Guild Wars 2

hendo.1940:

That’s a very nice video. Thanks for showing that to me.
I’m aware of LoS and shield blocks, but how do you LoS or burst the riflemen in the CM barn fight? Because those riflemen don’t just attack in bursts and they are rooted to each of their locations. If you could nullify a burst of barrage and then kill all the sources of projectiles, sure.

That’s like asking how to fit a cube in to a triangle. The point is – warriors have a lot of survivability and can basically tank through projectiles in a number of cases. The example you give is a group situation where the warrior (since elites have pretty heavily scaled up damage) isn’t going to be expected to soak hits, and another class will be providing reflect. Worst case scenario, you stick endure pain and defiant stance on, mace 5 the rifleman, pop an invuln at the next choreograph, and then an invuln for the next, dodge the next two, eviscerate for a dodge then dodge the next. Warriors are surprisingly well equipped for surviving against projectiles if you prepare yourself.

I don’t know why that would make a difference because the Alphard is also a group situation. That’s like giving an example of a Warrior soloing Lupicus, where in a group situation none of the survivability tools matter if boss is downed too fast.

I do get your point, but it’s also why I brought up this point because Mesmer can have an upper hand handling projectiles in scenarios like that, and therefore survivability.

hendo.1940:

It depends. Like a Mesmer can pull them altogether but the Warrior may not be able to cleave them altogether. It is possible to delay this by using endure pain, but Mesmers’ reflects scale better depending on how outnumbered you are vs range attacks and where they come from.

LoS, whirlwind in to wall, everything dies.

If the ranged mobs are still alive after the first burst of defense, the warrior starts feeling a bit naked. Whereas Mesmer can kinda continue to reflect all incoming projectiles. Like that barn fight in CM p1.

It would surprise you how resilient warriors can be against projectiles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvdqDqzqTXs

The most important thing about this game is not if your build is OP, but how you play it. You need to be comfortable with your gameplay because knowing how to play your class is always better than trying to go for the OP builds. If you know your class you can always adapt.

Or, you take the strong build and then try to understand why certain traits are taken and their synergies with both each other, utilities and weapon skills. For literally every class I’ve leveled I’ve taken a meta build and then took the time to understand why the traits were taken.

No not the weakest. my phantasms have hit up to 7.8k iv seen. and you can summon 3 + your own attacks.

And they took three seconds of casting time while the thief sat there doing a cloak + dagger, backstab and autoattack rotation, dealing absolutely huge amounts of damage.

That’s a very nice video. Thanks for showing that to me.

I’m aware of LoS and shield blocks, but how do you LoS or burst the riflemen in the CM barn fight? Because those riflemen don’t just attack in bursts and they are rooted to each of their locations. If you could nullify a burst of barrage and then kill all the sources of projectiles, sure.

hendo.1940:

Reikan.2908:

i went on my level 20 warrior and i was surviving noticably longer and dealing noticably more damage than my level 80 mesmer ever did.

i havent got much power or precision in my mesmer build but even if i tried to max it out i am sure if i max it on my warrior he would be have even more of a noticeable advantage.

i like the mesmer its a very unique class and its alot of strategy but both damage out put and defences seem quite weak to me

Practical mesmer damage output is basically terrible.

Warrior DPS is average but extremely easy to peak with since their self buffing is so good.

Post-patch, mesmers will basically be completely phased out of serious dungeon runs since the crit damage nerf will hit them the hardest since their reflects are so reliant on it.

When it comes to survivability, warriors have a ton of it. Use your burst skill for an extra dodge, block on off-hand sword, whirlwind attack, plus energy sigil in addition to having the highest HP and armour stat of all the classes in the game.

Mesmers have blurred frenzy on a decently short cooldown, distortion shatter, scepter block, sword block, perma vigor (vigor on crit) and projectile reflection.

Warriors don’t have as much damage mitigation as Mesmers. So in an outnumbered fight, it’s possible that the warrior goes down faster than a Mesmer so eventually Mesmer will outlast and out DPS a warrior.

Healing signet/defiant stance, endure pain, whirlwind attack, sword block, shield block, energy sigil. burst skill for endurance, able to reach its peak of DPS extremely easily.

Like if you’re fighting a group of harpies and some melee mobs. The Mesmer can reflect all, if not most of the harpies’ attacks, while switching to range to kite the melee ones. This potential isn’t available to the warrior class. The warrior has to charge in into the range attackers, find LoS spots, use whatever dodges they have and hope they are downed fast enough so you can kite the melee ones if you need to.

Warrior rolls in starts to hundred blades, whirlwinds mid-cast and kills everything. Mesmer dumps a warden or feedback, auto attacks a bit, stuff dies. Warriors really don’t have a problem surviving. Mesmers don’t really either, it’s just your damage is generally lower so you have to be more consistent in using your defensive skills than the warrior who can be lazy with it.

It depends. Like a Mesmer can pull them altogether but the Warrior may not be able to cleave them altogether. It is possible to delay this by using endure pain, but Mesmers’ reflects scale better depending on how outnumbered you are vs range attacks and where they come from.

If the ranged mobs are still alive after the first burst of defense, the warrior starts feeling a bit naked. Whereas Mesmer can kinda continue to reflect all incoming projectiles. Like that barn fight in CM p1.

Mesmers have to deal less personal damage due to the phantasm potential and the control potential.

Warriors don’t have as much damage mitigation as Mesmers. So in an outnumbered fight, it’s possible that the warrior goes down faster than a Mesmer so eventually Mesmer will outlast and out DPS a warrior.

Like if you’re fighting a group of harpies and some melee mobs. The Mesmer can reflect all, if not most of the harpies’ attacks, while switching to range to kite the melee ones. This potential isn’t available to the warrior class. The warrior has to charge in into the range attackers, find LoS spots, use whatever dodges they have and hope they are downed fast enough so you can kite the melee ones if you need to.

Esmee.1067:

Xallever solved the mystery of the Elementalist being way faster than me, I usually go the normal D/F rotation, Lightning Flash on Fire #3 and saving my elite, your way sounds a lot better though. Thief is how I currently do it, but without the Elite, you might have noticed I prefer saving my Elites for the boss-fight. Mesmer I go Mantra of Pain activations, iPistol, Sword #3 iSwordsman, Sword #2 and Shatter when it would finish it off, it ain’t perfect, but with Blink/Portal in your utilities already it isn’t too horrible.

Because I’ve never gated as a Mesmer, I’ve nvr actually tried. However, one thing I’m wondering is the fact that it’s an object so between iWarden and iDuelist I think iWarden has more DPS because iDuelist’s DPS usually needs to consider bleed.

The difference between thieves guild and FGS is that after you’re done with it, you can immediately FGS all the way to the boss and not waste the FGS. Plus when Arcane Lightning is off CD, you can fiery the boss too. I usually have LH/Ice Bow as the other utility so you can still do decent DPS after your FGS is run out.

Anyway, I think it’s a good call to save the Thieves’ Guild for the final boss.

Kajin.5301:

By the way any professions with ranged targeted warping ability can bypass the CoF contested gates by running forward and warping at the right corner of gate wall meeting the mountain. Sure getting it right is a pain in the dolyak for your eyes but it works. Ps: thieves make this a cakewalk.

While that’s true, every profession can get this done by simply dodging at the right spot. Perhaps it’s nicer to use a thief cause it would be faster to get to the gate.

Esmee.1067:

CoF p1 the gate and CoF p2 the way to the Magmacite. Some classes I find these things very easy to do but with some other classes I struggle.

How do classes do the gate on p1 most efficiently?
Assuming Meta-builds, which weapons/utilities would be best per class. Gate never really poses an issue, but I feel slow on anything that isn’t Warrior/Thief/Mesmer (considering you miss 1 utility on Portal, still slower than Warrior/Thief.)

Don’t have a Mesmer gate =/

But if you must, perhaps iWarden, iSwordsman, Sword #2, TW, etc. What a waste of TW though.

Elementalist:
Pre-Might 25 Stacks
Arcane Lightning
FGS

Fiery Rush + Blink, FGS 3. Done.

Thief:
Thieves’ Guild
Haste
Activate SoA
Spam S/P 3

SkyChef.5432:

I did 3 CoEs paths today to gear up my WvW Engie (thank you Iris for helping me w/ 1) and it daunts on me that I made more golds on 3 CoEs path in 1 hr than doing WvW many hours for 3 days.
Look at my signature.

That… isn’t unusual, though.

Random charged cores have been a source of decent income.

siralius.9517:

Principle? I have to use a third party website in order to navigate an MMO? What year is this? If you support mediocrity and live by it, be satisfied by it quietly.

What year is this? You’ll find the year is 2010s. All the other MMOs also have 3rd party sites eventually giving people a lot more information than the official sites.

Oh, we have been satisfied quietly. So I don’t think you have a point.

Your logic is hilarious if you expect GW2 to provide the crafting features as well as the guide to the cheapest/fastest/most efficient way of leveling, considering how they designed it to supposedly be “fun and explorative”.

So there will always be a case for 3rd party sites.

siralius.9517:

Aside from the last event of the chain you can solo it and getting two people is not that hard. In addition that site has NEVER been down for me I have to use it daily. If it’s not open on any servers go to the the one that says attacking and do the event. It doesn’t ruin accessibility anyone can do the event. So what if you have to do the event? It doesn’t take a lot of time and if you don’t have that amount of time why are you playing in the first place? It’s like saying Fotm lvl 10+ isn’t accessible to you because you invested the time to get to that level.

Aw. Someone with tighter restrictions than ANet!

If you decide to cripple yourself based on unnecessary principles, go live by it and be bitter about it quietly.

If ANet is so against 3rd party websites, they wouldn’t have released the API codes for the world bosses and events, etc.

Plus a lot of people might prefer to level their alts by running dungeons. There you go.

Faux.1937:

xallever.1874:

Faux.1937:

I use (in level 50)Sigin of Agility for condi removal and more endurance for more dodging, Shadow refused for fast/easy rez’ing and shadow shadowstep for more condi removal.

I also have Sword 2 always ready to remove conditions.

I try to auto attack outside of her melee or to the side where Im not getting hit.

Do you use healing signet or withdraw?

I use Hide in Shadows, removes 3 conditions and heals a good amount, Withdraw would more likely make her teleport to you.

I see. So all the dodges you need are already covered by Signet of Agility then. I’ll try it out.

Do you use SB or P/P for the weapon swap?

Faux.1937:

I use (in level 50)Sigin of Agility for condi removal and more endurance for more dodging, Shadow refused for fast/easy rez’ing and shadow shadowstep for more condi removal.

I also have Sword 2 always ready to remove conditions.

I try to auto attack outside of her melee or to the side where Im not getting hit.

Do you use healing signet or withdraw?

Guys, what’s the best setup against Mai Trin? Do you use S/P & P/P?

What about utilities?

Shadow Refuge, Signet of Agility, Shadowstep?

Do you guys use the healing signet, or is withdraw better here?

Also, when pugging, since sometimes people don’t try to be in the melee range, what’s her attack pattern like?

haviz.1340:

Which means the problem lies within the content, not gear.

It’s a gray area between the content and the gear, though. They could always increase the enemies’ stats to a certain extent, and modify the boss mechanics to a certain extent.

Like the slave driver in CoF p1, if they make it so that the boss’ stats can take so much beating from a berserker’s gear that he’s not downed after the initial burst has run out, reduce the damage of the boss’ fast auto-attacks to be counterbalanced with toughness/vitality/healing power, then you can probably find a sweet spot between a team in all berserker’s and 1 dedicated support gear with the rest in berserker’s.

haviz.1340:

xallever.1874:

Excuse me?

I don’t care for a dedicated healer from the state of the game now. But if Anet wants to do something about their original vision of Control, DPS and Support, something has to be done beyond the current state of the game.

Don’t start presuming things before you even know who I am. In the current state of the game, I care for no dedicated healer, but if the game is to go forward, the point is to reach a balance whereby someone who goes into support enables the entire team’s DPS to go faster.

I have 0 post telling others to play the way they don’t want to play. All I do is give recommendations on optimal set-ups in the current meta. And you, your first point is to tell me to back off and play WoW.

You can go ahead and scour through all the posts I made and start talking with some grounds.

The original trinity (dps/support/control) is there, it’s just not needed for the trivial content like dungeons. Otherwise, how have anet devs and testers even played this game prelaunch? Was it a different game?

I’m not saying that it’s not there, but that they need to make it a more prominent feature in dungeons.

Encounters like Mai Trin encourage the control aspect of the game more. More encounters somewhere that goes into that direction would be nice.

Black Scoutsman.5830:

Forgive me, as I havent read all four pages in this thread, but I’m having a difficult time wrapping my head around the math and logic that the ferocity change affects valkryie and cavalier more than zerker. I’ll provide an example.

A valkryie and a berserker each hit a target 10 times. The valkryie crits 2 times. The berserker Crits 7 times. For the sake of simplicity, lets say each crit hits for 1000 dmg. After the approximately 10% decrease in dmg, in those 10 hits, the valkyrie loses 200 points in total dmg output for 10 hits. The berserker loses 700 points. Now granted, the overall damage of the berserker is still higher than the valkyrie, but it seems to me logic would say that the berserker is taking the bigger hit. Am I wrong??

No. You’re not wrong.

It’s just that if the enemies’ health remain the same, it will be even more important that everybody is on the berserker gear.

Let’s say before that you have 4 people on berserker’s and one in valkyrie’s. Because the overall damage is already so huge by the 4 berserker’s, you can afford to have someone in valkyrie’s. But now that the damage of the 4 berserker’s has gone down, probably the one who was in valkyrie’s also now needs to be in berserker’s.

cranked.3812:

xallever.1874:

And what will be your suggestion for that?

At the top of my head, if the game can reach a balance between maintaining a 90% health for maximum DPS using one Cleric’s AH Guardian and the rest of Berserker’s Scholar’s, maybe that’d be a start.

That would require a mechanic that continuously drains the party’s HP slowly and overcome by continuous healing.

Of course, one of the solutions is of course to reach the point whereby a full berserker’s team isn’t downing the boss faster than this kind of team comp.

First off, REALLY? So, you want a dedicated healer to keep the team alive? Go play WoW.

Secondly, what do you care if some groups down bosses fast? From the sound of it, you aren’t part of those groups. It also sounds like you hate the fact that other people can down bosses quickly even though it doesn’t affect your gameplay experience even a little bit.

You are just another case of someone who doesn’t want others to play the way the want, but rather you want others to play the way YOU want them to play.

Excuse me?

I don’t care for a dedicated healer from the state of the game now. But if Anet wants to do something about their original vision of Control, DPS and Support, something has to be done beyond the current state of the game.

Don’t start presuming things before you even know who I am. In the current state of the game, I care for no dedicated healer, but if the game is to go forward, the point is to reach a balance whereby someone who goes into support enables the entire team’s DPS to go faster.

I have 0 post telling others to play the way they don’t want to play. All I do is give recommendations on optimal set-ups in the current meta. And you, your first point is to tell me to back off and play WoW.

You can go ahead and scour through all the posts I made and start talking with some grounds.

DeceiverX.8361:

xallever.1874:

DeceiverX.8361:

snip

A one-shot (OHKO) mechanic breaks viability?

Not really.

If you give no way to get out of that mechanic (dodge, block, aegis, blind), then it shows that there is no single thing out there that is viable.

You’re saying that PVT has become unviable because of one-shot mechanics, but only if you require one-shot mechanic to be facetanked instead by PVT and then you think this is the definition of viability.

This is ridiculous because if you use both Berserker’s and PVT you will be able to finish all contents of the game eventually. That is viability.

An example of PVT being non-viable is when there’s a time limit and DPS check at the same time. But the content with time limit, such as in CoF path 2, has nothing to do with gear set-ups.

This isn’t what I’m saying, though.

I’m stating that PVT non-viability has nothing to do with game mechanics and entirely to do with how players want to play and how they want their peers to play.

To promote non-berserker viability, the game needs to be set up in ways where no-berserker players are rewarded (or the entire party is rewarded) substantially so that playing out of the DPS race is still capable of cutting down on time.

And what will be your suggestion for that?

At the top of my head, if the game can reach a balance between maintaining a 90% health for maximum DPS using one Cleric’s AH Guardian and the rest of Berserker’s Scholar’s, maybe that’d be a start.

That would require a mechanic that continuously drains the party’s HP slowly and overcome by continuous healing.

Of course, one of the solutions is of course to reach the point whereby a full berserker’s team isn’t downing the boss faster than this kind of team comp.

DavidH.7380:

Drannon.8254:

No matter how tanky you are, you still have to dodge in and out, swap weapons and range.

Thanks for the response. The part I don’t understand is, in the context of the above quote, is this: If you are a DPS warrior and get 2 shot if you fail to range or dodge properly, so you swap DPS attributes for toughness and vitality and still get 2 shot if you fail to range or dodge properly, can you even be “tanky”??? Can you meaningfully increase survival against PvE that way or are those attributes really only meaningful in PvP?

I had a priest and a paladin in WoW, and the paladin could stand and take hits that would absolutely one-shot my priest. I don’t get the impression that is even possible here, no matter how much toughness and vitality you stack.

You have to consider personal survivability and group survivability.

It’s usually quicker for you in maximum DPS to be downed and then ressed back to life and continue hammering again.

But if you’re in a PVT gear, then the group survivability actually goes down to compensate your own survivability because the battle actually takes longer to finish so they run more risks of getting hit.

This is exactly how a staff AH Guardian full PVT or Cleric’s thinks. He is never downed so he thinks he’s carrying the whole team, but in fact the whole team dies because he doesn’t help to kill the enemies much.

DeceiverX.8361:

snip

A one-shot (OHKO) mechanic breaks viability?

Not really.

If you give no way to get out of that mechanic (dodge, block, aegis, blind), then it shows that there is no single thing out there that is viable.

You’re saying that PVT has become unviable because of one-shot mechanics, but only if you require one-shot mechanic to be facetanked instead by PVT and then you think this is the definition of viability.

This is ridiculous because if you use both Berserker’s and PVT you will be able to finish all contents of the game eventually. That is viability.

An example of PVT being non-viable is when there’s a time limit and DPS check at the same time. But the content with time limit, such as in CoF path 2, has nothing to do with gear set-ups.

The game has moved into a direction where multiple builds and professions make a better team composition (eg. Staff Ele + LH ele instead of two LH Ele).

In such a way that a team of 5 Eles, although they will heavily outDPS a team of 5 heavies is also hardly an ideal setup.

What we don’t need is a competition between all the gimmicky setups and then encourage this kind of mindset.

Even if there are some virtues discussing about PUGs, you’re gonna end up talking about warrior rifles, shortbow thieves, staff guardians, and then we’re gonna talk about the most survivable least optimal set-up to avoid dying in PUGs and then start encouraging the meta to revolve around clerics gear.

A bit of a slippery slope, but better safe than sorry.

Sundar.1735:

Because in most cases, taking 5 warriors IS the most efficient way to play, especially in PUG’s. Maybe 4 warriors and 1 guard/mes/ele/thief, depending on the content you are doing. But damage wise nothing beats 5 wars.

It’s people like you that the OP has a cause to post.

A lot more people would care if it’s true that an all-heavies team is the most efficient way to go.

Told a PUG to spread out and stop running around like a headless chicken in Mai Trin.

One Guardian didn’t listen, caused everybody else to die, slowly resurrected everybody downed and claimed that he was carrying everyone.

Not that we’ve ever complained that he was an AH build.

I’m curious as to how you manage to survive better as thief, though. Do you spam S/P 5? Or do you spam/time S/P 3?

Because thieves are just as squishy (in fact, squishier…).

Do you use D/D thief?

I find it harder to survive as D/D thief than LH Ele because LH at least secures me a blind.

Can I just clarify that berserker’s being the most optimal option in pve does not in any way make it the only viable option? Advocating for zerker is always about being the most optimal and efficient choice.

Everything is “viable” for pve. Build diversity is always more relevant in pvp and wvw. There, viability is more of an issue.

Granted, certain strategies and execution are perhaps viable only with a concerted effort clad in all berserker’s.

Wethospu.6437:

Travis the Terrible.4739:

Julie Yann.5379:

Anet said that this is just the first step to make other types of build viable and purge the “GO FULL ZERK OR GTFO” movement that has been plaguing the game since launch. I hope it works, getting sick of these PvE meta builds.

If anything it’ll just become more prominent with the nerf to crit damage. Less damage from the same people will make it more noticeable that there is someone in a non zerk build.

The only way to get the numbers anet has said for the crit damage change is literally to crit 100% of the time.

Actually it will be harder to detect as damage difference between pvt and ppc gets smaller.

That’s true. Harder to detect, and yet possibly is going to be even more important.

Esmee.1067:

You’re not selling the dungeon running too well Xallever, there’s quite a bit of money in the drops aswell.

As for the OP, farming gold is generally better than farming the materials for anything due to RNG. Champtrains are likely the most common place for the materials to actually drop aswell as being relatively rewarding, but I’d prioritize something you enjoy or atleast mix it up. (Dungeons/Nodefarm/World-bosses, yes I read you loathe Dungeons, just for the next reader.)

Another possibility, trade Laurels for crafting bags (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Heavy_Crafting_Bag) however only do this if you never plan on doing Fractals/going for Ascended gear (trinkets mainly.) Time-gates are painful.

You’re right

But if I shorten the time assuming all the smooth speed runs, could be seen as false advertisement :P

Airo, sign up in the dungeon mentoring in the stickied thread and I’m sure it won’t be as tough as you’d expect.

Engineer has a great 1v1 potential like Mesmer but isn’t as desired in dungeon settings.

Thieves are there for high DPS and stealth helps in trash running (why do you think thieves aren’t desired for dungeons? Maybe you were from the time people were only obsessed with warriors, guardians and mesmers—some of whom still remain. Unfortunately).

Mesmers give time warp a great DPS output, brief stealths and reflects in dungeons. Sometimes, portals can be really useful but never essential just like thieves’ stealth.

There’s a high demand for Ele in dungeon because it’s the highest DPS. They have a good 1v1 potential but is currently at the bottom tier in PvP. But they are also getting nice confirmed buffs soon.

Best potential way to earn money: TP (and crafting on top off it).
Next best is running dungeons efficiently.

Don’t farm for mats. Better to run champion trains (low skill cap, but also very monotonous).

Run world bosses and temple runs.

If you have max crafting, keep crafting ascended items. Ascended insignias can be sold for a good money.

Why do you not like dungeons? Steep learning curve? PuG experience? There are solutions to that.

To put it into perspective

Running AC all paths: 5g25s+ in about half an hour, I guess.
TA UP/FW another 2g50s+
CoF p1/p2 same
SE p1/p3 same
CoE all paths 3g75s+

That’s guaranteed 16g50s in about 3 hours?

In CoE, from time to time you also get charged cores which can be turned into your charged lodestones which is also used to craft a legendary. Or sell it off for an easy 2g+

DeWolfe.2174:

knives.6345:

It’s “easy” to gain gold in this game – that’s why others have many of them . You just need to tune your activities into correct ones.

In other words, you can’t play to have fun or play as you want. The dev’s want you to do x,y, z, (all instances) and flip the TP. Everything else will keep you poor.

You can play as you want. You can choose to do things that make more, less or no money. You think this game ought to reward all activities equally?

Type /dance in the middle of the Vigil Keep and eventually earn 1g in 10 minutes?

If you want to help a stack to not die, you sharpen the knife, not bring some mini tools (healing). That is, you go for max DPS build.

Nevertheless, that’s not the end of the story. Just because people are stacking doesn’t mean that they’re playing the toons right.

It’s still terrible if a Guardian stacks and ends-up AA-ing in staff (I hope that’s not you).

OP is referring to open-world for PvE?

A lot of bosses in the game requires some form of dodging one way or another even if you’re a full zerker.

Take any group without an Ele, and the damage is not enough for a full zerker group to skip dodging. So I guess now your biggest problem is with the Ele.

Drakent.9605:

Azreell.1568:

The problem is the content design and lack of any type of trinity.

The problem is not the gear set.

When you design a game based solely on dps – what did you really think would happen? The highest dps set would become the most used/desired and required.

No one should be surprised.

The game wasn’t never design base on solely on dps, The gamer’s made it that way after they discover how OP the zerker build was that going for something else was making it harder and every 1 know how the majority love taking the easy path over the challenge one

It is possible you might have crossed the line by calling those speed runs as the easier one. You think the PuG is overcrowded with too many successful Arah speed runs?

Drakent.9605:

xallever.1874:

An exploit is when you stay somewhere and that way the boss has no way to damage you while you whittle the boss down to death.

You think this is on the same level as players maximizing their damage output to mitigate more damage bring thrown against them?

Being able to pop cd that aloud you to avoid 80% of the damage and have the cd last by the time you are done because you are able to dps him down before that happens is no different then climbing a wall and attack the boss from there

That is your own definition of an exploit. You think it wouldn’t be an exploit as long as the boss has his health tripled or something. This is the reason why it’s different from climbing a wall because you will never get hit whether the boss’ hp is tripled or increased 100x more.

The same people who advocates zerker builds, the best of them still do not require non-zerker stats through proper dmg mitigation. You think they will end up forgoing the zerker gears? Maybe the meta would simply change to requiring more guardians for a better coordinated aegis timings to completely mitigate the damage thus all those toughness vitality stats still won’t matter as much as you hope.

Drakent.9605:

Because people can finish dungeons faster through proper coordination it’s an exploit? .[/quote]

Lol popping all your CD at a start of the fight and still having does cd effect by the end of the fight isn’t proper coordination

[/quote]

Is it? Requiring Eles to max might and vuln as soon as possible isn’t proper coordination? Sounds like a proper coordination to me than blindly popping CDs at different times blindly.

Pre-stacking is a coordinated preparation to a fight. I don’t know why this isn’t a proper coordination. I’m more upset when I’m an Ele that people never cared about setting up properly before a massive battle.

An exploit is when you stay somewhere and that way the boss has no way to damage you while you whittle the boss down to death.

You think this is on the same level as players maximizing their damage output to mitigate more damage bring thrown against them?

Drakent.9605:

Asking for heavy only is because what they really mean is I want 2 warrior and 2 to 3 guardian for the buff and survivability

You see a warrior has there banners, 2 warrior can offer the group 170 prec 15% , 170 tough and vit and 170 healing with 10% boon duration , now the 170 healing doesn’t mean much but the boon duration its great especially with a guardian next to you

Now you got the guardian who can offer boon and protection fields , 2 guardians can offer perma stack of might from 20 to 25 ,they can easy offer 20 sec of 33% damage reduction, both combine can offer 20 sec of reflect or even better 12 sec of sanctuary and if you have a 3rd guardian that’s 18 sec of sanctuary making the group immune to damage

Now if it took 40sec to 1min to kill a boss, all this buff wouldn’t help much at the end, but b/c of the zerker build players can down a boss under 20sec and with all this heavy class buff they are unstoppable , no need to use dodge no need to use healing skill no need to know when you are going to get hit just stand there and burn the boss down

This to me is a exploit and the reason zerk build deserve a nerf

Because people can finish dungeons faster through proper coordination it’s an exploit? Where is it stated that the boss ought to be defeated in more than x seconds?

Besides, a team of all heavies aren’t necessarily the fastest runs. If you’re not happy with lots of lfgs looking for just heavies, make your own group (and from the general impression there are many others who are like you). So you won’t face a zerg-only group, no kicking for running non-meta builds, etc.

Tyrantis.8640:

Brizna.5612:

I am prety sure everyone complaining about condition damage are refering to PvE, so let’s focus.

In PvE conditions are weak, they can work sure, but except in some very custom tailored events, conditions are always inferior to sheer berserkerness.

I apologize I wasn’t clear but Briz nailed it on the head. I am speaking for PvE. sPVP and WvW is just fine. Condi hurts other players really well where it seems to me, it takes forever to kill something compared to base crit/power in PvE.

Do you have any novel suggestions for this?

What do you suggest that will make condition viable in dungeon runs that will not make them even more OP in WvW and sPvP?

@OP:

Please post a video of your failings and see if the community agrees you’ve played your Mesmer to a reasonable degree. Having all professions at lvl 80 doesn’t mean that you will automatically be good with any of them or if you’re gd with one profession, you’ll be as good with another one. And high AP only means you possibly play a lot of LS or have been playing constantly for a long time.

On top of that, the other people here can help you with how you play your Mesmer during specific encounters.

Drakent.9605:

I guess anets agree with my Opinion on how berserk needed a nerf and here is my proof

Reducing the Maximum Attainable Critical Damage

One of the main goals for balance in Guild Wars 2 is to support a wide variety of builds that cater to different play styles. The current implementation of critical damage works against this. Put simply, if critical damage-stacked builds are more effective than other approaches, the build diversity decreases. As we work to increase support and teamwork between players throughout the game, we examined how we could change critical damage to retain it as a fun and viable approach to build-making while also allowing other builds to shine.

The formula we’re using to convert ferocity into critical damage will reduce the current maximum obtainable values. At level 80, it will take 15 points of ferocity to gain 1% bonus critical damage, which means that there will about a 10% decrease in overall damage for a full “berserker” build.

That is not proof because anet stated that berserker’s gear will still be the best and optimal damage of all the available gears. You will get your diversity when there’s room for more cc-oriented builds, all those visions anet had for support, control and DPS (or if somehow condition damage can ever be viable. I’m afraid with the max condition cap, anet has developed the players to be extremely skilled at playing the game without relying on condition in such a way that if condition damage is made uncapped, people would still opt for non-condi builds). Until that time comes, you’re stuck with the highest DPS gear is the best no-contest gear.

You want diversity, play more WvW and PvP.

And might stacking as an Ele is really good, but most PuGs don’t know/care/bother. It’s learn as you go, I guess.

I’m sorry but I don’t think of your guild mates as “nice” if they are unwilling to teach you. Maybe Arah is the exception to this as it takes quite a bit of more time investment than most other dungeons.

Also, familiarizing yourself with the meta-built seems to me like the LEAST that you want to do. At least, this way, you know how your class works and people with more AP don’t intimidate you when they complain that your guardian isn’t mostly on staff for the fights. Because trust me, if you’re PUGging and it’s the first you’re doing it, it’s possible for you to wipe because of other morons and this might be a dent to your confidence as you’re still figuring out your class.

Go to gw2dungeons for more specific encounter guides besides the videos. The runes and sigils are important for min/maxing, but honestly, dungeons can be done in full PVT gears (not encouraging you, but if you’re struggling to survive, maybe go for it). It’s more important for instance not to be a bearbow ranger, rifle warrior, staff guardians, etc.

What professions do you run? I’m just thinking that maybe the profession that requires the least amount of responsibility is a warrior, a ranger or maybe a thief/ele. That’s because warriors are there for the banners (the rangers for spotter and frost) and the rest is mostly learning rotations so you might want to start with them (I suggest warriors to start out). A thief who can stealth properly is helpful but you’re mostly there for the DPS, just like Ele. But it takes more time as an Ele to figure out when to conjure and what to conjure (not a really long learning process but slower than thief). My concern with ele and thief is your survivability and might be offset by trying out in full pvt first (so learning AC paths for the tokens could be a really gd thing for you).

From there, I guess try to pay attention to when guardians cast a wall or when you’re knocked down to take a mental note as to when Guards and Mesmers could’ve been useful.

I think those people were more inbetweeners than elitists. If you’re truly an elitist, why PUG in the first place? Or if you’re an elitist looking to PUG, what is it that you don’t already know about the state and probabilities of a PUG gameplay?

I once PUGed in SE p1 and just realised something was amiss when the golem part took longer than expected (I thought they were focusing on the adds; turns out not only that, but one Mes decided to use GS for the whole time and the Guardian uses the Sceptre).

Since we didn’t wipe at Nokk, I decided to stay but persuaded my party to stack at the other side when I told them that we won’t have enough DPS with two people ranging (kinda gave up on telling range-ers to melee).

I just thought this would be faster than to look for another PUG whose quality could be as suspect.

PUGers that play properly kinda spoil you a little bit lol. Ideally, you kinda try to make the best out of a situation. I would rather take the initiative to ask if someone is new and teach them the fight when you realise something is a bit funny than kicking them straight away.

Honestly, though. Unless it’s a wipe or they fail to follow instructions, it’s sort of a bit much for PUG unless the lfg states it more clearly. It’s more annoying when you write exp 80s and you get first timers who clearly didn’t care about the lfg desc.

If you delete the berserker’s gear, you will replace the complaints with the next best optimal gears (assassin’s, knight’s valkyrie’s, etc.) ad infinitum until you’re left with one least optimal gear. Why is this a good thing?

I agree that certain battles can be over so quickly RF isn’t even needed.

Therefore, I don’t think using HoB is such a big deal unless it screws up the stacking.

Anyway, in such a case, consider perhaps using ToW 3 & 4 instead of HoB. But maybe the difference will be minimal if the team DPS is so high.

Yes, it’s a toss-up between speed and portal.

Mesmers definitely have no problem soloing any content (and if you end up mastering the profession and the game, you could even end up soloing Arah).

IrisTheCasual.3742:

Funny moments of yesterday. Arah LFG always makes me smile.

This way there won’t be any more cannons. Now that is proper thinking.