Buran.3796

Herald is way stronger at Instanced PvE than Vindicator, and getting the greatsword would probably make it even better. But that is niche, unsupported dead content. On the other hand, Vindicator is way stronger at soloing Open World PvE than Herald and the short bow will probably wide the gap, and that's what most of the players do: play PvE alone and occasionally join some peers at some events.

There's no new specs, traits nor weapons, and a lot of the spec weapons that will be open with SotO are weak outside the spec traitline of origin to support them, so albeit broken combos can be expected they will be outliers and not very common. We also had a bet test, so we can expect balance patches in a month or so after those iteractions and the power creep from relics will settle.

In WvW roaming Renegade absolutely wrecks both. Neither Herald or Vindicator have successful condi/hybrid builds (with the Herald being particulary vulnerable to Renegade since its chronic lack of answers vs conditions and very bad mobility in the condi builds) so they can't take any advantage of celestial stats. And a celestial Renebow has over 3k armor and so much sustain that will outheal them while poking and doing hybrid damage at any range. And is not only the advantage in 1 vs 1: whenever a n vs n skirmish emerges, Rene still has the advantage of being able to pressure at range, whereas Herald/Vindi do way less damage at range and are forced to mele (and eat fear from unblockable wells and other fun stuff... ). But the post is about PvP, so let's take a look over that: In PvP Renegade loses the stat advantage due no cel amulet, so we run zerk amulet (same as Herald and Vindi). Still Rene does both power and condi damage, and Herald is still weak against the later. And Vindi, guess what, the Alliance legend has a 30 second cooldowns in the heals (small heals that were designed to be used oftenly, as in WvW and PvE where the cd remains in 10 seconds). In the last two months I've only played 3 builds in the seasonal Ranked 3 v 3 and Conquest: Renebow, Vindicator and Firebrand, and while none of them are good enogh to be meta (FB is top bottom tier, tbh) Rene is just better because has stronger hard cc tools and can do damage at any range, whereas the Vindicator has a strong AoE damage punished by how brittle is in terms of sustain (I need to run Shiro + Jalis with Vindi, to me Alliance is just too weak in PvP) and Herald is better at single target +1, but lacks stability, is easily disrupted and every meta build at the moment is either stronger as +1 (better cc + burst, bursting at range, bursting from stealth, corrupting while bursting, etc. ) or a stronger bruiser with much more sustain. I would also argue that if you solo q (as me) running a subpar +1 as Herald won't work well. That's my point, I'm nobody, I'm just work from gold II to III along the seaons so I'm sure here's much better players here with way higher ranks and different opinions (which I'm eager to read) but you can't barely see any Rev at MATs and they don't do much, so I don't known the arguments to claim Herald or Vindi are better at PvP. Lately I've noticed and increment in hate talk about how "annoying" is my build (sure using The Dreamer as sb and Chickenado as a finisher hleps to increase the psychological damage 😄) which I found flattering...

I don't see the problem given that: A) At the moment, Rev power builds are mostly mele, and 450 range is way more than you get from most of your attacks unless we are talking about gap closers. This is different from Ranger, which can actually fight at range with power builds. B) UA is a weak skill outside single target fights. Unless you're trying to deal damage while avoinding damage, is not that relevant. C) I'm very sceptic about current Rev builds in PvP, but specially about the ones which use swords. This is a hot take but imo sb + staff Renegade > gs + staff Vindicator > mace + axe condi Herald > power Herald with swords and staff (and none of them are meta). So is not like adding range to the least performative weapon kit in the dead niche game mode as is PvP places high in the list of problems to fix in Rev.

Currently there's 99 PvE runes: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune ...And there's no 6th rune effect exactly the same as other, so that's removing 59 efefcts even without counting that some of the Relic effects are new (as they showcased a couple of examples), so the real number of 6th rune effects that will be removed from the game will be larger than 60. Is just simple maths. Also, I don't understand how people can think that the new system will "add more variety" when in reality the meta will use just 6-7 runes the same as currently, just that you have to re-grind again all your loadouts to have the same you had before. Essentially, you'r paying Anet to remove a feature you already have to get it again.

Half of them will be ditched, and that's without even taking in consideration that some relics are new. So we will lose probably more than 50% of the current effects in the 6th rune.

Shadowcatz asked about how to fight Harbingers, didn't demand any nerf.

I usually roam as either cele Renebow, marauder Vindicator, marauder Willbender or Celestial Firebrand, and in fights against Harbingers general is utterly uphill with most of those build, except maybe cele Renebow, which is hard and I usually lose but sometimes I can win or turn it in a long fight. Part of my problem is that I'm not entirely familiar of how Harbinger works, but over time I gained awareness over one of the critical reasons they are so strong: * Plague Sending + Path of Corruption, Implacable Foe + Deathly Haste. When a Harbinger enters in Shroud with those traits instantly gains stability (for more than 3.5 seconds in WvW with cele stats) + 4.5 s of quickness (with extending pulses) and permafury. Then Dark Barrage uses as first attack both transfers conditions AND corrupts boons in the enemy, and this happens while having stability, fury and quickness... This makes it an incredibly effective combo, which both hits hard, cripples enemies and is arguably hard to prevent. Smart Harbingers also save this this combo not for the initial swings in a fight, but in the middle of it when has ensure the use of some defensive capabilities from the foe, in a sort of counter attack. I've found that even being cautious in a fight and playing well my cards is really difficult to outpace the sustain of a Harb: is not like I'm not able to chunk them large amounts of HP, but even ccing them and landing my own burst, they recover from it at impressive pace. As Edu said, they are way more vulnerable in fights of n vs n...

WvW is unsupported gameplay. PvP is unsupported gameplay. Raids is unsupported gameplay. The only game mode encouraged by ANet (since is where most of players thrieve and from where most of the microtransactions sales arrives) is Open World PvE. At which Guardian isn't that special, to be honest (very good in teams, but rather weak as solo in ebvery specialization). My advice is: play the things you enjoy; don't wait from ANet to enhance things that you enjoy since most of the time they will do nothing. Don't expect sword + sword to become relevant for Guardian in PvE because they already have a solid PvE spec in the Firebrand and due design reasons as selfish spec Willbenderwill never shine there. It doesn't mean that I like or support that design approach, I'm just telling you that aknownling that reality will save you from frustation and delusional hopes.

Short bow in Vindicator or Herald?

Power Willbender is currently the strongest Guardian spec in solo roaming at WvW. So is used. Off hand sword in Willbender will never be meta at PvE and instanced content, for two reasons: * First is that Willbender is a specialization designed to bring Guardian mobility (a staple in the profession) in exchange of selfness. Usually Guardians are extremely good at support, but they lack in mobility. WB has tons of mobility but is entirely selfish. And is very hard to make work in team PvE/instanced content a spec that just doesn?t share, specially since Firebrand is excellent at both offensive and defensive support. * The second reason is because the off hand sword was designed to work in the same direction as the spec: to fill the mobility gaps. So you have better dps and better support weapons. I understand the desire of having a specific weapon to shine in every game mode in each class; the problem is that GW2 is designed to provide different weapon choices to each class, and that means that as the patches change their properties, some of them will enter and exit of the meta. In other MMOs classes usually only wield a single set of weapons, which means that you can always expect from them to work, but here is different. Being said that, swords are overrepresented in media compared to their real performance in the battlefield. In pre-fire arms times the main military weapons have been always the spear and the bow; swords are more or less the equivalent to a handgun (and anyway dual wielding is crap unless you use a shield in your off hand). Not like this is a military sim, but don't feel bad if your fav set of weapons does bad at PvE. As I said, they wrk well in WvW roaming...

Hi, I've 18 characters and used to think that it was the max amount of characters that could be portrayed in the starting screen without splitting them in a 3440 x 1440 UW screen, but in the "free spec weapons" beta I noticed that the three beta slots shared the same screen without forcing to displacing the character selection barr with the ">" or "<". I also think that in 16:9 that limit used to be 15 and 25 in 30:9, do you known the curret limit numbers? Thank you in advance...

I read a similar answer in different stages of the game in the past and I don't think that is true. I mean, sure you can gank some random pugs using stealth + cc + burst, but let's imagine that most of encounters were between conformed squads of organized players: I think that is too easy to counter. Ranged burst are too easy to prevent through blocks/reflects and mele assaults can disrupted with cc. I known that PvP isn't the same as WvW since there's a lot more options in gear and food allowing extreme glass canon builds, but the same works for defense and tank/bruiser builds are way stronger at WvW than in Conquest. In the last MAT a full comp of Specters headed by Sindrener didn't work vs Rank 55, and you can argue about skill levels even amongst the top and that were more based in mobility than stealth, but in the end seems like balanced comps with self-sufficient tools which share support and boons between their partners work better. In that regard, I think that the rosters suggested by SleepyBat or Lotus are probably closer to ideal that just stacking a one trick pony combo (which will work vs pugs and the first times vs unawared comformed squads but could easily derrail in any further attempt). Thanx for the anwers.

I known that the answer is hard, given the game mode has no rules and and people can freely roam alone or stack in huge zergs, but given the current state of "balance", what would you say it would be the ideal roster of specs in a squad of 5-6 players aiming to get involved in small skirmishes against similarly sized groups?

Quickness Herald delivers good dps, a huge amounts of boons to the party, plus has a insane defiant bar breaking abilities, sharing all in a huge area, so is almost perfect as an offensive support. It can also work very well as a support healer, and the Renegade alacrity build is also strong. Quickness Firebrand is the Swiss knife of ofensive support, having a trick in the pocket for every situation. The healer support build is also strong.

Experience is usually %, so getting a waypoint is like ~5% of a level, a vista ~7%, and so on... Discovering new areas in a map gives s lot of XP and is efficient since with mounts can de done in very little time. Completing a dungeon was 70% of a level. Some consummable give you really strong XP buffs. Outside that, usually which delivers more XP x time is completing local events, specially in maps with tons of small quest chained, like Dragonfall or Drizzlewood. Farming events like Palwadan or Dragonstorm are also powerfull providers of XP in very small amounts of time. Remember than in GW2 lamost every action delivers some XP (gathering, reviving, crafting...).

With "other classes just spam all their abilities and not really face much of an issue" you mean casting the skills and then waiting the pertinent cooldown , I guess? Most of utilities have cooldowns between 15 and 90+ seconds, which is far from "spammy". Yes, some classes have unbalances, mostly being able to rotate defensive skills for a while until the loop is off cd again, but this also happens with the Revenant. I'm not sure of energy cost being "as expensive". I think that other classes are currently stronger at PvP/WvW yet, aside from Harbingers, I'm not struggling with Rev at those landscapes (playing Renebow and Vindi). I'm not particulary good yet las Conquest season was at gold III most of the time, which to me is fine given the skill gap and low pop. The 3 v 3 mini season is also going well. The main problem is ATs, due some specs are overtuned, and is no easy (for any class) to fit a slot in the meta when 3 slots are already filled with Ele variants because the main balance designer mains an loves that class. I would prefer from ANet to focus on removing bugs which keep some of our choices unviable. Also, fix the downstate push that cages enemies inside walls: is sad to see a match lost due one of the players got jailed in the "Phantom Zone".

For power builds Ranger's greatsword remain relevant along both core class and Soulbeast and Untamed specs. The same with Mesmer's greatsword: from core to Chronomancer and Virtuosos is meta in power builds. For power Guardian, greatsword is a very good weapon for core while leveling, and works well with Willbender and some DH builds. But in this case, gs oftenly is not the meta at PvE. Other options outpace gs in damage or utility. For power Warrior, both hammer and greatsword are excellent for leveling (despite I prefer the hammer + longbow combo with hybrid stats); once your reach 80, there's some limitatrions: the meta for PvE usually involves axes or even hammer, now that has been buffed. Both gs and hammer work well at PvP and WvW, but in PvE the gs is a bit annoying to use since 100 blades roots you and any cancel or interruption of the casting (like moving to prevent damage or being cced) throws tons of damage to the garbage canister.

For OW PvE celestial Mirage; check vids of Lord Hizen in YT soloing everything with that build. For instanced content condition Virtuoso has extremely high damage output, can play at any range and is fairly easy to play, while also being meta. And you can run PvP/roaming builds with the same stats. What you won't find is a single build to do "everything", since the best solo PvE builds are more tankier but deliver damage at slower pace, and vs humans breakstuns and mobility tricks are more important than learning a skill roatation vs a golem.

Is not that bad. Is way better than Herald at the moment, to be honest. The problem is that for conformed teams in Automated Tournaments core support Guardian is more valuable, and in ranked Conquest matches with randoms Dragonhunter is more impactful. Firebrand doesn't even exist in the conversation. I think that Willbender was in a good spot until the last nerfs, and the main hit was probably the removal of the second cast of Flowing Resolve, which both degraded the mobility, the cleanses and the self sustain.

What is a turtle mount?

Core is very good at rising with no help from 1 to 80, and has a very good PvP support build and a decent condi build which can also perform decently at roaming (but is easy to defeat with high mobility/good ranged builds). Works very well as support in WvW zergs, also. Dragon Hunter works as a power build, is very good at fractals and meh at soloing PvE. Has a very good build fior PvP ranked but isn't meta at tournaments. Can do well at WvW roaming but is far from the top dogs (low HP and mobility are the main drawbacks). Firebrand is a swiss knife; works very well in instanced content as dps or support, can solo most of PvE content outside bouinties (too slow at killing those). Is garbage at PvP but semi-decent at WvW roaming thanx to the gear options. Is strong as support in WvW zergs and small groups skirmishes. Willbender in power gear is good at WvW roaming and PvP, close to the meta but not quite there. Is useless in zergs. In PvE the condi builds are strong and better thah Firebrand at soloing things, but far from the top. Lacks the versatility of FB in group playing at instanced content. You would unlock all the specs very fast, also. I would say that celestial and marauder stats works for most of those builds (at instanced people maybe would ask meta builds), but if you're playing on your own with those 2 you would be served.

Deadeye is hard to play in PvP and outside Azza there's very few players that had mastered that spec in competitive gameplay (Sind doesn't even like/play that spec). Based in your description I would advice you Warrior, with some caveats: * Bladesworn is amongs the strongest instanced PvE dps builds, and with the same power dps gear can be one of the thoughest and most efficient solo builds, just swapping some traits and utilities, albeit thet build is harder to play than, lets say, celestial Mirage or celestial Rev variants. The weak side is that Bladesworn is a bit boring at PvP/WvW since its burst is lergely nerfed there, and has very limited variety in terms of weapon and skill selection (most don't work well with the flow/mmo system). * Berserker is very good at the moment at PvP/WvW, and can be played as power, condi or hybrid. Offers a very fast paced gameplay; the weakness is that relies a lot in cc, and that is good vs players and regular foes, but doesn't work so well at things like soloing bounties or meta events. * Spellbreaker is a bit more balanced than the other two: where Bladesworn and Berserker jump a lot in competitive game modes from great to garbage, Spellbreaker usually is at least decent most of the time. The downside is that at PvE is not very special, since doesn't shine in instanced content, nor soloing things, or as a heavy dps hitter.

Ok, a few things: 1) Leveling a character from 1 to 80 just playing Open World maps (discovering new areas, vistas, points of interest, waypoints, hero points and NOT doing hearts (but a bit of dinamic events if they arise) will take you ~24 hours of gameplay or less, without the need of any booster of the use of knwonledge tome from WvW/PvP (those rise you 1 level, but aren't required). Notice that everything in the game gives you XP, including crafting,, but I wouldn't rely in that for leveling a first since you'll like some resources. 2) You can test builds entering in the PvP lobby. Notice thow that while gear is equalized at PvP the duration and strength of skills and cooldowns in PvP is diffrent than in PvE and WvW due balance reasons. 3) Leveling is a minimal part of the life of a characterm, so while sometimes can feel a bit slower (specailly Now about the choice: of the three you name (Guardian, Revenant and Thief): Guardian is the easiest to level of the three and is paired with Revenant in terms of build diversity at the end game. The main drawbacks at the begining are a lower base HP and lack in mobility for the core class, but you can deal with it. In exchange, core Guardian has huge damage AoE burst and can melt single targets and crowds of foes in seconds. This is a sample of the typical build I use to "manually" level a Guardian: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEt/lVwQYdMM2IOuKZrNA-zRRYLhnNqhyIhKIzUwhDQ46hXzJ+0AA-e The game boost your XP for the first 15 levels. In the first 10 levels you unlock all the weapon skills and at 10 you gain the ability to wap between two weapon sets. At level 21 you unlock your first trait line, the second at 45 and then the third at 71. In this case I'll advice unlocking Virttued, Radiance and Zeal in that order. The gameplay for leveling at OW is simple: against a group of foes activate "Stand Your Ground!" for stability, use greatsword #5 to pull them in the same place, use greatsword #3 to blind them, cast Purging Flames and Sword of Justice on top of them and then use greastword #2. For single targets just ditch gs #5 unless you need to break a defiance bar. In the scepter + torch weapons, use torch #4 to cover you in flames to proc burns and scepter #2 to proc even more burns. Most of them would come from the passive F1 effect. For gear, while leveling with a guardian you only need gear with vitality, condition damage and power. Everything else (precission, ferocity, healing power... ) is irrelevant until you have a fully rised level 80. I usually buy some crappy gear (blues and greens) around level 20 for a few silvers in the black lion; around level 25 gear with 2 stats start to appear, but I don't buy new gear until lvl ~35. Around lvl ~61/65 gear with 3 stats appear, and is when I buy a new set of weapons, armor and trinkets, with carrion stats, more than enough to reach 80. The total cost of my gear from 1 to 80 is usually 4-6 gold coins, the equivalent of a couple of dailies. You can earn decent gold for your fisrt characters just mining/gathering and selling iron, platinum, lettuces, etc. You have dense nodes of crops in every map (like near the Beetletun Manor in the Queensdale map), so harvest them and set to effortlesly pay your gear. You get a Raptor for 10 hours when you reach level 10. That is a HUGE boost in mobility, and discovering new areas gives a bunch of XP, so abuse the raptor while last. Another importat thing: try to always play in a map with foes of your level; foes with more that 3 levels above you (4 or more) don't get crist and halve your damage, foes of 10+ levels over you can sometimes one-shoot you. Move from the maps in order, doing always the closest to your level. If you lag in levels, came back to the first ones and complete hearts for the extra XP. Core Rev has two basic builds: going for condi damage or power damage. The power one has good mobility but bad AoE damage, and can be frail vs mobs. The condi one is very tanky, but moves slower. I would run that last one, in a build like this one: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAkeZlhQHMJyhFRNMI6hBSfMBKgjuSfKD-zxIY8o7vUSoA6KByMC6ME8fA-e Similar gear choices and combat tactics as with the Guardian, but dealing mostly torment and fire damage. Lost of crod control. For me, in terms of leveling (how fun and fast to level they are, how easy is to recah 80 without dying, how varied and resourceful are while leveling...) my list would be Mesmer > Warrior > Guardian > Necro/Ranger > Enginee/ Elementalist > Revenant > Thief. Deadeye is a blast, but Thief is not as varied as other professions, and while it has unparalel mobility, is mostly focused in single target combat and is hard to play at good level. The last time I leveled manually a Thief (a couple of months ago) I wasn't delighted by my build, even after trying different gear and weapons and skills approachs. I'm sure Thief mains would provide better advices than me regarding that one. As I said, leveling is a minimal part of the game, and way easier and faster than in other games (as WioW). Of those 3, Guardian is the easiest (to me). When you reach 80 you can unlock the specializations; Both Guardian ¡and Revenant are strong across multiple game modes, Thief is more suited to PvP and WvW roaming. Daredevil is probably the most popular mele Thief build and Deadeye the most popular ranged Thief build. The Firebrand overall dominates Guardian's specs (except at PvP), but DH is strong at PvE/PvP and Willbender provides tons of mobility. Guardian has a lot of variety and flavours. The same happens with Revenant; Herald has the strongest instanced meta build of the class, but Vindicator is probably the stronger choice for solo play in PvE across the netire game. Renegade is a very fun ranged spec which works in every game mode and is a magnificent Alacrity provider. I main Rev (coming from Guardian and Warrior before), but is all matter of tastes. Good luck.

We don't known, but all the other trinket slots (plus the gathering tools) allow to showcase skins and as I said in the opening post, I fully expect Relics to be monetized in a way or another. Anyway, I'm no longer bothered about it since I don't plan to buy the expansion. And since I won't re-grind the relics, the change will kill WvW for me. Which is fine, I have better alternatives for the rest of the year in games.