Guild Wars 2

EnderzShadow.2506:

If you are interested in playing your previous build, can you describe it to us?

I don’t remember much, but I know it was a shatter build with some adjustments for better team play – as I usually roamed WvW in small groups. All I remember is I was really hard to kill. When I logged back on my build was reset because of the shift to 14 points, but the utilities I had equipped were Blink, Feedback, and Portal. With Time Warp as my elite. I know I used decoy a lot too, but don’t remember which utility I substituted for it.

I’m running a more traditional shatter build now while I get the hang of things. Though I feel way squishier than I used to (which prob has more to do with me being really rusty than the build).

Haha, good point Vash. I think I will stick with shatter then (at least I’ll try).
I’m rolling with the mesmer guild [OMFG] and am getting some awesome help, so hopefully I won’t suck for too much longer, haha. My fingers are slowly remembering what to do.

Thanks again for the video, once I get the basics back I’m sure it’s going to help a lot.

Thanks for the builds Swish. I will promptly google what PU means and maybe give that a shot, haha. I’m also considering the shatter build Vash posted, but it looks like it might be too advanced for where I am right now. So much has changed that I feel like I might need a more basic build to help get me caught up.

Hey Vash, great video.
I’ve been away from the game for over a year and am hoping to get my bearings back this weekend. I used to play shatter mesmer, but see that things have changed quite a bit. I was wondering if you think your build might be good to help me get back into form, or is it too advanced and I should stick with a PU build for now?
Thanks.

IGN: Digo Demais
Role: Scholar
Server: Dragonbrand
Playstyle: WvW and jumping puzzles mostly
Time: Weekends and NA East Coast evenings

I’ve been away from the game for over a year. I just logged back on and had trouble even moving my character (gotta hold that left click, dur), so ima need all the help I can get, haha. I used to be pretty beastly though, so hopefully I can get back to form soon.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Fodux.5379:

Oh man, is that why no one else answered? Sadness.

The reason is more that the community has lost its vivaciousness. There’s a lot of new mesmers, and a lot of people with questions, but not a lot of presence and enthusiasm from veterans or key community players.

Well consider me a veteran with amnesia. Once I get my memory back ima be all over this ish, haha. Seriously though, with all these changes it’s prob gonna take me a bit to be anywhere near as knowledgeable as I used to be. But I appreciate the help I’ve already gotten.

Wow, a lot more has changed than I was expecting. It seems like the only thing that hasn’t changed is that WvW is still unbalanced, lol. But I really appreciate all the info. It’s nice that some of the bugs got fixed, I remember the pathing issues being really annoying. And it’s funny that ranger got buffed, as that’s what I originally rolled before I got bored and rolled a mesmer.

I just logged on a few minutes ago and was hoping to be able to see what build I used to run in hopes that it would help me refresh my memory. But alas, the shift to 14 points Nicenikeshoe mentioned has reset everything. It prob doesn’t make much of a difference though because it seems like everything has changed anyways.

I was met with a bunch of achievements and was asked to pick some skins. I picked GS and sword. Hopefully those weapons are still good. I think I’m going to have to spend this weekend re-learning how to play before I fully understand all the changes enough to figure out my new build.

In the meantime, can you guys suggest a current build to get me started?

Thanks again.

PS. I read the post about OMFG and am def down. One of my favorite things about being a mesmer before I stopped playing was that it was a tight community. I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed.

Oh man, is that why no one else answered? Sadness? But thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. I used to love mesmer because it allowed for so much creativity when playing it, but it seems like those days might be gone.

Also, if you or anyone else has some time, is there any way I can get some specifics on the things you mentioned? Such as the boosts to zerg combat and the nerfs targeted at PU. What exactly were the tweaks?

Thanks again.

I understand that it might be a daunting task to give me a full recap. But maybe just let me know of one or two changes, and if enough people have time to help me out I can eventually get a full picture.

Hello fellow mesmers. I’ve been away from the game for over a year and am thinking about coming back. My favorite character at the time was my shatter mesmer (close to Osicat’s but with a few adjustments to better fit my play style).

I was wondering if you guys could help me out getting a better understanding of what’s changed? From the forums I can tell that certain things were nerfed, but I was hoping someone could give me a more helpful report on the changes.

I mostly played WvW at the time, and prob will be doing that again unless it completely sucks now. Though I’ll likely want to explore some of the new areas that have come out since as well.

I remember the mesmer community being pretty tight at the time, and I’m hoping it still is and that someone can drop some knowledge on me and let me know if shatter mesmers are still viable.

Thanks in advance.

The unofficial GW2 forums has a Server section that is divided by US and EU, then further divided by each individual server. I think it would be nice to have a similar thing in these forums.

Sometimes topics come up that aren’t relevant to anyone outside of your own server, and it would be helpful to be able to post them in a place where it would not only be more relevant, but would also be less likely to get lost in the clutter.

By the nature of this game (and WvW helps) your server feels like its own community. We know our guilds and our commanders, and each server has a unique personality. Server forums would help nurture these communities.

I’ve been getting this a lot too. At random times. It’s extra annoying when I’m in an instance or WvW.

Ultima Online had an awesome system. You could build pre-build houses, but you could also build walls, stairs, doors, etc. separately and place them so you could make custom houses, castles, and even entire villages.

Also, Lineage II had guild houses I believe.

The former would probably be difficult to implement in this game. But Guild Houses I think wouldn’t be too hard since they would be instanced. I think this would be cool to have and might even be a further deterrent to server transfers since you would lose your Guild House. Allowing us to customize it would probably be the hardest part.

But things aren’t great at most of the other tiers. And when some of us start falling to your tier, things won’t be great there either. Also, the middle range tiers not moving means things are balanced. Right now it’s highly imbalanced there.

Because of balance. This would be the quickest way to create balance and ensure it for the future regardless of most things creating WvW imbalance.

I know a version of this idea has been mentioned before, but here is a modified one that also helps PvE people.

The idea is for each matchup to pair the EU and US servers according to their ranking. Top EU server is paired with lowest US server, second with second lowest, etc.

Now the modified version is to make their scores the sum of both servers. Also (and this is the part that the PvE people will enjoy) make transfers between those two servers unlimited while the matchup is going on. That way the top servers can help fill out the bottom ones and PvE people can get their bugged skill points and things like that.

This will help both servers because the bottom one gets much needed help, and the top ones get to play WvW when their queue times are hours long.

The middle servers hopefully benefit from the opposite side having queues during their peak hours and being able to go to the other side. Maybe you can even adjust WvW limits to reinforce this.

Another benefit, is you won’t be caught in an endless drop. Since every time you drop you are paired with a stronger sister server.

Thoughts?

This might also work with food, skills, and traits. Maybe something for a future WvW expansion.

You should come to Dragonbrand man. From what you described we have exactly what you’re looking for. We are constantly outnumbered but when we’re on in force Epic times are had. We lose in points because we just don’t have the numbers to keep up, but we still show up every day.

See this post and you’ll get a better understanding of the culture here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Dragonbrand-Official-Hard-Mode-Server/

Good luck with the server search.

I think it would add an interesting element to the game (for the WvW crowd at least) if there were runes and sigils that gave bonuses to siege and/or versus siege.

The bonuses for could be things like:
-Chance for quicker cooldown
-Chance for siege repair
-Chance for temporary range boost

The bonuses versus siege coule be things like:
-Chance to do more damage
-Chance to slow their cooldown
-Chance to inflict burning

I know I’m mostly WvW focused, and something like this would add another element to WvW specialization.

When you buy and sell a lot of things in the TP it can get a bit confusing when you sell something that you posted a while ago and have to sort through your list to figure out what you sold. It makes more sense to have the last item you sold on top.

@Takuya Hosokawa

I remember when we played you guys before. Yeah, we were a very different server then. Though I wasn’t that good then, so I mostly just followed the zerg. Things are much more interesting now.

You guys brought it this time though. I was surprised to see that you have a decent presence throughout most of the day. Some epic battles were had this week and I hope to see you guys again.

SpaceLord.4590:

LOL we love hard mode…We love being out manned…It’s a blessing!

Please come to our server we need more people.

Just giving you a hard time, and having some fun. I am sorry to see Transfers hurt servers.

Good luck to you in your search.

haha, it does sound weird when you put it like that. And thanks for the luck, I’ll take as much of it as you’re willing to give.

The part you missed though was the one where we want to stop dropping in tiers so we can continue to play hard mode. We don’t need a lot more people just some. Especially in our off hours to keep us closer in points.

We might not be winning anymore, but I know for certain that I’m a better player now than I was before.

8 o’clock tonight. I run with Phuriok and Epic. Message me and I’ll let you know where to meet us (prob Lion’s Arch near the gates to WvW).

The guild transfers have left Dragonbrand in a unique position. One that most people, including myself at first, wouldn’t like. But now I love it and I want to thank all those guilds that left.

You see, we were once a pretty high ranked server and, as a result, we are now playing against servers with a much higher WvW population than ours. While at first we considered this a bad thing, we now realize it’s actually kind of a blessing. Sure, we aren’t going to be winning any matchups anytime soon, however every time we are on it’s an intense battle. And in the mornings and evenings when our server actually has a large presence, we are guaranteed some Epic moments. There’s nothing like winning a battle agains a force twice your size.
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The problem is, as we start dropping in tiers we’re going to start facing servers that don’t outnumber us. But we don’t want that, we like hard mode. The hottest fires make the hardest steel after all.
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We are calling out to those of you that like a challenge. Those that are tired of doing nothing but jumping puzzles and points of interest in WvW because your server painted all the maps your color. We need your help to keep us from dropping further in tiers so that we may always have a challenge when we log on to WvW.

But don’t bring a thousand people with you when you come. We don’t want long queues and we definitely don’t want to start outnumbering our opponents. Right now our peak times are mornings, evenings and primetime. If you play any other time and want a place to hone your skills, you will find it here.
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No egos. No crying.
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Contact me in-game if you’re ready to play WvW in hard mode (Fodux or Digo Demais). There are others you could contact as well, but I don’t want to volunteer anybody so I’ll let them do it.

I just want to clarify that I do still enjoy WvW. But in earlier matchups when things were more even it was much more enjoyable. So I’m not saying it sucks or anything like that, I’m just saying it has potential to be a lot better.

I know you might all be tired of these threads (especially the mods and devs), but please bear with me.

I looked outside of video games for ideas on how blowouts and number disadvantages are handled (especially in sports and warfare), and have found some ideas that might translate well into our WvW system.

Let me preface by saying that I do not know how intricate these would be to implement, and I’m not suggesting that these are by any means final ideas and/or perfect. I am merely attempting to provide the devs with some thought-starters in the hopes that it may inspire something.

In no particular order:

Balance timezone imbalances:
Divide the times of the day into “sets” and keep score based on sets won and not overall points. For example, primetime can be a set. At the end of primetime, 1st place gets 3 points, second place gets 1, 3rd place gets 0 (or whatever point spread keeps things balanced). Then the overnight set starts and the overall score resets. Then comes early morning? 9-5? Evening? Whatever time breakups make sense. The winning teams would still keep everything they own, this would just help keep things a little closer and the losing sides more motivated.
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Reward strategy more than numbers
Guerrilla tactics work in real life, but not in WvW. Why? Because in real life when you die you’re dead. Can we make it part of the outnumbered buff that when you down somebody they have no “downed” state. Kind of like when you kill an NPC. That way a small force with a good strategy can can actually take on a large force. Also, it requires the large force to do something other than zerging. Maybe when one side is greatly outnumbered, you can even increase the penalty and duration of the debuff for being killed.
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Even blowouts can be fun:
Right now it’s hard to have fun during a blowout, even if you’re the one winning. In fact, the destroyees probably have more fun than the destroyers (there’s nothing like winning a battle you’re supposed to lose). Here are a couple of ideas to counter that.

-Remote waypoint: If a side owns no towers, keeps, garrisons, or castle increase their mobility. Again, this helps make guerrilla warfare viable. Right now you can only spawn at one waypoint if you don’t own anything, making it easy for the enemy to shut you down. Maybe if you don’t own anything, your commanders can lay down a waypoint. Make these waypoints destroyable so that they aren’t just placed outside the gate during a siege. Actually, maybe make them work like siege weapons. You have to buy them, you need supplies to build them (though not a lot), but they’re only activated if you don’t own anything larger than a supply camp. Also, each commander can only have one active waypoint at a time, but they could use one that someone else built.

-Get by on a budget: If you’re getting blown out and have the outnumbered buff, can you spawn with supply when you die? Maybe not full supply, just 5? Or instead, maybe your supply counts double? This would make it more viable to use siege weapons when you don’t have a lot of people.

-Home Field Advantage: If you’re getting blown out, you get home field advantage in your borderlands. Maybe it’s a buff, maybe it’s more/stronger guards. Maybe you can use the remote waypoint idea from above even if you own towers (maybe even keeps, but prob not garrison). I’m not sure what home field advantage would be, but it would make things more fun if your getting blow out. It would also give the winning server more of a challenge and more satisfaction if they can hold the enemy’s borderland.

-Mercy rule: If one side is greatly dominating the other two at the halfway point of the matchup, call the match. 2nd and 3rd place get a tie if they’re close, otherwise they get placed normally. Then revert WvW to one day “exhibition” matches for the rest of the time left. The matchups for these one day matches would either be the same servers, or if other matchups also got called due to the mercy rule it could shuffle amongst those servers. Don’t worry about balance in the matchups as much since these are exhibition matches (Euro league teams play MLS teams don’t they?).

Again, these are meant to be thought-starters more than anything. Though I am interested to know the community’s take on these so we may help the devs with insights on how such changes may affect us. Please keep your feedback constructive and objective if possible.