Oogabooga.3812

It is a big leap in difficulty, especially for solo PvE players. You now have to contend with high condition damage, getting hard CC’d, facing mobs of these creatures, and multi-level tiers of maze-like maps. Almost none of the hero points are solo-able.

The main adjustment is to do things with other players, even the story.

I would suggest playing each class until level 80 for the first time. The time you spend on them will teach you how they work better.

Something to note: regularly upgrade your equipment to about your level, as the higher your level, the worse your old equipment will scale.

I myself prefer the reaper (necromancer specialization available with the expansions) for dungeons and farming because it has a high amount of health plus shroud (which is essentially more health) and can hit many enemies (cleave), so you can get more loot bags. Equipping high damage will mow down foes faster.

Remember Stare Wars? The pirate ship meta? The sustain now gives the edge to the aggressive melee blobs once again. I rarely joined a pirate ship zerg because of the back-pedaling and refusal for any zerg to be the one to charge into red circles. Now, you back-pedal, you get wiped 90% of the time.

> @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> you forgot to mention quickness, fury and might. also missed 10target might for druid and tempest and 10target alacrity for ren.

> Also moderate spike heal and low on demand heal for ren? tablet heals for 11k, healskill for like 4k and renegade healskill heals for ~30k. thats super high spike heal.

> It has also the highest heal with fast attacking players.

I did shorten a lot of details; otherwise this would be an extremely long overview. I summarized them as “party boons.”

I said **slow** on demand heal. There is the cast time and then a 1 second delay.

Where are you getting the 11k and 30k numbers? Sounds like a sum total for the entire team instead of an individual party member. The renegade elite channel is great if the energy management is going well.

Having played firebrand, druid, scourge, tempest, scrapper, and renegade healers, here are some comparisons between them, as they all have various strengths and weaknesses.

**Firebrand**

Advantages:

* Highest amount of blocks, and aegis heals upon block

* Moderate spike heals

* Good regeneration and/or pulsing heals upkeep

* High condition clear ability

* Excellent party buffs

* High access to stability

* Average mobility

* Good survivability

Disadvantages:

* Low self heal

* Careful management of mantras required

* Normal revive speed

* Low CC contribution

* Long cooldown of tomes

The healbrand is best as a preemptive healer; needs to know fight mechanics to know when to apply blocks or stability.

Difficulty: moderate

**Druid**

Advantages:

* High spike healing

* Easy continuous party buffs

* Good regeneration upkeep

* Good self mobility

* Good CC contribution

* Moderate DPS contribution

Disadvantages:

* Long recharge of celestial avatar

* Spirits are not easy to move around quickly

* Low survivability

* Normal revival speed

* Average condition clear

The druid is a reactionary healer i.e. heals after damage, and managing the spirit location on a mobile boss can be problematic.

Difficulty: moderate high

**Scourge**

Advantages:

* Spammable barrier

* Moderate condition clear, but barrier will also soak condition damage

* The best revival skills

* Moderately high CC contribution

* High regeneration upkeep

* Can diversify into boon stripper and trash mob pulls

* Some condition DPS contribution

Disadvantages:

* Low spike heal, as barrier is the trade off

* Low party buffs

* Average mobility

* No stability

* Very low projectile block access

The scourge relies on mitigating damage through the barrier preemptively, and the teleport revival covers up many mistakes by either the scourge or the downed player.

Difficulty: easy

**Tempest**

Advantages:

* Excellent party buffs

* The best pure healer

* High condition clear ability

* High survivability

* Moderate CC contribution

* Moderate spike healing

* Moderate projectile reflects

Disadvantages:

* Low DPS contribution

* Average mobility

* Normal revive speed, unless using Arcane

* Low or no party stability

* Being caught off rotation can take a while to get to the needed attunement

* Many skills take a long time to finish to get to the benefits

* Small area of effect for skills

The tempest is usually busy rotating skills to keep buffs up, and can be messed up due to mechanics or the need to revive someone.

Difficulty: moderate easy unless facing a battle against many CC skills.

**Scrapper**

Advantages:

* High condition conversion or removal

* Constant channeled healing ability

* High damage mitigation

* Moderate CC contribution if using a hammer

* High survivability

* Some DPS contribution

Disadvantages:

* Low spike healing

* Low reflect access

* Low stability access

* Low party boons

* Average mobility

The scrapper is more useful against high condition damage situations than physical damage, making this far more useful in WvW than PvE.

Difficulty: high

**Renegade**

Advantages:

* Moderate spike heal

* High protection access

* High CC contribution

* Excellent area block access

* Permanent alacrity contribution

* Moderate DPS contribution, but high party DPS buff

Disadvantages:

* Moderately low condition clear ability

* Energy management is a constant issue

* Normal revive speed

* Managing Ventari’s tablet can be cumbersome

* On demand healing is slow

The renegade contributes greatly to the offense part of the fight with alacrity and the area of effect CCs (can single-handedly break Blasting Black Peter’s defiance bar).

Difficulty: moderate high

Feel free to agree or disagree! I have not toyed with warrior, thief or mesmer healers.

> @"Armen.1483" said:

> I propose making more fractals like Siren's Reef and less like Solid Ocean.

Funny thing about that solid ocean one: it used to be easier. They revamped it to the beast of a fractal it is today.

There are still power builds that hit too hard, such as mesmer and ranger, but spell breaker has finally been tuned down from god-level damage. Have you tried a yolo berserker? That thing can not only do the greatsword triple spin once and down people, but can rinse and repeat that 4 more times within the one berserk mode. No one can take all that and live. Of course, if you miss, you die, so it lives up to its name.

Glass cannons not instant-dying work even better in zergs now; we are seeing fewer pirate ship blobs. Those that are still a pirate ship usually die to melee trains, as they should.

Myself I like using tempest now and will run glass in a small or big group and survive pretty well. I don’t 1 shot people or bust zergs by myself anymore (unless I use the not-yet-nerfed loot stick), but I do tend to get zergs’ attention to myself trying to break them because they do feel it.

Seems to be about a 10% drop rate for me. I’ll get about 1 every other day.

That was fun, and the last one made me lol.

Anet changed the participation timer so that you pick up where you left off. So it’s disadvantageous to tick down. Even your reward track earning is less in lower tiers.

Also, join a guild that is friendly to new players. I waited too long to join one, thinking I had to learn the game before looking for a guild. When I finally joined one, I learned the game so much faster with all their help.

A friendly guild will help you every step along the way. This game is not meant to be played solo.

The players on roller beetles crashing into the gates need to die instantly, sending them immediately back to their spawn waypoint. Skimmer mounts would then repair gates with their skill, costing the ability to mount up for the next hour. While an EWP is active, raptors, for that server only, would be temporarily available. While the air keep and all 3 shrines are owned by one server, they get to use griffons in only the air keep zone. Same with springer mounts for the earth keep and the skyscale for the fire keep.

Do I have them all covered?

My group recently finished it with quick brand, banner slave, power/boon strip reaper, and a heal scourge. Our alacrigade PUG died right as the boss spawned, so we 4-manned it. Our success was due to 2 main things: we cleaved down most of the adds and avoided the winds. We didn’t dodge the stun shot, didn’t dodge the red circle, and stacked when we could for green circles. It was by far the smoothest run ever of the t4 siren’s reef.

> @"FrizzFreston.5290" said:

> I don't know any person that doesn't want these Arena Additions. But it's a guild thing, and I don't know if the new? anet crew has rethought their plan of leaving guild content die out rather than improve and expand on it. I seriously hope they bring more life into the whole guild hall idea or just guild idea in general.

>

> The only thing they really did add is decorations.

>

>

Well just putting it out there in case they forgot.

There are quite a few reasons ppl run from a fight in WvW:

* Trying to join/rejoin a different fight, assault or do some other tactic (there are many)

* Think they don’t have a good chance to win vs you

* Think the fight vs you isn’t worth the time and effort for many reasons

* Just trying to do daily achievements

I think most solo/small group players will tend to back away from an aggressive enemy that charges in guns blazing as a natural “surprised” or “not ready” reaction.

Because of the uneven numbers that are an integral part of WvW, people will pick and choose their battles far more carefully than in PvP. Roamers especially will make a build that can escape.

You can always make and sell Ley Line Infused tools with your extra Bloodstone.

I’m collecting a bunch of selectable ascended amulets and sometimes converting shards to other currencies. They do come easily, which I’m grateful for.

> @"Arcaniaxs.4519" said:

> U cant do dat anymore cuz dmg is more in pve so u wont see the full potential of the build u created and some trait CDs are 5 times lower in pve

> But i would love some changes

That’s why I want an option to switch the arena to WvW mode.

I would like to see additional options for the guild hall arena, as my guildies use it to test out traits, builds, rotations, and skill combos especially after a new patch.

* Allow an option to switch between PVE and WVW modes, since some traits and skills are split.

* Add target dummies with options like the fractal lobby and raid training room.

* Allow an optional skill cooldown reset item to be placed in the arena.

The damage is rather high now, but the sneaky overpowered part of banners is the NPC champion status it brings with the defiance bar.

3 ideas from tame to extreme:

1. Reveal a player if they get hit while stealthed

2. Allow the opponent (not the player) to have Out of Combat status if the player is stealthed for 6 seconds (a similar thing happens while fighting NPCs)

3. While in combat, no stealthing is allowed for more than 4 seconds.

Until we see more than half of the servers become full status, we won’t see it.

The Mesmer as a zergling brings Feedback and CC skills, especially focus pull.

As a commander, it brings Mimic and Veil for double the stealth pleasure. I’ve run with chrono commanders and they move really fast, attacking first, hence often steamrolling the groups that are stretching and gawking, wondering if a fight will start. They do not pirate ship.

In smaller groups/solo, it can condi pressure with the best or power range from stealth.

The permadodge and 1-shot builds have been nerfed tremendously, as they needed to be, so it’s time to adapt from those expectations.

The rezbot heal scourge is pretty much a necessity for newer people if you are just stacking and dodging left. It won’t outheal the damaging boneskinner aura, though, so you will need another pure healer or 2.

1. Watch your feet for the mass of red/black circles.

2. When he doesn’t attack for awhile, he’s probably standing up for the cc moments.

3. Ignore the singular red/black circle afterwards; only move when you see the mass of them.

4. Ignore the non-cc moments special action key. You’ll probably get caught in the mass of circles during the long aftercast root.

5. Help rez ASAP.

I’ve been PUGging it successfully even with only 6 people left alive. But these 6 people are all always watching the circles and rezzing like crazy.

And if you’re not one of the healers, equipment doesn’t matter terribly much.

To nerf the dodge-everything vault/bound spammer. You are exposed during that aftercast time by design/nerf now.