Guild Wars 2

Because of the average pug that uses a bear and a shortbow while wearing full clerics and not using healing spring or spirits.

A proper sword/WH ranger with an moa, spotter and spirits is always welcome.

Preacher.4836:

It was changed when they introduced Sky Hammer to Spvp. Necro’s were being punted off the edge, but because of no dmg spill over from DS they wouldn’t die and just be running around on the bottom. I can’t say if it was OP or not, but that is the reason it was changed.

Preacher

Still works with spectral walk if you want to hang with the wurms.

Writetyper.1985:

I don’t. PvE is almost disappointingly easy in this game and it’s obvious because everyone is forced to make their own fun in speedruns and kitten like that. There’s also, as is the common complaint, no PvE endgame. It’s just doing (not remotely fun or challenging) dungeons for practically no reason. How many times can you run Arah over and over again?

More often than i can play Spirit watch or Skyhammer in soloQ

They should nerf PVT/Clerics already. If you can faceroll a dungeon without dodging once then something is definetly wrong.

JonPeters.5630:

Very difficult subject here. I agree you want some form of understandable rules of which field will trigger, however I’m not certain that your own fields is the right one. I’m also not sure it is wrong, but I want to have a bunch of alternative discussion before we dedicate programmer time (which is what it would take) to address this issue.

I think a good exercise would be to list some possible systems and list the pros and cons of each.

i.e.

List Method
There is a personalized list where you get to pick the order that you care about.
Pro: You get to decide
Con: It is a pretty advanced decision that I never expect 90% of players to understand so it doesn’t solve the problem for the majority of the playerbase.
Con: Whatever you setup outside of a specific combat situation isn’t necessarily going to be the right thing once you get in combat. If instead there is a logic rule instead of a chosen one you can adapt your tactics to follow that rule and get the situational results you desire.
Con: Probably the most work of any of the currently proposed solutions without solving the problem for every user.

I think there are a few more pros/cons to this system as well but I think you get the idea.

Other ideas floating out there

• Fixed Priority – Always the same priority for all players.
• Time Based – The most recent or least recent field is what triggers.
• Self Priority – Your own fields take priority (this would have to be a rule that stacks on top of another system.

Jon

Why not implement all the ideas and allow the player to pick one of the ideas? That way the advanced players can set up their fields to whatever they want, and new players can keep the current system.

Example:

Player A has the following priorities: Fire > Water > Smoke > Poison > Darkness > Lightning > Light

Player B has the following priorities: Water > Light > Fire > Poison > Smoke> Lightning > Darkness

Player C has the standard setup (Time based i think?)
Player A plays an hammer guardian and drops a light field, while Player B drops a fire field as an elementalist. The fire field dropped before the light field and takes priority.

Player A blasts in both fields, and triggers the Fire Field thanks to their priority setup.
Player B blasts in both fields, and triggers the Light Field thanks to their priority setup.
Player C blasts in both fields, and triggers the Fire Field thanks to the normal priority system.

If you can implement a combo field priority list then new builds will be able to open up, and some classes will be more welcomed to dungeons such as necros. The reason why necros are currently looked down upon are because of their bad fields for PvE and no cleave. Implementing a priority system will partially fix that issue.

Another pro of the self priority system is that people in organized groups, such as WvW will be able to coordinate their fields with ease, allowing them to move smoothly through certain chokepoints and assign blasters with diffrent field priorities. This could potentially break up a new style of combo play and throw in a whole new aspect to organized WvW.

Sarrs.4831:

xsquared.1926:

How much gems is that thing? Unable to log on at the moment. Quite curious what a fix of roids would cost.

1 = 150
5 = 550
25 = 2625

And how long does each fix last? Do side effects include shaky hands and stuff.

This is important.

How much gems is that thing? Unable to log on at the moment. Quite curious what a fix of roids would cost.

Attempted it again but this time with a FGS rush + LF. Messed the cannon phase up, and a pug ran away. Still managed to kill it in time though

Luckily, ele is fine in PvE already. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnPui3MAx8Q

I really hope they seperate PvE/PvP balances for eles, right now there is only one build that i consider useful in PvP and that’s staff control. It’s a decent build when left alone, but as soon as a thief or engie starts to train you you’ll be useless and a dead weight towards your group.

Looking forward towards some slightly more defensive abilities for the ele in PvP so that they can actually do stuff without dying instantly. In PvE eles are perfectly fine though, so i’m hoping for no changes there.

Iris Ng.9845:

I tried your staff build in COE too, XD. I didn’t get that insane damage. What are your damage modifiers?

Tbh, I’m not a very skilled ele myself and still unfamilar with a lot of mechanics. If the pugs are decent (read: good mesmer or guard, and good overall DPS), I’ll do glassy builds anytime. It’s just a zerker ele is like an aggro-magnet and dagger MH is so good to kill them off. Scepter is more like a strong single-target weapon and best for stacking might, imho. How often do I see a pug do might stacking? And staff is good with static mobs when the group stacks properly.

and don’t forget that pug still steals LH and spam #4

10% from fire attune, 10% on burning, 10% when within 600 range 20% when above 90% HP (Scholars + water VI) 10% from sigil, 10% from potion and 20% when enemies are below 33% HP.

This gives me a total damage modifier of 161.051% when below 90% and the mobs being above 33%

A whopping 193.2612% when above 90% HP and enemies above 33% HP.

And last but not least, an enormous modifier of 231.91344% when the enemies are below 33% HP and me being above 90% HP

Here i tried it again with FGS, but the cannon phase got kind of messed up and our pug ran. Still managed to kill it in one go though

Seera.5916:

It would be nice if there were more non-zerker builds that could hit in the damage range of zerker builds and hit the range of times speed clears happen in to increase variety of play styles and strategies for speed clearers to not burn them out as quickly.

Only if those gear sets are full on offensive such as rampagers, berserkers and assassins. Gear such as Knights, Valkyrie and Soldiers with partial defensive stats should NEVER have as much DPS as zerkers. If they did, then what would the point of zerks be?

Dungeons are easy enough as it is. I’d like some hard mode stuff introduced instead, with better rewards and stuff. Or giving additional rewards for solo/duoing dungeons

30/10/10/10/10. You’ll be able to carry pugs and their abysmal damage with this

Nikaido.3457:

a t s e.9614:

And the ele’s I had in my other run were both LH with 25 might and we still couldnt finish the destroyer in one try like I do with 4 war\ 1 mes.

Ewww I am bad and played with bad ele so it’s not possible to kill the destroyer in one try

Notice the absence of timewarp which most of war pug scrubs rely on to get it done.

Even pugscrubs can do it if they have an elebro to back them up!

Still want to do it with a serious group one day and pull off a 16k meteor into FB into FGS + LF to kill it in sub 10 secs

marc.6581:

oh, and another thing, with being a guardian, I’m never sure what groups would prefer. as of right now I’m a mixture of power and precision with some toughness. Do groups prefer guardians with more healing or more durability? which way should I go to be more welcomed as a guardian?

If i was you, i’d go with more damage. Start with knights, and slowly work your way up to full berserkers.

A common mistake that people make is that they think their defensive support comes from stats such as healing power and the likes. However, most of the guardian’s support comes from active damage migitation such as blinds, blocks, aegis, reflects and protection.

As for a build, i’d suggest using the following to get the best out of your playing style if you want to be supportive. You’ll throw down perma protection while attacking with your hammer, which helps the group a lot.

Another good build would be 10/30/0/5/25 with Sword/Focus and GS. Does slightly more damage while losing the perma prot from the hammer and the 5s cd blast finisher.

Lower axe AA damage by 20%, give it cleave up to 3 targets.

That will solve some of the cleaving issues.

I’ll contribute with a chatlog.

Goystein and smoughney selling the paths to casuals for a soft, soft price :^)

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Ban all consumables, ban Fiery Exploit Sword, ban DPS traits, ban Zerpberper armor, ban melee weapons, every mob in the dungeon must be killed

I’d like to nominate this run to take the #1 spot then.

Yeah, i joined a guild, made friends and became good.

Scared/10

mahariel.4981:

your screen is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Whenever I shrink the UI like that, my Black lion interface gets all messed up. :/

2560×1440 screens fix all those issues. Totally worth the money i spent on it

Done with pugs and i even messed up my rotation. Able to pull out around 20-25% more damage in a fully organized group.

Fror.2163:

LittleLepton.8915:

It does stink. I do enjoy the CoE opening events though. Fun to solo/duo

I never could solo the Infinity Coil Commander: he resets way too fast. :-/ Has anyone ever soloed him?

Try to apply a long lasting condition on him, that’ll keep him in combat. Did solo’s quite a lot on my ele. Just dont get knocked off the platform since that results in an instant reset

Its only doable by eles if we count in the burrows, FGS/FB for a solo is almost a must there.

You can fix this by luring a small spider to tzark. Hard but possible. Had it myself a few times

May i propose another build instead?

Try using 30/10/10/10/10 post patch.

30 Fire for:

Persisting Flames: This will allow you to maintain your lava font longer, and it will tick more often dealing insane damage.

Pyromancers alacrity: When paired with Persisting Flames you’ll have a permament fire field.

Internal Fire: Self Explainatority

10 Air:
Bolt to the heart: Self Explainatority

10 Earth:
Stone Splinters: Self Explainatority

10 Water:
Vital striking: Self Explainatority

10 Arcana:

Blasting Staff.

Blasting staff will synergize with your offensive nature, it’s better than throwing in another 10 points for damage modifiers, because the AoE on your lava fonts and stuff will be huge. Meteor shower will hit a lot more often too, and fireball gets crazy cleave range.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmmboRzwjFAkCoEeQADFMK0hogFlC5A-jwxAYfAyPQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1G8ioVLFQEDjA-e

link for the build. Note that Arcana has a wrong trait selected since i can’t include blasting staff on the 10 point line yet.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImKb6R2wjFAkCoEeQADFMK0hogFlC5A-jkxAYfAyPQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1SBExwI-w

30/10/10/10/10 Nukementalist, will be swapping from 30/10/10/20/0 and 30/20/10/10/0

Blasting staff too good.

Snort it
Snort it all and become a god.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Huge buff to staff. Blasting Staff got big improvements across the board and Lava Font is even more god tier OP than it was before.

Dont forget meteor storm and it’s increased range on each meteor.

Offensive staff eles got a major buff, it seems.

AndrewSX.3794:

What’s the Fire Staff DPS build, for reference?

I mean trait spread and choices, haven’t seen it posted fully yet.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmKbsx0wjEAkCoEeQADFMK0hQhFQA-jgxAYfAyPQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1SBMqyI-e

Hilariously strong, hilariously squishy.

Meteor storm is definetly worth it now. The patch increased the range on each meteor by 25%. I tried it with blasting staff too, but i didn’t really like the damage decrease.

Also, 3150+ FGS rush ticks on alpha, stuff’s crazy

http://i.imgur.com/OQ7lV8e.png
http://i.imgur.com/YlqXHrh.png

Guard hammer strong.

I only use the LFG tool if i have atleast two friends/guildies with me, makes carrying pugs a lot easier if they mess up the run.

No :^)

/15barbedcharrs

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

xsquared.1926:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlYg6C33xMEfIFSWhC0mBBBQ1HiHMFYkHB-jgxAY/AR+BoIQJvioxWcLiGrylIqWKgIWGB-e

What about this? 15/25/0/20/10 Hammer/GS.

Been running it for a few weeks now, seems to outdps sword too (Taking 0/30/0/30/10) in mind

Effective Power is only useful for comparing builds using the same weapon and same profesion, in this case I compared Sword Focus.

Also, hammer builds derive a significant portion of their damage from symbols which I means you’re spending trait points for dps that won’t necessarily show up in effective power.

Ah, yes that is correct. Still, the final hit can land over 25k under good conditions, i should have a screenshot on my home rig doing 22k including symbol pulses. Perhaps hammer will be viable once again compared to the almighty sword? especially with 15 zeal and 25 radiance for the perma vuln and damage

Zelyhn.8069:

I am now going to implement the Guardian

Can I have a list of common builds to look at please?

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlYg6C33xMEfIFSWhC0mBBBQ1HiHMFYkHB-jgxAY/AR+BoIQJvioxWcLiGrylIqWKgIWGB-e

Hammer/GS DPS build, been running it for some time now

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlYg6C33xMEfIFSWhC0mBBBQ1HiHMFYkHB-jgxAY/AR+BoIQJvioxWcLiGrylIqWKgIWGB-e

What about this? 15/25/0/20/10 Hammer/GS.

Been running it for a few weeks now, seems to outdps sword too (Taking 0/30/0/30/10) in mind

spoj.9672:

You can test the base auto’s without traits and then use maths to calculate how the various traits would improve dps. Your results show hammer as best which isnt true, the only reason it beats sword and gs in that video is because of the vuln on symbol. In a group, vuln and might are gonna be fairly equal across all builds.

But how would i take care of the might on a greatsword autoattack then.
Also, Hammer and Sword would be completely equal if i dropped the vuln trait, considering it let me kill the golem 5% faster which equals to (0.37*5 = 1,85 added seconds) on the hammer kill speed. which would put it at the same DPS as sword has.

spoj.9672:

xsquared.1926:

Guardians are able to pull off more sustained DPS, but less burst DPS.

In a solo instance however, a warrior will outdps a guardian, but when we put them both to equal footing with warrior banners, fury and 25 might, guardians actually do more DPS than warriors do. Especially when using the hammer autoattack.

Also, greatsword has the worst sustained DPS out of all guardian melee weapons, but it has the highest burst DPS. Zealots defense is a loss of DPS because of it’s aftercast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob5Q4RAPB08

Quick comparison between the weapons

Hammer and GS used 15/15/0/30/10 and Sword used 0/30/0/30/10

Edit: Typo fix

Using traits skews the results. Also you were getting vuln from hammer so it would actually be slower.

If i wouldn’t use traits i’d lose 22,5% crit from RHS and 30 radiance. I’d also miss out on the extra 10% damage on conditions trait.

Testing out DPS without traits is silly, considering traits are the cornerstone of a build

Guardians are able to pull off more sustained DPS, but less burst DPS.

In a solo instance however, a warrior will outdps a guardian, but when we put them both to equal footing with warrior banners, fury and 25 might, guardians actually do more DPS than warriors do. Especially when using the hammer autoattack.

Also, greatsword has the worst sustained DPS out of all guardian melee weapons, but it has the highest burst DPS. Zealots defense is a loss of DPS because of it’s aftercast.

Quick comparison between the weapons

Hammer and GS used 15/15/0/30/10 and Sword used 0/30/0/30/10

Edit: Typo fix

Sword/Sword and Sword/Focus.

Focus for the pull and warden for AoE/Reflects, Sword for the highest single target damage and free evade on sword 4.

Sigil of night or bloodlust on MH sword, Sigil of [Dungeon] on both offhands to maximize DPS

Oxxy.7068:

Yep, I totally forgot about symbol duration, 15/25/0/20/10 seems a better choice here. I’m sad about not being able to use 25 in virtues but it still seems solid to me.

Yeah, although i’d still run 15/15 for now, because PoV has amazing condition cleansing which puts the emphasis on the group carrying part of this build.

Once Purging flames gets it’s buff PoV will be thrown out of the window and i’ll be running 2 consec/1 shout all day

Oxxy.7068:

I’m really tempted into crafting an ascended hammer instead of my ele 2nd dagger right now, i’ll probably do some testing first and prepare myself for some pointless and boring open world content. I mean, it seems to be better than s/f if you want to run with 25 in virtues instead of 30 in honor.

edit: what in the hell is wrong with the profanity filter today?

20 Honor for the longer symbol trait is mandatory in this build though. I’m probably going to drop pure of voice myself once the purging flames buff gets implemented and run 15/25/0/20/10 instead, it’ll increase the DPS of my build by around 10% because i wouldn’t have to waste as much dodges for elusive power to take effect. If you are planning on trying this spec, i’d advise you to take the following build which i made for it

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlYg6C33xMEfIFRWBRafAg1HiH2DM6xOC-jgxAYfAyPAFBK5VEN2ibR0YVuER1SBExyI-e

Edit: That is definetly something to consider, the DPS of both specs would probably even out by then, although 15/25 instead of 15/15 would probably still outDPS sword.
If only two handed weapons had two sigils ;_;

Oxxy.7068:

I’m more concerned about long fights, let’s say, grawl shaman (tho you can probably just stack might between phases), CoE Golem(even with boon removal it tends to use 3 LHs on my ele (2 casts)), maybe the third alpha assuming you don’t have two eles, CoF p3 Burntclaw etc, these are some fights that screwing fire fields really hurts your party overall damage. As for vulnerability stacks it only beats sword on static stacks, in burst stacks it’s pretty much even if you run s/f + blinding exposure. Hammer seems really awesome at clearing trash and a kitten solid weapon with the right group setup, tho. I’m actually impressed.

For might stacking i generally switch to greatsword when purging flames has 15 seconds left on the cooldown. I then follow up with my GS burst and do as much damage as i can in those 15 seconds, after that i call out my purging flames, swap out to hammer and blast in it. If there’s a warrior banner nearby i usually nab it, use the fury skill if it’s a discipline one and then use banner 5 for another 3 might stacks before DPSing the boss again.

Might stacking is still possible and really viable with this build, especially if you manage to position yourself so that only the edge of your symbol hits the mob. After that you’ll roll through the mob pack and drop Purging flames on the other side and let people stand in it while being in melee range, blasting for more might stacks.

I’d say to play this spec to it’s fullest potential, positioning and mob control is one of the most important things to do.

Oxxy.7068:

Now that’s something, i didn’t expect hammer to be actually that good at DPSing but… i’ve got only one problem with it:
Combo fields. It has so much potential to ruin might stacks on the fly, blinds and heals that i’m not sure if i’d use it as my main DPS weapon (blinds may be neglectible to some extent since you’re spamming protection, but sometimes -33% damage ins’t enough). There’s also the fact that your target has to stand still, but aside from some fractals that’s not a problem in general.

Coordinated party groups will usually pre-stack might before fights, and if a fire field does show up, you can quickly swap to your GS, pop rotations on it and make sure your fields wont interfere with the fire fields. As for the moving issue, most mobs don’t move at all after you’ve pulled them, and the symbol has a huge range which makes its cleave far better than the sword one has, ontop of that, the hammer symbol is a constant source of 5 vulnerability if you go into 15 zeal, following that up with GS 4 > 3 > and VoJ makes it top out at 16-17 vuln from a guardian alone, which is pretty impressive.

I must say that having 2 or more hammer guardians running this build will result in diminishing returns, one hammer guard is able to keep up perma prot by himself. It would be better for the second guard to run 0/30/0/30/10 and sword/focus.

Remove the blast and halve the condition duration on both conditions, tone radius down to 300.

DPS check between guardian’s 3 major weapons

Hammer is actually the strongest, followed up close by sword and greatsword is falling behind.

However, greatsword has great pulls and burst damage thanks to it’s symbol and whirling wrath. It’s sustained DPS is the lowest out of all weapons, however.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlYg6C33xMEfIFRWBRafAg1HiH2DM6xOC-jgxAYfAyPAFBK5VEN2ibR0YVuER1SBExyI-e

15/15/0/30/10. Hammer/GS

This build allows for major carrying with hammer autoattacks while being on par with the 0/30/0/30/10 Sword DPS build, single target DPS is the same, if not higher.

Damage comparison without gear and autoattacking with steady weapons can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob5Q4RAPB08

Hammer does it in 37
Sword does it in 39
Greatsword does it in 45.

The only time that you’ll want to use your GS in this build is when you need a good dose of burst damage, GS 3 > 4 > 2 is great for that. Hammer still remains king of the sustained DPS, though. And the short cooldown on it’s blast finisher is really nice.

LordByron.8369:

@xsquared…
check mesmer autoattack….
Blind i quite useless in pve boss fights
won t answer other points because viable is something that has no meaning.

We care of balance…
if a player have to press 1 and win while another has to be perfect to win a fight…both are viable, but the game is bad the same.

PvE has 0 balance we should not even discuss about that since its really clear.
Some professions are even pigeonholed in gimmick and unfun builds….
and this is a game.

Mesmer sword autoattack doesn’t keep up 25 vulnerability, an engineer does.

‘’We care of balance’’ – So you want every fight to be won by just pressing 1?

‘’Some professions are even pigeonholed in gimmick and unfun builds….’’ – Example please.

I still think all classes are fine, to be honest.

I’d like confusion to be un-nerfed in WvW again, right now most builds consist of phantasm specs/shatters, chaos armour also needs it’s ICD removed so that you can punish your enemies by putting conditions on them if they decide to whack you, while gaining well needed boons in return.

if they do this, i’ll probably dust off my Scepter/Pistol and staff to become a confusion duellist once more