Guild Wars 2

They will surely add new professions and specializations. Specializations are their way of adding new skills, but every expansion ever adds new skills to already existing professions/classes in every game. I don’t see why it would replace new professions.

GW1 for example added hundreds of new skills to existing professions in every expansion, while also releasing 2 new professions with each.

Chukree.1756:

META builds are made up by a higher intellectual crew of top tier players that has the brain to theory craft. Your build is not viable. Even with a team build around your build (like mesm/thief), mesmer/thief, are just better. it’s conquest.

MightyMicah.7451:

Mak.2657:

MightyMicah.7451:

1. The right build. Do not aquire a build from metabattle. I don’t know what genius put those there, but they’re terrible builds. Find something on YouTube perhaps.

Dude…
As Fay already said phantasm builds are somehow effective in 1vs1 against many builds (not against all). But spvp isn’t about 1vs1. I think you feel it better soon

I wouldn’t say phantasm is only good in 1v1 at all. In my experience, (which I previously mentioned isn’t be any means “top tier” so take what I say with a grain of salt) it works just great with team play just as long as you know what you’re doing.

Phantasm builds are horrible for PvP since 2012. They only work in the lowest tiers of ranked play and only in 1v1s.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_GS_Sword/Focus

Welcome back

Yes, thief’s only meta in Dungeons, PvP and WvW roaming. Anet pls buff this poor profession.

ArchonWing.9480:

Although, why would you use signet of resolve; it’s not like condition spam in pve is devastating.

The last 2 points in radiance are a waste. Burn duration in a zerg is wasted, and while Radiant Power is normally strong, staff isn’t exactly a dps weapon. Seems more useful to go into virtues to provide inspired virtues and consecration cooldown.

Source: Me, pro staff leecher.

These are all good ideas.

Obtena.7952:

That’s some fair feedback. If the build is useful for zerg farming, why not. I guess the thread is all a bit in jest. It was not my intent to criticize but simply to see if this was all ‘legit’. Seems I have my answer.

Being a farmer myself, I’m questioning some of the elements of the build. Is there a process by which the builds on this site are vetted and posted?

So this is an answer for both of you: when a build is submitted it starts in Testing and stays there for weeks, this is the period when people can vote for it. Based on the rating the build will move to any of the following categories: Trash/Good/Great.

After the build left Testing, no further ratings can be submitted (although after balance/content changes mods can move builds back to Testing), however if someone thinks that elements of the build should be changed then one can go to the Discussion page of the build (link can be found on the top left of every build) and give voice to his/her concerns.

The biggest problem we’re facing is that many people don’t get how a wiki works and instead of taking 20 secods of their life to propose some changes they’ll write about it everywhere but the right place and expect 4-5 moderators to keep 100+ builds up to date and add new ones.

So if you’ve got any ideas regarding any build, feel free to leave a comment on the discussion page

Vizardlorde.8243:

witcher.3197:

People forget that the Revenant skill absorbs projectiles while WoR reflects them. So WoR is stronger in that regard, but in turn the reve wall is mobile.

Seems fair.

Nope not the same cause revenant wall is a weapon skill, and our comparable weapon skill (shield #5) is utter garbage that roots us in place that doesn’t even shield us for the duration it says it should.

The guard shield #5 skill is also an AoE knockback and heal, absorbs projectiles on a larger field and from every angle.

It’s true that the reve skill is not a utility like WoR, but revenants got it backwards: they have half the weapon skills and twice the utilities of a guardian. So weapon skills slots hold more value on a revenant.

People forget that the Revenant skill absorbs projectiles while WoR reflects them. So WoR is stronger in that regard, but in turn the reve wall is mobile.

Seems fair.

I see a lot of people asking" what’s his impact" and others saying he means nothing. To answer them:

The guy alone pushes GW2 to twitch’s front page, often beating WoW’s viewership. You have no idea how huge that is for GW2. This brings more attention to GW2, and with that come new players and popularity. It doesn’t mean only his core fanbase might get interested in the game, but tons of other people who are browsing games on twitch.

Scarlet had no real powers, her strength came from technology, there’s absolutely nothing to channel about her.

Besides many people would hate to be reminded of Scarlet’s existence every day.

Revenant channels the legends of old, not Salads who died a year or 2 ago.

CMF.5461:

what was said was….“why is there even a need for it to have a build guide?”

While most weapon/utility/etc options on that section are rather obvious for veteran players, it can still help newcomers. I agree we’re kind of stating the obvious here, but when you farm events you do use some sort of build for it and the site is there to store and recommend viable builds for every official content. Simple builds for simple content in this case ^^

Current Open-world tagging criterias on the site:

• No AoE downtime.
• At least 25% permanent movement speed, weapons with both movement abilities and good AoE capabilities are prioritized.
• Relatively good damage and some sustain.
• If possible, it should use the Dungeon gear of the profession so it’s easy to swap to the farm build and costs nothing as the content isn’t serious enough to buy a new set of armor for it.

(might have missed something I feel, but you get the idea)

And with ~70k page views so far, I wouldn’t say it was pointless to have.

Obtena.7952:

Sylvari.6083:

Obtena.7952:

Decided to check out this metabattle thing:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Staff_Farmer

Really? People have a build for something as specific as zerg farming? I get the idea of swapping to a staff when the opportunity arises but how often does zerg farming happen to justify actually having a build for it? It’s weird this is actually a thing. Makes me wonder what other very specific builds exist there and how useful the site is.

It’s as usefull as the community makes it, I might be wrong though because it’s a WIKI after all…

I’m all for having a website that promotes useful builds, but that’s the key word. A build is not useful just because the community deems it; that’s purely a function of the in-game content.

I don’t believe the site has any malicious intent or motive because it does describe the situation where the build is useful. I just found it rather odd there was actually someone who put the effort in not only making a build for such a limited scope, but then posted it and promoted it on a site. It makes me wonder how little people actually know about the game mechanics to provide, promote and seek out such a build.

I guess it all comes down to you guys not being able to grasp the meaning of categories. Dugeons, Ranked Arenas etc, those are obviously the more hardcore sections.

This build is in “General PvE” which describes unorganized open-world content. So it’s pretty much just map completion and even farming, nothing too serious

In every area of the game, you should aim at different goals when creating a build, for dungeons it’s damage and party utility, for farming things like the Mad King’s Labyrinth it’s.. well, tagging as many mobs as you can. Obviously if the given conent is relatively easy, don’t expect über hardcore builds.

Atherakhia.4086:

witcher.3197:

Rome.7124:

yea, I would love to hear what these people saying “no” can come up as reasons why these classes are so absent in the higher competitive PvP scenes.

Breaking news: cele specs are broken. Maybe ~11 months were not enough for you to realize this fact but celestial amulet is OP on many builds.

Instead of buffing perfectly viable builds to be more OP than the currently OP ones, maybe, just maybe “shave” celestial instead of creating the biggest powercreep in the game’s history.

Cele hasn’t been a thing for 11 months. Things shifted in this direction when the runes and sigils were changed, thus why most were arguing the problem was more related to Might and Strength as opposed to celestial. Celestial wasn’t until later I believe?

So really it hasn’t been 11 months since the change, but it probably has been about 11 months since these classes were much more common.

Not since Spirit Rangers and Dhuumfire have Rangers or Necromancers been common. Have Mesmer ever really been popular in the US?

2014 april 15 balance changes included both celestial buff + sigil and rune changes.

Rome.7124:

yea, I would love to hear what these people saying “no” can come up as reasons why these classes are so absent in the higher competitive PvP scenes.

Breaking news: cele specs are broken. Maybe ~11 months were not enough for you to realize this fact but celestial amulet is OP on many builds.

Instead of buffing perfectly viable builds to be more OP than the currently OP ones, maybe, just maybe “shave” celestial instead of creating the biggest powercreep in the game’s history.

Holl.3109:

Nebulizer.3276:

Just recently came back and had been playing my guard/war/mes in pvp and finally decided to try out power necro. I have to say I’m having a blast and find it hard to believe that we didn’t see it played at all in the WTS which makes me a bit sad, but that said I’ve been absolutely crushing with Power necro in pvp atm. If you slip up you can be bursted in a sec but i’ve had multiple 2v1 and 3v1 on point where i took them down and just flip out at my desk lol.

Nice video and keep up the good work.

3v1? Power necro? On point? Whattttttt…? Even I couldn’t achieve that 0-0 well gg!

He’s likely talking about hotjoin and is questioning the decision of WTS players based on that. kek

Mythos.8196:

What builds are there?

This link should get you started especially in Dungeons and PvP

xDudisx.5914:

Adding dire and perplexity to spvp would bring the devs attention to the issue and it would be fixed very fast.

So naive and innocent..

PvP balance patches take ages. Cele is OP since 2014 april…

Massive NO to these amulets.

Kanek.5472:

And rune of perplexity doesn’t seem too bad.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Perplexity-Runes-in-PvP-PLEASE-NO

Sigil of Force and Accuracy are very far from being good in PvP atm.

Race has nothing to do with stats and you can’t use racial skills in PvP. It’s only about which one you’d like to play

No, they do not need buffs. Cele needs a nerf and everything’s fine.

Say no to powercreep.

Gandalf The Grey.1058:

witcher.3197:

They set it to 15 mins because they want to add this to the same que as conquest which is already a mistake.

Stronghold should be guild-only, 5v5, 25-30 min timer, and have its own que.

NOPE. 8v8 true GvG.

GW2’s combat is balanced around 5v5s. This (really small) map also has tons of NPCs, anything above 5v5 would be chaotic and unplayable IMO.

They set it to 15 mins because they want to add this to the same que as conquest which is already a mistake.

Stronghold should be guild-only, 5v5, 25-30 min timer, and have its own que.

BlackTruth.6813:

witcher.3197:

Metabattle does have the answer: having no lonbow sucks. Hard. :P There are some WvW builds that are perfectly viable without longbow, but they all fail in PvP.

And longbow is not a bunker weapon at all, many burst builds use for instance Axe or GS warriors.

Frenzy doesn’t suck in competitive play, people are just bad at using them or are too attached to easy builds such as shoutbow and hambow cause lack of mechanics. That’s all. Sure it doesn’t duel as well but there are ways to get around that such as rotating better and ganking better.

So ROM and every other top warrior sucks according to you and are not even close to your skill level.

CS S/D was a thing up until 2014 april(?). So you’re basically going back in time making a less viable, outdated S/D build.

Some notes:

• There is no Pvp build without Mug, you need 2 points in DA, the minor trait’s Poison is great too.
• Not being able to interrupt stomps with Steal hurts the build.
• You should still go for Strength runes or Pack.

Metabattle does have the answer: having no lonbow sucks. Hard. :P There are some WvW builds that are perfectly viable without longbow, but they all fail in PvP.

And longbow is not a bunker weapon at all, many burst builds use for instance Axe or GS warriors.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Then you would need to purchase another from the TP.

Good luck.

Can’t believe they can’t fix this..

There is no such thing as “hybrid” by the means of a Ranger using the weapon of another class. Ranger does not mean “ranged weapon user”, many misinterpret the name of the class. They can use swords, axes and daggers (and many other weapons) not just shortbow/longbow.

As a condi ranger you should aim for having at least 1 evasion per weapon set, that’s why Torch isn’t main bar’d but if you are willing to give up on that Poison + evade then torch is also a perfectly viable option.

Lack of cover conditions would be an issue for any other profession, but this ranger build can reapply those bleed stacks so fast that it’s not really a problem.

This should help you out with the build part

Lawful.5314:

witcher.3197:

Lawful.5314:

Yeah but amongst all that, Elementalist was always the worst class in PvP, up until April 2014.

That’s just wrong. Ele was strong for almost a year after release, then there was almost a year when it was indeed garbage, but now it’s god tier since 2014 April if my memory serves me well.

As far as i remember, elementalist was pretty poor even from the start, people kept crying that he dies to thieves and any other class all the time way too easily, compared to what he can dish out in return.

I remember that pretty clearly because of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5zjK7ITpQ

This was dating back to september 12th, and the game was released in August , so i would say yeah, elementalist was on the weaker side since the start.

Yes, 2 weeks after release (sept 12) people thought warrior was OP because of the frenzy + 100blades combo.. but as people got better at the game and Anet did a bit of balancing ele was in a great spot until ~2013 summer when anet overnerfed them. After a hiatus, they became kings of PvP after the 2014 april patch.

Lawful.5314:

Yeah but amongst all that, Elementalist was always the worst class in PvP, up until April 2014.

That’s just wrong. Ele was strong for almost a year after release, then there was almost a year when it was indeed garbage, but now it’s god tier since 2014 April if my memory serves me well.

Wise One.9321:

I should of been more clear, I meant the new break bar. The break bar will replace defiance and I beleive I read that this would be used for players in some form. Transforms are prime for this. So Nado will no longer have stability but this new bar instead. I don’t have clue if blind will be treated different between mobs and players.

I know what you mean but you’re still wrong. They said they will spread defiance to players somehow, we don’t know how. Defiance is a bar that regenerates and if you send it to 0 (“break the bar”)something happens, like the boss gets stunned for 5 seconds or enters another phase. Stability is a boon with predetermined stacks, blinds and such things won’t remove stacks of it and boon removal skills can remove stability but have no effect on defiance bars (afaik).

Wise One.9321:

If it is the same as defiance bar for champ mobs blind is considered a cc. I don’t know if the player version will count blind the same way.

Stability and defiance are 2 different things.

Currently most common one for dungeons

Doggie.3184:

Just use it along side Sword/Dagger and it’s fine.

6 crit, 4 acro, 4 trick, lotsa ini traits.

It’s one thing to suggest using the worst thief weapon set in the game with questionable trait choices, but to also suggest abandoning the mandatory Shortbow set is a next level crime.

It’s slow. By the time you tear through 8 stacks of stability your elite runs out or you get focused down and die. This alone will not be good enough to interrupt stability resses/stomps. Can also be blinded.

Restacking was working for a while, but there’s a problem: only 1 item’s left. Obviously there’s nothing to restack about it and the only options are to either Use or Detroy the item. No, it’s not in an invisible bag.

Any suggestions?

Shanks.2907:

My guess is that SYG will give allies 5 to 6 stacks of stability. I think that there will be a lot more guardians though with Rings/Lines of Warding as each pass over it takes a stack. I don’t think the guardian meta will change in the slightest.

Karl said:

• Dolyak signet will give 8 stacks – this skill is on 60 sec CD and only affects the warrior.
• Toss Elixir B will have 3 stacks – AoE stability, 30 sec CD, affects 5 players.

SYG is on a 30 sec CD and affects 5 players, I’d say it’ll give 2 or 3 stacks which might be the final nail in the bunker guards’ coffin, sadly.

Watch top streamers, that’s probably the best way.

Lord Helseth

Supcutie

They are the current best mesmer streamers in PvP. They are also answering questions, so if you have any feel free to ask them in twitch chat.

Also, on metabattle you can find a brief guide on every build page.

D/F would be infinitely better with the standard 00266 setup. But you don’t want to play that :P

Burning Fire is a pretty “meh” trait because vulnerability/blind/cripple or any other relatively insignificant condi combo will trigger it so it’s not even close to having 6 in water.

You’ll have problem with conditions and without Doom you’ll lose many duels just because you don’t have Doom sigil.

I’d recommend condi D/F – obviously not as strong as a cele build but it’s working and fun to play

Zergling section this way —>

Lawful.5314:

MaXi.3642:

is it just me or anyone else think it’s just a L2P issue? because PvP isn’t just about build and know what to do, you need the right positioning, you need fast reflexes, you need some luck… I don’t say you are bad, but if you say you are doing everything right from the theoretic perspective, all that remains is just you

It is, to an extent, but against some builds you just cant win, if you are fighting with a equally skilled player.

But as i said, Ele D/D cele meta isn’t about winning 1v1’s or even 2v1’s, its about surviving long enough to hold a point or be annoying to peel their attention for long enough for your team to make something out of it.

While cele ele is about outsustaining your enemies, it should be able to beat any other spec in the meta in a 1v1 (except shoutbow, that’s a draw).

In a duel between equally skilled players, the DD wins.

No offense but just because you can’t play DD doesn’t mean the spec is bad. Maybe it’s not your playstyle and that’s why you can’t get into it and there’s nothing wrong with that, but you should still acknowledge its strength.

P/P thief, probably. Or shout ranger.

Menaka.5092:

Just ignore metabattle for WvW/Zerg. The builds posted there are horrible and totally unworth playing.

What kind of fights are you facing in WvW? Roaming? Zerg? Organized groups?

WvW roaming is admittedly the weaklink but mostly regarding size and not quality. For Zergs keep 1 thing in mind – that section is displaying builds that work in a standard WvW environment, not organized fights at the obsidian sanctum because every guild has their own variants they are running and they are probably the 1% of the population of players who play WvW.

So for large scale battles, this site is the most suitable for him I’d say.

I had to realize long ago that wvw players have no intention to help the community grow, but if you do, you could always propose changes if you feel like something is off. Because it’s a wiki afterall.

We know less than ~30% of the profession but mesmer is already a hardcounter to it according to you. lol..

Mes might be able to strip boons but also sucks at condi cleansing, with the mobility / torment application of the revenant, mes is already in danger. If the bursty legend will have the promised mobility, then mesmer will be in real trouble, because thief will no longer be your only true hardcounter.

durjoknor.3749:

I’m a PvPer at heart but I am really unsure what I should be practicing with for weapon sets for WvW and SPvP.

This should help ^^

Reminder: they promised a GvG CDI, not a ZvZ one.

Usually it’s the late-afternoon EU lag.

Wintersnight.3061:

witcher.3197:

Ranger is viable. Cele specs are OP. If you buff ranger you create an even bigger powercreep.

They just need to nerf cele amulet.

I disagree – I don’t think the cele amulet is OP, I think the ability to might stack so fast for d/d Ele and shoutbow is the issue.

Giving a ranger more high-end tools that raise the skill bar, is a good thing.

Cele engi does not stack might it’s still OP. The damage was never the real problem, the sustain is. Shoutbow does a relatively bad damage but it’ll outsustain nearly everything in a 1v1 and it’s just spamming.

Cele specs simply outsustain their enemy. Why do you think a cele duel lasts forever? Because they have broken sustain.

Xyonon.3987:

You shouldn’t connect “mesmer meta build” with the website “metabattle”. But yea today’s mesmer metas are 44006 shatter with sword+torch or staff and gs.

Care to elaborate? :P