Guild Wars 2

Erasmus.1624:

thrag.9740:

You know what you should advocate? Making the game even more homogenized than it already is.

Anet level design.

Anet level design is gimping a class so horrendously that they are often explicitly forbidden in LFG’s for 3 years, and never actively trying to correct the situation. I guess that’s better.

Nerfing ps war won’t make the meta any broader. It will just remove the ps war and replace it with the scepter ele. Ele already has it good enough in pve.

You know what you should advocate? Giving necro a trait similar but slightly weaker than ps. That would open some options up.

I understand. Too bad, this was one of literally 2 places where I thought off hand axe was useful. Oh well.

oh he has to be targeted? That is very important information for me. I often do not keep anything targeted so that I can position myself to cleave as many enemies as possible. I’ll have to remember to target him in the future.

Hey guys, it’s been quite a while since I posted here. I have gotten to level 50 and ran many 50s at this point. I am close to finishing the fractal frequenter achievement. But I have a new question.

8.) For the grawl shaman boss. In the shield phase. Does whirling axe (warrior axe 5) actually strip 15 stacks from the shield? Usually I go gs+axe/axe. But it is tough to see if axe 5 is really stripping that many. Stacks seem to start stripping a LOT faster once i get back to auto attack.

Same issue for a few months. Submitted an in game bug report a few months ago, which clearly never fixed it.

I then submitted an online request (https://help.guildwars2.com/anonymous_requests/new). They replied and told me the only thing to do is to use the in game bug report.

So basically, they have no intention of fixing this. And you should probably just make a new character if you want to experience the personal story completely.

Draco.9480:

why would someone die if everyone does right? even if dies drop a sr becase most of the blasts can damage and reveal so wasting banners on a dead person would be a waste just let him wp and run by himself.

lol im sorry, are we not talking about pugs? Yes, because clearly someone bad enough to get revealed can make the solo run.

crixus.7203:

the black powder itself can hit the enemies xDDD..so maybe your warbanner wont hit them but the pistol will..it does slight dmg which can revealed you!
a smart thief…will set shadow refuge on his skills just for an emergency cases such as 1 of your party m8s is downed that is more the right way do to imo

Ofc SR is better, but what is more likely to be off cd? That is why I mentioned black powder

Draco.9480:

thrag.9740:

one criticism. Blasting with banners is a legit strategy.

Warhorn 5 > warhorn 4 > drop banner > banner 5 > banner 3. 3 blasts instead of 2, more swiftness for the group, and more importantly, unlike lb 3, banner 5 will never put you in combat, and you won’t accidentally get stuck without a greatsword.

Also, if there is a class which lacks blasts, such as mesmer/gaurd/necro you can drop the banner, and they can use the banner 5 blast instead. Give it to a necro for best results, as they don’t have much in terms of group swiftness either.

TLDR: if people know to carry the banners, banners can be more utility than just offensive buffs.

totally wrong if you play with your warr like this. each black powder I blast once with my warr no matter what. wh5, bow3, wh5, bow3 and etc…..
Necro/mes/guard can blast as well.
That what crix was talking about, knowing your class.
And don’t tell me only staff and UW weapons have the blasts. there are 3 more blasts for necro without the weapons and 2 of ’em are pretty short cd. mes on the other hand can only blast first and 3rd black powders only.

I think I did not clearly convey what I was talking about. 90% of the time, war should just stick to warhorn 5 and lonbow 3 for stealth blasts. I am referring to a more situational type of strategy. For example, say in arah p2, someone gets downed right on top of enemies, and the thief drops smokescreen/blackpowder and uses blinding powder to try to res. War can drop 3 blasts in that powder, giving vital time to res and avoid a wipe, and still have banner ready for boss.

bladex.9502:

Banners slow you down a lot tho, and you can easily do 2 blasts with warhorn and longbow, maybe even a third one with stomp if you really need it.
There is almost never a need for swiftness supply from a banner, a warrior with quick breathing and an ele spamming staff air 4 off cd will keep your team at permanent swiftness, and that isn’t even needed if statics are used.
If you are talking from an organised group point of view there is no need to carry banners other than them not being off CD for the next boss, and pugs wont even pick up your banner in the first place

And the getting stuck in combat is a bad excuse, just learn the range of your blasts and know not to use them when there is kitten that will reveal you near

Banners don’t slow a necro down at all. I am not saying this is a tactic you should use commonly. But say 2 friends in teamspeak join a pug. If one is war, and one is necro there is viability there. In fact banners speed a necro up via banner 4 (although not much).

Taking quick breathing means you sacrifice empowered. Granted this is probably only 3 to 5% dps loss. Unless your going to be trait swapping while running. In a pug you get pulled into combat unexpectedly.

Ele spamming air 4 is good. But remember it has a very small range. A class like necro who may get a few steps behind the ele, and then boom, no swiftness for the necro.

Getting stuck in combat is a bad excuse. But it is a real occurrence in a pug. Maybe a ranger forgot to put pet passive, or maybe the thief dropped black powder in a bad spot. Hell, somewhere in this forum we recently talked about how dredge die and leave a hit box behind. Somehow, sometimes players get put in combat. Drop banner + banner 5 are 2 blasts you can always use safely.

one criticism. Blasting with banners is a legit strategy.

Warhorn 5 > warhorn 4 > drop banner > banner 5 > banner 3. 3 blasts instead of 2, more swiftness for the group, and more importantly, unlike lb 3, banner 5 will never put you in combat, and you won’t accidentally get stuck without a greatsword.

Also, if there is a class which lacks blasts, such as mesmer/gaurd/necro you can drop the banner, and they can use the banner 5 blast instead. Give it to a necro for best results, as they don’t have much in terms of group swiftness either.

TLDR: if people know to carry the banners, banners can be more utility than just offensive buffs.

EDIT: This was accidentally decieving. I am not saying that this should be a strategy you typically use. 90% of the time, warhorn 5 + longbow 3 are the warriors go to blasts. The strategy I am talking about is very situational. I wanted to draw attention to that, but I realize this thread is for new players, where it is probably best to just outline general strategies. Not super specialized strategies. Sorry about the confusion.

I think its messed up how players are turning against one another over this. It’s human nature to choose the easiest path. We shouldn’t be forced to make the choice between going against the will of our pug group and exploiting. That choice shouldn’t even be there, and the only reason it is available, is because anet cuts corners with their content.

Does it really matter what the law is, if it isn’t enforced? Anet doesn’t care, and hasn’t cared in a very long time.

Side note: I don’t think anyone should be banned for playing this game as it is presented to us. It should not be the player’s responsibility to determine what the creators had in mind, there is no way for us to know. Was fgs an exploit? Immobilising tar ele in p1 arah? Is line casting an exploit? If anet decides something is an exploit, they should just make it impossible to do it any longer. Expecting us to innately know what is allowed (especially with their terrible communication) is unrealistic.

I strongly support fixing this.

What warriors were begging for more might?

Stacking in a corner is pretty much only used by unorganized groups in dungeons. Sometimes trash mobs in fractals, but who cares they are trash. Fractals are probably a better indicator of how bosses in raids will be. You never stack in fractals, I doubt you will stack in raids.

By the way did you even consider how many skills and traits this would make useless? Ressing players from downstate is something that ranger and necro can both do pretty well. I’d rather not make those two classes even less desired in pve.

If your worried about being wanted in pug groups, I doubt you need to worry. Every day, groups that don’t exactly match meta battle smoothly complete content, because experienced players can recognize what roles need to be filled, and fill them.

I’ve had so many smooth runs with non-meta groups. Honestly seeing ‘meta’ in the lfg means a lot less to me than seeing ‘experienced’. Anyone can copy a build off meta battle, but that doesn’t you know the strategies. Of course players lie about being experienced, but they lie about having meta builds too.

You can probably still corner stack for trash mobs if you have a thief keeping black powder up. Obviously this won’t work on bosses.

But yeah, a lot of stuff in lower level dungeons, players never really experience because we can just face tank and dps them down. My opinion is the combat system opens up as we scale up enemy hp, and we see a lot more interesting strategy.

f1 covers f2

/char15

This, its so bad. Im posting in every thread I see on it.

The zerker UI is terrible. Is there any other instance in the game where one button covers up another button? Probably not, because its terrible design.

Move the adrenaline bar to the left is my vote.

That stinks. Don’t worry, they drop quite often in lv 50 fractals. You will get your ascended boxes eventually.

In dungeons rangers are not greatly loved. Somethings you can:

-before a fight: do torch for firefield, then warhorn to blast it + give fury. Other people will start blasting too usually. If an ele is putting down a firefield don’t bother putting down your own
-your initial longbow burst + opening strike is fantastic for stacking vulnerability. If an ele is casting lightning storm then this isn’t too important. But if your group is vulnerability deficient its a solid combo.
-frost spirit and spotter use to be the way to go before the trait rework. I am not up to date on whether it is still good, but typically group buffs are well received and worth it.

You will probably run into some people that hate on rangers (and necro too probably). But if your just gonna join an unorganized group, chances are running full zerker will put you above average on dps.

Something to note, and I am not pro, so the more experienced players here may not agree, but I love having a ranger in my fractals. Fractal bosses are usually a bit tougher and require some more strategy. The strategies involving a bear are very nice, very easy to use successfully. If you don’t have an ele summoning a rock ele, that bear is a life saver. Get behind the boss, and let the boss face the bear. haha.

Plus the huge morale boost when we see the bear bouncing from cc in snowblind etc.

Jerus.4350:

Why are you required to use an exploit?

My team will regularly pick someone up who died during the canon phase.

I almost only ever pug. I do feel a lot of pressure to use the exploit if I get downed. It sucks, but because it is a pug you never know how people will react to you not using it. It is also a pug, so the fractal took a decent chunk of time, and I don’t want to risk getting kicked. It only takes one person to start the kick, then mob mentality sets in. Sometimes I will ask before the fight if I am expected to use the exploit. Usually I don’t die, so it’s a non issue, and I would rather not ask so as not to start a fight. Still, I wish anet would just change ellen’s ai a little bit, so that all these issues go away.

EDIT: I don’t know how to use the quote system

Ok, can we also give ele’s adrenaline? Oh also, make sure to give them a pet too. Don’t forget gaurdian virtues, and death shroud…..or maybe every class has it’s own mechanic, and this type of thread is misguided

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

bmountjoy.1423:

I think that armor repair should be removed from the game entirely. Ever since the repair penalty was linked to the cost of travel the whole idea of armor repair started to feel tacky. Since no real cost is associated with repair the consequences of removing it would be minimal. What do you guys think?

I think there ought to be some consequences for dying and so far, I haven’t seen a better one than to require people repair it, even if there’s no cost.

I think the penalty for failure is the failure it self. The group has to run back, or res you, etc. I don’t think anyone is ever thinking “oh no I am going to have to go fix my armor”.

I think wyvern needs to scale more. We just killed him, maybe 30 people, and he just melted way too fast. It has the potential to be epic I think. But at 30 people it was far too easy.

Edit: the trash mobs are fine.

We could also have rewards that are not just boring stats/skins. We could get useful functional items.

Tried to warn you guys:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Portal-to-maguuma-no-beta-access/page/2#post5236515

But everyone on that post pretty much said “kitten off” to those players, even though the hours were ridiculous for anyone with a 9-5 job/students. I preordered right away, never farmed, etc. So I can’t be asked to argue about it anymore.

I hope they have some cooler rewards than skins. I know this is skin wars 2, and I know anet does not want to introduce gear grind. I kinda agree with that, i’d rather just play content than grind for gear, new armor isn’t exciting to me. But cosmetics are even less interesting to me.

But maybe fractals could have unique, useful rewards. Like a repeatably useable once daily revive orb that. Not really that useful, but its something. Or an item that automatically eats luck. I know I would love that. Infinite use salvage kits should be obtainable through instanced content, as that’s where they get used the most I think. Maybe you can upgrade it to automatically salvage certain rarity levels (cough blues+greens) etc. Maybe an item that works like the portal stone, expect you right click it to be teleported to outside any of the dungeons/fractal portal. How about an item that automatically eats your “junk” trophies and rewards you the coins?

It just seems like all the rewards are cosmetic stuff, or a small stat increase on an item in a slot (ascended breather, how is that useful?). Not really that creative, not that interesting, and not really improving my experience playing the game.

Thanks for those numbers Nike.

I only pug, so here is my perspective. I think part of this misconception comes from cleave tripping might production on trash, which again who cares about being op on trash.

So yeah, anet has to choose what to balance around. Bosses, or trash. Or pvp lol

lol fractal prestige reset.

oh right, i totally forgot pristines are only in the daily chest. Is it likely that the 51-100 daily gives the same number as the 1-21? Then again, right now 50s and 20s both give 1 pristine as well. So I could see the balance going that way.

I never really pay attention to my prestine/regular relics rewards, so correct me if I’m wrong here. But right now, a single fractal (3 shards + a boss) gives a single prestine? Do we think future fractal reward system will be on this scale? Or is it more likely that each fractal in the new sytem (only 1 instance) will each give a prestine? Because if that’s the case then players will effectively get prestine’s 4 times faster.

Zoef.2761:

Im not talking about balance. Im talking about how easily people accept opinions without giving them any further thought. Criticize me for what i say; not for what i dont say.
It’s the oldest trick in the world. U ignore what i really say; instead u put words in my mouth that i never said and u blame me for them lol. Get real, pal.
Your example shows how much u know about ranger. Stowing pet doesnt work if u take a tick of damage, as u point out. However, as long as u have pet on inactive, it wont draw aggro. Only the ranger can draw aggro in that case. Get the facts right. That’s my whole point. And try to make a distinction between opinions that are presented as facts and facts. Of course, that implies that u really know what u are talking about.

And I’m saying that just because someone thinks a certain class is inappropriate for a certain encounter, doesn’t mean they are an idiot. You seem pretty sure that if someone says anything about any class, they are an idiot.

Zoef.2761:

The so-called “elitism” is just a nice word for prejudices against certain classes that are built on what idiots say and which are gladly taken over by other idiots who’d like to look competent.

Am I misinterpreting this quote? Because it seems like anyone who criticizes certain classes is an idiot according to you. Which to me implies that you believe all classes are perfectly balanced, which is why I brought up balance. There are definitely idiots who talk crap and don’t know what it means, but there is also a source for it all, inherent class imbalance in different encounters. To me, your statement was making light of this issue.

You were 100% correct about the agro thing, and I edited my post. However, there are valid criticisms of pretty much every class in certain content. I don’t think its fair to say, everyone with these criticisms is an idiot.

Shiren.9532:

Phalanx Strength singlehandedly provides 25 stacks of party-wide Might – mostly from auto-attacks.

I went to pvp, and tested on undestructible golumns. So this doesn’t have the benefit of fried dumplings. But I had standard dps sigils + strength runes. But getting 25 stacks seems pretty rare on a single target,and yes I was using signet precision stacks/banner of disc. If I gave up signet of fury and replaced it with fgj I probably could get up to the full 25 at least for the group. But that’s a 20% personal dps loss on your initial burst (which happens multiple times on most fractal bosses). You could take “to the limit” over healing signet, but then you lose 5 stacks. Now, obviously ps war gets to 25 very easily on trash mobs, where you can cleave. But who really cares about the trash mobs. We literally perma blind them and don’t even dodge. In addition, on bosses which require frequent dodging like diviner, I don’t think you will really see that 25 stacks very frequently, certainly won’t see it party wide (limited range), except maybe on a deep freeze burn.

That doesn’t seem realistic to me. You think every class can do every piece of content identically well? And anyone who points out that classes are not balanced is an idiot?

For example, rangers have a tougher time doing stealth skips because of their pet. Sure you can stow it, but take a single tick of damage and then its exposed, keeping you in combat longer,maybe drawing aoe agroe. One example would be path 2 of arah, the defiler’s poison fields.

I think ignoring certain class weakness is bad for the game, and gives anet incorrect data. I think an honest discussion about how certain classes are demonstrably weaker at certain content is better, and will lead to the balance we need.

EDIT I am sorry, passive pets can not get hit by aoes/draw agro as far as I can tell. I quicly tested it in arah via harpy feathers, and Zoef is correct in the post below.

Thank you I’ve never posted on reddit, and have no patience to make an account for it. I find it ridiculous that anet talks there rather than here, but I guess that’s rage for another thread.

Some of my friends pointed out, that perhaps segmented versions of this idea would be better. I.E. a repeatable full tour achievement for 1-20, a separate repeatable full tour achievement for 21-50, and a final one for 51-100. Obviously balance the reward.

Fyi they didnt really make arah soloable in the way you might think. enemy hp was scaled down, but parts that were designed for 5 ppl are still functionally the same, for example the part on air ship with cannon shields. anet would just half kitten it, probably making it worse

That’s interesting. I hope a race to 100 isn’t just a competition to see who has the most time to commit to fractals, but rather more so based on skill. Of course skill comes from practice, but idk it feels different to me to reward skill vs. just free time.

Yeah, a reward just for completing 1-100 could be tacked on to that. It would also get a lot more people competing in that race, which I think could help grow the community.

Really? I always assumed the “metazerk lfg’s” just meant every one should be running a meta build. I figured if they wanted specific classes they would list it, hugh.

Well op, I wish I could help you by making the other classes more viable, but I can’t. What I can do is tell you easy ways to get around it.

-If you have map completion, cooking on an alt is like a free 10 lvs. Jewelery crafting is another very cheap 10 levels. From there you can do pvp dailies (on daily servers like “mad dailies” or “KOR dailies”) and you will rapidly get tomes of knowledge. About 10 mins a day for a level on your alt. If you do reward tracks like citadel of flame, you will even get a lot of the exotic zerkers weapons to gear your alts with.

-Or you could try making your own lfg.

-Or you could try to find a guild that isn’t so strict about dungeon runs.

I know they aren’t the solutions you would prefer. But they are the only ones I can offer.

Thanks for the support Something else worth mentioning is that this would make daily 1-20 feel more natural, and less like a grind.

I agree, but again, balancing all 100 levels to be the same reward/skill vs time, is unrealistic. Making each fractal have its own unique value as part of this meta reward would help.

Purple Miku.7032:

thrag.9740:

ehh, be careful. Rifle 3 is a channeled skill. It can be deceptive. Each time the number flashes on the screen, your not hitting that much, its equal to the cumulative sum of all your hits so far.

This is true but if we’re talking about whether or not it’s worth using at all, it’s a DPS increase over just autoattacking is.

Yes, absolutely. It is definitely a dps increase, I just don’t want players to be tricked. But yeah, it is strong. Especially good for procing things with no internal cool down (fried dumplings, rending strikes, etc).

Hey, it seems likely players are just going to swamp to reward lv 100. Anet seems fine with this. Even if anet buffs swamp difficulty, and boosts cliffside rewards, who cares, there will always be a path of least resistance. It is unrealistic to think perfect balance is even feasible.

Instead, I propose a repeatable meta achievement, for successfully completing every fractal level. Make it a big checklist, if a player does fractal 45, they get a check next to 45. If they do it again, they get no progress towards the meta achievement. When a player gets a check next to all 100 levels, they get the reward for the meta achievement, the checklist is completely wiped clean, and you start again.

Currently players just play the instabilities that are easiest. This would incentivize playing them all. It would also encourage the experienced players to play with the inexperienced players (teaching them). Something anet is already trying to encourage via the dailies/karma reward system.

What would be a good reward for this meta achievement? Well if fractals 90-100 are as challenging as anet seems to be hyping it for, I think our choice of the new skins is a good idea. Or maybe legendary crafting materials. I don’t know. The point of this thread isn’t to debate the reward, its to debate the idea (assuming the reward is worthwhile).

Do we consider the fact that in coe laser jumping puzzle, the double panels can be done by a sinle player activating a single panel (but standing inbetween the two) a bug?

NotOverlyCheesy.9427:

Rym.1469:

“Oh no, I have to change my build and adapt it! What will I do?!”

So much this! Come on people, take that stick out of your bumhole and try to realize that there’s more to the game than just metazerkdps + reflects

Yes, now we can replace “metazerkdps + reflects” with " metazerkdps + projectile block". I CANT WAIT.

Sigmoid.7082:

thrag.9740:

Sigmoid.7082:

thrag.9740:

Sigmoid.7082:

More of a problem isnt necro, though it is a issue, but more how pve is designed in general. Because of pves terrible design you dont need anything besides damage to complete anything. This is something colin himself said and something they are working on. As well as that its the terrible mob ai that couples with that that makes it all to easy and needing nothing but zerk gear to complete.

I will wait to see the changes to mob ai and new pve content before writing things off completely.

How is that true at all? Blinds, blocks, evades, aegis, swiftness, cleanses, heals, blasts, stealths, stuns, reflects, tanking, all of these things are used in pve all the time. The problem is, necro is weaker at all of them than anyone else.

Just because they are used doesnt mean pve is fine :/ pve design is flawed….you dont need a bunch of stats or abilities in game because pve doesnt require they be used at all…..

“you dont need anything besides damage to complete anything”. That was your statement, that is what I am saying is wrong. Sure, you can choose to bring only damage. But try to kill lupi without anything but necro staff aa. You said all you need is damage right? Try to do a higher fractal without good active defenses. Your statement is wrong, and it is perpetuated all over the forums by players.

Bosses need more interesting mechanics. Boss fights with interesting area denial (like wildstar) would be a huge bonus. I don’t disagree. I also think a lot of bosses already have mechanics, we just kill them so stupidly fast we never see them.

But to claim the only thing used in pve is damage? Sure buddy, sure.

Just staff auto is such a hyperbole. My point was that a lot of need to game mechanics and need more more use of passive and active defence is negated by how damage is more important as is circumvents the need because if things die so fast ou dont need to worry about the mechanics of the fight.

This is something you agree with and the game designers recognise as an issue in the current system. I’m not being necro specific just pve in general is broken. If they had better encounters that needed a wider range of approaches instead of DPS as fast as possible then more classes, stat sets and builds would be able to fit in.

ahh sorry, i took your “just damage” quote literally, I’m guessing that was hyperbola too haha.

Even if new pve had more interesting encounters, I doubt necros would be desirable. What niche do they fill better than any other class? Because if your bringing the lowest dps class into a dungeon, it should have some good utility.

The problem isn’t just content design, class balance is a serious issue that equally well needs to be addressed.

oh is this game sometimes unfair to certain classes? I hadn’t noticed.

ehh, be careful. Rifle 3 is a channeled skill. It can be deceptive. Each time the number flashes on the screen, your not hitting that much, its equal to the cumulative sum of all your hits so far.

Sigmoid.7082:

thrag.9740:

Sigmoid.7082:

More of a problem isnt necro, though it is a issue, but more how pve is designed in general. Because of pves terrible design you dont need anything besides damage to complete anything. This is something colin himself said and something they are working on. As well as that its the terrible mob ai that couples with that that makes it all to easy and needing nothing but zerk gear to complete.

I will wait to see the changes to mob ai and new pve content before writing things off completely.

How is that true at all? Blinds, blocks, evades, aegis, swiftness, cleanses, heals, blasts, stealths, stuns, reflects, tanking, all of these things are used in pve all the time. The problem is, necro is weaker at all of them than anyone else.

Just because they are used doesnt mean pve is fine :/ pve design is flawed….you dont need a bunch of stats or abilities in game because pve doesnt require they be used at all…..

“you dont need anything besides damage to complete anything”. That was your statement, that is what I am saying is wrong. Sure, you can choose to bring only damage. But try to kill lupi without anything but necro staff aa. You said all you need is damage right? Try to do a higher fractal without good active defenses. Your statement is wrong, and it is perpetuated all over the forums by players.

Bosses need more interesting mechanics. Boss fights with interesting area denial (like wildstar) would be a huge bonus. I don’t disagree. I also think a lot of bosses already have mechanics, we just kill them so stupidly fast we never see them.

But to claim the only thing used in pve is damage? Sure buddy, sure.

You could just grind ar through the fractal mastery system

Quickness helps slow weapons more because of after casts maybe? the tool tip times are not always accurate.