Guild Wars 2

T1 NA.

While this seems to be a good thing for offensive roaming, the whole PvD aspect of it sucks. Even as an offensive roamer, when I’m taking a paper tower with a group of 5 with no resistance, it’s not much fun. With white swords, you at least had an idea of where to find fights; now, seems like I’m often running around scouting randomly hoping for a call in map chat or voice comms.

It’s pretty early to come up with a definitive judgement, but I don’t like it so far.

Also, silly as it may seem, make sure you’re not confusing a GS clone attack (which doesn’t do damage) with your own GS auto attack. Not trying to insult anyone’s intelligence – just something that I’ve done in the past. :-P

Jeknar.6184:

I still think cliffs are stronger than stairs as you can actually avoid death from stairs if you stop a few seconds before your HP runs out. Cliffs are usually insta-death.

True, but I’m pretty sure the OP’s point is that you have to “avoid death from stairs if you stop for a few seconds.” Why are stairs and gentle slopes causing damage in the first place???

This thread is a complete train wreck.

……but I just can’t look away.

Jeknar.6184:

I’m pretty sure you know that there are people who don’t like Borderland maps and only play on EBG… Just as there are people who hate EBG with passion and don’t go to it for anything. So while spawn camping is happening on EBG, the people that only like to play on EBG are more likely to just quit for the day than going to the other maps.

While making the enemy quit is a valid strategy to win ppt (no enemies mean you control everything longer), that mean the game will end up becoming dull for the week as there will be less and less people to fight.

I get you, and I’m definitely not defending spawn camping. Personally, I think it’s dumb. However, there are things that a player can do to get around it – and complaining about it in the forums isn’t one of the more successful ones.

Jeknar.6184:

Dhampyr.2104:

If you’re getting spawn camped, I doubt you have any map queues

I had to laugh at this part… So if my server don’t have a map queue I deserve to be spawn camped?

I am amused…

Wow, way to read part of the post and make assumptions. Just for clarification’s sake (although I thought my original post was pretty clear)… if you don’t have map queues, there’s nothing at all keeping you on the map being spawn camped. Move maps.

Fluffball.8307:

Because PvErs already love getting the kitten kicked out of them while they map, we should add other opportunities for people not interesting in PvP to get slaughtered.

Meh, killing players is what it’s all about. You’re telling me it’s more fun to run around an empty map? Wall-to-wall fights are fun. Plus, maybe some of those PvE’ers will actually stick around and get good at WvW.

I’ll say it again, doing things to attract players who don’t normally play WvW into this game mode is a GOOD thing.

ThaOwner.7560:

yes because thats what every hardcore wvw player is asking for, more pve

I agree with your point, none of us that play wvw alot want more pve junk. However, something that every wvw player is looking for is more players to kill. If things like this get implemented, more pve junkies will likely come in, the wvw population goes up, more fights, more fun, etc………

Wow, this useless discussion has been allowed to continue for four days… did ANet get rid of its forum mods, or did they change the rules about matchup posting?

So many maps, so many exits. Even the T1 servers don’t have enough people to cover every exit on every map. If you’re getting spawn camped, I doubt you have any map queues (and if you have a map queue, you have plenty of people there to deal with spawn campers), so nothing keeps you on that map other than choosing to be stubborn.

Arguing about sportsmanship when it’s a subjective term is just silly and pointless (as is this entire thread). Shrug your shoulders, move to another map, and go on about your business.

Dondagora.9645:

On that same note, I’ve never heard of a Maim 0/0/2/6/6, but I can imagine it. Very interesting idea, might try it out.

I’d be interested in seeing this build actually posted, although I have my reservations on whether I’d like it for my playstyle. A shatter build without DE probably wouldn’t be my cup o’ tea.

Bubba.5209:

Er…Why would a situational big flow of pve players in wvw maps solve anything?

For some servers, I don’t think an influx of players, PvE or otherwise, would be a bad thing. If WvW is a ghost town for a server, any type of player involvement is a good thing.

Jay.7546:

This keeps players from coming in, so silly. And the knuckleheads from FC who duel out front only perpetuate this behavior. Where is the pride. It’s like someone taking your house and you are dueling them on your “old” front lawn to have fun.

I think you have your answer as to why people are dueling.

Fay.2357:

When you get hit, you don’t know if it’s going to just fizzle or it’s going to incapacitate you, it’s pure RNG. When you’re using it, you’re just praying to RNGesus the whole time hoping that you’ll get good effects instead of useless ones.

Hate to say it, but this sounds kinda like what we have with the staff now – although two of the three AA effects are good ones, there’s also a fair chance for the fizzle to happen as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m primarily a WvW monkey, and I love the staff myself. Can be pretty frustrating tho.

Sebbl.2806:

Even so, I think that Null Field would be the better choice (ground targeting at your duelist’s position).

Der me- excellent suggestion IMO.

For most WvW players, the fun part isn’t the PvE content, nor do I think it likely that adding PvE content will do much for us, excitement-wise. The fun part of WvW is fighting things that think just like I do -and that’s something that PvE content can’t replicate. The one good thing that could come out of this is that more PvE-only folks will try out WvW and realize that they actually like it, so I wouldn’t mind seeing your ideas implemented. :-)

Interesting build, I like it. It’ll likely be good for 1v1 or 1v2 or so, but I think I’d have problems with anything more than that with this build (no real AOE options, and you mentioned you wouldn’t be shattering). For WvW, you might want to look at swapping Illusionary Defense (Chaos IV) for Debilitating Dissipation (Chaos V) for some added pressure when they mistake your clones for you and attack them.

Also, since you’re taking Prismatic Understanding, might want to swap Feedback for Decoy to get an additional stealth.

Edit: Just realized you might be using the Feedback with the iDuelist for confusion stacking. If that’s the case, then I understand completely why you’d want that over Decoy.

Advent.6193:

Now, what we could alter, and probably should?

• Unnerf the bloody cooldown, already. That and Chaos Armor.

OMG yes. The CDs for both Staff 4 and Staff 5 are way too crazy long for what they do.

We also should take into account that ANet needs to balance PVE, WvW, and PVP – that was why I was asking if the OP is referring to PVE or WvW or whatever. Right now, with some sort of a lockdown, “on interrupt” build, Chaos Storm works decently in WvW against groups, although that cooldown… Bleah.

Buffing Chaos Storm too much may imbalance that (although I certainly wouldn’t mind it, from a mesmer point of view LOL).

PVE is definitely a completely different story.

KaterinaPetrova.7243:

I would like that too. Chaos storm now is very week, and the amazing animation of lady kasmeer would be a perfect addition to the skill, adding confusion and torment will help the condition mesmer very much because staff is not very helpfull. Mesmer is very weak and its a pitty because they used to be so awesome in gw1. I am 100% positive with your idea and nice idea by the way. And it not nessesary to nerf a class just for pvp…

Just to clarify – when you say condi-mesmer is weak and staff is not useful, you’re talking about PVE, right?

Fay.2357:

How to Count

When you’re about to time a race, what does your stopwatch say before you press ‘Start’? I’ll tell you: it says 00:00:00. You begin the first pulse at time 0, the very start. After one second has passed, the stopwatch now says 00:01:00. This is the point of the second pulse. I’ll let you keep working this out for yourself if you so choose, but the last 11th pulse will occur at time 00:10:00.

Well, I think this thread is dead anyway, so I won’t worry too much about not contributing outside of LOL. +1 Pyro.

Phenomenal video – great gameplay (wish I could play glass power shatter like that), awesome vid production. Thanks for sharing.

Lettuce.2945:

Yes there is a point. It’s a tutorial video. But the creator does not do what he is “teaching us to do”. So that is quite funny itself. Get it? Ok. Cool. Glad I helped you understand that simple notion.

You’re still adding nothing to the discussion, not that I’m particularly surprised. Yawn. Trolls are so boring and predictable.

Regarding the OP – what sigils are folks finding best? I’ve tried tormenting, but the single torment stack is a bit lackluster at best. Bursting seems nice, and obviously energy is always a plus for any shatter build. Any others working nicely for folks?

Lettuce.2945:

Every AA skill does direct damage. But I guess you didn’t know that. It’s just…*whispers* low damage. Which isn’t enough to steal kill from Svanir. A burst spec will 95% of the time get the kill off chieftain or svanir. You, my friend, are not burst.

Pretty sure the OP is looking to add tips on using MtD and opening it up to the community, which I think is a good idea and I’m enjoying the productive discussion in this thread.

I’m not entirely sure what positive discussion you’re bringing to this thread regarding MtD usage. I must be missing something, because your posts seem alot like trolling – and I’m sure you’re not trolling and there’s a point to your posts, right?

Mendax.9506:

While MtD builds may be viable, I see absolutely no reason to pick them over standart zerk shatter.

I pretty much play WvW exclusively, and from that standpoint, MtD is pretty nice. While the points in your post are true, there are definitely upsides to MtD imo.

1. You’re not glass. It’s nice if a thief gets the jump on you and you don’t get one-shot.

2. The rest of the WvW playerbase hasn’t caught up yet. With covering conditions and condi-duration food, a condi-shatter’s burst is really nasty (11-13 stacks of 11sec torment, add another 5 stacks for 14+secs if you land the scepter block). Plus, with classes that roam and run (warriors, thieves, rangers) – when they notice they’re in trouble and run, they only make things worse for themselves. It’s actually way easier to kill those classes with a condi-shatter build over a regular shatter build.

So, from a WvW perspective (and a roaming playstyle like mine), condi-shatter has a few pluses that make it significantly better than zerk shatter. :-)

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

If you want my advice for WvW in the future, it would be simply thus: no more tournaments. Change incentives, and add new things to WvW.

You really need your TL;DR up front.

It was broken AND the season was too long.

The devs don’t have an answer for this yet. They were debating it this afternoon with no conclusion reached.

My Edit as well:

Edit: Lol this was only a joke, stop making a rumor out of a joke

While your points are completely valid, this has all been discussed before – like before the season even began. xD

Red Dawn.4561:

but back on topic I am in favor of the discontinuation of any and all WvW tournaments as Anet doesn’t seem to understand that the glico rating (duno if that’s spelled right) says more about a server’s strength then a ppt, especially since you cant mess with the glico rating like you can with the ppt overall score as is happening now

Looking at current NA Gold as an example, by tournament rating:

1. TC
2. JQ
3. BG
4. SoS
5. Mag
6. DB

Looking at Glicko:

1. TC
2. JQ
3. BG
4. SoS
5. Mag
6. DB

Sorry, Glicko is just as broken as the tournament.

Definitely agree with your desire for no more WvW tournaments, though, that’s for sure. :-)

KOPPER.1458:

Not entirely true, at least for NA Gold. The server with the best overall coverage isn’t going to win (matter of fact, best case scenario only gives it a tie for third) – of course, it required a ton of coordination and alot of trust to pull it off, but it worked.

Except that NA Gold proved how to best manipulate the system. The system simply doesn’t work and hasn’t for a long time. For the record it wasn’t only NA Gold where this was happening.

It’s all a matter of perspective, I suppose. “Manipulate the system” for you is the same as “keep the overstacked server from winning” for me.

Also, NA gold is the only tier which is coming down to Week 9 to determine who wins. Every other tier’s winner was solidified weeks ago. I take that as a positive thing, not a negative one.

Edit – for the record, I agree wholeheartedly with you about the system not working.

Terrahero.9358:

This season even more then the last when not only rewards are split based on the servers ranking, instead of a fixed reward, but arenanet even went ahead and anounced that they would give greater reward to servers scoring higher.

They basicly just told people “you can buy your max reward for XXX gems by transfering to the super-stacked server”.

Not entirely true, at least for NA Gold. The server with the best overall coverage isn’t going to win (matter of fact, best case scenario only gives it a tie for third) – of course, it required a ton of coordination and alot of trust to pull it off, but it worked.

KingZmaN.6473:

Pyroathiest.4168:

Dhampyr.2104:

I’m pretty sure we can let this thread die and nobody would miss it.

Yes, lets do that.

Maybe this whole exercise could have been avoided if you hadn’t tried to be so oppressively rhetoric regarding content this forum freely allows individuals to share.

This thread was effectively dead, and you necro’ed it. Something tells me that you get some sort of validation from the responses.

Constructive discussion ended in this thread a long time ago.

Endo Kazuki.2086:

I read the patch notes Mesmer bug fixes. Tooltip changes….. O ehm gee. Disappointed.

I agree with your assessment, but to be fair, there has always been a ton of complaints on incorrect/inaccurate tooltips. Sure wish they’d fix real problems though……

Johje Holan.4607:

Dhampyr.2104:

Johje Holan.4607:

WvW was not designed to be unfair, thats just a foolish statement.

And given the level of discontent about the population imbalance/coverage issue, it is Anets problem. They designed the game, they’re the only one’s that can correct it.

I swear, I’m going to cut and paste this into a Word doc, I end up posting it so dang much. Yes, WvW is designed to be unfair. From the DEVS:

“At no point did I, or would I have, said “Fair competition” WvW is not intended to be “fair”. There are servers with more people, there are servers with better organizations and that will always be the case. This competition will be about showing how your world can do over a defined period of time, against a variety of opponents. SPvP is the part of our game that aims for a completely level playing field. WvW would never be able to match that goal.”

Not really sure who looks foolish here, but I’m pretty sure it’s not me.

Dev never said “WvW is designed to be unfair”. He said “WvW is not intended to be fair”.

Those are two completely different statements.

Dev was ridiculed for that statement too. Dev’s have since backed off that view as well. They recognize a match that is as balanced as possible is the best match, the most fun, and will attract the most customers.

WvW is inherintly unbalanced. They will never be able to make it completely fair. But they did not “design it to be unfair”.

(Also, look up at what ykyk said.)

I suppose we can argue the use of verbs, but that seems kinda silly to me. Intended, designed, potayto, potahto. Better yet, let’s get rid of those verbs altogether. WvW is unfair, and ANet made it/accepted it that way. From the beginning. You definitely have a right to complain about it – just seems like a bunch of pointless QQ to me is all.

And I just went back to the thread where he said it – while some didn’t like it, he was far from ridiculed for the comment. Matter of fact, most appreciated his honest statement.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Final-solution-for-league-and-transfers/first#post2747282

grifflyman.8102:

Dhampyr.2104:

morrolan.9608:

coglin.1867:

Let me get this straight. You some how suggesting that Anet is responsible for player choices?

They are responsible for the problem and a game design that doesn’t mitigate against the problem. And in a lot of respects their decisions have made the problem worse, such as free transfers for so long after launch, free transfers just before seasons, the set up of the seasons themselves and the higher rewards for finishing first..

People continue to discuss this mythical “problem”. WvW was designed from the get go to be unfair. To rephrase – there is no balance, nor is there meant to be, and the devs have stated this from the very beginning.

Therefore, there is no problem here, and nothing that ANet has to “solve”.

Then why did they remove PvE item kits, such as rocks, mines, environmental items, kits….

Because people were using them to great effect.

Are you really comparing server populations to PVE glitch items? Huh, interesting.

The effects of those items in WvW were unintended. The simple fact that WvW is unfair is intended and acceptable. Two different topics.

Johje Holan.4607:

WvW was not designed to be unfair, thats just a foolish statement.

And given the level of discontent about the population imbalance/coverage issue, it is Anets problem. They designed the game, they’re the only one’s that can correct it.

I swear, I’m going to cut and paste this into a Word doc, I end up posting it so dang much. Yes, WvW is designed to be unfair. From the DEVS:

“At no point did I, or would I have, said “Fair competition” WvW is not intended to be “fair”. There are servers with more people, there are servers with better organizations and that will always be the case. This competition will be about showing how your world can do over a defined period of time, against a variety of opponents. SPvP is the part of our game that aims for a completely level playing field. WvW would never be able to match that goal.”

Not really sure who looks foolish here, but I’m pretty sure it’s not me.

+1 to this thread. It’s been awhile since TC faced FA, but FA folks were always fun competition.

+1 again to the positivity as well. (is that even a word? lol) :-)

morrolan.9608:

“Thats just like your opinion man.” It does affect matchups and if others don’t like that effect then it is a problem for them. Plus when you try and have a comp between such unequal servers as if they are on equal footing with better prizes going to players on servers who finish higher then it is a problem to a large number of players.

You’re absolutely right, definitely my opinion and I should rephrase regarding the “problem”… What I meant is that it’s not ArenaNet’s problem. WvW was designed to be unfair. Complaining about that unfairness is pointless imo – it’s working as intended.

morrolan.9608:

coglin.1867:

Let me get this straight. You some how suggesting that Anet is responsible for player choices?

They are responsible for the problem and a game design that doesn’t mitigate against the problem. And in a lot of respects their decisions have made the problem worse, such as free transfers for so long after launch, free transfers just before seasons, the set up of the seasons themselves and the higher rewards for finishing first..

People continue to discuss this mythical “problem”. WvW was designed from the get go to be unfair. To rephrase – there is no balance, nor is there meant to be, and the devs have stated this from the very beginning.

Therefore, there is no problem here, and nothing that ANet has to “solve”.

Reverence.6915:

Dhampyr.2104:

Bottom line, if there is a disparity in player numbers and this bothers you, PLAY MORE.

This is a joke right? When your server went up against T2 servers, you just thought: ‘they should play more’? You didn’t think one second that your server might have 3x their population?

PPT might have many problems, but hard capping PPT gain is not the answer.

Sorry, I thought the sarcasm was obvious. Yes, it’s a joke – just as much of a joke as whining about fairness in an inherently unfair game mode.

Dayra.7405:

I am in EU-gold.

To make it true for everyone, everywhere at any time:
Prime-time is when there are more than 600 player in the match.
Off-time is when there are less than 600 player in the match.
Off-time score is multiplied by 0.5 for balance.

Maybe some NA-tiers do not have an off-time, if that is the case there is no multiplication by 0.5

Probably there are also several matches that never have a prime-time, but that’s a different problem.

Quit sleeping. It makes you weak, and it makes you lose WvW. Problem solved, and no silly math involved.

Bottom line, if there is a disparity in player numbers and this bothers you, PLAY MORE.

Niko Stark.8932:

LMFAO. How many good DB commanders are there anyway? The ones I’ve seen are afraid to drag their group that’s more than twice our numbers in open field zerg fights. Everytime we move in, they run back to hug their ACs and tower gates. Now they’re ramming walls as well? lol

You really don’t spend much time actually reading the threads, do you?

Xaurniven.2065:

That’s a nice build, however in my opinion a Phantasm Build needs the minor trait in Inspiration Phantasmal Strength idk, maybe go with 1 2 6 5 0 since your kind of relying on you Phantasms to do the major damage.

Just an Opinion…

While I agree the 5pt minor in Inspiration is nice, the tradeoffs may not be worth it – you have to go pretty deep into a line that may not help your roaming build much.

So… Nice trait? Definitely. Necessary, though? Nah. :-)

I’m pretty sure we can let this thread die and nobody would miss it.

Ragnarok.4506:

If you look closely at the Dragon Brand. you can Tell by their rank..(DragonBrand Invader) That those people are BRAND NEW to WvW as they are rank 1-4 being “Invader”. They need to learn the aspects of WvW. Also they need to take the time to read the siege prints and Learn what they can do.

This was before there were any ranks, I think.

I did some testing with it awhile back – what seemed to be the case is that, with 76% condi duration and burning as the ONLY condition, you would get one tick. With the same condi duration and multiple conditions, burning would tick twice.

While there are times that Pyro can be rather harsh, from looking at his original post that you labeled as “TROLL”… well, I just don’t see it. On top of that, his post is rather well thought out and presented, showing why running full mantras tends to be bad (and in my experience, I would agree that a full mantra build, while good for an initial spike perhaps, is pretty weak). The fact that there isn’t a single person replying to you in support of your full mantra build should tell you something.

My friend, you make numerous claims of narrow mindedness to others. You really might want to look in the mirror to find the truth of that.

Have fun with your mantra build – glad you enjoy it. For most (almost all) players, there are better mesmer builds out there.

I agree completely with Nevhie’s assessment above regarding Illusionist’s Celerity vs Greatsword training. You’ll get the same redux off GS #2 and GS #4, and it’ll affect all the rest of your illusion-creating skills across the board.

With the tiny amount of condi dmg available, taking Chaos 2 (Debilitating Dissipation) seems like a waste. Maybe something like Harmonious Mantras (2 more points in Dueling)? With three heal-mantra charges, you’re curing 6 condis every 10 secs or so. That might even free up your null field utility slot for something else (Mantra of Pain comes to mind, for extra damage). Of course, I realize you stated you really like the clone spam playstyle, so this might not be for you at all. xD

You’re only at 20% WvW kills for the month, and we’re almost a week in. Ugh.

On top of all this, in WvW, GS spawns its illusions at the target – meaning even in zerg fights, you can shatter them before they get destroyed (don’t have to run through all those red circles to get to the target). With a boon-ripping build, between mind stab and a boonripping shatter, you’re removing three boons in an AOE from a group. While not game changing, it helps (especially if one of those boons you rip is stability).

Distaste.4801:

I honestly look forward to JQ or TC trying to brag about the season win. If this was 2 tier 2 servers coming together to beat BG it would be an awesome accomplishment, but as it is it’s just pathetic.

I sincerely don’t think anyone will brag about the season win, regardless of who does – these WvW tournament “competitions” aren’t exactly brag worthy. However, I do think we’ll just all have a quiet sense of accomplishment that BG didn’t win.