(edited by jcbroe.4329)
What is the point of farming to legendary though? In my view, the whole point of ranked is to see where you stand in relation to the best available opposition. If I’m not fighting ESL players and people on that level, I want nothing to do with legendary. I hope they figure out some sort of reasonable solution for season 3 because I have not been terribly impressed with the last 2 seasons.
Not to highjack the thread or anything. 
What is the point of farming to legendary though? In my view, the whole point of ranked is to see where you stand in relation to the best available opposition. If I’m not fighting ESL players and people on that level, I want nothing to do with legendary. I hope they figure out some sort of reasonable solution for season 3 because I have not been terribly impressed with the last 2 seasons.
Not to highjack the thread or anything.
Cause leetness and glowy backpack! Is that not enough?
What is the point of farming to legendary though? In my view, the whole point of ranked is to see where you stand in relation to the best available opposition. If I’m not fighting ESL players and people on that level, I want nothing to do with legendary. I hope they figure out some sort of reasonable solution for season 3 because I have not been terribly impressed with the last 2 seasons.
Not to highjack the thread or anything.
It’s a fair question lol.
The main problem this season is that the matchmaker just doesn’t ever try to make sure the 2 teams are a good matchup against each other. So even during peak hours, you still get this fluctuating match quality, the only difference is the frequency of matches played and off hours reduces the available player pool, and you’re just gambling at that point that your MMR is above average. It could potentially just backfire in your face lol.
But yeah, for the legendary, but also because ANet is going to have to listen to what players say and what their statistics tell them.
In a perfect environment, we’d separate rewards from divisions and switch to a visible rating system with a PvP specific reward income that gets rewarded to everyone, win or lose, but at a higher rate with wins. This currency could then be used at a vendor to buy non-game-breaking items and skins. Divisions could then be tied to rating ranges, and they could add cosmetics to purchase based on your division to the vendor, where you have to be a certain division to be able to buy certain cosmetics.
Until then, it’s never going to be a competitive system that doesn’t punish casual players, or vice versa on who’s getting punished.
P.S. Yes, I’m suggesting that ANet basically reimplement the Glory currency/system now that there is something they can tie tiered unlocks to that isn’t rank.
(edited by jcbroe.4329)
So, you’ve seen the topics by everybody else, not with the purpose of bragging of self-promotion, but to share some general tips and builds from their experience.
First off is a basic tip; if you think/know you have middle/high MMR (which is how the system determines your teams), you can queue at off peak hours to skew the matches because the game this season is only assembling individual teams by similar MMR, not matching teams by it. So, you can either get a game where you get blown out (happens if you aren’t the highest MMR in the pip range), get even matches, or you end up being the team blowing the other team out. Queuing at off hours reduces the available population, so if you know you are going to queue with high quality teammates, you can basically gamble on having more wins than losses and climbing during that timeframe than during peak hours.
Anyhow, with that out of the way, 2 builds:
Paladins (I played this mostly up until Sapphire and then making my Mender’s v Paladins thread): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWRnUqA9sg1CCOsActglOB7pFMAWYOBuAQhDelGT3plI9zA-TpBFABFt/ABXAAAeAAMcEAa4QA8fZAAMender’s (I played this from Sapphire until Legendary): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA9sgVsCOsActglOBDelOT3pO9tAQh7pFEqWYlI9zA-TpBFABA8AAI4CA0wBB4/yAis/ADHBAA
I would personally consider the Mender’s build the better performing build, though it’s probable that it’s less “safe” with the lack of toughness, but it’s capabilities just ended up far out-competing anything else I tried.
Notes:
- On teams with only one necromancer and no other sources of “poison spam,” switch Evasive Purity to Vigorous Training for more dodge potential for you and your team, and more boons to fuel your, and more importantly, your pet’s damage with Bountiful Hunter.
- On the Mender’s build, the runes and Natural Healing both regenerate Astral Force, which is important because if your regen is getting corrupted, you might end up struggling to get Astral Force up every 10 seconds, and if you aren’t regaining Celestial Form on cooldown, then it leaves openings for the other team to take you and your teammates you without you being able to do much for them, and it leaves you susceptible to condi-bombs without Astral Force.
- Use Strength of the Pack intelligently, but also often. Particularly, safe rezzes and stomps can cause team fights to absolutely steam roll in your favor. Also, most necros in the game right now won’t be able to kill you without fearing you, which also applies to Dragonhunters, so 90% of the time, SotP is your “I win” button against these classes.
- Swap to Glyph of the Tides if you are going to play decap (don’t recommend doing this unless you know your rotations perfectly and can guarantee you’ll win 99-100% of all your duels). I’d also do this if you know you’re up against farpoint heroes and want to defend home indefinitely.
That’s all I can think of at this moment. Any comments or questions, I’ll be responding and interested to hear what you all have to say.
I just came back a few weeks ago as a core Ranger after about 15 months off. I played unranked until I had the feel of it again. I was really good in Ranked back then, so I wasn’t surprised when I went through first 3 Tiers with about 2 losses. Then I hit a wall, now I am having an 80% loss rate. I’m getting really frustrated and want to be like I was – losing 4 out of 5 matches over about 40 matches so far is getting old. I guess I’m just not good enough on my core ranger to win so I bought the expansion for Druid. So I’m clear, this isn’t an MRR hell thing – it’s a skill thing. I think I am where I belong, but I want to do better.
So sir – my questions to you
How do I druid? assume your or Euras Final Form build
Specifically to pugs:
What classes do I see coming and run? – assume meta
What classes should I be able to beat always? – assume meta
What classes should I be able to beat if my skill and rotations are stronger?
What is your job in the beginning of the match?
* Do I cap home first, then head to mid so I’m on a ledge for S&R – or do I follow mid pack at beginning?
What is your job in mid-match?"
* When fighting as your type of Druid, do I still stand off point and range attack Called target – or is dps second and support Condi Clears/Heals primary role?
* Do I Chase Far when I see an opening – or do I always leave it and follow the pack.
I don’t mean things like – Don’t kill the Beast, or always be using the mini-map.
I understand rotations, maps, communicating in pugs and general knowledge of the class. What I don’t understand yet – is how Druid is different than GS/LB Ranger from a year ago.
@Wintersnight;
I’ll try to answer in order, and thanks for asking!
How to Druid? This is sort of complicated to answer because everybody plays differently and you’ve probably worked some sort of muscle memory and mental timing, but me for example: I save my Celestial Form and use it in priority of condi clear>heal>stun break, with a situational interrupt only as necessary, with my teammates passively benefitting from the selfish use of celestial form. Pugging especially, your job is to best support yourself, and you can carry like that, benefit your teammates at the same time, and SnR/rez them as needed.
Classes to run from: in a 1v1, you shouldn’t really lose any ground against any class. A good ele is probably unkillable without interrupting their heal, and even then, that shouldn’t matter as because as long as you are defending a point you have, in a 1v1 the only true goal is to survive indefinitely and not get decapped. Specific threats to definitely look out for though are Revenants, with no toughness they just take chunks out of your health, so you want to either kite them or kill them, or pressure them off of you, and the other is Reapers, and basically, you want to be out of range of their reaper shroud skills and try to save your full cleanse for when they commit to a condi bomb because they blow all of their offense when they do so.
Classes to always beat: you should be able to beat everything except eles, and potentially other druids, depending on what they are running. Not that it’s impossible to win, it just isn’t worth the time it would take to win a 1v1, so you teamfight them or outrotate them instead.
Classes you have the potential to beat: any and all of them, but it would require perfect play in certain situations.
Job at beginning: I personally prefer home because I can gauge my teams ability to teamfight by watching the team UI of their health and such, I can 1v1 and win/sustain if I get pushed, and I can join the teamfight quicker than other classes due to the build’s high mobility, and potentially save the fight with a Strength of the Pack stomp or SnR rez.
Job mid match: your most basic job is to not die. Dying resets your current astral force to zero, and when you’re dead, that means less team heals and revive potential. If you see that you’re losing a teamfight, especially in a body count difference, just leave and regroup. Besides that, my general rule is to not unnecessarily push far, and depending on the map, if the teamfight is won at mid, I either rotate back to home or setup to watch the enemy respawn path to home, to see if I need to rotate and where. If my team overextends to far, I ALWAYS stay behind on a node we have, because in that situation, and enemy team that rotates better or wins that teamfight can snowball the whole match from there and win.
Positioning: I would say that I spend most of my time where I’m not the one contesting a node in “mid range.” Basically, you want to be out of melee range, pressuring the smart target (which in pugs isn’t always the called target, the best target is the one closest to death with the least defensive cooldowns, which isn’t always the priority target other people seem to call), and ready to swap to the bristleback for an F2 burst.
Far or follow pack: personally, I trust my own rotations better than my teams in pugs. I generally stay away from far unless we lose the teamfight at mid and far is uncontested, or the team commits to fighting far while home is also protected. You want to always try to make sure the fights that occur are even or overwhelming in your favor for your team, but beyond that, the best advice I can give about fat point is don’t lose map control of the other 2 points to push it if you have them, don’t fight for it while it’s being defended unless you made the smart rotation (you control mid, teammates feeding kills to home and losing, for instance), and never push far after winning a fight/teamfight, because the enemy can just respawn healthy, usually before you do anything substantial, and steamroll over you.
Besides all of that, Druid is very different from GS/LB in that you essentially are just sustained, moderate to low damage output with incredible support potential without your pets damage, and that doing damage is all about utilizing your pets to their full potential.
If I missed anything or need to elaborate, or if there’s anything else, let me know!
thanks fellas! JC, did you mean to leave Paladins on your Menders build? Or do I need the Menders Amulet?
Shoot, I didn’t. The link should be fixed now