brute strength to kill my foes. The great sword is great at what it does (PvE), but I’m one of those guys who puts as much stock in aesthetics and flavor as I do in efficiency.

Dyroth.5063:

The big downside to PvE with the hammer is anything with defiance is going to greatly reduce your dps.

That’s something I hadn’t even considered. Against Defiant mobs with a great sword the rotation/plan of attack pretty much stays the same. I’ve got to dodge a few times on the way to melting said Defiant mob, but that’s about it. But with a hammer I’d be losing out on a great deal of damage when fighting Defiant mobs. That’s going to make what used to be easy fights a great deal more difficult. I’ve never been in the situation with my warrior where attrition was the key to victory, so I’m not sure how that would play out.

I personally prefer the old (GW/F&F) style cutscenes and hope all cutscenes use that format going forward. But a redo of the existing personal story cutscenes just isn’t going to happen. I’d be happy if it did, but it would require too many resources to fix something that isn’t really a problem in the first place.

Adine.2184:

Dont bet on the Sins return the Thief took its mechanics

Yep. Assassins and paragons are gone forever; cannibalized in part or in whole by one or more of the eight professions currently in the game. I wouldn’t bet on ritualists, either, as the engineer inherited (in theory, certainly not in practice) their mechanics.

Anyone mind giving me a straight apples to apples comparison between the two weapons? I know greatsword is all about fast attacks and synergizes well with critical hits and that the hammer is more of a crowd control weapon. What I’m wondering is, despite the massive disparity in attack speed, how does the hammer stack up to the greatsword’s dps? Note that I’m mostly an open-world PvEer who spends a bit of time in dungeons and WvW (though it’s very little) and non at all in PvP.

For those of you who have run both, how big much of a difference in offense am I looking at in going from a greatsword to a hammer? I’d like “big picture” feedback, so please try to avoid specific builds when replying. Thanks in advance for any and all feedback you can offer.

Anyone mind giving me a straight apples to apples comparison between the two weapons? I know the mace is more of a defensive weapon. It hits hard enough, but it’s attack speed is very slow. It’s a tank’s weapon, and it’s fantastic in that role. But as an open-world PvEer, I’m feeling more and more that killing quicker is infinitely more important than surviving unholy beatings.

For those of you who have run both, how big much of a difference in offense am I looking at in going from mace to sword? What about defense? I’d like “big picture” feedback, so please try to avoid specific builds when replying. Thanks in advance for any and all feedback you can offer.

I like this idea. I just so happens every city has an unused space called a Home Instance; might I suggest them for the libraries?

BandAid.9720:

Would like to know what you guys think of the shield?

I think it looks fantastic.

BandAid.9720:

Does it look kinda boring?

Nope.

BandAid.9720:

How come it has no special effects ;/

It does.

Personally, I’d rather have the option to customize the skills on existing weapons than have those skills given to new weapon types. So other than two-handed axes, I’m not keen on the idea on new weapon types.

A dagger/dagger thief with enough points in the Acrobatics and Trickery trait lines can dodge pretty much nonstop.

I was surprised to learn Engineer’s had no means to create lightning fields.

I don’t do it when I’m soloing, but when playing in groups I do set up combo fields with my engineer, and elementalist (and on occasion, my guardian) and try to position myself to take advantage of them with my warrior and ranger.

I’m the kind of guy who can’t play a race/class combination unless it feels “right” to me. So things like sylvari engineers and charr mesmers were never an option. Now obviously tengu haven’t been confirmed, so this is a hypothetical question. Which of the following do you think I should hold in reserve for tengu?

Option 1 – Thief spec’d for “evasion tanking”; lots of dodges, DB evades, and plenty of Vigor. I had a charr thief running this spec, and it was tons of fun. I did delete him to re-roll as an engineer, but I always had the intention to use this build somewhere down the road.

Option 2 – Mesmer spec’d for “blink tanking”; I don’t even know if it’s viable, but I had the idea of rolling a memser with dual swords and tons of clones (with +defense and +damage per clone) and playing in a similar fashion to FFXI’s ninja.

Either option will feel right as a tengu, and both will play in a somewhat similar fashion. I’ll probably be greatly swayed by the tengu’s medium and light cultuarl armor, if and when they’re added to the game. Again this is all hypothetical, but I’m open to recommendations you might have to offer.

kal.4350:

Having an economy (trading) in the game is good. But beeing able to play the game to get what you need is better.

What you “need”? Or what you want?

The ambient banter between NPCs in town. It’s so prevalent I tend to take it for granted, but without it the world would seem so much less alive.

Edit: I don’t know if I’m allowed to post a “small” but “missing” thing that would improve the game, but I feel a realistic day/night cycle (sun and moon rising in one direction and setting in another, transitions of pink and orange during morning/evening, etc), is something they should have implemented.

Tarsius.3170:

Maces are tricky – they don’t appear to have received much design love ( and are often skipped when it comes to the new weapon sets ).

I found a mace I’d love to use. And then I realized I was looking at a Sereaph Scepter.

Caedmon.6798:

Zachary.9281:

plz! if u agree reply with something

Not needed.Consumables are usable once every 30m / 45m.I do not need an extra slot for something used in that timeframe,it doesn’t make sense.

There are many consumables that remain active for only a few seconds. And as these consumables are only useful in combat, fumbling through your inventory in the heat of battle isn’t practical.

Khal Drogo.9631:

Why would u need hotbars for something which is mostly not accessible in dungeons anyway?

I don’t know…perhaps for everyone who wants to use them outside of dungeons?