Guild Wars 2

All those ’’arguments’’ from DuoQ pro’s here aren’t touching the true problem. The MMR system is just skewed. Trust me, the loss streaks I have seen in previous seasons (not this season for some reason) weren’t caused by anger/rage after some losses, or by being too bad, or by being placed at a wrong division after the first 10 matches. The MMR’s of 5 team members combined should by nearly equal to the opposing team. I’ve seen people posting proof of a lot of situations in which this was not the case, and that is the very most important reason for a lot of losses in those loss streaks.

Think of another reason, and then think about the probability that that reason is causing for example 10 losses in a row. For 1 person in a 5-man team game, come on… its highly unlikely.

Daharahj.1325:

HeadCrowned.6834:

I believe that none of the elite specs in PoF are leaning towards healing, so no.

I thought Scourge was a support spec?

Its kinda early to say, but based on what Ive seen and played with in the beta weekend, Support scourge probably won’t really be a thing. It has definately more support than normal necro’s, but other classes can fit the support role better, while the necro/scourge optimal role is different than supporting.

But you can also notice a huge skill level difference between plat and gold (EU)

Maybe staff is not the most valuable weapon for on-point pressure, but the value of Druid these days also lies in its mobility. Staff #3 + The super speed and stealth when leaving CA can be very important and also life savers. Druid also enhances teamfights compared to core ranger I think.

8v8 hotjoin on Capricorn was good fun in the old days yeh. Not really strategic or skillfull and stuff, but fun it was.

Spirited Arrival > Evasive purity for a non-warhorn build? I think with WS you already have enough condi cleanse, while spirited arrival causes vigor (so more often protection from dodge rolls and heals from rugged growth).

I had the same thing multiple seasons in a row. Quite unexplainable. I also felt that I got matched up with teams below my skill level, which often caused that loss streak. Im also around the 1700 MMR normally. Like the algorithm determines that you have to carry bad teams in order to climb up the ladder. And no, Im not a guy who blames his team for every loss. I just observed it.

The power boonstrip build from Metabattle is decent. Or don’t you have HoT ?

I can only agree to that. A +1’er goes best with a ranger (which is an excellent 1v1’er). In PVP.

I believe that none of the elite specs in PoF are leaning towards healing, so no.

Dojo.1867:

HeadCrowned.6834:

Dojo.1867:

I really like them. What I dislike are more the adept/grandmaster traits.

Especially Predator’s Cunning feels great and heals for a ton in the right build. Judging from this thread most people lack the ability to test stuff properly. It actually heals almost 5k with a single Viper’s Nest (given that you hit 3 targets with 3 ticks but that isn’t that craszy hard on point). Just doing stuff like sword 3 and dagger 4 or shortbow 2 will still give you about 1k hp. This trait is good.

From average pvp levels onwards, there are basically no situations in which 3 people stand in your vipers nest. Condi ranger is a 1v1’er for pvp.

Not 3 people but 2 people, 3 clones, a pet. It isn’t that hard to get 3 ticks on multiple targets – I am not saying you will heal the full 4.5k everytime you use Viper’s nest but even getting 4 or 5 target hits out of the 3 ticks it will be 2-3k heal. This is one skill. Sword/dagger add multiple stacks and so does SB. This adds up.

And I think it is absolutely enough if a trait CAN be good in specific builds. There are plenty of traits that are always kitten so I don’t get why we complain about stuff that can be efficient when used wisely.

Still, a condi ranger remains a 1v1’er. Only a mesmer or another ranger can trigger this trait a bit effectively. I don’t complain about this trait, I think the idea behind is good. But its a PvE trait, and obviously a lot less effective in PvP.

If you want to run menders, then indeed go Druid imo. Much more healing potential.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If Ranger can do better damage, no matter what they do to the other specs, Soulbeast will still be worse off. It also won’t make it fluid or fun to play.

Im not really overwhelmed by Soulbeast either, but all Im saying is that there are probably still a lot of changes comming up, so that the current situation is not the final situation. Soulbeast is from a balance perspective quite OK, which Im happy with, but in order to be good, other professions elite specs need to get toned down a little. Its for example less OP than Druid was on HoT release.

Dojo.1867:

I really like them. What I dislike are more the adept/grandmaster traits.

Especially Predator’s Cunning feels great and heals for a ton in the right build. Judging from this thread most people lack the ability to test stuff properly. It actually heals almost 5k with a single Viper’s Nest (given that you hit 3 targets with 3 ticks but that isn’t that craszy hard on point). Just doing stuff like sword 3 and dagger 4 or shortbow 2 will still give you about 1k hp. This trait is good.

From average pvp levels onwards, there are basically no situations in which 3 people stand in your vipers nest. Condi ranger is a 1v1’er for pvp.

What a nonsense. In a more organised PvP environment, Scourges can still be brought down quickly. We have barriers now but we still don’t have any active defenses such as blocks, invulns, etc. Also we have to wait how Sand Swell turns out but a reliable escape option we don’t have either. Scourges do a lot of damage but once people get used to it (for example get out of the Sand shade area) this ’’OPness’’ will probably diminish.

I think they still going to change quite a lot in terms of balance. Maybe Soulbeast/Ranger won’t get big buffs, but when other classes get nerfed its a buff to Soulbeast/Ranger as well.

Gazelle indeed can hit like a truck, but it seems to miss its attacks also quite often.

I indeed did not like any of the master traits, and also the Grandmaster traits seem to be a bit underwhelming.

The thing that I felt during my first day in the demo was that basically no one played a support or healing build (except maybe 1 or 2 firebrands). The crazier the damage of profession/build was, the more it was being played it seems. Maybe its cuz everything is new and people want to try damage builds first, but it looks like that support has quite a marginal role in the new elite specs. Quite a shame.

So sad, I didnt get to test this skill out yet (pvp). It was the one that I was looking forward to the most.

The Bear stance is (our quite decent) new condi cleanse but the problem that arises is the lack of swiftness if you equip this heal. Also beastmode F2 or F3 (don’t remember) has some condi cleanse with Jacaranda. The fury trait is pretty good however.

The 33% nerf was too harsh. In PvP its now not worth it to take the trait, even with for example Deadshot amulet combined with Staff. Rangers lack condi duration traits, maybe they can do something with that.

Dude, you don’t even know what the new meta is going to look like. Maybe burst classes will fall out with the new expac, maybe overall mobility will be reduced, maybe condi builds will be less effective. You don’t know it yet. You can’t truly analyze the new skills/builds without analyzing the builds of all other professions. Wait until the preview weekend to say a little more about it.

Zoltreez.6435:

HeadCrowned.6834:

We get a portal though? :O

that totaly gonna help us when we get jumped on by people with superior mobility…. so bassicaly everyone….

Don’t underestimate a TEAM-useable portal. We’ll see how it turns out and whether it functions properly, but I definately wouldn’t write it off as useless already.

We get a portal though? :O

Sword is overall quite a bit better in PvP than GS.

In my opinion, the shortbow doesnt excel in 1v1’s, as the flanking option is virtually non-existent in 1v1’s.

The new Elite spec is also PvP-related, so that argument is invalid. It will be busier in PvP after the expac than it is now.

Alin.2468:

HeadCrowned.6834:

Kinda unplayable in pvp.

Why exactly would you want to play PvP? Are you that bored? Do you have some health issues or something?

Mental health problems are more your concern I see.

Blast finisher from staff #3 seems to be bugged indeed, and the pet lag is a huge problem. Kinda unplayable in pvp.

He was accused of matchfixing though.

Havent played with the new patch yet, but yeah this nerf is kinda ridiculous. Step 1: ‘’making Soul Reaping less necessary’’ is good, but Step 2: ‘’compensate that’’ is completely missed. Make the Shroud bar deplete less quick by standard, without the need of a trait.

Nah. We have LB #4 with basically that functionality. Stealth on #3 is much better, only I’d wish you get the stealth without the need for the arrow to hit the target (would make the LB a bit more competitive in PvP with all the projectile hate there).

Totally agreed. There indeed is an overabundance of everything. Less is more should be the policy now, but I highly doubt that from what I have seen so far from the expansion.

I felt like that they gave very little attention to the ranger in the video, and it doesnt seem to be so exciting as other classes. However, we shouldnt judge too fast. Although I can easily say that I was more hyped for druid with a staff than for soulbeast with one dagger.

Staff is quite mandatory in PvP. In other game modes, I don’t know. You CAN PvP with for example GS/LB but only in lower divisions you can use this effectively. Once you climb to higher divisions, people will start yelling at you not to die so often

Recently I played pretty well, climbing up the MMR ladder to something like 1720 (soloQ). Even won some matches versus top 10 players. Then I get a huge loss streak as my teammates were really terrible. I felt that these players were really below my skill level (thieves that consistently join large teamfights and 1v1s instead of doing their job, condi thieves, burn guards and other bad builds, and other messed up things).

I never really blame them or insult them in a match, as they can’t help it that theyre at a certain skill level. But most of the time they think that they do everything perfectly, and even blame others for the team loss. It is hard to carry such teams as a SoloQ’er, or maybe Im not truly good enough to carry them. But I think it aint a coincidence that I lost something like 10 of the 13 matches yesterday, while I was doing better against better opponents before. I experienced the same in previous seasons, and these loss streaks just come out of nowhere. Something must be wrong with the matchmaking system.

I noticed that hunters shot often does fail for seemingly no reason. Even on downed enemies in PvP.

The reason to use staff on a power build is the increased potential for kiting and its condi cleanse. I would take it over GS anytime.

Mesmer is great with it. Both access to invisibility and instant (moa) burst can be very influential on the game. A good mes/thief duo is able to outrotate the enemy team.

Doesnt matter whether you can CC someone to death or not. Fact is that there is too much CC present in PvP.

anything can match with a mesmer, but thief is a good and fun option.

I feel that the carry potential of scrapper is somewhat larger than on druid. I main druid but I never played engi, still I think I can say this. Engi seems more valuable in larger teamfights, AoE, group support, etc. Ofcourse it depends on team compositions but generally I would say Engi is a little more suitable to carry in SoloQ.

Minion builds are stuck to play on the sidenodes, as their minions will be destroyed easily in all the AoE in midfights. However, other professions are better performing at sidenodes, while the necro now is typically a midnode/teamfight profession. In other words, minion builds are bad in medium to higher tiers of pvp. So nothing ’’lmao’’ about that.

I really wouldn’t recommend a minion master build. In the current PVP situation, necro’s are teamfighters. Minions just die of AoE in teamfights.

Carrion has vitality, which increases the lenght of your shroud bar.

I play a lot of Druid longbow menders build. You can actually kill quite a lot of people with it, especially in lower tiers (gold/silver/bronze). If you want to kill someone you got to time your burst: longbow #4 – longbow #2 with bristle F2/or pet swap to smokescale.

Furthermore, Im not a fan of the Rune of the Trooper. Either use signet of the wild or rune of the dolyak to gain enough astral force. You should be able to hold a point versus everyting except for maybe engi. Practice by dueling is very important if you struggle in 1v1’s. If you’re good enough at this, then the next step is your rotation on the map.

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Currently legend 1,

Running different menders variants. Druid and ele are the hardest classes to play currently in ranked (solo or duo).

One thing you all should try to do though, is to move away from escape/cleansing Sigils. Druid does not mesh well with them because their cool down gets procced by celestial avatar use(which already removes all conditions). Especially 18second cooldown sigils will suffer hard from this

Why do you think druid and ele are currently the hardest to play?

I stumbled upon the same problem with the legendary backitem. On the other hand, you can practice the other classes in unranked, and when you feel confident with them you can go ranked. But a class specific rank isnt also a very bad idea I guess.

Staff/LB
Mender
Rune of the Water
Standard traits but with Ancients seeds
WHaO, SotW, SoS, Protect Me, SotP

played only like 15 to 20 matches, got placed at platinum and still there. Quite a lot more damage output with longbow, but if your team heavily depends on your support you should switch to s/d though. In condi enemy team comp I also use dolyak and SoR.