Flowki.7194

Unranked is legitimately more try hard than ranked. But its Gw2, everything is backwards here. Warriors with a staff, sure.. rangers that do more melee dps than ranged, sure, magic classes that shoot physical lazors from a 2 handed sword, sure.

"Can beat" VS "How likely the average cata will beat the average staff warrior" are two very different things. Exactly the same when hammer cata was meta, sure.. if you were P1+ at it, otherwise a burden to your team.

LOL. Your grand defense is that people should just play around an easy spec that denies area with minimal effort. To hell with skill based encounters.... just avoid side node PVP becuase warrior/druid. I'd sooner fight high mobile specs, becuase you can push them off, and keep them off the point with enough skill, ONTOP OF being able to punish them hard if they make just moderate mistakes, everything side node warrior isnt. Tell me buddy, what does a SPB warrior have to do (bar AFK) to make a huge unrecoverable mistake? Forget to equip a second weapon maybe? <ROCK, PAPER, WARRIOR> Thrilling gameplay.

They are already removed, by specs that are worse offenders of "can do it all".

But this is too difficult to balance around. Look at ele staff tempest, you really want that weapon pumping out good DPS+utility/support? A dps staff sure, a support staff sure, but not both, it sounds great in concept but way too difficult to balance properly, while it also creates demi god celestial type specs that oppress full support or full dps specs. Also, if a staff is not support oriented, it makes 0 sense for it to be doing predominantly physical damage, thats what swords etc are for. Staff tempest and herald staff are like this, absolutely laughable/none existant unique magic/condi damage, just lazy slapped on power co's, essentially making them a bow/2 hander mace with a staff skin.

I don't think an easy spec that forces a 2v1 to kill in any reasonable time frame is healthy gameplay. In-fact I would also argue a hard spec in the right hands vs similar level players that forces a 2v1 is also unhealthy gameplay. The only specs that should be holding out 2v1 are full supports, being the trade off for doing next to no damage. At that, with the presense of a full support, you may be able to hold out 2v3, depending on situation. This game is kinde echo chambered to fk, and people are desensitised to how overeached and crept many dps specs are in almost all ways.

Sure, remove any meaningfull dps from full support, but also remove any meaningful healing/barrier from dps.. which is a far bigger offender in the game than full support dps output.

What even is the point of staff like this? Its just a dps stick then. I thought the whole point of staff was to make banner support specs more viable, with some group CC for added efficacy etc. It has achieved none of that, and simply makes warrior even more annoying in the 1 role it was already annoying in.

Sounds like you'd fit right in on the Anet balancing team.

Thats basically ele in a nutshell now. There is not a single spec that is worth the effort for reward anymore, as there is an easier, more consistant alternative in another classes spec. Ele is like an old classic car, harder to drive, slower, completely impractical to use day to day, you just take it out for a spin every now and then to show off that fact you own one.

You have took my post very personal, which was your doing, as I never once directed it at you personaly. You then direct attacks toward me, despite that nothing I have said about warrior is false, and is beyound personal skill levels. It is objectively easier to do well at average skill level on a easy spec that has had its numbers buffed to the point it is highly rewarding. Prior to staff, SPB was still annoying in the fact its sustain/CC output does not reflect its skill input at average level. It was the same as DH, you can work around it.. but the work around requires more effort than what the average DH/SPB was doing to make you engage that work around. Don't get personal, it isn't helpful.

When something is as easy and effective @low skill input as SPB is now, you don't need to master it 😜 Condi cata was EXACTLY the same in that regard. It only makes the situation worse when you consider many vet warriors have. Specs like that will litterally carry a player into g3/p1, people who may never have gotten there in the past on a more difficult spec that requires some actual dedication to unlock its effectiveness. Not bad for "easy and effective".

No I think you are missing the point. Meta status has nothing to do with spec difficulty, that is why some of the most easy specs in the game, and some of the most hardest can be in meta at the same time. With that, mechanical difficulty is strongly connected to spec punishment, as in, the mechanically easier specs are more reliable = less punishing for mistakes. That means, an ele main of almost any ele spec can say, with confidence, that SPB is an easier spec. Power untamed could say the same about SPB, as could power mirage. Thief is the exception, it "appears" to be a mechanically difficult class, but it isnt, and its cheap stealth/mobility options also make it incredibly low risk the second you understand how to abuse it. It does take high game sense, I can concede that, and it has engagement limitations.

This was my experiance with blade for the first hour. I read the tooltips, practiced on lord a little, but really didn't have that situational muscle memory you know? All I knew is spam might = good, and nion every ability directly or indirectly gave healing/barrier, yet that same day is when I won a 1v2, comfortably. On the second day of playing it I had a lot more understanding of the actual abilitys, and what/when to use, I came up against an average level hammer cata on far, and absolutely destroyed him, like, he didnt even hit me once outside of aoe. And that was when I realised I had been a fool for playing a complex spec in this game, becuase put me back on hammer cata, vs a true g3/p1 level player on a simple spec.. it aint worth the effort. Honestly, I think I had played hammer cata for over 6 month by then, and had not came close to taking on 1v2s even of avg level players, and even after that, to this date, I don't take on 1v2s as any form of ele, the skill gap has to be HUGE, like p1 vs g1-s3. I also know this to be true becuase on core condi rev (moderate difficulty) I was very competitive with and killing vet or p1+ scetper catas/weavers and condi tempests. This isn't meant to be a rant about ele, but the class has truly been destroyed, evidenced by the fact a core condi rev build can farm it, including hammer cata, if you just kite it, but I could also toe to toe it easily if they were below p1, which is the same with power heralds (And im not P1+). In comparison, every average level WB, SPB, DH, Druid, and SLB are a serious threat or massive time waste. Thieves also. Meta status has nothing to do with spec difficulty (sadly), only spec effectiveness. At that, the wide MMR ranges and random team comps mean meta builds are not always optimal. Hammer cata was still down as being meta for months, when every hammer cata knew it was completely lacking in the new mobility meta, it was not optimal solo que (can't speak for MATS etc). Staff tempest was the same, in meta, but nion useless as solo Q with wide MMR, as you can't carry vastly outskilled DPS. There are many other classes/meta builds that suffer in this way. Badly designed specs like SPB are only part of the problem, the shockingly wide MMR is the main problem, as it completely oppresses solo que as full support (low pop), and in turn, affects many group fight specs that depend on team work/support. For example, hammer cata can be devistating in group fights with a good support, which would give you an alternative option to going up against SPB/druids on sides.

It does, and I understand the situation, which is why I never direct my hate toward the players, just the class/spec. I do genuinely like warrior game play in other games, it just sucks balls in gw2, and is easy/toxicly designed to the point I cannot play it in good faith, even less so when it is over performing. As I kept saying in the past, at-least you had to be decent on the likes of hammer cata/power untamed, to unlock the "omg please nerf that kitten". It matters, becuase it stops people with avg/low skill being able to swap to cheap low effort counters to bridge the skill gap. To me skill reward ratios matter, I should not be killing, or denying area to a better player on a more complicated spec, just becuase the simplicity of my spec has been buffed in effectivess due to numbers games. That is basically development level cheating in my humble opinion. More skilled players should not be punished for playing more complicated specs, but that is where Gw2 is, there is a guy on this forum who outright said it, he stopped playing ele, went to staff spb and is now doing far better. I seen it myself first hand, from hammer cata to bladesworn, instantly winning 1v2s. It isnt right. This is not limited to warrior btw.

Warrior should have been the weapons expert class, with the availability of 4 weapon bars. Dagger+shield / Sword+shield / GS / rifle (example). The warrior could then trait toward more defense or more attack, or more melee+ranged dmg, but is locked into a weapon set for 10 seconds when changing to it (rather than weapon swap timer). This would open up mass amounts of weapon combinations and trait lines leaning into damage, tank, melee, ranged or balanced. It would also have punished warriors for swapping to the wrong weapon set, given the 10 second lock in.. which warrior drastically lacks. The class is way to simple to push mistakes, and this current BS of meme 1 shot builds, or iron curtain tanking is just horrible bs game design. Lazy, no imagination.. for a class that I normally very much enjoy playing in other games. You don't even have good shield control, just generic block durations. The blocking alone is a massive let down in comparison to how games that are even older than Gw2 did it. Blocking is some of the most fun and engaging parts of playing warrior, but not in gw2.. not even parry.. and the hell if you going to convince me counter is a good job of any of it. It isn't even hard to code this kitten either, the framework is already there. And at that, the class could still remain casual, just like some condi builds on ele allow you to just sit in 1 or two attunements in pve. Its just lack of imagination/effort, genuinely poor example of a warrior class, and it is horrendous they also buffed this bs to be as effective as it is <boring af to play yet super effective> bottom of the barrel meta.

Yeah everything can be killed, I rememember farming condi catas on rev support becuase the build I had could easily cleanse its 1 condi type (mostly), but for the specs that didn't have constant cleanse, well.

Oh I didn't know, not been playing the game recenetly, but you know that actually makes it worse right? Staff SPB is now so powerful, it doesn't even need stability trait. Even condi cata still needed the stability, in-fact the whole reason it was busted was becuase of the stability, so staff warrior has surpassed condi cata in that regard. I was also in there with core condi rev, its highly under rated, moderately difficult to play ( I can link you the build to try), but its condi so obvious issues. With that said, in no way did I think I should be killing equally skilled holos, power heralds, power vindis, power untamed, or scepter catas. They are harder specs, and more punishing specs for mistakes. However.. I often beat those specs of equal skill, becuase it is not until P1+ level where those specs really begin to shine, and show up the limitations of my core rev condi spec. SPB was a nightmare if the player was just average.. I also dueled them with staff, and intstantly seen how broken that kitten was, after dueling countless people on varied specs/skill levels. It is not about the number of buttons in a numerical sense, you are vastly over simplifying it. More buttons means utility/dps/cc is spread out across attunements, weapons, stances, w/e. That means more concious choices on what weapon/attunment you have to be in to use X ability for Y situation and the weighing up of taking CD hits for attunements/weapons to get X ability. That adds complexity, and thought proccess, which opens up room for rewarding skill through mastery of consistancy, and mistakes through incompitancy, wrong attunement swap = lock out = punishment, which is easier to be locked out of with more bar options. Staff SPB obviously has some level of mastery.. but it doesnt take long to shut the door on making big mistakes with that spec, as with bladesworn. I will again make this comparison, I played hammer cata for months on end and never got close to feeling good enough to take on a 1v2. After a few hours of bladesworn, I won a 1v2, people were activiely running away from me.. on a spec that was 1/5th the difficulty of hammer cata. Im not joking, or trying to show off, its absolutely shocking to me that this level of descrepency exists in the game, and staff warrior is at that level. DE has this aslo, just spam 3, dodge, 1.. with such simply escape options, and again, after only a few hours, multiple people raging, chasing me all over them map, just for spamming 3 buttons. The Jades on scepter cata come with a significant shift in difficulty compared to core. You need to use the correct combos for the situation, and most of the sustain is based around combos. That is a big shift from core, which is essentially massive spike burst, then just run away til reset. Cata has more staying power, but you have to learn how to use it, which isn't easy with 13k HP and nion instant death for the wrong combo. Core hit and run is easier to play, but it is also less effective, which makes sense, or why bother playing cata (which also doesnt really make sense any more, easier ways to do similar damage).

Unranked; The twilight zone for the royal vampires, laying in wait for the moon to ascend the golden offpeaks of silvaria, signaling the beggining of the feast to end all feasts in this bronze age of kitten poor MMR. Some say vampires can't eat other vampires, I say, lets give it a try? After google translating the great wars 1 manuscripts that survived "the fire", there is hope: Vampires will only feed on other vampires as a last resort

I disagree, the spec is the problem, which amplifies the staff issue. This is no differenct to the condi damage on ele scepter, the condi was not the issue. The issues was how that condi damage was made reliable through the combination of cata stability/sustain from aura signets, and the ramp up speed of air jade. In contrast, the scepter condi damage on tempest was NOT op, becuase tempest did not have stability procs and fast ramp up damage, that meant you could CC the tempest a lot more, and its slower ramp up meant you could much easier cleanse the fire ticks before they reached max stacks. With SPB, the issue is that it already has a kitten ton of easy, baked in sustain when using dps weapons, and stability on stun which stops counter CC. That means the warrior sacrifices next to nothing in sustain while gaining mobility/gap closing and utility from staff. In terms of condi cata damage/sustain, they sacraficed nothing to stay in fire stance and pew pew. See what I mean?

Scepter cata is not what it use to be, and hammer cata is nion meme status now. What scepter cata had going for it, was mobility and immunes. The meta has changed though, mobility in general is high, and many specs have immunes that still allow the player to attack, which outclasses cata immunes (arcane shield is often better in that light). I just don't see scepter cata as a problem in the game, especially that their are easier or more reliable ways to achieve similar damage, while not being paper thin. I agree with about skills, and I agree super speed is way over used. On the other hand, if youre going to reduce super speed from specs that depend on it, then you need to compensate with more sustain, same as if you add more stealth counters for thief, they need more ways to actively mitigate being caught, which doesnt involve yet more kitten TPs I don't have a problem with instant cast skills, so long as they don't do rediculous damage. Broadcast level should scale with damage, and in terms of hard CC, it should scale with duration, I would also count daze as hard CC if it already isnt.. its too powerful to be instant. Things like blind/weakness are fine as instants, but the amount they can be spammed is an issue.

I actually disliked fighting SPB on multiple other power and condi specs. The reason why is as I pointed out. On sides, they can use that low effort mitigation to LOS abuse while you aproach the point, if you then go on the point, they get back on it, and you can't toe to toe it (unless they suck), and IF they start losing, or you start kiting, they can go back to LOS abusing (most points allow it). The issue here is that SPB is too simple, so that average to good spbs RARELY make big mistakes when toe to toe. Yet, even if they do, counter and stun break offers an instant recovery vs physical melee. That means it is an EASY and RELIABLE spec for point contestion. SPB is not the only spec that has this aweful easy and reliable area denial, but it was up there in the top 5 before staff... let alone after. Do me a favour, go on hammer cata, go on sides, and see how many times you get pushed of point by ANY spec, melee or ranged. The spec is complicated enough that mistakes happen often until you get to p1 level at it, and those mistakes cost you. Owning the point as hammer cata is entirely dictated by your skill and consistancy on it, and even then its not garunteed. You seem to think its fine for a staff SPB (one of the easiest specs in the game) to role upto a point and just own it, with minimal effort. Thats an aweful game. Or let me put it like this, if staff SPB had to work as hard as a hammer cata to own that point, to deny that area, you would not see me complaining <insert all other low effort area denial specs>.

No, you just happen to have a warrior profile pic, and warrior happens to have some of the most mechanically basic specs in the game. There are no nerves to hit here becuase nothing I said was wrong, hammer cata is a difficult spec, as is holo, and as you pointed out power untamed/core engi (I really enjoyed duels with core engis). Im not even sure when I said warrior had no tells (broadcast abilities?). And for the record, hammer cata and holo dps are broadcast, its a question of what you should react to, which isnt easy ofc.. but thats the point, game sense and dodging/blocking is a skill too.

You could boil most specs (even SPB) down to a rotation if you wanted to, and we can then discuss encounter specific rotation lengths between specs and end up with the same conclusion; Some specs are just easier. Holo runs away, sure, so you are against the idea of kiting? Sounds like the game you want is bladesornes only. Stand on point (kitten kiters), smash random buttons (as to avoid rotations) for barrier+dps; fatest fingers win.

Im not sure to what degree mace is viable at top level, but that single aproach to balance is not healthy. The maces have all the makings of a completely broken weapon set, and I dare say people have not played out side the box enough with them to find builds that are broken at sub-elite level, where "l2p" is a weak argument that dismisses bad design. If you look at SLB for a second, quickdraw would offer 2x evade serp gap closers pluss pounce, while hunter call is some decent setup/chase damage, and assault yet anoter good gap/chaser +dmg. Then in swapping to mace you have another 2x gap closers which is also a stun. Thats five gap closers, or 4 if not using SLB, which for me is not "easily kited", if you compare that to something like hammer cata. Ontop of that you have stealth to use defensively if out kited, and you have protection/barrier and a strong cleanse on demand while ducking for los abuse. There is also the option of bird secondary pet, which has a large gap closer (if mobility is the weapons core issue then is a genuine work around option). In the right hands this would be a difficult spec to fight, if you get on point its like an SPB, it will sit on it with you and dish out dmg+CC/sustain, which I can see many specs probably can't do (outside of the obvious bunkers). If you try to kite kill, it will do what all good SPBs do, use the same mitigation to reach LOS abuse, and get back on point to block, if you do. It would tip the capping/defense power toward the mace ranger for quite a few specs than can't stand toe to toe with it. Or in a nutshell, if staff SPB and druid get nerfed into the ground, mace ranger seems like a good plan B. I can only speak for myself in saying I am against specs that dominate a point toe to toe just becuase of the spec. Skill should massively dictate that level of point dominance. Hammer cata, and holo are examples of how that should look, hard enough so that mistakes are punished badly.. but rewarding enough that the point is yours if you play it well. Mace ranger in its essense is not that.. as I said before, its just bladesowrne, gief me barrier for smashing keys on point.