Dagger.2035

Another issue is that there’s usually more than 1 or 2 rangers. It seems like it is one of the most popular pug professions.

I haven’t tried catalyst yet. It just didn’t seem like double meteor was worth giving up barrier and the dual attunement staff skills. After using the elite you are basically a core staff elementalist.

I think the effectiveness of Barrage is being exaggerated. It does have nice reach, but it has a long cooldown and damage equivalent to a single guardian symbol or a single necromancer well. Basically ranger AOE damage is bad. You would be better off replacing them with weavers. Weavers have tons of AOEs and better AOE damage. The mist form downstate skill makes them nearly impossible to kill while defending.

Ele isn’t my main profession, but I disagree with the WVW weaver comments. You shouldn’t be camping one attunement. You can go fire/fire, but you should keep switching to have a mix of two different attunements up (excluding air). When you do this skills 2 and 3 will be AOEs and you can drop AOEs non-stop on the enemy zerg. Flipping camps should also be very easy and quick. Use line of sight to stack up the camp NPCs, drop unsteady ground to interrupt their skills, and finally kill them with your AOEs. Berserker ele is one of the fastest ways to flip camps. I always get worried when people want to rework to existing traits/weapons. Especially, when I use them on my frequently used builds and don’t see any issues with them. Things could always end up in a worse state.

I would say the most versatile DPS AOE professions would be power dragon hunter and power herald. A full berserker power weaver is good for defending or making up for a lack of DPS on your team. Burn guardian is also fun, but only good against pugs/mag.

Another time I’ve seen it (although less often) is when I end up at the same queue position as one of my friends. It seems like this happens when many people enter the queue at the same time at reset night. When the queue pops one person will get the notification and the other gets placed at the back of the queue. Edit: We checked the queue several times and were at the same position each time we checked.

I saw another article about the WVW queue bug where you get placed at the back of the queue. I know one cause of the bug and thought I would share it. It happens when you respawn or waypoint as the queue pops. The travel notification UI doesn’t pop up so you have no way to travel to the queued map. The notification timeout elapses and you are placed at the back of the queue.

Also, not knowing how new you are… Don’t attack camps and shrines without grouping up the NPCs first. Find a nearby object which you can use to break the AI's line of sight. When they can no longer hit you they will walk right up to you. The shrine itself should work. Also, maybe use you shield’s bubble to block projectiles while you set it up.

It seems like Celestial should work if you can get 25 might. Are you currently using Sigil of Strength?

Sorry guys, just pretend you are playing hard mode for the next two months.

It seems like some comments in this thread may be from players not playing proper builds. Power Guard/DH, Herald, and Weaver are strong ranged DPS options in large scale fights and reflects don’t affect them.

I don’t get the change to Winds of Disenchantment. I haven’t seen many warriors lately. It was the only thing that made them viable in zergs. The damage nerfs for Dragon Hunters and Heralds won’t change anything but they didn’t seem necessary either.

I seems like you don’t know how to play weaver. It has tons of AOE skills which provide non-stop damage. There’s no time to wait around for the meteor shower cooldown. When you are outnumbered and losing fights the weaver can produce and finish downs on its own. If you are steamrolling the enemy the meta classes are just more convenient to play since they support the boon ball, have more sustain, and quicker burst damage.

The Acrobatics traits seem to be focused on applying boons to yourself so it could be nice to add a trait which grants benefits based on the number of boons you have. I just feel like a trait like this would be fine in PvP, but it would be abused in PvE. Another approach would be to make Acrobatics increase damage when you have full endurance. This is the opposite of Daredevil's Havoc Specialist so it won't cause issues if you take both lines. It also synergies well with all of the vigor traits in Acrobatics. This trait also would work well with the core weapon sets which have evasion skills. It seems like the best way to insert this trait would be to combine Feline Grace and Endless Stamina into a single trait. Then we can replace the Minor Grandmaster with a new trait. Feline Grace - Gain vigor upon successfully evading an attack. The effects of vigor on you are enhanced. Unexpected Threat - Gain power and condition damage when your endurance bar is full.

Rot wallow venom is disappointing when zerging in WvW. You can’t apply enough stacks when you target a single ally and using shroud is weak since it may be applied to support builds and spread across too many enemy targets. Applying damage directly is underwhelming since you burst a single target. The anti-condition meta doesn’t help either.

The event also ran every hour and it got annoying because you had to constantly stop playing WvW to deal with it. It also still favored the side with numbers. A blob could come in and take over the event and recap all of the damaged structures.

I noticed the same thing this morning. The squad only appeared as green dots like normal allies.

I just wish the scepter had an AOE like guardian or necro. The single target projectile attacks are very disappointing for WvW. The wells are interesting but won’t be worth using in zergs without a ranged AOE. It’s too bad this spec can’t be used with staff since that weapon is useful in groups. It’s just disappointing because I would expect a support spec to have lower damage AOEs so it is better for group fights.

That’s true but the warclaw allows you to pick and choose your fights. You can inspect each other’s stacks and food before engaging. This is especially true if you have a low mobility build or are queued on a zerg build. Heck if you hate condition builds just have a build template ready to counter them. I think the problem with these threads is that most people expect their one build to beat everything and get upset when that isn’t the case. If people were willing to experiment and try other builds they would realize there’s pros and cons to everything.

To be honest I don’t like some of these changes as a core S/D thief. I run Acrobatics without Daredevil so I need the Don’t Stop trait to remain as is. Pain Response is also needed as a Adept trait. Without it I would be forced to give up Swindler’s Equilibrium.

I don’t think removing Minstrels will change anything. Coordinated groups will just replace the stat and still be just as effective as before. Going all out on AOE damage can allow pugs to cloud and beat coordinated groups, but so many pugs run selfish snowflake builds which don’t contribute. I’ve seen healing thieves, bunker rangers, condi mesmers, etc blame others for failed fights.

Trailblazers and Minstrels need buffs!

It’s not it’s a draw if they decide not to bring enough damage to secure a kill. Why play to another build’s strengths? It’s kind of like other players being upset about not being able to kill a thief. Just ignore the thief and deny them content. Make them engage you outnumbered at a disadvantage so it is more easy to kill them. It basically makes a roaming thief irrelevant.

It just feels like only player numbers matter now so it is a waste of time to defend objectives when outnumbered. It only makes sense to defend if you can put up a fight and collect bags. Arrow carts need a buff to increase their damage against seige or seige HP needs a decrease. It is too easy to place proxy catas instead of having to think and use seige strategically.

They are actually noob killer builds. Any decent player should be able to disengage if they are being out sustained. A good player running offensive stats is more of a threat.