Guild Wars 2

Windsagio.1340:

It’s actually, what was intended. Every dungeon and path, according the the designers, requires a very specific strategy, class and build composition for optimal results.

They even tested this pre-release, to balance the dungeons for the compositions, they’ve had in mind.

Source: Dig all the old news from 2012 yourself on the mainpage. Gotta be there somewhere, or here on the forums – somewhere.

Or in the “making-of book”, i’ve got. You may have it too, so dig there if you can’t find it here or on the mainpage.

I hope someone finds that statement/post. It’s hilarious in retrospective.

I’m not always insomniac, but when i am, i get very philosophic, so i currently asking myself this question:

If i’m using the FS/Spotter Ranger build with zerker armor, but with soldier trinkets and golemancy runes, a 10% sigil in the mainhand and a rage sigil in my OH, am i an elitist or a PHIW?

dlonie.6547:

Heh, Hyenas thread turned interesting at the end.

Who here would like to see Deadeyes in open-world?

I would, but I’m pretty sure the internet would run out of "Q"s.

Me too, but only if accompanied by Inquest Technicians.

Wait, hyena’s wat? *searches forum*
.
.
.
OH GAWD

I feared the day, when our pets are deemed OP by queque-puffs.
They’ve found out...they must be eliminated.
There on us. I don’t want there to be a #rangergate...just bad PR.
Thankfully, they haven’t yet found out, that it’s all just malevolent plotting of the liza...ohhh almost spoiled the secret.

OP is talking about mobs, not our pets?
*phew*
And i was worried there for a second! Ha!

Let’s agree on mesmer being “Situationally OP”.

Windsagio.1340:

Ranger: Frost Spirit (for what it’s worth lol)

A banner, that can die. What an OP skill, indeed.

The ranger got downed #3, tho.

I have to fully agree with OP and his massive amount of arguments, which are steadfast foundations of his point of view on the topic.

MistyMountains.3751:

5-7k bear hugs ftw! (‘’’((^..^))‘’’)

Wow, that’s alot of damage…i mean almost as much as 3 1H-Sword autoattacks. And it’s almost as fast. :O

I’ve lost you at “PBS does doo much DMG”.
And what’s the next best thing, someone could say about the “power ranger”? “Pets are too smart.”?

I dearly hope, that you never get hit by Path of Scars.

deSade.9437:

QQ

Feel ’ya.
But three letters, my friend: PvP
Or wait, do you think profession changes are happening with PvE in mind? (if yes, see attachment)

“What? You wanna use GS traits in PvE? Better specialize in BM! Yes, it’s the best thing since doodeedooda!”

Kraljevo.2801:

Yada yada yada.

First world problems.

Element Two.7316:

wauwi.9162:

I’ve just realized something – no GW2 player ever 1-shotted lupi.
It never happened.

67-shotting, 71-shotting or heck, sometimes even 43-shotting lupi happens all the time, though.

People have one shot it with Sentinel Rifle though and ~12 shot it with Skritt Bottle.

I could also double bearbow in dungeons at some point.
But A-Net in their eternal wisdom restricted consumables from dungeons.

Double bearbowing is too OP.

I’ve just realized something – no GW2 player ever 1-shotted lupi.
It never happened.

67-shotting, 71-shotting or heck, sometimes even 43-shotting lupi happens all the time, though.

J Eberle.9312:

spoj.9672:

I look forward to future content excluding necro aswell as more old content being reworked to exclude necro. :>

I hope we utilise eles some more as well, they hardly fit into the current meta. Take notes please anet.

I personally hope, that they’ll make warriors easier to play.
Their mechanics currently are way too complicated.

Ryn.6459:

I wrote:“50, gearcheck, swp rdy”. Would you be mad with me if I kick you for wearing celestials?

Yes, you elitist.

Gearcheck=you just ping and every build is perfectly fine.
Play how you want.

P.S. Imma kick every single pug guardian on sight after HoT. Every single one.

I’ll kick every ranger, unless they can send me a picture, that proofs, that they’re using quickdraw.

Double-pewpew.

“Pewpewpewpew” O_O

WvW thief scrublords are already crying…the tears will be delicious.

NikeEU.7690:

Did they fix the terrible combat?

No and thou never shall…verily.
#kazulmasterrace

dlonie.6547:

And did you really drag all of those mobs and the boss to the waypoint, and then post the LFG xD

“p4/LV80/First timer happily welcome ^-^”.

5 minutes later

“Welcome to arah, kiddos. Lemme tell you something about this place…”

@Miku:
How…? I don’t even…
Well, still better than having the actual watchdog in front of the portal i suppose.

dlonie.6547:

Suggesting that players standing side-by-side (due to collision detection) would be functionally different from standing in the same spot.

Maybe he’s just a rubberband salesman trying to make a living.
He could sell rubberbands much easier, if everyone’s desyncing.

Jeez, people on this thread are soooo judgy.

deSade.9437:

“Only the finest of potatoes in my zerkburgers.”

It’s actually my standard LFG description (directly inspired by this very thread), when i can’t think of something punny, like “We all live in a yellow submarine”, “If there’s something strange in the neighbourhood…” or “You’re in my swamp now.”

*Looks at most recent posts*

So, uhm...will bearbow be replaced by something even more meta-tastic?
Because it’s about freakin’ time.

If so, i actually have to bake a cake or something...with an aegis-icon as icing.

Iris Ng.9845:

Signet of Water – still hasn’t found any worthy use.

Water, eh?
Water…water…there was something with water, that i can…OF COURSE.

Forget my Storm Spirit, “Water Spirit” sure is by far the most useless skill that i happen to have access to.

I keep forgetting that i have it. Never seen it being used by another ranger anywhere ever. Open world PvE? Nope. WvW? Nopydopy. PvP? Nah.
And i most definitely never seen it in dungeons.

RNG heal..
Like…why?

dlonie.6547:

We’d love to see improved dungeons, but give up hope now. Take from those of us who have been hoping for 2+ years, only to be disappointed and ignored time and time again. It’s just not worth getting your hopes up for.

I never gave up, hence why i’m still lurking the forums.
Since you’re also lurking here, you have still hopes as well for fresh and spicy additions and/or changes to dungeons.

Dungeons are dead, once guys like you and the rest of the bunch, claiming the dungeon-discussion thread their 2nd home, take the leave entirely.

But yeah, dungeons and PvE in general feels so broken, from battle-mechanic, build-diversity and fair and rewarding challenge, to accessibility, that HoT really is the last straw i’m holding onto right now.
To everyone saying how enganging and interesting enemy encounters overall are:
Like 90% of the mobs, that everyone ignores, because they drop nothing and are nothing but are pain in the, uhm, “kittycat”, to fight? Leave Arah for a couple of minutes to get some fresh air.
Fights like Lupi, Mai Trin or Thaumanova aren’t examples, i’d throw around to showcase how awesome PvE combat is, i’d throw it around to showcase how it could be. In the end, if you understood their mechanics, it’s all about “kill it before it kills you as fast as possible to avoid risks” anyways.

Talyn.3295:

Is that the arrow you took to the knee acting up?

That’s cold, man.
You don’t joke about arrows to the knees…it ain’t funny – never was.

Shame on you.

dlonie.6547:

wauwi.9162:

I’m a ranger and i’m offended.
Please, apologize or i send my Juvenile Brown Bear after you.

Oh, you don’t take me seriously? Well, you should.
You wanna know how tough i am? You wanna know?
I’m so tough, i rather use Path of Scars than PBS.
That’s how tough i am.

Pssh, you’d never make it past my Line of Warding before I Wave of Wrath your kitten to the underworld.

Come at me bro.

Sorry, can you repeat that? It is difficult to hear you over the sound of my Super-Sword-AA-Swagger.
And pop goes the kneecap.

And while leaving the little guard crippled, the mighty ranger Hornet Stinged away – buh-bye.

It just got real man.

Derenek.8931:

spoj.9672:

I wouldnt say any. Theres plenty of really good racial skills. :P

Hahahahahahaha!!!!

Sylvari’s single target entangle and Shaggoroth.
ZING!

Most useless skill imo until the dungeon forum tells me a good use for that is the ranger’s Storm Spirit.
In fact all the Spirits are useless, if you can just take a warrior with you instead.
Banners don’t have a health bar or shenanigans like “the chance to trigger the effect” attached to them.

sMihaly.1492:

dlonie.6547:

sMihaly.1492:

[horrible things]

I brought enough for all of us:

Inb4 Point Blank Shot

I’m a ranger and i’m offended.
Please, apologize or i send my Juvenile Brown Bear after you.

Oh, you don’t take me seriously? Well, you should.
You wanna know how tough i am? You wanna know?
I’m so tough, i rather use Path of Scars than PBS.
That’s how tough i am.

Derenek.8931:

lol, my problem isn’t with dying or not beating the dungeons. I can actually solo a couple of them. My concern is just general gameplay mechanics and the effects they have on newer and more casual players.

Sure didn’t sounded like that on your opening post.

Because of PUGs you demand changes affecting gameplay mechanics, which a good player is capable of using to dictate the flow of an encounter.

Stacking is only useful in on of the following scenarios:
LOS’ing an enemy;

• to get them where you want them to be
• to force them into melee range
• to lure out a powerful attack or because of enviromental hazards
• to Forcing a group of trash into one spot, to be able to cleave them down all at once.

Note, that staying stacked is not optimal in most of these scenarios, it’s just PUGs do it, because of the lack of coordination. At the end of the day, PUGs tend to do, what’s the least complicated thing to do. “Simplicity” is their meta, hence why PUGs with 4 wars are still a common sight.

oxtred.7658:

@wauwi

you’re*

I’m pretty sure, that i left way more typos in my insomnia-driven post.

Finders keepers.

Windsagio.1340:

Because players aren’t game designers, they come up with all kinds of gameplay solutions to a problem that’s basically social.

Edit: That came out harsher than I meant.

I think there’s a bit more to it. :/

I don’t go full DPS zerker, because a guide or players told me to.
I do it, because the game gives me no motivation to try out something else in dungeons.

Conditions? Boon duration? Going beastmaster on my ranger?
Why should i, if all of that would have no effect in dungeons, but lower my damage.

The solution for that would be so simple. It would even give ’ye olde dungeons, everyone seen a million times a breath of fresh air (i have suggested that a couple of times already, but it really is so simple):

“Mistformed Dungeons” (Lore to that: oh noez, the enemy has unleashed another plot device to call strange powers of the mist upon this place, yaddayaddayadda."):

• Enemy-encounters change in regular intervals of, idk, 24H, giving them new resistances and weaknesses everday.

• Normal dungeons remain.

• “Mistformed Dungeons” (really gotta think about a better name, tho) give better or different rewards.

“Dungeon Modifications” would be displayed on the entrance/portal, allowing to LF a healthy mixture of builds or an optimal mix of different professions and builds for experienced players.

This would include “Modifications”, such as “Enemies resistant to crits, highly suspectible to fire, poison and bleed” or “Strange powers from the mist preventing boons, 50% chance to daze enemies with combofinishers” or why not “+100% Number of enemies, enemies deal 50% more damage, enemies have 80% less health, some enemies may create AoE barriers, preventing any attempt to flee, confusion does 100% more damage.”

BTW, ^poor examples^.

But yeah, anything goes, sky’s the limit. Weeeeeeeh~

And the best thing is, zerkers can zerk efficiently normal dungeons and “experimantal mad scientists” can madly experiment with their builds in random-dungeons as well.

Your welcome, dungeon community. (k, that was way~ too smug)

That’s why i asked for a less negative term. (I suppose my previous post could be misconcepted as being a rethorical question)

I felt bad of throwing the term “PHIW” around, for players who just have an unoptimal set of armor, but are cooperative, supportive and most importantly, got a brain and knowledge of the game.

I just call ’em “Fluffs” from now on.
That sounds cute. I like cute things.

Windsagio.1340:

There is the use of PHIW as a perjorative, of course.

Yeah, they’re kind of the exact opposite, of what’s know as the “elitist”.

How would you call an awfully geared player, who’s still knowledgable in the ways of the dungeon runner?

fracture.9754:

Need warr to run Magg…wait WAT. Hoooly s-

Warrior is best tank in Guild ’n Warz.

Also loling @ “Story” the most, because combo-breaker.
Taury’s LFG-shot is just so much win, that i think we have a clear leader on this thread right now.

Chipster.6713:

The only thing filthy here is your language. Casuals are the prime market of the MMORPG genre.. The only reason why you can run full zerker is because everyone skips everything and abuses high ground and stealth to take off agro from mobs.

Because of this, dungeons are the worst part of the game.

This is like saying “Mesmers are abusing FB and iWarden to reflect projectiles” or “Eles abusing firefields for might stacking”.

And think about why “Trash mobs” are being called “Trash”, because they die slowly with ZERO reward.
Champ dies fast? A exp’ed group will kill it for the bag. Mobs drop decent loot? Then it’s not trash and will be killed. (fractal dredges, for example)

I’m a filthy casual, btw. A very filthy zerker casual, who took a break until PvE, especially dungeons, are getting a little bit more attention from the devs.
I really envy any PHIW…they’re still so innocent.

Unless they’re thiefs who pop their SB out during Lupi p3, while everyone else is meleeing. I don’t mind PHIWs in my party as long as they don’t walk left, when the group decided to go right.

GW2 advertised to get rid of everything, that MMO players got tired of, including lack diversity. When it launched, most players where pretty comfortable with the fact, that anything kinda worked, until they discovered “Why should i wear soldier’s, if i can just move out of way?”

Some people (like me) don’t see min-maxing as a bad thing. We see min-maxing for raw DPS and nothing else as a bad thing. Other mmo’s at least provide diversity.
Have you seen PoE’s skillboard? HAVE YOU SEEN IT!? O.O

It’s just that there’s ZERO reason to do anything else, but go full zerk and melee weapons with power builds in PvE, up to the point, where some professions can’t even find already rare groups to run dungeons with.

I heard, there’s alot more room for experimentation in sPvP and WvW.
Maybe the PvE needs some of the random nature of PvP, by randomizing mobs, giving the resistance to that sort of thing and weaknesses to that and i’m sure, it can be achieved without slowing the game down too much.
Bringing PoE up again: Due to how randomized enemy encounters are, there is no “meta”. Some builds work better on this, some work better on that.

In GW2’s PvE however, everything is weak to zerk.

PvE is merely a game of “Simon Says” right now, if simon would say the same thing over and over again, even if you restart and simon would speak in slow motion, unless you’re wearing zerker armor. :P

Did an Ele just complain about Rangers getting too buffed, ez and op?
An Ele?
ELE???

I’m actually genuinely speechless right now.

Jerus.4350:

A new meta will surely emerge as soon as we get full details of the changes. I’m sure there are those with their spreadsheets waiting just to plug in new combinations.

This.

As soon as HoT launches, there already will be players asking for specific specializations which will, and i’m 100% sure of that, involve max DPS, when creating their PUGs.

Then we’ll see threads asking for trait-line inspections in-game and all that shabam.
And then, i’ll be sad, because i still can’t PHIW (or at least be more versatile/experimental with my build/weapons) and be useful at the same time.

Don’t get me wrong, there always will be builds/setups superior to others and there always will be a “meta” but the difference right now between “meta” and “anything else” is like day and night.

I don’t want a nerf to zerker and DPS builds overall – all i want are equal (or almost equal) options next to that.

I just realized, how pessimistic i am today, but who knows, maybe HoT brings back the feel of discovery, experimentaion and breath of fresh air into GW2, which i’ve had during the first 6 months after launch.

Can i now use my GS as a ranger in a group, without passively killing my team?
If yes, +1 for melee-range necrid bolts.

On a sidenote, i wonder if this whole thing is just a subtle, clever and weirdly specific april fool’s joke by a dev.

You either had a Mesmer using “Mass Invisibility” or a Thief using “Shadow Refugee” in your team OR a teammate blasted a nearby smokefield OR you got interrupted and had the trait “Hide in plain sight”.

While observing other classes (and their players, who cannot understand, why rangers are mad about “dumb pets”), which are capable of using AI, i noticed two things the ranger doesn’t have compared to them:

1: The option to not use AI.
2: A detonate button.

So to fix the ranger-pet problem, only two tiny changes are required – A perma-stow option (alternatively, the pet only leaves “stowed” if it’s set to “Guard”) and a “Explode for me!” command.

The latter would the most important change and should be on top-priority on any upcoming ranger changes.

That looks perfectly normal to me…it’s not in any way different from how “Swoop” works currently.

First, the camera angle makes it look like the ranger swooped much farther, then he/she actually did.
Second, if you time your swoop right, when you’re near a gap, like in front of a chasm or cliff, time it so, that you do the spin (about half-way through the skill’s animation), when you’re on the edge of an elevated position and you keep “flying” at that height for the rest of the animation.

Notice the elevated position, from which the ranger was swooping.

Also, that way, you can “jump” over longer gaps. It’s lots of fun swooping over the trolls heads in frostgorge sound.

I’m both kinda sad and relieved at the same time.

One one hand, i initially found that annoying to enter WvW for my map completetion, but now, i’ll miss those epic moments, if you ran with a bunch of players to a tower, took it over, contributed to your homeserver AND got that POI and vista you needed.

The badges of honor are an extra bonus – speaking of which, don’t do most players go for world-completion to get the “Gift of Exploration” anyways? Because you’d still need to go into WvW for badges, to make a legendary, so i guess we still can call it “PvPvE”…? (aside from the fact, that you often need to kill vet or champ-mobs)

Makes the removal of world completion in WvW less of a big deal then.
At least, badges of honor encourage active particitipation in defends/raids.

I personaly think, making each borderlands share the same map-completion progression would have been the better change, but w/e. Most WvW and PvE players are probably happy about the upcoming change.

You should still always use a “Jungle Stalker” as primary pet for might and extra vulnerability and either a “Salamander Drake” (cleave, can take a few hits) or “Fern Hound” (very balanced stats in both attack and defense and a heal/regen).

Don’t think, that pets are great tanks. Mob AI still aggroes somewhat random at times.

One reason, you’re dying is, because some mobs and bosses (especially in dungeons) behave a bit differently, depending on the range, the group is fighting.
Some enemies don’t do certain attacks, if everyone is meleeing and if only 1 player is starting to range, that enemy might use an attack, which is not harmful for the one at range, but absolute buttsmacking for the one’s, who are meleeing.

The whole group should either stick to melee or range, not a mix of both.

The other reason may be, that you don’t get the benefits of some of their boons/utility and vice-versa. Another reason, why you all should be fighting at the same range.

Another reason might very well be simply, that you don’t dodge. :P

If you’re using the GS, because your PUG can’t proper blind/aegis/etc, 6/5/0/3/0 would still be the optimal build.

Predator’s Onslaught is too good of a DPS increase to drop it. Just make sure, you open the fight with Barrage.
Even the “casualest” of PUGs should keep soft-CC’s up 99% of the time.

Also, if taken an off-hand-Axe into consideration, Maul (and it’s vuln.) isn’t such a great DPS-gap closer to a Sword anymore.

I don’t understand OPs question.
I thought, there already is holy trinity in GW2.

Enaretos.8079:

But AP measures the time played right ? That means the person know their class right ? They must be good at it then

Yeah, if i never started to run dungeons a bit more seriously, i’d still PHIW with my soldier-trap-LB/SB ranger with bird pets all over the open world and had probably at least twice the amount of my current AP.

Dual bow FTW.

I like how the LFG’s with AP restrictions are generally the “PUGiest” ones.

I’m glad, tho, that these exist…tells me how much brain they have, depending on the amount of AP they demand.

Sina.9208:

TurtleDragon.3108:

LB#3 used to apply 10 stacks of Vuln. One of the balance patches moved the vuln stacks to Rapid Fire.

That was ages ago.

How much longbow used to suck lol. I miss the days when I was shooting ponies in fractals ..

The sad part is, the LB is still rather weak and limited, compared to the melee choices, a ranger has.

It really is all about that one little burst right now.

The fix could be pretty simple:
Make LB#1 do the same damage on any range (or doing more damage the closer you are, because that makes way more sense) and make LB#1 only pierce through 2 targets at 0-600 range, through 1 target at 600-1000 range and not piercing at all at 1000+ range and swap the piercing arrow trait for something else, maybe something like “Split Arrow” – LB arrows “pop” on impact, causing shrapnel fragments to damage up to 2 nearby enemies around the target, within a range of like 180 for 50% of the damage.

But that will never happen and i just wasted everbody’s time derailing this thread.
-_-’

spoj.9672:

wauwi.9162:

RoseofGilead.8907:

That second video was from back when you could reflect her massive attack onto her (like what people do now with WoR and Lupi).

Yeah, i’ve learned the hard way, that it doesn’t work anymore.
Mesmer’s iWarden (non-traited) still seem to be able to absorb her AoE tho.

They fixed that. iWarden no longer absorbs unblockable projectiles.

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought her projectiles were at least blockable.

RoseofGilead.8907:

That second video was from back when you could reflect her massive attack onto her (like what people do now with WoR and Lupi).

Yeah, i’ve learned the hard way, that it doesn’t work anymore.
Mesmer’s iWarden (non-traited) still seem to be able to absorb her AoE tho.

Kedarrian.2905:

The average pug group ranges Malrona. I hadnt heard of that perdatory swiftness buff before your post. From now on I’ll look slightly differently on the people that go and melee her, even if most of them get downed pretty often. Perhaps some of them know about the buff.

I didn’t knew that too, just up until a few weeks ago.

laokoko.7403:

I seen pug pretty much 3 man the ooze fire room.[…]

Well, judging by this,

Compared to other less than 80 dungeons?

OP doesn’t seem to talk about the aetherpath.

An average PUG dies at Malrona, because they don’t know about getting poisoned by her grants a massive DPS boost against her, thus greatly shortens the battle and therefore the risk or they simply don’t dodge her AoE, which is a one-hit down against most zerker-wearing classes. (I admit that it keeps happening to me. I better start calling myself “Scrubby McScrublord” from now on)

Bad PUGs often fail the skip to lauren’t elite guard, because they don’t dodge the knights, don’t use stability or don’t use any condition removal against cipple.

A really, really bad PUG doesn’t even bother to range-cleave the blossoms (with Guardian’s Staff AA, for example), which hurt alot.

^These^ are the only bare minimum of what i’d call “threats”, i can see in TA.
There are enough great guides (as text and video) for each dungeon and path out there, so if you’re having trouble with specific parts about a dungeon/path, look them up.

Magnificent!
I’m so gonna try to convince PUGs from now on to skip kohler on p2, ‘til it’s ghostbustin’ time.

100 times better than cavetrolling him.