Guild Wars 2

if you want to win most of your matches go bunker guards with hammer and outlast them

Templates are just a good idea for the game as a whole. When they came into GW1 it was great for the game and it would be great for this too.

I’m noticing that going ranged and getting on the ledges with the jump pads is more sustainable than fighting on point, especially against guards and engis

vorpal.1497:

It’s a fun concept map, but in practice it favors a select few builds with the knock-off mechanic, and how most of the encounters are ultra-close range making ranged builds (i.e. 90% of previous builds) much weaker.

You have seen the jump ledges on point B right?

Guess not…

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

This is literally the worst map I have ever seen. Thief is unplayable on this map. You either have to fight on point with ALOT of invulnerability/block against the laser, or you’re completely useless. Everyone packs nonsensical CC or Stability. This… map is just awful.

This map negates any skill I may have. Dodging doesn’t even work. Cannot kite effectively either.

You obviously haven’t used scorpion wire on someone into the destructible floor or coordinated a tripwire with a banish from your guard teammate…

Again, leaderboards hardly mean anything. I did so many solo queues and it neutered my ranking even though I know I am better and more knowledgeable than most players.

Engis provide plenty to a team. Anyone who’s played engi enough knows that and I’ll say something that needs to be said every time these kinds of comparisons between classes are made.

Your team comp depends on how everyone works together and what their roles are. Part of that includes combo fields and finishers, which is something I don’t see brought up at all in conversations among most players. Another is the map itself and how to approach it. The meta is hostile to the typical 2 bunker 3 damage team comp now that you can put two necros on a point and dominate traditional teamfights.

Yesterday I saw Hman’s group run 5 damage/hybrid and they were the scariest team I’ve ever seen. 2 damage eles, a thief, a hybrid GS guardian, and I forget the last one, maybe Engi. The mobility, damage, and control was just insane. No necro cheese could hold a candle to that.

Anyway,

I think there’s a new disease on the news now: Post Patch Trauma Disorder. Gotta take a new pill for it I guess. Side effects are suicidal tendencies, depression, and short term amnesia. Recommendation from this doctor:

watch this:

“The ability to maintain consistent output of Damage, CC, Healing and or Bunkering for the duration of a fight without death or fear of consistent shutdown.” Defektive

That’s a pretty good definition to me, although I’d add “in an equal ratio of competitors” to the end of it.

Most engagements are fairly equal numbers of people and if you focus on one target they ought to have enough tools to survive focus fire long enough to contribute to the fight, whether they spec for defense or offense.

Some of this garbage on the thread shows how terrible some people really are at PvP and the game in general.

At the end of the day, there aren’t enough good builds. Hopefully this changes that.

I’m guessing that Torment will be put onto pistols for Thieves, since they make more sense in condition builds anyway.

I don’t really care either way on Torment for either, because Warriors, Guardians, Necros, and Engineers do conditions way better anyway, especially now that Necros can burn. Reason being you can increase Precision with Condition Damage for them and use Sigil of Earth to get bleeds on crit.

When you look at the build I suggested you still get a pretty strong amount of damage, just in a more subtle way that you still apparently haven’t figured out. 80% crit rate, 800 condi dmg…

Shouts prevent the necro boon condi conversion from devastating guardians, eles, and hgh from being able to have the condis on the entire time they fight you. Condis are more dangerous than direct damage in tpvp by a long shot

axe is the best mainhand for power/crit.

I’d recommend axe/mace and rifle if you want power/crit because of the two best damaging bursts

again, this build has to be carried to be worth anything.

If you do 30 tactics with shouts you’ll be more valuable to that group, especially against those necros and hgh engis

Daecollo.9578:

No condition removal. Is this a joke? Lol.

Very much so

Another GS build. Yay.

No offense, but I really despise GS zerker glass. Sure you can block the focus for 3 seconds, but premades aren’t dumb they’ll wait till your shield is down and roflstomp that build. It relies on being carried.

Here’s a more balanced build that won’t drop like a fly and you still have enough juice to punish ppl, but in a more subtle way.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARSjcOxwJPOPMxBgzjkYqJVB7SPEDt0A-ToAg1CqIySllLLTWyssZNqYVB

If you run with that build you will be surprised at how well you will do, if you work together as a team

It would help if pvp traits were different than pve, since your build is independent anyway.

Thanks.

I do tpvp and this works. Finalized the build after running matches there. You’ll last a long time against one player, even the “unbeatable” rangers and guardians. If you have a partner combustive shot makes a perfect battlefield for boons and burns.

The format of soldier amulet, high power and vitality traits, and 4 sanctuary actually crosses over really well into other professions too. My ele D/D with cantrips and retal wrecked shop. Never done a thief before, but I did tpvp with s/d and shortbow and soloed a guardian bunker.

*Updated the build. Strength XII makes every SoRage Berserker’s Stance, so having 12% extra damage is pretty much all match long if you choose the right time for burst right.

I hate greatsword as it is right now. It makes meta warrior pvp uncreative and pigeonholes them as the spastic zerker dumbth per second tag alongs that fall over when a feather hits them instead of what ought to be a versatile profession.

I run an axe/shield, longbow build with retal and high power, health and toughness that gets the job done pretty well without crit proc RNG roulette. I can duel HGH engis, altho I have to admit they are still really stupid strong. Thieves don’t like me hehe. Neither do mesmers.

I like hammer, but only in teamfights or bunkers. Mace is waay too slow. If there was a 300 range on the burst it would be better. Mace offhand is fantastic with axe if you’re going direct damage with 8 vulnerability stacks and a knockdown-eviscerate combo.

I think swords are awesome if you want a condi build. Sword/sword and Longbow is very dot heavy with great movement control. Shouts, 30 tactics, soldier runes with carrion amulet and 25 arms 15 discipline will get the job done.

I’ll add that builds alone are not going to make you an excellent player. The more you pay attention to how people that kill you are playing, do research on different professions, check out how the pros play, etc. the better.

I don’t have a mic or videos so TLDR textwall of jmatb is all I got. Sorry.

Hello

Here it is
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAneTjgOBvxQ6OMxBEzDjoI+P9B7IzQMGQA-T0AA1CtIETJmTMjYSisEN6Y1xpjJIvOA

I’ll provide analysis on each relevant part of the build.

Weapons

Longbow has been buffed considerably. Pin Down is dangerous with 6 bleeds and the 34% duration makes immobilize a problem for cleansing. Warriors will do their best dmg in melee, which pin down is threatening them with. The power makes arcing arrow nasty. Fan fire hits fast, and all three can be spammed for spike and dots. 4 skill is a free miss. Combustive Shot is critically important. Have this up ASAP, because your movement control will lock your target into the field and make life hell for them.

Axe and Shield provide defense, sustain, and control. Stun locks them in place, you have another immobilize and cripple with Throw Axe, and the best autoattack on the Warrior. Shield stance is good for stalling for a heal, blocking 100B, blurred frenzy, etc. You have two leap, one projectile, and a whirl finisher too so you maximize the fire field with all the finishers, including blast from arcing arrow.

Healing, Utilities, and Elite

Mending is the most important heal for Warriors. Condi cleanse is not as strong as other professions. Stamina clears all condis too, so that’s a strong combo. Not as good as shout soldier runes, or lyssa and stamina, but you’ll see why it’s enough. Balanced stance is great at stun breaking and keeping control off you. Might signet is to raise power, and give you an edge against guardians, shield warriors/engineers, and anytime aegis comes up on your target. Keep it up as much as possible though, you’ll see why. Also, you can’t larcenous strike away the power you get from signets. Signet of Rage is awesome b/c of fury, might, and, most importantly, swiftness. This lets you roam efficiently.

Traits

This part is going to be the part that surprises/offends/confuses people. Why Strength? Condition duration makes movement control very strong. If you can’t keep running fast in circles around a warrior they get more hits in. Immobilize is even worse. Next, your Mending gets stronger with more condi cleanse. You get more health and more damage with different levels of adrenaline. I like traits that don’t require micromanagement.

Tactics provides more health and extends boons from Rage signet. Immobilize on cripple makes axe even better at controlling movement. Shrug it off adds more condi cleanse without any fuss or micromanagement. You also get the fastest revive, which helps a lot in teamfights.

Discipline is to give you near permanent boons from Rage signet and make switching weapons really fast. 15% crit bonus is nice too.

Runes, Sigils, Amulet

The Sanctuary runes provide retal at a pretty high proc rate with a lowish cooldown. When it comes up on a warrior nobody expects it. That’s what guardians are supposed to do. When you have 2300 power retal becomes deadly. It gives you an edge in 1v1 fights and if ppl use smite, rapid shot, or other many hit skills. After using it several matches I’m finding it to be quite valuable. Extending condition duration more makes movement control even better.

Soldier is awesome for adding survivability and power. There are no precision procs or RNG in this build. 2k vitality has a great advantage because you already have 1.5k toughness for direct damage and the health makes conditions less painful. That is why the “subpar” condi cleanse isn’t as much a problem. This isn’t a cleric build where condi cleanse is a matter of life and death. Even HGH engis take a bit more time to deal with 30k hp and the condi cleanse we already have.

Doom might be puzzling, but it’s the same reason why we’re using longbow instead of rifle, hammer, or something else. Conditions last longer, and are important to have even though we don’t have high condi dmg. It’s guaranteed damage and pressures them to cleanse. That makes our movement control better and that means more axe hits because cleansing burn, bleeds, poison, cripple and/or immobilize is annoying. Hydromancy is great for melee in general. I don’t think you get an extension from runes, but if I’m wrong great.

Final Analysis

The diversified approach of direct damage and condis, fire combo field and all finishers in one character, excellent movement control, sustain single target damage, retaliation at its most deadly on hit, high health, decent toughness, strong swiftness duration, fury, might, unblockable attacks, stability, condi cleanse, and no RNG makes your performance reliable and consistent. You can help in teamfights and duel pretty well. It takes practice and understanding other professions’ tactics though.

Thanks for reading if you did the whole way through. I’d like to see feedback based on trying it. If you don’t like how the build looks please try it first before criticizing it. If not, oh well.

jmatb

I want to suggest merging Critical Damage with Precision, and replacing it with being able to itemize Endurance Regen into gear. Traits in the precision line can improve the crit damage.

Endurance Regen would be better than crit damage, because dodging is the best way to get out of trouble and to juke your opponent into wasting their cooldowns.

The enormous damage boost would make burst more powerful against players who don’t dodge, but that would be the tradeoff for being able to dodge potentially three times in a short succession. If they miss cooldowns, you’re in the driver’s seat to put them on their butts for stomping.

From what I’ve heard the new dungeon has a no cutscene approach, and that ought to be the way they do personal story moving forward imo.

If you’re seeing the story play out in motion, that makes it more action-oriented, which GW is all about. Cutscenes are only good if they’re done with a lot of animation, facial expressions, attention to detail, etc.

They’d have to add more emotes, which is fine because people love them. AI for movement would have to be updated, but that AI would translate into better dungeons too, so it’s a two birds one boulder thing.

Like you said, though, when they ran out of food they go into hibernation. Well, it would seem that if they are asleep for that many thousands of years it takes a pretty serious appetite for them.

The presentation of it was a bit weak, but we did just spend all that time starving it. If they handled the characterization of Zhaitan differently, you would almost feel sorry for something that requires sustenance on the suffering and corruption of others.

Here’s a defensive build for sPvP:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRApZ3ejgOtuJPOPMxBE0DNMLEQVB7I9QMQj0A-T4AgzCmIKSVkrITRyisFNCZFymjTITQehA

You have shout heals, retal, an enormous amount of CC, leeching, and Lyssa runes make me wait to use Signet of Rage until at the start of or before a fight. Your damage will suck, in comparison to the GS builds, but you will be very, very hard to kill.

That’s an interesting way to put it and I think I agree.

Zhaitan is a corruptor, not a warrior. He enslaved an entire nation and was creeping into the Tyrian coastline regions, but did he do it in person?

I think Jormag will end up being one that we fight personally because the norn are definitely not going to accept the possibility of that thing dying without putting a couple hundred stabs of their blades each

No offense, folks, but I think a lot of this criticism of Trahearne comes from ppl who have never actually been a leader or in charge of other people.

Great leaders have to ask for help, especially when its something they’ve never done before. It’s not like Trahearne has ever served or led a military campaign. He has been studying for most of his 30 something year life, making sure he doesn’t engage more than a few baddies at once.

Nobody goes from scholar to general without having to lean on someone or a few people. He delegates quite a bit, and, having been in charge of an award winning restaurant location, I know that if you don’t do that you’re toast. I made it a priority to know everything I can and to do it just as well as my employees, but anyone who is a leader knows that you have to be what holds competent people together, not doing all the work.

Regardless, the personal story does suffer from being a bit watered down, and I think it’s because of all the choices that had to be taken into account and the sheer size of the 1-20 experience. You are certainly introduced into the world with plenty of options, but I guarantee you that there are options most people take and others few do, like the circus one for humans.

I’d rather give up those choices for a richer, more layered story that goes into the personal, regional, and world levels happening in a parallel and linear way. I really like scenes like the swamp scene with the Lich, or Varesh showing how close she is getting to Abaddon, etc. in Guild Wars.

Welcome!

My best tip for leveling is to interchange between two regions and complete hearts as close to your level as possible. The regions are Kryta, Shiverpeaks, Maguuma, Ascalon, and Orr way later on.

For travel, it’s worth noting that asura gates are free within cities and Lion’s Arch connects to all the major races’ cities. The gate for Hoelbrak is northwest of the Great Lodge.

For gear, vendors sell weapons and equipment in level intervals of 5. Once you get to level 10 and every 5 levels, I’d take a look at your gear at these vendors and replace as you go.

Make sure you save 10 silver for your adept training book, 1 gold for your master book, and 2 gold for grandmaster. These let you reach higher levels of traits at level 11, 40, and 60.

Crafting is supposed to be something you do as you level, but in practice the mats require investment that either takes a long time through farming mobs or money that you need for trait books. I’d wait for a while on it, and do some research on GW2 Guru.

For gathering, you get new tools at level 10, 20, 30, 45, and 60. I’d recommend keeping them stocked at all times and gathering everything you see.

If you want to learn combat really fast, then I’d recommend doing hotjoins in PvP. You’ll get slapped around a bit, but once you decipher what’s going on you’ll go back to leveling and laugh at how easy it is in comparison

My idea is to make the personal story linear, but to make it richer.

I think a problem with the story is that there are so many different choices you make, but the options don’t particularly wow you with the delivery.

I’d really like to see three layers of personal, regional, and world.

Personal could be friends, family, romance, rivalries, and getting into the mind of your character and how their culture, order, and their lives affect them. Every decision doesn’t need to be taken into account, but because there are major choices those do, like your order, and the 1-20 storylines.

Regional would be race-specific, and would serve to be both a geopolitical progression as well as an exploration of their culture on a deeper level. These could generally focus on the culture, religion, history, politics, etc. The player needs to be involved because you don’t just disappear from your homeland, and every race has their issues they need to solve.

World would be the Pact, Dragons, and affairs of your Order. If you are in charge, which I am not totally sure if that’s what is the case, then you could have the reps from the Orr campaign be sort of a Commander’s Council that runs their ideas by you and takes orders.

Yeah Vigil HQ is in Gandarran and Priory is right next to the furthest east waypoint in LA. You can use any Order’s Trinity gate, they know who the high rollas are haha

Hopefully the Whispers part of the story in the future is more serious, because while I really like Tybalt, it is hard to imagine the Order as being this all-encompassing, world traveling, super spy network right now.

Now that our character is a Lightbringer and pretty much on par with the Preceptors, we could see more of a “I don’t wish this mission on anyone, but we need it done.” type motif.

This took a while to think of any thoughts?

I’ll throw in my 2c

I think this is what happens when you try to do too much at once with choices. This is a problem BioWare is having too, with their branching story lines arcs.

If you have so many combinations of outcomes, keeping it all fitting together without making one out of place is more work than just making one really good story.

I recommend, moving forward, that the story not have these choices but to make the story blend between personal, regional, and worldly affairs.

Personal being friends, family, and romance. The cool thing about the Zhaitan arc is that you are now a rock star. Now is a good time to show the good / bad part of fame and glory in the character’s personal life.

Regional is your race’s affairs. While fighting Zhaitan took precedence over everything, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for your character to just stop doing anything about local affairs. Here we could touch on some of the culture, like their religions, politics, particular new individuals, etc.

Worldly are the main conflict of the Elder Dragons, your Order, and threats that attack more than just a specific region, like the Molten Alliance has. These are the main point of the story, but there ought to be a progression in this journey toward the resolution of this conflict using the other parts.

I also recommend that your home zone be given some kind of between quest banter talking about you, what’s happening in the region, the world, etc. between familiar characters. Maybe Agent Ihan goes to the bar and a server tries to say they recognize him, and he flirts with her, convincing her he’s nobility haha. Or Quinn talks with Riot Alice about how he’s thinking about seeing what they can do for the kingdom, with her freaking out about helping the government.

The VO work could use more… emotion. Of course, it’s easy to have emotion if the story is great, and I think that will take care of itself with the right approach.

People forget… the VO work in GW1 wasn’t particularly spectacular, but finding out Vizier Khilbron was playing you, Shiro, and the “holy crap the whole world is blowing up” feeling you got from Nightfall, made it all good in the end.

So to sum suggestion up:

Linear story focusing on quality over choice
Personal, Regional, and World focus
Personal Zone a hotspot between quests

Bump and reserved

V. Trait Options themselves

Let’s do Strength as an example. I dont know if this will be excellent, but here goes.

Control
- Knockdowns and Launch cause weakness and cripple
- Daze applied on Throw Bolas and Kick
- Cooldown on hammers and maces, longer weakness duration
- Fear Me immobilizes for short duration
- Cooldown on rifles and spearguns, pierce, longer cripple duration
- Cooldown on physical skills, blind on use

Mobility
- Physical skills grant swiftness
- Stomp breaks stun

Defense
- 25% Endurance recharged on interrupts
- Blocks grant vigor

Damage
- Mace and Hammer bursts cost less adrenaline, and do more damage.

Support
- Backbreaker grants stability in area

As far as the placement goes, the adept level ought to have the widest variety of choices, since that’s where you “dump” points after you’ve built the setup you want. This is the same strategy they already have, but it’s worth mentioning.

It’s important to remember that you’d only be able to choose three of these as you put 30 points into Strength. I think the choices out of these would be pretty hard to settle on. Do I want to be an annoying sniper or is it hammer time? Do I want to have my utilities control or my weapons?

VI. What about Minor Traits?

These ought to be passive benefits that stick to the general theme of the trait line, like longer duration on control effects and conditions, passive damage under certain health conditions, etc.

If minors are too good, then we see what happens with certain trait lines in professions, like the Arms line in Warrior. The minors are actually better than many of the majors, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, like chance to bleed on critical, more damage to bleeds, etc.

VII. Conclusion

If you’ve read this far, thank you very much. If Arenanet is reading this, I am excited!

I thought of this to see what you guys think, poke some holes in it, etc. I want traits to be better, just like everyone else, but…

I still have to say that GW2 is absolutely incredible and I’m finding it very difficult to go back to SWTOR, WoW, or any of the others.

IV. Fitting this for Professions

This might seem like its “homogenizing” all the professions without looking deeper, but that’s the beauty of the system – it fits the unique ways each profession work.

Every unique profession concept has a purpose that fits in one of these areas more so than others. Eles are more mobile, Warriors are supposed to be really hard hitting, Guardians make a group stronger with virtues, etc.

In addition, the utilities, which are already organized into five groups, would be tied to a certain trait line.

This would work by starting with the profession’s unique trait line and saying, “Ok what concept fits their unique ability the most?”

As an example, I’ll do warrior. They have burst, so it makes sense to tie that with DoT conditions damage. Burst skills and spending adrenaline ought to be a source of genuine fear for other players. With this in mind, the other trait lines then become about filling the other roles.

Strength would be the Control line and would be tied to Physical Skills above water, fear below water, and benefit maces, hammers, rifles, and spearguns. This lets them have control at range and up close.

Arms would be the Mobility line, giving swiftness, movement speed, on critical bonuses, and tied to Signets. Their weapons would be swords, axes, greatswords, and longbows. Longbows make sense here because fire fields do damage and provide might, which goes hand in hand with boon duration. Vigor and swiftness being tied to signets would have the desired boon duration complement. Since movement can get you in and out of combat, this ought to be a bit more hybrid than Discipline.

Defense is Endurance Regen line, providing a choice between spending your endurance often and using Stances to keep it going, or not using endurance by going Roman legion Testugo style with a shield. Since stances have invulnerability, stun breaks, and adrenaline could be given incentive here to be defensive, that would be balanced.

Tactics is the Support line, as it was before, but benefiting Banners exclusively instead of being responsible for two utilities at once. In addition, the line is tied to Warhorn, as before. The reason Shouts aren’t here will be explained in Discipline. Since you can support and damage or control, this ought to be more hybrid than Defense since you can use support aggressively. Since this would be tied to healing power, there needs to be a diverse active vs. passive healing strategy.

Discipline would focus on using boosting shouts, adrenaline, and adding DoT conditions in a diversified way, mainly bleeds. Shouts are offensive in this idea because we have Great Justice and On my Mark, and we can boost the others for their purposes with the other lines. Discpline would make spending adrenaline a really good idea, and for burst skills to have lingering effects that make people go “CRAP!” if they get hit by one.

III. Allocation of Traits

With 5 different concepts and 5 trait lines we have a nice round number, but obviously it would not be good to just give a certain trait line all of the concepts as a theme.

The way I organized this was not based on the primary attributes, but on the secondary attributes as follows:

Condition Damage = Damage. Best paired with profession, power or precision.
Boon Duration = Mobility. Paired with profession, power, or precision.
Condition Duration = Control. Paired with profession or unfilled option.
Healing Power = Support. Paired with profession, toughness, or vitality.
Endurance Regen = Defense. Paired with profession, toughness, or vitality.

Mobility and Damage are offensive because any glass cannon players will tell you that they need to get out of dodge if they get surrounded. I think every profession needs to have its own way to use guerilla tactics, however subtle or overt they may be, and to be able to do strong area of effect and single target damage in their own unique way using DoT conditions, direct damage, or gambling with Precision and procs.

Control is the great equalizer in GW2, which bridges the balance between offense and defense. If you’re disabled how do you support or damage? How do you flee if you’re stuck? How do you dodge if your rate has been shot? Every profession ought to be able to specialize in a way where they can disrupt an area and single targets by investing in it.

Support and Defense would compose the survival part of the trait line, focused on being very hard to kill, helping your teammates, making dodging or a full endurance bar very useful, reviving quickly, etc.

It would not be very good if all the trait lines were split evenly between all the concepts, so I have set it up so there are a bunch of different options for each within the lines that are most associated with them, but some in other areas so that there is incentive to go “off spec” for a more versatility.

Condition Damage > 6 damage, 3 mobility, 1 defense, 1 support, 1 control
Condition Duration > 1 damage, 2 mobility, 2 defense, 1 support, 6 control
Endurance Regen > 1 damage, 1 mobility, 6 defense, 3 support, 1 control
Boon Duration > 2 damage, 6 mobility, 1 defense, 1 support, 2 control
Healing Power > 1 damage, 1 mobility, 2 defense, 6 support, 2 control

The most polarized attributes are condition damage and endurance regen, the more hybrid lines that have more control choices are boon duration and healing power, and control is even between offense and defense

Warning: this is very long. TLDR alert.

I have an idea that might be worthwhile to look at for the trait reiteration that the devs have talked about recently. It centers around organizing traits into five categories that everyone benefits from, replacing what i think is a redundant attribute, and doing so without sacrificing the identity of professions.

I. 5 Concepts

So there are 12 traits per trait line, for a total of 60. If you take the concepts of damage, control, and support and dedicate the traits for those alone that would be 20 for each, however, I do not believe that is a total picture of how the game works.

So I’ll start by talking about two more concepts that are worth putting into traits – mobility and active defense.

Mobility is mainly defined by speed, stun breaks, and creating / closing distances. This is critical to aggressive play, getting to points for capture, getting out of trouble, and resisting control.

Defense is mainly defined by endurance by either using it or not. I think there needs to be a paradigm shift on endurance, with it either being a source of passive bonus or using it actively for benefit. This is similar to how signets are designed, and I think would make every profession similar in capability for survivability in conjunction with support.

Currently, every profession already has traits that fit into these categories, so they wouldn’t take a total revamp or anything – warrior’s sprint as an example of mobility, and vigor on stances for defense.

This would make for 5 different areas that everyone benefits from, for 12 traits each.

II. Endurance Regen > Critical Damage

I propose merging Precision with critical damage as an attribute, with critical damage scaling by how much Precision you have.

The reason for that is because anyone who wants to itemize critical damage and precision necessarily has to give up a significant amount of potential defense, healing, or condition damage, when it is redundant. Critical damage ought to be a rune and major trait thing, not a bonus to choosing a certain trait line.

I suggest making endurance regeneration rate its replacement. Nobody doesn’t benefit from endurance regen, and would fit the theme of defense quite nicely without upsetting the balance of the game. Endurance is already given incentive, why not make it just another centralized option?

Would it make precision too strong? Not if you scale it appropriately. The goal with precision is to make it a risk/reward option vs. the flat bonuses you get from power and condition damage, but to not have to give up too much.

Right now, we have so many options for offensive play and about half as many for defense. Critical Damage, Precision, Condition Damage, Condition Duration, Power, Boon Duration vs. Toughness, Vitality, and Healing Power?

You will see my strategy that makes this more balanced below.

Why would they make a Fractal about the Jade Sea with a kraken as its final boss if they’re wiping out Cantha?

It’s called suspense folks…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAnZTjgONvxQ+OMxBE0jqAMEQ9B7IzQMGQA;T0AA1CtoyxkjIHbOuck5sEZIyRknIzFA

This build is what I’ve been using and I get at least 100 glory per hotjoin match, usually.

The Signet of Rage is a fantastic ability that you want to use on cooldown because of the enormous amount of speed and extra damage you get. This lets you run all over the place.

Signet of Fury lets you charge up your Longbow’s Combustion Shot on the spot, creating a fire field you can do battle in. This dictates the terms of spacing and your survivability makes this proposition a problem for your enemy.

Axe is great because you can easily generate the adrenaline to get a leap finisher in to get Fire Aura. That gives you might, burns them, and might is the nasty part of the build.

The might boon is the centerpiece of the build and you will have it up so much it won’t be worth trying to remove by your enemy. You get it from leap finishers in fire field, switching weapons, Signet of Rage, blast from longbow and you’ll have it up very long since you have 25% more boon duration.

The vitality and toughness is tank like and frankly you need every point of it. Warriors are paper mache in sPvP since we don’t have stealth, illusions, or anywhere close to good healing skills.

Mending is the best one since you have condition removal, and with two stun breaks and stability you have the ability to keep swinging.

Tremor is your best friend, as is Pin Down and Smoldering Arrow.

Condition damage on kills is good because the more you stay alive, the more your bow becomes deadly, rounding out your damage portfolio with DoTs and superior direct damage.

Throw Axe also immobilizes so you’ll more easily control those annoying thieves, D/D ele’s that try to run away.

The charr actually have more issues in their borders than humanity does, which is considerable.

Branded, Renegades, Separatists, Flame Legion, the Ascalonian Ghosts… Ascalon is pretty much a war zone.

It’s interesting to note that if you look at the globe laid out flat, you’ll see that the lands we’ve explored in Tyria for all GW games is probably, as an estimate, about 10-15% of the total landmass.

Seriously.

There is an ENORMOUS world out there and the Tyrian continent we’ve been on is much, much bigger to the east and north. It’s like the Asian continent on steroids.

Well the staves can be destroyed, as was done in Nightfall with its counterpart, the Staff of the Mists, so I wouldn’t doubt that somebody tried to stop Zhaitan with it and it was destroyed.

Livia was part of the Shining Blade and helped stop the Great Destroyer, so anybody involved with both the overthrowing of the White Mantle and stopping the Destroyer invasion would be famous.

Hahaha introducing the playable hilarious Imp race with a wimpy and crazy king you get to slap repeatedly, making the bald man cry!

Seriously though, I think they’ll go for Jormag too because if you do Krakaltorrik you have to at least mention or even bring in Elona, which is more undead since Palawa Joko is in charge. There have been enough zombies for a while haha.

I don’t know about global cooling but there are regional changes. Lion’s Arch and Droknar’s Forge did get sunk by Zhaitan bringing an entire continent above water. It’s hard to imagine what would cause the sea level to shrink with Cantha being so far away and in the middle of nowhere.

For a Jormag xpac, I’d see the Far Shiverpeaks would be the setting, with the norn looking to get their homeland back, but with the Molten Alliance trying to get a foothold so that they can rule the north and have a base of operations to expand south. One of their outposts must reference Apatia in some way, I just had my heart ripped out by that storyline. Maybe Fort Apatia or something.

I really like the idea of the Molten Alliance – Flame Legion needs more juice to deal with the other legions, while the dredge want to destroy the Durmand Priory because of how they value the dwarves. The Living Story is going to have them kicked out, but not knocked out, and they could have a role as the second front against Jormag’s Icebrood.

My 2c is that the Orders needed someone neutral in charge, but someone who could lead from behind.

The player character can’t lead the Pact because you’re too good at the whole high-risk mission thing. The Orders’ leaders don’t get along and have different philosophies and talents.

Is he the most inspiring leader of all time? No.

Inspiration and results are two different things. The Pact needed someone who knew Orr. Trahearne knows more than anybody he’s been there most of his “adult” life. Terrain knowledge and routes are everything in a military campaign.

He was the only real choice.

Hm.. then necros wouldn’t be able to bring minions in Orr?

So I’ve played GW since Prophecies, right after it launched off and on and I just saw the globe based map of Tyria, the planet.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/4/47/Tyria.jpg

Between Elona and the mainland of Tyria we have been to maybe about 10% of the total landmass of the planet and even on Cantha, Shing Jea Island and the lands we discovered were a small part of the total landmass.

To get an idea of where everything is playable Tyria is right at the center of the map a bit to the left. Get an idea of what Orr looks like on the game map and you’ll see it sticking out next to the Ring of Fire islands. It’s amazing to see how SMALL what we’ve seen so far is.

Cantha is about a third of the way around the world to the southeast, if the compass on the game map is correct. It looks like the sea level actually dropped around Cantha, where Shing Jea is connected to the landmass now.

It baffles me how enormous the planet is. The story we’ve seen so far is a small fraction of what must be several games’ worth of land and sea to explore!

I’d like to see what any devs have to say about it, maybe a cryptic hint or something haha.

@draxy

Bottom line, to me, is that Jennah needs to figure something out with how divided the country is and unite them somehow. The whole infighting is more dangerous than anything that goes on outside Divinity’s Reach. Also needs to figure out a way to prevent that in the future – best way to deal with your enemies is to have as few as possible.

As far as the thread goes, magic’s manifestations across every profession that uses it can individually mitigate the effects of rifles and pistols, so it makes it pretty obvious that collectively you can mitigate it as well. This makes technological development of weapons centered around limiting or severing this connection to magic about the only way that it would overcome its main opposition, which seems to be very unlikely.

Just because you have giant cannons, tanks, etc. doesn’t mean that a smart group of infiltration specialists and a team dedicated to drawing fire can’t get to them and disable/destroy them.

@draxy

Jennah is at the strongest political position of her life right now though, and with the infamous Logan playing his part in the successful takedown of Zhaitan, they could definitely pull that off.

The Ministry would very likely be proven to be traitors with more digging on them, especially now that Demmi Beetlestone is working actively with the Order of Whispers to help undermine opposition to the throne at its most likely to be successful source. That much organized crime and corruption doesn’t come from one guy by himself, but from a network. I agree with you though, she would be wise to wait until she has something that can outrage the people against them, which is the source of what makes her worthy of protection by the Order of Whispers. The people love her, she has her priorities straight on their Lion’s Arch relationship, and if she announced that a group of ministers were on trial for treason, that would be one hell of a populist lightning rod.

I’ll note that I’m so sure about the treasonous elements because you have a bunch of greedy people who are entitled who are watching a “little girl” doing what they were doing for probably ten years. They’re cowards, never had a real job in their lives, do not have the slightest idea about how to fight the war their “subjects” are fighting, and make no effort to improve the lives of their refugees, poor, or “low birth” people.

There is the intel in the west and east, but there is economic havoc being spread in the source of Kryta’s wealtkittens and it’s flooding the capital with non-productive citizens who are very kitten off. The centaurs have siege weapons set up and are protecting them in their house. Furthermore, the combination of the Ministry Guard would overwhelm the centaurs and make getting back out to the west a frightening reality for the bandits and the White Mantle who are probably helping funding their operations.

Ascalon, whether the charr like it or not, is too prevalent in human culture and too sensitive a sore spot to not provide an opportunity for people to settle lands that have been ceded by the charr. The Ascalonian population in Kryta revere their past every day, and that part of the city would be migrating in droves.

Also, one cannot ever discount the power of either having your own home or returning home. Sun Tzu said, with my own flavor filler haha, that a force returning home would fight like unhinged demons where before they would fight like men. The possibility, let alone the probability with the peace treaty, and a more organized military, of people living in dire straits to have a farm, build a village, and to protect it is exactly what would have humanity settle a pretty good sized area around Ebonhawke.

I’ll admit after reconsidering the asura and charr idea that it would be a long shot, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask, especially members of the Orders who see the value of a Kryta straightened out.

To your point on the Mantle and the alliance out west, I think that is coming down the pipe with the living story. The Mantle is far from dead and I think that the big dirty secret with them was that they were an occupying power from up north in the isles and maybe that enormous river delta we see on the map. How else would they continue fighting a proxy war with the Shining Blade? I think Kryta was a colony of theirs during Guild Wars Prophecies, but I could be wrong. Maybe they reformed their society after the mursaat were exposed, had a revolt in their borders… it’s hard to say for sure, but it makes sense if they can bankroll a military campaign and have agents to infiltrate a large principality with a dedicated espionage organization.

The wall would take a long time, but the sooner you get it started, the sooner you finish it. Also, that area is exactly where both the Centaurs and White Mantle would march through. It would be better to make them go through the jungle than fight on a front with construction and a lot of forces protecting it, where the Shining Blade has a history and where guerilla tactics can slaughter marching troops by the droves.

If they are in a stronger position, it’s still a cluttered house with the politics and organized crime that are likely connected. She needs to be a bit more forceful with these nobles they don’t respect her at all, and you do that with fear. I think Machiavelli has it right on fear > love, but instead of everyone, which is foolish, you do that with people with power. Massive public support is not only morally honorable, but pragmatic because if you dispose of the leader who the public loves you will face thousands of furious people who immediately suspect you without any regard to your innocence or guilt. That is more powerful than any wealth or tricky manipulations politicians can BS

Technology doesn’t wield anywhere near as much power when even primitive sentient beings can manifest energy at will if they have that connection to it.

@Draxy your post was right on target.

Also, Tyrian humanity is on the brink because they are fighting wars against organized crime, the centaurs, the White Mantle, they lost what could be the most important city in the region in Lion’s Arch, their nobility is fighting each other, their military divisions are fighting each other, and the Seraph are spread out so far to the east and west it begs the question of whether Logan Thackeray has any idea what he’s doing.

Here’s what Jennah needs to do if she wants Kryta to be a great nation, even with the problems they have and the Dragons.

First, tell Logan to rejoin Destiny’s Edge and marry the guy so there isn’t such a conflict of interest.

Second, announce to the ministry that they will now be unable to decide where Seraph troops go, giving that authority to the Master Exemplar, Anise.

Third, tell the Ministry Guard that they are now under command of the Seraph and eliminate that conflict of interest.

Fourth, strongly advise Anise to get the Seraph out of the Shiverpeaks and Maguuma and to offer the poor service to the Seraph in exchange for settlement outside Ebonhawke.

Fifth, bring in asura and charr military advisors to teach construction of golems and siege weapons in exchange for non-aggression treaties that restrict future kings/queens from using them against their people.

Finally, kick the centaurs out of Kryta, smash every single bandit gang, and build an enormous wall across the northern border of Harathi Highlands, taking a lesson from the Ascalonians.

OP:

I think they’re taking that approach because of the severity of the threat by the Dragons. They have become more of a paramilitary organization than just spies, because they know that every one of the major races are too busy fighting internal threats to mount a force against them. Inquest, Krytan politics, bandit syndicate, Nightmare Court, Flame Legion, Sons of Svanir, tribal races.. it’s too much for them and Lion’s Arch. Plus the krait can attack at any time from the sea.

Also, I think that they are much more traveled than even we were in the first game. They have a globe structure in the Chantry that could not be there without having explored past even what we saw in GW1. Doern makes that even more obvious with his interactions.

There are Dragons in other parts of the world, and I think this “jungle dragon” mentioned by the jotun is what has Doern in another part of the world. Tyria seems to be Eurasia by the looks of the globe and would explain why Doern would be there instead of wherever he came from. There are three Dragons here and is probably the epicenter of the threat. If that region falls, then the rest of the world is going to face what would have been the Risen, Branded, and Frostbrood in one doomsday army, reinforced by whatever else is out there.