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Comparing the game with WoW probably isn't a good idea. The play styles are very different. And although you spend a lot of time outdoors doing solo stuff, there are a number of abilities that aren't really useful until you're in a party. For instance, my Guardian's reflect arrows ability wasn't all that exciting... until I ran the Ascalon Catacombs for the first time. My guardian's anti-knockdown ability didn't seem all that useful until I ran Caudecus's Manor, and had to deal with mobs that liked to knock the entire party down. Etc...

squidhills wrote:
Anybody had a chance to test drive the new content that landed yesterday? I was too busy psychologically torturing some people in a Dark Heresy game last night to play (and I'll be too busy at Pathfinder tonight to play) but I was wondering how it was. I hear that we can buy items from past festival events this time around. Is that true and can we get anything good/cool?

Not much truly new. It's just that things have been revamped slightly.

Zephyr Sanctum is back. Queen's Gauntlet and all associated achievements (and Liadri mini) are back.

Both events drop tokens that allow you to get some old living story items like the Gas Mask helmet, Zephyrite helmets, and even the first Southsun Sclerite Hentai Backpiece and Fervid Censer (yellow rose).

Also there's a new Lyssa backpiece that you can get the recipe from Queen's Gauntlet.

The Crown Pavillion has been revamped into less of a zergfest and more of a boss rush. People still haven't realized this, so they're complaining.

I wish they'd put in some kind of indicator that the bosses were scaling unfavorably to dissuade zerging boss events. Then again, last time they did that it didn't stop people. I still remember the mad rush to down the last watchknight before the idiot zerg got there to "help".

Sounds cool. I missed those events the first time they came out because: SWTOR. It'll be nice to get a second crack at them.

 Melissia wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:
I don't know about you, but combat feels like nothing is ever really happening until either you or your enemy keels over.

I really don't get this? Maybe it's because I use a ton of conditions (especially on my necro) as well as interrupts and weapon swaps, but even still, you compared the game to WoW, one of the gakkiest, clunkiest, most awkward combat systems in MMO history, so I'm really not sure what you're getting at.

I didn't so much compare the combat to WoW as simply state that I enjoy WoW's combat more because, to me, it feels better. Call me crazy, but the feel I get from WoW's combat with most classes is better than the feel I get from GW2's, if only because the ludicrous amount of abilities a character has on WoW gives me the feeling of some sort of action and fluidity because I'm constantly selecting actions, even when others are on CD. With GW2 I can have most of my abilities on CD stupidly early into a fight. NWO has a decent balance here by having Encounter abilities require a CD, but your basic At Will abilities be always available so that you're never left standing around like a confused gibbon, waiting for something to get off CD so you can break up the monotony.

I make no claim that any game's combat is objectively better than the other, only that I stopped playing GW2 because I found its combat to be largely bland and unenjoyable. I might continue with the Rogue because her abilities feel far more fluid, but my Guardian and Warrior feel far more underwhelming than I remember.

If your abilities are on cooldown, then swap weapons.

If you're just popping all your abilities for the sake of using them, then you're being ineffective. Usually, your autoattack deals the most damage outright especially the third in a chained melee autoattack. Your other skills are situational such as the enemy is standing still, you need an immobilize, you need an AoE, etc.

 Absolutionis wrote:
If your abilities are on cooldown, then swap weapons.

If you're just popping all your abilities for the sake of using them, then you're being ineffective. Usually, your autoattack deals the most damage outright especially the third in a chained melee autoattack. Your other skills are situational such as the enemy is standing still, you need an immobilize, you need an AoE, etc.

This isn't all that effective on a class like the Mesmer. Their best damage spike usually comes from shattering the decoys, and as such, I generally have most of my skills on cool down, but when timed right the cool downs end at just the right time to hit them again.


On the whole though, I do somewhat agree that combat, especially when you're playing solo can be a bit boring, which is partially why I've yet to get an alt above lvl 25.

Mesmers, of any class, is the *worst* class to be using all your skills just because they're off cooldown. You have a maximum amount of illusions, so any clone/phantasm sklls you spam are either sub-par or wasted. Also, hitting your shatter skills just because they're off cooldown also wastes their potential.

Mesmer shatter skills scale off the number of illusions you have out. If you have none, there is (usually) no reason to shatter. Often it's better to wait until your phantasms have done their attacks and you have enough illusions.

Some mesmer builds like Bleed Mesmers and Phantasm mesmers do better when you're *not* shattering. Some buidls like Prismatic Understanding are better when you're spamming stealth and not much else.

I think Mesmer is a horrible thing to bring up if you're disagreeing that skills shouldn't be spammed just because they're off cooldown. Mesmer is the complete and utter opposite.

Elementalist is also similar, you get a ton of skills and you don't want to just spam them by going through each element in turn, that's just wasteful and stupid, and will get you killed more likely than not.

Especially for the two elementalist builds I use, twin-daggers and Staff.

Necromancer is the same, really. If you're just spamming things hoping to get to deathshroud and then spam its skills, you're doing it wrong.

 Melissia wrote:
Elementalist is also similar, you get a ton of skills and you don't want to just spam them by going through each element in turn, that's just wasteful and stupid, and will get you killed more likely than not.

Especially for the two elementalist builds I use, twin-daggers and Staff.

Necromancer is the same, really. If you're just spamming things hoping to get to deathshroud and then spam its skills, you're doing it wrong.

Yeah, I used to be an idiot who pushed buttons just to push them, but then I actually read what the abilities did and learned how best to utilized them. Well, on Necro and Guardian I did. For GS Warrior, I kinda just spam the first two abilties like a spastic monkey, but oh well.

A lot of the abilities are situational, depending on what weapon you are using. Abilties that benefit your allies are kind of a waste if you are doing a lot of solo work, so it's good to try out a bunch of combos and see what works best. It also helps to have a ranged weapon on standby for dungeons and world boss fights. It doesn't matter that Axe/Focus and Dagger/Dagger are my very best friends in the whole world on necro; if I'm doing a world boss fight or a dungeon, I'm bringing a staff in case of shenannigans.

 Avatar 720 wrote:
I didn't so much compare the combat to WoW as simply state that I enjoy WoW's combat more because, to me, it feels better. Call me crazy, but the feel I get from WoW's combat with most classes is better than the feel I get from GW2's, if only because the ludicrous amount of abilities a character has on WoW gives me the feeling of some sort of action and fluidity because I'm constantly selecting actions

That doesn't really seem to be the case so much anymore. I logged back into WoW recently, and played with my warlock. I constantly caught myself looking for abilities that had been present when the game went live and through multiple expansions... but that no longer exist anymore. The name of the game for WoW has been to streamline and simplify everything... and as a result, you've got a lot less to do now than you used to.

I usually play my rifle warrior in such a way that I never get hit unless I'm attacking multiple enemies or some really tough enemy. Cripple, vulnerable, volley, a few normal shots while backing away, rifle butt when the enemy gets close enough, then normal shots until they die while backing away-- usually enough to handle any single regular enemy.

 Absolutionis wrote:
Mesmers, of any class, is the *worst* class to be using all your skills just because they're off cooldown. You have a maximum amount of illusions, so any clone/phantasm sklls you spam are either sub-par or wasted. Also, hitting your shatter skills just because they're off cooldown also wastes their potential.

Mesmer shatter skills scale off the number of illusions you have out. If you have none, there is (usually) no reason to shatter. Often it's better to wait until your phantasms have done their attacks and you have enough illusions.

Some mesmer builds like Bleed Mesmers and Phantasm mesmers do better when you're *not* shattering. Some buidls like Prismatic Understanding are better when you're spamming stealth and not much else.

I think Mesmer is a horrible thing to bring up if you're disagreeing that skills shouldn't be spammed just because they're off cooldown. Mesmer is the complete and utter opposite.

I get most of my damage from Phantasms, so I agree to an extent. I pretty much have a certain pattern I do, and it is pretty much timed to spam abilities just as they come off cooldown. Keeping up the Phantasms is key. If they are off coolodwn, that is less dps for me.

Now, some of my other skills don't exactly go that way, of course.

 Sasori wrote:

I get most of my damage from Phantasms, so I agree to an extent. I pretty much have a certain pattern I do, and it is pretty much timed to spam abilities just as they come off cooldown. Keeping up the Phantasms is key. If they are off coolodwn, that is less dps for me.

Now, some of my other skills don't exactly go that way, of course.

This is more what I meant.. Depending on what I'm fighting I'll get 3 phantasms up, get ready for the next one to come up, shatter them, then pop the next phantasm (usually I'll do that on small things or groups of smaller monsters, where I'm really using that damage spike from the shatter to kill things quicker), on the larger bosses and elites, I will usually not hit the shatter as much, instead letting my "better" phantasms do more of the fighting, and recycling like phantasms, keeping my number up, but still giving a small spike in damage (since, as of last time I played, when you summon a new phantasm and already have three up, they shatter one/ give me the damage from it at the same time as the new summons up)

Of course, most people also say that the Sword/torch is the best combo along with either a staff or GS... I prefer the Sword/pistol, but honestly cant remember if I use the staff or GS on her, I want to lean more towards the staff.

Have they changed how Mesmer summons work? Back when I actively played, I hated the fact that after each battle, all of them were immediately gone instead of lingering around for a few seconds.

They vanish as soon as the target they're after is dead from what I've seen.

 n0t_u wrote:
They vanish as soon as the target they're after is dead from what I've seen.

they usually vanish shortly after combat is done, usually with enough time to switch targets if need be.

Meh :(

Minion Master still terrible as in minions having awfully bad AI?

 Sigvatr wrote:
Meh :(

Minion Master still terrible as in minions having awfully bad AI?

dont really know about necros, but on the mesmers, the phanstasms generally still only attack your actual target

Back when I played, mininos used to frequently stand around doing absolutely nothing, couldn't be ordererd to do anything and in general were a pita to play with. Though I normally love mm builds :(

I don't play minionmaster necro. I play bloodmagic necro.

That said, minionmaster necro has some very distinct advantages, especially against hard-hitting bosses...

Iirc blood magic necro was stacking afflictions? Had one too and liked it. Good for PvE as you could run around stacking debuffs and stuff around you started dying. Good times.

Goddamn it, I might start playing again. Have to recover my account though as I no longer got the email. Should be np though.

I run mm necro, and I will confirm that my minions occasionally stand there doing nothing for a second or two. They never sit out a whole fight, but they do seem to be confused about the whole "fight the bad guys" thing... They also generally only attack the same mob you are attacking, unless you have locked onto a mob and started to attack a different one (by turning so you can't see the locked-on mob and smacking away at a different critter). I've done that once or twice to kind of "order" them to attack one specific mob (the locked-on one) while I do something else. This may be a bug, though, so I can't guarantee it'll work in all instances.

That being said, I dig the heck out of mm necro. The minions are decent at holding hate (and Flesh golem can soak a respectable amount of damage from anything short of a champ or boss) and having several out at once means you can usually keep one minion up and attacking while the other is on cooldown. It's not foolproof, but I tend to find that my necro has a longer life expectancy when soloing than my warrior does.

Still sad, though, that after years, NC soft fails to adress the issue :(

Use to play it when it came out, and really enjoyed it. But my PC back then was not up to scratch now I got a monster that can run it at max setting nicely I should really get back into it again... Though can't help but think the world will be empty now.

 Raz'kull Skull Krusha wrote:
Use to play it when it came out, and really enjoyed it. But my PC back then was not up to scratch now I got a monster that can run it at max setting nicely I should really get back into it again... Though can't help but think the world will be empty now.

The one good thing the megaserver accomplished was making sure there's no "dead" zones anymore. I don't think you'll find an empty world. If anything you may get annoyed at there being so many people that it's impossible to organize big events.

Sweet, I will give it another go tonight after my 7th edition release tourney. Thanks!

Great to see people are playing actively on Dakka, I'd rather not have this thread die and have to make a new one, what did you guys all pick for your Living World rewards?

Probably something rifle-related.

 SilentScreamer wrote:
Great to see people are playing actively on Dakka, I'd rather not have this thread die and have to make a new one, what did you guys all pick for your Living World rewards?

Are you talking about the current event going on? There are two (new) rewards and you can get them both.

The metachievement gives you one Favor of the Festival and enough for a Panda or Dolyak Tonic. You can grind away and get the other.