Taril.8619

What? Axe is still better than Dagger at close range. Being in melee range doesn't make Axe 2 any weaker... Again, Dagger's only advantage over Axe is the auto's, but again, you want to be using GS's auto's over any other weapon. The single target nature is also meaningless, since the only time that swapping away from GS really matters is against bosses/champs. Against multiple targets, it's simply better to stick to GS and auto attack/Gravedigger spam as it will provide more damage and more LF than other weapons.

The thing is, if you're trying to leverage burst LF generation alongside Locust Swarm... You're infinitely better off with Axe. Since Axe 2 + Locust Swarm = a huge burst of LF. Literally the only thing that Dagger has over Axe (Besides some sustain which is useless in most situations (I.e. Instanced content, OW PvE that isn't soloing Champs...)) is the auto attacks being better, with more DPS and also the LF generation. But when it comes down to it, either weapon you choose you'll be minimizing the time actually using the weapon because GS has superior auto attacks and otherwise you are in Shroud. Thus, when it comes to optimizing, Axe 2 + Locust Swarm is the most efficient usage of the spare time and you can bypass the crummy Axe auto's by rotating around Shroud which conveniently you should be inside of for the same duration as the CD for weapon swapping (Meaning you can do a GS rotation > Axe combo > Shroud > Axe combo > GS rotation > Shroud rinse and repeat ad infinitum)

The issue of Dagger in PvE isn't "Running 2 melee weapons" since this is typically nullified by the nature of everyone stacking in melee anyway for AoE boons + heals. The issue is Dagger simply has poor DPS. Even against a single target only, GS outperforms Dagger. Axe also outperforms Dagger (Axe only being used because skill 2 is strong and is typically rotated in a way where you only cast skill 2 and don't even auto attack with it) The only thing Dagger is useful for in PvE, is its auto attack generating Life Force which can have some fringe benefits for DPS but doesn't ultimately outweigh the negative of how trash Dagger is for DPS the rest of the time. Of course, current PvE isn't particularly stringent with its DPS requirements and it is very possible to get away with using Dagger, it's just that it's not as good as either GS or Axe.

Most Runes and Sigils could do with updates to make them feel relevant and interesting parts of a build. Right now, there's so many bad ones that are just pointless to exist as there are really cheap and more effective alternatives.

Not really. Every attempt at a "Bruiser" spec from ANet has failed and resulted in a sub-par DPS build or in Scrapper's case, a support build. Further to that, Ranger already has bruiser tools in what is currently available, with Druid providing ridiculous defence and a plethora of CC albeit with a supportive role and Soulbeast has the capacity to be really defensive or do a lot of damage while being bruiser-y. Ranger in of itself, is already quite loaded with CC too, with many weapons having CC effects and then having pets for an additonal source of CC (With the epitome being Soulbeast that can have a pet with a CC, then merge and get the pets CC skill themselves AND also have a CC skill from the merge ability) If you wish to put across the notion of a bruiser spec, then you'd need to actually talk about what such a spec would do that is not possible with Druid and Soulbeast already. Bruiser builds are quite possible right now. Meanwhile, ANet's current attempts at "Bruiser" E-Specs have almost unanimously ended up as disasters. Actually, if you note, I clearly stated: As it stands right now, Druid can apply some general boons but only in PvE where Spirits are useful and people are stacked up for Grace of the Land. But beyond that Ranger doesn't have a proper Boonshare build that can enable them to provide boon support in WvW zergs. If the next E-Spec was designed around this role, then it doesn't necessarily need a weapon that has a bunch of "Supportive" skills on it to function, since as is the case for Alacrigade, Quickbrand, Boon Chrono and Banner Warrior none of these actually rely on supportive weapons while providing their buffs. As such, a 1 handed ranged DPS weapon such as Pistols could still be an adequate weapon (Which could also be used in a way to have /Warhorn as a secondary weapon if additional support is desired by a player)

When the 1 skill is literally the primary damage dealing skill, then yeah, it disqualifies the weapon as a ranged option. Warrior can get additional damage from Rifle by using Rifle Butt to regain ammunition, but the primary damage dealing skill is Volley which is ranged. Warrior also has an issue where they lack a second ranged option to swap to outside of Rifle too (Which is a reason why many Warriors are hoping for Pistol/Pistol) It's a problem, because while there are traits that benefit a single weapon type on most classes. Playing around Lead the Wind means playing at 1200+ range. If you weapon swap like every other class is capable of... You now no longer can attack because Ranger has no other weapon that can attack at 1200 range other than Longbow. Meaning that in order to utilize Lead the Wind and weapon swapping, you have to also use Quick Draw so you can run Longbow + Longbow. This is unlike other weapon specific traits, which don't rely on a specific playstyle that is incongruent with all other weapons available on the class. It's still not a particularly notable effect to make up for the fact that in order to proc the trait you need to be at 1200+ range from a target, meaning you can only attack the target with a Longbow because no other weapon in the Ranger's arsenal has 1200 range (Shortbow and Axe are both 900 range even when disregarding their preference for melee combat) besides Warhorn's skill 4. Ahh, so you want a useless spec for Ranger. Gotcha. Given that Druid fulfills their Survivability and CC roles perfectly fine and is often used as Tank in PvE (Especially since Minstrel gear is oft used for WvW) Warhorn provides a lot of Regeneration on both skills thanks to the trait, which happens to fill up Celestial Avatar quite fast as well as pumping out significant healing over time, which is more beneficial than Staff's mediocre healing skills that do nothing else. (Hence many people wanting Staff to be reworked into not being trash) Also yes, 1 of 5 (Actually, 2 of 5) weapon skills being supportive is enough. Hence why Guardian has 2 support builds (Quickbrand and Healbrand) and between them only have 3 support skills (Quickbrand uses Scepter and thus has Symbol of Punishment while Healbrand uses Staff and so has Holy Strike and Empower). Chrono doesn't always even use Shield when playing support but when it does it only has Shields 2 skills as supportive weapon skills. Revenant has 3 support skills with its Staff (Auto attack 3, Mender's Rebuke and Renewing Wave) A weapon doesn't need to be 4-5 supportive skills in order to be a support weapon. Especially if an E-Spec's traits, mechanics and utilities provide the necessary support for the build.

Except, when you want to be up close to maximize their skill 2 damage. Yes, Lead the Wind is a trait for Longbow specifically. But like most builds in the game, you often use a second weapon alongside a primary weapon. When sitting at 1200 range to use Lead the Wind, there is no other weapon to use as Ranger. Also, Traps are placed at your feet so that doesn't help at all with Lead the Wind... Uhh... Druid? Lots of healing, perma-immobilize? How is that not survivability and CC? They have option. Singular. They have Longbow and that is it. They have Warhorn, which is actually superior to Staff. Which I've told you before. Daredevil cannot use Rifle. If you mean, Deadeye, then they have Pistol/Pistol as well as Shortbow. But then again, this is Thief, which due to the way their skills work with lack of cooldowns, they don't need weapon swaps for anything but utility (Which is why Shortbow is such a unanimously popular secondary weapon because of Infiltrator's Arrow and Choking Gas being very good utility skills) They have Shortbow which has a Daze/Stun and Cripple. They have Sword that spams Cripple. They have Greatsword that has a Stun and a Knockback. They have Staff that has an Immobilize. They are also widely complained about for bringing "Perma-Immobilize" How much more CC do you think they need? Really, the only thing that Ranger is missing, is boonshare. But that can easily be provided by traits/utilities in the same way that Firebrand, Renegade and Chrono do rather than having a weapon specifically made around that. Meanwhile, having a 1 handed ranged weapon would provide Ranger with a particular weapon niche they have not yet got (Keeping in mind that Axe still wants to be in melee range to use Splitblade)

Rifle? Sure. Though, I'd prefer dual Pistols to be honest. Since they could fill in the niche of long range (1200) single handed weapons, using the same logic that allows Rangers Longbow to have extra range compared to other classes (Ranger LB is 1500 range) to have the Pistols also have higher range (1200 vs 900 of other classes). So that a build could for example, run Longbow + Pistol/Pistol for fighting at range (With other off-hands being usable for utility, such as Warhorn, Axe or even Dagger). Ranger has enough melee weapons as it is already between Greatsword, Sword and Dagger with Axe and Shortbow preferring close range combat due to their skill 2s. Yet it has only Longbow for a proper ranged weapon (Meaning for getting benefit out of Farsighted and when utilizing Lead the Wind, your options for secondary weapons are... Another Longbow...)

Farm Bjora meta for Eternal Ice Shards and then exchange them for LWS4 currencies. Do the LWS4 map Hearts and buy the currencies for Karma (5 per Heart, per character) Do Dragonfall meta and open Chests (For Dragonfall currency as there are no hearts here)

Toughness is hard to give a definitive number for because it has diminishing returns. Every point gives a lower % damage reduction than the previous one. As far as its use goes... For instanced PvE it is useless, because nothing hits hard enough to make a "Tank" character need to stack Toughness to survive (Thanks to Protection, Aegis, Block and Evade) and for anyone else, its actively detrimental because of aggro being influenced by Toughness rating. Outside of this, it's useful for staying alive longer. OW PvE is predominantly power damage and so Toughness reduces this (Which makes healing skills more effective) In PvP/WvW, there's a lot of Condition damage which is unaffected by Toughness, but it will still help against Power builds and will help you stick around a while.

Persistence of Memory specifically states "When a Phantasm becomes a Clone, it transfers its boons to you" With Chronophantasma, the Phantasm only becomes a Clone after its second attack. This hasn't changed since a year prior to that video being made. Though, the wiki still states that this particular interaction of Chronophantasma and "When a Phantasm becomes a Clone" effects work. So maybe it was stealth patched at some point? (Possibly alongside the June 28th patch that fixed a bug with Phantasms being dazed multiple times)

Yes, it is taken just for the 80 power. As that is worth more than either of the other traits on the tier for the build.

The primary thing to address when looking at Core Engie, would be F5 skills. As they currently stand, they're mostly weaker than Scrapper/Holo F5's, but also have crazy long CD's. Some thoughts on them: Orbital Strike: Cooldown reduced from 40s > 20s in PvE. Activation delay reduced from 4 eternities > 0.5s. (Optional: Also applies 0.5s Daze)Med Pack Drop: Cooldown reduced from 50s > 25s. Med Packs now also grant Boons (Swiftness, Regen, Vigor, Protection)Toss Elixir X: Cooldown reduced from 90s > 30s.Also, some buffs to the actual Elites wouldn't go amiss (Though, wouldn't buff Core specifically as E-Specs can also use them) Elite Mortar Kit: Mortar Shot now deals a secondary hit for 50% damage in the centre of the impact with a very small radius. (Mostly a PvE buff on the auto attack)Elixir X: Given a unique transformation (I recall there being suggestions about an Ooze transformation)Supply Crate: Cooldown reduced from 120s > 60s in PvE and 90s > 60s in PvPBeyond that, the other way to improve Core Engie, is improve Core Specializations. So that picking 3 Core Specializations isn't actively making you worse over picking 2 and an E-Spec. While this can also benefit E-Specs as they also run 2 Core Specs, it would improve Core slightly more. For the most part, I think there's some traits that are overly niche in what they do which could do with being tweaked or reworked. Firearms Sanguine ArrayPinpoint Distribution (Since it competes with Thermal Vision which is just vastly superior for a Condi build)Modified Ammunition (It's cool in PvE vs bosses that are being painted with Conditions passively. But for OW/PvP its pretty lackluster)Explosives Aim-Assisted RocketInventions Automated Medical Response (You have to be hit while <25% life... And then get your heal skill off before you die...)Experimental Turrets (Turrets are trash. Also, Turrets have been designed to be blown up after/during their Overcharge...)Alchemy Backpack RegeneratorTools Power Wrench (Why is this specifically for Tool Kit?)Takedown RoundKinetic Battery (It's a bit meme-y even for Static Discharge meme builds...)Gadgeteer (Mostly because Gadgets suck and this providing sucky buffs to sucky Gadgets does not make a desirable trait)

WoW hasn't done "Alliance vs Horde" in literal years. Even it's lore has gotten kind of wishy-washy in regards to the actual war between the 2 factions. With Taurens, Trolls and Blood Elves being "Horde" mostly for convenience, while the Forsaken are off doing their own thing and are barely even part of the Horde (With actions that make the Warchief(s) question them) Meanwhile, there's been a lot of introduced neutral groups that feature races from both factions and are dealt with by both factions. Even Thrall, the ex-Warchief became like BFF's with Varian Wrynn (The King of Stormwind, whom is himself, friend of Orcs what with being Lo'Gosh and fighting for his freedom in the gladiator battles in Dire Maul alongside Broll Bearmantle a Night Elf Druid and Valeera Sanguinar a Blood Elf Rogue) They've tried to emphasise "Alliance vs Horde" in a few expansions, but it often falls short because of how their story takes precedent (Such as how in TBC it was Alliance + Horde vs Demons, WotLK it was Alliance + Horde vs Lich King, Catacylsm it was Alliance + Horde vs Deathwing, Pandaria it ended up being Alliance + Horde vs Garrosh, WoD it was Alliance + Horde vs alternate universe Horde, in Legion it was Alliance + Horde vs Demons and BFA it has been Alliance + Horde vs Elder God) Current fads are whatever is most streamable. Right now, it's Battle Royales. Before that it was MOBA's (5v5 matches on a specific map) Though Counter Strike has always been highly popular (Another 5v5 game on small maps) Also, Among Us has started picking up in popularity which is a 4-10 player "TTT" style game that pits randomly selected "Imposters" vs innocents. Thus, it won't be long until Battle Royales also fall out of popularity like MOBA's did and a new genre becomes the new fad (Meanwhile, CS:GO will continue to be one of the most profitable games due to the consistent tournaments it holds and thus streaming coverage) From a business standpoint, a GW3 would be beneficial to ANet. As it would allow for an additional revenue source, as opposed to relying entirely on GW2 as their sole income (With maybe a few GW1 sales here and there as people go back to play them) GW3 however, shouldn't be an MMO. Such a thing is simply too costly to produce and would then start to compete with GW2 directly (As few people would actively play both MMO's and fewer still would actively spend money on both) GW3 being a single player RPG (Maybe with some multiplayer functionality) would put it in a place where it doesn't compete with GW2 and would be a way to generate some additional profit and potentially highlight GW2's existence (So people from outside of GW franchise can play it, have fun and then look to spend more time in the GW universe with GW2) After that, they can decide on if they want to make a new MMO (Be it GW4 or a new IP) or continue with GW2 and addtional non-MMO titles. Though, as I mentioned earlier in this thread (Before it got merged), I don't know if they have the resources to be able to hire a second team to work on an additional title. Be it an MMO or not.

With those stipulations, there's a Core Rev build on MetaBattle. You could probably increase the damage by using Renegade instead of Retribution (Though, if you're not going to be using the Renegade Legend or Shortbow then pretty much the only trait that is worth picking is Vindication)

A lot of people would be for this. However, it is just not possible to do. Since, the original way they went about creating the different armour weights was to use unique meshes for each weight. This means, that even if they release a set that looks identical across the three weights (Such as the Hellfire/Radiant set) each armour weight will have items cut off at different points which helps them match with other items from their weight which are designed around these unique cutoff points. The only way to actually implement this, is to remake EVERY item in the game using Outfits "4th Armour Weight", but not only would this be a monumental amount of work, but it would also end up with some items not looking right because they'd have to take the aforementioned "Identical" items and pick which one they will use for new armour weight which can lead to clipping issues for people already using them. So yeah, while stuff like "Class identity" and "Immersion" are no longer factors holding back freedom of skin usage, there are mechanical issues that impede this which would require too much work to circumvent.

If you're using boosted characters, you'll most likely be wearing Soldier stat gear (Power, Toughness, Vitality) and well... It sucks. Like, really, really sucks. It's only use is to stop new players from getting totally smashed when fighting anything but they'll end up hitting like a wet noodle. As far as obtaining gear goes, one of the easier places to obtain gear is the Heart of Thorns map, Verdant Brink. Doing events in that map will reward you with Crowbars, which you can use to open up Airship Cargo scattered around the map for Airship Parts. You can trade Airship Parts for boxes of Exotic armour with selectable stats at the Itzel vendor (Most easily found right at the place you first enter the zone at). For picking stats, most people use Berserker (Power, Precision, Ferocity) but Maurader is a good alternative (Power, Precision, Vitality, Ferocity) for a bit more health. If you want to be super safe, you can try and do a condition based build with Trailblazer (Condition Damage, Expertise, Toughness, Vitality) with the most popular stats being Viper (Power, Precision, Condition Damage, Expertise) and Grieving (Power, Precision, Condition Damage, Ferocity) for dealing damage. Generally how combat works in the tougher areas of Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire for people who are running full glass cannon Berserker builds with little to no defence, is to target the most dangerous enemies first. This will often be some sniper standing at the back shooting at you for like a bajillion damage. If you can see where the main sources of damage are and neutralize them, it becomes easy to breeze through the content with full damage builds.

Guardian would be the most flexible class. They can perform every role to a decent standard. They can do Power DPS (Dragonhunter), Condi DPS (CondiBrand), Healing (HealBrand), Boon Support (QuickBrand) and can even Tank. As far as hybrid stats go, Condition builds will generally use hybrid stats because Viper has Condition Damage and Expertise on. Some classes can also use Grieving alongside Vipers when they cap out their condition duration (I.e. CondiBrand gets 50% Burn duration from runes and 20% Burn duration from a trait so only needs 30% extra condition duration to cap out) Hybrid stats outside of this is generally only used in PvP, where you can see things like Carrion, Sage, Avatar or sometimes even Celestial (Usually only on Elementalists) Other than this, there are some other classes that can play multiple roles; Revenant can play Power DPS (Power Renegade), Condi DPS (Condi Renegade), Boon Support (Alacrigade), Healing (Healigade) and Tank (Healigade) Elementalist can play Power DPS (Power Tempest and Power Weaver), Condi DPS (Condi Tempest and Condi Weaver), Boon Support (Aurashare Tempest) and Healing (Heal Tempest) Ranger can play Power DPS (Power Soulbeast), Condi DPS (Condi Soulbeast), Healing (Heal Druid) and Tank (Heal Druid) Mesmer can play Power DPS (Power Chrono), Condi DPS (Condi Mirage), Boon Support (Boon Chrono) and Tank (Boon Chrono)

You're allowed to say that. You'd be wrong, but you can say it. If someone could be resilient AND deal high DPS, then it'd be broken beyond belief. Since it means, you wouldn't need a "Tank" you'd just run everyone as the high defense and high offense class Actually, it's the opposite. If all classes end up behaving the same where it matters, then anyone can pick whatever class they want. People flocking towards Guardian is happening because classes don't behave the same where it matters. Guardian has the edge over other classes in terms of DPS, Versatility and Defense (Thanks to a plethora of Aegis procs). Not really. You'd just be arbitrarily filtering out classes who's weaknesses don't get easily solved by the overall good supports. Like, mobility is a non-weakness in PvE because bosses don't move very much.Defense is a non-weakness in PvE, since only the Tank should be taking hits.Healing is a non-weakness in PvE, since only the Healer should be doing this.Boon availability is a non-weakness in PvE, since the specific Supports should be providing these. What? Necro still has a dodge button which works exactly the same as it does for everyone else (Except for Daredevil and Mirage whom need to use their dodges for DPS) Not to mention, Swiftness is easily provided to a party and thus the Necromancer. Reworking Shroud would help solve a lot of Necro's issues (Both Core and Reaper) in both PvE and PvP. However, ANet have been spending years doubling down on this awkward design, so it seems unlikely they'll suddenly rework it.

Have you considered rebinding the weapon swap key to something more accessible? Such as a button on your mouse? Beyond that:Power Daredevil doesn't weapon swap.Deadeye Rifle only weapon swaps once, late into a fight (Though, many suboptimal players find they don't need to weapon swap at all)Power Reaper can function with minimal weapon swapping. Elementalist, Engineer and Revenant (Mostly Alacrigade and Healigade) don't weapon swap much, if at all. But they do heavily rely on class mechanics that require frequent swapping, such as Elementalist and Revenant swapping Attunement/Legends (Also using Renegade skills) with F1-F4 while Engineer relies on Holoforge (F1) and Kits (Utility skills) Which, depending on your keybinding, could have a similar issue to actual weapon swapping based classes.

I am in this camp too. Can I skip the story and get the map please? To be fair, some episodes were really good. But the majority, are not. Each map has a vendor that sells Portal Scrolls. Using a Portal Scroll will teleport you to the map even if you've not done the story to unlock it on that character. They even conveniently come with a Portal Tome that can store all of the Scrolls for single inventory slot.

There is 1 hidden Mastery Point that doesn't have an Achievement associated with it which comes from the Defeat Mayatl the Fierce (The Itzel Champion) All other HoT Mastery Points should have an associated achievement. Though, keep in mind when checking through that HoT Mastery Acheivements are spread across multiple sections in the Achievement list (HoT Story, LW3, Mastery Insights, HoT Maps and HoT Raids)

It was. But people complained that Necro couldn't do DPS, so they nerfed the defenses of Reaper and increased its damage. So it's now a somewhat decent DPS spec. That's just Necro in a nutshell to be honest. Part of Necro's "Class identity" is having no mobility, no good CC's (Besides a couple of Fears), no Stability and no defense outside of "High" health pool. Pretty much. Balance is screwed because of Shroud. Shroud is simultaneously a DPS increase and defensive increase, which would be broken if it applied both things in a reasonable amount, so it's tuned down as a result. With the changes to Reaper, it's tuned more towards being a DPS increase as opposed to a defensive one. Solo, Reaper is actually one of the best damage:resilience classes in the game. With very little needed to push out good damage while retaining defenses (Mauraders/Valkyrie is popular but even just going Death Magic + Blood Magic with full 'Zerker can let you just face-tank Champs due to the sheer amount of healing and mitigation you get from minions) In organized groups, everyone that's dealing competitive damage is super squish. Many classes are more squishy than Necro by the inherent disparity from life totals (Necro has High base health vs Mesmer/Ranger/Engie/Revenant's Medium base health and Thief/Elementalist/Guardian's Low base health). Shroud provides an additional layer of defence for Necro (Though mitigating damage with LF in Shroud means lower DPS due to not being able to sustain the 10s of Shroud needed to maintain optimal DPS)

Oh boy, yet another Open World PvP thread. I haven't seen one of them for at least 5 minutes, so I guess it was due...GW2 has PvP. There is no need for it to be included in open world content. Not sure how this invalidates GW2 as a "full MMORPG". What, exactly, is the industry definition of that?Interestingly, the industry definition of "MMORPG" is quite loose. Since the term literally means "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game" the only requirements are: 1) Be an online game (One that you connect to servers for, as opposed to having to host your own lobbies)2) Be a multiplayer game3) Have a persistent area that many people can co-exist in4) Allow players to use avatars they control to interact with the game (I.e. "Be an RPG" which in of itself is essentially synonymous with "Be a game" given how much you can stretch the term) GW2 ticks all of the relevant boxes for being an "MMORPG" which even encompasses things like ARPG's such as Path of Exile or the asian style of "Lobby Simulators" like Soulworker, Phantasy Star Online 2 or FFXIV (Yes, it has an open world. But 99.99% of what you do in game ends up being the Duty Finder or a Story quest that puts you into a solo instance). Even shooters like Destiny 2, Global Agenda and Warframe are considered to be "MMORPG's" (Even though these too are "Lobby Simulators") As such, there's no real requirement for specific gameplay elements for the title to be applied. Since, it's merely a genre of game rather than a description of said games. Even with all this... GW2 literally does have Open World PvP. It's called WvW. Which takes place in an Open World and involves Player versus Player combat. Just because it doesn't involve ganking PvErs that have 0 desire to PvP (Anymore at least... Back when WvW was needed for World Completion on the other hand...) doesn't make it any less Open World PvP.

Actually, it's quite the opposite. Since the addition of Concentration and thus a supportive role that applies boons, there has been a lot less focus on personal boon generation because you can simply assume that one (or more) of the support players in a party will be applying 25 Might, Fury, Quickness, Alacrity, Swiftness, Vigor and Regeneration (Much the same way you can assume that any boss will automatically have 25 Vuln stacks without the need of a dedicated applicator) In fact, the sheer amount of AoE Boon application that exists among classes is part of what is leaving Necro in the dust. Since while Necro can buff themselves with Might and Fury easily, they cannot buff anyone else with Boons (Especially since the removal of Vampiric Rituals that was used for AoE Protection builds). Literally, it's at the point where even Herald finds itself lacking in end-game PvE because there's no need for their auras that churn out Might/Fury/Swiftness/Protection/Regen because these boons are easily covered by other players (Some of which also outperform their damage/healing capacity)