Guild Wars 2

It is the single biggest thing you can do to improve your chances of (1) surviving a fight; (2) killing something; and (3) making some sort of actual contribution. It’s also the one thing that seems to be hardest for people to actually do (and I’m saying this as someone who does not do it especially well or anywhere close to all the time).

You could stow your weapon, not attack anything, and make more of a contribution to a push than probably 50% of people who aren’t doing this, if you manage to do it right. If you can do it and manage to hit some things at the same time, so much the better.

It’s definitely a lot harder if you’re in a pug group cause it’s disorganized. If your group is organized (guild) and have a good commander (that always helps) and know his/her style of commanding it obviously makes it a lot easier. I suggest using auto run and using the mouse to change directions during the fight and that way its a lot easier concentrating on skills and staying alive.

I am never on the tag, always on the back line or flanking the enemies hitting stragglers/ people on low health/ aiming upscaled ( yes thats fun! )

But then im a squishy bow ranger and i can say, i stay longer alive then rolling with the tag over the enemy.

really, you need to have 2 pins. one for the melee to stack on, and another for the ranged to stack on.

-ken

Snowreap I actually did that with a guild raid. It helped wonders until the enemy raids got wise enough to dodge our frontline.

It’s not the single biggest thing to improve your chances if your build centres around dps. That would be a death wish. Staying close to the pin yes; but running into the zerg as a glass cannon or even half glass cannon is just a bad idea.

Knowing your class inside and out and their methods of escape and mitigating damage will improve yours (and your groups) chances the best.

There is a reason why disorganized non-TS pug groups can consistently beat guild groups on teamspeak. It’s not necessarily due to stacking on the pin per say, but more so knowing how “you” stay alive and dish out more damage than them.

DeadlySynz.3471:

There is a reason why disorganized non-TS pug groups can consistently beat guild groups on teamspeak.

Either those are some godly pugs, or a really really bad guild group rofl.

DeadlySynz.3471:

It’s not the single biggest thing to improve your chances if your build centres around dps. That would be a death wish. Staying close to the pin yes; but running into the zerg as a glass cannon or even half glass cannon is just a bad idea.

Knowing your class inside and out and their methods of escape and mitigating damage will improve yours (and your groups) chances the best.

There is a reason why disorganized non-TS pug groups can consistently beat guild groups on teamspeak. It’s not necessarily due to stacking on the pin per say, but more so knowing how “you” stay alive and dish out more damage than them.

I literally….have never seen this happen….maybe in the lower tiers?

or maybe in small fights like 5v5 or something…

1) Maybe. If I’m playing my warrior and following the group, yeah I stay on the pin. Ditto for my Guardian. With other characters, I tend to stay on the pin initially but once the fight starts, it’s not always the best place for my survivability if you’re playing a profession without stability and/or plentiful condi cleanse.

2) Okay, killing something. Why the devil should I stand right in the melee meatgrinder if I am just as effective not standing in the place where the enemy wants me to stand so they can kill me? The other side runs trains too you know. I am just saying.

Now yes, some of my characters can, do and should stand in that madness because they are built for it. It’s their job. Others not so much.

3) Define actual contribution. I mean that’s a pretty low bar.

Look, you don’t send the artillery in ahead of the infantry or your artillery is useless and your infantry gets murdered because there’s no support or covering fire.

You don’t send the cavalry in first (usually), you put them in an entirely separate formation so they can ride in on a flank and cut the enemy off at the critical time.

Now does everyone need to watch the commander’s movement and listen? Yes, just because it’s not your best tactic to stay directly on the pin doesn’t mean you don’t move with the pin.

Heavies stay on the pin…squishy rangers stay on the outer fringes picking off the wounded and the running.

Seems to me to be a no-brainer for melee classes to stay on the tag.. for the range classes though .. it’s very situational. As a Necro, I try to think through when I need to be on tag and when it makes more sense to move off.

Using Plague, or when I’m in DS, being on the tag is a must, when I’m being offensive using those skills (when I use DS to escape, I’m usually looking to join my tag or GTFOing). But, when either of those are on cooldown, I’m not averse it finding a safe place on the fringe where I can bomb the tag with WoC or WoD, ready to move to the tag on command, plus judicious use of my marks and scepter/dagger skills..

I found that staying on the pin makes you stay alive longer simply because that’s where the heals, stability and AoE condition removals are dropped.

Besides, staying alive should not be your main concern in zerg fighting, there will always be casualties and random damage spikes. What matters a lot is making the zerg as easy to wield for the commander as possible, which means stacking on pin. Remember, this is a team effort and your personal victories matter less. Never fear death, go where you are needed. Of course, the commander needs to know what he is doing, or all is for naught; however, bad commanders usually have little following.

Zerg warfare is a very important part of WvW, at least for now. If this playstile is not to your liking, then just don’t do it; go roam or havoc or w/e floats your boat. But when in Rome…

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

I found that staying on the pin makes you stay alive longer simply because that’s where the heals, stability and AoE condition removals are dropped.

This.

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

Besides, staying alive should not be your main concern in zerg fighting, there will always be casualties and random damage spikes. What matters a lot is making the zerg as easy to wield for the commander as possible, which means stacking on pin.

Actually staying alive should be your first concern, because if it’s not, then you will become just another rallybot. (Protip: If you look around the zerg and don’t know who the rallybot is . . . it’s you.)

Especially when you’re starting out and may not be a major contributor to team wins, you need to make sure first and foremost that you also are not a major contributor to team losses.

But there’s a thief over there and I has to chase it…….

Khanswrath.1032:

But there’s a thief over there and I has to chase it…….

This guy gets it.

Oh, and it’s spelled haz…

Razamatazz.9628:

Khanswrath.1032:

But there’s a thief over there and I has to chase it…….

This guy gets it.

Oh, and it’s spelled haz…

Back in my day we didn’t change the s to a z now get the kitten off my lawn before I grab the hose

Sure, if you’ve no idea what you’re doing, hanging on to mummy’s apron string is probably the safest place – if that’s what floats your boat.

GET OFF THE PIN….Take that needle out of your arm and free yourself from contributing to the zergs that have ruined this game…

Seriously though, if more people broke off from the pact things would be much better….Instead of having 70 in blob, cut down to 7 groups of 10 and be amazed at how much more you get done.

SoR had the pin thing down, they consistently had the entire map in one blob all the time (practically) so they could kill you by lag alone. BG & JQ do it too, but could pretty much always count on SoR doing it. I’m kind of glad they went away.

As others says, melee stay with tag, ranged run around…
But they all should aim their damage to where commander ask them… Just making dents on foes’ armors is not useful, concentrating damages helps take off chunks.
Mono target ranged should go for low-health stragglers…

I don’t think it’s necessary all the time to follow each and every moment apart from staying in close vicinity once you get past the first push when you need stability and such, what you need is an area to focus damage and ranged should stay a bit further back rather than try to be heroes. Regroup for waterfields and rebuffing if needed.

Easier said than done with pugs though compared to a organized Guild group, who have a tendency to have mind of their own. >.>