[What profession do you think has had the best/most consistent elite specs so far?]

On 4/15/2022 at 6:33 AM, Redfeather.6401 said:

Out of my characters, my revenant feels like I am maining them the most. I have not been disappointed in revenant's elite spec skills and usually use those skills so much I don't switch to core legends often.

Rev is so under preformed its insane, but tonnes of fun

[Which support?]

On 4/16/2022 at 3:44 PM, Eliam.3716 said:

I’m a big fan of playing support classes in pvp type content, have not done much WvW in GW2 but wanting to get into it more.  Is there a support class/spec that doesn’t get played enough or makes a big enough difference when present?  Zerg mostly at this point.

I Blob or Zerg with Firebrand just because the Mass Aegis, Stability, removal, buff, heal.

 

Minstrel on all armor, weapons, trinkets

Rune of Drability

Mace/ Shield

Staff

 

If you are running with scouts or small groups swap over to Axe/shield for CC and control

Staff is staple for 4 skill and access to regen and 2 heals plus control of tight paths with your 5 skill.

 

Scrapper is really good but I find it boring to play, and it was nerfed and it really lacks identity. The stealth gyro is loved by Discord Zergs and you will be praised as a hero for ages to come. 

 

As as someone who commands the legions with his asuran Firebrand, I can ASURAN you (that was bad) I really love scrappers.

[Unkillable Celestial Catalysts?]

On 4/14/2022 at 9:55 PM, Shroud.2307 said:

Your options:

1 player can't kill them? Bring another.
2 can't kill them? Bring another.
3 can't kill them? ...
Bring a; Necro, Thief, or Mesmer.
BOON HATE.
Quaggan tonic and flee.

Kind of getting outside the topic here but, there are lots of things that are obnoxious and/or very difficult to kill 1 v 1 in WvW. Catalyst ain't unique, and like everything it has its weaknesses. 

This is another matter of Celestial being too good. 
I don't think it's ever good to blanket nerf things, but Celestial is a special case where the bottom line is that it offers too much and makes every other hybrid stat irrelevant.
It doesn't matter if only some things can get the maximum value out of it. It doesn't matter if it's only a issue in roaming. The stat is bloated, limits diversity, and makes some things stronger than they have any right to be.

Personally, I enjoy Cele. I like how it feels to use, and I do sometimes use it. I'm not going to complain if ANet never nerfs it, but it absolutely deserves to be.

This had me dying... I was playing in Isle of Janthir server, I call out:

"Any tags or players on?"

 

Player 1: Don't bother they are all running around as quaggans.

 

Me: Huh?

 

Scene: 100 PLUS Golems were at camp and dancing around them are a bunch of players...... Potioned as quaggans worshipping the siege golems. Fair to say Isle of Janthir is the worst server

[Best profession/elite spec for boons solo?]

3 hours ago, KiteWatcher.7596 said:

I guess I was thinking more sustained vs just bursts of like 3 seconds.

 

Here's what I came up with just from what I've played but wasn't sure if I missed something obvious:
 

• Chrono - with illusions your phantasms give a lot of boons (quickness, fury, might, maybe others??)
• Thief - Specter has that cool well that gives tons of boons and perma-alac is pretty easy.  Also think maleficent seven on deadeye might be nice
• Herald - pretty easy boon pulsing
• Firebrand - lots of bursts of boons but I think I could get long-term quickness & maybe fury (axe)
• Engineer - elixirs can upkeep quite a few boons and holo is pretty good too from what I think (that arena-type utility skill)
• Harbringer - you mentioned this and it does seem strong.  Also like how this feels faster than Scourge which just FEELS so slow
• Catalyst - saw some videos with a ton of boons.  Just not sure I feel like putting in all that effort 🙂

 

I suspect I'm mostly missing specs that can easily maintain 25 might & fury or maybe even protection

Scourge is used in stripping and WVW right now, Power Necro and reaper will always be good in PVE, Harbinger honestly moves really fast, you have to be involved and cant just auto click unless in shroud but you have to manage your health and blight, its easy to pick up the rotation, start with ultimate and work down from there. I like trialblazer HArbinger still, tanky, good condi damage, fun as hell you get away with a lot, does good in strikes, fractals raids etc

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

4 hours ago, standardFoe.2983 said:

 

 

I'm not so concerned about Steam being full of idiots that do not understand how MMO's work that the GW2 population will suffer. Actually there seems to be a misconception the GW2 is super easy, (omg please don't lecture me I'm disabled and struggle with mechanics in this game), but it takes a lot more concentration and skill than something like ESO (which I love as well, don't hate me). So I'm looking forward to influx of players in all modes, yeah they will need help but so what? GW2 players love talking about how helpful they are, time to prove it.

I think the overall community is helpful but I sense a shift lately and it seems pretty individualistic, like you cant even ask a question without some tool going "lOoK IT UpP On ThU WIIkkKKIi 

 

It drives me insane, no kitten ive already done that I cant find my answer can someone else help me? 

 

Like the game is altering in community lately and those people drive me nuts. I have found some good players that are fun to interact with lately and they are fun to enjoy the game with

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

1 hour ago, ArchonWing.9480 said:

You can actually buy everything though, any time of the year.

But I wouldn't tell new players to get stat selectable armor anyways. Zerker works perfectly fine.

I really do not want to go back to zerker meta, I hate that its the standard...... We need variety in other gear, think of 9 years worth of gear that has never been touched

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

2 hours ago, Cuks.8241 said:

I just stumbled on a youtube video on exactly this topic. Maybe you got idea from there (or are the author)?

Here it is:

 

Anyway after watching this video and thinking back; exotic gear acquisition is very much all over the place. Its extremely easy to get it in some parts or content and downright impossible in other parts. And there is no real pattern to it. 

This dude explained it way better than I did.... This was an informative video

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

2 hours ago, Kichwas.7152 said:

In OW PvE and in 'casual solo roaming and sometimes follow those guys up ahead' WvW you can wear anything.

Even pre-exotic gear.

 

You don't need exotic at all until you start doing explorable dungeons and even that is debatable. One experienced player in the group can carry everyone even on bad gear because the Dungeons only needed exotic back at launch because none of us as yet knew the secrets to GW2 gameplay.

 

I've added 4 or 5 more characters to my fractal roster since EoD came out. I think I now have 6 that can do through tier 3, and 3 more can do through tier 2. 2 can do through tier 4.

- This was very easy to do.

 

Berserker or Viper weapons. Berserker or Rampager rings and accessories. Attune and Infuse the rings. And 1 piece of body armor in the right type. The rest exotic. That can get you to 99 AR. That plus a potion runs you through even Sunqua 75 (the last tier 3).

 

- The biggest gate on this is that Dragonite Ore is account bound, and used to craft an account bound only item, and has a pretty slow drop rate. I had to make all but one character on my account run around with a Jade Bot that had the Dragonite salvager to be able to do this. Everything else can be sped up with gold... which a new player can get with PayPal... (shock and horror yeah - but even I did that for a bit - tossed unused gems from after the March sale back into gold).

 

But Dragonite Ore means your first Ascended and ready for Tier 3 fractals character is probably going to be 1-2 months in.

 

YOU SHOULD NOT BE PLAYING TIER 3 AS A NEW PLAYER WITH ONLY 1-2 MONTHS OF GAME EXPERIENCE !!!

 

Even if you can get the gear for it, you are basically trolling the other players with your in-experience.

 

EVERYTHING that a new player is likely to have the player skill to be ready for, they can get the gear for, within the first week of playing the game.

- which is a basic berserker exotic set with maybe 102 'Knights' pieces because they're not yet good enough at dodging to survive otherwise.

 

In OW and casual WvW you can put on a full set of Berseerker gear and play a 'condition damage based boon healer' build and... it won't matter. It's that forgiving.

You only need stats relevant to your build once you hit higher end organized play - which is gameplay you should have PLAYER SKILL before joining anyway.

Frankly I farm T2 and T3 fractals all the time and everytime someone says "let me bring a healer" I just see that as "can I get a carry?" because all we really need in that content is full DPS - power or condition.

It only starts to matter at Tier 4, raids, organized PvP, and organized WvW. Everything else is just 'roll a cat's butt over the keyboard and collect your loot'.

 

Yes I hear what you are saying the old ways of acquiring it are still the same, what if a player doesnt want to play condi or just this or that but feels obligated to? They are not going to stick around for long. You have your head on right so you know what you are doing but how did you acquire all this information? Did you look into this yourself and find this info out your self and grind it in your brain through the years or was it guided to you? The time of grinding information into our brains is not the same anymore and this game is EXTREMELY difficult to get into at this point

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

3 hours ago, ugrakarma.9416 said:

Im not against complexity but the GW2 gear(stats) aquisition is bizarrely complex.

On wiki u have a large table with lots of "if" on acquisition method depending on status.

 

Its get extremely worse if u search for ascendend.

 

Week ago, i needed a assassin trinket, i have lot ofs of assets because im "older gw2 player", then i had assassin rings from  dungeons achievments. and because i did tons of PVP on the past, i have 3 full sets of pvp ascedend trinkets, and to complete, have 2 legendaries backpieces.

 

but if a new player ask me how to get these? "guy u need a journey for u entire life".

 

im not asking for cheap or easy stuff, but for a standartization. a common currency(make them all unbound), gold. 

And this is my problem, In WOW or FFV these games are pretty freaking easy to explain, guild wars is SOOOOOO intricate, that I cannot teach a new player how to do t efficiently and that in itself is overwhelming. Players need to be in the mix fast and feel like they matter and belong, they want to see challenging aspects and they want to see populated maps, they want to be helped they want the challenge but need the guidance along the way. I know every aspect of this game but I cannot for the life of me explain the grey area.. Crafting was the best decision I made thus I have coached every player i come in contact with and have even helped them with materials because crafting is soo important now in my opinion. It is the staple of this game the rest is RNG and random "I stumbled on this" but I took one aspect of this game and mastered it and it helped. Most new players wont even KNOW where to BEGIN with in this adventure. This game is exploration friendly and challenging but a lot of the map events are dead, glitched messed up, no players thus it feels like a single player RPG..... 

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

3 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

OWPvE is so ... forgiving.  Why would new players require stat-selectable armor?

Well I mentioned because to join on anything else you need to have it figured out and they do not have it figured out because PVE meta is forgiving but as soon as you get to raids, strikes, WVW in some cases. This game is operating in some cases as do whatever you want and the others will carry assuming they have some clue what they are doing. That doesnt help in guilds, or actual events that require some cognitive thought.... Then they get rejected or ridiculed thus cant even get into it, and the only way is word of mouth and by guilds stepping up. I will give the veterans like us because we are actively trying to teach them. It is ok up to a point with PVE but in EOD meta and these other team metas then the overwhelming factor comes into play. Try explaining armor to a new player from Noob to experienced and it will take you HOURS, WEEKS, MONTHS. I cannot honestly say with meta and builds THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT, nope its miles of rabbit trails and theorys, pricing, farming this route. ITS IMPOSSIBLE.

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

3 hours ago, blp.3489 said:

It only partially addresses your concerns but every time you complete the bronze tier WvW skirmish reward track you get a box of Warlord's armor which is stat selectable exotic armor.  You can get one piece per week which you can use to get stats that aren't available on the trading post.

Is it any stats that are current? Also what is it for other players that do not do WVW because lets face it, not everyone will do WVW or PVP I think the majority are going to do PVE and strikes

[Let's talk Exotic weapons and New Player future]

So when this game first came out the path in crafting and exotic armor in MY opinion was relatively easy. Just go Berserker on every class and everyone would love you in Dungeons and Fractals. You used Fractal Relics and Laurels to get your basic ascended trinkets AKA Berserker rings or Celestial Rings and life was good. There was Karma Exotic armor, Crafting/TP , Dungeon armor and we had about 3-5 ways to get them. Pretty easily set up.

 

Baically with HOT, POF, and EOD for a new player it is extremely depressing trying to learn this system except by word of mouth. We need all armor or majority armor to be stat selected or some type of way to make it easier. IF you want Viper gear you play original HOT maps and grind airship parts. YOU can grind the chests but that is really the only way because it is rare I ever find players playing the meta events, its pretty much HP trains. Auric, Dragon has a healthy base it seems..

 

The way players get armor is extremely difficult and very hard to learn. We need to get from Noob to raids, strikes, WVW and from talking to a few they all feel overwhelmed, they get constantly rejected in strikes, raids, groups etc because they have some exotic, some rare, some ascended armor unless they boost to 80 but they still feel like they are not able to learn. The only stat selectable armor in the game is rare and few in between. If you want viper you have to grind maps that are not used and getting exotic armor for these stats is almost impossible for a new player with out actually knowing how to navigate wiki, chat, guilds etc. Like where do they go from there? POF didn't solve this and EOD absolutely made it worse. Talking ascended, I find few players actually have ascended and are still rocking exotic with high tier runes. How do we get ascended? Well Berserker and basic stats from Beginning are the easiest but Anet keeps putting more of it in, we do not want Berserker meta again that was completely miserable to play with and how do we get it? Welp crafting to 500 (which few know about how to do and are really not learning how to find crafting guides etc nor do they have the money or resources to get there)

Raids are the only way to do it but no group will take you without ascended armor to begin with. You can do tracks, which take forever and are not very self explanatory, but still manageable, you can do WvW and pray to RNG gods, you can do grandmaster but that takes like what? A MONTH plus to get one piece and your only reliance is RNG.... Strikes do not offer it unless you exchange the currency for stat selected and those ARE LIMITED???!! Why are strike stat armor stat selects limited? That makes no sense, once again more berserker celestial and meta NO ONE actually runs...

 

I find it frustrating that EOD released 11 or 12 new back pieces none of which are stat selectable, they are pushing yet again Berserker tracks... Berserker armor stats and thats it.... No OR FAR stat selected options.

 

This might not seem like a problem for us players that have weathered this and know how to learn this way but we are 9 years into it thus its required, it was forced on us, but these new players are going to come in or are coming and are quitting after lvl 60? Or get a level boost and quit shortly after.

 

All I think should happen is more stat select armor available on exotic weapons that allows ALL stat options and is easily explained to players or is easier to obtain so we can get them into raids, strikes, wvw, pvp, mount, exploration etc where they do not feel overwhelmed because they cannot get their stats right

Ascended armor, weapons, availability attainability needs to be narrowed down and easier to obtain where we do not need to go to dead maps and hope there is groups running the events. I understand the difficulty required and needed to make it a challenge but to rely on this map for this insignia, or this map for this rune and this armor from this quest and this weapon from this spec and complete these mastery points to unlock this which gives you this.. It literally makes the game and communicating to new players impossibly challenging.

 

With the Steam launch approaching if this is not fixed it will drive new players away thus we will need commanders, guilds advertising like hell and working with them so we can get them up to speed, or it will be a complete fail.

 

Just throwing out some fears and ideas for ANET to address so we can make stats easier to obtain, armor is no longer the game thus I feel it should be easier to explain and easier to get at the same time still challenging to acquire, just better communication

[Celebrand Vs MinstrelBrand]

9 hours ago, ASP.8093 said:

Don't just think of it as negating mistakes. This is WvW, not fixed-pattern PvE content — you can't plan to avoid every single incoming attack no matter how experienced you are. That's why sustain and damage mitigation are critical to a good group comp.

 

The thing with support Firebrand is that any kind of damage output is your least useful and necessary role. You've got Stability, healing, cleansing, reflects, Might, even situational CC. And *then* we get to the damage. In a standard Power boonball type group, the Hammer Rev next to you can easily take out half the enemy's hp with one Phase Smash. They're also about 3x squishier than you. Your main job is to keep them alive and able to cast and move freely. And because of how tomes work, you don't actually have time to do "a little bit of everything" — once you go into a Tome you've got multiple casts you can use on short cooldowns, but if you switch out of the Tome you've not going back into it anytime soon; sometimes ideal play is to just sit there doing nothing for 10+ seconds so that you have your last few Tome charge abilities ready when you need them most. So of all the cele builds you could play, support Firebrand is probably the one that spends the least time auto-attacking.

Now, this calculus is different in PvE — a lot of powers are simply stronger, the boons you hand out last a much longer time, and the fights have clear burn phases. So in that situation Celestial Firebrand represents a promising compromise between DPS-oriented Viper/Ritualist Firebrands and full dedicated healers running Harrier (or Minstrel's) stats. But if you played your WvW Firebrand like you play a PvE Firebrand, your group would constantly be dying because you're not giving them enough Stability when they need it and spending too much time doing a little keep-up-the-buffs rotation instead of playing your abilities more reactively.

I only care about WVW with Firebrand, if I play PVE I am playing my harbinger in Trailblazers with Torment runes on. I am tanky as hell, I dish out my damage and he is my strike/ Raid/ PVE main. I am really enjoying support Firebrand atm in WVW, especially commanding. I like your take on it.

[As ArenaNet prepares the game for the release on Steam, I hope they don't neglect the fact that the game is already extremely successful the way it is]

Getting the steam update will be pretty sweet. I am excited to see more action in WvW and to the smaller maps, having a flow of people in the areas would be fun

[Celebrand Vs MinstrelBrand]

15 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

Of course.
Most people command on Minstrel stat specs that are part of the meta, including firebrand, chrono, and spellbreaker. You could do it on heal scrapper but the cone of the med kit isn't that great for commanding as people tend to stand aside of you not in front of you ; same goes for heal tempest which has less health and fewer tactical plays available.

I was leading a squad of about 50 yesterday (as a commander) and we did really good, I played minstrel FB and I noticed I can actually tank extremely well and get in and out without coming close to dying, all the Aegis and heals are to good, and I can assist, clear conditions etc, as long as I had a couple scourges to strip we did really well, we pretty much server wiped constantly

[Is there to many flashy effects on armor, weapons, trinkets etc?]

10 hours ago, Freya.9075 said:

I like shiny fashion if done right. The new aurene weapons are amazing. I am not bothered by the flashy skills and meta clutter either. I don’t even notice it since I see well despite it. I don’t know why, but when I see screenshots from others, my own game doesn’t look like that at all. Maybe since I zoom all the way out usually since I like to play with maximum distance view. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I do that as well, I might just need to get a bigger monitor, maybe a 4k or 1440P 32 inch screen perhaps that would solve it

[You have no excuse not to get into raids now]

Just now, NorthernRedStar.3054 said:

It's only the learning curve. You can complete 2 wings in an hour after you've learned the mechanics and do decent dps. I'm sure you can spare a few hours every week to learn until you've gotten to that point.

I realistically do not enjoy PvE anymore.... Like I really am bored with it. Not having fun anymore so I go to WvW and just farm blobs.

[Celebrand Vs MinstrelBrand]

23 hours ago, Infusion.7149 said:

You mention WVW so I would only run cele firebrand if you need WXP/loot that badly (since the damage is higher). The majority of cele firebrand damage in PVE is burning, which while ramps quickly is nerfed in stack output in WVW and cleansed rather quickly oftentimes. In WVW celebrand is ~80% the heal output of minstrel.

If you play minstrel FB worst case you can ask for scout participation if it's mainly a WXP problem.

 

Is it possible to squad lead as a Minstrel FB?

[Willbender gear]

14 hours ago, Elkandar.6384 said:

I just got the expansion and am loving the willbender class. I have been looking at different builds and am wondering if dragon, marauder, celestial or some other stat is the best gear for WvW roaming and open world content.

Marauder for Tank, Celestial for overall.... Berserker is ok but obviously you are squishy as hell. WB is still in a really wonky spot as other dualist classe just do that much better and more

[WvW Willbender Builds]

Eh Ive seen celestial do ok and Berserker roaming for these. I really do not know, I have yet to come across one that can do much of anything.....

[You have no excuse not to get into raids now]

23 hours ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Let's be clear ... low intensity builds ALWAYS existed. Not having them wasn't the reason people didn't do raids. In fact, I would say that using a low intensity build in the wrong team was one of the REASONS people didn't raid because those teams didn't want them and that's how those people wanted to play.  Those teams didn't want a suboptimal DPS builds then, they don't want them now.

You should actually change the title of your thread to:

You have no reason to kick people from your teams because of their builds now. 

I dont do raids because I am 30 years old and cant sacrifice 3 consistent hours on killing a boss. I wish I could but I got family, work life gym, sports athletics etc, I get my hour here and there every day and thats it, Strikes are a way better option for people like me and or WvW

[Player housing poll]

I personally want to be able to farm houses or land like a legendary, each map, zone world has their own look and you will gather the resources, gold, material etc and you can put your own crafting, forge and every part in your own instance. This is basically a guild hall I know but a more persnalized option would be sweet. Maybe a different rendition of guild hall since I know nothing about them.

[[NA] Chariot of Fire [FIRE] Christian based PvX on SoR]

23 hours ago, Odid.7289 said:

We have an update! We have gained a PvE Officer who wants to build up our PvE side of FIRE!

Do you do WvW and in need of commanders? If so HMU Can message me on this name or my IG is "Sheldon L Cooper" spaces needed.

 

Def interested

[Is there to many flashy effects on armor, weapons, trinkets etc?]

1 minute ago, Vexona.6452 said:

There's a major visual issue within the GW2 game. The clarity for important vs showy is so blurred that people have to run content over and over again until they figure it out. My groups always turn off mini's, backpacks, etc, so people can see things better along with character model quality the lowest. It's almost impossible to see certain ground abilities when you have 10-50 people spamming their own 😛

I 100% agree with this, the worst is HP trains and everyone and their dog is riding skyscale and griffon, you CANNOOTTTT see the screen to save your life

[Signet completion]

2 hours ago, Stx.4857 said:

I think due to how niche a lot of skills are, thats exactly what we get, is one skill being used the majority of the time.  It also makes buildcraft boring because you basically choose your skill based on the activity you're doing and call it a day, no choices.

 

 

That makes sense, it shows a lack of interest from the devs perspective, they will create new things and nerf old but wont fix the core essence of outdated skills, IE guardian Weapons dead God when was the last time you ever saw a holy weapon out outside of a lvl 10 player?