What profession(s) are good for badge farming when a zerg is going against another zerg? Is it true that the necromancer wells can tag more than 5 people?
Wells – Yes kinda. Wells Pulse every second for 5 seconds. Each pulse can hit only 5 people. So at best it can hit 25 people but chances are you’re going to hit some of the same people a few times.
As for “best” profession, its a hard and very debatable question. Personally I play a Necro and get A LOT of bags so they are very good. But the first person to hit 250k kills was a staff Guardian so they are very good as well (This point is debatable because this person was a very active commander in a very active WvW guild) TBH Thieves can be very good as well if you play them right and focus on tagging vs what thieves normally do, I wouldn’t call them the best by any means but they can be good. Those are the only 2 classes I play so that’s all I can say from experience. But I do know warriors, Mesmers, and Eles can do very well if built right.
On a side note, I wonder, does the pass-through mechanic of a Ranger’s arrow have the same target cap as beam weapons? Or even a 5 target cap? Im curious if a Ranger could target people at the back of a zerg and the arrow would pass through 20+ people.
Thanks for responses. Does retaliation work for tagging in zerg vs zerg? For example, I could try Guardian with Tome of Wrath and the trait to make it last 30 seconds which would give me 30 seconds of retaliation. Then I could spam out skill 1 for constant AoE.
Necro is great for tagging. Thief SB #2 (ae poison) with auto attack (up to to 3 targets?) in between can mark alot of enemies. Maybe even more than necros minus Epidemic on a good anchor in a zerg.
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To my knowledge Necro marks hit everything that walk over them and epidemic can be evil. I do not know if they count towards the tag though… I presume they do and if so are probably the king of zerg tagging. I don’t have an 80 necro so I cannot say with certainty.
Thief (SB) and ranger (axe) both have an auto attack that bounces between targets making both good taggers. With the ranger penetrating arrow trait, rangers can tag about as good as any class at medium range and with the LB can tag a lot of targets at long range. The thief Dagger Storm elite tags a ridiculous number of bodies.
Elementalists are mid range AoE machines. Guardians and warriors can sit on the front line and tag a lot of targets but get stalled at choke points. Warriors with a bow could be good taggers… never tried it though. I don’t know a lot about engineers but I suspect the grenade variety can collect a fair amount of bags. Mesmers, I do not know their capability.
Pretty much all classes look like bag collecting machines when built for it. Out of the box, the thief is probably the easiest though since the SB base skill works in lag, the SB has a built in AoE and Dagger Storm is a ridiculously good tagging elite.
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Necros are one of the better for tagging. Cast the marks at their feet though or it may only tag one. CD build for a necro will be more than enough to get enough damage to get a kill for each tag your mark or well does.
Also, I don’t mind a frontline hammer warrior. Ground slam is a pretty big AoE and if you use healing surge you can use it twice in succession.
Ah ok and for tagging to get exp and loot in zerg vs zerg do I have to hit multiple times or does one hit suffice?
For loot you have to get a % of damage on the target. From what I understand its the total HP during the fight, That includes healed amount and downed HP. This was posted on reddit so not sure how true it is.
Spec grenadier, get Grenade kit, and enjoy 1500range Grenades of which you throw 3 at once so you can hit upto 15 people per attack. You can throw out Grenades every .5seconds. Or a poison grenade which not only tags but leaves a poison field which poisons (and tags) enemies that move through it. Potentially tagging many more then 15.
And a toolbelt ability to throw 8 grenades (potentially tagging upto 40 people).
On the downside, mass-Retaliation melts you but that applies to all AoE really.
From my experience (lacking only ranger and necro classes), guardian staff AA and engineer grenades (as well as engineer rifle and pistol AA) are the best for tagging stuff. Engineer is better imo since it does better damage overall than guard’s staff AA (since you need a certain damage threshold to get credit).
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And on the plus side, you’re actually usefull to the group compared to a crazy Engineer running around yelling “FIRE HAHA FIRE HAHAHAHA FIRE FIRE HAHAHA!!!” all the time.
Yes, the Necromancer excels at AoE damage. You could have a staff with Marks, Wells, Epidemic, and Plague Form and pretty much every single skill you use would be AoE except Staff #1.
I’ve also found that my Guardian is able to tag a lot of players by using Staff #1. Because its ranged and hits up to 5 targets in a wide cone in front of me I’m tagging 5 people every second or whatever. I get lots of loot bags with it.
The nice thing about the Necromancer is that I can usually stand in one place at the back of a zerg and watch the loot bags pile up at my feet, while my Guardian is always on the move attacking, dodging, healing, etc. so I have to run around and find all my loot.
I’m ele only, with staff, I get a fair amount of bags but you have to learn good timing and start precasting meteor shower and know when/where to use your flameburst and ground fire (forgot the name) because casting times can cost you tags. Best is using an AoE on a zerg that is moving in a line under you like moving past a keep wall so you tag multiple guys running through it. Also my racial AoE of weakness is amazing for this too since it seems to count anyone touching it although it has as long cd.
Necros and then thiefs. Plague form and death shroud for necroes. Cluster bomb spam and dagger storm for thieves. I guarantee that in a 50 zerg fight you will tag at least 35 people but normally closer to 45.
First player to 250,000 kills = Staff Guardian. Also the Red Guard GM, but he still beat his Necro’s to that achievement. Don’t think RG runs engi’s, but not sure about that.
First player to 250,000 kills = Staff Guardian. Also the Red Guard GM, but he still beat his Necro’s to that achievement. Don’t think RG runs engi’s, but not sure about that.
That achievement was from play time much more so than a limited range AoE ability. Alt Healing in a group is obscene allowing them to lead from the front and Alt Healing works best with a hammer not a staff. Retaliation does indeed dish out massive damage in zergs but I don’t know if it counts as a tag.
Staff 1 doesn’t stand up to the numerous AoEs a D/D ele can drop but both classes suffer from relatively short range AoE which does limit the tagging.
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First player to 250,000 kills = Staff Guardian. Also the Red Guard GM, but he still beat his Necro’s to that achievement. Don’t think RG runs engi’s, but not sure about that.
That has more to do with the fact its the GM of Red Guard, a guild that almost exclusively does open field WvW combat, then anything about the Staff Guardian being top-tagger.
Its not bad, infact every profession has a weapon or skill that with, or without, (a) certain trait(s) is solid at tagging. Litterally no profession is left behind, even Thieves can run around spamming their Clusterbomb which can tag upto 15 enemies per detonation.
So dont roll a profession just to be good at tagging, roll the profession you like the playstyle of while build for AoE. Having fun while playing will make it much easier to work up stacks of badges then begrudgingly play a profession just because some people online said it was better.
But the first person to hit 250k kills was a staff Guardian so they are very good as well (This point is debatable because this person was a very active commander in a very active WvW guild)
This is not the reason. The reason is guild vs guild duels killing each other again and again in order to cheat the system.
Anyway, necros do very well yes, but some other classes have great tools as well. A trap ranger can also tag a lot of people (the best probably being GS/traps but can’t tell since i play axe/torch which is also pretty efficient with aoe and 3hits on #1).
Obviously any class that has a lot of aoe abilities will tag easily. However is it really that important ? I think being useful in the zerg is more important, you should not make a character with the goal of having lots of bags…
This is precisely why I don’t WvW. No skill. Just zerging if you want good rewards. You don’t even know who you hit. If you solo roam, you don’t get badges.
The “Arrow Cart” profession. Best way to tag everyone.
But in all seriousness any class that has an AoE skill that you can spam is your best bet. Trick is to stay mobile and spam AoE. My staff ele tags a lot of people just because of all the CC it can throw.
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