Guild Wars 2

Stability is a beautiful thing. Feels like a very warrior-y boon. It’s just a bit of a shame guardians are better at providing it.

I feel like Jane Goodall trying to explain quantum physics sometimes.

Daecollo.9578:

xiv.7136:

Panacea.4927:

Because some suddenly up popping smoke screens and black powders are totally not obvious…

Actually no, they really aren’t.

Especially since you need to kill that perma-invisible thief before leaving the area.

A good perma-stealth thief can kite over a dozen people around endlessly. It’s actually very easy to do so.

Now imagine 2 perma-stealth thieves in SM doing this. Now imagine 5.

Perma-stealth is broken. It needs to be fixed.

Yes, but what can a perma-stealth thief do if they just ignore him?

…. I just explained that. He can ress the mesmers. Portal. Read.

Panacea.4927:

Because some suddenly up popping smoke screens and black powders are totally not obvious…

Actually no, they really aren’t.

Especially since you need to kill that perma-invisible thief before leaving the area.

A good perma-stealth thief can kite over a dozen people around endlessly. It’s actually very easy to do so.

Now imagine 2 perma-stealth thieves in SM doing this. Now imagine 5.

Perma-stealth is broken. It needs to be fixed.

Just as an example.

Stonemist gets taken. A few mesmers die inside and don’t release.

A thief perma-stealths inside and cannot be found. Once people have left the area after doing several thorough sweeps, he resses the mesmers.

Squad waiting outside.

Portal.

Portal.

Kill Lord without even starting an alert.

Pretty much breaks the whole of WvW I think you will find.

Stealth like that has no place in the current game. It needs to be fixed.

Patience, young noob thieves, you must become infused with shadow before you can learn the ways of the perma stealth without running out of initiative.

Yes, I’m entertaining myself talking in riddles to explain basic thief traits.

rylark.3418:

xiv.7136:

rylark.3418:

1st: No you can’t get 100% stealth, it’s impossible.

You must be new to playing a thief.

Here, I’m feeling charitable. I’ll teach you.

Get ready, I’m about to blow your mind.

Black powder. 3xHS.

Permanent stealth. Forever. You don’t even need a target to C&D.

Now go, impress your friends with your new-found thief skills.

facepalm
That gives you 5sec of stealth and you run out of initiative smart guy. So I don’t see where’s the “perma stealth” you’re talking about. By the way it’s much easier if you use blinding powder and spam 3 cluster bombs into the field, same effect and quicker.
Thanks for the advice, I’m impressing my friends by your non-sense and they’re laughing at it.

Running out of initiative means you don’t know how to build.

You bad, PEBKAC, L2P, other internet stuff.

Anyway, one other way to balance stealth would be to increase damage taken in stealth, giving it a more appropriate risk-reward ratio.

rylark.3418:

1st: No you can’t get 100% stealth, it’s impossible.

You must be new to playing a thief.

Here, I’m feeling charitable. I’ll teach you.

Get ready, I’m about to blow your mind.

Black powder. 3xHS.

Permanent stealth. Forever. You don’t even need a target to C&D.

Now go, impress your friends with your new-found thief skills.

rylark.3418:

Are you playing against guys with 1-5rank? You can’t go invis for 3sec after you go out of it by attacking, there’s no such 100% stealth, you’ve a limit of sec to be stealthed.
You can’t escape from CC forever, you don’t have many abilities to break through CC actually.

Doesn’t seem like you play thief at all, get your facts straight.

I didn’t say while attacking a target. And you can just dodge for the few seconds out of stealth after attacking anyway. D/P of course. And yes, you can escape CC forever with stealth, IA and SS and blinds.

rylark.3418:

xiv.7136:

They just need to fix stealth really.

Stealth lasts max 5 seconds, revealed lasts minimum 5 seconds.

Simple really.

Lmao, that’s a QQ nerf. You already have 3sec that thieves can’t go invis, enough time for you to burst him down.

I play a thief.

A thief who lets himself be seen for 3 seconds doesn’t know how to play really. There’s no such thing as “3 sec that thieves can’t go invis”.

You can be in stealth 100% of the time and escape any CC, forever.

They just need to fix stealth really.

Stealth lasts max 5 seconds, revealed lasts minimum 5 seconds.

Simple really.

zone.1073:

Give us a settings option to change our view of Asuras, so that Asuras have the same model and size as humans and sylvari, but with an Asuran head. Done deal.

The player controlling the Asura will still see themselves normal and tiny. But people who see the Asura have the option to tick “Normalize Enemy Character Models” in settings.

This idea needed to be quoted

Surely this would satisfy both sides right?

yeah this discussion is getting into inter-species talk, and that never goes to a good place

Hearte.6852:

Hope everyone has a great day!

That picture looks like Valentine’s Day Out in prison

It’s obvious RTL range is being decreased to 600 and only works on target so it’s not an issue

ok that’s probably the best indication of what’s to come for RTL then

what he already knows and isn’t saying, is RTL either has a long cd or a much shorter range, or both, which is why he clearly doesn’t consider it an issue

Clearly RTL etc will drop the orb “flag”

This new map is huge news btw

CTF is coming!!!!!!!

I’m actually very excited by this.

I do fear that guardian will become the de facto orb carrier for every team, but that’s ok really, there’s always a favoured carrier.

Let’s face it, it wasn’t going to be glass cannon thieves carrying anyway.

Sand Beagle.9867:

Hue, http://postimage.org/image/767a2m7bt/

Great picture

The Mists are kind of a weird place outside the world…

Could it not just be that for tournament matches only, all characters are turned into human avatars of the same height (only gender and facial features change)

Something to do with the asuran gates that send the chars to the tournament maps

would even things up where it counts (tPVP only) in a way that is lore-appropriate

Cat is out of the bag.

Dead Mesmer inside SM somewhere.

Perma stealth thief that can revive him any time.

Portal.

Easy win.

This does totally break the way the game was meant to be played.

I play a thief and I do think it’s time to redesign stealth.

Yeah dodging in Tera is ruined by the rooted attacks.

Makes PVP both painfully dull and also unintentionally hilarious.

Totally agree.

Other MMOs just play like crap after GW2. The dodging, jumping, movement and abilities in GW2 are just so smooth and athletic, it’s great gameplay.

And for graphics etc, forget about it, everything from WoW to SWTOR is just old and ugly in comparison.

Even my stealth dual dagger backstabber in Skyrim feels clunky and blerh after playing thief in GW2 (but at least the graphics in skyrim hold up in comparison, especially with the 4k texture mods etc)

Minibiskit.6158:

Tried this build and it is easily the best hammer warrior build I’ve ever used in organized WvW raids. The immobilize alone makes it fantastic, but the utilities you chose really make this build feel like a juggernaut.

My gear choices for this build:
PTV armor (slotted with emerald orbs)
PTV hammer and greatsword (sigil of bloodlust on hammer, sigil undecided on greatsword)
PTV back and jewelry (slotted with emerald orbs)

Thanks for the advice, Xiv!

You’ll find it has also made you a better lover, husband and father.

I play thief, warrior, guardian and elementalist (occasionally mesmer).

I feel like a god as D/D, it’s kind of the same as backstab thief.

Like the whole world is just a playground for my personal entertainment, nothing is much of a struggle, and I can always get out of trouble if I screw up.

Dolyak is garbage. Soldier is great but will make you always feel like you should be running shouts.

Malcastus.6240:

People are just annoyed when their prey decides to run, and they can’t catch up. Yes, not a pleasant feeling, but the same does happen with thieves and mesmers, turning invisible and vanishing.

I think this is actually a major part of the reason for the whining.

Simply put, all 3 of these classes have too many outs. Not just D/D ele, but all 3.

Schwarheit does the LB/GS build

The specificity of the tornado build is fast weaponswaps and fast adrenaline buildup, going hammer cripple → hammer stun → evasive ww with 100% crit → repeat, keeping damage intake on you just low enough to sustain glass cannon damage against zergs without getting instantly downed.

The best use for Rampage is while idling in Lion’s Arch.

You switch to it, chuckle and shake your head, and switch back.

Brightens up any cloudy day.

Manticore Five.9867:

Why Furious instead of Last Chance?

cooldown

the build relies on fast adrenaline gain and constant weapon swaps

Hello ladies. How are you. Fantastic.

Does your man’s build look like mine? No. Can your man change his build? Yes.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sg-s;1RKVP0g4ZL-60;9;5T-9T;139A;10;059B;6s;55BV

Should your man use my build? I don’t know.

Do you want a man who can slam into the zerg with ridiculous DPS and CC like a vengeful Tornado, and come out alive the other side in time to bake you a cake, in the dream kitchen he built for you with his own hands?

Of course you do.

Swan dive into the best build you’ve ever seen. It’s the Tornado.

http://youtu.be/lHe_62JkC1U

So ladies. Should your man use my build?

You tell me.

I’m on a horse.

Rising Dusk.2408:

A lot of this to me indicates a failing in the GW2 guild structure. It gives you the freedom to be in many guilds, but only really care about one of those guilds you’re in at a given time. This means that you, the player, can care about a guild only when the guild cares about you, which puts people into the situation you’re currently in. There’s nothing we can do about the system, all we can do is try to make do with what we have. If only people like you and I could find other people like you and I, we’d all be happy!

Unfortunately, people like you and I tend to all want to lead their own guilds, which leaves few of you and I left to join and support those guilds that are made.

I’ve met tons of really awesome players who, unfortunately, lead their own guilds and would never join mine as a result. That’s the sort of problem you and I inevitably face, and well, them’s the breaks. We just have to make do.

Good luck.

Read the sentences above.

It’s about people like you, who believe they have everything it takes to be a successful guild leader – but don’t – and are running a failing/failed guild and bemoan the fact…. but won’t join another guild and be a good member instead.

It’s a failing of pride.

Killigraphy.3075:

Veritas.6071:

running a condition warrior handicaps you.

While everything else was presented beautifully by you, here is where we disagree and where I have to emphasize that what I quoted is opinion;

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

Condition Warriors are viable.

Linking a video from July 2012, with players who had no idea what conditions were, is not a valid argument.

There’s no esports MMO yet, GW2 is the last best hope as they say.

Some of the keybinds setups in here make my head swirl.

Naga Hex: 1-5 (bound to F1-F5 on keyboard) = weapon skills
keyboard 1-4 attunements
Q weaponswap
ERT utilities
` heal
F interact
G elite
shift dodge

Engineer says hi

kmc.7681:

xiv.7136:

Glass cannon or go home. Real men don’t need no toughness. We don’t need no vitality. Healing shouts, banners? Why not just wear a tutu.

Hammers are for carpenters. Drop your unicorn wand and pick up some axes and a sword. Warhorn because real men sound off.

This isn’t about being the best. It’s about being the manliest. This is the Mancleaver build.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s77F-0-RK-Q0e4ZL-60;9;499T-J4;02;027A;159-OoW46;95Bm

Look at my build. Look at yours. Now look at mine again. You could have my build. But you need to be a real man.

If you are female, none of my comments make any sense. Real men don’t have to make sense.

We just have to run fast, hit hard and make it back to our wives in time for dinner. Wham, bam, thank you maam.

Mancleaver.

http://youtu.be/z9lpQ-etUJs

For Men.

LMAO…nice!

I like it when my Charr Guardian bf makes me dinner before I get home from work. That’s how female warriors roll!

Real men occasionally make dinner, just to show that we could if we wanted.

A guardian is healing buffing tank

A warrior is a balls-to-the-wall glass cannon

You can try swimming upstream on both, with varying results

shhh no one say anything, they’ll go away by themselves and then we can keep on partying

Yes. Yes, it is.

It’s weird how they made the game look better than almost all the most beautiful single-player games, and yet it’s a MMO with huge numbers of people running around.

No idea how tbh

lothefallen.7081:

The game is mostly done solo. The only grouping you’ll do is in dungeons and even then, it’s very shallow because of the lack of distinct roles and the poorly designed skill system. The personal story is pretty much solo as well, no group missions like in GW1. Grouping is pretty much a novelty feature in this game. So yeah, mostly alone. When you do manage to find other people in the open world, though, they’ll just zerg the closest event with you and then run away. Not much to it, it’s the most impersonal and shallow experience i’ve ever had in MMO gaming.

I feel sorry for you.

Get into a guild, talk to people, don’t be so antisocial.

Honestly, its the most friendly MMO out there.

People always help each other out in the world because, why not, both get loot. Seeing more people around is always a good thing, they’re never stealing your gathering nodes, they’re never stealing your mobs.

People go out of their way to ress you – even more now with the new daily healer.

Most people are shy about being the first to talk in map chat, but I find if you say something stupid in map chat, a discussion starts soon enough, in any zone while levelling.

Overall strongest classes in every aspect of the game, essential to bring along:

- Guardian: borderline op bunker pvp, fantastic balance of damage and support in dungeons, backbone of wvw and PVP groups

- Ele: same as guardian

- Mesmer: great for all aspects of the game but mainly due to bringing unique utilities like time warp, curtain, portal, nullfield, etc, otherwise superb in all aspects of PVP in terms of both survivability and damage

Middling classes that excel at certain things:

- Thief: Multiple specs offer insane survival and damage in wvw, great escapes and highest burst in 1vs, mediocre in dungeons but not useless

- Necro: used properly (ie: not as a pet class) has extremely useful tricks to contribute to groups and some very high sustained aoe damage, some great tPVP builds

- Warrior: extreme DPS in PVE and dungeons, mediocre and vulnerable in all aspects of PVP unless running low dps high survival build in wvw

Classes that are not weak, but do need something unique to bring to the table:

- Rangers: decent damage and some useful utilities, but overall lacking in flavour, great for PVE soloers and has 1 very strong tPVP build (among the strongest currently)

- Engis: able to fill in for various roles, but doesn’t perform any of them as well as specialists, great all-rounder in PVE and PVP for people who know how to use them

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Falcon, the Warrior is highly viable in PvP – with the right build/talents/runes/Utilities. But with the nature of PvP in general, someone is always going to have a spec/class etc which is just going to be your nemesis, there really isn’t such a thing as a perfect PvP class which will always own 100% of the time.

You’re wrong.

30%

should it be listed in tooltip

discuss

Save karma for armor sets bought at temples in Orr for Power/Vit/Toughness gear that will make you harder to kill. Buy rare berserker accessories from the trader, or exotic if you can afford it.

Do dungeons for tokens for berserker gear which will make you fragile but hit harder. Just join a pug or use gw2lfg.com – CoF is easy and quick, so don’t be scared to go.

You will want this gear for when you are more confident in your abilities to survive and don’t rely on PVT gear as much.

Do fractals and daily for ascended gear.

For a nice safe spec in PVE, use this (healing shouts greatsword), it’s very easy to play. Add soldier runes for condition removal. Copy the link into browser address, don’t just click on it.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sg;3RKkN0Z4JL-60;9;49J-T94;049;257B4;8Zu

You can move the points from shouts into more damage when you feel confident.

TsukasaHiiragi.9730:

Okay, I have almost all the classes at 80 now – properly played not crafted all the way – 4 of those 80s have world 100% so, here is my 2c on the classes – One of the biggest problems for classes is near useless or just seriously underpowered weapon skills.

Warriors

The best class in the PVE game, no other class can match the cookie cutter builds for pure burst damage, heavy armor increases survivability for zerker builds so most of the more serious attacks can just be dodged. My Warrior can routinely do as much as 35k – 45k damage in around 5 seconds, how many other classes in the game can do that amount of damage in that time frame? – The short answer, NONE. This doesn’t mean the warrior is broken, it means all the other classes are – and honestly, they really are.

In WvW/sPvP warriors are also fine, you’re probably running into many players who are using either the wrong runes, or sigil stackers instead of more PvP utilities.

Thiefs

I’d honestly say these are the 2nd best class in the game, and thats mostly due to condition builds own WvW. In PvE, they have one of the best utility skills – group stealth allowing for safe rezs, bypassing groups of mobs etc etc, Thief is just well balanced, in that respect. Power/Crit builds are not really viable anymore though due to various nerfs in the past, no longer can you get ridiculously high back stabs, but still even a power/crit build is still more or less viable compared to other classes.

Mesmer

Honestly, they need some minor changes. Most use GS which is fine at long range, but how often does that really happen? I think the range vs damage aspect of the GS main attack should be removed and re-done, this would help the mesmer class. Everyone says they are the king of WvW or at least was before the nerfs, at least for utility and exploits, damage wise they are pretty bad. Not to mention, in WvW they are pretty easy to kill 1 v 1 compared to other classes, I guess this is why you see them running/teleporting away most of the time.

In PvE they are so-so, again the utility skills is what makes the class really any good – many of the weapon skills are underpowered and lacking serious burst potential. Phantasms are really in the end, just a distraction – even shatter builds are not really ‘that’ great in terms of damage, especially if you compare to Warriors output.

Ranger

Class needs a revamp, totally – What can I say? Both the Longbow and Shortbow weapon skills are underpowered for any type of build, pets damage/utility is lacking. In PvP, the ranger is a wreck as many attacks are dodgable with or without DRoll. I’ve seen probably the least amount of rangers in Fractal runs than any other class period, so that should say something about rangers. In many ways, they probably on a par with Engineers for needing a class revamp.

Engineer

Another class that needs a revamp, everything about the Engineer is just wrong. The weapon skills are terrible, I mean ~ look at poison volley one of the pistol skills, unless your PB range, it can literally miss 90% of the time – where as other volley skills…don’t. All the kits don’t take advantage of the players condition damage/power/crit etc, which makes them pretty useless, I’ve spent a ton of time changing builds trying to find something that works, not to mention Engineers have suffered the most NERFS – the latest nerf to the Elixir Gun, because its crappy healing ‘was overpowered’ and was nerfed into the ground.

Guardians

I can’t really say anything bad about them, they are pretty well balanced all around. Obviously, they have the best survivability in any situation. I think overall, I think they could do with a few minor tweaks and a DPS boost, but overall – compared to other classes, its more or less fine.

Elementalist

Too much work involved to be honest, reminds me of playing FF13..swopping between elements to maximize the damage output is annoying, the damage output in general isn’t even that high anyway, not to mention the survivability is pretty lousy especially with D/D builds. Whilst the class doesn’t really need a major revamp, I think the class does need some significant buffs…

Nearly everything you wrote here is hilariously wrong.

It’s pretty obvious you only do PVE.

And only against normal mobs, presumably to level.

And in the wrong specs to boot.

all forms of stealth cause issues in wvw

the only real way is to do something about the way stealth works – perhaps change it to make people transparent but still visible so the model has to render, would fix a lot of issues just with that one change

That’s a fair point really, the complaint against HB is a PVE one, and frankly who cares about PVE.

You can do COF with 5 blue geared backstab thieves so it doesn’t matter.

PCanineBrigade.4916:

I’d prefer the a). Wars are pretty effective in PvE and I want other classes to be, too.
But speaking of which, why is 100b which deals 10-20k dmg a #2 skill with 6.5/8 sec cooldown in the first place? Why is the GS burst skill a kitten 1-h small dmg with fury boon? I don’t understand this.

100 blades is a crutch warriors have needed all this while in tPVP to overcome their fragility, lack of condition removal and proper condition spec, lack of escapes and lack of utility.

I think many PVP warriors would enjoy the tradeoff of damage with GS for access to boon and condi removal, time warp and regen/prot, amongst others. The PVE warriors would lose the easymode damage though.

High base armor and health really mean nothing when looking at evades, stealth, time warp/portal, proper condition specs, and proper sustain from protection and regeneration.

Removing one boon is rather weak for a F1 skill that is considered the worst ability in the game, unless some other changes are made, for example turning immunities, mistform, stealth etc into boons that could be shattered, then the skill would have an important tactical place in the meta.

Warriors are fairly balanced and even a little on the underpowered side in PVP.

They are however overpowered in PVE, due to mightstacking GS, the rest of their weapons are fine.

Nerf the damage of 100b and make it mobile and 360 degrees, remove the GS might stacking or give it an internal cooldown, and give warriors more condition removal, access to protection, and give warrior GS boon shattering effects.

That might be a more balanced way of doing it.