Guild Wars 2

A lot of you DAoC players have some memory issues. As we all have a habit of doing, we often look back on the “glory days” and forget a LOT of the issues back then. DAoC was no different. The RvR was fun, but it the same issues GW2 is going through.

I played DAoC from launch and left right before Frontiers. There was never a point during that time it was perfect or even near perfect. Just about every class got time in spotlight of “OP” and FoTM for RvR. I still remember when Midgard healers were ridiculously OP with all of their stuns and the game had zero diminishing returns. I still remember when no casters had self bubble and they were all sitting ducks to the bazillion archers out there. I still remember when a handful of Infiltrators could take a keep without ever having to touch door.

Oh and lets not forget how buffbots became pretty much a standard requirement.

I still remember the population discrepancies severely hurt the underdogs who got zero bonuses from being outmanned and rarely had a chance to step foot in Darkness Falls. Which only put them farther behind the curve. Hibernia was the whipping boy on just about every server because Albion and Midgard generlly had WAY more people. I mean have we forgotten that one of the biggest things about Frontiers was it was going to FINALLY address the YEARS of the population imbalance issue?

Oh and there was lag. There were times when the zones would crash. There were many many many relic keep attempts completely dismantled from crashes and lag.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED DAoC, but don’t give it the old “glory days” coat of amnesia. It ALWAYS had issues. But the gameplay was fun enough for us to look past it — for me that’s how I feel about GW2. I’m having fun.

Christianpro.3254:

Engineer sucks, they dont do so much dmg as all the other classes. Thats all Fix It please and dont come and say i am a noob since im not, got full exotic and ascended

I never understood this sort of argument.

“Class X is horrible , and I should know I’ve played it hundreds of hours.”

If someone plays a horrible class for hours and hours, I seriously question their sensibilities.

ekleenex.1654:

Kardiamond.6952:

Tier 1-2-3 don’t get anything more then T5. Except maybe queue.

Lol. I don’t even..

Kardiamond.6952:

They seems to be surprised when they fight someone that can dodge roll their hammer stun, and when they don’t have a water field with 10 blast finisher to heal them.

I love finding those lovely lonely Rekz running back to their preformated zerg.

Small man syndrome once again, anything more then 1-5 is a zerg, typical low tier mentality. All I can say is beating on 60+ man groups is a lot more enjoyable then playing paddy cake with small man in some remote corner of the map. And congratulations, you picked off someone who is running a support build trying to go stomp actual zergs with their guild. Nobody cares about your 1v1 small man prowess. But I’m sure every server will thank their solo roamers for the great WvWvW contributions. I love small man groups, and running in them. But the ones who post on here are, humorous. It’s almost like PAXA, except worse.

Roamers contribute to WvW just fine. They are often the ones feeding commanders scouting reports, denying supply at crucial times while the larger groups hammer it out in other places. If no one cares about someones 1vX prowess then no one equally cares about a guilds 20 vs X prowess.

But the fact is people like different aspects of WvW. You dig the big fights, Kardiamond digs the smaller. Big guild ego is no better than small man syndrome.

Alarox.4590:

BrimstoneAshe.5043:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

BrimstoneAshe.5043:

So a game that had gear progression from level 1 with blue > green > rare > exotic suddenly surprises and disappoints everyone when they add one more? Makes perfect sense. Especially seeing as to how there’s that huge amount of content that requires ascended gear. Oh wait…

Yes, there’s gear progression, getting higher level higher tier gear.
But prior to this, there was no hint of the treadmill, the gradual, utterly pointless power creep of gear.
And now there’s Ascended, the first step of the treadmill.

Prior to this there was no hint of a treadmill? How can Exotic > Ascended be considered a treadmill, but Rare > Exotic not? That makes no sense to me.

It’s rather simple. Exotics require little time to get compared to Ascended. Exotics can be obtained through any playstyle; Ascended can only be obtained through niche activities.

I’ve only been playing GW2 for a few of months and going from rare to exotic was by no means a simple process for me when I first hit 80. There’s a significant amount of time or money one has to invest to go from Rare > Exotic. So I don’t see why you were cool with that and not cool with Ascended except that the ways you get ascended don’t appeal to you.

Even though I don’t use turrets, it is very disheartening to see this. Especially when we’ve seen them hotfix thieves recently.

So is it official? Keg party in EBay BL tonight? AR bring the funnels? BP brings the solo cups and ping pong balls? Ebay supply the nachos?

Rhade.8674:

I started an Asura Engineer as my first character, and I’ve been playing with my Mesmer friend up until level 20. I’ve been using pistols and turrets for the most part. I just don’t feel like I bring much to the table with my engineer. I do not like the kits, elixirs, or rifles at all. (As in, I don’t want to use them at all). The turrets seem really fragile and not really worth setting down unless a veteran pops up. Even then, they break nearly instantly. Am I doing it wrong?

Based on:

1> You aren’t impressed with turrets(not many people are).
2> You don’t like kits, elixirs, or rifles.

It just doesn’t sound like this is a profession you’ll enjoy. #2 Really stands out to me — at least when it comes to kits and elixirs.

Not trying to be mean or a jerk. I just wouldn’t want you wasting time on a profession that doesn’t suit your playstyle. And trust me, I could totally understand why the Engie wouldn’t appeal to other players.

Since you are a PvE player, oddly enough, for me, I find a thief in PvE to be really fun. Have you tried a thief? Some people may think they’re a PvP type class, but they are a lot of fun in PvE IMO.

They need to add a friggin group finder tool in this game and if there’s one knock I give GW2 is that there isn’t one. It absolutely boggles my mind that ANY company making a MMO doesn’t put one in at launch — even more of a problem to NOT have one at this stage. Heck they even refer players to a 3 party site that has a very simple and basic tool. Put that basic tool in the game!

“Hey guys, I got a great idea! Lets tell players to go to their desktop, open up their web browser and go to a 3rd party site to find a group in our game. Because nothing roots a player in this world we spent years creating than making them Alt-Tab out of it! BRILLIANT!”

Yea seems to be a love / hate divide among the engineers on the pistol. I definitely fall into the love category. For me, I like the fact that I can get so many conditions from it. Bleed, poison, confusion, burn, and blind in one weapon? Yea, I’m a fan.

The key to understand is that this combat model is designed for weapon/ability swapping and dodging. You’ll be doing those a lot. I highly suggest hotkeying weapon swap to something can hit easily(I chose to map mine to my mouse wheel click). It will not be uncommon for you to go from Weapon Set 1 to Weapon Set 2 and then back to Weapon Set 1 in a fight.

Just to give you some basic tips for your Ranger(I have an 80 ranger). This is just to start. As you get more comfortable, you can mix and match to your play style.

1> At level 7 you have the ability to swap between two weapon sets. In the first set use a Longbow. In the second weapon set use a Sword in the mainhand and a torch in the off hand.

2> For a typical Ranger longbow rotation, send in the pet(F1). Hit #3: Hunters Shot and then follow up with #2: Rapid Fire. Rapid Fire is a 5 second attack. Each shot does more damage than the previous shot, so you need to let it run it’s full 5 seconds before you use another ability or you’ll clip that shot. Rinse and Repeat till the target is dead. How often you’ll have to Rinse and Repeat this will be determined by your pet choice and whether the target is a normal target, Veteran(bronze/copper ring around their target avatar).

3> For multiple targets, I like run up to my pet, and use Longbow attack #5: Barrage on us and the bad guys and then switch to my melee weapon set and hit #5: Bonfire. You’ll be burning them up while the arrows are raining down.

That really is all you’d need as a Ranger to do 90% of the quests in the game. As far as signets/abilities for a ranger, you can do 90% of the content with Signet of the Wild, Signet of the Hunt, and Quickening Zypher(or Flame Trap if you wanna add a 3rd layer for AoE damage). Troll Unguent for your heal will again get you through most of the content with ease.

Azraeel.1238:

Even if you execute them perfectly, you have a HUGE chance to mess up. For example, just missing a CnD or getting blocked costs us 6 initiatives.

Blocks and evades and misses are something that every class has to deal when using their staple abilities during a fight. When that happens, EVERY class has to adjust to the loss of momentum at that point. Do you have any idea how many times most classes waste their abilities on a thief’s evades and blinds? Lets not forget the thief is one of the best classes in the game with resetting fights when this happens.

Azraeel.1238:

Since you totally skipped the pve part (leveling/dungeons/fractals), I’ll assume you found those tough.

I can’t comment on dungeons and fractals as I don’t find those very fun and don’t do them on my mains. But for leveling, I’ve not had an easier time than I have had with my thief so far at level 40ish. As with any class, there are certain builds that shine for PvE questing/leveling over others — thief is no different. The thief is the first class I’ve been able to do my storyline quest when I’m 2+ levels lower than it. I’ve been able to do that over and over consistently. With other classes I usually wait until I’m a few levels above my storyline.

All I heard before I even rolled a thief was they were tough to level. It was a pleasant surprise for me to discover how ridiculously easy they are to level. The only downside was because I heard that mantra so much from the thief community, it obviously makes me skeptical of most of the other doom and gloom statements made by the same folks.

Azraeel.1238:

Which leaves WvW? Just because we can slip away, doesn’t makes us OP, nor ridiculously easy to play. All it takes is one mistake and you are done for. I can’t count the times where I got pulled out of my shadows refuge then instantly immobilized to be burst down by someone else.

There’s no way we could accurately measure this, but I’d bet you that most players who actively WvW have done more “homework” on how to fight a thief more than any other class. That ability that kicked you out of refuge? I bet you they have that on their bar purely FOR shadow refuge. I know for me, no matter what character I’m playing, I’m going to have at least a trait, skill, or ability specifically set for fighting a thief. I gear/trait my character with a thief’s burst in the back of my mind. I equip at least one skill for shadow refuge luck shots. I make no other considerations for any other class specifically like I do for a thief. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that does that. Why is that? Because for a class that you claim is so unforgiving for a mistake…. there are thieves EVERYWHERE in WvW. No other class I fight more on a consistent basis in WvW than I do thieves.

Given my experience in PvP in about a dozen other MMOs when I see a class that’s played the most in a mode of play it’s not because it’s “unforgiving” — it’s because it’s the strongest in that particular mode of play.

If time and being on equal gear footing is so important to you OP they have a mode for that — it’s called sPvP.

If you choose to participate in a mode of the game that does have gear discrepancies, and being top geared takes time, then that’s your choice. All dailies can be completed in WvW. You don’t even have to put much effort into it most times. But really if you think ascended gear is required to be successful in WvW, you’re misinformed.

I watched the entire video and I got the impression they were ok with trap rangers at the moment. However if I was a D/D Ele, I’d be worried.

AR really has to be one of the worst servers about sweeping after a take. You’d think we’d learn at some point. But clearly we won’t. Then again it really isn’t a surprise. We’ve got a long history of being pretty kittenty at defense. One of the big reasons a lot of people have left AR for other servers.

I agree with the OP. Never understood what the point was for making upgrades to camps/towers/keeps cost money. IMO it shouldn’t cost anything but supply and time.

I will give Ebay credit. They made a very well coordinated attack on our 3 keeps last night. Golems hit all 3 pretty much at the same time. And I don’t think AR could execute that as well as Ebay did. Just from an execution perspective, it was really well done. I mean that sincerely.

Thing is, there were AR people who saw it coming a good hour before it actually happened. I know I did as well as others. I made calls out. I saw your guys supplying up for a golem rush. I tried like like mad to fight for supply, but I was solo and failing for the most part. It was 1am my time, I was tired, and I had to get up in 4 hours, but I was there.

Ebay doesn’t just win with numbers. You guys clearly have guilds that communicate and work together. But numbers are still a factor to a significant degree. Maybe we did have a big force in Ebay BL at the time. I dunno. I live in AR BL and I know we didn’t have many. I know I had the outmanned buff for a good time. I think we finally had people coming in, but by then it’s too late.

But I do know we don’t have the numbers to make a significant assault on Ebay AND defend a significant assault from Ebay at the same time. We have to choose one or the other in most cases. One can say we made the wrong choice. /shrug.

If we did have numbers last night, then we failed. I mean commanders showed up but it was way too late. All the signs a golem rush was coming to our BL were there WELL in advance of it happening. And I know we had commanders that were told it was coming, but they didn’t react. We let you guys get a foothold in our BL. That was our failure.

I’d rather have cannon or oil mastery trait allow me to take no damage while manning them. That would be useful. That way you’d have to kill the weapon to kill the operator.

EnRohbi.2187:

BrimstoneAshe.5043:

EnRohbi.2187:

I don’t know how you consider our number 2 to be “premium”.
It doesn’t interrupt a stomp, it just moves you and stealths you so you don’t get hit by it.

By stealthing and moving during the stomp you in effect interrupt it. And side note… it interrupt’s multiple people are trying to stomp you at the same time. Some professions don’t have THAT luxury. Don’t act like you haven’t giggled when you rob 3 people of that first stomp. And as far as the second stomp, well the whole point of a number 2 downed state is to give yourself a couple of more seconds of opportunity. Either for you or your teammates to get back in the fight. Can we all agree we’ve seen more than a few people in WvW stomp a downed clone? So a mesmer’s #2 gives plenty of opportunity for a little more time.

I’m not saying Mesmer’s is the best, but it’s certainly one of the better.

“Effectively interrupted” is not the same as Interrupted. Don’t pretend I’m wrong about something because you want to make up your own definitions for the word “interrupted”. If you don’t port far enough away/come out of stealth before the stomp completes you’ll die from the stomp anyway, and that happens fairly frequently. I would like to know how you consider that to be one of the better Downed skills.

The only real advantage to our #2 downed skill compared to other classes is against Bads who don’t know to Stomp the second mesmer that reappears (As the first is always the clone).

You’re right. Effectively interrupted isn’t the same as interrupted. So I’ll rephrase it. If I go to stomp you and you use your #2, my stomp is interrupted. You can bring up times you’re in a bad spot, or you mess up and don’t get away far enough to still get stomped, and while those do happen, they certainly aren’t the majority of times you use your number 2.

And your only advantage isn’t against bads. There’s nothing to negate that abilities usage(other than the previously mentioned bad luck/play). Other professions downed abilities can be negated by certain boons. Unless there is a “prevents stealth” boon I’m unaware of. And again your ability can interrupt simultaneous stomps, a few professions don’t have that luxury either.

IMO, the downed system should be taken out of WvW together or if not, at least normalized where EVERYONE has the same abilities.

I’m somewhat new to GW2, but not new to MMOs. I’ve played many of them. I’m reading the thread here and something just don’t seem to click with me. Such as:

“Why should I group? There’s no incentive.”

I would answer, why shouldn’t you? There’s no penalty.

You’re either social person or you aren’t. Either way is fine, but a social person is never going to ask why bother being social. It’s like saying “Why should I bother saying hello to someone I don’t know?”

Now I consider myself a social person, but at my age(grey haired gamer here) I also have little tolerance for certain personalities. And a personality that annoys me, may not annoy you. Heck I’m sure my personality annoys a lot of people. I don’t think games are going the route of the solo player. I think they are designing games so the annoying personalities out there have minimal impact on your experience. There’s a difference.

For example, the other night I was doing a quest, and random player invited me. I accepted. It didn’t take long before I realized this person was of that annoying personality for me. So we did the quest, I said my goodbye, and left the group. We actually kept crossing paths in the zone and helping each other out, but didn’t group or really interact and that worked out well. The next night, I came across another quest and someone invited me again, and I accepted. We got along well, had some fun chat and banter, and ended up staying grouped. My girlfriend logged on, she joined us, and we all had a lot of fun and laughs as we quested the rest of the night. Sure we could have all 3 done the content solo, but it wasn’t nearly as entertaining.

So when I hear “What’s the point of grouping? What’s the point of a guild?” I just scratch my head. We have all hung out with our friends doing absolutely nothing and having a great time. I see grouping up to do quests no different than hanging out playing cards together. I see hanging out with guildies the same has just hanging out with friends. When I was in the service, me and the guys I served with would sit around drink beer and watch classic comedies over and over and have great time! We’d have quote showdowns. We’d make up silly games and rules for the games. How do you think those friends came up with the Kevin Bacon game? How do you think beer pong was invented? I just take the same approach to video games. I don’t need a designer to give me every incentive to group. Just don’t give me any penalties for grouping and minimize the impact of griefers and selfish players and I can take it from there.

So when I hear 150 people can’t find something fun to do, it doesn’t sound like you’re tired of the game, but maybe you’re tired of each other.

CyberSamurai.1208:

is not interested in alliances with other servers or even other guilds on our own

Get serious, have fun, but get serious. Some of the superior attitudes that I hear in game and read in this forum are nauseating.

I find it interesting in one post you say you aren’t interested in alliances with other guilds of your own server… and in the very same post accuse people of superior attitudes and not being serious. One could argue that if you followed you’re own advice and took WvW serious, you WOULD work with the other guilds on your own server. But I’m probably just talking crazy stuff.

The reason devs have to be vague about specifics is because the community generally goes kitten insane if something changes during development. If I was a dev, I’d keep it close to the chest too.

Ugh, lost power Friday evening. Just got it back on. Thought I was missing out on a new matchup. How disappointing to see we didn’t get changed. Oh well. Good excuse to play a different game.

dank,

I see you’re in the guild DOWN. I came across a an Asura Mesmer last night with that guild tag running with a Thief from Envy. Please pass on my tip of the hat to that mesmer… best mesmer I’ve seen so far in WvW.

llkoolaid.8204:

Dovgan, enjoy being third, we might not be here next week. But I’m sure BP will keep your server down where it belongs… Have you ever thought that roaming and not actually accomplishing anything other than killing up lvl pugs is what keeps your server in the dumpster?

Since I tend to run alot with Dovgan I can tell you that he’s not a roamer in the sense you think he is. Alot of roamers are just looking for fights and don’t care about the what’s going on with the bigger picture. Dovgan is exactly the opposite. Most of the time we are doing things, its for tactical purposes on the WvW front – not roamer looking for fights front.

For example a couple of nights ago, as usual, AR had nothing in Eternal. So in order to get a foothold Dovgan did something pretty clever with some bait and switch stuff. And EBay took the bait hard. As a result AR took Overlook keep with about 8 people led by Dovgan all the while Ebay had about 40 running just outside of Overlook clueless of what was going on.

While he doesn’t run with an AR zerg he does pay attention to what it’s doing and will often do things that helps them. And he pays attention to what the enemy zergs are doing too and try to throw their game off if he can. That’s what dictates where we roam more than anything. I’ve learned so much WvW tactics, strategies, siege and counter siege placement from him that as a “roamer” I know I’ve got more knowledge than half our current commanders.

Daeqar.8965:

The idea that this trap is intended to be a counter for “zerg veils” is just wrong on so many levels…

When they first announce the anti-stealth traps and now reading how they work in the patch notes it really does come off to me like A-Net is trying to add a counter to stealthers inside keeps/towers. Which I’m glad to see given the plethora of stuff a thief can CnD off of in a keep. It can be incredibly frustrating to try and chase one down that’s inside. Plopping a stealth trap on top of a dead mesmer is going to be at least one place I always drop them among other places.

Rob.7624:

pixieish.9627:

The commando class is rumoured to be released after the sandwichmancer.

OMG yeh I heard about that!
I cannot wait for that either, but the problem is what trait line to go into!

Should it be Pork products like ham and bacon.
What about Chicken burgers?
Or MAYBE BEEF.

So much choice.
Never mind the sauces.

Whether it’s PvE, WvW, or sPvP – I trait bacon in any and every one of my builds.

nothing.7941:

It’s a little pricey, but if it was too easy you’d screw over the stealth mechanic too much. This is not for dueling a thief, it’s mainly for a stealthed enemy hiding in a keep you just flipped.

^^ This.

The anti stealth trap wasn’t so a person can beat a thief. It was to make sweeping keeps and towers a bit easier. Got a dead mesmer hanging out in your keep? Drop a trap on top of him. Got a thief CnDin guards/archers and can’t nail him down between his stealths? Use a trap.

Thaia.5146:

1. Anti Stealth Traps are USELESS. Period.
10 supplies and nearly 4 seconds cast? Really? Seriously guys? Thief will kill me before I open my Inventory…
2. Thieves can easily escape from EVERY fight. He starts a fight, loses, stealths, heals and resets (or escapes)… and so on. Two days ago I saw a Thief kiting 2 people AND killing a Dolyak in the same time… that’s insane…
3. There is no possible way to counter stealth. I am asking – WITH WHAT? With that useless traps?
4. The risk of roaming as a Thief is 0. Beautiful, round ZERO. He can run away whenever he wants.
I have leveled an Engineer especially for WvW (because my Ele was nerfed again, and no – I’m not talking about D/D but about my Mist Form) and I use dual Pistols + H S B U Elixirs and Supply Crate of course. Traits: 10/30/0/30/0. Armor: Power/Vit/Condi. I have a question – how am I supposed to fight versus someone who is invisible 75% of the time? Glue Shot immobilize and Supply Crate stuns are useful but still – they only let me to harass him – not kill…

As an Engineer, you have quite a few tools that can be handy vs thieves. Unfortunately based on what you’ve listed in what you’re using for skills, you’re not using any of them. I’d say you’re going to struggle a bit with thieves. Or at least I should say I would struggle with them with your build. I’ve run P/P build a long time with my engie. Thieves can be beat consistently with it if you change your build a little bit.

I’d replace Elixir U with Toolkit. Toolkit is a must for me in any build I use for my Engineer in WvW. When I first started playing the Engineer I thought it was a pointless kit. Now I can’t go without it. The block from Toolkit is amazing and using it at the right time vs a thief is a game changer. Pretty much every ability in the Toolkit is useful in WvW and when fighting a theif. I’d also look at mixing some toughness gear in too helps reduce the burst damage of a thief.

But as far as how you beat a thief with your build? Timing. It really is about timing. Think in 4 second intervals. Now different thief builds will require things to time, but with your build you need to stack on as many conditions you can in those 4 seconds they are out.

Static Shot, Blowtorch, and Poison Volley. Try to make poison volley your last attack before they go into stealth because it will still track them and hit them even if they are stealthed as long as you get the attack off before they stealth.

If you can get poison, confusion, burn and bleed(all possible from pistols) on him before he stealths, he’s going to struggle because he won’t be able to clear all of those conditions. When he stealths, you can heal up, or drop potions on you for the might stacks. But again..be aware of the timing. After they stealth, they will attack in 3 to 4 seconds unless they used Refuge. Drop a glue shot right before they’re about to pop out and dodge. Stack on the conditions.

The biggest challenge you’re going to have with your build is dealing with their Shadow Refuge. That ability can allow them to reset the fight if you dont counter it well. And unfortunately your build doesn’t have great tools for it.

Your only option with your current build is blowtorch. And if that’s on cooldown then you’re pretty much stuck twiddling your thumbs knowing they are going to reset.