Zexanima.7851

I could get behind instant cast on it, maybe even grant a 1.5 sec of quickness or something to give it a little more utility. (Box nails into a quick magnet or pry bar). Idk but you're defiantly right, it's lack luster for what it is.

Just getting back into the game. I don't really plan to play anything meta but I want to know what I'm up against.

What? It has trapper's expertise (traps are mostly condi), Sharpened Edges, Hidden Barbs, and Light on your Feet. The only other tree that has any kind of condi passives is Wilderness Survival and it has one. If you go condi, you're going to pick up Skirmishing. Sure, you can trait it for crit chance but it is your main tree for condi.

Yeah, I'm running skirmishing. I'm condi though so the only damage I really get out of sword is serpent strike, and landing two of those for the damage and getting value out of the evade at the same time is tricky compared to primary hand axe skills. Since sword buff passive is in skirmishing, and skirmishing is primarily a condi tree you would think sword would have a little more condi pressure than it does.

This is mostly in regards to pvp as that's what I play. The evades and mechanic of resetting your 2 is super fun I find but it's damage is just so underwhelming on top of it being primarily single target and melee. To use torch and dagger as a comparison. The damage is fairly similar but with torch you're trading your evade/control from dagger for AoE and a fire field. The trade offs seem even and both feel like they have a specific purpose without there being a major damage difference other than single vs aoe. With axe and sword though you're trading your evades on sword for the safety of range, more damage, more AoE, and arguably better control with axe 3. Even though sword is single target you're more than likely losing damage compared to axe in a single target scenario as well as AoE. My proposal would be to just add a 1 sec immobilization on sword 3 with 2-3 stacks of bleed and 1-2 stacks of poison. It's not much but I think it would really make a difference with sword. Axe would still probably be better in most scenarios but it would make sword a little closer to being inline with axe. Currently the survivability of sword doesn't really mean much without it being able to provide any pressure. I can't think of a more underwhelming 1h primary weapon other than maybe necro dagger.

I can't tell you how many times I've been paired with someone in the top 20~ as a player who plays around 1400-1500 rating. Its nonsense really.

Some stuff is defiantly better. I do prefer the lower power scaling overall as it did open up some more builds for general play. Even though more builds are playable they still don't stand a chance against what's best. Go up against something like a double condi rev, FB, tempest comp and you're just a hacky sack that's full of condi. Before I would get burst down and be done. Now I get to franticly mash buttons and hope that I can get a skill off between stuns and maybe live another 2 seconds. I mean there will always be a meta, so there are always going to be builds better than other. I was having fun recently playing core engineer grenades, something I would never have been able to play pre patch. And against worse players, I can even win 1v1s (vs slb/ranger, sb, fb and ele - only class I find kind of oppressive is condi rev). And that build is more for memes than anything else, I play it purely for fun but it's a good feeling to be able to perform on it. Now of course, on equal skill level, I could never hope to beat a "meta" build, and I think that's perfectly fine. My point is the distance between what is best and what is meta is still pretty big. Same as you if I fight someone same skill level or higher on a non-meta build and they are running meta I don't stand chance. I was hoping things would get pushed closer to where fighting meta on something off-meta would be harder, but do-abl. If its someone a lower skill level it doesn't really matter what I play. CC is more impactful overall now with sources of stab being reduced and stun break cooldowns being increased. CC might not deal any damage but it's easier to make CC "stick" now. The strong part off CC has always been the CC part, even if it did good damage. You're right though that if you get focused by the enemy team you're gonna get clapped. That's how it has been and always will be. The difference, to me at least, is before you were more able to get a stun break/stab off in an attempt to reposition and sustain after the focused started. Now once the CC starts rolling in you might as well take a sip of tea and wait to die because it doesn't stop till you're dead. Does this happen every fight? No, it mostly just happens when I'm up against higher tier players and pre-mades but that's where the strongest stuff is played. You kind of touched on what I was thinking, as in cc feels more impactful. I think people are feeling cc as being more oppressive now because of the fact that it doesn't do damage anymore. Against rampage, you would get a stomp for 5k, and then bolder for 8k, and then rush for 8k and then it was basically gg. CC chains are now much longer and so we feel them more. I recently dueled a sb with GH /Sw:M and was basically permastunned, but the guy wasn't doing any damage to me. It was an interesting exercise in that there were some cc chains that had gaps where I needed to break stun, and if I did it at any other point I would be locked in again and my break stun would be wasted. My point being is that because, yes you are right, breakstun and stab are less common now the game pushes you to use your resources more intelligently, which I ultimately find more rewarding. 1v1 it's not a problem. You can just wait out the stun chain because there is no damage. XvX though if someone is stun chaining you, you'll get melted by spam damage just from not being able to recoup. Even if it takes "more coordination and skill", getting CC chained in any game (single or multiplayer) is not a fun game mechanic. Even if its technically balanced I think this is a situation in which the fun should override balance.

@Helly.2597 Sorry to keep bothering you with questions but trying to get this whole scourge roaming thing figured out. Did some roaming last night and it went 'ok' but the one thing that would consistently screw me over is getting punked by sic'em soulbeasts (which there are a fair number of). I know LoS is a good way to deal with them but that's not feasible. Even with 3k toughness and 10% damage reduction they still smack from forever away. Any suggestions? Is this just something you have to deal with? I tried corrosive poison cloud but but by the time I stun break and get it cast the damage is done.

I don't usually. I know a good friend who's been having success with it recently. For spvp you're totally right, PC isn't effective cause you have fewer opponents. Weakening shroud would be the best choice there. Also, why serpent siphon? It's only 1 boon conversion. For the barrier? I dont see you pick it up often EDITAfter using my brain for a second, I guess it would be good to throw in crowds of targets

@Helly.2597 You ever do sPvP on scourge? I can never seem to get good value out of PC there. Probably because it depends on having lots of bodies to apply condi too

Well, thats good? What do you enjoy about it? Context: I have almost entirely played 5v5 unranked since the 25th February 2020. Right now I play a Berserker amulet core Engineer. I play an hour or two a day. I was a GW and GW2 fan boy since the first beta events of both games. But since the release of HoT and up until the February 2020 reset patch I did not PvP that much because I strongly disliked the game play. Why: Here is, from the top of my head and in no particular order, why I like the game much, much better now: Thanks to the overall lower damage, I can finally play my favourite profession and build again without being a free kill. The reduction is so great I in fact can myself run a very squishy DPS amulet. The gap between the FOTM builds and other builds is smaller than before. This is an incredibly refreshing change. CC dealing no damage is great. Now bursts require a modicum of setting up. CC needs to be followed up by damage if you want to make something out of it. Pressing one button isn't enough anymore. Abilities that had damage, CC and avoidance of incoming damage all rolled in one are gone. That alone is one of the healthiest changes I can think of. AAs that took out big chunks of players' health pools are gone. Autoattacking shouldn't be a way to seriously pressure an opponent. There isn't one be-all and end-all combo anymore. Before the 25th the same rotation applied to almost any situation. That's in my book extremely boring game play. There is a very interesting and rather old video of 2 great Revenant players highlighting this point. I'll link it if I manage to find it. The longer CDs are great. Using an ability at the wrong time is more punishing. Patience is key. The game play feels far more reactive. Since you're not forced to chain abilities together anymore only to survive (and often at the same time deal big damage and CC) you can now adjust to what your opponent is doing. Outsmarting another player and then being one shotted by an unavoidable combo (that also made your opponent invulnerable in one way or another) was extremely frustrating. I'm so happy that is all gone. You actually have to work for your kills. Wait out the opponent's CDs, use your CC at an opportune time, follow up with damage, etc. Firing a hugely damaging and low CD ability through layers of defence in hopes it connects isn't good enough anymore. Actual team play is required. There are no more portable nukes that pop other players in a second or two. The difference between players working together and players doing their thing only is bigger than ever. Corpse play matters. The downed state used to be central to GW PvP before the expansions destroyed that mini game. Stomping, launching downed players, interrupting a player resurrecting his ally, applying poison, AoE CC and cleave on a downed opponent, etc. Those small plays all have use again and add another layer to the game. All good? No. Stuff needs more nerfing. Just to name the one ability I'm abusing ATM: Explosive Entrance. That ability and the associated traits feel like they were designed before the 25th paradigm change. They all need to be lowered in efficiency. Ending words Anyone who wants to dismiss my opinion because I'm a scrub I'm saving you some time: yes, like I said, I have only PvPed sporadically since HoT because I believed and I still believe that the game play had changed for the worse with both expansions. Peace out and have fun. Or don't.Thanks for the feedback! It's the whole point of having a good forum discussion. I was hoping to get some other people's opinions on here who are enjoying things. The reason we might have such radically different views too is due to the different environments we play in. I'm not a "top" player but a bit above average with several thousand hours in PvP so the stuff I run into and notice is probably different from what you run into and notice. Its good to have the different perspectives though.

I was the opposite. I was really pleased with it starting out and found it fun. As things start to settle though I'm becoming less impressed. I do hope they keep rolling out changes though. It's more important that they keep the changes frequent than trying to make things "perfect" by dropping big changes every now and then.

Some stuff is defiantly better. I do prefer the lower power scaling overall as it did open up some more builds for general play. Even though more builds are playable they still don't stand a chance against what's best. Go up against something like a double condi rev, FB, tempest comp and you're just a hacky sack that's full of condi. Before I would get burst down and be done. Now I get to franticly mash buttons and hope that I can get a skill off between stuns and maybe live another 2 seconds. CC is more impactful overall now with sources of stab being reduced and stun break cooldowns being increased. CC might not deal any damage but it's easier to make CC "stick" now. The strong part off CC has always been the CC part, even if it did good damage. You're right though that if you get focused by the enemy team you're gonna get clapped. That's how it has been and always will be. The difference, to me at least, is before you were more able to get a stun break/stab off in an attempt to reposition and sustain after the focused started. Now once the CC starts rolling in you might as well take a sip of tea and wait to die because it doesn't stop till you're dead. Does this happen every fight? No, it mostly just happens when I'm up against higher tier players and pre-mades but that's where the strongest stuff is played. That's good to hear, didn't know that.

It's not even that core necro ( I specify core because reaper and scourge are not nearly as bad) has everything, just too much of one thing, lf generation.

When I'm bored of working towards something long term I'll usually scan through the bank wardrobe for skins I like until I find one that's not too hard to get. Then I'll just do whatever to get it. Dungeon, achiev, grind map currency, ect.

Well, thats good? What do you enjoy about it?

TL;DR Going to be giving PvP a break until further changes. Not finding the current meta at all enjoyable. This isn't a "Boohoo I'm quitting this dumb game" post but just trying to give a personal account around my experience in PvP lately and why I'm putting it on the back burner for now. Usually I spend about 95% of my time in the game doing PvP (or wvw) but as the changes are settling and a meta starts to form I'm not really having any fun in PvP now days. At first I was really excited for the big patch to shake things up. The first week or so was great. Lots of people trying wacky builds and having to adapt on the fly to what's being played. By now though people have started to narrow down what's strongest and a meta has started to form. Anet has not been moving as fast on the initial updates as I would have hoped either so it seems like things are going to be this way for a while. So what have I been seeing? Some of the professions that were the strongest picks before are still the strongest after the patch, even if the builds are different. Firebrand and revenant mainly are still top tier. There are a few that moved up and down though.It looks like we're moving into a CC heavy meta which is probably the worst meta focus I could think of. CC takes away player agency and is about the most un-fun mechanic to deal with. Firebrands, revs, scrappers, tempest, and condi druids stacked together make for a ridiculous amount of CC. You can lock down a target(s) for more than enough time to get a kill and straight up prevent them from casting any skills.Condi is more prevalent after the patch. While power may still technically be "better" it's much easier to get value out of condi now too. Not to mention condi allows you to build tanky while still doing respectable damage which leads me to my next point.There are lots of builds surfacing that are much too tanky(cough core necro *cough). I think this one of the reasons people are building with large amounts of CC, to lock down these bunker builds so they can actually kill them. These are things I've been experiencing in both 2s and 5s and multiple different professions. When going against comps running heavy CC, heavy condi with bunker builds the best option is just to mirror it and try to outplay them. The disparity between what is best and everything else still feels pretty big and this really narrows the field in your options for 'adapting' to these situations. The best builds and comps showing up are not just a hands width better than everything else but leaps and bounds more effective. We can see Anet is working hard and rolling out patches faster than usual. I don't claim to have the solutions either but I just hope Anet will start more patches rolling soon and/ora) Constantly keep the meta in flux and changingb) Close the gap between what is best and everything else. Until then I'll just be keep on eye on PvP from a distance hoping for more interesting stuff to happen. Right now it's just not enjoyable for me.

Take a break my guy. I get the same way about this game and need some time away to play something else for a couple months.

It's neat and flashy. Just more visual clutter though to have floating around though.

As I've pointed out before all the "tin foil hat" stuff aside if the system was working like a ranked system is suppose to they shouldn't really have higher than a 70%-ish win rate because they should be getting paired with people of similar skill level. I'm not claiming I don't deserve my personal ranking or that the top players are not good players. Due to how you can meta game the system and and top players getting paired with people in gold/plat these can cheese their win rates. Just to clarify I'm not saying top players don't deserve their spots on the leader boards, just that their win rates are not "real" but from manipulating the system. How much better meta comps are than non-meta too doesn't help either.

This sums it up nicely.

Reaper is squishy af, just sayin. A good one will kite you into a favorable position then pop shroud. Bad ones just get deleted. Kite, chill, slow them in shroud. Core is where the problem is right now.

I don’t think its a l2p issue. I never relied on stab pre-patch but the overall reduction in it has caused people to stack heavier into CC because they know there is less stab to prevent it landing. Like I’ve said in other threads it’s not really an issue in 1v1s because you can overcome that with skill but more so in XvX situations where no amount of well timed mitigation is going to prevent the oceans of CC that people put out now.

That's why you weave it into a CC chain so they get hit while unable to avoid it.

You got yourself a deal!