Zhaid Zhem.6508

You don't really have the choice while leveling; you regulary switch all pieces of equipment and so you just take what feels more powerful overall.

Just try to prioritize power/precision/condition damage, and feel free to add vitality etc if you feel more confortable with tankiness.

What's good with elem d/d you're hybrid and all skills all attunements are useful; you can mix power and condition for leveling.

Fire and Arcane are good start for traitlines.

I'd really like Balthazar., just to hear him grumble again.

The path still looks a bit long ... 5 rooms, so certainly 5 events/bosses !?

Once again we put random puzzles events to artificially lengthen the fractal and call it "new challenge" ? I'm a little suspicious at the moment.


13349 damage WTF, I don't even have these numbers in OW :# :# :# :# :# :# :# :#

It goes well too with hybrid reaper. I have a viper/grieving set I made for some tests, and it's quite nice in OW with dread, but also because I don't take reaper's onslaught and the reaper without quickness feel really lethargic.

But outside Pve OW ... ? Spiteful Spirit is to me more interesting in pvp modes and same for the +20% damage for group content.


It had a better design, plus if i'm correct it was bigger too when on high level.

Our new flesh golem isn't really scary, nor imposing.

> @"FrownyClown.8402" said:

> I predict the expansion won't have new specializations at all. My bet is that we see a new race and every profession gains access to their underwater weapon on land.

They can't pass by this expectation; every players (no matter the game) want a character evolution, new gameplay etc. Personnaly, if we just have new maps but I have to explore them with the same build I have since years ... I don't buy.

Even with a reduced team, reduced budget ... I think we will have new elites spec, but there is a good chance it will be "poor" design.

Elem for example, a random F5 with an effect based on current element and utility skills copied from an other class.

> @"Bazsi.2734" said:

> Hold on guys, it will be fixed in the coming weeks. Right after the second coming of Christ. Any minute now. Soon. Patience. KeEp WaITiNG!

To be exact it will be with the Alliances system update.

They could merg these traits with the related ones and keep the 300sec icd. Like war already had with Last Stand. For example : add the Final Shielding in Elemental Surge. But no, too hard to design new majors traits, better block a slot with an useless trait.

> @"Shao.7236" said:

> > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > @"Shao.7236" said:

> > > > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > > > IMO the reason herald is bad today is because they have removed the very essence of Herald : boons and boon duration (F2).

> > >

> > > ??? What.

> > >

> >

> > ??? What.

>

> "The Legendary Dragon Stance version does not add concentration; instead, it gives +20% duration to any boons applied, regardless of the source. This can go above the boon duration cap, allowing up to +120% boon duration."

???And.

> @"Shao.7236" said:

> > @"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:

> > IMO the reason herald is bad today is because they have removed the very essence of Herald : boons and boon duration (F2).

>

> ??? What.

>

??? What.

I'm always a bit confused when we talk about meta and non meta in pve.

The builds we see on SC, discretize, incidentally metabattle etc are the builds the most efficient ... on average ... with an expected composition, and so expected buffs/roles/classes.

It doesn't mean you need to c/p the build + the composition to succeed; or that you can't look behind for your composition, the encounter, the needs, the lacks ... and improve your build for particulars situations. It doesn't mean you can't do faster, safer, easier (even the 3 together) with differents skills, traits, gear ... *Edit, because beyond the builds there is also the skill and preference/habits.

Besides they often explain how to adapt to differents situations; so players, even if they don't have their own free will and only swear by SC or video records, should know you can deviate from the front page and still be efficient.

And so for "non-meta" builds; when players could say "I don't like meta-build", "you don't need meta-build".. some people think we're talking about their marauder/soldier equipement, their bearbow ranger, minions master core necro ...

That why I am confused. May be that's me, and it's clear for everyone; but i've already seen some players, in instance for example, who have not the same definition, the same agreement and we had deaf talks. "We don't need meta _Dude, you're minstrel thief with zero team support" "It's not in the sacred frontpage of this sacred guild ; a second war is not meta ! _ Dude, he did better DPS than you"

You still need to optimize your build, your gear, your rotation, count on cooperation, and expect the same from others.

You can play a condi p/d deadeye, a condi reaper, a heal tempest, a heal herald, a heal war(?t), whatever you want, as long as you're sure you'll be useful by bringing a correct DPS, CC, or a correct support/healing; not unnecessarily overlap support/role with an other member, in correlation with the needs and expectations of your group, and so its agreement.

IMO the reason herald is bad today is because they have removed the very essence of Herald : boons and boon duration (F2).

Yes, DPS was really high at the beginning, but it was the marketing ("buy Hot, get OP elite specs") so it could be nerfed; it seems to be coherent. Then they started to nerf F2, 50% BD for the group, becomes 33%, then 20% but only for the herald and random effects. Why ?

33% was okai, even 20% but for the group, why remove it ? It was the only skill (after nerf of DPS) which made Herald viable in raids : the chrono, the druid, the PS war, etc could play with less boon duration, less buff, less support traits etc, and in balance you had low/correct DPS.

Herald should take back its role : share boons, increase boon duration.

May be something less passive, : Only 15% but for the group, you keep the core value+ draconic echo effects : for 10 players and +3sec to boons. Same on shield which is useless : crystal hibernation "pulse heals and +1sec to boons on allies for every boons you consume" or some traits : shared empowrement "+1sec to allies' boons when you consume a facet", etc.

There is way to give back this "niche" role to herald without making it mandatory in the "only effective meta, and you can't play any differently. " Otherwise herald will stay a uneffective might bot with very low dps.

> @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> > @"Noodle Ant.1605" said:

> > > @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> > > > @"Noodle Ant.1605" said:

> > > > IMO the context is very broad. The 'best' classes will greatly vary depending on the situation - each for pugging/soloing/speedclearing dailies/recs/fractal CMs and pugging/fast/safe/speedclearing raids/raid CMs (could also be more).

> > > >

> > > > e.g. Fractals at a high level is all about burst. The 3 best (and only relevant due to other classes lacking similar burst) classes are:

> > > > - DH

> > > > - power weaver

> > > > - power Slb

> > >

> > >

> > > I've done daily fractals, recs, and CM's for years and literally never seen someone sign up as weaver. I've also gotten maybe a dozen soulbeast this entire time, it's DH or warrior pugs 99% of the time.

> >

> > Quoting me from 8 months ago :tired_face:

> >

> > Either way, the main point was:

> > > IMO the context is very broad. The 'best' classes will greatly vary depending on the situation

> > So were you speedrunning? Or just pugging? The list was just an example (which may have been inaccurate) to show that it can change depending on what you are trying to look at.

>

> I'm basically saying people always say that weaver is such a great class for fractals, but you never see anyone play it. It's effort:reward ratio just isn't worth it I think.

I agree :+1:

Weaver needs strong mastery, with a long and paced rotation. It's not "that" hard either but the real issue is the lack of sustain, self buffs, and of support/versatility.

It is okai for CM, until you have some vicious instabilities ; like 300% dmg in the back, or +damage per boons, fire balls; etc and you die very fast ; until you switch to an other fractal and you find some more troubles.

SB, War, guard have much more sustain and also much more buff and utilities for the group to adapt to differents situations.

Weaver is not bad, with friends in a good group. There is no real "bad" class for fractals, except may be condi scourge, deadeye, some niche builds.

But if you pug you can't have too much faith in others, particulary in FB and REN to provide heals, mights, protection, walls etc, you can find a couple of surprises somtimes ; you need some reserve, some panic skills, some utilities to fill up the needs or the lacks.

People should prioritize an other class (SB, DH, berserker, Holo etc for DPS) over a weaver if they want to start fractals or improve themself and the party.

On your berserker armor you have toughness and vitality (+10% life) from your runes. Plus you should also deal more damage with berserker, resulting into killing mobs faster, resulting into less hits received.

Edit* Actually, I haven't do the math, but if you're only talking about the armor and not accessories etc, you may also have more vitality from berserker + the divinity runes than from the marauder armor + strenght's runes.

You don't have to blame marauder or berserker, you have to blame the runes.

I'd prefer the conjured Arcane Greatsword. I don't remember the thread, but it was something like "you earn differents effects when switching attunement (not just 240power/180condition) and skills have diffeents effect based on your attunement fire : damage and burning, water: some healing and chill, etc"

It is a great idea imo; it makes more sense as we already have an (useless) fire axe, and it's closer to Rebound, weaveself etc than a fire greatsword, and a meter shower that we already have and have no use outside rng dps.

Rifle is a bit more energy consuming than pew/pew; plus you need to kneel for damage; but you have range and a good kite skill.

Pew/pew is more lazy and consistent, you just spam 3 indefinitely while with rifle you'll be short with adrenalin. Builds like [THIS](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAoqRDTyugll15rF-zVIYRYlgtDA-w)

Both are really good for OW, near same damage/burst; it's a matter of playstyle. Me I prefer the sound of Rifle, and it looks cooler too. I use d/p too for melee, really strong with deadeye in pve.

For group content; with the appropriate build to refill adrenalin, rifle deals more DPS, but Deadeye is a bit a niche spot in raids and close to non-viable in fractals.

1500 range for meteor shower and regen rain would be appreciated.

With the big target of meteor shower you already lose some range + the cast-time, you almost always need burning retreat or flash to cast it, otherwise you can easily die from a sand shade or just the zerg progress.

And some rework : lava font for example because it's bad ; Moonsoon also, too slow for very low impact, increased radius or velocity would be cool; shock wave same,

> @"Eremoo.2786" said:

> raids seem harder to get into so I suppose I'll just "suck it up" and craft diviners for now and later once I start doing higher fractals and getting easier access to more ascended gear I can craft harriers or dps sets. Ty for info

Raids are not harder than T4 fractals (not all raids, at least), but finding groups is harder. It doesn't mean you can go to raids, unprepared with random gear, random build, no research etc; it's still high level content with a base community already experimented.

It's the same than CM fractals; you can read from some players "Oh no, you have to c/p the meta comp and do very particular strategy; otherwise you will never succeed" and it can be frightening for newcomers. Then, months after with more practice, you do all W1 for fun with 10 necros and you start laughing at them. Its doesn't mean either you should start raids with 10 necros we understand each other!

As for T4 you have no kill proof, people have to trust and endure each other, within a certain limit, until you start do to CM. You also have a progression curve with t1-t3, so in theory there is already less low level players in T4; you should expect some experience.

Raids : there is no curve to start with, and you can just exclude half the players with a KP threeshold ; it's faster than to explain basic mechanics and kick inconsiderate or unprepared players.

Soldier ? At least play it trailblazer.

No sensible person will continue to fight a Soldier core necro, or they'll just /sit to prevent capture as you won't deal any damage either.

It's a troll build, but far from somewhat useful. Trailblazer is cancer build.

The base job of a (wonderful) Ren : F2 + F4 for mights and perma alacrity ; staff (+darkazor's daze) for cc ; Assassin's Presence ; soulcleave's summit for strong burst and sustain ; All for One for good protection uptime, and a correct ~10k dps.

And it's not an easy job, nor boring, far from it. It requires good management of energy and Charged mist, good knowledge and anticipation of phases (CC, burst etc) and of course of the potential of your class.

Not a majority of Ren are close to this. People think Ren is the cushynumber like Banner War was, and hold F4 sometimes+go afk is sufficient; it's not. But as Ren is often rare and groups still think a lazy ren is worth a dps without alacrity for the group you can't really complain or its too late.

So if you play Ventari/Kalla you can do all this, may be even more Mights as you can take LL over RR, but you'll lose Charged mist(Invocation traitline) or Assassin's Presence (Devastation traitline) and so you'll bring less buff overall.

So it's okai, it's good. In a 1healer compo you can bring a power FB, and it works really fine. It's even "more dps" in theory.

Then, it starts to be complicated when you need to bring Stab or you need to bring boonstrip (Skorvald, chaos, instabilities with boons, some encounters with boons) because you need to change a legend for Jallis or Mallyx; and it is a very common expectation from the REN, it is your role in the "meta".

And so you lose a big part of the support (Kalla, soulcleave's summit, breakrazor, darkrazor etc) or you lose all your healing (Ventari). Your original build is gone.

Or you ask your FB or DH to bring a lot of stab, you ask the war to go Spb, or you have a reaper may be, or a chrono etc, to remove boons ; but in any case the group will lose DPS.

That's why we'd prefer, in a 1healer compo, the healer FB. Even if, against a golem, you have less DPS overall.

Because Kalla is the "central" piece, you don't want to remove it or you lose all interest of the class, and the second legend serves to adapt to differents situations. (except rare situation when you need stab+boonstrip; but people can undestand you can't bring 4 legends and overlap every skills every 10sec)

Because it is easier for FB to change some utilities ( bring wall, stab, renewed focus... ) without breaking its base, without losing too much buff/support ; and without asking the group to adapt resulting a dps drop (May be Siren's reef sometimes, still even here a good FB with smart people can excel with the "meta" builds)

So you can go Ventari/Kalla. It works for fractals.

But you need to advertise your group, so they will not look for a healer FB; but you may also be stuck in situation where you can't heal your group or you can't bring the expected utilities; and others members are too lazy to adapt.

Edit,

Healer ren works better for Raids; because you rarely need to also bring Mallyx or Jallis, you have 9 others people to bring the recquired utilities.

Plus if you have a harrier Ren ... then you have a harrier FB ... Craft the gear, then see what's the best.

Even DPS is not "bad" either since patchs. Update yourself.

People should stop lying about that, mostly in fractals with a lot of trashmobs where you can generate LF very fast and even stay in shroud and just spam #1 and #4 for 30k dps.

Yeah it's not as bursty as SB, weaver, dh etc; but look at the dps of DH patch after patch ... I easily outdps a DH with a reaper in fractals, even a banner berserker outdps a DH. Fortunately you can precast traps and apply a lot of vulnerability very fast, that why DH is still very strong for short phases, but if your group can't follow, can't burst, it's pointless.

If you're really into speedrun or fancy boss record, yes, you should take SB, berserker, power FB,... you want buffers/supports and DPS, you want to share the roles, overlap buffs, you do not want selfish reaper that buff itself alone.

If you pug, CM or not, with an armless ren, a harrier FB, a fancy undead weaver and you start complaining about a reaper in the group ... yes there is an issue, but just now it's not the reaper.

It's like a second Berserker, or a condi FB; "it's bad for fractals, we need power DH" people have some old unfounded preconceptions. When the banner slave outdps them on Ensolyss or elsewhere, when the condi FB clean the fractal alone ... oddly you don't hear them anymore ... until next day ...

Reaper has a very correct burst + constant dps, plus the more there are mobs the more you deal damage : you can stay in shroud, just spam #1 and recharge Soul Spiral. There are some gimmicks too : precast marks, lich form etc

"harder difficulty" !? Seriously ? Have you ever tried Reaper for real ? It's the most selfish and balanced spec of the game *for PvE.

With the death of the "fear build" with the old Dread, I would suggest to run the double signets build with Signets of suffering, if you're not familiar with reaper, more effective than the meta build, because of Life force regen. Otherwise the "meta" build works perfectly if you have nice Aegis/stab before hits and you know phases, placement, etc.

It can work. Because it is an unexpected build and you still have very very strong skills ; damage and cc etc. Like, lighting surge, pile driver, unsteady ground, statif field, frozen field, magnetic aura etc...

Some one who is not familiar with staff weaver (animation, damage, cast time, projectils...) can die really fast.

But the reverse is also true. , you need to know what skills can be reflected, skills that root you with cast time, skills that need anticipation or are useless (like you don't cast meteor shower if the enemy isn't greedy enough to stand in it or is already melee pressuring you, ...).

It's like d/x weaver ; that was so easy at the release. Even against sword weavers who should know a bit about dagger mh, they were like "wtf, he has the double of cc, of range, of damage !?" I got PM at each fights "what's your build ? What's this skill ?" but now I see almost 70% of dagger/x builds and very few sword/x builds; in WvW, so people have knowledge of skills etc.

I don't think elem is very "newbie friendly", but staff roamer !? Plus tempest and water ? You're not trying the easy mode.

Weaver/arcane/air is the best with staff, for dueling/roaming. Because you need this superspeed to avoid melee and vulerability application to burst; arcane for some vigor, protection ... May be Weaver/water/air. You'll lack sustain, but on any other versions you just won't have enough pressure and synergy to kill anything, not even guards on a tower.

Or don't play staff, don't play power. Keep your build but with condition, and so dagger/dagger or dagger/warhorn.

It is consistent with most of classes. You generally have more "power modificators" even in minor traits than condition modificators, in traitlines.

But that's right we don't really have condi grandmaster trait for damage.

Even the +2sec fire field we don't have that much fire fields that pulse Burnings, you have the focus skill and then the dual attack on staff. Edit, and burning speed, it's not that bad afterall, but I regret sword doesn't have this.

Or you take Pyromacer's puissance; you have a 4-8sec burning at the cost of 10 mights.

Holo leap ?