Guild Wars 2

pros
-your enemies will always be on fire. guardians apply a lot of burning and apply it well.

cons
-it is your ONLY damaging condition.
-it stacks duration, not intensity
-you have to apply it first, or you will be waiting for someone’s other ticks
-it only takes one condition removal to cancel out your entire build

If you are roaming on map, alone, and come up against another solitary target this will work out for you. The drawback is in order to trait high enough to see the effectiveness, the pressure total from the burning will likely not be enough to take your target down before they take you down.

In my experience the best use for a condition damage heavy guardian build is “you enjoy killing and farming random mobs in a map empty of other players, and you don’t mind the fights taking longer while you catch up on [insert tv show here]”

I just crafted a set of this armor and here are my findings so far.
(before this I ran alternatively with a set of Clerics armor and a set of Zerker armor. I have full ascended Clerics trinkets, because I enjoy healing)

With zerk I do more damage, of course, but my healing feels a little sub-par compared to what I’m used to.
With clerics I do very little damage and I never crit, but I can full heal myself with more than 4 skills.

So far with Zealots I notice I damage like a zerker (when I have fury) but I also have plenty of healing. With things like symbols and other passive healing effects, I feel like I’m getting the best of both sets.

It seems only really viable in competitive play if you are excellent at applying and timing blinds and dodging. Traiting into Fury w/meditations seems almost required to keep your dps up. I’d recommend Rage runes. With that set up at least you can give yourself a lot of flexibility with a zealots armor set.

That being said, it still has some issues. I can not kill anything quite as fast as I did before, and I can’t tank something out quite as long either, but overall the fights are shorter and a little more exciting.

ranged weapons aren’t necessarily weaker, but there if they are i believe the reason is:
you can use ranged weapons in melee
you cant use melee weapons at range.

if you dont like stacking in dungeons and you liked the movie 300 then you need to pick one and be done with it.

stacking against a superior foe or a large number of enemies is a legitimate military strategy. look at the aforementioned spartans. look at Thermopylae. The alamo? There are countless other famous examples..

There is a reason this only works in PvE. The AI. The only way to “remove” stacking would be to update the AI to a level where it thinks like a player. Show a way to do this and our strategies will adapt.

personally I love this healing skill, but I run a dps/heal hybrid with a symbol focus. while it doesn’t heal as reliably as the signet (nothing does,) it is a more exciting skill to use and has the potential to heal for an incredible amount in the right situations. Unless I know I’m going to be just fighting one mob for a long time, this is my go-to heal skill now.

I’ve been avoiding getting ascended armor or weapons. Trinkets, yes, but for the rest exotics seem to be fine. I don’t even worry about what stats my weapons are and I’m doing fine in group contribution.

I always thought high Vitality combined with life stealing was the counter to conditions. If you can stack enough regeneration and critical hits to trigger life stealing you barely need condition removal, assuming you have a target to hit.

Higher toughness is meant to combat spike.
Higher vitality is meant to combat pressure.

See? Is balanced. The sentences are even the same length!

how about for the boon that effects immobilize:

if you try to use your movement keys while under the effects of immob you take small ticks of damage. ( a poor man’s torment )

and the inverse for stability (while you move under it’s effects, you tick heals instead at the same rate

I suppose it depends on the build you are going for.
Don’t feel like bringing condition removal? Spec crit chance and use Purity and Generosity.
Want to get stacks faster for low-mob count dungeons? 2 of the same stat-stacking sigils.
Feel like your heals are sub-par and you attack / crit often? Blood and Water is the way for you.
Condition heavy spec? 6% condition duration and 6% condition damage boost.
Always do dungeons where it’s night the whole time? You see where this is going.

Personally, I’ll be getting a life stacking and restoration on my guardian’s staff, and a force/vuln combo on my sword. it may not be meta but it fits my build. (half zerk/half clerics/full symbol spec)

This is an interesting idea, but it totally changes the purpose of condition heavy builds.

I burst on my thief full precision and uh.. ‘ferocity’ I guess so I can do heavy damage quickly and get out of the way. I go full condition on my necro for overall pressure, not spike, because I know my necro can handle it.

I feel like this would get rid of pressure as a damage type, and completely negate several play styles. A condition heavy pressure build is like an easy mode for me. Its more relaxing to play and there is less risk for the same reward. The only cost is more time.

This is also viable only for roaming around on your own or in small groups in PvE or WvW play. Get more than 3 people together and you notice your effectiveness drop. That being said, a way to change how quickly your conditions actually damage may be a way to help the stack limit problem.

I got 1 fractal weapon before the Fractured update. Before it had stats. Now it doesn’t. There does not seem to be a way to correct this.

What the heck is going on here?

why use transmutation stones:
level 79 exotic armor is basically just as good as level 80. the only scenario where it isn’t is in PvP, and you are max 80 by default there so it doesn’t apply. 1 level of armor difference in faceroll PvE content makes no difference.

no one thinks this, so the prices on lvl 79 gear is VASTLY cheaper than the same gear piece 1 level higher.

how about this:

infused ring + pile of t6 + mystic coins + something else 1 thing (scroll or something) = change stats on infused ring to something I can use, different recipe per stat to change to.

wow, its not that hard. there are fewer here and there now, and the bomb run is actually doable now. I don’t mind the long reset timer on the bombs either.. it allows our portal and sanctuary to recharge

please do not reduce the numbers of enemies here. I dont want to have to farm orr for my T6 mats. one good run here will net me 40-60 bags of fine materials

give us some way to blind the dredge and this fractal can be put on the easy tier.

TA fwd fwd is also a simple path on par with those listed above. If you know how to time your dodges any path in CoE will work here too.

while I like the lore and this is an awesome basis for a cracked, horrible villain, this does almost nothing for the Scarlet we see in the game. Everything between the lines is awesome. the cover and content really stink. if we have to look this hard for meaning and enjoyment out of something we’re blasted in the face with every two weeks something is wrong.

in gw1 I disliked prince rurik. after meeting trahearne I missed rurik. now i want trahearne back…

of course. I say other 4 because Im seldom in a group of more than 5 total. the number of targets doesn’t really matter. the mechanics are still relevant.

which server are you on?

my guild would be happy to show you the ropes there. we have a few arah vets that know it well and we’re patient with newbs. Look me up in game anytime @ Smitten Mittens. I’d be happy to run you thru.

staff is just battle grease. stack might, lay down a symbol, pop that orb if needed and weapon swap. if you stay in staff any longer than it takes for that swap weapon cooldown you are hurting your team.

that said, as soon as might stack is available, use it again. we have no reduction in our weapon swap so at times spamming staff 1 is our only option. for 7 seconds. recognize the skills that are being utilized.

I always have a staff with me, but I don’t just sit on it. you have two weapon sets for a reason: use them.

strange.. I feel the reward every time I use it.

the other 4 people can use an attack instead of having to use a condi clense. the battle just got shorter. I can reset the conditions on everything and save the day. every little bit helps.

Looks very solid. A few things to min/max…

I’d replace Stand Your Ground with Hallowed Ground. The retail you can already apply by using the mace symbol and focus 5 while standing in it, and it’s AoE. Any other profession’s blast finishers will also do this for you. With that I’d also change the Honor minor trait to larger symbols instead of shout recharges.

Instead of the two dolyak runes go for broke on the boon duration and add 2 Superior Monk runes (from AC dungeon). This will give you another 15% and extend everything you are doing.

You seem to be focusing a lot on that crit chance, but I don’t see anything taking advantage of it. Your focus at least should have an on-crit sigil.

Consider taking 5 out of Virtues and adding 5 into Honor. the boon damage increase will benefit greatly here.

I’d recommend staff as an off-set weapon to make best use of symbol traits and AH. You will be a healing powerhouse and have respectable damage output. If you want to go totally nuts put a life-stacking sigil on it.

staff always
replace the sword with a mace. combo happy off yourself and bring your team dps up with might / retal and heal on top of it.

you can stack upwards of 15+ vuln and multiple blinds if you trait this right. Throw in the right shouts and you can take down a silver mob w/o ever taking a hit.

I have few problems with the game, but…
1. time gated anything
2. soulbound drops on characters that won’t use them
3. not enough emotes
4. not enough reasons to be in any town but Lions Arch
5. the almost impossible set of circumstances that must be met to achieve rewards from the Tequatl fight.

nice topic!

1. I don’t have to spend money or half my life playing to compete.
2. The trading post. No more spamming and hoping for the best. What a relief.
3. In-Game community. Players help each other a lot. It’s great to team up on events with total strangers and feel a sense of teamwork and camaraderie. Makes me feel like I’m a part of something.
4. Account Wallet. Why doesn’t every game have this?
5. Dungeons. Excellent challenges to do with my friends. This is the very definition of online gameplay, and it’s awesome.

I’m a vet fractals runner.

I know them all by heart and I cringe just as much as anyone when the dredge or harpy fractal come up, but I go through them anyway. I was miffed at the little changes they made to some of them to prevent “skipping” or “exploiting” features (see: sneaking behind the jade maw and pulling the dredge boss out of the room) but understood they were for a good reason. These changes have not had any negative impact on my fractal experience and in fact provided a better challenge which I found more enjoyable.

My current fractal level is over 30.

I do not feel like I am losing anything with the change. I feel I am being rewarded with a new chance to prove my ability in new content and earn better rewards. If you feel the same as I do please post here and let the developers know I’m not alone.

If you feel like your gameplay experience has been hurt by this, there is already another thread for that.

Keep up the good work, devs. I look forward to spending my extra 2 days off checking out the new content this team worked on, and on any character I choose to.

I once got a black lion key out of a black lion chest, and used that key to open another chest. This happened 3 times in a row in one sitting. I haven’t been that lucky since.

I just sell everything I get on the TP if it’s worth it. 100g per week, no econ major required

This update is going to be awesome!

I always laugh when I read “endgame” in regards to an MMO. It’s especially funny in regards to GW2 with the whole Living Story and dynamic elements.

Its a living, breathing world in a virtual universe. IRL “endgame” is death. Do you want endgame in GW2? I sure don’t.

according to the notes you only need to do 20 fractals to hit the new cap. assuming the notes are correct you won’t be able to go past level 50.

in this regard you aren’t really losing anything. you still received all the rewards you earned from running higher levels before. you get 20 new levels of varied content to play through for free. I still feel like regardless of what level you were at before, all you are getting are benefits from this change.

what did they take away besides the number? help me understand!

you don’t lose any rewards do you?

I salvage everything under Rare unless it meets the following requirements:
-sells for more than merch value on TP
Rares are salvaged into ecto (mystic salvage kit)
Exotics are considered for sell / salvage depending on market price and if I can use it on any alts. Named drops are almost always sold but offered to Guild mates first.

Any mats are stored except for T5 and T6. Those are all sold, 100% of the time when I’m trying to save up gold for something. If I’m not saving, they are stored as well.

Anything that doesn’t fit in storage gets merch’d or TPd depending.

what are you losing besides your number tracking how much time you spent there? it’s not like it’s a badge you can wear that other people can see. you still have all the same stuff and you get to progress again, for free, with added features, rewards, and other benefits that you didn’t have to pay for.

so, what’s the beef?

It was awesome. Must watch again.

…yep, still awesome.

yeah, I’ve noticed this too. I tend to look down a lot as well. It really becomes obvious for me during the Lupi fight, but not really anywhere else.

they have steady weapons in pvp already.

what they should have is a complete collection of back items with all the stats. I cannot test assassins stats in the heart of the mists..

fractal reward level
legendary weapons
ascended weapons (and armors when they hit)
commander tag (but not showable unless you are on an 80)
WvW experience

everything else is fine being soulbound imo.

I’ll bet the older 2 are just thrown into the rotation and the reactor is added to the end of every odd number. that way you can choose your poison for the end. maw or reactor run, but never both.

I know it will never happen, but I really hope we get an Urgoz flavored fractal at some point…

i never used the stack thing in the dredge fractal. just stay near the back wall and fight the champ. that boss must have one of the easiest to dodge attacks in the game, the wind up is so slow and obvious.

that harpy thing is annoying as kitten tho. woe to any who get both of those fractals in one run over 30…

best use for single target blind in game: waste target’s elite single hit elite skill. I promise the cooldown on your blind skill is shorter than their elite skill. you can do this forever if you time it right.

see also: free block.
on my guardian, combined with aegis, I can fight any vet (and some slower champs) without having to dodge once.

it’s about time. i hope we get more than just 1 fractal a year.

anything to lower the chances of that awful dredge fractal…

full party boon duration increase? nope
full party condition duration reduction? nope
instant long-range travel skills to save someone? nope
area or long term stealth skills? nope
create multiple targets of myself? nope
summon pets to do my damage for me? nope
hide my health pool? nope
see what I’m getting at here?

there are tons of things warriors cannot do that other classes can. while it’s true wars have a bit more build diversity and can access more of their class options at one time easier than others, this doesn’t mean they are simply overpowered. yes, my warrior can out damage any of my other characters. it also gets pick up off the ground more than any other too.

as I don’t really care about the stats I don’t think ascended armor is that big of a deal. if people want to grind for it, by all means. thats just more people in the game i can play with. you can do anything in this game with exotics (or rares if you are skilled enough) except the jade maw fractal. Most other cases of agony you can dodge or avoid altogether with enough vigor.

now if the armors actually looked cool I might want them, but I’m not a fan of any of the designs we’ve seen so far..

smells like a guardian.

a new profession has to bring something totally new to the table. every class can do something no one else can do. for example:

warriors: movable physical party support
guardian: condition/boon duration support
necromancer: hidden health pool
mesmer: multiple target distraction
thief: powerful one-hit set ups
ranger: ally synergy (2 characters in 1)
engineer: any-situation utilities and traits
elementalist: diversity and combat reaction / setups

this is just from my experience, but anything listed there I have a hell of a time doing on any other class.

come up with that “one thing” that no other class can do well or at all and build from there. for Dervish, I’d imagine something along the lines of “ally aoe triggers” or skills that grow and strengthen in effectiveness the more allies you have near you, and their skills actually center on allies, not on enemy targets. It would play like an old school monk build, only offensively, and fits the class theme well.

I like the idea of T4 or T5 cultural sets, but I think your prices are a little high.

yeah, it doesn’t take too long to get 100g for example. I almost have 7K achieve points been playing since first beta, so I don’t play that much (job/school/etc). Just to give everyone else a frame of reference here..

I bought a full set of T3 human cultural 2 weeks ago. I got a commander tag on my main today. I went down to under 1G after each purchase. Im sure in another 2 weeks I can be near 100g again. Typically I play for a few hours each day, run 3-5 dungeon paths (the fast ones) and I do the daily every day and the monthly as soon as possible. I salvage every thing I can and sell every mat that’s worth selling on the TP. All of them.

My storage is almost empty, but I’m already done crafting for now so, meh. Most mats are not hard to come by.

Regardless of how you get your money, there is almost always an easier way to get it, and whoever plays more will have more.

This doesnt mean having super-expensive things in game are pointless. It just takes you longer to get it. Where the end-game of this world is all cosmetic, there is nothing forcing you to do this.

That being said, T4 should be more like, 300g and T5 a solid 700g. If I get a super lucky precursor drop I should be forced into a choice. 1 legendary weapon with a whole lot of farming or 1 really awesome, exotic, unique set of armor for one character. This way if you want both you keep playing. (see: cosmetic end-game).

They had just better look awesome or no one is going to get them.

yes, temp and perm options. excellent idea.

I’d like to throw into the mix of options: glowy auras and more dance moves

unofficial but reverse (5 people started, I finished the last half health or more)

first worm boss in TA
golem fan boss in uncategorized fractal

there are some others but I forget them..
symbol healing zerk guardian ftw

yes, Im still having fun. been playing since first beta and the longest I’ve gone without playing is about a week due to work. I almost never play for more than 4 to 6 hours at a time at the longest. Normally its around 2 to 3 every 1.5 days on average.

theorycrafting, guild events, and living story are the main things that keep bringing me back, not the least of which is the community I’ve been a part of in-game since month 1 of GW1.

There are plenty more like me out there. If you find it just isn’t doing it for you take a break and come back refreshed. Nothing in this game forces you to do anything, it’s all up to choice.

Please increase the sending message limit for higher ranks in guilds. There are many times where myself or other officers have a need to send more than 2 in game mails to our members. We will use the MotD for guild-wide messages and information, but this is very impersonal and does not apply to numerous situations when running a guild.

We often hold our own in-game contests and have prizes for winners (3 to 5, normally). I’d like the ability to reward those players in a timely basis without feeling like I’m a spam bot.

I know I can just ‘wait a while’ and this is not exactly a need, but it is a quality of life improvement for the game which falls in line with the other perks or responsibilities higher ranking officers in a guild can achieve.