Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone, I used to be big into this game after it was released until around the end of December. I pretty much ran out of things to do in pve around early Novemeber and only Pvped the last two months I played it. Unfortunately the lack of a ladder, more modes such as GvG/random and team arenas, balance, dev communication, and a competitive player base caused it to get pretty boring fairly fast. By the time I was quitting Guild Wars 2 i probably knew just about every other serious pvpers name in the game. So my question is what does the Pvp look like now?

whats the “meta” team comp/classes? pvp used to get ruled by guardians mesmers and dagger/dagger elementalists and only a few players played classes like warrior (Hman) Engineer(dont even remember the 1-2 engis that did ok) and Ranger (vendetta, myself and a few others) what are the best and worst classes now?

whats the news on new modes? GvG anytime soon? a game mode that isnt based on capturing points? I really missed the deathmatch style games from guild wars 1

What are your thoughts on the current ladder?

How is pvp looking now? mostly dead? Will this game eventually become more popular again and when? Any news on an expansion?

ChillyChinaman.6057:

A few things:
Not to be a downer, but you picked two of the community’s lowest rated professions.
They are suffering from numerous bugs, limited build options, and lack of defined role in most forms of the game.
.

^no, in comparison to other classes necromancer and ranger have just as many if not more viable builds and although they have bugs just like any other class they are still very much playable.

if you practice your class enough you can be very succesful in any part of this game. Rangers and Necromancers both play pretty similar roles in tournament play at the moment. Basically I’d say the roles in TPvP currently would be Bursty roamer, Support roamer, Bunker, and Side point holder (aka mesmer). Rangers and Necromancers both currently tend to fill the support roamer role with good sustained dps/conditions. Rangers are most often used for the heavy aoe condition damage from their traps, good single target dps with shortbow, strong rezzing power due to their ability to use quickness every 15-20 seconds as well as spirit of nature which gives them more rezzing abilities, and strong stomping power due to their quickness once again and wilderness survival trait line that gives them resistance to ccs. Necromancers see a lot of tournament play for their ability to do a ton of AoE condition damage as well as spread conditions to other players in the fight, they are also expected to be rezzing party members a lot and helping in the group fight in tournaments due to their signet of undeath, which allows them to rez up to 3 downed team members in the area, They are also very commonly used for their boon removal abilities, allowing them to easily debuff the other team, especially the bunker, and for their plague form which grants them a ton of hp and blinds nearby foes. Both can be very strong in 1v1 situations as well as team fights and can be specced to be pretty tanky for holding a node. Necros are dependant on their extra hp bar to stay alive where as Rangers can be extremely evasive.

Necromancers are probably one of the staple members on a tournament team currently along with mesmer and guardian, and probably elementalist.

Rangers just started seeing more tournament play after the recent update but seem to be becoming a very viable option in tpvp

Naito.5693:

JonathanSharp.7094:

Just wanted to jump in and say that I’m reading this thread and taking it all in. Keep it civil (don’t get yourselves banned! ) and let those ideas flow.

I know some of you are upset with the change, but really, this is something we were planning for a while. WE MAY NOT LOCK DOWN utilities down the road, so that you can still have some adjustment when out of combat, but at the same time, we do not think weapon swapping mid-match is good for the overall health of the game. Just wanted to remind you we are here, and I am watching the forums, and your ideas are being heard.

Keep it constructive (and really, overall you guys are doing a FANTASTIC JOB OF THIS!), and carry on!

All I’m reading is “keep those ideas flowing, we’re here, we’re reading everything, however, we will still do whatever the kitten we want.”

And yeah, no kitten we’re doing a fantastic job. You, on the other hand, are not.

most people like the new change I dont get what you are talking about. Did you read the thread or is it just a trend to complain about arenanet now?

I like the new change and I think it adds more balance to the game. I’m not really convinced that utilities should ever be locked but I’m not completely against it either. I’m definitely happy with the current changes though. Pretty sure there is a problem right now where you can’t just equip a weapon though if you don’t have one equipped at the start of the match so if you weren’t paying attention you could be a dagger/dagger ele that ends up with dagger/nothing or just nothing in general which would definitely be annoying. To further prevent this maybe weapons are locked 10 seconds after the game starts or after you first enter combat.

I like how ranger isn’t even on the 2nd list….I main ranger

from a tpvp perspective I mostly agree with what you posted except I feel like the most important classes for a team are:

1. guardian
2. mesmer
3. necromancer
4. elementalist
5. whatever

wouldn’t mind a small nerf or fix to mesmers as there is no strong competition for side point holder considering their portal and they are an overall great class and good in 1v1s, just makes it feel like you cant run a team without one. The recent buffs they got were completely unnecessary.

what happened to xyrkain

looking to get a new mouse within the next couple of weeks probably for christmas so I can bind a couple of my skills to the mouse instead of clicking. I feel like I would only use 5-6 additional buttons so i was considering this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZzsf3VKfTc also what skills/commands do you bind where on your mouse/keyboard?

Jon peters already announced 2 buffs for rangers

Signet of the Hunt speed boost increased from 10% to 25%
arrow velocity increase

other than those two I wouldnt mind a few more ranger buffs, ele downed state nerf, some sort of nerf to stealth, and general bug fixes

<— your ranger is here

OP Hman.5490:

It was a pug no voip Lawl

haha i know the point was if he was that good that hes by far the #1 best player in the game and I already know you gods sacred and zyzz are good players you should have been mopping the floor with what we had put together.

Jimin.4051:

One word.

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Gronzy.

you make a solid point

gronzy is a monster

Jimin.4051:

Gronzy – Guardian http://www.twitch.tv/Gronzy
Gronzy – Ele
Gronzy – Engi
Gronzy – Warrior
Gronzy – Mesmer
Gronzy – Thief
Gronzy – Ranger
Gronzy – Necro

didnt I just beat you zyzz hman and gods sacred like 5 minutes ago? what is this

FuVirus.6398:

Damnnnnnn im the top mesmer :"O

haha I didn’t say you were top just that you were definitely a good mesmer imop

curious to see who other people consider to be at the top of their classes though

Basically what the title says, I know there isn’t that many really competitive players out there yet but who would you say the top players of their classes are at the moment in NA? like #1 guardian or top 5 guardians #1 warrior or top 3 warriors etc etc. Just curious what everyones opinions on the top players out there is.

I just started playing some paids this week so I’m not really 100% sure who the top players are or if you can base it off individual play or team play but I know some that I would consider close to the top would be:

Hman for warrior
Bane seems to play a really good necromancer
Xyrkain is great at mesmer but there seems to be plenty of other good mesmers out there
Engi i have no idea really don’t see many competitive engi players
guardians seems to be a lot of good ones around lily rosethorn and lettuce bowl seem to both be pretty good but I dont really see them in paids yezhik and gods sacred also seem to play a good guardian.
Ranger: same as engi don’t really see many competitive ones
Ele idk
Thief also idk too many people play it

not saying any of the people I stated are the #1 players of their class just some players I’ve seen that seem to play their classes pretty well. I’m curious who everyone else thinks are some of the best players of their classes. Doesn’t necessarily have to be who has the most QPs just players of that class that you’ve seen that do really well

inb4 a bunch of people with a lot of QPs are mad.
inb4 " I’m definitely #1 —-—- in NA"

The amount of glory you get in spvp browser compared to tpvp doesnt make sense to me. I typically only do tpvp and the amount of glory I get per game playing as ranger or bunker guardian is probably about 100 per game not to mention the large amount of time it takes to get a group together and wait in queue, along with this you also get a small amount of bonus glory for winning which I think is 400. I joined a spvp browser half way through an 8v8 game today out of boredom and in the span of about 4 or 5 minutes had earned 200 glory on my ranger. The total time it took to put a group together, wait in queue, and play all 3 matches probably took about 50 minutes and I got a total of probably 700 glory including the win bonus, or I can join a spvp browser and get the same amount of glory in about 15 minutes It doesn’t make sense to me how I can probably earn 3-4x glory per hour playing in a less competitive mode that requires no skill or teamwork compared to winning a tournament. The exp you get for winning a tournament should be doubled or tripled and in all modes you should get something like 5 points per every 30 seconds on a node (timer resets if you get knocked off) just my opinion though im sure many of you will disagree.

Also doesn’t really make sense to me how the top pvp players have devoted probably about 1500 hours to playing pvp in this game and are only in their 40s? considering every 10 levels are harder than the last what does max rank require? 5000 hours?

nldixon.8514:

Why axe/dagger? I can’t think of a worse combination. Is the dagger just for the poison on Stalker’s Strike? You’d be better off going with axe off-hand and using the whirl finisher inside Bonfire and Healing Spring for healing bolts and burning bolts.

I applaud you for thinking outside the box and trying something different, but you’d probably have some more success using different weapons. Sword/torch is kind of an odd setup, since you really only get flame aura from the leap, which is useful, but can be applied just as easily by going axe/torch while closing into melee range (or while someone is closing in on you) and swapping to sword/axe, sword/dagger, or greatsword once they’re in melee range. That way you could lay down Bonfire right before they close in on you, put burning on them with axes and Throw Torch, then swap to your melee weapon for fire aura on leap.

Also, you might get more mileage out of Troll Unguent. It can’t be stripped/stolen and you’re already using Signet of Renewal. If you’re still having trouble with conditions, you could always try Empathic Bond.

Spirit of Nature is kind of “bleh” in PvP. I’d swap it out for Rampage as One, mainly for the stability. Protect Me is kind of “bleh” too, in my opinion. Killing your pet to stay alive is kind of a catch 22, since you lose damage and survivability.

What build are you running?

[Edit: About the clicking, it didn’t seem to affect you too much, which is why I didn’t mention it, but if you spend a few hours training yourself to use hotkeys instead of clicking, you’d probably improve your game play significantly.]

[Edit 2: I forgot to mention your use of Spirit of Nature at the end. The self res was pretty clutch.]

Thanks for all the ideas. I’ve tryed a lot of weapon combinations and pretty much all of them have potential but I think you might be surprised at how well what I’m using can work if you gave it a shot, to be honest my only complaint is the lack of an on demand stun which is why I often times switch up my build to where I am using either sb/sword torch or gs/lb. All of the ranger elites can be pretty powerful in pvp and rampage as one works really great if you are trying to hold or take a point 1v1 but when you are doing paids you will hardly ever see a 1v1 as most of the teams have great teamwork which is why im running spirit of nature now. I do kinda agree that it might help me to practice with hotkeys though.

Oh and I think any of the rangers healing skills have potential but healing spring is just too good with the lV trait in wilderness survival along with the fact that it grants a crazy amount of regen to your allies especially if you have + boon duration

Ziddy.2583:

Maybe stop clicking ALL skills?

lol I thought someone would post this, not having keybinds just seems to drive people crazy and I would have stuff binded to my mouse but I need to first buy one with extra buttons.

Decided I wanted to try and post a couple guild wars 2 pvp vids so I recorded the paid tournament I did last night and put a few of the clips together. The video is only about 2 1/2 minutes long and mostly consists of me getting the kitten beat out of me by two or three people of the opposing team but whatever you gotta start somewhere I guess. Going to try and put some better videos together later which don’t include me dying so much but until then this is my first attempt.

Feel free to make reccomendations, flame, critique or whatever.

To be honest I think I may have jumped the gun and blamed it on the greatsword too quickly. I noticed I was going off point a lot though while still actually being on the point and asked some people about it and someone told me they heard one of the greatsword skills might cause it and they thought it was from the #1 skill and it seemed to make since at the time. I’d have to actually test it closer to be sure but I think I may have been wrong on this one and it was actually “protect me” although it’s still really annoying that “protect me” takes you off point its definitely more understandable than if it was the greatsword. Thank you for your response though Jon Peters as its always nice to see communication.

nldixon.8514:

Just for the record, Path of Scars DOES NOT cause knock down on the return.

It’s still a pretty good off-hand though, and it’s excellent against ranged attackers too stupid to stop shooting you while it’s channeling.

I think you had my post confused, I was posting my reccomendations not the current effects

kinda want to check your streams to see if I’m in there getting kitten on the other team…I know its happened enough times.

Path of Scars knocks down an enemy when it hits them from behind

being able to cast whirling defenses while moving would be amazing but I don’t see it happening as they would have to completely redo the animation so possibly having a 50% chance to block melee attacks or like a nice amount of retaliation would be nice.

After looking at it closer there seems to be a lot of random things that cause me to be “off point” while im on the point so I’m not sure if its the GS or something else. “Protect Me” seems to be the biggest obvious one but it just seems ridiculous to me that it causes me to be off point for 6 seconds if I want to use it. wtf fix this please.

I’ve been playing a tanky sidepoint kind of ranger build for awhile now and it seems to work okay for free tournaments but I’ve realized that the greatsword #1 skill causes you to be counted as off the point when you evade on the third part of the chain has anyone else noticed this? Basically I can be standing on the point the whole time attacking an enemy and they still neutralize it. Maybe rangers are further from being fixed than I thought, ended up changing my build around a lot after I realized this.

nerva.7940:

Demon.7832:

From the sounds of it there are only a few people here that are actually succesfully running a bunker ranger build and they are all running it a little bit differently. I’ve been pretty succesful using a gs/lb bunker in tpvp and can survive 2v1s for some time and can sometimes even down one of them in a 2v1 or 3v1.

“successful” is a relative term. anything can be successful in spvp. in tpvp, there are no “successful” ranger specs. at least, not any that dont bring down your team.

I guess by “successful” I mean good enough to run in free tpvp matches, but you are right there aren’t any truely great builds for ranger in tpvp currently because they just dont fit into any spot on the team correctly.

FuVirus.6398:

GUYS in 30 minutes !!! http://www.own3d.tv/GW2Guru WILL GO LIVE!!!! with Jonathan Sharp of the pvp community. I hope everyone will be in attendance!

thought it was supposed to start 30 minutes ago?

From the sounds of it there are only a few people here that are actually succesfully running a bunker ranger build and they are all running it a little bit differently. I’ve been pretty succesful using a gs/lb bunker in tpvp and can survive 2v1s for some time and can sometimes even down one of them in a 2v1 or 3v1.

Are there any plans on bringing back game modes similar to guild wars 1?
-HA
-GvG
-Random and team arenas

I went up against a team in free tournaments the other day that included something like a rank 1 rank 4 rank 8 rank 14 and rank 24; I am rank 21 and the other members of my team were either in there mid 20s, 30s, or 40s is anything going to be implemented to try and prevent these kinds of matchups?

Jumper.9482:

Not nearly as much mobility as ele/mesmer/guard home bunker. You will get neutral’d on fairly easily if you try to support mid.

So much this!!!! I’ve been side bunkering with my ranger for a couple weeks now and this is one of our biggest problems. check this thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Easy-way-to-make-rangers-viable/first#post887760
my idea to make ranger an actual viable bunker or viable in general. other things that would help
-Unlimited range on distance from you and your pet during “guard” this would allow you to use “guard” in the middle of the map or on another point to keep your pet there while you watch the side point.
-Unlimited range on pet distance, this would basically allow you to do the same thing I just posted with “guard” without need it on your skill bar
-a huge buff to signet of the hunt both passive and active
-some other sort of utility skill that would work similar to the teleport skills that several other classes have, but since a teleport doesn’t fit ranger maybe a huge running leap type of thing?

1. Can we expect to see more communication with arenanet on the forums about what exactly is going on in the pvp side of things? The community desperately wants more transparency.

2. What balance fixes do they feel need to be changed next? Can we expect any significant ranger buffs that will help them better fit into a role in TPvP? What about bug fixes for the necromancer or engineer?

3. How soon can we expect the next balance patch or big pvp update and what do you plan to include in it?

4. Loading screen bug?

5. there is a lack of earning points for point holding builds, the glory system doesn’t encourage smart play but rather a zergfest.

garethh.3518:

It is a 1v1 sort of setup.
The bunker ranger gets progressively worse the larger the fight is.

He also has little to no synergy with anyone.

It makes tournying with one, at least very competitively, a bit of a pain.

This basically, I run a tanky bunker type ranger build a lot of the time and it is great for 1v1 and pushing players off point 1v1 because their only aoe cc is the wolfs fear. I can usually do really well with it in free tourny but it is not nearly tanky enough to compete with a guardian though for bunking mid point and although it is great at side point a portal mesmer out shines it. It’s a good build but probably wont get you too far in paids as its not great in group fights (although the quickness stomp and rez helps) can’t bunker more than 1-2 people and cant get around the map as fast as other competitive builds.

nurt.5401:

I suggested the exact same thing a while back. It makes sense to me as well, just because in broad terms the way team compositions break down looks like this:

Guardian and Ele compete for the bunker/support position
Thief and Warrior compete for glass cannon/roamer
Necro and Engi compete for ranged team fight condition pressure
Mesmer is close point defender because portal allows it to watch a point while being present in other fights on the map
Ranger is amazing 1v1 but can’t compete for the position of close point defender because it has no portal

If rangers could assist mid/boss kills and still teleport back to defend close point they could compete with mesmer for back point defender. I think there’s a chance they might even steal the role entirely, because imo ranger is the best 1v1 in the game. Of course mesmer portal can move multiple people so it still has additional utility the ranger wouldn’t have access to.

Exactly, and keep in mind although ranger is great in 1v1 so is mesmer and both would bring very different things to team fights with different advantages and disadvantages of both. The ranger can lay down condition fields with traps or torch or some decent sustained damage as well as spirit support; however they will lose all access to their pets for this time which means no aoe wolf fear, aoe regen from fern, kds, hard hitting pets like bird and felines and any other added bonus of the pets. Mesmers will still be able to put down timewarp and do great damage as well as bringing back a +1 or +2 with portal.

I was infracted for making this thread…not sure why im still bothering with arenanet and the forums.

TGSlasher.1458:

5 rangers, 5 pets gaurd 1 point, the 5 rangers camp the other lol.

Rangers do need some work though, would like to build my ranger from guildwars 1, traps and no pet

so the skill cooldown/duration would just need to be slightly tweeked to where it wouldn’t be any different or stronger than 5 portal mesmers. This just seems like the quickest easiest fix to start making rangers more competitive to me.

I saw the first post from colin and was so excited for a minute and then saw the date it was posted and pretty much /facepalm

I’m glad to see someone else agrees. After playing enough TPvP its obvious that rangers dont have a spot with how they are currently, they dont do near enough burst damage to compete with warrior, thief, elementalist or mesmer they can’t bunker like an engineer, guardian, elementalist or necro and their condition builds can’t really compete in tpvp either. That being said I don’t think ranger is a bad class I think they just lack a spot and the easiest thing to do would be to allow them to compete with mesmer for side point holding and group support. The amount of buffs that a ranger would need to compete with any of the current bunkers or burst classes would be ridiculous and they would end up having to either changing the class completely or make them overpowered in 1v1 situations.

Devs read and consider it please!

Am I really the only one that thinks this would be a really great idea? Unless someone can think of a way for them to compete with the currently much more effective roamers and bunkers.

Right now this skill is useless.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22Guard%22

If it functioned similar to necromancers flesh wurm/mesmers portal giving a second option to teleport back to where your pet is guarding it would allow the ranger to possibly compete with a mesmer for holding side point. Rangers are far from being a great roamer or a great bunker however they can be fairly tanky with good support skills and are great in 1v1 situations similar to mesmers. In place of laying down a time warp and some quick spike damage a ranger would be able to use traps for condition damage or lay down spirits and some sustained damage to support the team.

basically as it is right now mesmer can hold side point while also providing
-aoe quickness for 8 seconds
-spike damage
-great at holding a point 1v1 when its time to teleport back

a ranger would be able to offer
-aoe regen, revives and condition removal
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spirit_of_Nature
-lots of support with other spirit skills or a lot of condition damage with a trap build
-also great for holding a point in a 1v1 situation

at the moment the rangers are far from having enough burst damage or speed to be an effective roamer as well as not nearly tanky enough to be a main bunker so I feel like it just makes sense that they should fill a role similar to a portal mesmer. keep in mind they wouldn’t have any access to their pet when they leave the side point to come help so this would also really hinder them in a way but i think it would still make them much more competitive in tpvp.

I would also like to see smaller deathmatch style maps.

I can probably get some good players together and tourny in about a hour if you want.

Anvil Rock
……………………..

Just curious if it’s possible for someone from Anet to give us some sort of idea of what/when/if the ranger updates are coming? Not trying to rage or complain just simply asking nicely…pretty please?

PS: If you have been forced to live in fear of your angry raging ranger community feel free to just message me and I’ll keep it our little secret.

Calavero.3420:

I understand where you’re coming from, but if all your changes were implemented, the Ranger class would be brokenly overpowered.

This, the ranger is the weakest class for tpvp at the moment but its not THAT bad.

Yeah I have to agree the community as a whole hasn’t handled this situation very well either. I understand everyone wants some communication with the developers on what is going on and what we can expect/if they are actually listening to us but the way a lot of people have reacted on here is just ridiculous. Part of the reason the devs might not be saying anything is because they realized they didnt have the time and man power to make enough updates and disapoined a lot of people and it turned into a huge mess with a ton of raging ranger players. I’m sure they wanted to give us all the balance updates we wanted by the 15th but the fact is it didn’t happen and we need to get over it. That being said I would love some communication with the Devs or someone as we are completely being left in the dark now and I don’t exactly think they are going about things the right way either.

No guilds out there?

Looking for a Guild I can play free and paid tournaments with. I’m rank 19 at the moment and play mostly guardian and ranger and a little bit of necro, warrior and ele all of which I’d like to improve with. I’m not “Great” or #1 at Tpvp yet but I’d say I’m an above average player and looking to improve. Have Vent/skype/mumble and down to do tryouts or whatever to get into a guild. let me know!

Well I told you that I have a very similar build and just went either 1st or 2nd on my team every round of free tourny and ended up winning the tournament so it can’t be too terrible lol. But then again the longbow paired with the wolf gets me a lot of points as the knockback along with the fear from the wolf and counterattack on GS allows me to neutralize and take points by myself pretty easily.

Keep posting guys!! Real reccomendations preferably. I know the last patch was a disapointment for rangers but whining non stop with no direction isn’t going to help, constantly pointing out how arenanet looks bad isn’t making you look any better. For those of you that have posted ideas elsewhere lets try to get one big thread together that Arenanet will actually look at.

I can’t get the link to work for me but just from reading the description this sounds almost exactly like my build except I use healing spring and usually longbow instead of sb for the extra knockback. Do you play a charr ranger by chance because I ran into someone playing a very similar build in spvp broswers when I was testing out more GS builds after the patch.

If the next patch had 10 new bullets for rangers and they could be any 10 buffs or bug fixes you wanted what would be the 10 things you hope come up? what are the 10 things you want to see focused on and changed the most, maybe if something comes up enough in this thread arenanet will consider it and change it. For me it would be:

-“Guard” now works similar to the necromancers flesh wurm allowing for a second skill after casting “I’ll save you” (or “backup” whatever you get the point) which teleports the user back to the area your pet is guarding.
-long bow projectile speed increased
-movement speed of all pets increased by 30%
-Rapid fire damage increased by 20%
-signet of the hunt now increases your speed by 20% and your pets next 4 attacks do 150% damage
-signet of the wild and signet of stone cooldowns reduced from 120 seconds to 90 seconds
-active effects of signets now effect both you and your pet but are less effective on the player. this means signet of stone grants you 3 seconds invulnerability, signet of the wild grants 5 seconds of stability and bonus damage, and signet of the hunt allows your next 2 attacks to do 150% damage
-pets with aoe or support skills no longer run to the target before casting them
-casting time and responsiveness of many pet skills has been improved
- spirit effects can now activate every 6 seconds instead of 10

ARENANET!!! please consider the reccomendations players post in this thread this is what your ranger community is asking for!! I challenge you to fix atleast 5 things posted in this thread for the next balance patch!! or atleast respond somewhere with what is going on with our beloved ranger and what we can expect to see and how soon please!!! and players if you really want rangers to be fixed go ahead and post what your top 10 things you would really like to see happen. I know its a fat chance and all but its worth trying so post away!!