Yumenei.7943

True. As former ele main I used to hit plat 2-3 with ease, but it took me thousand of hours of class playtime to get to this point. At the same time my ranger could reach this level of performance after around 200 hours. Yes, condi ele is dangerous, but only when you stand in one spot. Every plat player that really deserves their rank will kite them when they are in fire attunement and go full ape on damage when they switch to water (and they have to sooner or later to heal up). Fire weaver deals next to zero damage to foes that are moving a lot. Try this next time before you start complaining about this build. Also, when you see fire sword 2 attack, that literally is one of the most telegraphed attacks in this game that screams dodge, you dodge and move away from fire field. Thank me later. The only good thing that came from maining ele for so long is that now every class feels easy to play. The only exception was thief which in full zerker build required even higher reaction times, and this is the class that stimulates my brain now. Every other makes me fall asleep from boredom.

Well I know for a fact that I went from being scared of engaging any good warrior on a side-point to literally thinking of them as a free kill. All of this in a time space of less than a year. This is not how you buff or nerf a class.

I've been playing GW2 practically since the release and I remember having similar feeling as OP when I realized for the first time that I need to keep swapping weapons in order to deal maximum damage possible and stay competitive. Now, many years later, I'm used to it. I'm sure many will disagree with me but what I dislike to this day about weapon swap is the fact that it has become a part of mindless DPS rotation for many classes. Almost no depth to it. There's the initial difficulty of learning the proper rotation and then it's just mindless piano playing while trying to navigate boss mechanics at the same time. You can add third and fourth weapon set into the rotation and there won't be any more depth to it. I believe the gameplay would be better off if vast majority of our damage came from one weapon set and the other would be our utility swap (for example distance fighting, some utility skills, blocks etc.). And this is how it also works in PvP for most classes and it's why I enjoy playing thie game mode more - you bring down a foe with a hammer, and then hundred blades him into pieces as a warrior. Or you move around the map quickly with a short bow, but then swap to dagger/pistol when in combat as a thief. It makes fights more interesting and I would love to see PvE instanced combat being something more than just hitting DPS threshold and out-healing/shielding incoming damage. It certainly would make GW2 more unique when compared to other MMOs.

We don't know yet what balance changes ANet is going to bring post launch. New elites might be further changed, as well as the old ones. I mean this is almost certain to happen. Renegade might be better than Vindicator now in PvE, but what if a big nerf is coming? Who the kitten knows that? Just wait and see... and if you need to make this decision now then stick to whichever spec feels more cool to you.

I agree, but they won't redesign this espec, and so the only thing they can do now is increase the numbers here and there. We can complain about how unimpressive mechanically Bladesworn is but I don't think anything substantial will change at this point.

I'm thief main and I will try Specter since it doesn't hurt but TBH there's no WOW!-effect for me. What intrests me is how it will fare in PVE and WvW group environment - anything that makes thieves more welcome in group content is a welcome change for us. As for sPvP I will probably stick to my regular builds (so long as they remain viable) coz I like this playstyle more.

You are willingly ignoring the fact that "Sic 'Em!" is rarely taken just for its reveal ability and more often picked for its damage increase. Besides; if you are a thief all it really takes is just one mistake and you are melted by LB2's burst. Sic 'Em is just a cherry on top of it.

If warrior mains will continue complaining about Bladesworn performance ANet will buff the numbers to oblivion without changing anything about the espec, which is the laziest solution and the one devs are most likely to follow. It happened before, it might happen again 😉 It doesn't fix the real issue, but it's enough to shut down most of the criticism.

I mainly play humans, but even though I love female human voice I have to say that Sylvari (both genders) have the best VOs. Really fitting this race and pretty much every class combo. Both actors did excellent job and really breathe life into their characters.

I'm biased, but I would vote elementalist, so long as were not talking about raid meta builds. Just by adding water and earth traitlines you will turn this glass cannon class into a bunker. It really depends on what you want to achieve. Ele in PvP plays completely different than in Raids. For open world content the amount of cool builds is staggering. The only place where you are really limited is raid/strike mission, where pushing for highest DPS (or HPS in case of tempest) is your number one priority, but even there you have at least two-three options for sword/dagger weaver, which is not bad.

It's the only class I can 1v3 in SPvP in P2 and win sometimes. In the right hands it's crazy OP, but the key words here are the "right hands". It's especially true for this class, because the lerning curve is very steep. For PvE content generally anything else is easier and probably better too. The easier the rotation is the more attention you can pay to encounter's mechanics and that's crucial in raids and fractals.

I have a bit over 3k hours on my ele, which is my main. Less than 2k hours on all other classes combained. I absolutely love this class as you can see, but one thing I would love to see back is staff viability as DPS weapons. The way it was back in early days... It was nerfed because it was too easy to get big numbers with it (even though it was the TRUE glass cannon class), but nowadays most classes can cross 30k DPS with ease. To this day I run staff in open world although I would do more damage on a warrior with just one button. Why does the most mage-like version of elementalist is so bad across all game modes is just beyond me. I've lost hope ANET will ever buff it significantly.

Such a long discussion, yet what eludes most people here is the fact that the current state of the game is all over the place in terms of balance, because ANet is setting foundations for EoD release. Next week we're gonna get another massive balance update, where Retailation will be removed (or in fact changed completely) and Resistance will grant immunity ONLY to all non-damaging conditions. This means that most likely Resistance boon will last longer and there will be more sources of it across all classes once EoD is released. We're gonna see more broken kitten like this probably until EoD and possibily even after release 🙂 So, relax bois and let us see what future update brings to the table.

In terms of build creativity - maybe you are right, but when it comes to in-fight creativity there are few classes that do it better. As a warrior you have plenty of tools at your disposal - from incredible mobility to trap-disarming with your GS3, huge amount of blocks/evades, quick endurance regen, incredible bait potential, great pressure, fast weapon swaps, very good condi-clear etc. However the moment you stop that pressure, the moment you stop moving you are pretty much dead. This can be said about every class, but it is especially true for a warrior that relies a lot on kiting the enemy and tricking them. That's why it is important to slow down a little bit; just enough to put a thought into every move and skill that you use, instead of panic-button mashing that will get you killed faster than any other class. Once you learn first how to properly react to every situation all your reactions will become instantious after some time of practice and then... you will be soloing current 2v2 mini-season almost without breaking a sweat. I advise you to try this build: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Spellbreaker_-_Strength_Dagger It's simple, it has amazing survivability (especially with Demolisher's Amulet) and boon-strip potential with dagger is just amazing in PvP. Read the tips listed in that link and follow this pattern if outnumbered (it's just one of many combos, there are almost infinite ways you can do this): GS3 through enemiesGive them a second to react and then dodge roll through them so that Reckless Impact can be triggered for some extra might and endurance gain from MMR trait. Hopefully you'll have enough Adrenaline to use Full Counter by now, depending on the situation you can wait a little for the enemies to use their more powerful abilits and CDs. Once FC hits targets and dazes them for a second, proceed with Hundred Blades or even auto-attacks to gain enough Adrenaline to use Arcing Slice. By this time you should've regained all your endurance back thanks to Might Makes Right and Building Momentum traits. If things look bad you can always swap to Shield and block incoming attacks or move away with GS5 or Bull's Charge (safer) so that you can heal up with Mending (always cast Mending outside of melee range). Just by following these few steps correctly (don't forget to move and kite constantly!) you can have almost unending evasion, while executing powerful attacks when the opportunity arises. Use "Shake it Off!" only when severly hindered by condis (or use it for stun-break) and prioritise Mending (when damaged) and weapon swapping for your general condi clear. Bull's Charge is both offensive and defensive skill as it gives you full evasion while charging and if you land a knockdown just follow it with Frenzy + Hundred Blades + Arcing Slice + GS3 - if your opponent is out of defensive CDs this will pretty much execute him on the spot.Dagger3 (Disrupting Stab) is great when followed by Shield Bash and F1 (Breaching Strike), especially when enemy has lots of boons on them. It's even better if you have an ally that can follow up on this and keep bursting him/her down while the enemy is dazed. Dagger2 and Dagger F1 (Breaching Strike) are great for mobility, especially when combined with GS5, GS3 and Bull's Charge. Very few classes are capable to keep up with you, so if you feel that you are in a serious danger you can easily run away. And there is many, many more combos just for this build alone that I could talk about for the whole night, but I don't have that much time. Go out there and practice. Try not to panic, learn enemy moves and learn how to properly react to them. After some time you will become a real menance on the battlefield :) BTW I've always found Svarnir and Chieftain bosses in Heart of the Mists very good for practicing basic moves with warrior.

It looks like a good 40-60% of PvP playerbase plays guards nowadays (core and DHs). It's not like they've suddenly become more enjoyable to play through some kind of mechanics rework, which didn't happen btw, but clearly this is the case of them being incredible easy for the power that they have. Now, before some neanderthal here says it's l2p issue and that the higher you get the less of them you see, which is true, I must remind you that no game, either competetive or PvE, should be balanced around top 100 players and the way they play, because sooner or later we will end up with the entire PvP population shrinking to that number if this continues to be. This has to change, people are tired of seeing guards every match and those that aren't are most likely playing one themselves. Personally, as a warrior main, I do really good against them, but they are the only class that requires me this level of baiting and dancing around their traps that it is really annoying to fight against. I prefer to fight any other class, even those that I'm at severe disadvantage against, than burnguards and spirit burn DHs, because of the amount of precaution it takes to fight them. I wish it was just as easy as using "shake it off" in the right moment like some here say.