goron.7916

You should aim for a 60 percent crit chance, so with fury+rolling mists, you will have 100 percent crit chance. So you should mix some Marauder with zerker gear, get Scholar runes. Then, get a cleansing sigil on your second weapon set in case things go south, also get speed relic. Use Invocation and Devastation. Now, how to play: you are very squishy. THe only way you are going to win is by hitting your opponent hard and fast before he can counterpressure you. So for example you could open up with Shiro skill 6, then Sword 5 and immediately after go sword 3 and activate impossible odds. At the end of the channel Cast true nature along with sword 2 and sword 4 (with impossible odds active). This should outright kill most squishies if they didnt see your burst coming. As others have said, Power Herald is a +1 Spec by design. Think of it as a thief without stealth, or a willbender. Avoid prolonged fights and outnumbered scenarios, as you will inevitably lose. The strengths of this build lie in its high burst and high mobility when chasing your target. Choose your targets wisely.

I dont know how to put this in a nice way. Thief is the strongest roaming class, always has been. The amount of broken builds around are endless: Rifle Deadeye, DP Daredevil, Axe Power THief, Axe Condi Thief, Condi DD Daredevil, Staff Daredevil... It´s completely broken because you can disengage at ANY time you wish and you can spam stealth indefinitely, so you avoid all damage. If you can avoid all damage, then you dont NEED to be tanky. That would just make it more unkillable than it already is. I mean what do people want these days, 30k hp? Cele Harbinger got that. If you just want to eat Damage without dying, I would suggest Cele Harb or Cele Berserker. Or just stick to your Cele Renegade.

So I know most of you will think I am some salty silver player, so let me start off by saying I am not a beginner anymore. I have reached plat several times, and normally I hover around mid-high gold (multiclass). So i guess that makes me the average GW2 PvP player, but now I have to cut the chord with this game mode. The more you play PvP, the less fun it becomes, because the glaring faults in it's design become apparent to you. I don't like losing, but winning is also not fun anymore. Let me explain: -First off, the conquest mode itself doesn't fit with the combat system. Gw2 combat is very mobile, and this game mode forces everyone to stay within a tiny circle. This in itself is already extremely annoying. -Naturally, the most effective strategy is to have some extremely high-damage Aoe Spam class and or an unkillable bunker. This has spawned all kinds of abominable builds, just look at the games'history with Scourges, Holo's and Burn DH being overpowered. Now with EoD, it's the same mess, but with different classes. Now we have power DH, Harbringers and Mechanist bringing the cheap thrills. AoE damage in itself is not bad, but in this game mode, where everybody is cramped up in a tiny circle, it just becomes overpowered. Due to all the visual clutter plus the bonus CC spam, you can't even dodge it properly. So the game devolves into some kind of brainless AoE and CC vomiting contest. Yikes. -Third, the team creation. So you can't cue up in a 5 man team. This means, we are all forced to play with randoms. This is terrible, because you can't actually build an effective team in terms of classes, and second you end up with players that you don't get along with. So in every game, it's like pulling a lottery ticket and hope everything works in your favor. In other words, whether you win or lose a game is more or less out of your control. Team balance is already a joke, so at least give us premade's, that would actually be fitting for a game mode called ''STRUCTURED'' PvP. You say this would be unfair for the randoms, well this would actually force randoms to organize themselves into a proper team. When I played Gw1 PvP, nobody complained about the need for a team to play the game mode. And if people want to play alone, why not give us an actual duelling mode? But eh, I am digressing... -Fourth, the toxicity. It happens pretty much every game, sometimes it works for and sometimes against you. When I win a game because someone in the enemy team decided to afk, that win feels meaningless. And when I get a teammate that AFKs or is just useless in general, I feel robbed of a victory. All of this makes me not care anymore whether I win or lose, and so the mode loses all sense of competitiveness for me. -Last,but not least is the gear/amulets and skill changes: So GW2 is not an e-sport, then why is it pretending to be one? The Amulet system (especially with the removal of some like celestial) feels extremely restrictive and pidgeon-holes the game into a handful of viable builds and playstyles. Wanna play an Ele with Cele stats? Nope, sry. Wanna tailor your build to your personal build/playstyle? No sorry, just pick one of the amulets. Same problem with the Sigils. Also the skill changes make no sense to me. 75 seconds cooldown on Mist Form? For real? Overall, the only thing that really kept me going in PvP was the Champion Title Achievements and the Gold/Rewards you get. But over time, even these really great incentives couldn't keep me in this game mode. Because in the end, it's about the gameplay, and not the rewards.

Stealth has always been an important aspect of thief gameplay, so I think it's unfair to blame Specter. It sounds like you have a problem with the stealth mechanic itself, and not with the Specter class. Because while the class is strong, it is not invincible and there is a lot of room for counterplay. ''Noone wants to fight this trash" this sounds like a learn to play issue to me, sorry. Personally, I don't enjoy fighting fire weavers, DH with trapper runes, or condi core necros. But hey, they are still part of the game, and you just gotta learn how to counter it. Following your logic, everything except Core Warrior should be banned from PvP lol.

So as a Gw1 Veteran, that mostly enjoys playing solo in WvW, I have given all EoD specs a fair chance. This is my opinion on each so far: -Catalyst: With Dagger Dagger this spec has a very fluid gameplay. Very high skill ceiling, but with some practice you can become nearly god-like. I could also see Hammer being viable with a few changes. Does require some cele stat gear and/or trinkets to work properly. -Harbringer: Extremely strong, doesn't matter if it's power, condi, or anything in between. The mobility is also surreal for a necro. Elixirs need a nerf though (I crit people for 6k with a utility skill, come on), and so does voracious arc (critting for 14k while also providing cc and mobility is too much). Once it gets nerved, I can see myself playing it a lot without feeling guilty. The playstyle is very satisfying. Pistol feels good to use. -Virtuoso: Now this one is truly deadly. The altered F1/F2 skills gives mesmers a much more concentrated burst. Eternal Forge is an excellent trait. I run with Scepter/Pistol and Sword/Torch and people drop like flies if they are not careful. Dagger is a bit weak though. Thousand Cuts needs some changes. Also would be nice if F3/F4 could be casted without any blades stocked, F3 needs a reduced cast time and possibly make F4 instant cast (so I can cast it when being CCed). The theme is excellent, very canthian. -Mechanist: Finally an AI class I can enjoy. I originally started my first gw2 character as an Engineer, and I always wanted some kind of golemancer. Nice to finally have it. Though I believe the Golem should have a little less base HP. Traitwise this spec is neat. Explosives, Firearms and Alchemy all fit very well with the Mechanist traitline. Signets are bonkers. -Specter: Maybe the best EoD spec from a design perspective. The whole shadow magic thing is very cool. The spec feels very multifaceted, without being overly complicated. I like to play on power though, so the Scepter is kind of redundant for me. Shroud 4 is very hard to land against moving players, or maybe I just have to get used to it. -Untamed: This is the only EoD spec next to Willbender that I couldn't make work properly. The playstyle is...daunting to say the least. Having more pet skills (which the pet used to trigger on its own) doesn't exactly help with this. The Hammer skills are enjoyable, but they should have some kind of advantage over greatsword. Ambush cooldowns are confusing. Overall this is the one spec that I am really unsatisfied with. -Bladesworn: Very fun to play. When I use dragon trigger I feel like the Sword Master from Dark Souls 3 in Firelink Shrine (the naked dude with the katana). What I dislike though is that there seems to be only ONE viable build with minor variations. Buffing the new utilities (like making the projectile block a reflect) could help with build diversity. -Willbender: Well I couldn't figure this one out, but I was never very much into guardian anyways. The Virtues feel a bit clunky to use. Thematically I do like the martial arts monk thing. -Vindicator: Greatsword is a great addition, and the alliance stance feels cool too (apart from the lackluster healing skills). I am not against the one-dodge per se, but it does create some sustain problems. Overall though, an enjoyable and intuitive spec to play. So as you can see, when you actually play the game instead of complaining on the forums, most of the new specs are pretty decent, and many of them only a few changes away from being perfect. I do hope though that Anet will take care of Untamed and Willbender to make them an enjoyable experience as well 🙂