Guild Wars 2

As usual, really awesome video.

On the d/d Elementalist duels you really did a great job of saving your condi-burst to after they switched to water. Also the use of signet knockdown and technobabble in conjunction with Runes of Perplexity was a really great idea, so kudos there.

I didn’t see any fights against anyone heavy condition, so I am wondering in this build how you fair against other condition specced classes?

Snow Ghost.6817:

When you add in the context, which is different from both sides I might add, I can see your point of view.

“Chicken” I guess if you mean that anyone that runs away while in a fight, even if it is after others add in to the fight, is a “Chicken” then surely you would have to include the recent influx of Run Away warriors that Ebay have started fielding. As I am sure you know, these guys run with those ridiculous skills as soon as their health gets to below 50% and are almost impossible to catch. Sometimes they just break combat till they regain health and CDs and engage again, but surely, these guys, under your criteria, are also as you call them…“Chicken” ?

I generally play a Guardian with the vast majority of my playtime, so I admittedly get frustrated with runners at times. However I wouldn’t call any runner a chicken per se, because there is strategy involved in it at times, while as a Guardian there may be times I would like to run, but simply don’t have that level of “escapability”. But again back to my context of 2v1 going working in the favor of the 2… but when a second person comes (so 2 vs 2 guildies) the other two run, that to me seems a bit poor sportsmanship.

Snow Ghost.6817:

Also, the 3-5 people you had were roamers? Used to running with each other? The 7-8 guys in the tower were a mix of different guilds? I would say that if it were 3-5 VP in the tower, we would have given you the fair fight you were looking for, but when you can only rely on one other person from your guild, we are talking about a 3-5 against 2 effectively.

Its only my opinion but I know that I am, as I am sure you are, much more confident when going into a fight if you are with your own guild mates rather than people that you have no idea if they can hold their own or not.

There is no doubt a guild group of roamers vs. a mishmash group should win at even odds, but often it was 1.5 to 2 times our numbers, so I guess it should have been close, but maybe you are right there. In this case it was only 2-3 of my guildmates, but also a few folks that are indeed highly skilled and highly capable that we occasionally group with. Point taken, but I hope that you can see the frustration when people that significantly outnumber you and simply aren’t willing to chance a fight.

AphoticEssance.7592:

Typically “skilled” players do not call other players cowards. I feel sorry for players who say negative stuff about an entire guild because they were killed in combat.

I run with [VP] all the time and they are anything but cowards. I am sorry that you got killed 2v1 but that happens. There is no reason to rage out and troll a guild.

You died in a fight get over it.

First, I can appreciate you defending your guildmates, that is admirable, and I didn’t mean to call out the entire guild, but the warrior and thief that were there yesterday so if that wasn’t clear, then I apologize.

Second, I didn’t die, I fought them toe to toe attempting to kill them, and was likely going to lose when another guildmate of mine showed up making the fight 2v2 and they left. So the thought that I am “upset” about being killed is irrelevant and your analysis therefore invalidated. Again this the context and based on the experience I had with these individual from [VP], I found that they acted in a way that is typically associated with cowardly behavior, but as I said they may have had more important functions to perform “for the realm”.

Everyone has a different playstyle, which is fine… diversity in playstyles and playing the way you want is fine.

However, most trolling posts are made with in game context that not everyone is aware of, or want to hear. I was involved in several of those fights yesterday and I am certain that others will have different perspectives, however some of the context to this may be relevant.

First, there was limited activity in the zone and we had the outmanned buff the entire duration I was there (~2 hours). Second, there is a call that people are “playing WvW the way it was meant to be played”… however this apparently only applies to structures, as not once would the aforementioned guild members attempt to hold or take supply camps even though they typically out numbered us by a significant margin. This generally means that they would only hide in structures behind seige, and when we were able to force people to react, they were generally killed quite a bit easier than I would suspect… some will say it is their “team” build… but I personally play a team build even when roaming, and frankly if I played as poorly as they did in such builds I would be looking for ways to improve my play drastically or at least look to diversify my play so I didn’t look as though I were playing so poorly.

Now with regards to [VP] specifically, I understand that the individuals may be in your guild and you want to explain what you as a guild prefer playstyle wise, and I respect both aspects. However, to add context in… the two that were there had no problems attacking and trying to kill little ole me 2v1… however as soon as the odds evened, they fled back into either bay or the nearby tower. They both appeared to be skilled players, working together and attempting to coordinate, but as soon as the odds evened and there was the potential to be defeated, they left rather quickly. So if they seemed skillful… but are only willing to fight 2v1 and run once the odds are even… If it smells like a chicken… and acts like a chicken… then it probably IS a chicken. But maybe I am wrong and they had “important” AC manning duties with the 7-8 people in the tower holding off EB’s 3-5 people outside of it.

On Friday July 12th around 8:30 PM eastern time my guild (Call of Fate) started with a Guild Bounty Mission that we completed successfully, then we moved on to a Guild Rush, this was our first time doing a Guild Rush, so we didn’t exactly know what to expect. However, well within the allotted time frame from starting the rush (30 minutes) we had 15/15 members complete the rush, get personal rewards, and loot the splendid chest.

After completing the Guild Rush, we moved on to doing a Guild Trek. However I didn’t realize until much later that we received a message that the Guild Rush failed and we did not get any guild merits for completing this event. It is a shame because merits are one of the gating factors for smaller guilds to unlocking the remaining guild missions (Challenges, Puzzle), so it is a bit frustrating when this happens.

So has anyone seen this problem? I read somewhere that guild members have to remain in the area until the rush timer is completed, however does this mean we have to wait through the 30 minute timer from activating the rush, or does this mean someone needs to stay in the zone from the 6hr window in which you have to begin the rush?

Also I wonder if this problem is associated with guilds with members on different home servers? We have members on 2 different servers (Jade Quarry and Ehmry Bay) that participated in the Guild Rush, could this have lead to failure?

Korav.8462:

In general I think that this gear would fit in very well with modified Healway builds, where survivability and support are great, but damage can be a bit anemic…

So this is what I AM running currently:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.1k.hy|6.1k.hy|1k.74.1k.74.1c.74.1n.74.1k.71h.1c.71h|41k.0.21k.0.2u.0.1c.64.1c.64.1c.64|0.0.a4.u28b.u29a|4h.8|w.16.18.19.1i|e

Now this is with 3/6 Ascended and would require a bit of tinkering to figure out the right balance with 6/6.

However this is what I would have with full celestial (and changing consumables to compensate):
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|0.74.0.74.0.74.0.74.0.71h.0.71h|411.0.211.0.311.0.211.0.311.0.2s.0|0.0.a4.u28b.u29b|2e.1|w.16.18.19.1i|e

So there is a significant increase in effective power due to increased crit damage… as well as a very slight increase to effective health. The catch here though is this build is based on 100% fury uptime between Citadel proc and SaveYourself… when you add this factor in, the celestial build sees a HUGE boost.

With 100% fury uptime you will have reasonable damage while still maintaining all of your survivability and having good support through 800ish dodge heals, shouts that convert conditions, and very high uptime on all boons including retaliation.

Now one change I have been using is Permeating Wrath which is questionable… but it adds yet another boost to damage here because of the increased condition damage.

The role I play in this build is to support and add damage to the melee assist train around me. I also have the option of stacking Power (for better damage) or Healing (for better support) or Precision (for more might procs from empowering might).

I realize now that buildcraft didn’t carry over the manual numbers in the build, so in the celestial build you can put the numbers that Bash compiled in manually:

power: 224,
precision: 224,
toughness: 224,
vitality: 224,
healing power: 224,
condition damage: 224,
critical damage: 30,

Non-Celestial:
Power 1817
Precision 1482
Toughness 1810
Vitality 1476
Critical Damage 10%
Condition Damage 0
Condition Duration 0%
Healing Power 750
Boon Duration 45%
Critical Chance 30.94%
Damage 10%
Armor 3021
Health 16405

Effective Power 2369.68
Effective Health (EHP) 26993
Damage Reduction 39.23%
Reference Armor 1836

Versus Celestial:
Power 1745
Precision 1461
Toughness 1526
Vitality 1656
Critical Damage 74%
Condition Damage 440
Condition Duration 0%
Healing Power 765
Boon Duration 45%
Critical Chance 29.95%
Damage 10%
Armor 2737
Health 18205

Effective Power 2632.12
Effective Health (EHP) 27139
Damage Reduction 32.92%
Reference Armor 1836

And once you take into consideration 100% uptime on Fury, that is nearly a 20% increase in effective power.

In general I think that this gear would fit in very well with modified Healway builds, where survivability and support are great, but damage can be a bit anemic…

So this is what I AM running currently:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.1k.hy|6.1k.hy|1k.74.1k.74.1c.74.1n.74.1k.71h.1c.71h|41k.0.21k.0.2u.0.1c.64.1c.64.1c.64|0.0.a4.u28b.u29a|4h.8|w.16.18.19.1i|e

Now this is with 3/6 Ascended and would require a bit of tinkering to figure out the right balance with 6/6.

However this is what I would have with full celestial (and changing consumables to compensate):
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|0.74.0.74.0.74.0.74.0.71h.0.71h|411.0.211.0.311.0.211.0.311.0.2s.0|0.0.a4.u28b.u29b|2e.1|w.16.18.19.1i|e

So there is a significant increase in effective power due to increased crit damage… as well as a very slight increase to effective health. The catch here though is this build is based on 100% fury uptime between Citadel proc and SaveYourself… when you add this factor in, the celestial build sees a HUGE boost.

With 100% fury uptime you will have reasonable damage while still maintaining all of your survivability and having good support through 800ish dodge heals, shouts that convert conditions, and very high uptime on all boons including retaliation.

Now one change I have been using is Permeating Wrath which is questionable… but it adds yet another boost to damage here because of the increased condition damage.

The role I play in this build is to support and add damage to the melee assist train around me. I also have the option of stacking Power (for better damage) or Healing (for better support) or Precision (for more might procs from empowering might).

I have been contemplating posting my build here recently, but seems that it is nothing more than a variant on this original build.

Build with exotics only:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.1c.hy|6.1c.hy|1c.74.1c.74.1c.74.1c.74.1c.71h.1c.71h|1k.68.1k.68.1k.68.1k.68.1k.68.1a.68|0.0.a6.u28b.u29a|4h.8|w.16.18.19.1i|e

Essentially I played something similar to Healway and felt I wanted a bit more damage out of it, so I sacrificed a bit of healing power and boon duration in order to gain crit chance, pairing this up with Empowering Might. Now 18.44% base crit chance may not justify the trait change, however when this is paired with the proc from Runes of the Citadel and Save Yourself! for near permanent Fury, you end up with nearly 40% crit rate, allowing you to stack a significant number of might stacks.

As a note, my typical play style is smaller group (typically 5-8). The boon duration is still reasonable 45% (would have loved to eek out 50% somehow) and dodges still heal for nearly 1000, but I add might stacks to my team and increase my overall damage the longer I am in the fight. Also when I solo or have less than 5 in group I will typically switch staff to greatsword and often switch hold the line to retreat due to the overall lack of mobility with my weapon selections.

I am currently testing some ascended pieces that will drop my buffed healing to ~750, but bring my overall base crit chance to ~30 (50% with fury), I like the results, but the loss of healing is noticeable (more to team than to me personally as I still feel very “tanky”).

Depending on whether the team needs more healing vs. damage will determine whether get stacks of power or healing power with my stacking weapon.

Thank you [RoTW] from Kaineng for the duels inside of Obsidian Sanctum this morning (Eastern Time), I enjoyed them and look forward to seeing you in the open field at some point.

Even though significantly outnumbered on SoS borderland this afternoon, had some fun fights with DB folks… and [SAGE], I was starting to take it personally as it seemed you were gunning for this poor little Asuran Guardian, maybe another time I can find some of you when the odds are a bit more even!

I rarely post in these threads because anything positive is drowned out by e-flexing, e-tears, and trash talk, but I digress. There were some very enjoyable fights won and lost this weekend, particularly yesterday in BP borderlands during the afternoon and in AR borderlands in the evening (eastern time for reference).

Shout out to [TDME], I know you guys have quite a lot of underlevels, but you guys don’t run from a fight, so good luck in gearing and leveling and building a solid team. One thing though… Beware of Safe Fall traits

Also to [vT], very tough group and I was hoping we could catch you with more even odds, unfortunately it didn’t happen. The fighting outside of “briar” earlier in the night where you had a few others not in [vT] (sorry didn’t catch the guild names) was a very interesting tactic that was very effective, so thank you for the thought provoking encounter.

Shout out to BP in general for really upping your large force tactics in the last few weeks! If you ever get to the point where you can use those tactics in conjunction with your smaller tactical strike forces you will really be a tough fight.

So under the current system WXP is awarded for multiple actions that everyone can participate on relative equal footing, such as killing yaks, defense, and captures. However one aspect where this is untrue would be in the case of support vs. damage roles.

For example as a Guardian I am defending a tower where we work to bottle up people at a choke point via the multitude of bubbles, wards, and immobilizes that we have available to us. Our AoE DPS/CC support us typically at range (some melee) and our Single Target DPS typically support us via siege (arrow carts/ballista). This setup is overall very effective and we are often able to hold a tower vs. significantly greater numbers.

The problem is that if you compare the WXP gains of the Guardians who create the “kill box” that makes this strategy efficient vs. those running the siege, the difference in “kill credit” and therefore WXP gains is staggering… typically around 5 times more.

This is a coordinated effort by our team, but yet playing a supporting role… probably the most important role in the strategy, yields significantly less rewards seems off. There are other examples of this for every class I am sure, but the common theme is that those that play a supporting role are not equally rewarded for their time and effort.

Considering that WvW is very team oriented, it seems to me that the implementation where individually “tagging” in order to get “kill credit” in order to gain WXP for said kill significantly hinders WXP progression for those that choose to play supportive roles, rather than pure damage roles. Wouldn’t it make more sense to reward everyone in a group for the kills performed by the group, rather than kill credit be associated with the individual? This would further promote grouping and I can’t see any glaring problems (maybe AFK’ers, but I suspect this would be a limited problem).

I would love to hear others thoughts on this, and thank you for reading.

As a player in T1 pairing, zergs rule, and there are little to no tools to really break one up. Some may say that having more players is strategic, but the reality there is no strategy involved, whoever has greater mass will win most of the time.

To me the fact that breakout events are needed highlights some fundamental problems with the game. In T1, things have quickly devolved into zerg “merry-go-round” where there is really little fighting players and more fighting NPC’s. A small group sees larger numbers and knows there is little chance of stopping them, so they use the only strategy they can, which is leave and try to back cap. To some degree this can help balance the point spread, but it feeds into the “merry-go-round” cycle, and the people that actually do want to fight over objectives leave out of boredom… I am sure plenty hear remember “DoorHammer”.

Now why is this relevant to the conversation, well if in WvW if you forced players to respawn after being spiked, then you have added several layers of complexity and playstyle to the game. It would also add build diversity as glass cannons become much riskier (which they should be).

There would be more things for smaller groups and solo players to do in the form of intercepting reinforcements, making it necessary for groups to escort players out, or the zerg will need to send a recovery force if they keep losing more through attrition. It would add strategy, while taking away from raw strength in numbers, making player skill and strategy more important mass numbers. It would also help to put fighting back in, rather than play on the “merry-go-round”.

Maybe I am biased, but Guardians only have one source of conditions… Burning. Because burning stacks in DURATION and not INTENSITY, I feel that this is one of the weakest condition damages. So to go for a burning build you need to dedicate so much of your build to it in order to improve it and there is no other consistent outlet for all of the condition damage stacking.

Also consider because burning stacks in duration, do we actually know if the highest burn value gets applied, I would hope so, but I haven’t seen confirmation of that. Because if you have another class apply burning at a lower rate, when you increase the duration does your value apply… or if you have burning applied and someone comes along to extend it does your high damage burn or their low damage burn take priority? Because of these questions which I haven’t been able to answer due to lack of better tools/logs to monitor it, I personally feel that burning builds may only be effective in solo situations, but maybe I am off and someone more knowledgeable can correct me.

At the completion of the event would it be possible to get statistics regarding % of people that were able to complete the jump puzzle? It would also be interesting to see the average number of attempts for those that completed the puzzle and those that attempted but didn’t complete it.