[FB Mains - Advice?]

I'm not a pro, but these are a couple of things I can tell you

first grab a good build like this https://www.godsofpvp.net/builds/guardian

you need to understand your heals first of all:aegis, symbols, dodge roll, shield 5, shield 4, and of course f2 and f3 tomes.but most important you needs to understand your protections (aka preprot from gw1):mantra of truth, sword 2, aegis (it is both prot and heal!), focus 5, some symbols, f3 tome

try to use protections before healing. This build has a lot of blind and aegis, on top of your "passive" dps and heal with symbols. Both aegis and blind prevent any kind of damage, if you time well these two things and your dodges enemy can't hit you for several seconds.

When you are focused never use tome of resolve (f2) because it is a good bar filler, but it has no protection at all. You want to kite enemies and force them on your symbols, where you both damage them and heal yourself. In addition to this, you want to use tome of courage (f3) which is the best protection tool of the build.If you struggle with condies you can just use 4, or if you struggle with power use 5 and 2. Of course if there are projectiles use 3.

Then when to use tome of resolve? when you want to fill your hp, or heal others. But never use it under pressure, is the same thing of using necromancer lich elite under pressure.

I mentioned symbols, here again you need to understand your symbols. You have 4 symbols on your build:

• axe 2 which is a good interrupt, dps and condi pressure
• the symbol of protection passive in your heal, which is again a good anti pressure, expecially if used when you are kiting around forcing enemies on it
• scepter or sword 2: scepter is a good dps, but sword has blind on it, which is another anti pressure
• the passive symbol from zeal which is good for retaliation but it's not really under our control

if you still struggling with this build you can do two things: bring signet of judgement over "save yourselves!". This seems a noob solution but actually Naru was playing it. It is a good passive dmg reduction but most important is a 25s break stun, which is really important.OR you can drop zeal and take valor (2,2,2) and replace "save yourselves" with Judgement intervention, note this is a huge dps loss, but it make you really tanky.

but most important remember always to kite when under pressure. there are a lot of jumping puzzles on nodes, if you learn how to kite people you will see that FB kit is really strong for both yourself and your team

REMEMBER I'm not a pro, this are just my little knowledge of this class, maybe I can be wrong, but I hope it can be helpful

[Lost points on a win game]

@Zenix.6198 said:Ye, Its a system in place to prevent rating gain/loss exploitation, since a team doesn't lose rating for a loss if one of their members DC'd for more than 90 (?) seconds.Without this system people would just disconnect from a game when things looked sour to prevent rating loss for their team and themselves.

but you miss my point... we won the game!I understand the dishonor and don't get points.. but losing points in a won game it is a bit strange for me.

I totally understand and accept your points and I agree to punish people that leave a game, expecially if you are losing it.

[Lost points on a win game]

Hello I have a question.Yesterday I was in a ranked game we were winning and when we were at 450 point more or less I lost my internet connection.When I managed to log in again I noticed that we won the game 500-171 but I got dishonor (understandable) but I also lost 16 points...Is it normal? I mean I expected to not gain points but losing because of a DC on a won it seems a bit too much

[Tempest should get a real trade off]

@Kodama.6453 said:

@montecristo.1324 said:I think you are mostly complaining about tempest for other reasons, and you are not a ele main.Tempest trade off is the increased CD and you know that. Now you can avoid using overloads but then, what is the point of using tempest?If you don't play overloads you are playing a bad core, because you have one trait like used only for what? the stunbreak on the overload? but again you are using the overload and you get the tradeoff.As suggested, I think the problem is not the tempest, which is well balanced in my opinion, but core ele, which is missing something. Probably something little like a passive stat based on your element (fire power, air ferocity, water concentration, earth dmg reduction) or cast a spell when changing attunement, or something similar, because right now there are trade off for tempest and weaver, which change the way you use the attunements, but core is missing something.

I don't complain about tempest at all, dude. Even stated that they could (probably even should) get a compensation buff in exchange for adding a trade off.I am mostly just advocating that Anet is consequent with their trade off philosophy. They added the trade off to soulbeast with just one pet in combat (which I also agreed with), since they didn't have a trade off along their philosophy, even if people argued that the fact that the pet disappears if you use the merge mechanic was already there.

Logically, I think that tempest then also lacks a trade off by Anet's definition. Because tempest also just gets the trade off if you use the overload mechanic, just like soulbeast just got their trade off when they used their merge mechanic.

This, however, is not how their trade off system works. They want to implement a permanent downside of the e-spec, something is taken away that the core class has access to. This is not the case currently with the tempest.

Weaver on the other hand already follows that train of thought. They replace their mainhand #3 weapon skills. Replacing skills with different ones is the trade off for many other elite specs as well, this is fair game. Tempest however just got buttons added with the overload, which just have a downside if you choose to use them. Tempest is in the same situation like the soulbeast before the addition of their actual trade off with disabling pet swap in combat.

Again, I am not complaining about the tempest. If they are in need of a buff, buff them. I am just looking at this system logically and noticed that tempest is still left to get a trade off when you look at the changes Anet has made.

I got your point, even if I think that the CD increase is already a fair trade off. But at this point I would suggest to not put a tradeoff on tempest, which is well rounded, but put something new to core, because now is lacking something.It was done for rev, core rev was lacking of something and it was a bad idea put a tradeoff on herald. I think we need the same thing.

[miniseason idea: conquest team queue]

@Tayga.3192 said:Nah mini seasons should be new so I want 3v3.

have you read my post?

[miniseason idea: conquest team queue]

We had 2v2 and we know we will have Courtyard, Stronghold and 3v3.My suggestion is to have also a conquest miniseason that is not solo/duo queue, but it is open for teams of every size (1-5), like the (really) old team queue we had.It can be interesting for everybody to see how it goes, and it will be a miniseason so no one can be really be mad about fight against a coordinated team.

[I feel like it might be time we get a new class.]

@Kontrolle.3514 said:We need the monk back!

thief is missing a support spec. I think if we go to cantha it might be a possible candidate for a monk espec. Something like small heals with high mobility, in contrast with the support meta we had till now of low mobility classes with high heals.

[Tempest should get a real trade off]

I think you are mostly complaining about tempest for other reasons, and you are not a ele main.Tempest trade off is the increased CD and you know that. Now you can avoid using overloads but then, what is the point of using tempest?If you don't play overloads you are playing a bad core, because you have one trait like used only for what? the stunbreak on the overload? but again you are using the overload and you get the tradeoff.As suggested, I think the problem is not the tempest, which is well balanced in my opinion, but core ele, which is missing something. Probably something little like a passive stat based on your element (fire power, air ferocity, water concentration, earth dmg reduction) or cast a spell when changing attunement, or something similar, because right now there are trade off for tempest and weaver, which change the way you use the attunements, but core is missing something.

[Rebalance Daily Tourn Rewards or return to AT for Dailys.]

Solution 3: you play AT because you like to play pvp with a coordinated team

[Trait line]

No, in the past we had a different trait method and it's been years since we changed to the new method. All the balance and work done till now would be lost. In addition to that the point of 3 trait lines force you to make decisions, and that is the nice part of theory crafting.I would be ok to add something special if you only run core traits, like an "elite" core traitline but also this idea is silly and I think devs should just focus to balance some core classes like ele for example which lacks something compared to his espec

[LF guild for raids/fract/strikes - 1 day a week (EU)]

Hello guys,

I'm looking for a guild to join for doing raids and other pve end game stuff.I have a little experience in raids, I know W1 and W4 pretty well, and have around 50li (all gained in these two w)I usually do daily fractals t4+recs, and I did only one CM (99) just once.I did some strikes run.

My main class is Ele, I usually play pdps weaver or heal tempest, I have full ascended for both of these roles.I have also a guardian with full asc for HFB and pdps, and exotic/asc (50-50) for condi.I have also a full asc heal druid (harrier) but it's been a while since last time I played it.

My biggest problem is time. I play quite often during the afternoons, every other day, but I usually focus on daily fractals or sPvP (my main game mode) and ATs with my guild, but I'd really like to dedicate one evening a week for a static raid or something similar.I have discord, I can speak fluent English, and have mic. I live in central Europe, UTC+2

Let me know if someone guild is looking for a +1 :D

[So when are the bots going to be addressed?]

In several occasions before the game started and people was talking and I was just reading, my teammates started to write on map chat to report me for being a bot... only because I didn't want to type, so, are we 100% sure about ALL these bots? bip bop

[A Critical Look At sPvP]

@Pawlegance.7012 said:

@"montecristo.1324" said:

1) you can put standard enemy models in the options menu and all the classes will be represented by one standard character, so you can focus on the animations

2) in gw2 the rank means almost nothing, what you have to check is the rating of the player, is he a silver player? is he platinum? etc.When you play ATs people will ask your rating not your rank

3) gw2 pvp has roles, there are a lot of YouTube videos about it and I think also the wiki has a section about it.Maybe in low tier rating, and for new player, going dps is rewarding, but there are plenty of roles: bunkers, support, rotational dps, dps, duelist, etc.I suggest you to check on Twitch and on YouTube some videos of the AT and of the monthly automated tournament, you will see how coordinated this game is and how every player has a specific role and does his job on the map (for example a bunker or a duelist tend to play 1v1 on a node in order to contest/protect the node while a rotational dps may quickly join his teammate on a fight to kill one person and run away to help someone else on another role)

4) I think the way pvp is structured is quite alright, there are some things to fix of course, but the maps mechanics replace the "attrition" you are talking about. Losing a fight means that you probably lose one or two caps, and it also means that you need to regroup and probably you will lose also the next fight if you are not clever enough to think about another strategy or change the way you are playing the game (focus on quick rotations instead of fighting).

1) yeah, I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding. however, would you be able, as a caster, to explain what is going on to the average joe watching it on twitch? it is just so flashy.

2) for some reason, I got placed into gold after completing placement matches, I didn't even do that well. I'd put myself into bronze since I've not beenplaying for so long. it is unclear why I was placed way above my league. I will probably not participate in ATs due to time constraints.however the number of snowballing matches in this game is insane. Matchmaking appears to be non-existant.

3) to be honest, spvp feels way more chaotic any other pvp game I played. please clarify the difference between a rotational dps, dps and duelist. I haven't seen dps stick to a specific node. in any case, according to your posts conquest seems to be deeper than it presents itself and makes it even harder for new players to climb. Since you claim, there is a difference between at, mat play and regular soloq games, ANET should focus on clearing misconceptions and make it easier to learn the game.compare it to lol or dota or most mobas, the way the game is played doesn't change between high level play and low level play. You've got 5 fixed roles and you learn them. In gw1 roles were even more pronounced with Mesmers and Rangers focusing on disruption and split.

there appears to be a gap between new players coming to pvp and veterans. I don't think just saying l2p builds the bridge.

4) well, it doesn't really defeat my point. my point was about actual shifts in power if you do better or worse than the other team. statistics can be deceiving. it is not like a team actually scores after the win a fight. e.g. in football you score if you outplay your opponent (most of the times), same in rocket league, in gw1 you gain a morale boost, kill npcs or the lord, destroy structures in lol/dota etc, in spvp it just ticks away. there is no actual gain and loss.

there are reasons why the pvp mode never took off and gains so little traction.

in my opinion is totally a l2p issue. And I'm not attacking you, it's just a general thing. If I start to play dota now, I never played it, I totally don't know which champions is good for a certain lane and which build I have to build on it. In the same way, when you start to play gw2 you don't know which class should play a certain role with a certain build.There are websites like metabattle or godsofpvp which help you on that giving explanations and builds.

The difference between rotational dps, dps and duelist is simple:let's take a power herald revenant with high mobility and burst potential, this class is a rotational dps, because it can rotate quickly from one node to another and do a +1 on the fights to get a kill, then move againa power reaper on the other hand, is really strong in AoE and pressure damage but it is slow, he can't rotate quicly, so what he can do is try to stick to the larger fights and rotatle slowly whith them, he is a dpsa duelist, like a LR weaver is a class with a good damage and some heals that can win a 1v1 and he needs to try to focus on finding a node with only one enemy on it and try to pressure this enemy from the node and cap it.

There are a lot of roles, and everyone has a specific thing to do! check on youtube you will find a lot of guides about it, you can also check metabattle and godsofpvp

I'm not a pro player so probably some things can be explained better!

[What keeps you coming back to PVP?]

I like this game

[Anyone feels like Firebrand's tomes are drawing slower than their activation time?]

try to activate the tome and when you see the skills changes stow weapon or jump, it should remove the aftercast, I don't know if it will remove the tome tbh I still have to try this

[Video Guide by a PvP Noob for PvP Noobs to get 120 Ranked Wins]

Or learn to properly play the game, take your time, and enjoy the pvp

[The legendary amulet was a mistake]

not only it was a mistake, now pvers want to BUY AT wins.If the intention was to bring people to pvp, they did it, but they destroyed all the idea behind the work to bring back a "competitive" game mode.

[Rent a team]

you don't get what I mean. It is an image problem. Let say Anet want to bring competitive pvp to the game, and tomorrow people will start to pay to win. How do you think people will take this?

@sanglelfe.5461 said:Sure, it's possible to get better. Started s1, now I'm g1. But I have absolutly 0 interest in any competitive game, I just find it boring and pointless. So paying for it will just get me out of this game mode faster, you should be happy about it. I am also respectful of people wanting to have honnest competitions, that's why I'm against the use of bot or afk. Buying teamate will it the worst case give a easier victory to the other team but the competition spirit will still be present for them.For the ranked games... well I'm sorted with people around my ranks so it should be ok to be average skilled, I am not completly afk brain dead for those matchs.

Then if you have 0 interest in competitive gameplay, don't play pvp because this kind of behavior ruins the mode. Also I'm not happy if you have 20 wins because you payed it, I will be upset because people let you do it instead of let you do real pvp. I'm not a pro player I am an average player that try his best to stay in plat1 every season, but if I see that people will start to pay to get what they want instead of getting better, then it doesn't matter, this game will never be back in the competitive scene in my opinion.

[Rent a team]

@Tayga.3192 said:

@montecristo.1324 said:This kind of things are really depressing, instead of getting better in the game, and promote the competition of the game, you are trying to find a shortcut.And the problem is not only you but people that will help you because it will lower the prize of the win. It will mean that everyone can achieve the same things ignoring the personal skill barrier.If anet doesn't take any action against this kind of behavior I think I will quit the game, it is not worth spend time with my guild trying to get better if people can just pay for win.It's not a problem of population, it's not a problem of balance, it is a problem of community

Well, raid selling is also OK. You can't say this breaks any rules or ToS tbh.

I don't even care to take a look to the rules or tos, it is called common sense. When I check the raid tab to do my raids and I see all the sellers I feel like people like to cheat, and I usually don't raid for this reason, because it is unhealthy for a game to have such kind of things in my opinion.If now this thing start on ATs and I start to see will sellers on the LFG panel, it will be the end of the possible competition you can have in a game, because then your titles and your wins means nothing.The only way to try to bring back competitive gameplay to the game is to stick to the common sense and don't let the WINS mean nothing

[Rent a team]

This kind of things are really depressing, instead of getting better in the game, and promote the competition of the game, you are trying to find a shortcut.And the problem is not only you but people that will help you because it will lower the prize of the win. It will mean that everyone can achieve the same things ignoring the personal skill barrier.If anet doesn't take any action against this kind of behavior I think I will quit the game, it is not worth spend time with my guild trying to get better if people can just pay for win.It's not a problem of population, it's not a problem of balance, it is a problem of community

[Returning Player - Profession help]

Revenant (renegade) has take the chronomancer spot for alacrity in fractals runs, and it can be played power boon support or, in some rare occasions, healer boon support.About ele, you can play it as power dps (mostly weavers, some tempest) and condi dps weaver: those two are the meta builds. In some rare occasions you can find a healer tempest, mostly because it can keep perma 25 stack of might and fury, but it's not a meta build (if you play it correctly it works fine).For mesmer I don't really know the class, I know chronomancer was nerfed badly and I think now mesmer fit a spot in dps role, but I don't know it really well.

[A Critical Look At sPvP]

@Pawlegance.7012 said:I've been playing sPvP on and off, but mostly off. I stopped when Skyhammer turned into a troll heaven and just recently returned to give pvp another go. This comes from a Dolyak who has been stomped a lot by Dragons lately, but I hope you appreciate some of the following thoughts on sPvP. I try to outline my points as concise as possible.

Fighting for AttentionI love that this game puts the focus on actually watching the opposition instead of the UI. At least in general it does. However I feel the UI always tries to get my attention because critical boons are not really visible on the player character. You see them if they are selected, but icons are tiny compared to the action around you and I don't want to increase their size or make them blink. Instead, use icons as evidence of applied effects and focus on telling special effects on characters.

A lot of sfx go off which don't concern me and might even obscure information needed in battle. Imagine the opposition charging you with Eternity and all the flashy slashes obscuring your vision. It happened to me and it affects my counter play. In order to facilitate counter play, I suggest sorting sfx by importance. Imagine a warrior charging you with a great sword and the first thing you see is if they got fury or stability.

you can put standard enemy models in the options menu and all the classes will be represented by one standard character, so you can focus on the animations

second and third point is a learn to play issue, play a lot and you will be able to recognize all the skills ;)

@Pawlegance.7012 said:Rewarding DefeatsLosing a ranked match increases your personal rank. It even increases your rank more than winning an unranked match. Now I agree that participating in pvp and leading players from low stake to high stake matches is the way to go, but I propose to scale rank gain with current rank. In the current system, all you need is to participate in a number of matches and you will get to the highest rank eventually. At one point only winning should rank you up.

Until then, I don't think that's a fair assessment of you skill and the skill of everybody else in this rank group. It devalues your achievement, theirs and kinda turns rank gain into a grind instead of an ascensions. Reward players for participating in order to get them into pvp, but make sure only the best players actually rise to the top. Your rank should reflect how good you are!

MatchmakingI've encountered numerous dragons and other much better ranked players. And I've also seen most of the matches play out similarly. One team is just better and defeats to other 500-150. I guess one cause is lack of player base and another a way to really gauge a player's abilities. Since everyone may get to the highest rank at one point, it cannot be used to properly evaluate a player. I think the current rating provides some way to evaluate a player, but it depends on performance during a season and current balance (or flavour of the month).

To be honest, rank or rating do not concern me. All I want is good games, mostly fair and with a chance to win. PvP in its current state, does not really provide it.

in gw2 the rank means almost nothing, what you have to check is the rating of the player, is he a silver player? is he platinum? etc.When you play ATs people will ask your rating not your rank

@Pawlegance.7012 said:RolesThe second reason is a consequence of missing progress and actual objectives within a match and how Conquest is designed. The most important thing is to defeat your opposition in direct combat. Hence there is only one role: the damage carry. Each profession approaches the how differently but if you fail at killing you won't enjoy Conquest. You cannot compensate your deficiencies by doing something else during the game e.g. support or complete a minor objective.

gw2 pvp has roles, there are a lot of YouTube videos about it and I think also the wiki has a section about it.Maybe in low tier rating, and for new player, going dps is rewarding, but there are plenty of roles: bunkers, support, rotational dps, dps, duelist, etc.I suggest you to check on Twitch and on YouTube some videos of the AT and of the monthly automated tournament, you will see how coordinated this game is and how every player has a specific role and does his job on the map (for example a bunker or a duelist tend to play 1v1 on a node in order to contest/protect the node while a rotational dps may quickly join his teammate on a fight to kill one person and run away to help someone else on another role)

@Pawlegance.7012 said:AttritionI miss a war of attrition in this game. You should be punished for making mistakes and rewarded for playing well. Killing opposition should help you deal with attrition and shift the power balance slightly in your favor. Implementing a war of attrition could also go a long way of adding depth to this mode and game overall.

Possible Solutions to ConquestHere are some suggestions to improve Conquest according to the points raised above. Some of these points work best in combination with each other. All are meant to keep work on maps and mode at a minimum.

Score Variants-Best x out of Y. A team needs to control the majority of objectives on the map. Instead of constantly ticking, a countdown appears for Z seconds it any team got control majority. When the countdown expires the controlling team gets a point and everyone spawns back at base. A new round begins.

Secondary Mechanics Variants-Capture the Flag like in GW1's GvG mode. Choose a point in equidistance between the spawn points. X seconds after capture, a team gains a morale boost.

Attrition-Morale like in GW1: Each time you die you get a disadvantage. Each time your team kills or gains a morale boost you gain an advantage. A team loses if all members got X disadvantage.

There are more ideas floating around in my head, but this post grew a bit too long already. I hope you can find something useful in this post. Looking forward to you replies.

I think the way pvp is structured is quite alright, there are some things to fix of course, but the maps mechanics replace the "attrition" you are talking about. Losing a fight means that you probably lose one or two caps, and it also means that you need to regroup and probably you will lose also the next fight if you are not clever enough to think about another strategy or change the way you are playing the game (focus on quick rotations instead of fighting).

I think overall you should try to find some people that knows a bit more the game and play with them to understand better conquest.I understand your points because as a gw1 player I see what you mean but as explained in the past years this game has grown a lot and now is really enjoyable!

[Complete new player help]

when you are leveling up you get hero points (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_point), with HP (hero points) you can unlock specializations, and skills.When you reach level 80 you will have all the specialization and skill unlock thanks to all the hero points collected during the leveling.Once you have all the specializations and skill unlocked you can start to unlock the elite specializations, which are specialization from the Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire expansions.

My suggestion is, if you are totally new to the game, is to explore all these things and play what you like, every class has his difficulties. When you will reach level 80 you will know pretty well your class and then you can think about meta builds for playing end game content, but for now have fun and experiment with all the skills and traits you find fun to play!

Edit:the skills at the left of the health bar are decided by the weapon you are using, the skill that you unlock with hero points are the ones you can put on the bar at the right of the health bar!You can also check on Youtube some videos that explains better the game or, if like me you like reading, take a look at the wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/

(you can also access the wiki from the game if you type /wiki )

[BEST Cantha E-spec Ideas!!!]

I cantotally see Monk coming back and being a healer elite spec for thieves.Right now only thief and war don't have a healer spec, even if now we see some support wars on wvw and it was a thing at the start of the game in pvp.

[[Poll] Weapon for the next Elementalist Elite Specialization]

I voted rifle because I think we are missing a long range burst option, we have staff but it feels more like sustained dps.Rifle or longbow are both interesting for this range dps, but I think for burst rifle is more fitting than longbow.

Now for the theme I think something connected with alchemy would be interesting (and it would also explain why we use a rifle, because we are applying the magic knowledge of eles to the alchemy knowledge of engi)

On the other hand if we are really going to Cantha I could totally see a longbow - martial arts style of game play, maybe connected to the ascension (closer to the start) storyline from the original gw.