Guild Wars 2

lordkrall.7241:

I am not sure PPK is the way to go to be honest, seeing as that would basically make people that play other times than the main prime time in their match up contribute much less than others

As opposed to now where the minority of off-peak players disproportionally contribute far more than the majority who play in and near primetime…

Kailee.8790:

Wait, give me a link that they are killing our adorable bristlebacks… I dont want to believe it

Page 2 of this thread…

Kidel.2057:

Bunker druid is not easy at all to kill. Pretty sure it can endure any 1vs1.

Erm, no bunker spec is easy to kill, especially 1v1, that is rather a requirement of being a bunker spec…

What you need to be asking is how does bunker druid compare to other bunkers overall (bunker guard, scrapper, etc), is it harder or easier to focus down, is the group support it offers better or worse, how does its DPS output compae, etc…

mordran.4750:

^ This . Really guys, this is some form of open world pvp and if you believe in some bizarre honour codex…

Don’t think it has a huge amount to do with “honour” as such, it is more about fun, if I 5v1 some guy what is the point, there is no fun gameplay, I guess there is a “point” for PvE PPT heroes who think they are protecting a camp or whatever, but for an actual PvPer it is worthless, I’d rather 4 of us stand back and 1 of us do a 1v1, then at least one of us will get a bit of fun.

lorddarkflare.9186:

zinkz.7045:

Arantheal.7396:

Still, the warri AA can hit like a truck (3.5k hits on knight/zerker mix are nothing uncommon)

Well warrior is my least played class, and frankly I never play hammer on it, when I look at the wiki there seems to be very little difference between the engy AA & warrior AA:

engy:

AA1 – 323 (0.8)
AA2 – 323 (0.8)
AA3 – 404 (1.0)

warrior:

AA1 – 333 (0.9)
AA2 – 333 (0.9)
AA3 – 444 (1.2)

Or is the wiki wrong? Or do you play with more damage modifying traits in your warrior build?

edit:The wiki isn’t wrong, just tried out both in PvP against the golems with no traits selected, using same trinket, both put out very similar damage numbers, with warriors marginally higher.

The third AA of the warrior auto also hits 5 targets instead of 3.

And the first engy AA gives you might, the second vulnerability and the third both, point was he claimed warrior AA hits like a truck, when the reality is it hits very marginally harder than the engy AA, so there must be some other reason like traits he chooses that make his warrior AA “hit like a truck”.

Arantheal.7396:

Still, the warri AA can hit like a truck (3.5k hits on knight/zerker mix are nothing uncommon)

Well warrior is my least played class, and frankly I never play hammer on it, when I look at the wiki there seems to be very little difference between the engy AA & warrior AA:

engy:

AA1 – 323 (0.8)
AA2 – 323 (0.8)
AA3 – 404 (1.0)

warrior:

AA1 – 333 (0.9)
AA2 – 333 (0.9)
AA3 – 444 (1.2)

Or is the wiki wrong? Or do you play with more damage modifying traits in your warrior build?

edit:The wiki isn’t wrong, just tried out both in PvP against the golems with no traits selected, using same trinket, both put out very similar damage numbers.

kdaddy.5431:

I dont want to hear your negativity just like your post about wasting other players time.

The whole point of a resign option is because people don’t want to waste time, it is why in golf you can concede the hole, in snooker concede a frame, in chess concede that match, etc.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Point capture is what brought about this meta. It’s also why I don’t PVP but very extremely rarely. If there were more kinds of PVP arenas I probably would PVP more but tank building point capture is just so kitten boring.

Whilst more variety of PvP modes would be nice, point capture doesn’t create bunker meta in itself, the class design, mechanics and balance do, long ago teams used to run with burst comps (Helseth’s old teams for example).

You also have issues that “encourage” many classes to go tanky in some way, for example there is a huge disparity in survivability between classes when it comes to going glassy, classes like thief/mesmer/medi guard have huge survivability (in different ways) when glassy, compared to say a glass engy, hence engy is always forced to go tanky in some way be it celestial, soldiers, etc.

Other classes had the same issue, for the 8 or so months directly before the celestial/might rune patch, ele was virtually non-existent in tournaments, it had no strong tanky build and any glassy build was just food to thieves/mesmers. Same thing for ranger, other than tanky side node builds early on / spirit ranger, the class has basically been non-meta, glassy longbow has been okay on a couple of maps, but still overall vastly inferior to thieves, mes, etc.

Starfall.6425:

Yeah it is very illogical and noob to expect a ranger to generally be a guy with bow and pet that shoots you from afar. Let’s look at the first sentence how Arenanet decribes the Ranger:

“Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.”

LOL, yeah it is pretty noob to have your research into a game consist of reading a couple of small sentences, that gives an extremely limited inaccurate and highly incomplete description of how each class plays, though even on that page the clue the ranger uses many weapons, not simply bows, is shown in the image right below.

Starfall.6425:

THIS is why I am confident that a majority of ranger players started the class with the intent to be a ranged dd. That is all I said and now I still have to go on arguing with you although it is not really that important for the topic ^^

Again, speaking for others when you have no evidence to back your claim up, though feel free to show me the data that breaks down what percentage of players even looked at the page and nothing else, against those who went blindly in, those who checked out video/twitch, those who asked questions on game forums, those who started on a different class, etc.

Why are you so insecure that you can’t just state your own view on things without claiming the “most” of group X think something?

P.S – We are only off-topic, because you keep making claims about what “most people” think as some sort of justification, when you have given zero data to actually back that up, if you stuck to what you like/dislike about druid/dragonhunter, then we wouldn’t be here. You might also like to go look up the logical fallacy Argumentum ad populum.

Starfall.6425:

zinkz.7045:

Starfall.6425:

How many rangers started the game thinking “I will be a melee dagger ranger”.

Any player that did basic research before buying the game, any player that has played a reasonable number of MMOs and therefore has experienced classes, mechanics, etc vary, anyone who managed to watch the Lord Of The Rings movies without falling off their chair at the sight of Aragorn using melee weapons for most of the movie, basically non-noobs.

Well I actually tried to argue reasonably with you, but you just seem to try discrediting me so I will stop after this post. Just wanted to point out that this paragraph is a perfect example of what you tried to accuse me of and calling all rangers that wanted to play ranged-dd noobs… nice choice.

Try reading things properly, people may ‘want’ to play whatever they wish, that is irrelevant, the point was you are claiming people have expectations that ranger will be a “ranged damage dealer with a pet”, these people clearly lack experience (they are noobs), if they had played a number of MMOs, rather than nothing but WoW, then they would know ranger is not the same in every MMO, if they had got off their backside and done some research into GW2 before they picked it up, they would know ranger is not simply a ranged damage dealer, if they had read/watched the most famous fantasy novel/film of all time they would know a ranger does not automatically mean ‘ranged damage dealer with a pet’.

It has nothing to do with “discrediting” you personally, it has to do with your illogical argument that some people have certain expectations and therefore games must follow those expectations, if some people are too stupid to realise not every game will be the same as WoW or too lazy to do basic research into a game then the problem is with them, not GW2.

Starfall.6425:

How many rangers started the game thinking “I will be a melee dagger ranger”.

Any player that did basic research before buying the game, any player that has played a reasonable number of MMOs and therefore has experienced classes, mechanics, etc vary, anyone who managed to watch the Lord Of The Rings movies without falling off their chair at the sight of Aragorn using melee weapons for most of the movie, basically non-noobs.

Starfall.6425:

Well how did you say so nicely: That’s only your opinion. I know quite some rangers that are not fond of playing a healer and that is why I phrased my previous post how I did it. I only shouldn’t have said “most rangers”.. that’s right.

Well no that is not what I said “so nicely”, what I said was speak for yourself not others, which is what I did, I didn’t make unsupported claims as to what “most” rangers or guards think, because I can’t possibly know what ‘most’ think, and neither do you.

Starfall.6425:

The guard community came up with basically the celestial form the ranger now gets, isn’t it understandable that some guards now are irritated?

I’d say the “guard community” (again learn to speak for yourself), is delusional if they think they would get that healing spec in addition to all the other group support guard has, which I guess is one of the reasons it went to ranger a class that is severely lacking in that department.

Starfall.6425:

And like mentioned before I think all other elite specs are augmenting current playstyles, not being completely new ones.

Yes you mention it, but I don’t see the point, some specialisations offer a greater change in playstyle than others, some people seem to like that, some people don’t, there is nothing inherently good or bad about that, there is just everyone’s subjective opinion.

Interesting new playstyle

Starfall.6425:

You got it all wrong. Noone complains that the ranger-masterrace gets a good spec. Ranger is neither masterrace nor is the spec any good (from most rangers perspectiv).

Rangers are raging because they got a heal (and only heal) spec on a pew-pew-ranged-class and guards are raging because they see their shinies given to someone else.

Try speaking for yourself and not others, ranger isn’t a “pew pew ranged class”, you seem to be confusing this MMO with certain others, which is why ranger has GS, sword, dagger, etc, not just bows, classes can be played multiple ways in this game, that you haven’t worked that out yet, is well…

As for the spec, it is excellent, last thing I wanted on ranger was more ranged DPS we already have plenty of that, what ranger was missing was some form of strong group support, druid gives very strong healing & strong CC, it is one of the best specialisations they’ve announced.

And no it wasn’t guards “shinies”, guards already have huge amounts of support, why would you give guards yet more, specialisations are supposed to open up new playstyles, Druid does exactly that.

Starfall.6425:

What makes a lot of guards mad is the specific stuff the ranger got that is literally what the guard thematically has/had and wanted.

Again try speaking for yourself rather than appealing to the popularity of opinion of with “data” that stems from your imagination, what fits something thematically is subjective, what people want, no one knows unless they conduct a forced survey of every ranger/guard playing the game.

anduriell.6280:

Personally i find boring and unappealing a dumbed down system where you only are able to do just one thing, but hey every person is entitled to have their own likes.

Yet you play GW2 PvE, which probably has the most dumbed down PvE in an MMO, and where there is zero variety, everyone does the same thing, DPS with a handful of skills like reflects, stealths, etc on the side.

Assuming they design raids right druid actually adds some variety to this tedious one dimensional DPS fest, and guess what on druid you still have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of pets, choice of utils/elite, choice of gear, plus some damage, CC & utility in Druid so can do some damage, bring other support like spotter, etc if you want, in addition to the healing.

But then the truth is most of those whining, don’t give a toss about the BS “justifications” they give, really the truth is they want to play DPS, so wanted the specialisation to help that either by giving ranger top tier DPS or by having some sort of support that doesn’t interfere with a DPS role, but makes ranger more desirable.

But very few have the balls to simply come out with it.

A poll doesn’t settle anything, most players don’t post on the forums, even of those that use the forums most will not vote in the poll.

Really there is nothing to settle, people should simply speak for themselves, rather than trying to speak for the “community” because they lack the confidence to stand on their own views.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

zinkz.7045:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

zinkz.7045:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

The only place that druid might be usefull is raids and possibly only for a short amount of time.

You might not play PvP or WvW, but others do.

Read title, rethink your post.

I edited my post.

So your excuse it that old stuff has been bad so it is ok that the new stuff is bad too?

You are one that thinks its bad, not me, as long as is of use in PvP, WvW and new PvE content that is all that matters, no point in trying to cater to the broken failed PvE of the “old world”.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

zinkz.7045:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

The only place that druid might be usefull is raids and possibly only for a short amount of time.

You might not play PvP or WvW, but others do.

Read title, rethink your post.

I edited my post.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Druid is useless in the old world. Druid might be useless in the new areas. The only place that druid might be usefull is raids and possibly only for a short amount of time.

You might not play PvP or WvW, but others do, and in case you missed it half the mechanics, nearly all the stats, and many, many skills and traits on every class, have been useless in the old world for the last 3 years, because the old world PvE has basically been terribly designed, it isn’t druid that needs fixing but the kitten poor one dimensional shallow PvE of the “old world”.

Aomine.5012:

Like I said earlier, all the other Specializations (except Dragon Hunter) are a enhancement of one aspect of their original profession. (Be it Shroud, Shatter, Adrenaline, anything).

For Druid, it’s a complete different class that has nothing to do with ranger.

Not really, you can make similar arguments about for example engineers, e.g – if I wanted to play a melee class I’d of picked warrior, guard, etc, engy is supposed to be “mid ranged” according to Anet, they have completely changed that with hammer.

But then that is what specialisations are meant to do add a new play style, Druid does that.

Aomine.5012:

Umm… If I want to play a new class which is healer, I’d have done so….

No you wouldn’t, there was no healer, it was not an option, Druid is the first thing even vaguely close to a healer, and even then it is more like a hybrid as you have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of pets, choice of utils/elite, choice of gear, plus some damage, CC & utility in Druid.

kolompi.1287:

If you guys are so much into open world pvp, why don’t you spend your time in wvw?

WvW isn’t open world PvP, it is much more structured, much more zergy and frankly the playerbase is much less “PvP” than you get in a PvP MMO or on a PvP server, as far as “open world” PvP goes it is a pretty poor substitute.

Raven.9603:

1. The Parties you join in WvW and Raids are VERY likely to force you into being_just_a_healer.

As opposed to the case for most of the game, where rangers would be told to re-roll.

Raven.9603:

4. People rolled their base class long ago for what the base class archtype was. Pure-healer might appeal to some, but it wasnt reflected in the ranger archtype, it sort of fits the guardian and ele archtypes and if this mechanic was given to them first no one wouldve blinked. No other class has had their entire group role completely flopped on them like this. No other class will have the entire rest of the playerbase insisting they spec for this specialization the way we will. It should be easily understandable why so many are upset.

People have been whining about how things don’t fit their perceived subjective view of what class X archetype should be since day 1, ranger is a fine example, there have been plenty of posts over the last three years where people seem to think ranger should = bows.

As for it fitting guard or ele, that is your view, I disagree, any class in this game could of been given a healing spec and it would “fit”, the bigger issue is how would it work with certain classes, or would be too strong with certain classes like the aforementioned guard/ele given they already have very strong support with other lines and with things like boon sharing, where as ranger has relatively weak group support so it seems a logical choice to give a healer type specialisation to ranger.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Good question. There is nothing wrong with Healers, there is a problem with Druids being the healer class. First off if anet want to change the way content is handled you don’t take an existing class an force it into a role you use the new incoming class.

Again if they really had to add a healing class that should have been the Revenant elite and given Rangers more group support in ways of what was given to the Herald.

Why? I mean why, other than you obviously don’t like druid so want don’t want it on your class, there is no logical reason as to why a healing based spec should not be added to ranger, specialisations are meant to introduce new playstyles.

Maris.3164:

You probably should have posted this thread on thief forums to avoid the usual borderline aggressive and ignorant responses. Those who don’t play thief don’t care nor do they usually have anything of value to comment anyway. This thread is probably gonna turn into insults and arguments soon so I’ll just see myself out before that happens.

The irony is strong with this one…

But back to the OP, things that are actually unforgiving simply don’t get played, other than for fun, for example how may glass cannon static discharge engies have you seen in tournaments over the course of this game? Now glass sd engy may have 4k more HP than a thief, gear shield, prot injection and some cc, but the reality is it is way more unforgiving, and has far fewer effective tools for survivability than thief, mesmer, etc, so it either kills its target or it is probably dead itself, unlike thief.

As for mechanics unique to thief, stealth is not the thief mechanic, initiative with zero cooldown on weapon skills, plus steal is, nor is stealth the only means of defense/survivability in a thief, blinds, dazes, obscene mobility, stuns, evades, some condi clear, etc are there in addition to stealth.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Soon, players will figure out the new content, and even if there is some unavoidable damage here and there, a pure healer will sooner or later be obsolete. Off-healers will shine, like classes that fill the primary role of a damage dealer with enough heals to keep a group alive.

Firstly who says it has to be pure healer, you have two other trait lines, three util slots, another weapon, pet choice and gear of your choice, it could be hybrid fine, including the things ranger already brings like spotter.

Secondly if the content is actually well designed then figuring it out should have less impact, in most MMOs it simply isn’t just a case of people “figuring out”, it is also that you start acquiring more powerful gear from completing the raid, often considerably more powerful, that isn’t an issue in GW2.

Gallant Pigeon.5807:

If the definition of a useful class is a stealth rez / decap bot, then it is time to play another class.

Rezzing is not a role. Any class can do this this. Some arguably better (banners, invuln). If the rez channel is broken by the vamp rune change, thief will be complete garbage at this.

+1 is not a role. Any class can do that.

Decap is not a role, any class can do that. Yes thief can sometimes do it marginally faster if they take short bow.

Thief +1’s and decaps better than anyone else, it isn’t a coincidence that nearly every decent team has had a thief for 3 years.

You want thief to be strong at 1v1, then ask to have the insane mobility nerfed, because when thief was strong at 1v1 it was one of the most broken things this game has ever seen. (when s/d was super strong for example)

If thief is strong 1v1 then when that is combined with that mobility it becomes broken, you can’t out-rotate a thief, nor can you escape, a thief can train other classes all over the map, that is simply broken, and at various times in this game it has severely impacted classes like mesmer, ele, etc when they lacked the ability or builds to deal with the thief build at that time.

Mobility is the problem, compare it to necro & condi engy, for three years necro has had a very strong advantage in a matchup with condi engy, yet this didn’t stop people playing condi engy, because the necro can’t train the engy all over the map.

Aomine.5012:

I picked ranger because it is a class in most MMO, tend to be the highest damage range class of the game.

You realise that not all MMOs are the same right?

Aomine.5012:

Do you really want to be “ranger”, or do you just want to be in the Meta?

Seems you are the one with the problem with “ranger” not me, you seem to think that ranger should only fit your idea of ranger, I on the other hand look at like this, they stated these specialisations were going to add new playstyles to classes, and druid certainly does that, ranger already has plenty of ranged DPS options, it doesn’t need yet more of the same.

lilz shorty.1879:

We have one specific viable spec in PvP and WvW, and what do they do to the elite? Nerf it? LOL…….

Ahh, poor guards, only one viable spec in WvW, for a class that has been both a requirement and the most numerous for 3 years, I am sure engies, rangers, mesmer, etc are crying tears for you.

How about PvP, well lets see, for nearly two years every single team had a bunker guard, and since then decent representation with medi, then more bunker and condi build, again I am sure those who play classes who have spent huge periods of time as poorly represented like ranger, necro, mesmer, etc are shedding tears for your perceived plight.

What next, elementalists moaning?

xarallei.4279:

Particularly if you want to go dps in pve.

LOL, and there we have the truth, some people are QQing basically because they want to DPS in PvE which Druid is not going to help, so it doesn’t fit your personal playstyle in your specific bit of the game so it is “kitten”.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Rangers already have decent mobility, this adds just decent mobility. As in, super speed. There is no 1,200 range leap, no idea where you imagined that and reduced movement impairment is NOT adding to mobility.
In other words, it adds NOTHING to rangers mobility.

What? Learn to read, I didn’t say it had a 1200 range leap, I said it had a “1200 range movement skill”, the number 3 skill on staff.

And reduced duration on movement impairment does increase mobility, you have higher average movement / cover a greater distance if you are only crippled for 4 secs instead of 6 seconds.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Are implying Grace of the Land, a mild condition damage reduction but only when transformed is good? Empathic Bond and Shout runes will dance circles around that pathetic trait.

Empathic bond is kitten, but I’m not going to argue about it, it is irrelevant, you claimed it has no damage mitigation when it clearly does.

Nova Stiker.8396:

zinkz.7045:

Nova Stiker.8396:

It offers no utility, mobility, boons, conditions, damage migration or damage. It’s just raw healing. Which, works so great with ranger other specs and weapons like OH WAIT

So it offers no mobility, yet has a 1200 range movement skill, AOE superspeed (trait) or 33% movespeed trait, with -33% duration on movement impairing condies, okay…

Oh sorry, it offers SOME mobility. Mobility to run away from foes, something the ranger CLEARLY needs?

Get smart.

Apparently I’m smart enough to be able to read traits and skills, unlike some… and guess what it has some other things like utility, damage mitigation, etc that you claim are non existent, maybe you should read the notes on Dulfy/Reddit.

Nova Stiker.8396:

It offers no utility, mobility, boons, conditions, damage migration or damage. It’s just raw healing. Which, works so great with ranger other specs and weapons like OH WAIT

So it offers no mobility, yet has a 1200 range movement skill, AOE superspeed (trait) or 33% movespeed trait with -33% duration on movement impairing condies, okay…

Zenith.7301:

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

In what universe is Druid ever a healer? This is so disappointing.

Erm lots of “universes” such as in Dungeons and Dragons which is where MMORPGs stem from.

Not solely, druids are nature wizards, a part of that can be healing but they are also offensive nature wizards and shapeshifters.

Yes not solely, they were a sort of hybrid class somewhere between a cleric and magic user, but then playing Druid doesn’t make you solely a healer, you have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of utils / elite / pets & choice of gear, sure you won’t be full out DPS, but you will certainly be able to play hybrid, much like Druid in D&D.

We all know how well hybrids have done in all games with a team of specialized roles! rolls eyes

They do fine if the game is well designed, especially in harder content like raids, when I played LOTRO 2 captains (1 per 6 man group) were virtually mandatory, as was a loremaster, both hybrids.

They also generally do fine in most forms of PvP, just look at engies/eles, or chlorodom in Rift, etc.

The main problem hybrids have is when games dumb things down, so nabs who can’t cope with anything but DPS/Heal/Tank don’t have to think too much.

And in case you’e missed it, every class in this game is a hybrid of damage/control/support, that the PvE is so poorly designed that many of the mechanics, skills, traits, etc are worthless in the one dimensional DPS facerub that passes for PvE, doesn’t alter that, hopefully raids will fix the PvE.

morrolan.9608:

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

In what universe is Druid ever a healer? This is so disappointing.

Erm lots of “universes” such as in Dungeons and Dragons which is where MMORPGs stem from.

Not solely, druids are nature wizards, a part of that can be healing but they are also offensive nature wizards and shapeshifters.

Yes not solely, they were a sort of hybrid class somewhere between a cleric and magic user, but then playing Druid doesn’t make you solely a healer, you have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of utils / elite / pets & choice of gear, sure you won’t be full out DPS, but you will certainly be able to play hybrid, much like Druid in D&D.

morrolan.9608:

In what universe is Druid ever a healer? This is so disappointing.

Erm lots of “universes” such as in Dungeons and Dragons which is where MMORPGs stem from.

Robert.6790:

Both these classes have incredibly high skill caps to be effective.

This game does not have a high skill cap… The only thing that even has a half decent skill cap in this game is tPvP (played as a proper team), and then the thing that gives it some sort of skill cap is map awareness and making the best decisions on rotations to create favourable matchups, the combat is secondary and has only become less and less skilled as the game has gone on, and more passives, more RNG have been added.

Go play SC or CS if you want to experience something that actually has a decent skill cap, better yet go play chess or tennis to experience things with an actual “incredibly high skill cap”, GW2 is a low skill cap joke in comparison, especially WvW.

Sviel.7493:

You make a good point there. Stealth is so inherently powerful as a mechanic that it can make an otherwise lackluster class look too strong. Thus, thieves are nerfed to compensate for stealth (but it’s not the stealth parts that get nerfed!) and, as a result, they can no longer function without stealth.

Thieves weren’t nerfed to compensate for stealth, they were nerfed to compensate for ridiculous mobility and broken OP core design, stealth is a much bigger issue in WvW than tPvP, Anet balance on tPvP and barely give WvW a second glance.

mistsim.2748:

…and good engie builds use 3-4 invulns/blocks, or even stealth. we’re talking complete damage avoidance here. other than SoS, rangers don’t have anything else that is viable. sword, dagger and evasion spamming are generally not used because defending without attacking or leaving the area is totally unproductive and inevitably leads to death.

“Defending without attacking” is exactly what engy blocks, elixir S, etc do, which is why elixir S especially is very hit and miss, it is great in that if 3 guys try to blow you up you can ignore all that damage, on the other hand because you can’t use any skills under elxir S it is often pretty useless and just delays the inevitable, e.g – the elxir S trait triggers at 25% you run / try to LOS for 3 secs, immediately as you come out you get blown up anyway,

Things like endure pain and SoS are frankly much better most of the time as you can either apply counter pressure or use movement skills, knockbacks, LB 3, etc to have a much better chance of disengaging, they also don’t prevent capture point contribution.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

With your over 5k hours I would have hoped that you wouldn’t spout off about conditions only needing 2 stats since it is so untrue. You absolutely need precision but you will just ignore that part I’m sure.

Not really, the only gear stat you need in huge quantities for condi builds is condition damage, now a fair few require some amount of precision to trigger procs, but that just means you replace a few dire bits with rabid, which to take when I occasionally play condi engy as an example means I am still running around with about 3.1k armour, 24k HP without stacks and about 25% crit chance, more than enough to proc incendary powder, or sigils, etc.

Then of course some condi builds don’t require any crit chance, stealth trapper ranger for example as traps trait is in the same secrtion as the bleed on crit trait, so you may as well go full dire.

Which is why dire as a stat is not in PvP, it was considered too OP, as it allows for massive amounts of defense, whilst still being able to put out huge condi damage, basically very imbalanced, low risk, yet high reward, which is why so many nabs play it.

To be fair to condi builds, roaming / small scale WvW is already a joke, stealth & differences in mobility are broken as hell in this scenario, and again low risk / high reward, same goes for these 10 man groups/guilds that go round in all tanky builds (normally ele/guard/warrior) who seem to consist of keyboard turners so opt for the most forgiving setup possible, and can just keep rezzing because of so much stab / impossible to cleave.

Which are just some of the reasons WvW has been in a sad state for a long time, and why most decent roamers / roaming guilds barely play or quit entirely.

MrTJpwnz.4710:

That there are hit points isn’t the problem to be honest… it’s just the amount of hit points that is a problem…

Really? AI with HP that is supposed to survive for any real length of in this game is a total failure, be it minions, turrets, ranger pets, whatever, you can’t balance HP, when even if we just take PvP, it can be a 1v1 or a 5v5. (and that is PvP, can you imagine WvW with these things they will insta die)

That they’ve introduced more AI after it being a total failure in this game, is laughable, though along with all the passives they’ve added it should give those still deluded about this game a clue to where the main focus is now, people that think ‘ooh what a pwetty robot, how cool’, that the gameplay of these gyros will be an unbalancable, broken kittenfest, is secondary to that.

kdaddy.5431:

Why is it ok for the cool down on the elite elixer 84 sec with spec and the warriors 144 with spec on rampage? When the Elixer gives rampage and a tossing elixer which nullifies any MM necro, Lich and plague form

Erm because 50% of the time the engy gets tornado, which most engies consider pretty weak, to the point they often remove it nearly immediately, so on average an engy gets rampage every 168 seconds.

Furthermore with damage modifiers like peak performance, and being able to pop zerker stance before rampage, a warrior in rampage is much stronger.

As for the elixir toss, that seems a very unbalanced comparison, that is just what the last profession slot skill changes to, it is not the elite, so you are comparing an elite against an elite + profession skill.

Saiyan.1704:

zinkz.7045:

Saiyan.1704:

Thx for the post Colin! So many people are statistically misinformed on so many levels.

Erm he told us nothing of any real meaning in relation to the point he responded to.

I don’t know, below sounds like a near direct answer to the post he was responding too.

Saying that there has been steady growth is pretty meaningless, a 1% increase a month is steady growth, so is a 25% increase a month, there is quite a difference between the two.

Furthermore growth in itself doesn’t mean much without context, people are complaining about the playerbase in relation to matchmaking, so lets say PvP has grown on average 3% a month, the question is how many of those players are playing hotjoin / rank farm servers, and how many are playing ranked/unranked, it could be that the “queued” PvP is shrinking, but overall PvP has grown because of hotjoin, we don’t know from the answer given.

And the second part about the influx of new F2P players in the last three weeks is not relevant at all, whether the systems effect on the playerbase has been, good, bad or indifferent, those new players were not subject to that and are here because of F2P nothing else.

Saiyan.1704:

Thx for the post Colin! So many people are statistically misinformed on so many levels.

Erm he told us nothing of any real meaning in relation to the point he responded to.

ColinJohanson.2394:

PvP has steadily grown in population and play hours going on nearly a year now.

Steadily grown after losing how many players from launch/first few months, steadily grown by how much, 2% a month is steadily growing, but doesn’t mean much if you had previously lost 70% of your PvP playerbase.

Also where are these players going, after all matchmaking is not going to be helped by PvE players basically playing PvE in the 9 rankfarms that occupy the top 9 spots in the hotjoin server list (EU) as I write this, do these players count as part of “PvP playerbase”?

ColinJohanson.2394:

It’s sky-rocketed since the game went free, and the two weeks before this have been our best weeks literally since the week the game launched. We anticipate this week will be the best week login/play wise PvP has ever had in the history of Gw2.

That doesn’t seem very relevant to his point though, these new players have been playing at most about 3 weeks, and the state of the current system good or bad, has had no bearing on this influx of players.

VaaCrow.3076:

roaming with a few guildies is the best way to figh

The sad truth about the state of roaming in WvW (other than maybe the first 12 months or so of the game), is whether you roam solo or as a group, the number of decent fights you typically get over an hour is pitiful, it is so bad you are better off playing hotjoin.

So unless as a roamer / small group you are a full PvE PPT hero and don’t actually care about getting decent fights so are fine rolling your face across the keyboard spending most of your time ganking lesser numbers, people in zerg builds or running away from blobs, then the “best way to fight” is to go play PvP or play another MMO that has real open world PvP, where most of the players on the map are not in zergs, towers, etc, and actually want to fight small scale, which is exactly what most roamers / roaming guilds have done.

Dawdler.8521:

zinkz.7045:

Dawdler.8521:

zinkz.7045:

Dawdler.8521:

You are supposed to be playing with others, not alone.

Says who? An MMO is just that, a massively multiplayer online game, multiplayer does not mean you have to be grouped at all times, if he solo roams and fights 20 other solo roamers over an evening then he is playing a multiplayer game.

Says WvW. Yes, you are supposed to play together to achieve the goals of WvW.

Nonsense, WvW says nothing of the sort, though feel free to show me where it says players are supposed to be grouped up at all times, if you are bothered about PPT, then a guy who solo roams (assuming he is the sort bothered about PPT) is one of the most valuable players on the map, certainly more use than yet another zergling, PPT inclined roamers take camps, defend camps, keep waypoints contested, kill stragglers, stop supply by killing dolyaks and give out scout reports, they are even more valuable off-peak, where most servers barely have anyone online.

Just read Anets description of WvW under game info :/

Which says there are “three huge teams”, players can be spread all over the map and be part of the team, it also states the players “can band together to lay siege to castles, raid enemy supply caravans, clash with other players in truly massive battles”, ‘can’ being the operative word. And you know when the zerg lays siege to a keep, other than the commander, often the most useful person in the “team” is the player or two who are starving the keep of supply by taking out dollies/camps and keeping other waypoints contested.

Anet don’t seem to have the problem with roamers you think they do, when they added bloodlust they stated specifically it was for small scale, roamers, etc, or if you go read the post a few pages back from a dev (John Corpening), he talks about things like “Whether you defend, scout, run havoc, zerg bust, roam, conquer or win team fights you should be fairly compensated from the game and not rely on the hope that your team may kick you back some gold at the end of the night for you to feel rewarded for the valuable effort you put into the success of your world.”.

You’ve shown nothing that states people “are supposed” to be playing a certain way and should not be roaming.

Dawdler.8521:

zinkz.7045:

Dawdler.8521:

You are supposed to be playing with others, not alone.

Says who? An MMO is just that, a massively multiplayer online game, multiplayer does not mean you have to be grouped at all times, if he solo roams and fights 20 other solo roamers over an evening then he is playing a multiplayer game.

Says WvW. Yes, you are supposed to play together to achieve the goals of WvW.

Nonsense, WvW says nothing of the sort, though feel free to show me where it says players are supposed to be grouped up at all times, if you are bothered about PPT, then a guy who solo roams (assuming he is the sort bothered about PPT) is one of the most valuable players on the map, certainly more use than yet another zergling, PPT inclined roamers take camps, defend camps, keep waypoints contested, kill stragglers, stop supply by killing dolyaks and give out scout reports, they are even more valuable off-peak, where most servers barely have anyone online.

Dawdler.8521:

You are supposed to be playing with others, not alone.

Says who? An MMO is just that, a massively multiplayer online game, multiplayer does not mean you have to be grouped at all times, if he solo roams and fights 20 other solo roamers over an evening then he is playing a multiplayer game.

Imperator totius Sylvari.9164:

I love the engi and I hope the Forge brings something to the table for GvGs

It is going to be called the Scrapper, see http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/473/feature/10104/Guild-Wars-2-Its-Hammer-Time-The-Scrapper-Engineers-Elite-Specialization.html for a reveal of a few of the skills.

Malpractice.7850:

Pride.1734:

Reflects kill 95% of our usefulness.

Don’t think there is any guild that would rather have an engi.
Well there is a small niche of focus party support.

Wrong. I’m part of a huge guild, that does T1 wvw, and they love my engi.
“Reflects kill 95% of our usefulness” —Wrong.
1) Drop elixir 5 or mortar 4 at your feet, and start cleansing conditions with mortar.
2) Drop a water, blast it 2×. Or
3)Have someone drop firefield to stack might for your raid. Or give your raid aoe retal.
4) Pull someone. Kill that someone
5) Stomp someone with elixir S
6) Create your own reflects

I almost strictly run engi in wvw, sometimes necro, and my guild loves what I do. Pulls/lockdowns very useful.

Most of what you listed is redundant, you don’t need yet more waterfields that is covered, you don’t need more blasts that is covered, etc, the reality has already been stated, there is a niche role in focus party and that is all, and even that is merely optional, especially since the reliability on magnet pull has become even more of a joke since the last big patch.

Jayden Ennok.3687:

The fact that people favor blobs is a result of game mechanics and normal human characteristics.

Why split and do my part in a small group if I can 111 my way to loot.
Why split and bear a lot bigger part of responsibility for any fail that might happen. No bad feelings in a blob.
Why split when I feel safer with 50 others behind me.

That is more of a playerbase issue, as a PvP format, WvW has by far the least “PvP” playerbase of any I’ve played (when I say playerbase I don’t mean entire playerbase for most non-PvP MMOs, I’m comparing to say the playerbase of a PvP server).

I’d also say ironically enough given the limited gear progression in this game, that overall the playerbase in this game is full of more Skinner Box zombies more concerned with loot rather than gameplay than any game I’ve played, alleged PvP players (as in WvW players) go on more about loot in this game than players do even in PvP MMOs where there is full player looting, the playerbase is tragic, and it has gotten worse over time has the number of actual PvP inclined players have left WvW / the game.