Guild Wars 2

Toolbox.9375:

To be fair, how often do you see successful core Guardians, either? Rangers? Thieves? Just about everyone utilizes their elite specialization.

I wasn’t quite clear in what I was saying, but what I meant was that I am looking for any engi/scrapper builds without hammer. Even if we just look at scrappers (not sure I have seen one not using a hammer) there seem to be very few compared to all other elite specs.

Engineer was my first love in gw2. I’ve played many types of builds in wvw and always loved the flexibility offered by the class. I was excited when HoT was announced and we would see new elite specializations, but this quickly turned to disappointment with every new reveal regarding the scrapper. So much so that my engineer has set untouched all through HoT until a couple months ago. I was going to dust him off and try out some wvw with rifle, p/p or p/s, but then I realized – I never see any engineers in wvw except for the occasional scrapper using hammer. I started browsing through the forums, but it seems like there really isn’t much discussion regarding wvw and core engi and that left me thinking…. is anyone playing anyone roaming on a non hammer engi in wvw and enjoying it? Or is everyone just hanging up their toolbox until PoF?

Balsamic Vinaigrette is a favorite of mine.

I’ve been trying to take advantage of the corrupt boon function of nightfall, but it doesn’t seem to actually be doing any of that. I thought maybe I was having trouble tracking the boons/conditions on my target, but after a few fights where my target had 1 boon and no conditions prior to me using it and no change after they entered the field, it seems like it may be bugged? just thought I would check and see what everyone else was observing.

Hexalot.8194:

So you transferred off a stable server on to one of the tiny servers that, depending on the whims of chance, can get linked with anyone ?

And then complain that you don’t like your new host link ?

face palm

You seem to be a bit short sited regarding the situation so let me break it down so hopefully you can understand.

• JQ is in T1 and will most likely be in T1 until an intervention by anet.
• I don’t particularly enjoy full map queues running into each other and would rather roam solo or in a small group.
• I chose a server that would likely never be linked to any servers in T1 (see above).
• The server I am linked to currently would be better served as a link instead of a host.

It was either stay on JQ and always play blob wars or transfer and ensure I am never in T1 again and roll the dice every couple of months.

I was excited to see who my server might get linked to for the next couple of months so I log in a bit after reset and notice all maps are queued. Nothing different really from the last link so I wait my turn and my queue finally pops.

I start roaming about on my own (transferred off JQ to escape the full queue map blobs) and encounter a couple roamers over the course of 30 minutes. I see the map queues for all 3 servers running about so I trail looking for stragglers or small groups to engage. After another hour or so I realize there just aren’t any to be found so I start following our zerg.

The first fight they engage in (similar numbers) they just turn and run away. Next thing I know they are dropping ACs in the middle of nowhere hoping to lure the other side into the fire. Well, they did that, but they just got ran over. The next 3 or 4 fights they ended up running away again. They ended up taking camps and empty keeps avoiding any real interaction with the other servers.

I thought this may have been a fluke, but after more of the same today I have to say this is going to be an agonizing 2 months. It almost feels like T1 (full map queue zerg balls) on a smaller scale, but one side is incapable of competing. i like the idea of server linking, but in this particular instance it feels like my small server is just being punished. I am not sure what happened to the host server, but it doesn’t seem as though they really have any interest in competing or getting better.

I queued up for my home borderland and there was 18 in queue. 20 minutes goes by and I am down to 5. I check a couple minutes later and now I am 23 in queue? How does this work?

I am not sure if lag causes it to fail more often, but last night after reset it almost never worked. I saw players just running through it and dodge rolling out of it constantly. Almost ready to take it off my bar as it is completely unreliable at the moment.

Anyone notice players not actually getting trapped by dragon maw? Over the last few days I’ve seen a ton of players just run through it or dodge roll out of the trap. I check their buffs to make sure they don’t have stability and most of the time they do not. Just wanted to see if anyone else noticed this or if I am losing my mind.

Everything about the combat system is stacked against smaller numbers and that seems to be by design. I don’t think Anet wanted smaller numbers wiping larger numbers with any consistency as this would prove to be demoralizing for the larger group. The down state, aoe cap and massive amount of short duration CC with effectively no cool down make it extremely challenging for smaller groups to be successful. This is where I think DAOC got it ride as a coordinated group of 8 could take on a group 2 or 3 times their size regularly. Sadly, I don’t think anything will change to improve this.

deathTouch.9706:

Wanted to give a hearty welcome to JQ PvE guild SG to WvW, if you guys need any tips on roaming feel free to whisper any of the Mag guilds.

Do you guys have special skills that drop loot bags or is that some reward you get from wvw rank? I want to know how to return the favor. Thanks!

Gully.7358:

CRO.7658:

Bovinity.8610:

No one in Tier 1 actually wants to fight unless they have 80 people backing them up, that’s what makes it frustrating sometimes. SoR/BG players almost always run from me rather than engage 1v1. Even 2v1 against me, people will often just run away.

Im one of those people that usually runs away from fights.

There are two simple reasons for this:

1. I scout for my team, there is no point being dead and losing eyes on bay/hills/garri.

2. Im not specced for 1v1 fights and small skirmishes.

Why should i have to conform to your playstyle and engage in fights when i prefer carrying information and doing something for my team. We all have different interests in the game and dueling is not the only part of the game thats enjoyable.

…. !?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Then what are you specced for? Just running?

0_o

Nearly everyone I encounter solo roaming does this. Some seem to have traits/skills more suited for this play style than others.

If the are both d/p and you aren’t a Regen build the best you can do is grab your ankles and pray for spit. Unless they are both terrible it’s going to be an extremely difficult fight.

Tulisin.6945:

“But stealth benefits!” falls into the classic trap of failing to see the downside of stealth.

Stealth uptime is combat downtime. You cannot attack if you want to continue to benefit from stealth. This is a huge disadvantage for the thief, and far too little exploited by people fighting stealth combatants. Oh nos, they’re stealthed 50 % of the fight? That means half the fight they’re willfully walking around not attacking while you can attack all you want. If you’re standing around waiting for the thief to appear again instead of tracking down and killing the thief you’re the one creating that advantage for them, they aren’t doing it themselves. All of those fancy traited advantages evaporate if the thief gets smacked once or twice while stealthed. They’ve traded in their ability to attack, in that case, for nothing.

Are you still trying to sell stealth as a disadvantage? I think I have heard it all. Surely you are aware that backstab and sneak attack require stealth? Maybe we should jump to the single greatest benefit stealth provides. Invisibility. Did you really just say track the thief down? I need to find out which class has “Release the Hounds!”. Between heartseeker, shadow return and shadowstep no one is going to catch me on me thief after i stealth. Maybe Anet should just change stealth to a debuff rather than a buff? Keep this stuff coming, its comedy gold.

SgtJanitor.3164:

Meurto.8520:

Has anyone seen any speed hacks lately? A mesmer in GOF was able to outrun my ranger while I had signet of the hunt active. They were not running staff and would warp about 10 yards forward every 2 or 3 seconds.

Do you have screenshots and/or video of this alleged hacker? GoF does not permit nor condone the usage of any sort of third party software that puts us at any sort of advantage. If this statement is true, I would personally see to them simultaneously getting kicked from the guild and banned from the game.

No, unfortunately I did not have any video and they were out of range for any screenshot to identify them. I tried to invite them to group to get an ID, but they were already grouped. They were a female human mesmer with short black hair and that creep mesmer smiley face starter mask. I will keep an eye out and try to provide some screenshots if I see them up close. Just to be clear I was not implying GoF are hackers as a whole, but wanted to bring it to your attention.

cyyrix.6105:

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Meurto.8520:

Has anyone seen any speed hacks lately? A mesmer in GOF was able to outrun my ranger while I had signet of the hunt active. They were not running staff and would warp about 10 yards forward every 2 or 3 seconds.

There’s as many today as there were 6 months ago, if not more.

If anyone knows about speed hacks, it’s got to be the gw2 records webmaster.

That said, what you’re describing sounds an awful lot like a traited phase retreat combined with blink. Are you sure the mesmer wasn’t running staff as an alternate weapon set? Seems like too much of a coincidence that he happened to be a mesmer escaping from you while using a hack that looks exactly like how mesmers escape.

I play a mesmer as well so I am familiar with the combination you described and I know what that looks like. This mesmer was warping on screen much quicker than phase retreat would have been available and certainly much more often than blink would be off cooldown. I wish I would have recorded it, but it looked similar to some of the speedhacks from early on where people would warp around almost like a slide show where you would get a glimpse of them every second or two.

Has anyone seen any speed hacks lately? A mesmer in GOF was able to outrun my ranger while I had signet of the hunt active. They were not running staff and would warp about 10 yards forward every 2 or 3 seconds.

I have faced SOR for quite sometime now and their numbers in WvW over the past 3 weeks have been absolutely overwhelming. It doesn’t seem to matter which BL I go to they have a full map roaming around in a single force. Its been extremely difficult to hold anything against the numbers they are able to field each and every night.

Hoots.9564:

JQ now has their picture on a milk carton

This is pretty accurate. I haven’t had a queue for any WvW zone and SOR just took JQ Valley with about 10 of us defending.

I loved the video, well played. I am actually leveling up my necro and am still undecided on what I will spec once I hit 80. MM seems fun, but watching your pets just stand around a lot of the time looks extremely frustrating. I got a good laugh out of the text you added, especially “Oh look master.. Minotaurs!”

I just wanted to say awesome fights last night SOR and BG at lowlands in EB. I thought we were going to lose it quite a few times, but managed to hang on at least while I was still on. Some of the most fun I have had in quite sometime other then the miserable skill lag.

On a side note, why so many bloody forum warriors? No one congratulates anyone anymore. There’s always a laundry list of excuses of why one side is winning or losing and such a high level of animosity towards the other servers. With that sad I would like to give a big /salute to the folks in RIOT. Top notch group of players. Also to Homie, you are on kitten guardian.

Thanks to BG and SOR for the fun times in SOR BL last night! We seemed to be heavily outnumbered, but still managed to find some nice skirmishes. Ran into the guys from RIOT a few times, always great fights guys, keep up the great work! Been playing my engineer lately and think I found a spec that works well. I managed to survive 20 people chasing me from SOR garrison to bay. Hope to see everyone out and about tonight.

I just want to say grats to the folks on Blackgate Awesome job you guys!

Sorry for all the sore losers on JQ. Looking forward to another great week in WvW!

Boulderbolg.3460:

Meurto.8520:

Took a break from EB due to the massive queues and ran into the guilds Opp and RIOT in SOR BL. Was refreshing finding some small group skirmishes and had a blast trying trying to take you guys on even solo after my guildies logged.

Opp – bring less thiefs! And that ranger… you must die faster!

RIOT – holy batkitten…. I thought that ranger might die quickly, but I was terribly mistaken. I think he was tankier than the guardian AND the ele.

Hope to see more of you guys. Your friendly thief in TSFR.
/salute

Lol, that must have been Jonto. Thanks for the shout out! We definitely enjoyed last night, and it was a refreshing reminder that T1 isn’t all that bad after the weekend is over. Thanks!

P.S. If you are a thief, you should check out [RIOT]Yishis’s videos if you haven’t!

:)
kitten that Jonto LOL. I couldn’t quite finish him off with the guardian and ele aoeing him while he was down. I sat back and watched the 3 of you guys wreck a group of 8 or 9 and realized I was going to have my hands full. If you ever see TSFR running about its probably me running solo (thief) or with my ele guildy and very rarely do we have a full group out and about. Hope to run into you guys and Opp again soon. Also, I will check out the vids, thanks!

Took a break from EB due to the massive queues and ran into the guilds Opp and RIOT in SOR BL. Was refreshing finding some small group skirmishes and had a blast trying trying to take you guys on even solo after my guildies logged.

Opp – bring less thiefs! And that ranger… you must die faster!

RIOT – holy batkitten…. I thought that ranger might die quickly, but I was terribly mistaken. I think he was tankier than the guardian AND the ele.

Hope to see more of you guys. Your friendly thief in TSFR.
/salute

Thanks to the small man groups of SOS and SOR last night for the scrums. Our little guild TSFR had some great fights last night. Looking forward to some more battles tonight!

With all of the whining and crying on here about this and that it sounds like my kids. See if you can match the whines on the forums with my daughters.

Dad!!! My sister took my cookies while I was sleeping!!!!
Dad!!! Our other sister took our Barbies while we were fighting with each other!!!
Dad!!! My sister has more M&M’s than me!!!
Dad!!! She is playing with Monster High Dolls and they are overpowered!!!

Ohai.8346:

Thork.7250:

Hey all,

As many have already stated throughout this thread; GREAT FIGHTS SO FAR!!!! In honor of some of the greatest WvW I have ever experienced (been playing since BWE1), I made a quick video showing some of the highlights my Guild and I experienced in EB over the weekend. Shows a lot of the main organized WvW guilds (FoE, PRX, Choo, ext…) who were playing in EB this weekend clashing together in huge super organized fights!!!

We won some, we lost some, but one thing’s for sure, the level of competition and more importantly the fun, has increased dramatically with this new reset! Enjoy…

This is Tier 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CcxKcYoXgM&feature=youtu.be

Keep up the good fights; this one’s going to come down to wire for sure!

/Salute to all involved,

~Thork
[FoE] Guild XO
www.FistoftheEmpire.com

Some great action indeed at reset on EB, Kudos to Choo, PRX, and all the rest we came across in this video

I was tagging a long with PRX and the fights at speldan and the dredge caves were awesome! I was the giant norn warrior with the TSFR tag and noticed I was phasing in and out quite often. It really provides some perspective as to how culling impacts the other side. Great video.

Ohai.8346:

spartanx.1364:

Loving T1 So Far Awesome Fights in EB…. FoE and PRX Top Notch fights best in… well ever I think. Hell that last fight with PRX was so intense I crashed. I dont know if I can take not having these fights after the reset.

Yeah we at FoE had some great fights against Choo, you guys certainly put numbers out! lol Also had great fun wiping 1.5x the PRX numbers until they started running away and calling in the whole map every time they saw us rollseyes

I was running around with the guys from PRX and we ran into FoE a few times all of which FoE had 1.5x to 2.5x our numbers and the PRX crew came out on top. Obviously this was only a few fights, but they wiped FoE rather handily.

I had the pleasure of running around with about 10-12 of the PRX guys and I have to say they are sight to be seen in action. We managed to take out a group of SOR at speldan who had about twice our numbers and during this scrum a group of about 25 SOS showed up who we also managed to wipe. Keep up the great work PRX.

And [CHOO]….. dat zerg!!! It must have been a good hour before I saw someone from SOR that was NOT part of that guild. Props to you guys as you respond quite quickly to any assault on any towers/keeps you own. I am really enjoying this match up so far.

I am on Sorrow’s Furnace and we always seem to get matched up against the worst of the big servers that have a massive population around the clock. This has happened the last 2 weeks and I think we would have a much better match up if we got bumped down a tier. I guess there may always be a tier where two servers are evenly matched, but always end up fighting the loser of the higher brackets.

This is starting to feel like a repeat of YB from last week. We seem to be constantly out manned, even in our own borderlands and have never had much of an off peaks population so anything we might take will most likely be gone in the morning. If SF keeps getting matched up with the worst team of the upper brackets, who so far seem to have a much better showing, then we are in for a rather miserable wvw experience. I am not sure if we have lost a considerable number of people to server xfers or lack of motivation, but we rarely seem to have a queue outside of Friday. If this keeps up SF may see more people leave for a more competitive matchup.

I have been playing in a ton of tournaments and hotjoin matches lately and am curious about your opinions on the performance of the engineer. It seems pretty hit or miss for me depending upon what classes/specs I encounter and have tried several different builds (bunker, rifle/nades dps, bunker/dps and pistol/elixir).

I guess I will start with the bunker first. It is a very tricky animal as you are completely dependent on your knockbacks, blinds and snares. Your dmg is pretty awefull and if you end up without any dodges/stun breakers you go down fairly quickly or at least you do imo. Thiefs still do an incredible amount of damage to you and guardians of all varieties can be a nightmare.

I think rifle/nades was my least favorite build (I tried several combinations of gear/runes) as I was always far too squishy. Maybe someone has had some success with this combination?

And now to my favorite – pistols/elixir. Most of the time I really enjoy this build as I can deliver some impressive condition damage while having a lot of buffs available to me as well as plenty of condition removal options. The big issue with this spec is a a lack of any hard cc outside of supply crate. 1v1 I have been doing fairly well against thieves (I was surprised by this), but if I am in a skirmish and a thief jumps in I am pretty much dead in a second or two. I didn’t really struggle with any of the other classes aside from the guardian. With Leap of Faith, Flashing Blade and JI they have the tools to stay right on top of you. They also delivery some surprising amount of burst and can tank what seems to be quite a lot of damage. For me they are the ultimate uphill battle.

I really hate for classes to be nerfed unless it is absolutely necessary and it feels as though the engineer has a long way to go to perform as well as some of the top classes (guardians/mesmers/etc.)

This is actually a bit longer than I intended, but if anyone feels like replying with spec and what matchups they struggle with or any helpful tips that would be great.

I am currently running this http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQFAUl0piYnvy5F1LJyoCdGoC6lIF5Xl95Bb1WQIA;TIADKOUA and absolutely love it for damage, mobility and survivability. I really want to love pistols in WvW, but I really don’t see how they can compete with nades/rifle. Has anyone managed to put a build together that even comes close?

Apologies for the bad link message, it seems to work when you cut and paste.

Munki.9452:

Meurto.8520:

Subtle.4596:

Sigh, ok man. Lemmings.

It is probably the kindest way of describing the level of play I have seen. And I didn’t say all, I said most of what I have seen so far.

You’ve sure been laying it on thick trying to belittle the Yaks players. Just letting you know, constantly trying to say your opponent are bad players and “only win because of numbers” just make you sound like a sore loser. Regardless of whether it’s true or not. But whatever helps you sleep at night!

But I’m sure Yaks will take your expert opinion on their forces ability in to consideration.

Signed,

A Lemming.

I would imagine the sore losers are probably the ones not even joining the borderlands. I show up every night to try to regain some territory for our server and the simple truth is we are grossly outnumbered.

Obviously I have not played against everyone on Yak’s, I simply provided my observations of the play that I had witnessed during this match up. If you are offended by the comments then perhaps you fall into that group?

Subtle.4596:

Sigh, ok man. Lemmings.

It is probably the kindest way of describing the level of play I have seen. And I didn’t say all, I said most of what I have seen so far.

etsmith.9025:

congrats to sorrow furnace for schooling yak noobs! … yes im a yak player .. been yelling at people to leave their spawn points alone .. but no .. hey had to try and camp … SF players put up 5 golems and took EH in 2 minutes .. i would give you an award if i could now hopefully they will learn …

Based on what I have seen the majority of YB seem to behave like lemmings. The raw numbers advantage allows you to pretty much steamroll us, but I can’t imagine things going well for you with similar numbers/night time activity.

No one seems to be motivated to head to the borderlands for SF. I’ve been roaming around and must admit that as a whole YB probably has some of the worst individual players I have encountered thus far. I rarely seem them dodge or make use of any cc and you can quite easily bait them. The raw numbers certainly are rolling over anyone, but small skirmishers are usually lost by them.

If Yak’s has this kind of coverage how did they ever lose their last matchup? They seem to have massive zergs across all 4 areas as well as a large night presence.

Yak’s is currently camping our spawn in Yak’s borderland, but so far I have baited about 20 of them in range of the guards and wrecked another 50+ in 1vX. From what I have witnessed thus far they simply overwhelm us with numbers as I have been less than impressed by an individuals up to this point.

After falling in love with Elixir S I thought how can you go wrong with a trait that provides the same benefit? This seemed really great until I started to realize that I was actually being hit by CC after the trait was triggered. Unfortunately I don’t record any of my game play and without proper time stamps the combat log provides no useful information. I did notice that I am usually hit with immobilize and can see all the damaging attacks missing. I never seem to encounter this issue with the actual Elixir S ability, only the trait. I was just curious if anyone else had encountered this?

I haven’t logged in yet today so not sure what everything looked like at the start of the day. How busy were the Yak’s folks last night? EB was pretty even with Yak’s holding SM when I called it quits last night.

It seems every thread I read regarding WvW has the rifle/grenades coming out on top. I really want to run with pistols/nades, but it sounds like the dmg is so inferior that it really isn’t worth the time. Is there any scenario where a build like this could be succesfull? Something with a bit more survivability than the traditional rifle/nades glass cannon build?

Had some EB guys holed up in the mine with about 10 arrows carts and a couple ballistas. Kept trying to get our guys to charge you so when they wouldn’t I stealthed in and managed to kill a few before anyone got off an arrow cart. Looking forward to another great night of WvW.

I have mixed feelings about high tough/vitality in WvW and I will try to explain below. You can usually escape from 2-4 or 5 people using your dodge rolls, blink and decoy, but that probably is not going to save you from a large group of players. With so many people spamming CC on you you are going to die and it may be that all that toughness/vitality helped you live 1 more second in that situation. I am using full berserker atm and admit that I am a glass cannon, but I think we have a real advantage with our clones, decoy and blink that really help us to live considerably longer while also putting out some very nice damage. Maybe the best suggestion is to try out different combinations of the rare gear as it is fairly inexpensive and only slightly less powerful than exotic and you can that combination that works best for you. Whatever you choose, goodluck!

Hey Taugrim, been following you since Swtor. I have played with oh sword and while the swordsman does more dmg the loss of pistol 2 with sword 3 was really hard to get used to. I do play a more bursty build with less survivability so the loss of pistol might be easier for you to adapt to. Good luck.