i agree with most of what Xfactor said. But I will add that people would be more inclined to fight if the advantage of overwhelming numbers is removed.
Whats the point of charging headlong into a zerg when green outnumbers you by at least 4 to 1 every single time? The first few times may be fun, but when they start to specifically hunt you down over and over again, it gets old real fast.
I live almost exclusively in either Wvw or EoTM. But lately EoTM is just OG rolling over everything with extreme number advantage, and even I am getting burnt out of this (cant do much when your outnumber by that much)…
I like EotM the way it is, but wish they’d make the overflows better and keep the numbers of each team close to each other..
Not sure what other servers are like, but on the one i play on, Green always, always has a massive superiority in numbers. If my ‘zerg’ has 10 players, green has 40. If we get 30 on our side, green has 60.
skillwise, i do not see any difference between the 3 teams. Some keeps are easier to capture/defend than others, but objectives are not really an advantage either. 98% of the time the winner is the zerg with 3+ as many people as the other team. The other 2% are the teams that setup 3-4+ ACs and the other team stupidly walks into them.
When it comes to EotM, there is no pvp skill involved whatsoever. Just have more friends than the other team..
i have these runes on another class, and they are useful. But i find that having SoH on my bar, when i’m running running, and hot-swapping it out for something else when i need to not only saves me 50+ gold in rune prices, allows me to slot better runes, and gives me more options for utilties.
but 99% of the time, i just forget and leave SoH on anyway, lol…
theres something going on with CCs as well. I purchased gems in the past, but i’m getting the same error with the same CC tonight..
in my experience, a staff ele will get eaten alive while roaming. they can shine in zergs though. I prefer d/d for roaming, as you have to hit quick, hit fast and move fast. Plus the self combos are easier to maintain with d/d in small groups.
But in terms of staff ele, i go 64220. Thats VI, VII, Xi in fire. VI, VII in air. VI earth VI water. That gives you the most dps bang for your buck. Remember, when your roaming solo or in small groups, the best survivablity is to hit fast and hard and kill the other guy fast and get the heck out (which is why i like d/d better for roaming). May need to tweak a few traits for your skillset tho. These trait setup requires you to be close to the action (which i like to do). swap out the SS in earth for something else if you like to fire away from the backlines.. but again, in roaming, there really isnt a backline, so…
It really doesnt matter what is nerfed. Across every single MMO ever made, if there is a thief class, there will be QQ and cries of nerf. Folks just don’t like it when they get hit from an unseen enemy.
i tried many different builds while leveling, and while some work better than d/d p/p, they were boring as all can be (i’m looking at you s/p and d/p) to level with.
That said, d/d really needs traits to shine in a standard backstab way, which hurts while levelling, as you dont have many/any. So for leveling, condi is extremely powerful on a d/d build. I mixed up some utilies here or there, but basically did this:
Bascially, run around and gather up as many mobs as possible. Drop caltrops. dodge through them for more caltrops (1st trait in trickery at 30). Then DB through them 2-3 times. Watch them die. If you need more conditions, use the venoms.
I listed the venoms on my build. But they really are not needed until 60ish. When you get to Orr, the venoms and caltrops drop mobs quickly. Oh. And if you can, get all supreme krait for armor at 60. These runes + 35 sec elite (traited) add on so much condition (especially torment) that mobs just imploded. I did all of Orr about 7-10 levels under the mob level, and just destroyed them with this build. mobs are stupid and will chase you with torment on..imploding themselves.
Caltrops + dodge through mobs + Bask Venom + dodge out, let mobs chase you for torment = dead in 3-5 secs. The other two venoms are there if you need more pop for soloing champs/elites.
For heals, i used withdraw mostly. I hate being crippled a dodge all the time. However if you fight condi mobs, HiS would be better to remove those conds. But i only use HiS in my backstab builds..
p/p i used as well, as I do not like the shortbow. p/p is great while levelling for world bosses, as conditions mean less. which is why i put richotet on there.
I used potion of undead for Orr, and magic find food cause i was a noob at the time, but it just destroyed everything anyway.
If you want to really use p/p more the d/d, then drop the venoms, and go into acrobats and take smoke screen. Drop smoke screen and dodge through it, using unload through it to continously blind your target (you can use black powder for this as well).
you could do the standard d/d backstab build. But its weak without traits, and realies heavily on SA line to survive (unless your good at dodging and use acro)..
my two cents anyway…
as a new player, one thing this thread has done was curb my enthusiasm for trying out dungeons.