Guild Wars 2

Nikkinella.8254:

^ So instead we now have shout heal warriors with greatswords running the orb in spirit watch that cant be cced and do it way better than ele ever could. Where’s their nerf for rush to have it on a 40 sec cooldown? Its about time anet admitted they were wrong and unnerfed it already.

Shoutheal GS warrior sounds like elohell category to me. Besides, a shoutheal warrior only has 1 stunbreaker and 0 stability, it can be CC’d to death. You can activate RTL in the air which also allows you to skip some rocks/fences which would stop Rush.

D/D ele is way more OP than any other spec in the game for PvP. Maybe it’s not as good at orb running as a warrior who was built for orb running, but it’s better at everything else. Actually, if you take Signet of Air and FGS, it is better at orb running than a warrior.

Lamuness.3570:

So I was thinking about this, say for example, I just wanted to roam, +1 fights, and gank the crap out of people in sPvP, what would I run? Assuming I don’t care about capping the points.

5/6/0/0/3 D/D? I don’t like standing on the point for fear of AoE bombs that can be dropped from at least 900 range away.

No. D/D is horrible for tPvP and any PvP thief build without 6 points in the last trait line sucks. What you need is D/P

Saturn.6591:

sorrychief.2563:

it made exploring Tyria fun but anet balances their game around whiney wvw players.

Funny that you say that; because WvW-players claim it’s balanced around sPvP, and sPvP-players claim it’s balanced around PvE.

:D

It was changed because of PvP. Ele mobility between capture points was just too insane, and with 20 sec CD it was too OP for disengaging too. That’s why now it has 40s CD if it’s not used for combat purposes.

Using a Power weapon in a condition based build is never a good idea. Wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a point holder/team support build, standing on point with a longbow is the last thing you want to do. You can invest more into defensive stats with a condi build, so going for power stats to shoehorn in the longbow is also far from optimal.

Elspeth Tiriel.9243:

Easily… There are so many weapons for Mesmer that have bounce skills. Focus the turrets first take out one or even two of them at range before moving in. It is important that you get rid of at least the rocket turret. I think the issues some mesmer complain about is that they ask how to deal with turrets but try to answer it by focusing the engi…

If the mesmer is in range of the rocket+rifle turret combo and the engi is just spamming 1, the mesmer will die before the rocket turret does.

Ralanost.8913:

I forgot his name, but the King of Orr before it sunk into the sea was more impressive than Adelbern. Just saying.

We barely know anything about the Kings of Orr. The guy who sank Orr was a Vizier called Khilbron not a king, I think you are talking about him.

You don’t. You don’t fight them on mes.

S/D actually almost completely fell out of use, won’t be meta anytime soon. If you want to play burst ele, go S/F. The build you linked was in fact archived for these reasons. S/D does not have the sustain to make it truly viable atm.

I doubt people will give up the 50% extra fear duration for a cut on DS recharge, and it’s more like 12-15 seconds because the nec needs to cast some skills and wait a bit for CDs there. But it’s decent nonetheless.

Btw Power necs can’t really afford it, only condi ones.

Narkodx.1472:

Greater Marks is literally one of the worst major traits in the game – It makes 4 skills unblockable at a cost of 4 trait points which is absolutely ridiculous and needs to be merged with staff mastery

Originally those traits were 1 trait, but were split because it was too “OP”.

Regarding this entire “what to remove for FitG” debate:
The core of a terrormancer is x/4/x/x/4 – you have 6 points to move around. It’s either Dhuumfire, which takes up all the 6, or PoC, which leaves 4 “optional” that usually goes into death magic.

You only need 2 to add FitG to the core build, so it’s definitely doable with the classic x/6/x/x/4 setup of PoC without giving up anything that would otherwise be mandatory.

PvP or WvW? I guess PvP, D/D sucks there no matter how you build it.

Completely different playstyle, but maybe you should try S/D

Same. I’m only here for daily login rewards, occassionally a PvP match or 2 before the matchmaking makes me ragequit.

I want to feel the hype, but it’s looking worse and worse. They had a really promising start with blogposts, really meaningful stuff every week, and then, like a month ago this stopped. Since then nearly every blogpost is just a summary of things we already know.

flow.6043:

I haven’t used Foot in the Grave recently, but wouldn’t gaining stability stop being stunned anyway? I can’t think of any other skill that is instant cast, gives stability but isn’t a stunbreak. So…DS being an instant cast, is this now really different from a regular stunbreak before this patch?

Stability is not a stunbreaker. If the skill does not stay it breaks stun, then it does not.

Plague for instance is one of these skills, it gives stability but does not break stun, another one is guardian’s traited Virtue of Courage, to make that break stun you need a 2nd trait.

Gryph.8237:

Love it that the forum mods are now deleting posts for expressing frustration about the meta and the format of pvp. Nice

Well, easier than making balance patches I guess..

And there isn’t even a notification.

Saturn.6591:

Dear BlackDevil. What do you expect us to do? Ask people like Helseth and Supcutie to try out MtD-shatter during their next couple of matches against other top-teams?

Actually, yes. Not in tournaments but while they are queing on stream. Just a match or 2.

Btw I’m pretty sure they both tried it and there is a reason why they don’t use it.

Dadnir.5038:

Like said, Specialization are probably the things that hype the most about this xpac. They will most likely wait untill the very end to give any tips about how they will work.

So only after people had the chance to test all the specializations in future closed betas, they’ll start the blogposts? Unlikely. At least some of the specializations must be revealed even before the 1st closed beta, and they want to dedicate a week to each spec, so they better hurry up.

And basically we got no new info for weeks now.. all the blogposts were about stuff we already knew from interviews.

Dagger is something you’ll use a lot in both power and condi PvP builds and PvE too.

But if PvP is your main thing, then maybe get the Scepter, with Marjory’s Dagger when it comes back to the gemstore. The Scepter is amazing, I’ve been trying to get it for months now :/

I’d use that in PvE, if conditions were viable in PvE :P Basically everything that can fight back will kill you, you are just too squishy on that, and some of the trait/utility choices belong in 2012. But for a first try, it’s not bad, most of your skills (weapons, heal, utilities, elite) are perfect.

Try this And in general this might help.

People should lose point after a lose, always, the carebear approach can only make this ladder worse.

Solo vs premade, i understand your frustration and Anet should bring back soloque because currently it’ just broken, but in general if you lost a match you should lose points too.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

Yes 100 % revs, and how long do you think the nerf hammer stays away then? hours or days?

Months or years and I’m not even kidding. That’s the Anet pace.

ronpierce.2760:

witcher.3197:

ronpierce.2760:

witcher.3197:

Scoobaniec.9561:

rotten.9753:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Source please.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Banish_Enchantment

And what youre trying to say by that link? By source im asking for a vid. But i understand that some ppl here doesnt even have binded a dodge buttom so you take everything on a chest like a “pro”. And nope, fight starts at 50% energy, you also need 10sec for that 50 energy to regenerate doing nothing but autoatk to spam that move. If you ask me i would consider such revenant a freekill. Same as heartseeker thieves spamming 2 for the win. But its okay guys feel free to prove how bad you are at this game so i can have a good laugh

25 stacks won’t be easy to do. But 10-15 is rather easy as it’s unblockable and has 600 range. You say the revenant would only be able to spam autoattack? Well, the pace at which mace autoattack applies torment and poison is rather insane so it’s not like the revenant is punished for building up his energy. You can also use all your weapon skills as those don’t seem to have energy costs, or very low (5 or so).

As you need less than 3 seconds for 25 stacks, if there is anyone around who can put an immob or stun at the target it’s not a hard thing to do.

Still doesn’t consider aftercasts (which are much longer than people think. Napkin math using casting times is not a very safe method of calculation). Or that it’s only 2 confusion unless you have 3 conditions on you the whole time. I think it’s best to try it out before getting overly hyped on what ifs, that’s all I’m saying.

But in case you weren’t worried enough, they’re removing the cap on confusion.

Btw Phantaram thinks it’s OP as well. From what I’ve seen, there is basically no aftercast, or really minimal. http://www.twitch.tv/phantaram/v/3941967 – here it is, I’m too lazy to go through 2.5 hours atm, sorry.

Phantaram’s just a guy. I’ve been top 50, been on good teams, played with abjured (and against), we’re all just people lol, he’s not a gaming god. I’ve seen people from abjured complain about the silliest things (including things as minor as decoy on Mesmer, just to put it in perspective, all the while defending slickshoes to the grave).

That said, I’m not arguing if its OP, it might be a little too strong, its worth watching. But the applications people are assuming are highly flawed. Things to consider:

Pre/after casts.
Conditional Requirements.
The “whole package” of a build (which we can’t really say we’ve seen yet)
**Missed attacks take away energy from ALL abilities the Revenant can be using (similarly to initiative, though Initiative is only a weapon skills).

So, in reality, they need a bit of weight behind them as part of their resource design. Not to mention the reality that they actually start at 50% energy.

Could it be great? Possibly. Still no sense in going off the deepend and dooming things before they get a chance to be properly tested. Remember, these things have been tested internally as well. If its broke, Karl will fix it!

The reason why I brought up Phantaram is because unlike forum people, he’s not blinded by his love for certain specs. He predicted double cele DD will replace bunker guards and will be OP, even proposed nerfs despite the fact he plays that. He’s not the kind of guy who screams “omg pls nerf” at everything, he’s pretty chill in general.

So if he says something is broken then he’s usually right – not always, but 99% of times. We all know it takes years for Anet to properly nerf something that’s OP, so I’d rather see revenant adjusted a bit before it’s released.

ronpierce.2760:

witcher.3197:

Scoobaniec.9561:

rotten.9753:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Source please.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Banish_Enchantment

And what youre trying to say by that link? By source im asking for a vid. But i understand that some ppl here doesnt even have binded a dodge buttom so you take everything on a chest like a “pro”. And nope, fight starts at 50% energy, you also need 10sec for that 50 energy to regenerate doing nothing but autoatk to spam that move. If you ask me i would consider such revenant a freekill. Same as heartseeker thieves spamming 2 for the win. But its okay guys feel free to prove how bad you are at this game so i can have a good laugh

25 stacks won’t be easy to do. But 10-15 is rather easy as it’s unblockable and has 600 range. You say the revenant would only be able to spam autoattack? Well, the pace at which mace autoattack applies torment and poison is rather insane so it’s not like the revenant is punished for building up his energy. You can also use all your weapon skills as those don’t seem to have energy costs, or very low (5 or so).

As you need less than 3 seconds for 25 stacks, if there is anyone around who can put an immob or stun at the target it’s not a hard thing to do.

Still doesn’t consider aftercasts (which are much longer than people think. Napkin math using casting times is not a very safe method of calculation). Or that it’s only 2 confusion unless you have 3 conditions on you the whole time. I think it’s best to try it out before getting overly hyped on what ifs, that’s all I’m saying.

But in case you weren’t worried enough, they’re removing the cap on confusion.

Btw Phantaram thinks it’s OP as well. From what I’ve seen, there is basically no aftercast, or really minimal, and he builds up 15-20 stacks once or twice when he’s going for it (he wasn’t always trying). http://www.twitch.tv/phantaram/v/3941967 – here it is, I’m too lazy to go through 2.5 hours atm, sorry.

Scoobaniec.9561:

rotten.9753:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Source please.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Banish_Enchantment

And what youre trying to say by that link? By source im asking for a vid. But i understand that some ppl here doesnt even have binded a dodge buttom so you take everything on a chest like a “pro”. And nope, fight starts at 50% energy, you also need 10sec for that 50 energy to regenerate doing nothing but autoatk to spam that move. If you ask me i would consider such revenant a freekill. Same as heartseeker thieves spamming 2 for the win. But its okay guys feel free to prove how bad you are at this game so i can have a good laugh

25 stacks won’t be easy to do. But 10-15 is rather easy as it’s unblockable and has 600 range. You say the revenant would only be able to spam autoattack? Well, the pace at which mace autoattack applies torment and poison is rather insane so it’s not like the revenant is punished for building up his energy. You can also use all your weapon skills as those don’t seem to have energy costs, or very low (5 or so).

As you need less than 3 seconds for 25 stacks, if there is anyone around who can put an immob or stun at the target it’s not a hard thing to do.

A revenant can stack 25 stacks of confusion in 2.5 seconds while also stripping away 10 boons, please tell me how is this not OP.

I want to main a revenant but it’s pretty clear that the balance team never tested it in PvP. It has really cool ideas, but it’s also extremely Op right now.

messiah.1908:

as i havent played shtter mesmer more than 6 months can someone tell me if the power build can handle those meta build and compositions

med gaurd – block block block stability…while kill your clonse with cleaves and aoe
shout warrior – heal fast immune to immobilize
turret engi, rifle engi – great aoe control on point kill clones fast and good heal
d/p thief – stealth
dd ele – good sustain
lb ranger – good range if position right
bunker guard – hard to kill block block block heal
bunker staff ele – hard to kill
power necro – if supported by his team can do massive dmg
condi necro – can pressure if can catch you

so what can power mesmer do against them – all the video i saw from the esl was pew pew with gs and some 2 shatter combos the whole fight while being targeted and pressure to play defense thus doing nothing to his team beside portal eascape or decap points like thieves do

all the builds above are counters by conditions pressure (beside shout warrior)

Last time I checked conquest was 5v5 not 1v1 and that’s something you fail to understand pretty hard. Shatter mesmer (power) brings more to the team. While it’s easier for a lower skilled player to be effective against the specs you mention with a condi shatter, a good power shatter mes can deal with them as well (except for the thief part) – sometimes the matchup’s even better for power shatter, especially against shoutbow and staff ele.

This would also give people a reason to finally team up and do something. Eversince they destroyed PvP ranks there is no long term goal for playing PvP.

The game desperately needs automated tournaments to breath life into the community. Fanmade ESL cups are just not even close to this. That’s the lazy solution from Anet (which is their favorite kind of solution).

+1 for ATs, I know many people who’d come back for that.

This bug is more than 2 years old by now, I’d like to see it solved as well. Along with Light of Dwayna recipe bug which does not allow me to sell something that’s worth 150g… Anet doesn’t even care at this point.

You should never 1v1 a bunker guardian. Pointless waste of time. Be useful in another part of the map.

I think everyone would like to see this question answered. Will there be a balance patch between now and HoT’s release? Or will we have to wait until the expansion’s release, and then even more because of the balance team (if there is one) will be monitoring how all the new traits/skill do, possibly pushing the next balance patch’s date into 2016, while Celestial amulet’s been OP since 2014 April?

Ross Biddle.2367:

witcher.3197:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Oh, and don’t worry about the meta battle guys. They’re about a step away from the devs for knowing what’s what about the mesmer ;D

wow :P Considering nearly all metabattle PvP builds are based on major tournaments and top players, maybe it’s your understanding of the game that’s not good enough to see the reason behind the skill/trait/etc choices.

This build is fun, but in no way “Great” and that should be clear to anyone with some ranked experience who knows Conquest roles and optimal builds. The forum in general thinks that the easier a build is, the better, which indicates that most people can’t make harder builds work because they lack the experience and this lack of experience leads to many bad theorycrafting where inexperienced players encourage each other and eventually convince themselves that what they made is good.

Just my 2 cents

Don’t take the comment to seriously.

It’s not only about you, it’s about most of the profession forum people in general. The profession forum section is full of people who live in their own bubble, don’t acknowledge optimal builds because they can’t play them (or simply because they are too hipster to use popular builds) and then theorycraft their horrible builds and have an orgasm even from watching a hotjoin killshot video. These people will never get good at the game with their current mentality and most good players left this place a long long time ago because they realized they can’t do reasoning with people who are blinded by their devotion to some specs.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Oh, and don’t worry about the meta battle guys. They’re about a step away from the devs for knowing what’s what about the mesmer ;D

wow :P Considering nearly all metabattle PvP builds are based on major tournaments and top players, maybe it’s your understanding of the game that’s not good enough to see the reason behind the skill/trait/etc choices.

This build is fun, but in no way “Great” and that should be clear to anyone with some ranked experience who knows Conquest roles and optimal builds. The forum in general thinks that the easier a build is, the better, which indicates that most people can’t make harder builds work because they lack the experience and this lack of experience leads to many bad theorycrafting where inexperienced players encourage each other and eventually convince themselves that what they made is good.

Just my 2 cents

Never had I thought in GW1 that wammo will ever be viable. Present day – GW2 – it’s meta. QQ

Charlie.1482:

I don’t really get what you talking about..? Stronghold will be 5v5…

He came from WvW, he thinks obsidian sanctum zerging is called GvG.

Never base anything on the profession forums. This is a horrible and unrelyable source.

It’s mainly the stats: you have access to stat combos in WvW that aren’t in PvP such as Dire for instance. Possible damage output is also higher, consumables create further imbalance. WvW is a place of powercreep.

Then there’s the fact that WvW roaming is more like Practice mode in PvP, there are many bad players running bad builds, that’s why there’s even more “diversity” (and many refuse to change build/gear when going into WvW from PvE because that costs gold).

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

Yasha.5963:

How would 5 minion-mancers go? At least it would be great to see how the AI slugs it out.

Minions would be no match for the turrets actually, as turrets are immune to conditions, CC, can’t be critically hit, regenerate health, and can be deployed at places that AI such as minions can’t access (can’t jump). Turrets 100-0 other AI rather quick.

Sins.4782:

Reroll staff ele, pop armor of earth, meteor shower + lava font. Watch turrets go pop, profit. Bonus points if your meteor shower downs engis as well.

Only works if the engi is braindead enough to put all his turrets on the point. If not, then only Thumper turret will be on the point, which might even survive your meteor shower + lava font.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Interview response that I mentioned

hide spoiler

GuildMag (Draxynnic): Fair enough… okay, let’s move onto some questions we had regarding Fractals. Okay so, in a previous interview with TowerTalk there was a tease of a mention of about just when the Cliffside Fractal takes place, but we still don’t know much about the Underwater and Volcanic Fractals. In the former we see some sunken statues which look a bit Elonian but the surrounding ruins feel Ascalonian. Can you shed some light on when and where that takes place?

ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : Uh, not very much I’m afraid. I feel like I’m letting you down here. But yeah, the existing fractals are all scattered far and wide throughout Tyria’s history and pre-history. Some of these things are from the time of myth and legend and so we can’t exactly verify exactly how they happened or how they connect to the modern world. That one, uh… yeah, I’m afraid that’s just going to have to be my answer for now.

ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : One of the things with Fractals is because they’re in the Mists, they are echoes. They are not true history, they are basically the resonant history.

ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : Exactly, yes.

ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : So therefore you’re seeing a lot of combined feelings coming in sometimes. Maybe there is a place that had that Ascalonian Elonian crossover area. But just as easily, it may be the effect of the Mists.

ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : And, check me on this guys, the Mists as we define them – the Mists by definition: anything that can be there, or has been, can show up in the Mists. So we get some strange pairings sometimes. Sometimes, for examples, in the Urban fractal, it’s a recreation of the battle for Ascalon, but it’s not – it’s a recreation, not the actual – there’s no time travel involved, you’re not taking part in the actual battle.

ArenaNet (Ree Soesbee) : If it was just the actual battle, if it was just a very precise rendition of history, you couldn’t go fight there, you couldn’t do things there. The Mists very much are flexible because they’re like memories – you can go back in your own minds and sort of write someone into a memory where they weren’t there and what would have happened ‘if this person went to the movies with us.’ And the fractals are very simpler, the Mists are very simpler.

ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : It also makes it easier for the players who are of other races. No one’s saying ‘hey what’s an asura doing here’ or ‘what is this strange leafy creature.’ It opens the entire pasts for all of our races. Which is a cool thing and we basically use that as a sounding board and a starting place like our PvP Raid on the Capricorn, that’s a piece of history, there weren’t any norn there.

I leave that up to your interpretation. I bolded the main line in my opinion.

@Witcher: Ascalonian ruins actually only exist in Ascalon and the Mists – which could very easily be replicating Ascalonian ruins. I cannot think of a single place in Tyria that is outside Ascalon with those sets of ruins. The only possibility I can think of would be Fort Koga.

The Cliffside fractal also has Ascalonian architecture, it’s a very cheap excuse to say that nearly every ancient ruin that is not singificant for the plot is Ascalonian because.. coz uh.. mists.

Fort Koga is a good example I think: they did not have the current Silverwastes keep designs when they made Koga, so they used Ascalonian as usual.

Roe.3679:

You missed a few groups:
- (…)
- players who really don’t care and choose this map to troll players like yourself

Call me an elitist any day, at least I’m not playing for the sake of preventing other people from having fun.

I find these forums so funny sometimes:
“Anet give us new game modes!” “No not that one! My subjective definition of real pvpers means that they won’t like that pvp game mode”

There was a massive miscommunication. People kept describing annihilation (aka “arenas”) but called it TDM – so Anet gave us TDM. While this is the fault of both sides, clearly shows that their understanding of the comunity’s demands is superficial which leads us to the next topic: balance.

“Anet give us more balance patches!” “No, don’t buff that class! My subjective view of these classes doesn’t align with these changes.”

There are many kittens on this forum, especially in the profession sections who cry about every single l2p issue, demaning insane nerfs and buffs. But there are other people too like Phantaram, Chaith or even Vee. Listening to them or any top players (who are not yet banned from the forum) would help Anet a lot – the current balance patch pace/effectiveness ratio is shocking, even f2p games have lot more dedicated balance teams.
And yes, if we have to wait for ages before they drop a balance patch and that patch does not address any serious issues then people will be upset for some reason, I have no idea why..

Odyssey.6523:

Funny you mentioned this because for a map I traditionally thought was unpopular it was the top vote 5 times today in my unranked que’s with over half the votes. (None of them me)

99% of players who love this map fit into one of the following categories:

• Low MMR ones who are too dumb to learn conquest.
• WvW zerglings.
• Premades who want a quick win.

It’s still not popular among actual PvP players imo.

On the topic

It’s a horrible map and a horrible gamemode. However 2v2 or 3v3 Annihilation would be extremely healthy for the game (annihilation = no respawns, respawning is just chaotic in such a small map where there are no objectives to split the team).

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

• Aquatic Ruins Fractal is heavily implied to be a mixture of two times and places – one location being Elona, the other being Ascalon; the times are unclear.

I still don’t see what’s supposed to be elonian about this fractal. The statues, that’s it. And as I have explained in the past, just because a statue looks vaguely egyptian doesn’t mean it’s egyptian. The same applies here, especially since the area doesn’t look particularly elonian and the humans in the beginng have the looks of Ascalonians/Krytans/maybe Orrians.

Ancient Ascalonian architecture is something the devs use all around the mists and Tyria when they are portraying ruins not significant enough to come up with something for them.

The ocean fractal has: unique Elonian statues and some ancient ruins (Ascalonian, as always), so it’s safe to say that the fractal is Elonian and the devs simply did not want to come up with more Elonian stuff for it and instead slapped some overused Ascalonian to it.

Odyssey.2613:

Here’s a novel thought:
Tweak/buff traits to draw people away from the SA line.

As it is now, we are pigeon holed into SA if we want any legit defense.

I know, I know, makes too much sense…

You’re in the wrong forum section, this is not WvW, the only build that even uses the SA line is Panic Strike D/P and even that one only puts 2 points into that.

^ True but Arkantos got a point, it should be in the HoT section not Thief.

We already know the elite, it was datamined a week ago :P Can’t find the link though :/

Elite: Jade Wind

• 90 sec cd
• Instant cast
• PBAoE, turns enemies into Jade for 2 seconds (maximum 5 targets), duration 2 seconds (I guess it’ll be an AoE basilisk benom).

Speculation:
If we exclude Banish, which banished the player to a new zone (very unlikely to happen), he had 4 other skills – perfect for heal and 3 utilities.

Heal – Meditation of the Reaper

• I think this will have some base healing and then after every attack blocked the revenant will steal some health.

Utility1 – Impossible Odds

• The revenant’s attacks deal extra damage for the duration and trasfer conditions on a successful hit.

Utility2 – Riposting Shadows
I think this was on the trailer.

• The revenant shadowsteps to a target and deals damage. If the attack was successful, shadowstep to the next target.
• If the skill duration runs out / max target cap was reached or the attack was blocked/dodged/blinded, return to your original location.

Utility3 – Battle Scars

• Something about lifestealing.

Edit: added links to GW1 wiki articles documenting Shiro’s skills.

SweetVibes.7692:

3. Logs into warrior, equips rifle and greatsword and enters WvW. With great hope, a smile on my face, really hyped.
4. Fails at everything and gets terribly owned.

Teach me the ways senpai!

1 – Face baddies who can’t dodge a rooted attack with long cast time and obvious animation.
2 – Make a montage of fights against baddies (cut every part where you face a decent player as you stand no chance with this build).
3 – Profit.

Vaans is a good player, but youtube videos are like Hollywood movies – they look great but in reality you shouldn’t expect superpowers after a spider bites you.

No. They plan to introduce them first in the form of blogposts, at a one per week rate. What would be the point of spoiling months worth of content in 2 hours?

However, maybe they’ll release the 1st blogpost just before the beta begins on Tuesday and players will be able to test that 1.

Considering there were no blogposts about any specializations, and they plan to dedicate a week to each spec, I highly doubt that these are in the beta version.

sorudo.9054:

it will completely replace the trait system

Be sure that won’t happen. What’s most likely is that the last trait line will be replaced with the specialization’s new trait line.

Stay away from PU and you’ll be fine. Also you might find this useful