Mell.4873

I mean Greatsword was always superior in PvP. The only reason it was ever used in PvE was to use Maul to set up other skills. Regardless of Snowcrows it can still work, I run Sword + Axe and Greatsword rather than Longbow. I open with less damage but I can regulate my Damage much better during a fight. The result is I switch to Greatsword for exposure/cc purposes then preform the default rotation with damage boosting utilities. This idea works for both PvE and PvP. You can also trait both at the same time even with the Snowcrow build.

Let's push this further, Healing Spring + Two Leap finishes is an amazing heal in any game mode. Fire field from either Torch or the Trap can give you Fire Aura for great Might uptime while applying burning. You can even use the Electric Wyvern for an electric field for some amazing chain stun potential.

Yeah I do agree. Right now that could be true for both Ranger and Mesmer my main. On the surface there skill rotations are not very complex and by the book you do very little but the nuances is where the power of Ranger and Mesmer is. I feel like when I master Thief I can avoid damage, be able to maximize break bar times and support allies especially with Specter. That in a sense what I want to push my Thief into. A really good solo open world class.

You know what I don't really agree. To get the 100% Alacrity or Quickness uptime you do need to know how to play Chronomancer. Using Continuum Split and Signet of Ether to reset Phantasms is the only way to overcap either boons at the start of a fight. Later on, you can rely on shattering.

I don't know if it was always this hard to play but providing Alacrity with Chronomancer is 10x easier. I can effortlessly over cap Alacrity on Chronomancer with no boon duration. Now with Alacrity Mirage even if they did make somewhat easier since you don't need to Shatter and pick up your 3 mirrors it's just keeping your clones up is nigh impossible. Even with 3 clones I need to shatter to get Vigor and then boost it with traited Signet of Inspiration. Again, it works but is so much management when I can just play Chronomancer for more Alacrity and not need to spam something like Jaunt to get 3 clones.

I don't think anyone did but I'm glad they did. I never liked Sword before this patch because it never made any sense to evade back and forth and then around an enemy. Whenever I saw this in PvP I could easily just kill them condition damage. Evade frames where only on part of the skill channel so it never worried about missing my attacks. The new Sword is just is realy scary with is high damage and ability to chase you. Why not leap through the Smokescale Smoke Cloud. That is Infinitely better than a few dodge frames.

Again look at the benchmarks, Sword has essentially replaced Greatsword.

Yeah I was mostly referencing that. It seems like rifle Deadeye also suffers this fate. I was trying to match the benchmarks dps and I was getting about 10k less when just following Snowcrows and not the Video. Mostly I was looking for a good escuse to run Celestial or a hybrid Thief but is seems like i need the New expansion to drop for that to be a reality.

All true, which is why I use the trait mostly for dueling

I find it funny for a solo themed class about 5-7k of its dps can come from sharing venoms or torment with its allies. On top of that all the highest DPS builds involve spamming one skill while getting as much initiative back as possible. While golem testing I noticed the Snowcrow builds even while recommend other weapons for your second slot. Had the video showcase just using two of the same weapon so you can swap every 10 seconds for 3 initiative. Thief has come along way from spamming staff 1 with Quickness in HoT but still it needs more options for DPS. Lets hope main-hand Axe can remedy some of this.

Yeah that nerf never made sense to me. At one point Alacrity Mirage did have really high DPS numbers but I don't think Arena Net bother to read the Snowcrow build since it required you to run Axe in the second weapons slot halfing your Alacrity uptime.

Generally seeking I find it's large siege with its ability knock people back being the real winner. You can basically Treb your own walls pushing player off their siege. The other thing that I find really helpful is cripple and roots stacks. Anything that can slow the zerg down will have a tendency of capturing some players which will allow you to kill them if they don't get resurrected.

Hmm okay people do keep pointing this out and I do run Inspiration on Virtuoso in Raids/Strikes, so I guess there are builds that exist that are similar. Then maybe just increase the second slam damage.

They essentially need to go back to drawing board with Stronghold. I mean the whole Dota style of pushing lanes is fine but It needs more elements. First let's increase the player count to 10 on each team. That would really make it a creative game mode worth playing. How about you also get supply by killing enemy spawns rather than just from the centre of the map or players. How about temporary boons spawn around the map that you can collect or kill a boss to trigger a team wide buff. Think about it most of the Conquest game maps have these elements so why not Stronghold.

The main reason Virtuoso is better in most cases in Open World is because you are only reliant on Dueling as the secondary Traitline. This leaves you be able to pick Inspiration for faster Focus cooldowns and also Illusionary Inspiration for healing. You end up in a situation where you can group and up and bleed anything that could kill you. For Bosses off-hand Pistol can account for a huge amount of healing and with Condition Signets you have bothered a great stun break and a backup Break bar utility.

I still think they should Shake again or have another effect when traited. Running double Spirit slams for DPS when the traitline is used for support doesn't make sense.

Im more just throwing out a scenario where you would not have be running traited Greatsword since that would compete with my theory. It could be any weapon though, Longbow rapid fire into Sword leaps then pet swap to finish the player off. It is kind of irrelevant how they go down but what is strong is be able to finish people while surrounded. This is pretty much why Mirage is back in terms of WvW roaming. You can't interrupt their dodge once they have casted it.

True I looked through them all and they do have pretty good boon spread. (I was looking at support builds and they never mention Stone Spirit) Then just make them shake again but double boons might get nerfed. Right now, a Support build has no incentive to take Nature's Vengeance. A DPS has even less reason to slot Nature Magic.

They both have some synergy for Shared Anguish for stomping especially if you are on Untamed and are Teleport in to one shot people with Hammer. Honestly my biggest problem Natures Vengeance which has essentially become an AoE DPS trait with two slams rather than anything Support related. It should just give each Spirits another unique boon which would provide a better alternative to Invigorating Bond.

If I want to add to my complaining Natures Vengeance is very redundant since no is taking spirits for AoE DPS and a double Resurrect from Spirit of Nature will never be used. Instead of two slams they the trait should provide any missing boons on Spirits like Aegis rather than relying on a Pet.

It's just way to slow compared to other Ranger weapons. Even some of the longer cooldown skills Ranger has can really change the tide of a battle like Whirling Defense or Barrage. Maybe they need to let you use both flips of the skills rather than sharing the cooldown.

Exactly why I run the Arrow Cart build with Quick Draw.

Very true but my solution will probably result in the nerf of certain traits since they are applying to weapon and or become universal. At the same time if the new Weapons are OP, then this also might be a way to bring the Core weapons with their trait requirement up to speed with them. They already removed all the cooldown reduction traits for utilities, so it is only matter of time before that happen to weapons. Let's hope they rework a few but most likely it will happen after the expansion is live for a year or so.

Your best bet is boosters and joining map events. Another tip is to look into getting more mastery points since they often involve you getting more experience.

What about Grenade super speed Scrapper let's nerf that too if you we are all on board for more nerfs.