Guild Wars 2

The game has been totally unplayable for me for the last month, since the patch around that time. Skill-lag, rubber-banding and disconnects.

I think this is a very interesting idea. The biggest problem would be balance. Even in EB, which at first looks pretty balanced, there are sides that are better than others. This could however be used in a positive way if you always place the servers due to their rankings(1. Green, 2. Blue, 3. Red). It could act as a sort of handicap.

Just an update. The skill lag has not subsided as I have hoped. It would appear that it is not just the patch that was causing it. The lag is now as bad as it ever was. Last night in WvW, I had 20+sec skill lag and rubber-banded in the same spot for 4mins straight before I DC’ed. Afterwards I was running around the PVE map and everything was working 100%…no skill lag. I also checked my internet speed online and it was as good as it has ever been.

My question to ANET is this: I was able to play the game fine in big battles before with the same PC and internet connection, but now it lags way past the point of playability. What changed?

Thanks for the response. I just needed to confirm that there is in fact increased lag after the patches. I don’t always experience it as bad as I described, since I tested it one day when it was very bad, but it always makes the game unplayable. I think that skill lag gets exponentially worse if you are further away from their servers, which in my case is a lot.

This also confirms that I probably can’t do anything about it, I’ll just have to accept that I can’t play the game if a patch happened. ANET’s inability to address this issue that has been there since launch does not inspire a lot of confidence in them.

Does anyone else ever experience this issue where for a few days after a new patch comes out, you have horrendous skill lag. I have had this issue pretty much since launch and a rough guess would be that I have experienced it about 30-40 times.

I only ever play WvW in GW2 and in general I can have zerg fights without skill lag. I do get lag during 3-way SM fights, but I think that is normal. My server is EU Silver League and under normal conditions my game experience is fine, even if two full zergs clash. The problem only ever arise when the game gets patched and lasts for 2-3 days after the last of the small patches have been done. During this time, I have skill lag in excess of 20 seconds even during smaller fights. I once tested my skill lag by doing an empower and then running from Red EB Spawn to Keep and I only received my might and the animation just in front of the portal.

A few things about my setup:
- My PC is pretty decent and I don’t experience any lag or issues in any other games I play.
- I do have more than usual latency in GW2 due to being located in South Africa, but my game experience is fine except for after the patches.
- EU Server
- Run TS, but no other programs that might take resources while playing.
- The issue exists even if I am not where the fights are happening.

Any help would be appreciated.

As we all know, one of the biggest problems in WvW is that when there is a large discrepancy between the populations of the servers, the fighting is boring and one-sided. The worst case of this typically happens when one server has a large night crew, but the other two servers does not. Since most people can only play during their evenings, this means most match-ups are decided by the night crews. This causes a general disconnection with the result of the match-up, as any participation from your side will not have the slightest influence on the end result.

I think I might have stumbled upon a solution to this problem. Although I think the general idea has lots of merit, the idea is pretty raw and not well thought out yet, so lots of tweaking will be needed to make it a good solution.

As I am currently in the process of moving from EU zone to NA zone in RL, I started to look for a new NA server to play on. I was quite torn though, as I really like the people on my EU server, but since we have zero night crew, I would not be able to enjoy WvW. As I was struggling with this, I found myself wishing that I could play on both. It then occured to me that if I was allowed to have both a EU and NA server, it might actually help in other ways as well:

• Lets say it is primetime in EU and the queue is full. Why not go and help out my NA server who is struggling to cope with the opponent’s night crew?
• My EU matchup is one-sided as we are winning, but my NA server is struggling. Why not take our guild to play on NA this week. This will not only help my NA server, but also my EU opponents as there are less people on due to the imbalance.
• I like both zerging and roaming, why not join a Bronze league NA so that I can roam more easily.
• My guild wants to GvG against another guild on our server…Lets just make sure we are on different NA servers and GVG each other there…in OS ofc
• a NA guild and EU guild wants to GvG each other…now you can.

These are just some situations that I could think of that would benefit from this. I am also pretty sure that latency would not be such a big issue, as people already play across the ocean.

I am interested to hear what people think about this.

TLDR: Allowing people to have both a NA and an EU server will reduce coverage discrepancies between servers.

My 2cents:

- No rezzing of dead players. There should be a penalty for dying. So you fight a larger force at lake tower , you all wipe in a glorious heroic outnumbered fight, but you also manage to kill 10 or 20 of them in the process. Now the bigger force will have to choose between fighting with more even numbers or regroup and loose the progress.
This will accomplish further important things:

1. Proximity of waypoints will confer an advantage. The further the bigger force are away from their spawning location, the weaker they become and the stronger the smaller force becomes. Instead of a larger(stronger) force getting everything on the map, they will get a portion in relation to their dominance in fights. This will also mean that the PPT will more accurately reflect the relative strengths of the servers.

2. Smaller forces can wear down larger forces. Even if you can’t win a fight, you can aim to secure stomps and kill as many as possible. Regroup and repeat. This will be especially effective against map-flipping zone blobs, since they will get bored of running/dying and move to another map. Now you can rebuild and if you defend your stuff, you can do the same with an even smaller force.

3. It promotes active decision making in the fight. Do you stick to your commander or rez an ally? Does the commander rez the numbers that just fell or continue the offensive. At what point does he do one or the other. Your commander sees that a bunch of enemies dropped, maybe move of slightly to entice the other group to try and rez then hit them hard to kill even more.

4. Stomping becomes important. Once a player is stomped, he is out of the fight. A groups coordination in this matter becomes vital. Decision making around when to stomp and how, becomes important. Where the people drop also greatly affects what the best course of action is on whether to secure the stomp or not. Did they all drop in one spot or are they scattered. Do you break up your formation for the stomps or not. Do you maybe position your melee train in such a way that you guard the downed enemies while your ranged players secures the stomps? The fact that stomps also give points is an added bonus.

- One rally per kill. Rallies only from players. Maybe only the person that did the most damage to an opponent gets the rally from them. This will also contribute to another common issue people have with WvW, which is that Melee Trains are too strong.

- Rally Cooldown. If you have rallied recently, you don’t get another rally or your chances of getting one gets reduced. This will also make it so that smaller group have less potential to give out rallies.

Likes:
1. Fights – Duels
2. Fights – small scale
3. Fights – large scale

Hate:
1. Reviving. Removing this could give smaller servers a fighting chance. The distance to your nearest waypoint would become more important than your actual numbers.
2. PVE mobs. Why do we need deer, wolves etc. All mobs not part of WvW should be removed.
3. Skill Lag! By far the worst of all. Nothing ruins this experience for me as much as this. This is the biggest reason I will be quitting as soon as another decent MMO comes along. Saying this actually makes me sad, since WvW is the best game mode I have encountered in a MMO to date. But a prerequisite for enjoying a great game mode is the ability to play.

@Zen:

Fair enough on the empower + VoR. Even though I saw that you mentioned 5 guards, I was still looking at it from a per person perspective. Cumulatively, your numbers are spot on. It is worth adding that if you have AH on those guards, each would be healed for 13k.

I actually run 0/15/30/20/5. I still don’t think that searing flames will be that great overall, since 5 people would still amount to 1 boon total every 2 seconds. Compared to the rate of which boons get applied, i think in large scale it would not be that great.

The more interesting use for it would come in when doing small scale IMO. A nice coordinated attack on a single member could be devastating if you loose 3-5 boons instantly.

On the part of disciplined coordination…I can’t agree more. I personally think the surface have only been scratched as to what is possible if a group is built properly and coordinates well.

Jamais vu.5284:

Brafius.7432:

That being said, you still need someone to do the damage and atm Eles/Necros are at the top in this.

Confirmed for never having played a heavy. Take a look at your damage log some time, melee attacks will make up the vast bulk of the damage you take even if we for the sake of your argument discount paintrains.

For one, most of a necros damage would not show up on your combat log, as conditions does not get logged atm. As for where the majority of the damage is coming from, all I can say is I have played a guardian for 80% of the time in WvW (also the only thing I play, 90% of my game time) and I have recently started to play an ele. The damage I inflict with my ele (very tanky build as I am learning) is way higher than I ever did with my guardian. I even don’t die much, as the ele has such good battle mobility.

The thing about melee damage is that it is so easy to avoid. If a ball of heavies is coming your way, a dodge or double dodge through them will mitigate almost all of their damage. The problem comes in when you get cc’d.

zen.6091:

snacktime.1082:

The downed mechanic is IMO the number one reason why heavies are so dominant. The most powerful weapon in large fights is downing someone at the right time. Heavy classes are harder to down and more forgiving of mistakes.

The rally mechanic is part of it, but the biggest thing by far is boons an overall build efficiency.

Just think about what 5 guardians acting in coordination can do:

-Provide 300 stacks of might and 9k+ healing with one skill
-Provide 25 players with stability and protection (protection again with virtue)
-Provide another 9k+ healing all blasting water, maybe even blasting players at the same time
-Purge 75 conditions and provide 9k+ healing with one skill
-Imob stack 5x
-Lay down enough rings or lines to lock down a huge area
-Provide perma swiftness to whole group with new symbol mechanic on the move
-Provide all kinds of small heals from dodge rolls and orb burst
-The only AoE stun break in the game, or spec’d in radiance, be the new boon stripping machine

-

Can you please clarify how you get the following:
-Provide 300 stacks of might and 9k+ healing with one skill
-Purge 75 conditions and provide 9k+ healing with one skill

Its also worth pointing out that to get:
“Provide another 9k+ healing all blasting water, maybe even blasting players at the same time” you would need 5 hammer guards with 2500 healing power each. (Blast = 1.3k + 0.2hp). This is not possible. They would also do non-existent damage, so any setup like this would be less than ideal.

Lastly:
“The only AoE stun break in the game, or spec’d in radiance, be the new boon stripping machine”. Stability > stun break IMO, so very few guards spec for this. Regardless, you could also rather trait for stability instead of the stun break. The boon stripping is nice, but removing 1 boon per 10secs on a single target is hardly game changing. I haven’t tested this, but I am pretty sure it is single target.

I do agree with you that guardians are currently very strong in WvW group play, due to all of the support they can provide. Being very tanky at the same time, makes them an easy pick for groups. All things considered, an ideal large group setup should have more guards than any other class. They can however not really function on their own and Warriors, Eles and Necros are also very important. If this was a schoolyard team picking, it would go something like this:
Guard > Warrior > Ele > Necro > Mesmer > Thief > Engi. Ranger would be asked to please leave…

Skeletor.9360:

Banzie.5248:

1. My Guardian has 16k HP. You’re first point is Moot then.

Moot thieves and elementalist have 11K 11/16 = So thieves get 70% of the health…point for me!

No, no point for you and not moot. Guardians, Thieves and Eles start with exactly the same HP (10805). To get to that 16k, the guard had to trait and gear to get that 5k Vitality. You have chosen to rather spec in damage (I am thinking you run mostly zerker gear), while that guard has sacrificed a lot of damage in order to be tanky.

From your statements I am deducing that you are a glass canon thief that is unhappy about the fact that he is dying in zerg fights. All classes can’t be good at all forms of gameplay. Large Scale WvW is not your classes’ strong suite, you are making it worse for yourself by bringing the wrong build.

1) False. Guardians have the lowest HP along with eles and thiefs.
2) Yes, that is what armor does. They have the most.
3) As stated before, conditions bypass armor completely.
4) I’m not sure what you are referring to. Other classes (Eles, Necros) have superior AOE.
5) Hammer Warriors are the kings of AOE cc. Guardians have pretty good hard cc, but I don’t think anyone is having sleepless nights over them.
6) Warrior with GS is one of the most mobile builds. Have you played a Guardian before? They are 2nd worse.
7) Both classes have good cc breaks. Most classes have some though. You would expect a melee class to be good at this. Guards excel at group stability, which is one of the main reasons they are so popular in WvW groups.
8) You are again listing things that one of the two classes have and making it sound like all heavies have this. Warriors have 5/6, guards have 3/6. I have no clue what this atomic weapons are.

The biggest reason why heavies are so needed in large scale WvW, is because rally mechanics are so broken in WvW and any deaths hurts the group way more than just losing a player. Heavies die less. That being said, you still need someone to do the damage and atm Eles/Necros are at the top in this. That is why most wvw groups would have these 4 classes as their core and then add in a few mesmers/thieves for specific functions that are unique to them. Rangers are just way UP in large scale WvW due to their pet getting killed too easily.

Lastly, if you are playing a thief and are losing duels to a guardian, you should have a good look at your playstyle. I would recommend you start by not just trying to “trade blows”…

Curo.2483:

No. They stopped dropping from bags and sanctum sprint after bazaar of the four winds was done.

Thanks Curo. That was what I thought, but wanted to check since I didn’t have time to get the node when the bazaar was on.

Is there a way to obtain quartz crystals apart from the TP and the “home instance node”?

Does anyone know if the emissaries that were in the crowd pavilion is still somewhere in the game. I wanted to get some recipes/skins from them, since I still have a LOT of those sprockets lying around. I found that the zhaitaffy merchant from dragonbash is now in LA, so was wondering if it is the same for the crowd pavilion ones. If they are gone: Are they coming back at some stage?

Mr GaNk.5204:

Blazin Blunt.6908:

Mmmmm, probably something like this;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgqCnFyLEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741DHSRGC-jgyAYsARRgIMAZvhwm+wSgQVxioxqsx0uCR63UDA-e

Thanks again man, the equipment mix that you came up with is exactly what I was looking for, I’ll have to try all these build specs and test them out to see what really suits me. I really appreciate all these feedbacks.

Just one more thing in anyone’s opinion, how much health is viable for an AH guardian?

Most people would say somewhere between 16-18k. I personally run with 16.5k and I don’t even have that 350hp/s from EM I mentioned earlier, as I take two-handed mastery for the cooldown (I think EM might be better than THM, but I have gotten so use to my cooldowns with THM that it is hard for me too change now). The stats that Blazin showed was very good IMO.

ps. I just noticed that your GS have the blood sigil on it. Even though the tooltip in game states that it has a 2sec cooldown, it’s actually a 5sec cooldown:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil

These silly people that Alt-F4 to deny the other server PPT. If you take PPT that seriously, just roll a warrior and use #3 skill on down. Has the same effect, but saves a lot of time. Come to think of it, I wonder how much a server’s warrior population ratio affects PPT?

It’s funny, most people think since the ICD was put in that they are now useless, but they are still one of the strongest foods. They were pretty OP before the ICD!
I bought a massive amount of those dragon rolls when they were 20c. They are still very well priced now at 70c.
I had to adapt to the short duration though.

Blazin Blunt.6908:

Mmmmm, probably something like this;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgqCnFyLEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741DHSRGC-jgyAYsARRgIMAZvhwm+wSgQVxioxqsx0uCR63UDA-e

Very Nice Blazin! I really like that stat loadout!
Adding food and oils:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgqCnFyLEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741DHSRGC-jgyAYsARRgIMAZvhwm+wSgQVxioxqsx0uCR63ULFwTLjA-e

I don’t play PVE much, so I’ll just comment on the WvW side of things. Your build would work well when you are part of a group, especially at the front of your zerg alongside that blue dorito. Your DPS would be decent, but not great (you’ll get lots of kills + loot bags). You should be one of the last ones standing in your zerg.

I would recommend you drop the 5pts in Zeal for 5pts in Radiance. The blind on your VoJ hits multiple enemies.

As for your stats, I would agree with Blazin that about 3k is enough for an AH build, but if you are still finding your feet with your guard, you could start with what you have and over time trade toughness for crit damage. I am also a fan of the Lyssa runes, mostly for the cleanse.

Two tips:
If you add Save Yourselves to your bar and follow it with a RF+Lyssa, you would be removing all of the conditions of 4(i think) of your allies, which is massive. The problems is all of your current utils is pretty good:)

If you got some candied dragon rolls(70copper, lasts for 20mins) for food, your healing per second would be massive.
EM+AH = 5×70 health/s (assuming that there are 4 allies around; with the staff and your crit chance you should hit the 1sec ICD easily)
Food = 325 health/s + 325 DPS. (also a 1 sec ICD)

vaKuz,
AH scales very badly with healing power(hp). 100hp = 1 extra health per boon.
Your current build would be: 71 health per boon
1000hp would be: 79 health per boon.
So, all that extra hp gear would only net you about 480 extra healing on your Staff#4, which is not worth it. What makes AH builds strong is the fact that you can get such strong healing without having to get any hp. This makes it possible to up your other stats while still maintaining great survivability. Your current stats would be much better for your purposes. The heals from your dodge rolls does scale very well with hp, but then you are starting to do something different than what you are aiming for.

Let me know how things goes. I’m very curious about how your use of JI will be going.

Don’t get too excited pupu. I also had no skill lag since patch for the first time about 12 hours ago. I also thanked Anet in another thread. Just tried to play now and the lag was the worst I have ever experienced. I was teleporting+rubber-banding around for about 3 mins while we were trying to defend Durios.

Brafius.7432:

I don’t want to know what the Big-O is. It will only make me sad/mad I believe. To OP: Yes, this is what is creating your lag. Skill lag comes from the inability of the Anet servers to handle all of the computations that happens when large groups clash. The fact that conditions get dynamically calculated based on changing stats contributes a large part to this. What the buff have now done is add more computations, since every single person’s stats is now changing even more than before. This is not limited to conditions btw. Everything affected by your stats are now being recalculated over and over.

The thing that I don’t understand though: The have already stated that upgrading the servers is not an option, so the only solutions that I can see is:

1. Reduce computations. For example: When a condition is applied it ticks for the same amount every tick instead of changing every second with your stats. This is how it works in WoW, unless that have changed.

2. Encourage large groups to split up. This will decrease the computations per second since less people are fighting at the exact same time. The new maps might help with this, but unfortunately they have added way more computations with the bloodlust buff than the new maps could ever help with.

3. Reduce the amount of players on the map. This can be achieved by either lowering the player cap per map or encouraging the server populations to equalize. I would not be a fan of the former, but the latter would be great.

I also just would like to point out that prior to the patch I have been pretty impressed with how little skill lag I have been experiencing lately. I used to get it when large zergs met, but for the last couple of months I have not had any, apart from when a 3-way was happening in SM with higher tier opponents. Since this patch, I have been completely unable to play. I hope they fix it soon, as I only play WvW and it has been the best large scale PvP I have experienced!

Edit: I didn’t list the removing of the stat buff as a solution, but I obviously feel that that needs to go ASAP! I don’t think they will keep it for too long, but hopefully they will replace it with something that doesn’t strain the system, but still encourages the fighting on the new zones.

I must be honest, I use to really dislike AM. I remember a matchup a few months ago where every time we met your massive blobs, the skill lag would make it impossible for me to play. I think a lot of people experienced the same issue. Skill lag has been getting better recently prior to the patch, to the point that during the week before the patch I never experienced it against AM. This has changed my view about you guys a lot, since now I get the opportunity for those epic fights against greater numbers that we all crave. Hopefully they can fix the issues from the new patch as well. As long as your numbers don’t break the game for me, bring on as many as you can!

Also a shout-out to the FSP guys. I know all of AG is hoping you guys recover soon from the hits you took from some guilds leaving. My experience this week has been that you guys are already stronger than you were in our previous match-up. You seam to also be making the best of your situation by using smart tactics, like always capping SM right before a tick. Also congrats on taking AM’s Keep on EB last night. That’s no small feat.

titanlectro.5029:

Dawdler.8521:

But we know exactly how the bloodlust buff affect the game:

It makes the game unplayable due to extreme lag spikes and warping.

That is just a bug, which they may have just fixed (I’m not at my home computer to check). They will fix it for sure, the orb buffs did not spike lag.

They improved the lag with today’s patch yes, but the game is still unplayable for lots of people. Instead of having 40+ seconds lag at spawn out of combat, I now have 10+ seconds lag only during combat. It’s like playing chess against an opponent that has invisible chess pieces. Oddly enough I got a few kills The buff is the main reason for the skill lag.

I don’t want to know what the Big-O is. It will only make me sad/mad I believe. To OP: Yes, this is what is creating your lag. Skill lag comes from the inability of the Anet servers to handle all of the computations that happens when large groups clash. The fact that conditions get dynamically calculated based on changing stats contributes a large part to this. What the buff have now done is add more computations, since every single person’s stats is now changing even more than before. This is not limited to conditions btw. Everything affected by your stats are now being recalculated over and over.

The thing that I don’t understand though: The have already stated that upgrading the servers is not an option, so the only solutions that I can see is:

1. Reduce computations. For example: When a condition is applied it ticks for the same amount every tick instead of changing every second with your stats. This is how it works in WoW, unless that have changed.

2. Encourage large groups to split up. This will decrease the computations per second since less people are fighting at the exact same time. The new maps might help with this, but unfortunately they have added way more computations with the bloodlust buff than the new maps could ever help with.

3. Reduce the amount of players on the map. This can be achieved by either lowering the player cap per map or encouraging the server populations to equalize. I would not be a fan of the former, but the latter would be great.

I also just would like to point out that prior to the patch I have been pretty impressed with how little skill lag I have been experiencing lately. I used to get it when large zergs met, but for the last couple of months I have not had any, apart from when a 3-way was happening in SM with higher tier opponents. Since this patch, I have been completely unable to play. I hope they fix it soon, as I only play WvW and it has been the best large scale PvP I have experienced!

Edit: I didn’t list the removing of the stat buff as a solution, but I obviously feel that that needs to go ASAP! I don’t think they will keep it for too long, but hopefully they will replace it with something that doesn’t strain the system, but still encourages the fighting on the new zones.

With those stats, you will be very tanky indeed. Very Nice. I currently run around with less than that and I survive very well. I also run with 15 in Radiance and I love it! Every time you kill an enemy you get: 3 stacks of might on 5 allies, an AOE blind on the enemy and also a nice 1k heal if you have AH.

I do have 2 suggestions though:

1. Take a serious look at getting the final soldier rune. The condition removal applies to everyone affected by the shout, so your support goes up a lot!

2. Drop Meditation Mastery and get Altruistic Healing. You would be giving up a 20% cooldown reduction on JI, but gain 70 healing per boon per ally. The 2 biggest sources of healing would be:

An extra 4k (5×12×70) heal (if 4 people are in range) every 16 seconds from using EM on staff. This totals EM to almost 6k every 16secs.

That added 1k (5×3×70, if 4 people are in range) heal on your VoJ spam.

Sanctuary works very well as zerg breaker, as it has a knockdown on it. Most of the people that use it however trait for ground targeting.

Although I am also a big fan of the RoW + JI combo for trapping, I am not sure that it will work that well in a zerg fight, since stability prior to engagement is very common. I would say still try it (I am just guessing here), but my feeling is that you will get better use out of something else. It might actually work on the back lines, since most of the stability would go to people in the front. What might be interesting though is to use JI to port ahead of your zerg, draw the focus and then use RF, sanctuary or something like shelter, while your peeps smash them. I think I’ll be trying this myself as well…well, as soon as the game is playable for me again(Bad lag for me since patch)

What type of gameplay are you focussing on?
Btw: if you have the gold, you could push your boon duration up by another 15% with 2x Rune of the Traveler.

Hi vaKuz,
I think you made a small error somewhere, as you have superior aria but no shouts.

As for the question on Purging Flames: In an upcoming patch it will be buffed to remove 3 conditions on the initial cast(notes are not final yet though), which will make it an extremely good skill for the type of gameplay you are after. I believe it will become one of the goto skills for a restack, since you can cleanse a lot of conditions and reapply the might.

On the elites: I myself have a hard time deciding on this. What I typically do these days is use ToC when we are ramming a door and are under ac fire(might be less needed now with the new Ramming Mastery Buff) and use RF when we are clashing in open field combat. I believe ToC would be strong there as well, but since I have both 5pt traits in Radiance and Virtues, the Virtue refresh is just too good to pass up.

The only thing that I am not sure about in your build is the use of JI. It is a very strong skill when you roam, but I’m not sure what you would use it for in a zerg. I would personally replace it with SyG, as stabilty is very important in WvW.

ArkAngel.7940:

Deli.1302:

ArkAngel.7940:

Don’t mind us. No skill lag here…

Someone else from your server says otherwise (scroll up). No one is gonna transfer because of a problem anet can fix by removing this stupid buff.

Don’t know where theftwind was getting lag. But even with the 70 man IoJ zerg running around everywhere. Only FPS lag was present. All my skills still shot off as normal.

Also, I never mentioned anything about transferring. I’m just saying, if you roll with the higher tiers, expect the lag. I’m tired of seeing the same post regurgitated every day.

I had horrendous lag and our matchup is between #11, #13 and #20 EU. Our previous macthup was #1, #9 and #13. Last week we fought against hordes of enemies and the only time I experienced skill lag was in a 3-way SM fight. Last night I couldn’t even play due to the lag. I don’t think it is only a T1 problem.

The lag was so bad last night that I couldn’t play. Unless you classify “see how far you can run before your skill goes” as playing. In that case: I managed to run from EB spawn to keep and back to spawn before my skill fired! On the borderlands it was better, but still unplayable.

Two suggestions to Anet:
1. Remove the bloodlust buff. Nobody wants it and your servers can’t handle it. Why not change the control of the runes to something like: +10% PPT gain or more seige damage/range or arrow cart damage reduction or cheaper upgrades or just make it tick straight PPT.
2. Change the way conditions works. My understanding is that if you throw a condition on someone, the magnitude gets adjusted dynamically with your condition damage. This means that for every might stack you receive, the damage per tick needs to be recalculated! Why? Why not just take the stats at the time of application? Am I missing something?

We all know the reason for skill lag is that the servers on Anets side can’t cope with all of the calculations that happens in WvW. Should the design philosophy not then be to limit these? Why add more?

On a different note: The maps is a welcome change. Thanks for that.

If you are planning on running in a large group, you should have a look at the sigil of stamina as well. It’s like a super version of Omnom Compote for Guardians with Selfless Daring + high Healing Power. I’ve not tried it myself, since I have very low healing, but with a build like yours it should be great in a zerg!

The only way that I could manage it was to use a bloodlust stacking weapon to get the Power up:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJAWSlUgqCHHSLEfIFSuAbBYPwoPqjueQRYIDB-jEDBYjBigAiIAI5bIaJQgZRoV1FRjVNLpqaCyabYWzCR2za1SBgsyI-w

Personally I would take Master of Consecrations over Shattered Aegis, but apart from that it looks like you have balanced your stats very nicely. What sigil were you planning for your staff? With the nice healing you built into your build, something like Sigil if Stamina would work very nicely! And they are only 6 silver!

Wukunlin,
I like your idea for removing x seconds. I think the biggest problem currently with conditions is not the fact that some professions can spam it, but rather the fact that they treat all conditions the same when it comes to cleansing. Since you have to use the same skills to clean both a 25 stack bleed and a 1 second cripple, balancing is impossible to achieve.

On an aside: Both of you seem to feel that this would be too strong as I originally described it. I think it is quite interesting that we actually already have a group cleanse from light fields with whirl, but it doesn’t really get used that much from my experience. Why do you think that is?

Hi guys,
I have heard many people complain that there are currently too much condition spam in the game(PvP/WvW) compared to the availability of condition removal. I have also heard complaints that it is too easy for people to have permanent retaliation, especially in larger groups in WvW. This got me thinking, why not change blast finishers into light fields to remove conditions instead of giving retaliation. I know that both projectile and whirl already do this, but maybe changing blast finishers to do this as well will solve both complaints to some extent. I also think it might be an interesting choice in a group fight to decide between blasting a water field for straight health or a light field for the condition removal. What do you guys think?

Thanks for all the help guys!
One more question: Renewed Focus vs Tome of Courage?

That is crazy good regarding PoV! I might try both this build and a 0/5/30/30/5 version to see what works best for me. I might also run both, just at different times depending on the opposition. The most important thing is that I am pretty confident that I can make them both work with the same gear!

Regarding SoJ: I could run the match myself, but I am never sure what I good value range for skill-specific coefficient would be. Any ideas?

@Brutaly
You bring up the point that was my main concern with this build. It will only really shine when the enemy is dropping(any idea if renewed justice triggers on downed or kill?), which would mean that in most situations we will win regardless. A case could be made for it still being very powerful when the groups are evenly matched, but that same case could be made for PoV when your allies are hurting from those condis.
One thing I want to clarify about your post: Does a standard PoV cleanse two conditions per shout? Earlier when you were saying this, I assumed you were referring to the fact that I have two shouts. If this is the case, I need to put some serious thought into this!
One last question: I know you theorycraft quite a bit. Do you know if SoJ’s passive really equates to +-300 armor? I know it scales with the opponents Power and your Toughness, but the 300 number sounds very high and if it wasn’t that high, I would run with WoR or CoP instead.

@Rigel,
I know about the dangers of SY, but the 15s of Protection, Fury and Retal is just too strong for me to ignore. I have adapted my play style to accommodate it. I typically only use it pre-engagement, so I don’t get the condis. This allows me to hit with protection up which is huge for surviving that initial impact! If the fight happens to go past 48sec, I sometimes also use it for big plays. For example: I see my party members have a ton of condis and are low on health, while I’m still pretty high. I pop SY, all my virtues, empower(6k heal) and RF and hope that the passive condi removal hits soon. This is a risky play for sure, but if you pull it off you feel like gold! Sometimes this would mean my death, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I really wish that I could have CoP on my bar, since the SY+CoP play is just clutch! Also note that with the staff I am transferring one condi to the enemy every 10s. Unless I am wrong about the SoJ passive, I can’t give that up and SyG I can only give up if there is reliable stability amongst my party/group. SoJ passive + SiN if I am correct is 450 Armor, which is what allows me to spec more into damage and still be frontline.

Brutaly,

Thanks for your input! The changes that you are suggesting are actually really close to what I am currently running:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJAWSlUg67WFyLEf4ERWBRi9AjZsjXPcYCZIA-jEDBoLBiCEgiAhIAK7pIasltht6KalXBRZDTDjIq2cORG0DrWKgyFGB-w

The differences between what you are suggesting and my current build would be to swap out SY for HtL and change the sigils on my weapons. I think these would be great changes. I’m not sure that my armor/jewelry in this build is the best choice, but it was my first set of exotic/ascended and finances are tight, so I had to stick with it. I have now saved up enough to get a new full set of armor/jewelry(better rewards in WvW + LS helped here). I guess the question that would then be the most important would be regarding the gear, since changing traits etc. are so easy. One of the reasons I went for zerkers jewelry is that it would leave the door open for a roaming build in the future.

For the build that is listed in the first post, my core idea after being survivable through AH, was to have a major impact in a medium/large group. I therefore went 15 into radiance to pick up renewed justice. What this would mean, is that every enemy that i kill(staff is a great tagger), would give me the following:
AOE blind, 3stacks of might for 5 allies for 7.5sec, VoJ burning for 5 allies and also a decent heal(3×5×70hp) for me.

Do you think this would be better for this application or which changes would you suggest? For capping camps with a small party, this build would not be ideal at all, since the amount of kills happening would just be too low. When doing this I would then change to 0/0/30/30/10 and grab WoR. The most important question would be: Will my gear setup be good for both?

Bash,

Thanks for all your input. Your previous post about getting hit a lot had me thinking. The only reason I am taking signet mastery from the Radiance line, is to reduce the cooldown on Signet of Resolve, since I intend to never use SoJ for anything else apart from a final stun break. And I only really chose SoR for the condi removal. A better balance for my build might be to go for shelter, lemongrass and the either Blind Exposure or Inner Fire (burning is very common in zergs fights, so this would be up a lot). I would be losing quite a bit of direct damage survivability through the loss of omnom pie, but I would gain a lot if condi survival instead. I also think my damage output will be higher due to the fury uptime. Your thoughts?

Rigel,

I have done a decent amount. I think I am at rank 105 or something. Most of that was done before they made it so much quicker to level. At least it now hurts less that I spent 40pts before realizing about the fortitude boost! I am actually much newer to the game though, since I play almost exclusively WvW. I think I have 2.5k AP. This is one of the reasons I want to fine-tune my build before buying the gear, because the finances are low due to little PVE play. For extra lol: my map completion sits at 27%!

Thanks Bash

Those runes you mention are very intriguing. I have used 2x Melandru before to get the 10% reduction. With the way ticks are calculated you actually gain way more that 10% from any condi reduction (it might as well say -1sec condi duration). Hoelbrak is also one I have considered, but when you have SY it is hard to say no to 45% boon duration! The citadel one I actually use on my PvP build (Monks Focus + Medi) for that Fury proc. The one that have really perked my interest though is the pack one. Fury is an amazing boon and to give it to your allies would be great in an zerg. The one thing that always makes me weary of the 5% on hit runes is that I am not sure how often it procs, as I have no clue how many hits I am actually taking. I think you are right in saying that my current ones will probably be best for this build, but I cant help but imagine a tanky Pack-rune build where you run with the DPS part of your zerk and try and take hits!

The armor value on my build is a bit misleading, since it does not show the 150 Toughness you get from Strength in Numbers. With SiN, it comes to about 3k. My current build that I am running sits @ 3.2k, which has always been sufficient for me in our Tier. We are #13 ranked EU server.
Another large part of my survivability comes from the 10% damage reduction of SoJ. According to posts that I have read on the forums, this equates to roughly 300 Toughness. I’m not 100% sure of the math, but from my own experience my current build is very tanky @ 3.2k when I have SoJ on. Ofc, just before the zergs clash I would also get 15sec of protection from SY.
If I do need more toughness, I could look @ changing out some of my trinkets to knights, but if I am survivable enough without doing that, I would prefer to keep my jewelry as is.

The build you linked to is indeed very nice. I have seen quite a few of his builds on youtube and they are very good. For my build I am trying to lean more towards putting out some decent damage while still being quite survivable.

Thanks for your comments Bash!

For (3)-(4) I were leaning towards your suggestions, so that’s great. The one I was having most difficulty with was the EM vs THM and I think your post have made me realize that EM is just superior, even though THM will be missed! I might still swap EM out for TBH in certain situations (Blasting water fields when we are ramming + lighting fields when we are out of combat), but when the zergs are clashing, I’ll make sure to have EM!

For the bonus part, I was mostly using the SoJ for the -10% damage reduction, since as far as I know this stacks with protection to be 43%. You do bring up a good point about not having an active way to deal with condis. If I did use SY+CoP, it would have the added benefit of cleansing allies as well. I also need to look into if CoP gives only a single stack of boons or a number based on the number of condi stacks you had. In the 2nd case it might be massive, as the heal would also be substantial. Another option might be to go with 6x Lyssa runes for the active cleanse, but my current runes might be better overall due to Blasts lasting 50% longer.

For the (1): I was hoping that since the staff hits up to 5 times and twice a second, that in zerg situations I would be able to keep up with the ICD @ 40% crit chance. Even then, I’m not sure how much condi damage I typically get in a 10s window, so it would be hard to compare the health gained through Omnom vs. the condi reduction of lemongrass. It might be best to just carry both and use when appropriate. Luckily it is the easiest one to change.

Thanks again for your input!

Hi guys.

I have been working on my Guardian WvW Build for quite a while now, but need some advice on the last few choices i have to make. Any advice will be much appreciated!

Link to build (Note: Stacking Weaponset Sigil shown on Spear):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJAWSlYg67WFyIEfIFRuA7DEETBGh/1DHmQGC-jUDBYLQoLAUgAEEIEBQZPFRjtMMsVXRr8KIabYKXER1mzDRzgO1SBUuwI-w

I intent to use this build mostly in medium to large group play in WvW, so for the majority of the time I will have at least 4 other allies in close proximity. This comes mostly into play when I am looking at the healing that I am getting from AH. The staff would be my main weapon when running in a zerg, while the hammer would be used for smaller encounters as well as for blasting fields.

I am having difficulty deciding on the following:

1. Food: Omnomberry Pie vs Bowl of Lemongrass poultry. I am not sure if my current setup will be more susceptible to direct damage or condis. I already have 3 condi removals every 10s, but with lemongrass I would be almost immune. Omnomberry gives me 325 hp/s + 325 dmg/s. Chocolate Omnomberry Cream also looks tempting…

2. Empowering Might vs Two Handed Mastery:
EM adds about (5×70) hp/s to my regular staff attacks, while also obviously getting the benefit of the might. Two Handed Mastery reduces the time between Staff#4’s to 16s, which makes the 12 stacks might almost permanent + making the 6K heal from Empower on a shorter cooldown.

3. Maintenance Oil vs Sharpening Stones:
I have no idea if I would benefit more from Precision or Power.

4. Sigil of Bloodlust or Perception for Stacking Weaponset:
Same problem as above.

Any advice on the above listed or any further comments will be much appreciated!

Edit: Added the 1-4 numbering

15) Ranked Servers/Matches. For example Rank1-10 server, 11-20 etc. This would not only prevent the problem mentioned in (14), but also make the learning curve less steep for newbies. Matched would also be more even, which in turn will lead to less quitting and more enjoyable fights. Some of the PVE’ers that come purely for the achievement points might then actually stay due to it being fun for a change.

Ok, so I have just come off an nice losing streak due to this problem. So I apologize for the ranty nature of this post. I fought 8 games, were top rank in my team 6 times and won only 1 game due to always being outmanned. I then decided to see how easy it is “to win”, so I waited in lobby, joined the winning team when it was 350-200, did nothing and won…Zero points…victory!

The general formula for match ups goes like this: Everyone waits in Q, the longer you wait, the better your chance to be in the “correct” team. After about a minute from the start, one of the players in the other team quits. Suddenly you are behind and also a man short. This goes on for a few minutes until someone new to pvp joins the bad team. Now you are probably at 4v4(if you stay in the same server numbers are typically lower due to quiting) and about 100 points behind with a new player in your ranks. And now comes the biggest problem of all…which team is going to be joined next…only the stronger team gets new players…cause who wants to lose…

I am truly getting fed up with this. Now, my suggestions:
11. Once the match have started, ppl can only join the team that is behind if not even.
12. Even better: You can’t choose a team…you always get placed.
13. Quitting a match disables PvP for a set amount of time.