Guild Wars 2

It’s either an omelet somebody dropped or a shinny hidden by a paranoid skritt.

Tommyknocker.6089:

As for the "I WIN’ button, do you play a leech necro? If not then please don’t tell us how to play our class, and if you do please tell us exactly how you get into melee range within a dungeon with a dagger and last more than a few seconds even with dodging. You see the necro has no vigor/endurance granting abilities so after you dodge twice your hooped till it recharges.

Try doing what just about every other class does when faced with a hard hitting melee boss…dodge the hard-hitting attacks or weapon swap to a ranged weapon.

Sleel.8365:

I’m a thief. Never used em, not gonna miss em. Tanky as a thief can get, loves to dive thru a breach in WvW first. Lives enough that I don’t feel like I’m wasting my time. Tho now I know why I have to burn the health outta some builds twice. Guess I wont have to anymore. Not a stealth/run away thief either. I’m the rare one that stands and fights. Dunno what this q.q fest over this is about. If an avg stand and fight thief can live without a crutch, and still kill more then gets killed………….

Bingo. These people aren’t upset because their build was nerfed, they’re upset because their crutch was yanked out from under them.

RakaNishoo.6071:

Which part of my answer did you not understand?

The part where doing something you hated at the expense of something you enjoyed for the sake of playing virtual dress-up could even be a dilemma in which you could find yourself. The part where violation of the ToS for the sake of virtual dress-up could even be an option you’d even consider.

The base damage two-handed weapons is slightly greater than that on one-handed weapons, but I haven’t done the math to see if that offsets having one sigil vs two (Accuracy + Force on two one-handed weapons vs just Accuracy or Force on one two-handed weapon, for example).

RakaNishoo.6071:

I don’t know exactly what was the intention of providing such content, the idea seems good, but in reality it turned out terrible grind/zerg fest with no fun at all.

The only grind pertaining to world bosses is a self-imposed one and if they’re not at all fun you’re completely within your rights to forgo participation.

Sinner.7139:

And bosses are almost immune to crown control and blind, which makes those pretty useless when they are needed most (who bothers with CC on thrash mobs).

Fair enough. Against bosses, the really hard hitting ones, you’re either going to have to engage from range (where it’s safer) or take advantage of those “few extra dodges”.

Aluano.1826:

It’s great now that these events drop alot of rares, however I think dungeons should also have some kind of “guaranteed” per run drop, maybe an exotic.

They do…they’re called dungeon tokens.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I personally hope they raise the cost. 100g just isn’t that much anymore. I love the T3 Slyvari skin. I haven’t gotten it yet but I would still like the price increased to account for inflation.

If 100g isn’t that much anymore, my hard-earned 20g must mean I’m REALLY poor.

Sinner.7139:

Currently thief is like a bad joke for PvE. Yes, we do decent DPS if specced for it, and we can (if traited) do a few extra dodges. But we have zero survivability…

Funny, my thief in PvE has no survival issues while still outputting very good damage. In addition to “a few extra dodges”, you’ve got plenty of ways to blind and plenty of crowd control skills. If you’re having trouble staying alive in PvE, I would humbly suggest that it’s user error, not a flaw design in the class.

Nice list, Ganzicus. I found a consumable landmine in Blazeridge and a Med Pack consumable in the Iron Marches (iirc), both of which would be useful in a scenario where you have to defend a location so long as you have enough notice to deploy them.

Slightly related question: There’s several pieces of T3 cultural armor I’d like to buy. Should I hold out in hopes ArenaNet lowers the price? Or is the potential backlash from players who have already paid full price too great to ever allow that to happen?

Sarrow.2785:

It doesn’t stack with vigor. However you won’t have vigor up all the time and you’ll still get might on every dodge. (35 condition dmg, 35 power).

What’s your crit chance at?

I’m not 80 on my thief just yet, so I don’t know what it will be (I haven’t even finalized my choice of armor/trinkets). And while it’s true I won’t have Vigor up full-time, between Feline Grace, Vigorous Recovery, Bountiful Thief, and 20% increased Boon Duration, I’ve usually got it up when it matters. It still looks to be the best food for my build/play style, though; even if it doesn’t stack with Vigor.

I’m very much open to more challenging gameplay, but I selfishly wish it came in areas other than"convenient waves of easy-to-kill mobs on which I farm fine crafting materials.

Avatar.1923:

i know i dont need to participate, but just seeing most people in the hamster wheel, farming rares and scrap to salvage on world bosses using timers (make them spawn on random timers!!) makes me really, really sad about the deepness of the game.

I would argue it’s the player/customer base that’s shallow, and the developers are just giving them what they want (demand…loudly…all day…every day). The developers certainly share some culpability, of course, for giving in to the demands in an effort to expand their player/customer base. But at the end of the day, sadly, it is what it is.

MaxPower.3216:

The latest changes to boss loot has resulted in huge mobs at major meta-events like dragons, Maw, Shadow Behomoth etc. The resulting lag makes the events virtually unplayable – certainly not fun

Even when lag free, “fun” is the last word I’d use to describe the mega-events. There’s nothing fun about standing in place while spamming the auto-attack until what is essentially a big pinata bursts, spilling it’s contents for all.

MaxPower.3216:

but they are the most worthwhile thing to do in the open world.

If the mega-events are the only thing in Guild Wars 2 you find worthwhile, then I’d suggest you’d be better off finding another game to play.

MaxPower.3216:

and so it has lead a lot of people (including myself at times) to really stop playing other parts of the game and just popping from event to event to try and get a good chest.

That says a lot about where your priorities (regarding this game) lie. I myself don’t care too much about having the best gear, and so I don’t need a ton of gold. If you’re offering me a gear upgrade or a sum of gold, I’ll be happy to take it. But I’m not about to “stop playing other parts of the game” I actually enjoy just to do things I don’t to get those gear upgrades or sums of gold.

MaxPower.3216:

Really – is it so hard to make a game where just playing the whole game is rewarding ?? Why does one need “gimmicks” like dungeons, FoTM, and dragon events to be the things the produce decent goods – while open world does not in general.

Again, if you enjoyed the game for the gameplay or for the environment crafted by the developers, you’d have plenty of reward without ever stepping foot in a dungeon or going near a dragon. Priorities, my friend. Yours seem to lie in virtual stuff, and so you’re going to have to put in the virtual work to earn the virtual currency to buy your virtual stuff. I myself don’t need a virtual job, and so I play games for other reasons than to keep up with the virtual Joneses. But to each their own, I guess.

Daecollo.9578:

Luckily there are cookie cutter builds anyone can fall to.

The fact that so many people are complaining about this deserved nerf to life-steal food tells me there are indeed cookie cutter builds that anyone can fall back on.

DanH.5879:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food
Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew 100% Chance to gain might on dodge
+40% Endurance regeneration

Ah yeah, I completely forgot about that one. When I first saw it I thought it was perfect for my build. Good call. I’m presuming the +Endurance regen stacks with Vigor (no reason not to, but you never know).

Daecollo.9578:

darkace.8925:

If your build is dependent upon, rather than supplemented by, food then you’ve done it wrong.

If your build depends on the developers next balance patch, then your doing it wrong.

Luckily for me I had the foresight to NOT build my characters around a single skill, trait, attribute, and certainly not food.

Hello all. I’m at a loss as to what food I should run for my thief. My build is an “evasion tank”, with lots of Vigor and lots of LDB spamming. I also have Caltrops, and drop more with each dodge (of which there are many). Combined with LDB, I can quickly apply a decent stack of Bleed.

I’m also running a Sigil of Blood for the change to steal life on critical hits, and I’ve a healthy dose of Precision. The food I’m considering is Precision/Critical Damage, Precision/Condition Damage, or Life Steal on Critical (I know it was nerfed). Any recommendations? Thanks for all feedback.

If your build is dependent upon, rather than supplemented by, food then you’ve done it wrong.

I very much enjoy the dailies, too. As someone with a character of each race, I find the “X kills/events in Y” a nice way to decide what I’m going to play for the day.

It seems like 99% of the population uses black (or some variation thereof), white (or some variation thereof), or pink with as many mismatching colors as they can possible cram onto their pallet (they wind up looking like they poured a bunch of paint into a cannon and stood in front of it as it was fired).

Blackhat.4016:

P.S. I would also like to see these improvements for dagger and scepter. They are not as bad as the staff air skills but still not as good as the fire, earth or water skills.

I haven’t played with daggers, scepters, or foci on my elementalist enough to know if they need work or not, so I’ll have to defer to you. As to Armor Penetration, that seems to me more likely to happen as a trait than a blanket change to Air Attunement.

Siliconmana.3816:

Oh, and yes, icons did need to be unique, yet with so many other bugs in game it would hardly seem a priority……..

Protip: the guys making item icons aren’t the same ones responsible for fixing bugs.

A. Your grammatical capabilities seem to have improved dramatically. I guess your time at “university” has been as least partially productive.
B. While I find the plot to be very poorly written, I didn’t think the writing in Guild Wars was any better.

I actually like this idea.

Conncept.7638:

There would have to be some kind of control for kicking and inviting from guilds, otherwise people will earn the influence as a large guild, kick low-ranked members to spend as a small guild, then re-recruit up to a large guild to use them.

What if the cost/person decreased slightly with every active member in the guild?

I can’t help but feel the Elementalist’s Air Attunement with a staff could be improved.

Why do I feel this way?
As I see it, there’s no reason to stay in Air Attunement while fighting with a staff. When comparing the first and second weapon skills of each elemental attunement for the staff, Air just doesn’t hold up.

Fire has the hardest hitting auto attack, which has a small area of effect, and it has a very nice area of effect attack on a six second cooldown for its second skill.

Water’s auto attack has the utility of healing (admittedly for a small amount) nearby allies and it has a hard hitting second skill that also inflicts five stacks of Vulnerability for ten seconds on just a four second cooldown.

Like Water Attunement, Earth Attunement’s auto attack doesn’t hit very hard; but it does inflict Weakness. And Earth’s second attack is an area of effect (albeit a slowly executed one) that inflicts six stacks of Bleeding for 12 seconds and serves as a Combo Fishiner: Blast.

Then we have Air. It’s auto attack bounces to hit up to three total targets. If fighitng a single enemy, there is no bounce. If fighting more than one enemy, I believe Lava Font is a better area of effect attack than Chain Lightning. And while Air’s second weapon skill is very nice, its ten second cooldown means it’s less spammable than the other attunements’ second weapon skills.

To me, this makes Air Attunement something you stop on just long enough to fire off it’s abilities as you cycle through to the more effective attunements (Windborne Speed for roaming notwithstanding).

What I propose be done.
I would change Chain Lightning so that it hits the orginal target and bounces twice (as it currently is) plus an additional bounce for each critical hit scored (with a maximum of five targets per attack).

OR

I would make Blasting Staff cause Chain Lightning to gain an additional bounce (for a maximum of four targets instead of three).

PS – I’m not sure if this qualifies as discussion on the Elementalist profession or as a suggestion, so feel free to move this if it’s in the wrong sub-forum.

I had to check the wiki to see if it was bugged after equipping the trait and noticing no change in size to the AoE marker. It wasn’t until I actually used the abilities that I noticed a difference. I don’t know why they didn’t make the actual AoE marker change to reflect the increased size gained by Blasting Staff.

Treeline.3865:

-As opposed to the meaning (as I understood) ArenaNet attempted to get people to play more in the previously dead areas. The only activity is boss farming in a corner of the map.

And as soon as that world boss drops the herd jumps en masse to the next one. It’s like Cursed Shore’s tunnel farming on a global scale. And it’s going to lead to hyper-deflation. I’m sure the developers thought this through, and I hope it wasn’t just a knee-jerk reaction to the vocal complainers that plague this forum, but it strikes me as a very shortsighted move.

While it’s true that fire attunement has some of the staff’s hardest hitting abilities, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re not taking advantage of the other attunements’ crowd control and condition application. I myself run a rotation that begins and ends (usually) in fire attunement, but I hit the other three for their utility and extra damage in between.

My rotation is:
Arcane Power -> Meteor Shower -> Flameburst ->
Water Attunement -> Frozen Ground -> Ice Spike ->
Earth Attunement -> Eruption -> Unsteady Ground -> (Shockwave if I’m fighting a Veteran or sole large monster*) ->
Lightning Attunement -> Lightning Surge -> Static Field -> (Gust if I’m fighting a Veteran or sole large monster*) ->
Fire Attunement -> Lava Font -> Flameburst

At this point, things are usually dead. If not, I’ll drop another Lava Font on my location as they close reache me and activate Arcane Wave then use Burning Retreat to buy the space needed to finish them off (or begin the rotation anew if things have somehow gone horribly wrong).

If I’m fighting a Veteran or sole large monster I activate Signet of Fire as early as possible for 11 seconds of Burning, as I’m traited to do an extra 10% damage against Burning targets.

Now obviously this rotation is severe overkill against one or two trash mobs, in which case just fire attunement is more than enough to get the job done quickly.

World of Warcraft’s server transfer costs $25.
And that’s on top of the $15/month subscription fee they charge.
And you can’t use in-game currency to pay for their server transfers.
And ArenaNet let us transfer servers for free for almost half a year.
So no, I don’t think Guild Wars 2’s server transfer fees are too expensive.

Azimuth.7091:

I been looking at Engineers and thinking. Does anyone use [Throw Mine] skill. If so please post and share with me.

I get the distinct impression you don’t really care how people use Throw Mine and that it’s just what you want dropped to make room for your new kit, but I do use it. I use it as an added means of crowd control to shield myself and my Rifle Turret when facing anything above a “trash mob” enemy.

Conncept.7638:

Yes, you cannot apply more conditions during a block, the existing ones keep ticking. Dodging works the same as blocking. Yes and yes, you can remove them, far better than any temporary stun or knock down, they’re gone and your opponents damaging abilities are on there full CD rather than the partial interrupt CD. Yes, you can outrun any projectile or exceed the range of any spell which applies conditions. Yes actually, any projectile or spell which causes a condition will miss when blinded. To tell the truth, I’m not surprised in the slightest that you didn’t know any of that.

You know full well we’re talking about conditions that have already been applied, and yet you feign obtuseness by pointing out the obvious that blocking blocks, dodging dodges, and attacks can be outrun. And then you follow it up with this…

Conncept.7638:

Rhetorical question Ace, I already know the answer is yes, you are acting childish.

And with that, I’m going to wash my hands clean of you. Adieu.

Drunken Mad King.8193:

Look again at the imbalance please. In a dungeon party people clamor for multiple Warriors/Guardians and such. Why because Direct Damage is an easy method over Condition Damage. This means that if you are a Direct Damage person there is no reason to not pick you over a Condition Damage person.

I would say that’s a combination of high the soldier’s high survivability and poor dungeon design. Had explorable-mode dungeons been better designed, they’d have elements to encourage more thought than “zerg it with a warrior/guardian”.

Rennoko.5731:

So you create a scenario where hybrid builds are better than zerker builds? How is that a bad thing? Why is it okay now for zerker builds to be the best damage, while taking power/condition/precision is sub par? They are both FULLY offensive builds… with no defensives stats, why should one be better than the other?

“Fully offensive”? So a condition-based character with a few snares can’t apply conditions and defensively kite while his conditions whittle down his target?

Calcifire.1864:

ah, ahah, AHAHAHAHAH

do you know how much direct damage my scepter hits do?

Name one, just ONE, open world Dynamic Event in which participation credit is impossible with a condition-spec’d, scepter-wielding character.

Conncept.7638:

But if you aren’t speccing in to Power as well as condition damage, then you still can’t be sure it will be sufficient to tag a mob. If you spec in to power, it’s guaranteed that you will always be able to tag in one hit. It isn’t balanced, one is clearly superior to the other.

I’ll say this again, because it seems to have gone over your head: if you’re not doing enough to tag a mob during Dynamic Events, that’s entirely -as in 100%- YOUR fault.

Conncept.7638:

Discuss all you want, you can’t change your traits, the largest portion of your build, while in the open world.

Bleed-Thief A, “Hey guys. I noticed we have another thief in this party. Mind if I ask what kind of build you have?”
Bleed-Thief B, “I’m built to stack bleed.”
Bleed-Thief A, “So am I. There’s probably a bit too much overlap here. I’ll drop and look for another group so we’re not wasting a slot. Good luck.”
Bleed-Thief B, “You too.”

See how incredibly easy that is?

Conncept.7638:

Protection reduces all incoming damage by a percent, condition damage included.

Okay, what about all the other direct damage mitigation? Does blocking also block condition damage? Does dodging also evade condition damage? Can you stun a stack of Bleed? Can you knock down Burn? Can you outrun Poison? Can you blind Confusion?

Conncept.7638:

Right now, you have three people over two pages providing solid arguments that counter yours, the majority of which you haven’t even addressed. Now who here is acting childish?

Do you really want me to answer that? Okay, I’ll oblige. If you really think I’m going to respond to each and every post positing a differing opinion than my own in a 290 post discussion, then you are.

But I’ll tell you what. Instead of me combing through five+ pages of counterarguments, many of which are baseless, why don’t you give them all to me in one clear, concise post and I’ll address them all at once.

kidbs.8920:

In open world PvE this still prevents a problem, as it’s near impossible to get enough damage on a mob to get loot credit when lots of people are using conditions (this applies to WvW as well). I’ve literally put down traps on mobs and not seen a single tick of a bleed go off because it was overwritten before it could even do damage.

You say that as if spec’ing for conditions is done at the cost of direct damage. There isn’t a condition build in the game that can’t also inflict direct damage via weapon skills. If you’re not doing enough damage in PvE to get credit for loot, then you’re doing something terribly wrong. You. Not the game. YOU.

kidbs.8920:

Also, you do realize that not everyone runs with a controlled group composition right? People do pug in this game and no one should be required to run with a guild or pre-made composition just to play their class.

You’re not allowed to discuss your party composition when you join a pug? You’re not allowed to leave a pug you deem to be overloaded on a particular aspect of combat?

kidbs.8920:

Also your statement of condition damage bypassing mitigation is extremely weak. Condition damage even fully stacked still can’t pull as much dps as direct damage even against the highest amounts of armor. Not to mention many direct damage classes have means to diminish mitigation through vulnerability (i.e GS warriors). Makes you wonder why groups stack so many GS berserker warriors huh. I guess that’s fair and balanced…

Rather that picking apart your everything that’s wrong with this paragraph, I’ll just use the emboldened portion to illustrate your lack of rational thought regarding the subject. Protection reduces direct damage suffered by 33%. Vulnerability, as we all know, caps at 25. That’s 25% more damage. I don’t know how they do math in your neighborhood, but in mine 33% > 25%.

kidbs.8920:

Honestly you aren’t strengthening your argument at all and at this point you just seem to be trolling.

If I’m not strengthening my argument in your eyes that’s because of your close-mindedness. You’ve stamped your foot, crossed your arms across your chest, and declared yourself to be right. And anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly just trolling. Right?

Regarding “external balance”. In open-world PvE everything dies quickly enough for this not to be an issue. In dungeons and PvP, you have control over your party composition. If you wouldn’t run a dungeon with two cc-spec’d engineers or two banner-spec’d warriors, why would you run one with two condition-spec’d thieves?

If you take too many of any one aspect of combat you’re going to hit a point of diminishing returns. The exception to this is direct damage. And while it’s true that direct damage isn’t capped, it is mitigated by measures conditional damage bypasses altogether.

And if parties consisting of nothing but characters spec’d for maximum direct damage, the glass cannons, are blasting their way through PvE content, then that’s a “difficulty-adjustment” issue and not a “mechanics of conditions” issue, in my opinion.

Home instances are, in my opinion, a complete waste of time. They could have been a nice addition to the game, but the execution of whatever concept they originally had for home instances fell very flat.

Conncept.7638:

The five man bunker Ele group I’ve run dungeons with has something to say about that. As do the frequent five-man power/crit berserker warrior groups I’ve seen. There are dozens of power builds that you can do anything with in the entire game, and they remain useful no matter how many of their fellows they fight alongside. There are no such condition builds.

A party of five bunker Elementalists? The very same bunker Elementalists ArenaNet has identified as unbalanced and promised to nerf? Five of those? A party of five unbalanced and soon-to-be-nerfed builds is, again, NOT a balanced party.

Rainzar.6905:

rift/wow/lotro and probably others all track individual stacks of debuffs, however Anet can’t afford it…

If they did, they’d have to lower the individual condition limit. And guess what. People would complain about that, too.

I’m going to be brutally honest with you guys. Some of you come across as short-sighted and opinionated people who are quick to complain about things you’re slow to understand.

Conncept.7638:

Pardon me, but how exactly is limiting a build to one in five ‘balanced’? And if this is true, why then can you fill a part with five Eles, Guardians, Warriors, or Mesmers and be just fine in any PvE situation and most PvP ones?

You can fill a party with five Minstrels, for all I care. If they’re all specced to do the same thing, it CANNOT be a balanced party.

The only think I’ll say to you is: time played/money invested = you got your money’s worth.

Domo.7618:

I like it that Arena.net trying to find ther own mmorpg way and make something unique. But I realy miss the classic healer and tank class in this game.

You know what I DON’T miss? Sitting around in town spamming “lf healer” or “lf tank” just so I can participate in some aspect of the game.

As a FFXI vet (a paladin), I saw enough players sitting around town unable to get anything done because the supply of specific jobs (red mage and bard) couldn’t meet demand. And people would not form parties without these jobs, or a tank and healer (obviously). That, with a glut of dps jobs, lead far too many players sitting around town spamming “lfg” or “party 5/6 lf rdm or brd”.

I’ve already seen enough people at dungeons shouting “lf1m, warrior or guardian only”. The last thing this game needs is another profession deemed to be a “must have” for dungeons.

Urvanis.2985:

Well I do have to say this seems pretty lazy on their part, even if it is some sort of overexertion on resource(which I find hard to believe), they should seek an alternative. Something like this is just all too common of an event to write off as a minor issue. But then again there are known bugs still in the game since beta, so what really can I expect.

Lazy? Who are you, again? Just some random player? So your qualifications to declare a condition cap a “minor issue” are no more based than mine when I claim them a necessary game mechanic. And calling the development team lazy for implementing what they deem a necessary condition cap makes you look extremely immature.

Sigdur.4025:

Well jeez, we can’t have all of these nifty Quaggan backpacks AND a battle-system that allows for balanced condition-build groups. Clearly it’s us spoiled try-hards that are overworking these poor developers.

A condition-build group is, by it’s very nature, NOT balanced. Ergo, a balanced condition-build group is an impossibility. If you want a balanced group, you should probably stay away from overloading any one particular aspect of combat: be it conditions, support, crowd control, or anything else.

It appears you don’t at all understand the concept of a balanced party. So you’re making it very difficult to respond to your post with anything other than the rolling of my eyes. And you should probably tone down the snarkiness, at least until you have something of an understanding of the subject on which you’re speaking.

StoneWolf.7930:

Sic em will be better if you use wolves or jaguars, for 10seconds your pets will do 40% damage, which dependent on traits can mean an extra 800damage an attack for 10 seconds

Yeah, sorry; I should have listed my pets and specific traits. I run a Jaguar. I have a Black Bear for swaps in case my cat dies, but that rarely happens. My traits are:
– Steady Focus
– Eagle Eye
– [undecided third trait from the Marksmanship line]
– Pet’s Prowess
– Carnivorous Appetite (though considering Quick Draw)
– Master’s Bond
– Rending Attacks

Arekai.5698:

Roll warrior if you want to do PvE.

If I wanted to play a warrior, I’d have made a warrior. In the future, you should refrain from answering questions about profession builds or skills with “play something else”.

Alright, thanks for the answers.

For a longbow ranger traited 30/20/0/0/20, would you guys recommend Sharpening Stone or “Sic ’Em” for a higher burst of damage against veteran (and above) mobs in PvE? Thanks.

If a trait increases a weapon’s recharge rate by X%, does this make the auto-attack (usually a chain) cycle faster? Thanks.

The other day I was thinking kits would be better served as engineer-exclusive weapons. This would mean we’d have access to weapon swapping and we could get some signet utility skills. Then I remembered the toolbelt skills tied to the kits. Would people be willing to give up Incendiary Ammo, Big Ol’ Bomb, etc. for weapon swaps and signets?

MithranArkanere.8957:

I hope they at least add a way to explain why do they all look the same after they add better and more varied models (note I say “when”, not “if” as not doing so whould be unthinkable). Like some NPCs talking how they used to have mesmers at the doors putting an illusion on them when they leave the dominion of winds.

We don’t have anything explaining why so many human NPCs look alike, so I see absolutely no reason why we’d need something explaining why so many tengu NPCs look alike. Especially since the answer is obvious: there’s only so many resources that are going to be allocated toward creating unique looking generic NPCs.