Luvo.6350

Hi folks, Ive come from a background of action RPGs like Skyrim into gw2 about 2 years ago. I highly appreciated the optional ActionCam back at the time, since it felt a lot more natural and easier to handle. Since then ive played mostly pvp around g3/p1 niveau and am now at a point where i would say ive got somewhat a good grasp on game mechanics. Now im aware that the use of actioncam in pvp is often frowned upon by higher tier players, which is understandable, considering that it greatly limits the potential of certain builds that can cast behind them like staff necro, amongst other minor shortcomings. However after playing a variety of specs and maining warr and mesmer and testing both cams i still tend toward the actioncam. It simply still feels more fluid and natural as long as you dont have to spam grenades/ mortars/ Symbols etc. at enemies while speeding away in the other direction. Admittedly most of my playtime is on actioncam and im sure with enough hours put in normal cam might become just as fluid. However since the option for actioncam already exists here are some ideas for smol changes that maybe would make it playable for all builds. The great thing about actioncam is that it allows for movement at full speed in all directions, independent from cameradirection, eliminating strafe left, right and backpaddling. That is until you cast any skill, which will automatically turn your character to face the same direction as the camera and activate strafe and backpaddling for the duration of the animation as well as a short time after. If you dont cast more skills you are able to walk freely in all directions at full speed again. That means when an engineer walks away from an enemy and then throws a grenade at them the engineer turns toward the enemy (since the cam is pointed at them) and starts to backpaddle, requiring the player to either wait untill the cam reverts back by itself or to turn the camera manually and effectively loosing sight of the enemy. Either way spamming grenades behind ur character becomes impossible without awkward backpaddling. One way that this could be fixed would be to allow for skills, that dont need your character to look at the opponent (like grenades, mesmer gs 4, guard focus 4, etc.) to be cast without activating the autoturn and strafe. However some might argue that strafe left/right/backpaddling is a gamemechanic and shouldnt be ignored by some skills. In that case another option might be to introduce a new keybind to toggle for the character alignment to the camera direction to be inverted. So your character turns away from ur camera direction when using a skill, allowing for full speed movement in the opposite direction, while backpaddling when moving in the same direction ur cam is facing. (something similar is actually already in the game with the look behind keybind under camera, exept it is not available as toggle, still requires u to manually turn ur cam first, which means y gonna loose sight of the opponent for a short instance and for some reason it still turns ur character in the same direction of the camera when using a skill, rendering it relatively useless)

True though dunno i feel like the unblockable is necessary since there are a lot of builds spaming projectileblock and most virtu dmg comes from projectiles... Though i have to agree that sometimes, at least when the trait works for once, it seems somewhat unfair/cheesy...

Id like that. Though i think dagger 2 could also get tweaked... Dunno it does feel a bit useless in pvp apart from stocking blades... Its dmg is quiet situational and low, though it shouldnt rly get much higher, since at least the first part is so fast, its basically undodgable in melee...

Id say there is no class or build to magically will give you the upper hand there. You have to find a strategy to counter those situations. When he is a really good player then he wont die quick no matter what you or he plays. In my eyes you have 3 choices here: 1. leave that fight and go on the other side of the map, while trying to pull as many enemy players with you as you can, then do the same thing the mes does to your team and survive outnumbered, hoping that your team eventually gets the kill on the mes and the rest of the map. If that doesnt work or you cant survive outnumbered long enough you have to go for a different strategy. 2. Try to use mobility to your advantage and keep the rest of the map decaped, be annoying and join back with your team when you get pressured or successfully split the enemy team. 3. Just stay with your team and keep them alive, then snowball the rest of the map when you get the kill on the mes. Often its just better to try and comply with the movements and strategy of the majority of your team, however stupid those seem to be. Ranger is pretty good at staying alive so option one and three seem promising there... Also communicate with your team but not angrily but goal driven. Flaming wont help, humans will comply much easier with your ideas when they think you respect them. So be respectful and use reason instead of insults when writing in team chat.

I dont know in 1v1 i somewhat often dominate actually. Even against plat players who play things like herald or willbender, who constantly stick to your kitten and pressure you melee. Only times i rly run into difficulties is when i cast my shatters too early when dodging through my opponent and like mentioned the shatter gets interrupted. But i honestly dont see that kitten much more than an annoyance, since for one if you concentrate and wait for your dodge to finish first its not a problem and second in 90 percent of cases when that happens you still got another shatter off cd you can cast.... Yep thats what im very much afraid of. Im havin so much fun with virtu as it is now and even pre destortion buffs. Well i disagree somewhat. After all most pvp virtu builds are designed around getting sustain and dmg in form of shatters by dodging efficient. Problem is ofc the aegis, which, like i said, should maybe rather be vigor or some other kind of endurance generation. While the mobility isnt great in comparison, its still enough to quickly get from one one node to another. Its quiet bursty mobility for sure and on long cd, which does bring the downside of not being to useful for kiting for a long time but that is where virtu has other advantages it can use like blocks and invouln. While yes the shatters do have obvious animations virtu also gets almost perma quickness, which makes somewhat up for that. Plus having big visible animations is not necessarily a negative in my eyes. Just look at warr fights, which may be the most fun fights in the game. It makes a fight enjoyable and fair if you actually see what you have to dodge and you have to keep up pressure to get your enemy to use up to their defensive cd. And virtu does have that necessary pressure thanks to having 3 shatters with massive dmg, that can be cast in quick succession and have low cd plus weaponskills. Its much better than a condi thief stealing once with no animation and dealing 6k dmg with that. Yea and every dmg is ranged which is super strong and most shatters will be unblockable, so reflect and projektileblock arent to big of a deal. You just have to pay attention whether or not you got the buff. That seems like a fair tradeoff for having perma access to range dmg. Though i think there still seems to be the bug where that trait does not work correctly and shatter still get reflected/blocked when having the buff. Dunno about no originality either... I think virtu does feel quiet a bit different from other specs. Also it allows for some mad traitline and weapon combs while still being highly effective. You can use inspiration to become tanky and providing usefull skills to allies like aoe cleanse, aoe healing, aoe aegis. You can play staff - chaos for big chaos storm uptime, staff boons or maybe you wanna play power block hell you can even take fokus and give some aoe swiftness and projektileblock if you need it. Its all somewhat possible thanks to virto always providing great dmg and sustain with traits and shatters. Ofc those things may not always be helpfull and some may be more effective than others and im not saying you should play with fokus xd but y know it makes you adaptable to the needs of yourself and your team. And ofc virtu got its issues like everything and probably always will. But id just not say that its strait up not build for pvp.

That is exactly what a tactic is though. Tactic: ''An action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end.'' Your making a strategy tho kill those enemy players where you have to actually plan your actions. Where as without that feature you dont have to plan, just cleave. So ya i WOULD say it ads tactical depth to the game. And yes if you fail then you effectively heal the enemy, which only would be punishment for your failure to execute the plan. And again if you know you have a squish teammate and there is a ''cheesy'' dd then you have to change your tactic and put more effort in protecting your team. Sure you could play around downstate this way and headless jump in and hope your team obliterates the enemy before they do it to you. Or like i already mentioned you can make a safer tactic, play as a team, peel for and supp each other and adjust to the enemy tactics and movement. So ya in my eyes there is absolutely nothing unfair about downstate, apart from ranger class mechanic maybe. It only adds tactical depth to great combat system. I very much would like to keep it that way.

Hi there! First off i must say i love virtuoso! Since it came out i dropped my warrior main and spammed Virtu. Having such effective mobility on sword, the possibility to take more defensive traitlines like illusions and inspiration without sacrificing to much damage or clone(blade)generation and these wonderfully impactful shatters is a dream come true. So the reason im here is to ask the public opinion on is it too much? I personally think that it is in quiet the sweetspot right now, especially after the latest patch that added distortion. However i have met many ppl in game who very much disagreed. A lot of my friends, who have a bit more experience than i do (im playing for 2 years now and am in g3), are saying that virtuoso is to weak and sees very little play in higher elo. On the other hand i constantly encounter players who whisper me how broken my build is and even accuse me of cheating due to the ``permanent block and distortion´´. And frankly i do understand those frustrated players somewhat (dunno if its necessary to say but i obviously do not cheat). If you play with Inspiration you get one second of distortion from every signet (i generally use signet of midnight and illusions), an average of 3 sec from distortion shatter and another 3 sec when using signet of illusions and than another 6 sec of block from bladesong requiem and signet, plus easily 10 sec of invis if playing with torch and massinvis. Thats plus minus 24 sec that you can spam block, distortion and invis basicly on button press. Now this number is obviously rather abstract and situational and considering aegis and evasion not nearly the full extend of virtuosos capability of damage mitigation. But those are the core elements ppl complain to me in whispers. Ofc i agree that virtuoso has a lot of ``op´´ options for dmg mitigation. But i think that is ok since you have to choose between using your blades for dmg or sustain and it does have tradeoffs when compared to other specs. (for example its lack of clones (which may or may not be a disadvantage, depending on who you ask) or its low (bursty but yet long cd) mobility or its relatively low stats, etc.) I however think that the problem, if there is one, lies somewhere else. I believe the trait bladeturn refrain, which gives aegis after every shatter, is what actually makes ppl problems, especially in lower elo. Reason for that is bc you can just spam your shatters and the aegis will just absorb all the dmg from your opponent. This means that even if you dont dodge at all in many situations you will just outdmg your opponent if they dodge with similar ``bad efficiency´´. Ofc that gap seems to close the higher you go in elo since ppl will dodge more efficent and force you to do the same since the aegis only carries you so far. Also in situations where enemies have multihit attacks the aegis is ofc less efficient. Yet it seems to be a big problem in lower elo, since it somewhat heavily reduces the essential skill of dodging. That and the large amount of invulnerability and block on buttonpress make virtu comparatively easy to play and potentially frustrating to fight at low elo. Which may or may not be an actually wanted feature, seeing that arena net introduced many ``easy to play´´ specs with eod. Now if thats not the case and smone is thinking about making changes here are some ideas i have: 1. Rework bladeturn refrain to give vigor or straight up endurance instead of aegis. It would still synergize with the rest of the build but remove the training wheels from aegis and require ppl to actually dodge keyskills. 2. Maybe if rly necessary revert bladesongs back to pre patch and remove distortion again. Though i personally would appreciate if the spinning blades from bladesong requiem would vanish in pvp as well, since they are quiet useless in dealing dmg and only reveal you unnecessarily. Furthermore my more experienced friends see the problem with virtu and its weakness in its incapability of casting bladesongs behind it. Now i personally see that as a game feature, that tries to balance ranged skills with melee skills. However there is one aspect of that that actually bothers me slightly. That is when you are fighting someone constantly in melee range and dodge trough them so that they are positioned behind you at some point of the dodge and you then precast a bladesong it will fail and go on a 4 sec cd since you technically cast it behind you while moving. Considering that your main dmg comes from bladesongs you are quiet reliant on being able to cast them, which certainly makes this a rather unfortunate mechanic that forces you to wait for your dodge roll to finish before you cast. Like i said for me personally this is a slight annoyance that comes with a greater game mechanic but maybe just maybe instead of interrupting the skill and puting it on a 4 sec cd it could simply not cast so you can at least spamclick it when dodging? So ya those are my thoughts whataya guys thinkin?

That may be the only thing i could get behind if really necessary. Though i think both of those are kinda harsh and just ensure that a revived player will die instantly again, which would make the whole revive mechanic obsolete... Instead i would maybe duggest a debuff that completely prevents a second ress for a period of time so teams cant spam double supp with insta ress and trait ress. (Which i dont necessarily mind btw. It can be frustrating and maybe even unfun for some to fight those teams but there are still strategies to counter something like this. So implementing this debuff might actually trim down variety, why again this is only a suggestion if anyone seriously thinks about touching downstate)

I agree. It adds something if you cant just mindlessly stack on that one downed player and cleave but instead have to pressure the enemy supp until y get the kill. Or when you have to wait before u down that 1 percent enemy so he wont rally from your already downed 1 percent ally. It makes you think of your actions and promotes team play, which should be a good thing. If anything the possibilitys of communication have to be improved to enhance said team play. Disagreed. I get why this may be frustrating to players but its part of team play. Nobody (mostly, ill come back to that) gets a disadvantage here. If you manage to down enemy players but cant prevent your own teammates from getting downed and killed before you get kills then you simply have to overthink your tactic and instead of investing everything in chasing kills you have to protect your weakest players and cleave downed enemies immediately. I see why ppl might find bleeding toxic but you have to understand that it is simply a tool to gain points risk free. If you die and are bleed out by yourself it adds about i belive 20 to 30 sec to you not being on the map and your allies basically being outnumbered. However this also comes with the risk that you can rally during that time by revive, enemy kill or instares. Also if you die on node you have to get cleaved if it is not the enemies node or smone has to sit with ya, which somewhat reduces the effectiveness of letting you bleed. They still ofc get value in form of ``free´´ points for their team, what they should. After all it is a penalty for dying, which also gives the opportunity for rallying as a game mechanic like mentioned above. And going downstate should be prevented at all costs anyway. If you die you made a mistake and have to improve. I do agree though that some classes may have a bit of an advantage over others when it comes to downstate skills. Especially ranger, which as far as i know is the only class that can use its class mechanic in downstate. Imagine Warrior being able to earthshaker or dragontrigger in downstate or thief to steal or mesmer to friggin shatter xd. And ya that is somewhat the only part about downed state i think needs some touch. Other than that i simply see it as a healthy game mechanic that enhances and promotes tactical gameplay.

Yea personally i find it illogical to have RNG in competitive game modes. And even with all this pre game info you still would have to make up a strategy to actually get to the squish targets, especially if classswap would be locked too. But ya thats just me personally and i guess anet as to decide what they go for. Agreed the current recap is indeed mighty misleading.

Yea i wasnt aware that ppl actually abuse the algorithm like that. And the limeted buildtemplates still would be a problem for newer players though, who this is kinda about... Though ya i guess that could maybe be bypassed by just giving couple more buildtemplates or smthing... Dunno how much cash anet makes off of those. But ya with that i actually would be on side with locking classswap. Ya dunno about the ``figure it out as you go´´ philosophy. I think the pre-match info would make the game more fair and actually enhance tactical gameplay since it reduces the reliance on Luck on who finds the squishy players first and pushes ppl to play a tactic according to the teamcomps. That goes especially for newer players who dont know which builds are typically played. Hell even if anet wants to go with that play blind and hope for luck at lest they could add a in depth analyses of the performance and build of all players after the game, so ppl can at least learn on what killed them etc.

Hi nice touch on banner of tactics! Could it maybe also break stun for the user too? Would be nice to have this as a second stunbreak in pvp support warriors. The aoe stab would maybe bring it a bit closer to meta supports like guard. Also maybe some aoe projectile block would be nice (also something most meta supps have).

I dunno about that class swap though... I feel like its somewhat essential for two reasons: 1. You only get 3 build and 2 gear templates per character unless you spent a lot of gold or real money, which especially newer players may not have access to or just dont wanna spent. So what many players do is to make an alt character for certain builds or even play completely different classes for different roles (for example i like to play my good old strength Spellbreaker for duelist but sometimes my team needs a dps for mid, and i dont like the warr dps specs so i switch to mesmer for that). And making a whole new build, can be a bit scuffed in those 1.5 min you have at game start but may be essential at least in ranked. 2. sometimes you get queued with the same class, which is not the end of the world ofc but ideally you wanna have the benefits of different classes right? Anyway i guess calling class swap essential may be a bit strong of a word but it certainly introduces some quality of live, which im not ready to give up and im sure many will agree. Instead i promote my Idea from a previous post where you get a secondary prep phase before a game after the class swap/build edit phase, where class swap and build edit is locked but you get to see Runes and sigils (and maybe even utility and weapons?) of all players. So you can prepare for who to focus, to protect and what tactic to play.

Maybe true but it does not have to be a hoard of new players, does it? Just getting those couple new players to play pvp and making sure that they KEEP playing it would be nice. Besides gw2 seems to have a large community already, its just that pvp is not the most popular game mode. And in my opinion just a couple tweaks to make it more accessible and beginner friendly might change that or at least shrink that gap between game modes. Again thats my personal experience but after 2 years of playing and learning the basics pvp is by far my most favorite mode and im not even that good at it. I just had to overcome the very frustrating beginner phase of learning, which is probably where most ppl stop playing pvp.

I like that, it might solve the whole frustration issue. But i also see couple problems with that... First would be untill when someone counts as ``rookie´´ and how that is managed. If its managed from the side of arena net then how would they decide who goes to be on the server. If by skill, then that would just be a replacement for rating right? And if only new acc can be there then what will stop ppl from making smurfs and trolling these servers?... Also i think those new players would still need a bit of a lead in order to gain the knowledge to eventually be able to play on the ``normal´´ servers, since there is only so much you can learn from playing against another new player. I think....