Buran.3796

Celestial stats are perfectly fine. You want power damage for niche, instanced team content? You run berserker, unless you don't cap crit chance so you add some assassin until you becaome aware that your class choice was wrong then you rerroll and equip zerk as expected. You want condi damage? Then you roll viper (who knowns why the hell grieving exist, is worse 98% of the time!). You want to support? You run Minstrel. Support and damage? Then Diviner or Ritualist. Want to be tanky but deliver damage? Then you have carrion, dire or traiblazer. Or celestial which overshadows everything else. Any other gear stat is useless, the same as 95 of the 99 runes, which ended being a waste of time in design and balance. An happens the same with most of sigils and 75% of the relics: they do nothing. And is worse in PvP where there's like 4-5 amulets and maybe 2-3 runes in use; everything else is redundant and traps for noobs. And the thing is that berserker is overall very mediocre at solo PvE: outside Bladesworn (which is tricky to play and inconsistent) most of the power damage builds are really lacking in self sustain. Yes, you mow regular crowds faster in zerker than in celestial, but you beat leg bounties better in celestial since you don't die, and players at downstate in berserker and viper stats left a lot to be desired in terms of dps...

If I had to re-start from 0 with a level 80 character and no expansions my first task would be farming materials in core Tyria (platinum, logs, etc.) and doing the Wizzard Vault goals from PvP and after a couple of weeks turn all the gold farmed into gems to buy the season 3 and 4 maps (starting from Bitterfrost and Dragonfall). Those maps would then provide all my trinkets in ascended quality for free and be also strong sources of more profitable metas. I would also use the PvP and WvW tokens to start crafting my fisrt legendary armor ASAP, since you won't need more than 1-2 sets of ascended armors for your main, at most.

To be honest the best year of WvW was the first one with the leader of Red Guard screaming like a banshee going nuts in the videos and reaching 9999 in a blink. Guilds were new and everyone was hyped to 11.

The balance patches after EoD were an absolute rollercoaster even after 3 beta testing events. What I mean is that some of the new weapons will probably broken in some ways no one knowns but 3 or 6 months later nerfs could make them entirely useless and redundant. Also: a lot of the new weapons are focused on support since is what most professions lacked in one or other form, but we known that usually in instanced content and/or WvW the support spot is usually dominated by one or two specs, with everything which is either too complicated or slighly below the optimal oftenly relegated. That means that some of the weapons, nerfed or not, could be end not used at all not beacuse they are bad, but because your neighboor class is just a bit better.

Don't worry. After the SotO changes runes are essentially just stat buffs and at most you'll only need to worry about 2-4 of them in the whole game (Dragonhunter for power based builds, Trapper for condition based builds, Monk for healers and maybe Surging for the extra mobility). Everything else is useless. You can craft the first two ones for ~4 gold coins x unit, get Monk's from Dungeons currencies and Surging for 2 gold coins from Itzel vendors in HoT maps. For relics, there's more variety and usefulness; you either buy them from the Black Lion Market (usually around 10-20 gold coins) or unlock them playing SotO and then purchase them at the WvW vendors. Also, don't buy/craft trinkets: get ascended ones almost for free from the Living Season maps, specially from Bitterfrost Frontier, Bjora Marches, Bloodstone Fen, Dragonfall and Sandswept Isles. Main use of jewelry craftsmanship in the game is mostly related to making some legendary items, not the trinkets themselves.

Do Hero Point Champions count as Champions? If they do it's easy, fun and rewarding (easily ~8 gold coins in single HoT runs of ~30 minutes) solo run:

Can you elaborate? As an avid PvP player I barely use it because my impression was that is a skill you use to kill yourself while healing allies in PvE, and that doesn't work well in PvP. Treesong and Selfless Spitit are the two main reasons I swap to blue...

The combat system is phenomenal and the PvP is very accesible: despite being in almost full legendaries as a veteran from release anyone can almost instantly jump in Conquest with normalized stats without having to grind anything. The PvE can be done almost entirely solo and despite the expansions created a noticeable power creep you still can progress with no pressure and your own pace and at will. There's always things to do and if not I just can have fun doing PvP or roaming at WvW.

Best placed Rev last MAT was running greatsword + short bow, (didn't reach the semis), so no is not the undisputed best choice at ever running power. I don't think main hand swords need any buff, but being said that power builds are crap at soloing PvE, except maybe Bladesworn (which is powerful but clunky and inconsistent as hell). Also, core Guardian, Necro and Warrior > any Rev build at PvP at the moment. End of the rant = )

1) Leveling a new character from 1 to 80 just exploring PvE maps can take an experienced player 18 to 28 hours so is not a big deal. The game is very alt friendly due most of currencies are shared and you can also share ascended items and legendaries across your characters. Personally I would chose to first maximize one character since once is at 80 it can farm the expansion maps without being one-shooted and increase your gold incoming very fast and help at gearing your alts. But is not mandatory. 2) You can play with no addons. The most useful is probably ARCdps but needs to be reinstalled every time the game is patched, so I'm not fan of it. Yolo Mouse is also useful since the in game pointer is terribad (yes, even after the high contrast option). But I play with no addons. 3) Each time you complete a different dungeon path in a given day you get 70% of a level, so they are fun and provide lore and decent rewards and xp progression, but doing it at lower levels with weaker stats and not full range if skills and traits make then harder than playing it with 80 level character in exotic or better gear. Both options are valid, just do wht you find out to be more fun.

Last autumn I've tried hambow albeit not in the core version but as Berserker iteration and I find out that the "meta" with long bow + mace & sword was stronger. Hambow is still my fav Warrior leveling build for PvE (and I think is the second strongest leveling build across all professions) but I was wondering if I had to play a core Warrior in PvP if it would be clear winner choice as happens core support guardian or a core terrormancer. Of course I'm not asking for a core PvP build stronger than a condizerker or a stunlock Spellbreaker, I'm just wondering if someone has a core Warrior build which found as "yeah, this can work very well at regular ranked Conquest unless you need to win aoutomated tournaments".

Which ones would you recomend? I'm slated towards trying stun chain builds (hammer + mace & shield) or a gs + rifle for poking at range and mobility, but not sure if that would be the best one could make using the starting blocks of the profession... Any advice?

Seems like quickness Herald is meta at PvE. Support Vidicator seems meta at WvW zerging. Rev has some strong WvW roaming builds. At PvP si playable, but not meta. Cele Vindi is the best solo build at PvE.

Regarding Chilling Isolation, Mist Uleashed does more damage vs multiple targets and Sevenshot does more against single target (unless they clean the condition, but then you're forcing them to spent resources, which is not bad). Deathstrike is stronger, but again Whirling Wrath/Whirling Light are even stronger so my point remains: off hand sword in Willbender has entirely outclased Rev's off hand sword (better teleport range, much stronger root and better follow ups against the rooted target(s) ). I should add also that I'm not using/feel forced to take that weapon since I feel that greatsword gives more versatility (mobility + block + damage) and short bow provides the ranged pressure so much needed in most situations (like when you have a Necro sitting in Spectral Ring and a pure mele Rev has no answers against it). Edit: By the way, given that the 30th January patch won't have any impact in Rev's PvP builds, so what is now available is what will remain until late Feb including the MATat the next weekend, how much do you think Rev builds will "progress" at the January MAT? I don't see any build entering in semis...

Good luck! For manually leveling a Rev I would recomend running a condi build (with condition damage, vitality and power, mixing pieces until carrion gear ~level 61), buying gear every 25-30 levels (not more than 4 gold coins from 1 to 80) and doing mostly PvE maps (leaving hearts until level 60 or more). Core build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAkeZlhQHMJqhFROMI6hBSfMBKgDgzaqC-DSIYrS3wXKJUAVmAZGC9GBOcJIAhzr5EfaAA-e Then I would unlock Vindicator first with cele stats. A sample of a typical cele Vindi run of Hero Points farming gold:

That's a fair and valid argument. In practical terms, tho, when I play Willbender (not oftenly) I do use off hand sword because the 2 seconds root + 3 seconds slow has very strong follow ups as Whirling Light or Whirling Wrath which are fast heavy hitters with multiple hits proccing burns. When I play Rev (much more oftenly) I don't use off hand sword because I usually already have mobility enough and the 1 second root essentially faded out while I'm casting the animation of my next attack/burst. You can barely secure Sevenshot or Mist Unleashed. Axe's Temporal Rift affects more targets and its cc last longer and has more impact in teamfights (yet not as much as Advancing Strike).

Cooldown is 15 s + 10 energy vs 20 s. I don't think the vuln stacks have much impact since in PvE at groups the foes oftenly have 25 permanent stacks (in solo a frailty sigil grants you the same) and in PvP/WvW what truly matters is the duration of the root. I instantly would trade Rev's off hand sword with WB off hand sword even if you keep 20 s cd with 10 energy cost and no vuln stacks since the 2s root + slow is much stronger at setting burst. And I would say the same about Ranger's greatsword: better mobility, better block and a useful stun + daze cc instead of the randomly delivered AoE which ends hitting nothing. In fact, I use WB swords at WvW and PvP whereas I run Revenant's off hand sword at 0 game modes across 3 Revs characters in use.

You don't specify game mode but I will guess is PvE.. Some of your request are hard to concilliate: * Greatsword with power burst, mobile. On paper I would say Warrior, but the strongest solo Warrior build is Bladesworn, which is slower and more tactical than the other Warrior specs, and usually doesn't wield greatsword and camps gunsaber unless needs to reload ammo. Is also tricky to play, albeit the power burst are phenomenal. Power berserker is closer to your goals, but much squishier than Bladesworn and condi Berserker is also superior (and doesn't use greatsword). * Power Willbender has very good mobility, uses gs and has good burst, but has a frentic gameplay and relatively low dps, and is more squishy that other options. Guardian has great build variety, tho, but only WB is very mobile. * Vindicator with gs and power stats is very mobile and has high burst, but is harder to play than the celestial variant, which is much tankier but slower paced and has lower dps (the trades you have to made to get a build which is essentially immortal). Power Vindi in pure mele is my favourite PvE build in the game, but I play mostly celestial since it just performs better. * Power Ranger with gs has great mobility and good burst, but is nothing special in AoE damage and as with Rev, the celestial/condi builds are tankier and overall better. * Power Reaper woth GS has great AoE, strong burst and very good sustain, but mobility isn't its strongest side. * Mesmers with power stats and greatsword have huge dps burst but is more single target oriented and a bit squishy.

Not only is a mediocre support overshadowed by the core version of itself, but also since the developers are stubborn with the idea that Firebrand can only fit a support role they provide us a mediocre support that can't be a dps, a tank or a bruiser (I won't demand it to be a quick roamer or +1 since that's Willbender role, but for sure Firebrand could have traits than just "bad support ones".

Fun thing: off hand sword is currently worse that Willbender's one despite that last one was born as a copycat from ours. Shackling Wave only roots for 1 second across all game modes whereas Advancing Strike roots for 2 seconds and slows for 3 seconds in both WvW and PvP. Also, I don't known why people are excited about the scepter: is a weapon which delivers barrier and has to stack hits to being able to activate a pull, hu? Well, I never liked barrier since the concept was alien to GW2: barrier was used by Protoss in Starcraft and Halo and some other games; when arrived with PoF it wrecked the PvP, and builds as Firebrand and Scourge ended nerfed to dead (literaly). We got barrier with Vindicator (the Heltzer jump) and guess what... was so strong thet ended removed. Now, currently barrier is so strong that is better than heals in the competitive game modes, and we will get a weapon which vomits barrier... Can you guess what will happen? In six months? A scepter with barrier removed, the same as a greatsword with cleave/damage removed, or a off had sword which is worse than the eastern counterfit...

Happened me a couple of times this week.

GW2 was designed for a Direct X version which didn't use multicore CPUs at all, and that has been an anchor for time. They upgraded the DX support to the latest version, but I don't think that is the same thing as having a game optimized for DX 12 from the start. For reference, I have a Ryzen 5 7600X 6 cores/ 7.6 Ghz , 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, two solid state hard disk M2 of 2 TB each and a RTX 4080 and despite in some areas I top 250 fps, the average usually goes from 120 to 180 fps, and in things as Dragonstorm and heavy zergs can fall as low as 40-80 fps (I play at 3440 x 1440 UW, settings maxed). So there's games more recent with way better graphics which run better and more stable. The ything is: most of those usually don't put 100 players on screen...

I've not seen a Ventari Rev at PvP in ages. And given how matchmaking works currently that includes ALL PvP ranks.

Maybe but the maths are that 1 migth < 3 might stacks, and in the last months our access to fury and might have been reduced and the change seems oriented towards balancing support builds, which most Rev players don't use, and in the path dps builds got hurt, which is what most do play. Also I don't see the support Rev in PvE/PvP: while those game modes getting a dps or bruiser slot is relatively open and disputed, the role of pure healers are oftenly eclipsed by a single choice. So when heal Tespest or Hearl Mech are strong they are the best and when support Guardian or Druid are the best they are the best and the same with Scourge etc. What I'm trying to say is that best in slot replaces best in slot, and I'm not seing Rev being best in slot no matter how much they buff the scepter (which was already overshadowed by mace due that relic). My logic: if current mace support Rev is not meta why would a worse weapon make it better? Is not like Rev would be ever able to compete in blast finishers against a Engie, also...

I don't known what they chase with the Echoing Eruption change: they already removed might from Contained Temper, if you want the boon out just remove the boon in each Rev skill, not change how it works in the same one. Leviathan Strenght doesn't bother me since outside the niche instanced content in which pVindi has some use, celestial Vindicator is so superior in PvE (and doesn't use that trait) that the change is irrelevant. What fascinates me is: Herald is theoretically the current axis of being a Revenant since has a strong quickness build (which I depise), Renegade has nothing since there's better alacity providers (despite I like the build since is comfy to play) and Vindicator has a power build which only stands out in damage (but not in PvP/WvW, of course), so why to nerf a viable spec (I'm talking from the perspective of the hardcore raiders, which I'm not part of) when you already have have one with no use? Is because Herald requires HoT and makes more sales than EoD? But HoT is sold along PoF, whereas EoD comes alone... I understand that HoT masteries + PoF mounts craps on everything else released later so compelling players to get the Herald is healthier, but why to kitten the bed with Vindicator? Has been in a streak of nerfts for 18 months, and ain't stop here...