Factions - Class Balance quickly fading.

Elementalists wanting to ignore interrupts could also use Glyph of Concentration to protect their long cast spells without being an E/Me.

I play the game straight through with my ranger. I find a balanced party of all professions works best if the players know how to use them and to select skills that will assist each other.

I also built an invinci-monk just for the challenge. Now I am in the process of building an SS/SV necro - but may have to change that with the update.

I must say the most fun I've had recently was helping a guildmate with the LA Titan's quest. He has it - I still haven't finished the game. It was incredibly brutal and new! We failed the mission but it has inspired me to complete the game again to get these Titan quests!

If they make it difficult - then I will adapt and prevail! To say you can't do certain areas solo/duo/or groups of less than max party size - is just too bad. Get an 8 man party and play the game. If you can solo - bonus! But don't expect it.

Winning without a chance of dying (or actually dying) is not a victory!

I don't think the game is out of balance simply because you cannot get into a 4-5 man farming group. They are limiting their party size by taking a small team build that works very well. In doing this they increase their chances of more drops for the patry.

Just like the echo nuker used to work well in small teams. Now it is LESS effective and causes the mob to scatter, who then target the soft targets.

Just like my arcane echo chaos storm used to rock (granted no where near as well but still).

Well you got a few character slots available. If want a farming build, you have the resources.

Ahhhh, so they screw up the game balance for pve, then have a pvp event then they will 'rebalance' everything after that ? I don't mind being an unpaid games tester but doing it since the launch is a bit much....

What I mean is that the PvE part of the game is too easy, you should be able to beat it with any class with henchmen only. I did this with warrior, monk, ele 3 times. I used henchmen only in most of the final "difficult" missions. So the class balance is good enough. I started a ranger recently, and found it's even easier than warrior or monk and I believe necros and mesmers are more than good enough to beat PvE game too. I never said balance shouldn't exist in PvE, I don't know how you come out with this idea. It's just that the balance in PvP is the essence of this game. That's all.

I completely disagree. With Ritualists, elementalists have a VITAL new function in this game. Killing spirits. Hands down, when I see an ele I am annoyed.

Remember, Rit spirits cast spells. So I'd presume stuff like Backfire and SS would work on a Rit spirit, as opposed to a ranger spirit, which just...sits there. We'll just have to see how the metagame develops, there's still plenty of time-Factions isn't even out of Alpha yet.

Wait, have I said this somewhere before?

I think this game has a nice balance right now.....I dont know about PvE because I dont play there anymore, but in PvP there are plenty of builds and classes being used at a very equal rate. Sometimes balance can be skewed depending on how your guild likes to run builds or whats available at a certain point....but overall I think Anet has done a fine job in terms of balancing between casters and fighters.

I am worried however, based upon this weekend's Factions event in which we are seeing a sneak preview of what is to come with the 2 new professions. I understand we do not see the new skills for the core professions at this time....however the skills for the ritualist and the assassin seem to be throwing this game entirely out of wack.....the inability to protect against daze and other conditions or to be body blocked by spirits makes me seriously hope that Anet is using this as a sort of beta test (I think they are) and be able to change certain skills that are being used that greatly unbalance aspects of PvP.

All of these are pretty obvious concerns; I'm sure the people in the alpha would already be aware of this; which means either Anet waiting until beta to significantly address skill balance (when all the skills come out), or there are already counters out there, and we're jumping the gun.

Newsflash! Your issue is not with A-Net or the game at all - It's with the players and their skewed perception of what's good and what's not, what works and what doesn't, and what they WANT and what they DON'T WANT.

The only way you are ever going to fix this is by whipping our your trusty soapbox and inject hot, liquid reason into these people.

I think Anet should look at Rangers interupts and perhaps readjust the recharge times. They have a line of interupts that's practically impossible to defeat even when it's just on ranger. Double recharge times or perhaps lessen the value of expertise for energy costs.

Next the Necro SS needs to be looked at also, this is a bit overpowering I believe since it affects the entire team, probably reduce it to just one opponent and longer recharge times.

So, let it be written, so, let it be done. (smile)

The ritualist *is* one of the two classes to be released with chapter 2. This means you will be seeing more of it in the future.

Speaking practically you are refering to fire magic specifically and using the assasin secondary to teleport into point blank range to drop them quickly. However, flame jet takes a few casts to do it and the other skills are slow 2-3 second cast times, or too slow in recharge (inferno). Otherwise you are looking at spending meteor shower once every 15-60s to slowly wipe out spirits that refresh every 30-60s. That is not a very good trade and personlly id just as soon have a warrior take cyclone axe or crude swing, or a ranger with barrage, and get rid of em in a more reliable manner.