Guild Wars 2

Hey guys! First tournament went really well and as such we are ready for the second one! This one will be held on December 7th (Saturday) Starting at 2PM EST Anyone is welcome to sign up. The tournament will have 8 teams and run on the following format:

• All matches will be fought on the beach on the Forest of Niflhel
• All games will be played on NA servers
• All games Best of 3
• Grand Finals will be a Double Elimination Style Bo5 Set (meaning the upper bracket finalist needs to win one set. If the lower bracket finalist wins the initial set, a second set will be played to act as the upper bracket finalists “second elimination”)

As usual, the winning team members will each receive one 2000 gem card and second place team members will also be receiving one 800 gem card.

We have a set of rules that players must follow. Please keep in mind these rules only apply to this specific tournament (2v2 #2) and that the rules may change for future tournaments. Please make sure to abide by them to ensure maximum flow and fun for all competitors:

• Teams may not consist of the following compositions:
  > Double Bunkers (see below rules for clarification on this)
  > Any Class Stacking
• The following abilities, traits, sigils, runes, etc are banned from play:
  > Mesmer: Prismatic Understanding (Chaos XII)
• If a team consists of any of the previously listed compositions they will be given approximately 10 minutes to change violating parts of the composition. If they cannot complete this task in the time allotted the team will be disqualified.
• Once a player is stomped, he or she may not rejoin the fight or join the spectator team. Players that do this will be disqualified.
• Players may not make use of any form of Hacking, Mods, or Game Exploits as defined by the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement
• No Purposefully avoiding combat (otherwise known as delaying/stalling). Admins will decide when and if players are stalling. First offense will give your opponents one point, Second offense is Disqualification. Example of stalling would be abusing stealth or other mechanics to clear combat and regain health.
• If a player willingly leaves the general vicinity of the beach, The opposing team will be given one point. Being CC’d away from the area does not count so long as the player promptly returns to the main battleground. The water is also considered out of bounds.
• Players have 5 minutes to change builds between rounds. We recommend players have multiple characters of the same class prepared so that they may be ready to switch in a timely manner if they wish.
• Admins will determine bunkers on a build by build basis, but as a general definition it is defined as being able to soak up, negate, or redirect massive amounts of damage while having a much lesser focus on damage output. For example a 0/0/10/30/30 Cleric’s Amulet Guardian would probably be considered a bunker, but a stealth focused mesmer would not. Please keep in mind that this is a very loose definition, and once more admins will have the final say on if a build is a bunker or not.
• Admins reserve the right to change/alter the rules at any time

And that’s about it guys!The tournament will be live on PvPTV . If you would like to sign up, all you need to do is fill out the form at the bottom of this post. We will be choosing teams randomly to give everyone a fair chance to compete. Good luck to all and were looking forward to seeing you live!

SIGNUP FORM

BRACKETS

Oh great, petting zoo tournie.

Just FYI We just lost a 2v2 to Spirit ranger Hambow, so you can cool the guns. Hambow Spirit is much stronger.

not after the patch

Man, I need a partner for this. Anyone willing to develop some crazy strats with a zerker staff elementalist?

Invites going out today, Bracket should be seeded around Wednesday

Beach is… so bad ;/

Reevz.2617:

Beach is… so bad ;/

I wanted to do it on beach this week for two reasons.

• It’s very easy to manage from an administrative standpoint
• I want to see how a tournament will run on all maps.

With point number two in mind, the next tournament will probably be on Graveyard, which is the most requested map.

kitten is the best, hands down. it’s big, open, has some LOS but isn’t too nuts with it. It’s perfect.

Edit: Everyone is in! Here are the brackets.

BRACKETS

Lemme know if anyone drops this one. I’d like a #stabatit

Don’t forget to watch!

Sorry but just my opinion….Boring…Ive seen enough Spirit Rangers and Hambow.

Boring

This is why I wanted this to wait until after the 10th :S That comp is insane, and its already getting nerfed. But that’s okay! There will be more.

I’ll suggest a rule that will make these a lot more competitive and reward the better players instead of the better builders – berserker and rampager amulets only.

If there isn’t toughness and healing power to carry builds like Petting Zoo and Spirit Ranger/Hambow teams outside of traits, then the skill of the teams will win the match, not their comps.

There were really good players who lost because of the enemy comp more than the skill of the opponent, and if they had to use these ammys cheese comps would get slaughtered, as they should be.

Edit: of course the MM necro that got put into downed state for the majority of the fights doesn’t like the suggestion

No one wants more rules. Its fine/fun as it is, some stuff just needs some rebalancing, but these are balance issues through the whole game not just 2v2, tPvP has the same exact issues.

I think it’s stupid how you allow cheese passive random rez spirit ranger on every team but you ban prismatic understanding Mesmer….the only reason people think prismatic understanding op is cause of random qq from people getting owned when they solo roam in wvw. Ridiculous how only certain types of cheese allowed and not others…prismatic understanding Mesmer takes more skill than cheesy spirit ranger any day…you can literally go down the line of your abilities on spirit ranger 1-5 switch 1-5 again and spam spirits and you will own people.

No skill needed, and don’t even get me started on that kitten elite…0 respect for all spirit rangers

Ggwp to everyone.

piffdaddy.8014:

I think it’s stupid how you allow cheese passive random rez spirit ranger on every team but you ban prismatic understanding Mesmer….the only reason people think prismatic understanding op is cause of random qq from people getting owned when they solo roam in wvw. Ridiculous how only certain types of cheese allowed and not others…prismatic understanding Mesmer takes more skill than cheesy spirit ranger any day…you can literally go down the line of your abilities on spirit ranger 1-5 switch 1-5 again and spam spirits and you will own people.

No skill needed, and don’t even get me started on that kitten elite…0 respect for all spirit rangers

Spirit ranger is easy to pick up, but there’s a fine line between a good one and a bad one.

A bad spirit ranger = good in PvP because it’s not too difficult
A good spirit ranger = incredibly good in PvP because they’ve played it a lot and spent a lot of time learning pet control, not to spam your spirits and use them wisely, etc.

When I fight spirit rangers I can typically immediately tell a ‘good’ one from a ‘bad’ one.

tichorum.2415:

piffdaddy.8014:

I think it’s stupid how you allow cheese passive random rez spirit ranger on every team but you ban prismatic understanding Mesmer….the only reason people think prismatic understanding op is cause of random qq from people getting owned when they solo roam in wvw. Ridiculous how only certain types of cheese allowed and not others…prismatic understanding Mesmer takes more skill than cheesy spirit ranger any day…you can literally go down the line of your abilities on spirit ranger 1-5 switch 1-5 again and spam spirits and you will own people.

No skill needed, and don’t even get me started on that kitten elite…0 respect for all spirit rangers

Spirit ranger is easy to pick up, but there’s a fine line between a good one and a bad one.

A bad spirit ranger = good in PvP because it’s not too difficult
A good spirit ranger = incredibly good in PvP because they’ve played it a lot and spent a lot of time learning pet control, not to spam your spirits and use them wisely, etc.

When I fight spirit rangers I can typically immediately tell a ‘good’ one from a ‘bad’ one.

Pretty much this.

The key to becoming a GOOD spirit ranger is a multitude of things:

1) Using the Blind of sun spirit for specific situations, such as anticipating a burst, getting a stomp or to survive just a bit longer until your heal

2) Using storm spirit in conjunction with a burst pet to maximize the damage and get them on the back foot

3) Using shortbow for pressure and knowing when to switch to sword to have all cooldowns ready and evades ready

4) Knowing when to have River Drake/Wolf out (for most rangers this is what we use anyway)

5) Using your pets in downstate properly

6) Timing CC, having healing spring up when in sword to get more heals…

List goes on…

Also just a suggestion BLU, you might want to consider rewording your wall of text next time. You banned prismatic understanding from this tournament, but yet you said the following quote.

“For example a 0/0/10/30/30 Cleric’s Amulet Guardian would probably be considered a bunker, but a stealth focused mesmer would not.”

Last time I checked, prismatic understanding is focused around a stealth build type of mesmer. Not only does it seem like you’re banning random things each tourney but your decisions are inconsistent and illogical at best when it comes to deciding on the general definition of bunker. Not to mention the clear contradiction with your wording. Just a word for thought.

Countless

A stealth focused mesmer isn’t a bunker, but it also isn’t a build that he allowed.

The builds wouldn’t be as stupid if they didn’t have huge toughness and healing power to carry them. Zerker/Rampager amulets would solve that problem, and the sudden death feel to the competition would be more fun to watch than AI teams, Spirit Ranger Hambow cheese wars 2.

It was fun to watch, however it is also sad that every team has a spirit ranger…

Reslinal.2359:

It was fun to watch, however it is also sad that every team has a spirit ranger…

Agreed. We on Petting Zoo deeply considered playing Venomous Zombies (Venom Share MM) comp just to break the mold, but felt we had a decent shot at the gold, and I don’t think we’d have managed without the spirit rezzes. It’s just too potent in 2v2.

when petting zoos collide: the movie

this tourneys could be somehow ok when they would BAN from the start all the cheese builds

like spiritranger, hambow, S/D thief …

atleast this would arenanet give something to think about

but so – i just /ignore twitch

S/D thief isn’t that’d bad… Besides, they’re getting nerfed on the 10th, same with Hambow and to a lesser extent, Spirit ranger.

ronpierce.2760:

This is why I wanted this to wait until after the 10th :S That comp is insane, and its already getting nerfed. But that’s okay! There will be more.

Your comp of Full AI Necro and Full AI Spirit Ranger is much more questionable in 2v2 PvP than the Hambow Warrior.

Build tanky, tunnel vision your survival/revives while Sun-Spirit empowered Minions & Ranger 1 spam eventually bring something down with a constant barrage of burning applications.

The Sun Spirit Passive A.I, the Minion A.I applying burning, and the Ranger 1 skill – you don’t really get a more ‘passive’ and ‘safe’ damage component than that.

I would Rather watch a Hammer/Longbow Warrior in a 2v2 than an A.I Necro. The Warrior is doing active damage, not attempting to milk Sun Spirit, and doesn’t hide all the plays with 5 extra nameplates.

Don’t feel like I’m attacking Minion Necros specifically. We should be up front with the real game ruin-ers in 2v2s, which are Spirit Rangers.. they’re the one facilitating all this passive condi application, passive healing, and ez-reviving.

Team Petting Zoo: A.I Necro/Spirit Ranger
Bubble-Gum-Girls: Hambow/Spirit Ranger.
Joo Binder: Hambow/Spirit Ranger.
Two Good for First: Thief/Spirit Ranger.
My Pet is Playing For Me: Hambow/Spirit Ranger.
Team USA: Mesmer/Spirit Ranger.

Ben & Jerry: Thief/Condi Engi (Elixir R)
You Won’t See It Coming: Thief/Mesmer (Illusion of Life)

I mean, representation in this tourney was as follows, even if it was a small sample size of 16 players:

• 37.50% Spirit Ranger
• 18.75% Hambow Warrior
• 18.75% D/P Thief
• 12.50% Mesmer
• 6.25% Full A.I Necro
• 6.25% Bomb/Nade/R Engineer
• 0% Guardian
• 0% Elementalist

= 100%

Edit:

So, let’s look at commonalities between all these teams to decide what to promote/ban to provide a viewable, active 2v2 tournament.

• 100% Representation of revive utilities in every pair. Some teams opted for double revive utilities. In 2v2 combat, this remained totally mandatory. 6/8 pairs Opted for Spirit of Nature’s Renewal, 1/8 Pairs opted for Elixir R, and 1/8 Pairs opted for Illusion of Life.

• Warrior/Ranger was the most common pairing, coming in at 37.50% of the pairs. There appears to be not a huge amount of synergy between professions – I believe it’s generally that Warrior and Ranger are both extremely self sufficient, tanky, high pressure professions individually.

• Sun Spirit milking pairs came in at 25% representation among the pairs. Mesmer/Spirit Ranger and Full A.I Necro/Spirit Ranger for maximum Sun Spirit procs.

^ Those 3 things are really the only patterns that I find may not be in the best spirit of 2v2. I’m not advocating they all be banned, but I wonder what everyone else thinks of them from a entertainment standpoint.

Chaith.8256:

ronpierce.2760:

This is why I wanted this to wait until after the 10th :S That comp is insane, and its already getting nerfed. But that’s okay! There will be more.

Your comp of Full AI Necro and Full AI Spirit Ranger is much more questionable in 2v2 PvP than the Hambow Warrior.

Build tanky, tunnel vision your survival/revives while Sun-Spirit empowered Minions & Ranger 1 spam eventually bring something down with a constant barrage of burning applications.

The Sun Spirit Passive A.I, the Minion A.I applying burning, and the Ranger 1 skill – you don’t really get a more ‘passive’ and ‘safe’ damage component than that.

I would Rather watch a Hammer/Longbow Warrior in a 2v2 than an A.I Necro. The Warrior is doing active damage, not attempting to milk Sun Spirit, and doesn’t hide all the plays with 5 extra nameplates.

Don’t feel like I’m attacking Minion Necros specifically. We should be up front with the real game ruin-ers in 2v2s are Spirit Rangers.. they’re the one facilitating all this passive condi application, passive healing, and ez-reviving.

Team Petting Zoo: A.I Necro/Spirit Ranger
Bubble-Gum-Girls: Hambow/Spirit Ranger.
Joo Binder: Hambow/Spirit Ranger.
Two Good for First: Thief/Spirit Ranger.
My Pet is Playing For Me: Hambow/Spirit Ranger.
Team USA: Mesmer/Spirit Ranger.

Ben & Jerry: Thief/Condi Engi (Elixir R)
You Won’t See It Coming: Thief/Mesmer (Illusion of Life)

I mean, representation in this tourney was as follows, even if it was a small sample size of 16 players:

• 37.50% Spirit Ranger
• 18.75% Hambow Warrior
• 18.75% D/P Thief
• 12.50% Mesmer
• 6.25% Full A.I Necro
• 6.25% Bomb/Nade/R Engineer
• 0% Guardian
• 0% Elementalist

= 100%

MM is almost a necessity in 2v2 because of how terrible Necros are at dealing with CC and cleave. I play it because it allows me to sustain damage and focus on counter-control rather than spending all my time DPSing (hence why a power necro would never survive in a 2v2 match). Additionally, alone, a MM necro is actually terrible in 2v2. They have to build to synergize or the pets just die or aren’t effective enough. The real beast overall I’d say is the spirit ranger. We’d rather play MM Venom share but you pretty much can’t win in 2v2 without spirit raise (assuming the enemy has it), or you have to severely out play the enemy, which with the skill levels on both sides, probably isn’t too likely.

ronpierce.2760:

MM is almost a necessity in 2v2 because of how terrible Necros are at dealing with CC and cleave. I play it because it allows me to sustain damage and focus on counter-control rather than spending all my time DPSing (hence why a power necro would never survive in a 2v2 match). Additionally, alone, a MM necro is actually terrible in 2v2. They have to build to synergize or the pets just die or aren’t effective enough. The real beast overall I’d say is the spirit ranger. We’d rather play MM Venom share but you pretty much can’t win in 2v2 without spirit raise (assuming the enemy has it), or you have to severely out play the enemy, which with the skill levels on both sides, probably isn’t too likely.

I think that other builds would be possible for Necromancer if the Spirit of Nature’s Removal raise and Sun Spirit damage wasn’t the golden standard for safe damage. My post agrees that Spirit Rangers should be the biggest focus of tightening 2v2 controls.

Edit: We will see on Tuesday, when Spirit Rangers take a 33% reduction in Sun Spirit passive burn duration, and 33% damage reduction to Storm Spirit.

link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dec-10th-Balance-Preview-Updated-Nov-6th/first

That’s the thing; I wanted this event to happen post-Dec 10 just because it’ll effectively tone down Hambow, nerf spirit rangers at least a little bit (honestly, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough, though to fix the 2v2 Spirit meta), and thieves will be seeing some pretty big changes (not that thieves are OP but it would have certainly affected Caed and Tany’s win). I think our best bet is to just see what happens on the 10th, then re kitten the 2v2 meta then. We can even hold a non-winning event to just bring together some of the 2v2ers to test new comps for 2v2s and to see how old ones function post-changes.

ronpierce.2760:

That’s the thing; I wanted this event to happen post-Dec 10 just because it’ll effectively tone down Hambow, nerf spirit rangers at least a little bit (honestly, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough, though to fix the 2v2 Spirit meta), and thieves will be seeing some pretty big changes (not that thieves are OP but it would have certainly affected Caed and Tany’s win). I think our best bet is to just see what happens on the 10th, then re kitten the 2v2 meta then. We can even hold a non-winning event to just bring together some of the 2v2ers to test new comps for 2v2s and to see how old ones function post-changes.

Spirit Ranger needs some larger changes in small scale combat, I agree with you there. But I don’t imagine that the 2v2 Meta will change that much on Tuesday.

You feel that Dec. 10th changes would have affected Caed & Tany’s win? I respectfully disagree.

D/P Thieves won’t be seeing massive changes. D/P Thieves, however; will be seeing some 2v2 buffs. Base Initiative Regen is being buffed 33%, and Kleptomaniac is only being nerfed by (1) initiative regeneration on a steal, and Opportunist is only being nerfed from a 1s ICD to 5s ICD, while doubling the chance to proc it on crit. Those nerfs hardly equate to a 33% difference in base initiative regen.

D/P Thieves in 2v2 will be have significantly more initiative regeneration in periods when they’re playing defensively. Practiced Tolerance is being buffed from 5%-7% vitality conversion as well – in that trait slot, if I remember correctly Caed prefers it. S/D thieves are assuming significantly more risk after Dec. 10th, though. No more poofing out of bad situations every 5 seconds if you catch a CC. No denying that S/D thieves won’t be 2v2 champions.

Chaith.8256:

ronpierce.2760:

That’s the thing; I wanted this event to happen post-Dec 10 just because it’ll effectively tone down Hambow, nerf spirit rangers at least a little bit (honestly, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough, though to fix the 2v2 Spirit meta), and thieves will be seeing some pretty big changes (not that thieves are OP but it would have certainly affected Caed and Tany’s win). I think our best bet is to just see what happens on the 10th, then re kitten the 2v2 meta then. We can even hold a non-winning event to just bring together some of the 2v2ers to test new comps for 2v2s and to see how old ones function post-changes.

You feel that Dec. 10th changes would have affected Caed & Tany’s win? I respectfully disagree.

D/P Thieves won’t be seeing massive changes. D/P Thieves, however; will be seeing some 2v2 buffs. Base Initiative Regen is being buffed 33%, and Kleptomaniac is only being nerfed by (1) initiative regeneration on a steal, and Opportunist is only being nerfed from a 1s ICD to 5s ICD, while doubling the chance to proc it on crit. Those nerfs hardly equate to a 33% difference in base initiative regen.

D/P Thieves in 2v2 will be have significantly more initiative regeneration in periods when they’re playing defensively. Practiced Tolerance is being buffed from 5%-7% vitality conversion as well – in that trait slot, if I remember correctly Caed prefers it. S/D thieves are assuming significantly more risk after Dec. 10th, though. No more poofing out of bad situations every 5 seconds if you catch a CC. No denying that S/D thieves won’t be 2v2 champions.

I didn’t say it’d have been all bad. I just said it would have affected it. For instance depending on changes they may have had a better chance against us; not even hitting the losers bracket at all (we beat them once), or, depending on what other classes get buffed, there may have been new dominating compositions. I’m not trying to be black and white here, just saying the meta will clearly be affected, and I’d have had more fun seeing a fresh set of ideas had we waited 1 week longer, that’s all.

This just goes to show how broken spvp is at the moment. 40% of the tourney was the easiest class in the game, and one of the most OP atm.

Cool beans man.

Welp.. I mean I ran full GLA__SS shatter+Lyssa .. (word filtered)
So the mes/ranger synergy is questionable in this case..
I probably would have done better if I played Phantasms or condi Clone spam or something.. but I just felt like whatever man; I play shatter and I’m proud of it.

Darnis.4056:

Welp.. I mean I ran full GLA__SS shatter+Lyssa .. (word filtered)
So the mes/ranger synergy is questionable in this case..
I probably would have done better if I played Phantasms or condi Clone spam or something.. but I just felt like whatever man; I play shatter and I’m proud of it.

I liked it. It was super hard to fight with curtain shatters though, as MM, I was having an impossible time keeping minions alive and keeping you locked down. XD