Guild Wars 2

I know a lot of people that tried the meta and weren’t skilled enough (yup, I know) and ended back to their non meta builds.

On the topic, I teach only to people willing to learn like pretty much everyone else, it would be a waste of time, but I always think about a newcomer coming on the forum and seeing all these posts about how wrong meta is and how berserker is selfish. I just make sure there’s one sarcastic post or two to make him wonder.

“I feel like meta build is always the best and the most useful”.

Guys. That’s the point of the meta.

Wrong game?

Meta is about optimal builds. If you want ptv/ condi guards to be part of the meta, it’s asking for those builds to be competitive time wise with dps oriented gear, while they are still easier to play.

Since they made that change, new players without access to free scrolls can’t experiment with builds at all. Leveling to 80 doesn’t give you enough skill points to unlock all utilities already, and my alts end up stuck with 0 traits for a while. The update killed the fun of leveling through various process, and you also have to keep in mind you’ll need some spare skill points while leveling. The fun part is, this change was implemented for new players, and they are the first to suffer from it since they can’t unlock all traits and end up buying bad ones and being stuck. It would be fine if the requirements were easily doable, but most traits are unlocked after bugged events/ obscure world events no one ever do/ underpve like eotm.

Zoberraz.2694:

Again, I appreciate all the input you guys have been giving me.

I’ve been spending the better part of the weekend overhauling Sylviana. The rest was spent having my butt handed to me repeatedly in the last leg of the Living Story by the multiple bosses involved. =P

I went and salvaged my Rabid gear so I could keep the Superior Traveler runes. Then I crafted my own satchel of Berserker’s Emblazoned gear and slotted the runes back in. Justifying that I could keep my Bud/Vine of the Pale Tree since they were Berserker/Valkyrie statted, I got myself an exotic Berserker’s ring, two ruby orichalcum earrings and slotted Exquisite Ruby Jewels in them. For my back slot, I splurged on making a Quiver of Swift Flight.

Following that, I then I got myself a Berserker’s greatsword and longbow. I slapped Superior Sigil of Force on them, noticed I could actually add another sigil on two-handed weapons.

At first, I went for superior accuracy – having both weapons slotted so gave Sylviana a whopping 54% critical chance.

Later, I tried replacing them with Superior Sigils of Blood… but found the result (as far as sustainability) to be very underwhelming. I went back to the Accuracy ones.

As for my Talent Trees, for lack of having a better idea, I went:
Marksmanship: 6
Signet Mastery, Eagle Eye, Read the Wind
Skirmishing: 4
Companion’s Might, Quickdraw
Wilderness Survival: 4
Wilderness Knowledge, Martial Mastery

The general idea here was first to shorten my weapon cooldowns, then I spotted a chance to make my pet benefit from my high crit chance, splurged in traits that would help with my handling of the bow… and out of whimsy picked up Signets/Survival cooldown reductions.

The reason I combine Signet of the Hunt and Superior Traveler Runes was because I was under the impression both stacked. If that’s not the case, I’ll have to find something else to replace it (drawing a blank presently).

…

Here’s how I fared after that.

Like I said, Living Story stuff generally knocked me on my butt. The bosses on the way to the end of the chapter were difficult enough for me to wonder if the achievements are really in my reach.

In the Silverwastes, I tend to fare better, and that’s mostly thanks to the distance the longbow can afford me. There are two brands of enemies that give me trouble; the thrashers can be tricky, but if I can catch them by behind, they’re as good as dead. The Teragriffs are my bogeymen, though; it typically takes everything I have to take one down – and then I’m usually in poor shape near the end. If there’s more than just the Teragriff, it usually ends badly for Sylviana.

As far as content elsewhere, the impact of the gear change is much more significant. My Longbow’s 2 typically takes care of everything I usually had to handle with Call of the Wild and sword-blender-action, and with much less of a fuss (it’s a 3k vs 7k damage difference that I can see on average). The numbers I have with the longbow actually makes using its autoattack point-blank slightly more attractive to the greatsword’s autoattack in 1vs1. The greatsword’s mostly for fighting multiple opponents, or to use immediately after my longbow skills have been expended to finish a fight faster (the greasword’s 3, then 2, makes for a very nice damage spike).

Another thing I ran Sylviana through was a round of world bosses, like the Jungle Wyrm, the Claw of Jormag, the Mega Destroyer, the Fire Elemental, Tequalt and finally the Shadow Beast. All in all, the experience had me rather pleased with my investment into Berserker gear because I could use the longbow on the bosses more effectively (I used the longbow on bosses before becuase I like to play it safe, so it’s nice to keep doing that and know that I’m making a better contribution), and the greatsword gives me a nice melee weapon which isn’t a pain to use.

Good to know. Few things to note:
don’t use longbow in melee range for the damage. Longbow autoattack isn’t strong in melee, has a huge cast time, and is single target. Auto attacking with sword/greatsword is far better. You should carry a berserker sword, axe, and warhorn just in case.
As far as living story goes, since the bosses one shot you with the fragile debuff, you have to use actice defense to survive. It means using gs to block or sword to evade instead of just going in and bursting before getting hit.
For your sig+ runes stacking, you can either swap the runes for scholar or ranger ( that would give you more damage) or dropping signet of the hunt for something like quickening zephyr, signet of the wild or whatever.

Zui.9245:

oxtred.7658:

Anet don’t want people to leave, and they don’t want to improve. That’s why difficult content won’t come. Most, if not all special snowflakes with their bad builds are also bad players and don’t understand how pve works. No matter how tanky they are they will still die in arah or fractals. And since anet main revenue is gem store, they don’t want the casuals ( who need gold via gems/ like buying small bonuses) to leave.

I feel like with good, non-linear design they could accomplish this.

Imagine an Arah-style dungeon where you can fight a Lupi-equivalent boss, OR go through some overly long timegates of respawning mobs that don’t drop loot and a trivial HP-sponge of a boss in order to progress. The casuals would spend 30+ minutes on the timegate(s)+boss, and good players would spend a few minutes (or so) at a fun, difficult boss; both would get the “same” end reward for whatever segment of the path they chose.

You could do the same with puzzles. Design good puzzles where they can be completed extremely quickly, but only with excellent teamwork. But also allow a solution that’s extremely easy and “anyone” can do, that takes much longer.

You can ensure that everyone can complete certain content, while also ensuring that skill is appropriately rewarded in the content, and it provides challenge for those who seek it (or who just seek efficient rewards per time). The casuals might not repeat the content a lot, but it’s not like they do that anyway. They largely just repeat content where you get the maximum rewards for near-zero effort near-zero skill gameplay, if open world farms are any indication.

Good idea, but are they ready to face the " elitists use another route and do it faster, buff x boss to make sure we complete it in the same time" threads?

So they really exist?

Anyway, I’d say shout. Banners are unpracticals in www because you need to move a lot. Also nomad sucks.

I love how they act like you have no idea about what you’re talking about when they don’t even understand the point of the thread.

7/10, good laugh, the last refuge trait was the best part.

It depends. If you’re a evil zerker elitist, it’s working as intended. If not, then you’re a victim.

Jeknar.6184:

style.6173:

Let’s stop pretending this map has anything to do with WvW.

How about we stop pretending EotM wasn’t made for WvW? This is already getting old… The players turned EotM on what it is today, not Anet.

It doesn’t change the fact it’s still a pve map. It has nothing to do with www, even if it’s not what anet planned.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

oxtred.7658:

Everytime someone says the meta is about maximising damage, he can’t be taken seriously.

Well, every meta in every MMO ever made was about maximising efficiency. Maximising DPS is, for the most part, enough be as efficient as possible. And please don’t read this as “you have to get as much damage as possible” but as “reducing the support- and defensive capabilities to a minimum and raise the damage as far as possible without hurting the speed”. Not that I agree with anyone who’s ever used that argument but please don’t use flawed arguments to reenforce your opinion.

Yup, and investing as much as possible into support without loosing too much dps is not even close to maximising damage. That’s 2 different mindsets.

Oxidia.8103:

I think a proposal won’t be a good method. Maybe some thieves don’t want to get married.

Yeah, had enough backstabbing in my relationships.

badum tss

I’ve been insulted for giving paths. And kicked for that, too.

First, take fillers. Ask 3 other people to come into your lfg and kick them 1 by 1 after the next pug paid. That way you avoid white knight tards. Asking for a donation won’t work if your goal is to sell. Either give, or sell, but don’t find a middle ground. 2g is really cheap, especially considering you get 1,7-1,8g back.

No matter how hard you’ll try, you’ll get kicked and insulted for selling. Se P1 won’t sell for high, as it’s relatively easy to solo except tazza, and most pugs manage to get the run done in a short amount of time. Try to sell ac/cm for xp, ta aether and arah for dungeon master/ tokens.

Vigor. It’s not even questionable, you have perma swiftness anyway.

Can the devs send me 10 legendaries as well? I don’t feel like buying them, but I want them. Thanks.

Anet don’t want people to leave, and they don’t want to improve. That’s why difficult content won’t come. Most, if not all special snowflakes with their bad builds are also bad players and don’t understand how pve works. No matter how tanky they are they will still die in arah or fractals. And since anet main revenue is gem store, they don’t want the casuals ( who need gold via gems/ like buying small bonuses) to leave.

No one in the dungeon subforum minds difficult content. However, most pugs can’t even melee spider queen. What will they do?

Why the hell did you farm half a year for a skin you don’t want to use?

oxtred.7658:

Everytime someone says the meta is about maximising damage, he can’t be taken seriously.

At this point I don’t give a duck anymore so I’ll just repeat that until you understand it, in a month or so.

pls nurf

Only necros bring the absolute maximum personal dps build to the table. Guess what? They are excluded from the meta.

Everytime someone says the meta is about maximising damage, he can’t be taken seriously.

I kick runes of the pack. :/

k
but no

thx

You can spot a warrior phalanx with empower allies and the swiftness duration from warhorn and signet of rage. IF it’s longer than usual, it means 30% boon duration from tactics. Sorry.

17k hundred blades? Are you trying your best to not deal damage?

Oh my god thread of the year 10/10.

I love you.

Mainly easy vuln stacking, great burst, cc and access to pretty much everything from stealth to reflects. They also have great fire field uptime for those time you don’t want to staff afk and still have 100% fire fields uptime.

Most people go duel behind the windmill at the south. There’s also good dueling spots in the ruins as it doesn’t impact the real fights much ( no one fights there). Obsidian sanctum arena is commonly used for duels and gvg as well.

Shiren.9532:

oxtred.7658:

viable =/= optimal. You’re obviously not experienced enough to comment on the game pve balance.

You picked on a single word used by the OP so I’m going to pick on a single word used by you.

Balance.

From Wikipedia:

In game design, balance is the concept and the practice of tuning a game’s rules, usually with the goal of preventing any of its component systems from being ineffective or otherwise undesirable when compared to their peers. An unbalanced system represents wasted development resources at the very least, and at worst can undermine the game’s entire ruleset by making important roles or tasks impossible to perform.

Now when looking at GW2’s game design and comparing the stats of gear in PvE I think it’s pretty clear to anyone “experienced enough to comment” (could you be more arrogant?) that the stats contained in the Berserker’s combination are in no way in balance with the stats contained in the Nomads set. While some players will mix in some Valkyrie, Knights or even Soldiers, Berserker remains far and away the superior stat combination in the game for PvE.

If we can think outside the box created by ArenaNet’s needlessly inefficient stat combination system (why stick us with rigid “Prefix” gear for customisation rather than let us pick our own primary and secondary stats in gear?) and view Berserker as Power, Precision and Ferocity, it becomes clearer how imbalanced the armour system in GW2 is. Vitality, Toughness and especially Healing Power are incredibly weak in comparison to Power, Precision and Ferocity. That’s why even inexperienced players are better off going with Knights or Valkyrie over Soldiers – having two DPS stats is actually easier than having only one because ending a fight sooner means having to dodge less, means having to heal less, means having to repeat fewer fight mechanics. When tanky gear does significantly less damage and is still required to dodge the majority of a boss’s attacks, it actually becomes harder to play tanky unless your team is carrying you.

Toughness and Vitality won’t matter as much as a reflect or an Aegis. Healing Power is balanced for PvP where both sides are equal, in PvE enemies hit harder.

While DPS in GW2 is tied to your stats, support is not. Toughness doesn’t make your protection any better, Vitality doesn’t make your endurance fill faster and Healing Power doesn’t let you revive faster. Power, Precision and Crit damage all interact with almost every DPS skill in the game, Toughness and Vitality interact with almost none and Healing Power for very few. It’s problematic that support skills are 100% effective with 0% investment in support stats. That’s a big part of the reason why the Berserker meta exists – it enjoys the full benefit of support skills without requiring any investment.

Right now Guild Wars 2 PvE has a very shallow meta and there is very little balance in armour stat choices. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

tl;dr

We’re perfectly fine the way it is.

Because support isn’t tied to gear. Working as intended.

What do you want to achieve with that extra toughness? The goal of tanky gearstats in other mmos is to take aggro and keep it so dps can do their rotation. Aggro is unreliable and most attacks are cleaves/ aoes. Since you can’t take aggro from your teammates, running personal survivability is selfish. Again, working as intended.

viable =/= optimal. You’re obviously not experienced enough to comment on the game pve balance.

What about doing dungeons and fractals?

Wow. Words are lacking.

“You’re right, my exemple doesn’t stand, and I don’t know how dungeons work- but still, there’s a huge difference between stacking and stacking when I feel like it’s unintended.”

A zerg guard 3 shotting you? Lulz.

moiraine.2753:

hybrid.5027:

moiraine.2753:

I think the stacking is not the problem.The problem are the corners.I don’t mind to stack with the group just don’t let bosses be pulled to the corners.Make them imune or something like that if they are pulled to a wall.

What advantage do you gain by pulling a boss into a corner. Please post a specific in game example where you have an advantage. I know of one, but I want to see your idea.

Of course there is difference between a stack near a wall and stack in the middle of the room.When you stay against a wall you can use all your abilities full potential.When you ar ein the middle of the room you can’t do that.Lets take for instance warrior’s wirldmill.Agains a wall it will do more dmg compared to when you are in middle of the room.

So yea i repeat what i said earlier.There is huge difference between stacking against the wall and in a place that is not even close to a wall.I don’t mind to stack far a way from a wall.That is perfectly normal.

I am against pulling bosses to walls and stack there.The dps increase is significant.
Also boss’s specific phases and abilities can be negated.Such example is lupicus.When he is pulled to a wall he is not using some of his abilities(charge and green bubble).When you fight him not near a wall he is using all his abilities.

Thieves and rangers loose damage by stacking against a wall because they can’t flank. Engis have harder time using ft 2 as well.

Not sure if serious..

I wouldn’t advice going longbow as a main weapon ( as it teaches bad habits of spamming at range without actually playing the game). The wolves in the new ls are indeed annoying if you don’t have aoe blinds. For most difficult encounters, signet of stone provides a handy invul long enough to kill all the trash mobs. Thing is, the lower your dps is, the harder it is to kill stuff in time and/or rally off a mob you’re about to kill. Going full offensive with berserker gear takes some time getting used to but at least the wolves or any mob you find difficult will die quicker, resulting in a lower chance to miss a dodge or a block. If you take down that road, you want to get a sword, a axe, a warhorn, a greatsword and a longbow at least. The typical dungeon setup for bosses is longbow+sword/axe, but for open world, sword axe+ greatsword would work better. YOu engage the fight with gs 3 and 2, use a block if you need it, then swap to sword and auto attack, using sword 3 if you need an evade and axe 5 for projectile reflect. Sword is a power based weapon, you only have access to cripple and poison, so your damage with a condi build will be lower than usual. Sword is used in pvp meta builds for its great kiting capacities. With a condi sword build, you lack cleave damage, and it’s probably the most important thing for hoard of mobs. You can also get a mix between berserker and tankier gear to achieve a balance between offense and defense, but the “stack-use invul-dps like crazy” method works great in contents like the living story. Hope this helps.

Tom Yzf.5872:

deSade.9437:

Why am I supposed to care about what that kid says?

Your post in Precursors drop everywhere. This is bad. was infracted by a moderator:
Thing is, you can’t expect pre to drop from difficult content, because there’s none. Fractals and arah are still done by bad players getting carried everyday.

“blabla respectful to the commmunity”
Huh? I just said they were terribad players. I’m confused.

[TARD] The anti-rallybots diplomats is the only thing I have for now.

For solos only.

To be honest, condi thieves are really strong in WwW. But that’s not the point, the op is refering to a single skill and its behavior with stealth. That’s two different topics.

Back when i pugged i got kicked for being an ele, because they wanted a 4th warrior, so don’t worry.