Guild Wars 2

Ring.6928:

Draxius.7839:

@Ring – You said it yourself, the thing you were doing where you simply kill a mob in 3 seconds doesn’t work any more. The next step is adapting and doing something different.

My build was something different. Everyone in PVE i see running around with dual pistols and S/P. Sometimes D/D and very few bow for some reason.

So after spending alot of time pondering which traits would be best for the kind of playstyle I wanted I just get kittened in the kitten and have to adapt to kitten being inserted this time? That’s just BS.

Again they need to keep PVP and PVE stuff separate.

I agree. They need to keep a whole different UI or what have you for PvP so they can adjust those all they want without effecting PvE. MMO’s never do that, however. It seems as though either PvE players don’t matter as much to them or they don’t want to put the work into setting it up that way.

That’s exactly how it feels every time my PvE build is basically F’d due to nerfs (aka “balancing” ROFLMFAO) because of PvP QQ’g which always seems to be directed towards this class (. We PvE players don’t seem to count much in MMO’s these days as devs seem to jump through hoops to make PvP’rs happy (which is a never ending battle).

Thanks to this last, in a series of nerfs for the thief class, I’m taking a break from my thief. Yeah yeah yeah, there are those out there who will respond with “I’ve never had any trouble on -my- thief. You just need to L2P…yap yap yap.” Well, guess what…not everyone can be as god-like and uber as you. M’kay?

There have been PvE’rs trying to make their voices heard on these forums but we are totally shouted down and lost in the avalanche of topics and posts regarding PvP. We are the “red haired stepchild” of MMO’s, it seems, the kitten children who don’t seem to matter much or have the “importance” associated with PvP players in the eyes of the devs.

Now I’m waiting for my others classes to get nerfed as well because someone got butt hurt in PvP thus we PvE players must pay the price. If I was paying a monthly fee, this, combined with many (not all) of the storyline quests being too difficult to solo (unless you are a warrior or guardian) would be a definite game breaker causing me to cancel my subscription. Thank goodness I still have Rift to play when I want to play a rogue/thief class and still have fun doing so.

I fully expect this to be nerfed as well.

And once again, my thief build is made that much more difficult in PvE because of PvP play. To ArenaNet: Not everyone PvP’s ya know!

If I’ve reached the end of my tether, I rather like the videos over the written word as far as guides go. Of course, I have always been a very visually oriented person anyway.

Yes, I mean OOC, not IC. I kinda thought that was a given. :P

This is why I think Elem’s should have the ability to weapon swap just like everyone else does. There is a big difference between using the staff and a D/D or other combo.

I’m noticing the same thing. Backstab just isn’t …excuse the pun…cutting it for me in PvE. Pistol Whip used to be my brad-n-butter build for surviving in PvE but, it got the nerf bat due to PvP whine-age and I had to figure out a better way to be both survivable and do damage. I am finding I use sword/dagger or Sword/pistol on one set and shortbow on my second set. And, like Tulisin said above, Signet of Malice is VERY useful. The main auto attack actually ends up doing more damage now than pistol whip as long as you don’t interrupt it and let it go through all it’s stages.

Grackleflint.4956:

…like a bunch of teenage trolls that don’t care if anyone else has fun in …..

…..PvE either as if PvP and PvP’rs are all that matter.

Fixed the end of your sentence for ya.

Foosnark.1784:

Oh, at first I thought you meant the complainers were teenage trolls.

Given the sheer number of “nerf thieves!” PVP threads here, making it difficult to find advice about how to actually build a fun PVE thief, it seemed like a logical conclusion.

Tell me about it! I spend more time digging through all the peeing and moaning done by PvP’rs and PvP this and WvW that…just to find a few helpful posts on PvE. And then…I get a decent build for PvE play and all of a sudden it gets the nerf bat because someone got their wittle feewings hurted in PvP and whined to the devs. SO, I get to try to play with nerfed PvE abilities to satisfy the the oh-so-fragile egos of PvP’rs who don’t know how to deal with the fact that they can’t win all the time.

/end rant…yes, it gets frustrating.

ImagoX.4718:

Welcome to MMOs – this ALWAYS happens. To EVERY class. ALL the time. Thanks to the mutually exclusive needs of PvP vs. PvE (“winning” vs. “having fun playing”), nerfs to any class with a statistical edge, no matter how slight, will ALWAYS happen.

And the people said AMEN!

I’ve said it over and over….all MMO’s should have an entirely separate build set for PvP and PvE. If they need to nerf…errr….balance… different classes for PvP, it won’t effect the PvE players and vice versa. Why no one seems to do this is beyond me. So now, every time a group of PvP’rs do the whiny whiner dance about each other because they are butt hurt that they didn’t win a match or got killed and get a class nerfed, we PvE’rs have to suffer the consequences. Let me tell you how OLD that gets.

Does the OP need some cheese with their whine? Seriously, roll a thief and play it to 80 in PvE, PvP, WvW, etc THEN come back and yap about it….HONESTLY.

Veldan.4637:

I really don’t see how it is too hard. I might be a slightly above average player, but I pretty much breezed through the whole story, solo, first try. And the lvl 1 – 60 story quests I even did while I was a few levels below recommended. To give an outline of my story: I play sylvari warrior, chose for the vigil, and direct assaults whenever they were possible

Tbh I would be sad if they made the story quests I played through any easier. Only a bugfix here and there would be nice.

And there’s your answer. You were on a warrior. Warriors and Guardians have the easiest survival rates in the storyline. Try doing them on a thief or elementalist, ROFLOL.

Thank you for the info, Mr Vaughn. Glad to hear this!

Bad idea, imo. Why should level 80’s be given the chance to avoid encounters with mobs simply because they don’t like it? I don’t like having to deal with aggro on my mid-to-high level toon either when I’m farming mats etc but I accept that’s part of the game. Suck it up, buttercup.

Doesn’t matter one way or the other to me. I figure the devs have more important fish to fry than worrying about magic find right now.

Ew. The last thing I want to do is be accidentally flagged as PvP and become unceremoniously ganked because I ran across some spur of the moment PvP border setup as I out there trying to farm mats for crafting, do quests, fill in my map or just exploring.

A special arena is a better idea or a duel request (as long as players are given a toggle in their settings which auto cancels any duel requests and hides all such duel spam from their chat).

After having played WoW for several years before quitting it a few years back, I find GW2’s combat to be MUCH more engaging overall. Most especially since everyone would just make macros and mash 1 or 2 buttons anyway. That’s what they do in Wow and every other game.

Raine Akrune.8416:

@mrsrachelm oh very convincing. Please tell us the other things YOU think should be removed/never added so we can get right on that. Try adding a real reason next time.

Ask and you shall receive….

1) Mounts aren’t needed, we have a zillion way points in every zone
2) Mounts aren’t needed, the zones are not that big
3) Mounts are not now nor have they ever been a part of GW lore or gaming
4) Mounts ALWAYS block Merchants, NPCS, Quest givers, clutter up bank and trading areas to the point of not being able to see anything or use anything
5) Mounts in high traffic areas will only add to the graphics issues for medium to low end computer systems users (You -do- know that not everyone has the latest and greatest most uber computer, yes?)
6) those with mounts would have an unfair advantage at getting to events over those who do not, especially the higher levels who are farming such things over those of lower levels in a low to mid level zone. The event would be zerged and over before others could even get to it and we KNOW mounts would not be a freebie…they’d be a hell of a lot of gems and only some people would be able to afford them…mainly, the level 80’s.

How’s that for a start? Happy?

No. No mounts. Ever. They cause more problems than they are worth. Period.

After several weeks the event at Beetlebun farm where you have to turn in sprinkler parts etc is STILL broken on my server (Darkhaven). Can we -please- get this fixed? TY.

If you don’t like MF then don’t use it. Why remove it from the game? Aren’t there more important things to fix right now?

That would be very nice.

I agree that scaling the level for content is helpful at keeping griefing at bay at least a little (although with the traits etc of the high levels making them OP in lower level areas it only makes a small dent in their ability to basically run amok) so I would not like to see that change.

However! I -would- like to see personal storyline quests NOT scale the individual playing them. This would not effect other players in any way and would allow those individuals who, due to play times and RL issues, don’t have the ability to beg for support for what amounts to a one to two minute storyline quest still be able to complete them. Some of those storyline quests are certainly harder than there indicated level especially for the squishier classes so people are forced to out level them simply to be able to do them solo. Scaling them down to level (and in some cases a level BELOW) for an instanced personal storyline quest is silly, imo.

Bonzoso.7014:

Yep, you shouldn’t get two different hues from the same dye. I had that happen to me with either Oxblood or Lifeblood — the primary section of my shoulder armor was a very different shade of red than every other place I used it.

I agree. I’ve found this to be pretty annoying especially when I’m trying to make my new armor look less like a clown suit. Any dye color should be -that- color no matter where it is applied…period.

I know, I know…y’all will say “but but, you get to swap attunements!”. To that I answer that those attunements change quite a bit depending on what weapon we hold just like abilities do for every other class who is granted weapon swapping. Not allowing the elementalist to have that same ability very much limits us and pigeon holes us. I think it incredibly unfair that we not have weapon swapping and would very much like to see it initiated.

I know I know…we get to swap attunements blah blah blah. BUT! I feel it’s rather limiting to not have the same ability to weapon swap just like every other class can to take advantage of other abilities only available when other weapons are equipped. There -is- a difference between staff and scepter/focus etc and I would like to be able to have that same ability other classes are granted.

Where did everything go?!! [whimper]
Wow, for some reason the first page wouldn’t show up for me until I posted this. I thought everything got deleted and freaked out because I’ve been looking at these builds trying to figure out what to do on my own toon.

Trismegistos.3046:

tl;dr

pve player should shelf GW2 altogether.
and install it when he becomes a pvp player.

:P

PvP is not the only type of play style nor the ONLY one people enjoy. I very much dislike the attitude of PvP’rs who seem to think that all games should or do revolve around them and them alone and PvE’rs are nothing but second class players. Take that elitist attitude elsewhere, thanks. I have the utmost respect for PvP’rs and the skills required for that style of play. I can do it and have, I simply don’t enjoy it. What I don’t respect is the idea that ONLY PvP’rs exist in a game or that only PvP is worthy of time or consideration by gamers or game developers.

Again, thanks so much for the helpful input everyone. It’s also nice to know I’m not the only one who’s had problems with playing my thief. So far, and I’m only level 16-ish on my new restarted thief toon, I’ve been doing much better and focusing on mobility, keeping my initiative replenished so I can stay mobile, stealth in and out, etc. I’m not focusing on leveling as much as I am only learning how different things work together.

I find I really wish I had a third weapon swap available, lol. I dislike having my SB equipped all the time all but whenever an event pops up out of the blue I need to have it to even make a dent before other classes with AOE’s kill everything.

I’m really liking S/P and D/D and I swap back and forth when engaging mobs one after another. I still find that I am terribly squishy even with being so mobile when taking on mobs my own level (especially if there is more than one on me) but do much better with ones a level (or two) lower. I’m hoping this becomes less the case as I increase trait points etc. Until then, I will simply be experimenting on how to incorporate different weapon combos for maximum result.

I find I can do pretty well with SB as long as I have enough room, and not too many adds, to kite. The thing I dislike intensely about SB is the auto attack is set up to hit as many mobs in an area as it can by default. So, even if I wanted to just pull one mob…or need to pull a certain mob for quest purposes etc, I am stuck aggroing the entire bunch. I should like to see a differentiation in having an auto attack that is single mob attack and a separate attack that bounces the arrow to all mobs in the area.

Excellent idea. Everything auto resets at midnight or 3 am or some such.

I’ll add my “agreed!” to the chorus above.

In other words, the OP wants to turn GW2 into WoW .

Bamboostew.2094:

and pandas dont forget pandas guys :P

ROFLOL! Don’t make me hunt you down and slap you silly! :P

Another thing to consider, as stated above, is that many times those sites place keyloggers etc on your comp, well hidden, that then tell them all your info, log ins, passwords, etc not only from this game but from everywhere including your email and so on. Seriously bad idea to even go to their sites much less give them you CC or paypal info etc. not to mention your account info. It used to be they had characters which would personally meet you in game and literally trade you the gold. (Yes, back in the day many years ago I used a gold seller when I was stupid and naive). I wouldn’t even go near one of those sites these days.

Khronus.8370:

SIMPLE FIX. You can only race change when you have completed the entire storyline and you can NOT redo the story. There is no way to manipulate this, you experience the entire story before any major account changes like this. SIMPLE. At the same time, this allows Arena net to make money (which is ultimately the goal behind any company).

How would this effect the story lines in expansions, though, if yours is based on one race and now you are another one since one would not simply carry on from a foundation based on the race you -now- are?

I was wondering about this since I have yet to use the transmutation stones. Now I know. It seems kinda lame as long as the items are all within the same account regardless of if they are soul bound or not since it’s only the skin and not stats etc.

Dwarves…fine…as long as they also include Tengue. Otherwise, Dwarves are just same old same old as any other game which gets kinda boring. I mean, if they are going to go Dwarf, they might as well include Elves, Gnomes, etc….blech.

Curae.1837:

Magister Sieran… at first I was annoyed, but I’m starting to like the over-enthusiastic sylvari x’D
Tybalt is great fun too

“the mission received a hiccup.”
“A hiccup!? More like a tuberculosis!” -Rytlock Brimstone

Tybalt turning into Demi:
“Burn me, I’m a human girl! Whoa, I’ve got two hands and some lovely…apples.”
subtile Tybalt… Very subtile… x’D

ROFLOL! love it.

Agreed! We definitely need this.

I can just see a cool Tengue thief, ranger or elementalist in my mind’s eye. Oh heck…any of the classes, lol.

Safer Saviour.9685:

Tengu or Largos.

mrsrachelm, the humans are more elvish than the sylvari, in terms of lore and social position. Additionally, the sylvari did originally have a more pixie-like/elvish appearance… and people /hated/ it. They hated it so much the whole race was redesigned to the beautiful and imaginative plant people we have now. They definitely reflect their origins better than they did prior to the redesign.

All I’m saying is the color palette for the Sylvari skin/hair and the hair styles themselves are horrendous. They seriously need to add a wider range of color options and some less clunky looking hairstyles. But yeah, lil pixies would have made me gag.

Nooooooo centaurs. Tengue FTW!

Tengue FTW!

I will puke on the first mermaid I see, I promise.

Please please no freaking frog people.

I can handle an Elf or elf-like race. I assumed the Sylvari were supposed to be reminiscent of this but their skin/hair colors and hair styles leave me cold. BLECH! I would love to play one if they had seriously less vomitous color palette and had more ascetically pleasing hair styles etc.

Well, unless you feel you must be locked into a specific line of play, most RP’rs use their imaginations and develop stories within the game story itself. You are, I think, trying to mix RP with game mechanics ands saying RP’rs -can’t- RP such and such because the game doesn’t have it already…like an “evil” toon etc. I find that line of reasoning horridly short sighted and lacking in imagination. RP’rs use their imaginations and basically expand the game story by inserting their own smaller stories and events etc. IF non-RP’rs don’t like that…that’s fine….just leave them alone because they certainly aren’t hurting other’s game PvE play by RP’ing their character as “evil”, lol.

As far as kill stealing et…it simply can’t be done in this game so it’s not something to worry about. I’ve seen more RP’rs grieved by non-Rp’rs than vice versa.

I can just hear the low to mid level players now…and I wouldn’t blame them. They would be totally robbed of events etc because they wouldn’t even get to one before it was zerged by high levels. I understand the idea behind the suggestion but…no…I don’t like the suggestion.

I support the adding of more material that rewards karma etc in the already established high level zones to give more opportunity to high level players and wouldn’t burden the low to mid level players from being able to get their own karma rewards in their own level appropriate zones.

I would like to have a slightly larger or more distant from my character POV. I can certainly live with what there is now though so no biggie if that doesn’t happen. What I REALLY would like is to be able to scroll all the way in for a first person POV, especially when doing the jumping puzzles as some of them make the camera go wonky and it’s hard to gauge the next jump. Secondarily, when the camera starts jumping around I get a bit sea sick as it were and have at times had to just log off for a bit because my stomach would start churning. This is the first time I’ve had to deal with motion sickness…in a game, lol.

Mara Gossep.2761:

Holy trinity was a dumbed down version of what we had in EQ. Fact is that MMO combat has actually evolved into something much simpler than what it actually was in a good group in EverQuest. EQ had a lot more different roles than 3. They could be mixed in various ways for success. You didn’t need a single special composition to succeed, like you do in 90% of MMO’s today.

It’s the trend of games, they are all being dumbed down unfortunately.

You are right. I played EQ1 and loved it! They had more than the trinity and each was viable in their own way solo and group wise. I also loved that night time was actually…dark. You could only see a few meters in any direction and a bit more if you had a light source on you. I still remember the “wall walking” at night in Kithicore hoping all to heck the dark didn’t hide the uber mobs that would spawn in that zone at night. That game was challenging and fun and had a wide variety of play styles available. kitten I loved that game. Thanks for bringing back some really great memories.

I’ll just say “ditto” to the personal story quests being far too difficult for their expressed level to complete solo and players should not be forced to beg for partners or groups to do a one minute story line quest instance which they will eventually not be able to get anyway the longer the game is out and the more scare lower level players become.

Having to constantly rez and “win by attrition” if possible is not only utterly frustrating it totally destroys story immersion enjoyment.

JazKW.6547:

Azoetia.2183:

BrunoBRS.5178:

and again, you’re a nameless hero, one of thousands of nameless heroes. they can’t make everyone suddenly be the special chosen one of whatever, that’s just stupid and silly. so they give you the title of commander and put you as second in command, leaving a character to take on the lore-glory (like Kormir) and you to take the triumph at the present (unlike Kormir, Trahearne didn’t even get a promotion, and you’re just as celebrated as him).

Making every individual player the hero of the whole world in their own story makes no less sense than making every one of millions of characters played by over a million players second in command. Your personal story does not sync up with the rest of the world anyway. The fact that one group of people has gone in and defeated Zhaitan doesn’t mean that another group goes in to find a dragon carcass and NPCs saying, “A little late, huh? We could have used the help; maybe fewer people would have died.” When you go to WvW you’re not wondering, “Wow, I wonder why there’re hundreds of us Trahearne sidekicks all kicking each others’ teeth in.”

Fact is, when you play your personal story your character is separated out from everyone else’s and their stories, which could very well be identical to yours if they are the same race and answered questions the same in character creation. For the personal story to make sense you can’t look at it in relation to everyone else running around in the world. Trying to make it make sense in that context (like being a sidekick to the real hero who does little of the work and gets nearly all of the glory) actually causes me more cognitive dissonance than just keeping the different aspects of the game distinct from each other.

Books from the point of view of a sidekick can be interesting but I don’t play video games to be the spare. That’s fine at the beginning of the story, not at the end.

This post made the most sense to me. To make an analogy. Everyone is Commander Shepard. Not really sure how I can expand this, but those who get what I mean should be able to understand what I mean by this.

I agree with both of the above. When I play an MMO where MY STORY is being told and I’m the “hero” of it I don’t much appreciate suddenly finding myself being “the extra” in the scene from a certain point forward.