Guild Wars 2

I am a big whopping Rank 6. I don’t anticipate moving up terribly quickly. I enjoy WvW, and like to participate, largely by trying to follow either the big zerg, or maybe a small group of 5+ that seem to be running around taking care of business. I also enjoy running supplies to help repair and build things, as well as doing my best at castle defense. I prefer my staff ele, and love laying out blankets of AoE, but will occassionally put a wand/focus on to do some siege defense with that whirly wind thing (no, I don’t know the names of my own abilities).

Now, I’m wondering what I might spend my points on, or if I should not spend in anything and just sit on them? I was thinking maybe siege defense might be helpful? I’m always annoyed by having to deal with arrow carts and such when I’m trying to lay blankets of AoE up on walls as we’re storming keeps?

Just thought it might be fun to start buying some things, but wanted to find out if there were better things to do first rather than later or what?

Thanks.

I currently have some points in Ballistas from pre patch, ill probably throw the rest into Arrow carts next.

Supply is so kitten expensive its not really worth it compared to the AC buffs from this last patch

Siege defense might be a good idea to if that happens alot esp with the latest buffs and new guild siege

Yeah, I out my first points into Siege Defense. I think I will start putting some into Arrow Cart now though.

The most “fun” abilities are tied to the siege mastery lines (Cannon/Ballista/Arrowcart), with Arrowcart Mastery giving the greatest effect for little investment.

None of the other abilities have discernible effects, so won’t be “fun”. They’re just meant to be minor cool non-gamebreaking bonuses.

With your playstyle, I’d suggest you just sit on your points for now, maybe save them up for Supply.

The meta is changing with the latest patch; suggest you get some time on siege equipment to get a feel for it.

oh, and your “whirly wind thing” doesn’t work for siege defense anymore

ARROW CART MASTERY LOL

Thanks for the input, folks. I’m a pretty defensive minding person, so I might start with siege defense then.

I guess I shouldn’t have used the ‘fun’ word towards the end. I just meant it would be ‘fun’ to start spending the points, not that the outcome had to be more noticeably ‘fun’ than another. ‘Fun’ in journey over destination, if you will.

Though I suppose I ought to look at what the siege mastery things are, but admittedly, I don’t use siege much. I like doing the jumping puzzles and ‘getting’ siege, but usually just donate it off to people who enjoy using them. Though, I will ‘place and build’ my siege often. I don’t care to be on one so much. I guess I should spend more time on it.

So maybe then I should just keep sitting on my points. :\

But I have a question for shortcake!

I’m being totally serious, though it won’t seem it. By stating a thing in caps followed by LOL, and can’t tell if that’s a sarcastic, “Arrow Cart Mastery, what a joke, clearly no one should buy that!” comment, or was that supposed to be like a, “Cleary ‘everyone’ should stop spending what they are spending in and buy as much Arrow Cart Mastery as they can!”, or a new meme I don’t know about (I don’t know about them until meme generators call and want their meme back, which in itself is an indication as to how non-current I am), like the old [Adj] [Noun] is [Adj] one? Like [SOME THING IN CAPS] LOL, which means ??? I can’t tell how to read that.

Well, I didn’t invest any ability point until the latest patch, where I put all available points in Arrow Cart mastery.. This new trait in the WxP abilities is quite worth it in my opinion: Massive extra damage, an extra skill #4, …
The other WxP traits were just not worth it according to me: Too much investment for too little yield..

AC mastery till its nerfed…. hell even after ac’s were nice before

I’m pretty sure he means that the only smart place to put your points in is Arrow cart mastery.

Anything against guards or mercenaries is useless because if you need help against those, then you are just a scrub. You don’t sound like a scrub so you can skip those.

Siege bunker and siege attack seem pretty good but you can only get a max of 5% for each. 5% is very very little. If 3 ballista shots kill you without full siege bunker then 3 ballista shots will still kill you with full siege bunker.

Supply capacity is really good. 5 extra supply is extremely powerful. And extremely expensive so we can skip that one.

Ballista mastery is ok, especially if you can get the extra skill and the range. Too bad ballista see less usage nowadays. Still this would not be a waste.

And then there is arrow cart mastery.
For very little points you get a kittenton of stuff that is pretty kittening OP. Increased range kills pretty much most cataspots that were being used in the game up till now. The damage buff for the second ability is huge (don’t forget that all arrowcart skills have just been buffed, the nr1 shot by 80%, already). For only 75 points you get all that and you even get a poison shot that unveils.
This arrow cart mastery is breaking the game and incredibly OP, you would have to be stupid to pick something else first.

Ok. What’s funny is I haven’t been out here in weeks, and only poke in here to try to find nuggets of strategy or maybe ask a question (like this). I know some people are really adept at being able to parse through the yelling to find the golden nuggets, I’m not one of them. Since I was here reading some of the answers to my question, I went looking about and realized there’s a ‘lot’ of talk about the arrow carts going on. So now I could deduce what shortcake meant. Honestly, my question was a blind question that I could have easily asked 3-4 days ago (and had been considering asking).

Thanks for the break down Cal. But then I have to wonder, if I put the points in AC, are they then going to tone it down and I’ll be bummed I put my points there?

So now I guess I’ll just keep sitting on my points. It’s kinda funny that they put a neat progress mechanic in, but now I gotta ‘deer in headlights’ happening, and it’s a bit all for naught if I’m reluctant to put them anywhere. Can you ‘respec’ WXP (I see everyone calling it that, technically shouldn’t it be WAP, but I digress?) at this point in the game?

I guess the answer is to get my butt out in WvW more so I get enough points to spend that it doesn’t matter. I’m a bit of a ‘burst’ player though. I’ll play for a few day to a week having a blast, then maybe disappear for 3 weeks.

Appreciated the input!

notebene.3190:

Ok. What’s funny is I haven’t been out here in weeks, and only poke in here to try to find nuggets of strategy or maybe ask a question (like this). I know some people are really adept at being able to parse through the yelling to find the golden nuggets, I’m not one of them. Since I was here reading some of the answers to my question, I went looking about and realized there’s a ‘lot’ of talk about the arrow carts going on. So now I could deduce what shortcake meant. Honestly, my question was a blind question that I could have easily asked 3-4 days ago (and had been considering asking).

Thanks for the break down Cal. But then I have to wonder, if I put the points in AC, are they then going to tone it down and I’ll be bummed I put my points there?

So now I guess I’ll just keep sitting on my points. It’s kinda funny that they put a neat progress mechanic in, but now I gotta ‘deer in headlights’ happening, and it’s a bit all for naught if I’m reluctant to put them anywhere. Can you ‘respec’ WXP (I see everyone calling it that, technically shouldn’t it be WAP, but I digress?) at this point in the game?

I guess the answer is to get my butt out in WvW more so I get enough points to spend that it doesn’t matter. I’m a bit of a ‘burst’ player though. I’ll play for a few day to a week having a blast, then maybe disappear for 3 weeks.

Appreciated the input!

Afaik you cannot change your points for now. I do hope something like that will be implemented (I think 2g would be a good price for that, it should not be as menial as changing traits)

You might indeed get kittened when they finally fix arrowcarts but I do think that there will be some kind of recomp for that. And it doesn’t really matter as these rank abilities have very little influence. (except for the new arrowcart ones).

P.S. I forgot about cannons.
Actually the cannons are like ballista’s there are some neat perks in that ability line but it is very rare to be able to man a cannon. You can only shoot a cannon if you are facing REALLY bad players except for maybe in SM where you might get a little use for them.

I doubt there’ll ever be a refund; WxP’s kinda like skillpoints, rather than traits – there’s no limit how many you can earn.

notebene.3190:

But then I have to wonder, if I put the points in AC, are they then going to tone it down and I’ll be bummed I put my points there?

Don’t worry, even if the Arrowcart Mastery effects are halved, it will still be the best choice. The first level is now almost mandatory.
If you’re still undecided, save your points for Supply; by the time you amass 20 there may be other Masteries, and you’ll know what you want to spend them on.

Caliban.3176:

I’m pretty sure he means that the only smart place to put your points in is Arrow cart mastery.

Anything against guards or mercenaries is useless because if you need help against those, then you are just a scrub. You don’t sound like a scrub so you can skip those.

Siege bunker and siege attack seem pretty good but you can only get a max of 5% for each. 5% is very very little. If 3 ballista shots kill you without full siege bunker then 3 ballista shots will still kill you with full siege bunker.

Supply capacity is really good. 5 extra supply is extremely powerful. And extremely expensive so we can skip that one.

Ballista mastery is ok, especially if you can get the extra skill and the range. Too bad ballista see less usage nowadays. Still this would not be a waste.

And then there is arrow cart mastery.
For very little points you get a kittenton of stuff that is pretty kittening OP. Increased range kills pretty much most cataspots that were being used in the game up till now. The damage buff for the second ability is huge (don’t forget that all arrowcart skills have just been buffed, the nr1 shot by 80%, already). For only 75 points you get all that and you even get a poison shot that unveils.
This arrow cart mastery is breaking the game and incredibly OP, you would have to be stupid to pick something else first.

I agree with all points except the last one.

It’s not arrows cart mastery that’s breaking the game imho, it’s the new arrow carts on their own without any ranks whatsoever. Even if you removed the ranks they would still be op. Apart from that you’re 100% dead on, and this is the advice I give to anyone that asks in map chat.