Guild Wars 2

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

I too hope for better reasons not to go full arcane and water. It could be a good change to have more viable fire magic builds that are as attractive as arcane and water.

This. I think it sucks that Ele is still strongly obliged to spec 20+ arcane, 20+ water with 2-3 cantrips just to achieve IMO what should be baseline survivability.

I’d still like to see improvements to:

• glyphs – lack of compelling trait(s)
• conjures – clunkiness of base mechanic
• signets – weak passives/lack of defense for heavy trait investment
• the traits that have been criticised since launch, eg: one with fire/air, zephyr’s speed, geomancer’s freedom, stop drop and roll, elemental surge, plus:
  • Blinding Ashes (nerf the CD slightly but make it a per-blind-application CD so it works deterministically for AOE burns)
  • the new XII arcane trait, no way it’s on the same power level as other grandmasters.

Having levelled them all, yes, ele is easily the weakest and worst to level, at least solo. if staff is what you enjoy, i’d probably spec heavily into berserker stats and the fire line and use signets for the CC, with the goal being to immob mobs in your lava font and blow them up quickly. Ranged enemies are your enemy so just LOS them, focus them first, and/or make heavy use of earth #3 (reflect).

Once you get more familiar with all the CC staff Ele has you can wean yourself off the CC utilities.

Nerelith.7360:

The problem was " Too many situational skills that too many players today may NOT know the situation in which to use them."

Not in this game, that’s the problem, the skill mechanics don’t run deep enough. There’s nothing that will ever make Ele scepter water #2 useful, it’s simply a junk skill. There are many others like it.

Glov.5342:

GW2 makes up for it due to traits

I think many would say GW2 traits/talent trees are the weak point of the design – as a whole they’re not nearly as impactful as in other games. E.g. check out a sample Rift talent tree for a mage: http://www.rifthead.com/stc/zcNla, then consider that that’s only 3 of 10 trait trees that a mage can choose from.

and that every single skill is useable (good is debateable)

Are you sure you’re playing this game? I’d ballpark the number of useless/filler skills in this game in the vicinity of 20-30% (IMO about the industry standard). There’s really only a handful of weapons that don’t have a useless/problematic skill. Granted some % of thee are situationally useful skills, but there are plenty of truly useless skills as well, eg: ele sceptre water #2.

I don’t have problem with useless/lacklustre skills – all games have them – but what is disappointing is the reluctance/slowness/lack of care we’ve seen in almost 2 years.

I note that skill uselessness in most cases is not really a matter of my opinion, the same skills/utilities have been complained about on the forums since release in many cases.

is this even a question? GW1 had way more build diversity and way more skill depth. Not just the # of skills but the range of things that skills could affect, and be affected by, was so much larger.

Most classes in this game have very poor build diversity. Worse than your standard MMO, e.g. Rift, WOW. It has always been the weakest aspect of this game and frankly, not much effort has been invested to change this. It’s sad.

sazberryftw.3809:

By biggest criticism of Anet is their inability to communicate with us. They keep us in the dark about everything. I want to know exactly what they’re working on fixing, and features they’re working on implementing. And I want to be kept up to date. Hiding everything from us for some big feature pack which the playerbase ends up hating is just dumb.

fixed.

A classic Anet fail example is the capture points in WVW. Noone asked for them, nothing was communicated about them during development, everyone hates them now cause the geography just gets in the way.

I couldn’t be less interested in LS content, and I couldn’t be more disappointed with how GW2 has turned out.

The only things I’ve wanted in this game are for (intra-)class balance and build diversity to be taken seriously, and some interesting new mechanics added to WVW. But in 2 years, almost nothing.

Try to stay on topic people…

OP makes a lot of good points, and I agree this is without reservation or exaggeration, the game with the worst implementation of a pet class I’ve played in 20+ years of gaming.

Worth mentioning that no matter how good a player you may be or become, ranger will still suck in 20v20+ battles because of really poor AOE and support.

The ranger axe #5 skill, whirling defense, is really way too limited and carries too many downsides. It really needs to be made more relevant, eg allow movement during the channel, or an evade while channelling.

Sustained damage my kitten .

ThiBash.5634:

scerevisiae.1972:

I do know how to use them properly; they’re just objectively worse than cantrips and arcane utilities. This isn’t controversial; it’s overwhelmingly the consensus position.

A character from a fantasy novel once said: “Most people would say so. Then again, most people are idiots.”

People think they’re useless because nobody’s using them because they’re useless because nobody’s using them etc.

Mate, it’s really not that complicated. No one’s using them cause they suck.

(in wvw/PvP)

I’d have said mesmer has the best (most original), ranger/ele have the worst (least imaginative)

Ltomato.8649:

The main reason for this is that the pet return still isn’t responsive enough.

Agree, the pet is still not up to par. The main issues for me are that even ranged pets are useless in wvw, and F2 skills across the board are too slow, especially leap and cone skills.

for me, the defining characteristic of the 1st game was the flexibility of the class/skill system – the mix of primary class mechanic + secondary class + wide variety of skills was awesome – there was always something new to try/theorycraft.

I don’t think this game has anywhere near the same depth.

With the exception of mesmer and necro (and possibly engie, which i don’t have an 80 of), every class has 1 maybe 2 builds that are so much better than everything else they have — in general, intra-class balance IMO is really bad and I really hope they divert some serious resources to trying to bring (intra-class) balance up to par.

Julie Yann.5379:

That’s why I say that removing +/- condition duration food from WvW would probably fix most of the warrior mobility problem. Even with Dogged Marche and Melandru runes you can immobilize/chill, cripple warriors long enough to keep them in combat if they don’t have the food.

personally, i think Dogged March is the culprit – it’s way too strong for an adept trait.

i think Ele would play better with RTL on a shorter CD again but maybe make it affected by chill/cripple instead.

IMO it’s a bit too easy to kite a D/D these days with only 1 good gap closer on a 40sec CD when it’s such an easy skill to dodge.

i’d go the other way and make food available everywhere. it’s already available in 2/3rds of the game why shouldn’t it be in the last 1/3rd?

just make it a permanent selectable buff in sPVP instead of an itemised consumable.

Agree. Needs to be fixed.

Sarision.6347:

I would prefer if they cut both the duration and recharge down by half, so 10s and 60s respectively.

This. Lack of stability is a major issue in wvw.

BobbyStein.2315:

What sort of stories would you like to see?

Stories that involve new skills or WVW content. As one who pretty much only plays WVW I’m extremely frustrated that new LV/PVE content (that I have no interest in) comes out every 2 weeks but new WVW/skill content comes out every 6+ months if we’re lucky.

I think your priorities are way lopsided.

ThiBash.5634:

Don’t really want new skills to be honest. It’ll just lead to more balancing headaches.

scerevisiae.1972:

eg1: for PVP/WVW Ele glyphs, signets, and conjures all suck, have always sucked.

Ele glyphs and signets are very useful, you just gotta learn how to use them properly.

I do know how to use them properly; they’re just objectively worse than cantrips and arcane utilities. This isn’t controversial; it’s overwhelmingly the consensus position.

DEKeyzToChaos.7381:

scerevisiae.1972:

i still think the best solution (which i’ve suggested a 100 times now) is for the conjure to replace only 1 element not 4, ie: FGS replaces the 5 skills of fire but you can freely change attunements and then come back to fire and the 5 FGS skills.

I don’t see conjures ever working in their current form, as losing 21 skills and the class’ core mechanic for the gain of only 5 skills is a really bad tradeoff.

So you want to be able to use fiery rush and fiery whirl every 13 seconds in a rotation? That doesn’t sound ridiculously unbalanced at all.

Rush into a wall should be nerfed anyway because of how much it trivialises PVE content. Whirl would probably be fine after the change IMO.

In any case, making conjures “work” for 2/3rds (ie: non-PVE) of the game should be goal #1, and any adjustments (ie: nerfs) should be applied as needed afterwards.

IMO it performs OK with multiple targets but it’s kind of weak vs 1. It’s really a power/condi hybrid weapon too, which also restricts its use.

i stand corrected.

i still dislike it cause of how random the blind application is when using AOE burns. Would rather it did an AOE blind and had a longer CD so it could be useful outside of 1v1s.

i’d like them to start by making every weapon & utility line somewhat balanced first.

eg1: for PVP/WVW Ele glyphs, signets, and conjures all suck, have always sucked.
eg2: for WVW non-roaming, everything ranger just plain sucks
numerous other examples.

was a bugfix, not a nerf. get over it.

Dahir.4158:

but the blinds every 5 seconds from burn

blind CD is 10sec, not 5.

That and when you factor in the randomness of the application, it’s not a good trait (except perhaps for 1v1 custom arenas).

i still think the best solution (which i’ve suggested a 100 times now) is for the conjure to replace only 1 element not 4, ie: FGS replaces the 5 skills of fire but you can freely change attunements and then come back to fire and the 5 FGS skills.

I don’t see conjures ever working in their current form, as losing 21 skills and the class’ core mechanic for the gain of only 5 skills is a really bad tradeoff.

Bo Van Swill.7619:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFQQJAoYnMISND23AGOAfEGwAwIWFCChTABgeowSQFA-TVDEABFqE0u9HeSJRLq7ElSt40BYwBEoJlBKqSQIaB6QDxBnAAAeQABAQAuZAQCNczbezhezbWKABVGB-w
The build i use does me fine

that build is terrible. any halfway decent player will dodge your signet/BF combo and then you’re SOL due to no sustain.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFUQJAoYlMMozhFOwyB0zNgBgQM6wgJCU+82wA-T1BEwAwU/x++DaV+1WPAgTAAXlgPeAABAQAYoDdnDdnDtUAmoMC-w

I only PVP and I also agree with the majority that think losing control of your character while autoattacking is broken. Turning off autoattack as a workaround doesn’t make it any less broken.

how about ust making offhand focus not suck first?

(ps: focus is fine for PVE, i’m strictly talking about WVW/PVP)

it’s a cool trait build in theory which unfortunately performs poorly in practise, mainly because it gives up so much survivability.

Ele has never been bad in WVW IMO. D/D is doable now in WVW but staff is still better (IMO).

The new traits have failed to really mix things up at all, and glyphs, signets, and conjures still suck as hard as they always have.

darkace.8925:

Personally, I think it’s simply a case of the Living Story + Cash Shop being so financially successful for them they’re not really concerned with much else. They ask themselves, “why bother with X when Y is already working so well for us?” And because there isn’t a great answer to that question, most of their resources are allocated accordingly.

This. If the game is not eventuating the way you’d like it to, then don’t support it. Don’t spend any money on gems and discourage your friends from spending money as well.

Sobat.8650:

They condensed 70 trait points to a total of 14.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-April-15-2014/first#post3896049

Unlocking Trait Tiers

Adept trait tier will now unlock at level 30.
Master trait tier will now unlock at level 60.
Grandmaster trait tier will now unlock at level 80.

Acquiring Trait Points
Trait points have been condensed into 14 points (down from 70), each of which is equivalent to the value of 5 old trait points. This means that instead of granting 10 points of each trait-line-specific stat, each trait point will provide 50 points of the trait-line-specific stats. These will be distributed in the following manner:

Level 30—1 Trait Point
Level 36—1 Trait Point
Level 42—1 Trait Point
Level 48—1 Trait Point
Level 54—1 Trait Point
Level 60—1 Trait Point
Level 66—2 Trait Points
Level 72—2 Trait Points
Level 78—2 Trait Points
Level 80—2 Trait Points

I have to say this change has made levelling an alt far more tedious and less enjoyable. I much prefer having 70 points and getting 1 per level. The new system also makes little logical sense mathematically (noone expects to be rewarded every 6th level…).

Once again, the GW1 system was better than both the new and old GW2 system.

No stun-break.

what’s the point of new classes when existing classes have such terrible intra-class balance? entire weapons, traitlines and utility types continue to go virtually unused in wvw/pvp.

eg: Ele signets, glyphs, conjures are all embarrassingly badly underpowered relative to cantrips & arcane utilities.

It’s not just intra-class balance that sucks either, eg: WVW has had the same GWEN meta since release, with no sign of ever changing.

#fiddlingwhileromeburns

It’s broken, should have been fixed 12 months ago.

If there are engine implementation issues precluding an easy fix then the design was broken in the first place.

Pets take 50% normal AOE damage. Fixed.

would be nice if the questions thread were open for 24+ hours so those of us in different timezones could participate.

Well, they broke ride the lightning on Ele a year ago and still haven’t fixed it, I wouldn’t hold my breath…

Just because you can work around a flaw doesn’t make it less of a flaw. The Sword isn’t working fluently. And no matter how much you repeat yourself, it wont get any better.

This. You should not lose control of your character while auto-attacking, that’s just a bug or bad design.

IMO the leaps should be separate – #2 to leap forward, #3 to leap back, then the current #3 becomes a followup to the #2.

I still find it ridulous you can be easily mezzed while taking AOE damage.

Inter class isn’t too bad, it’s intra-class balance where they’ve really dropped the ball.

Eg I’m still using the same basic traits and utilities on my Ele as at release, because the alternatives suck in comparison.

Lack of serious balance effort is what’s making this game stale and boring.

• traps should be 900 range when traited so they can become a realistic AOE option in WVW
• untraited pets should be faster by default and species more differentiated
• sword #1 is broken and should be fixed

rangers are pretty bad in WVW large-scale, you’re far better off with a GWEN class. They are fine for everything else.

Hammerguard.9834:

a t s e.9614:

The problem is that most rangers use bad builds in WvW and refuse to drop the bear and the longbow. Well a lot of people use bad builds in wvw but rangers have the worst of bad builds.

Zerker/PVT bearbow is like the easiest thing to kill.

You think it’s the players fault when they really have no other options. Longbow is without a doubt the best WvW weapon Rangers have and the pet choice doesn’t even matter much in zerg play.

I hate how everyone blames Rangers on bearbow when it’s just not true.

quoting for truth. rangers are somewhat light on condi removal, bear F2 is an AOE condi removal.

→ it’s not the player’s fault that bearbow (or at least longbow) is the strongest WVW spec right now.

Sarision.6347:

I would like it to affect both the pet and the Ranger, so I don’t have to rely on the signet.

yeah there’s really a suite of things that stand out to me on ranger relative to my other classes:

• untraited pet is too slow
• pets are very generic, basically no differences other than F2 skill
• signets only affecting pet is really bad, should affect ranger by default and GM trait should make it both.
• traps are in the wrong trait line, and should be 900 range when traited
• sword #1 is really broken

the difference is, GW1 allowed so much more uniqueness through the player’s choice of elite and secondary profession and how they could interact with the primary class’ class-specific mechanic (they were in GW1 too btw).

This game is a slim shadow of the customisability/uniqueness the previous game had to the point that this game will always feel half-kittened by comparison.

The Primary.6371:

scerevisiae.1972:

staff skills are slow and not very responsive, yes.

another thing i’ve noticed playing from australia the game isn’t very well-tuned for higher latency connections compared to other games.

i’m well-used to the game’s sluggish controls by now but it’s a major turnoff/disadvantage for any kind of competitive play.

I don’t seem to have a problem with latency. I must be one of those rare aussies that doesn’t have lag issues.

the worst offender is Ride The Lightning — this skills actually hits its target less than 1 in ten times, with most uses drastically overshooting the target to the point that an immediate Updraft will almost always miss. It’s so bad I stopped playing D/D because of it (that is, it uses to work perfectly at release, then they patched it and the post-patch version almost always misses).

I submitted a bug for RtL, and others have even posted videos showing the overshoot, but of course, a year later now and nothing has been done about it.