Guild Wars 2

YuiRS.8129:

So this is becoming a trend for me now…
The game starts, I go far and cap it.
well, I’m a Thief.

Far caps should only be done when agreed upon, and never done Solo. You would be better going home at the jump and help out in case they do a 3-2 split on your home node.

If you want to far cap, then take one more, stealth stack, and get the preemptive jump on them. Otherwise, you are going to die, and by the time you respawn you are late on the rotation.

I’m pretty sure a hero kill is awarding a whopping +2 points. That seems really broken.

Yeh, might want to tone down whatever the kitten is happening in there. A room jammed packed with NPC archers, hero’s, and all the particle effects from spells makes it more like a torture chamber where the outcome is you getting a seizure..

Last match we were defending lord and engi dropped elite, ele sandstorm and necro aoe death on TOP of all that mentioned above.

It is meaningless, like, literally as it is/was a ‘test leaderboard’. But great news for you, it ends today!

YuiRS.8129:

If you don’t defend your lord kinda dies and you lose the game. Also killing attacking NPCs awards points.[/quote]

In the last game neither lord was killed, we killed 2 heroes at our lord, timer ended we lost by 70. “So stupid” is all I could say after the match.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

The fact that you were using consecrations shows you need to learn more about the class.

First off sanctuary is well, useless. It’s so small melee attacks can get through it, ground targeted stuff goes through it & anyone with stability can simply walk through it.

Purging flames is alright if you have someone providing blast finishers.
Hallowed ground, well its really only good for larger scale fights.

I do agree the lord needs better defenses but if you wana go defensive support your much better off using a shout build.

Sanctuary on top of supply depot was hilarious. On top of hero spawn, as well.

Forgive me for trying to use the defense abilities for which Anet created to be used by the guardian Profession. Since every class is a carbon copy of the Meta, it was actually quite easy to get myself up to 75 (80 now didn’t play Conq with beta going on) on the NA LB, because everyone is so predictable.

Im going back to medi guard, GS, S/F variant today, and I’m sure I’ll do just fine with the class (profession) I know nothing about.

I don’t play LoL, never will. But I get that this mode is being given to us based on that game’s popularity. Lane’s, Heroes, etc. But I don’t see why anyone would want to play defense in this game, as it doesn’t award you squat.

I spent the last two matches trying out Consecration skills with Tome of Courage, Staff, Sceptor/Focus. In both matches I did well enough. I was using Sanctuary to cover our supplies, and constantly buffing our NPC’s. Both matches were a loss, but only because of points. I was able (with helps of teammates ofc) to keep our lord alive.

But they netted us losses. Again, defense in this game is not warranted.

Well back to my face smash medi guard. I thought it would be fun to try a new build, but if it’s all about speeding to smash lord, then screw defense…

Just an open thread here on meta discussion. I am curious what exactly makes a build meta. I was unaware of the medi guard, and was reading on Metabattle, and was like, ‘hmm this seems funner than my boring bunker.’

Then I picked it up and really enjoyed it. Later on I find out that prior to Tage at ESL, that the medi guard was not in the meta until he showed up in ESL and did very well with it (this may not be the case but it is how I understand it to be from chat).

So what makes a meta build then? Is it just whatever FoTM a top tier player is running with?

On a side note, I am praying that Rev forces professions to reconsider Meta. Whenever I am watching tourney vids, even the announcers tend to act blahzay over everyone’s build because, well, they are all the same. Very little variety. Maybe Rev and the new profession specializations will change this, but is it just going to change to one new uber build per class where we will simply be where we currently are. 1-2 builds that are viable at the highest level of play.

Thoughts?

I talk a ton of trash when I’m on and drinking beers. It’s hilarious. I love calling out the PVE scrubs in RANKED doing dailies…those are my favorite people to troll.

I also love it when people rage Whisp me after matches, but it typically gets defused very fast because I don’t take myself serious and tend to joke with them after shreking noobs.

Racism, homophobia, threats, that’s not cool. That’s not my style, but I will be the first one to dance on your corpse calling you a noob. =)

haha you picked Engi daily day to come back. I feel bad for all the new ppl who just bought the game on sale, trying out PVP for the 1st time this weekend.

Pls kill profession dailies….

Hmmm I won’t completely judge it by a video, but yeh I kinda will.

It looks VERY casual. The player himself in the video said it himself, he is a PVE’r and did quite well in both matches.

From 1st impressions I was not blown away by anything. It seems like something a 10 year old could grasp, and way less complicated than say WoW’s Alterac Valley. I’m sure most of the players were trying out the Rev so maybe that’s why the actual ‘PVP’ interactions looked so sloppy and uncoordinated.

I’ll definitely try it out on the 14th, (with guildies as this looks like a PuG nightmare), and I do hope it introduces some fresh build ideas. However I’m mostly concerned that this is going to be highly player vs. NPC combat, and some kitten spamming treb all match.

Can some of the players who have actually played this chime in? Curious to see how team dynamics worked in this mode specifically with fields, finishers, lane designation, etc.

Meta is designed for tourney, TEAM play. Meaning each build is Meta because it brings the most to the TEAM dynamic required to succeed in top tier matches.

If you think any of the builds are braindead, then you probably Pug a lot so you are not seeing what these builds are truly capable of. A lot of it consists of team synergy and knowing when to use skills together.

In Pugs you just wont see this kind of coordination:
Pre match might stacks
Team Stealth
Mesmer Portal play
Call targets to help Medi guard

Without the current Meta builds these type of tactics might not work. All of which are very basic team play strategies, fyi.

Phantaram.4816:

Guardian:
Ring of Warding – 50 second cooldown
Reason: at 40 seconds the cooldown too conveniently aligns with judges intervention. Not to mention it’s just an extremely powerful ability.

Medi guard loses his burst if he opens with JI to ROW, so I don’t see how the alignment matters. As it being OP, well, it’s one of 2 semi defensive abilities medi guard has unless you count invul heal and our lame elite. It’s also VERY slow to cast, easily telegraphed, and I would say a lot of times you have to deal with stability which makes it pointless.

I use it purely in a defensive manner. Box out a node, or help with a rez. It becomes way more useful in 2v1 on something say a cele engi (if slick shoes is on CD) and you need to lock them down for a quick burst and stomp.

As a competitive player myself, and tourney watcher, I find myself often times very confused what is happening, especially at mid.

I think a lot of it has to do with camera positioning, and whoever controls that during matches needs work. There is often times too many camera cuts as they are trying to cover caps, decaps, etc.

I do like it when they follow an actual player and the color commentary helps to build the excitement.

However, I don’t play LoL but sometimes I watch vids on it via Kotaku, and everytime I see a video from that game I can’t think how utterly slow and boring LoL looks in comparison the the frantic nature of Conquest.

They should treat the camera work like basketball, a high energy fast paced 5v5 sport that allows you to see most of the players at all time. Not saying it would be easy, but it might help.

And yes, there is WAY too many effects going on with fields, finishers, floaters, etc. Team uniforms would be nice too. I know they have default player and team colors, but that kind of makes it look uninteresting as this is a high fantasy game.

KelsteNa.7903:

I expect to lose more than I win because I’m new and garbage at mesmer,

You started a thread, but answered your own question…

Play unranked for awhile, get the mechanics down on your mesmer.
/thread

kdaddy.5431:

why didnt you go 1 zerk with 1 bunker support? Like guardian with staff for might and zerk warrior with stances?

Or power necro with d/d ele, you ran in there with 5 vs 5 builds and calling the ammy easy proof when really by your own admission you didnt do your homework for 2 vs 2

Because the cele users weren’t using meta conquest builds? /derp

Hachiman.2470:

Nathaniel.4905:

So last night a guildie and I jumped in Aspect Gaming’s (tyvmbtw) 2v2 weekly tourney.

In ESL weekly tourney cele amulet is banned in 2v2.

interesting. Do you know what caused them to make this call?

Sorel.4870:

Bring the right builds at the right fights.

I think I stipulated that in my opening, but yes, prior to last night I had never done any sort of 2v2. I just took whatever build I was running, which happened to be the med, GS variant guard ( I even suggested at least rolling hammer/sf but guildie said just roll with it).

But I wanted to see how zerker stacked up against Cele in a concentrated environment, and hands down Cele beat Zerker.

“because of the huge sustain of med guardian”

wut??

My med guard is WAY glassy compared to my cele engi…

Iris Ng.9845:

First, roll the celestial ammy yourself and they will kill you just as fast. Second, I alsowatch the tourney and I dare say zerker thief-mes duo has some success against celestial ammy. Third, celestial shines when the fight is held longer and zerker works best when you can burst opponents fast. As a matter of kill and stomp then wouldn’t it be in the zerker’s favor? Finally, I am sorry to say but it’s a player’s skill issue when it comes to winning or losing a brawl.

::yawn:::
cele engi main, put on the shelf because it’s cheese. Skill? True skill would be no amulets used and then brawl. Cele shines is ALL scenarios and there’s no risk vs. high reward. Sure you lose a bit of power and dmg output, but current meta is all about sustain and condi pressure. Again, letting AI and RNG determine dmg output.
So you sit back, survive longer, heal better, and let your conditions do the work for you.

Dawdler.8521:

Its the way Anet intended it to be eSport – everyone running the same builds on the same amulet. Then all that matter is player skill and tactics. Keep in mind that celestial was added to pvp by Anet.

Then remove all other amulets?

So last night a guildie and I jumped in Aspect Gaming’s (tyvmbtw) 2v2 weekly tourney. Granted he told me about it 5 minutes before it started and we just jumped in with whatever builds we were rolling.

Shoutbow Warrior
Medi Guard GS variant (me)

We both rolled Zerkers…

And we got rolled. In fact the winners of the whole thing were Cele users.

After experiencing this, I just feel like Cele is too noob friendly. It’s too much of a safety net. Running Zerkers you actually feel pressure when getting burst down, and have to quickly adjust from offense to defense to heal up. But if you have two cele builds I feel like:

A. The healing received or given is too great
B. The Toughness is too great
C. The condition boost is too great.

Honestly the whole Amulet is pure cheese and I really noticed this in a 2v2 environment where the ONLY objective was to kill and stomp 2 other players. You may not notice it during 5v5’s but it becomes very annoying in that situation.

I’m also not denying the winners the fact they were skillful or stating that we should have won, I just think that Amulet is OP and should be banned from competitive play.

Alexander.9810:

Guardian – it seems like they have a Warrior’s number in 1v1s because of their blocks, blinds, and boons. Conditions seem like the best choice to deal with them, so Sword/Sword Longbow with a Condition damage oriented amulet like Rabid makes sense. It seems like it’s too easy for a Guardian to counter direct damage in 1v1s, hence why they’re considered strong against Thieves and other direct damage builds.

Hi there and welcome! I main a Guard, and you’re off on this one. Any decent Medi Guard runs with two condi clears slotted, and one specifically damages YOU, AFTER you apply a condi and we wipe it. Best way to slug it out with guard is stun locking and applying chill. Make us burn through our virtues and elite and we are toast.

If you encounter a bunker guard, you will tear them up because they will only do CC on you with no damage, but if its a tight game and you need to decap, then you will need to 2 v1 the bunker and burst them down.

Sagat.3285:

Royal.2693:

Celestial just brings too much. Amulet should be completely removed from the PvP. It would freshen up the competitive scene too.

Ele is naturally celestial that would be an insult. Again you are not here to roam, have duels and measure skills. It’s conquest you assault,cap and decap that’s why bruiser/bunker are important and usually come in 3’s while the other 2 are mobility or condi/power burst, if you want to be competitive you play to win you play the mode it’s the only ranked mode so of course players will choose what works best there and the devs balanced around it.

No it’s one Ele build, D/D. TBH D/D ele is very weak when compared to what they can do with a staff in terms of team support. But everyone wants to fly around the map looking cool like they are kittening Avatar which is fine, but D/D cele ele is a very selfish build.

Position on LB actually doesn’t mean anything, since it’s a ‘test’.

Cele is OP. 3 out of 5 builds per MetaBattle use it, which means it is being used in tournies. The casual player uses it, and with some lucky button mashing, they are now owning. The trade off is nil, and the sustain it gives is stupid.

I never play anything but Ranked, so I can’t comment on hotjoin and unranked.

Time of day I have noticed determines the closeness of matches. I tend to get in closer games at night. Blowouts usually only happen on a dropout, or in the rare case of profession stacking. I actually quit a ranked game today because the other team had 4 rangers.

When you have cele builds running in game it kind of ruins Conquest. You have a bunch of roamers looking to 1v1. That’s why you see players on mini map everywhere but points.

Bring back the bunkers, it makes fighting on points a lot more fun. Nowadays you have quick cap, run to next point. Nobody cares about holding position.

I personally put my engi on the shelf and elected to run a bunker guard, just to give my team mates a chance to defend from rangers and condi builds. It gets very old, very quickly, and reminds me more of a TDM style game than actual Conquest.

People go to Metabattle and just pick the 1st build for Conquest at the top. 3 of those builds use Cele and the other two Zerkers…ALL ARE DPS BUILDS with ‘light’ support. You think those builds didn’t become ‘Meta’ because they are a bit OP?

When gear isn’t a factor people will look for any unbalance to give them an advantage.

I have worked on and off in the industry for over a decade. I come from a competitive FPS background and worked on the Halo 4 multiplayer team. I have played MMO PVP on three different titles. GW2 is BY far my favorite and most interesting.

Right now I’m slugging it out in ranked everyday, purely Puging with no guild. Somehow I have managed to be in the top 150 players. Here are some non QQ suggestions on how things can improve:

1. Remove profession dailies-
These really mess up match balance. It is no fun to have 5 rangers or 5 thieves running around Conquest. Replace it with: Daily Capper, Daily reviver, etc.

2. Remove Celestial Amulet-
It’s pretty OP, and highly used. No amulet should give +432 to all stats, it just seems lame. This would promote build diversity, which is sorely needed.

3. Build Saver-
Unless the intended design purpose is to have everyone use Metabattle, then please let us save PVP builds. This promotes in game adaptation to the teams composition. You can edit your build in pre-game, but it would be nice to quickly choose your already saved build.

4. Advertise that Ready Up reduces the pre-game timer-
I spend upwards to 5-7 minutes for queues to pop, when I load into a map, I am eager to start. It’s insane how many people do not know that Ready Up eliminates the count down.

5. VOIP, yes we want it-
I came from a year in Neverwinter PVP (great combat system, P2W ruins it); and VOIP in game is there, with no need for TS (teamspeak). It does wonders for Puggers.

6. get PVE’rs out of ranked-
yes it sounds a bit elitist but as it stands I cannot stress how many matches I get someone in team chat saying, “Here for dailies, srry if I suk.” It’s disrespectful to the PVP community. I wouldn’t leave the mists and try to jump in some Dungeon Runs, because I know I suck at PVE and don’t know the Dungeons; in essence I would burden my team more than help. Which segways into this next suggestion:

7. Display your MMR and make RANKED have a minimum MMR-
Earn your keep by playing unranked. Other MMO’s require GS (Gear Score) to complete high end content. If you want to compete in ranked, you should have to earn the privilege.

8. Want to attract a higher PVP populace? Create a precurser reward track-
Forget RNG or the Toilet, A LOT of people would come for the precursor. Make it double the length, hell triple the length of current reward tracks, and make it unlocked ONLY after Dragon ranked is obtained and only available based on Ranked games played

9. Penalty for quitters-
Sorry those who cry, ’Mah innerwebs sux and I DQ all the time!" Well you should stay out of Ranked then, because you are a burden to your team and unreliable.

Let the debate begin. =)

Cele engi (or was ) here. Currently ranked 110, NA.

I was having pretty good success with the build, switched slick shoes for Mine (extra aoe knockdown for caps, decaps). The main way to blow me up I noticed has been tons of immobs. Anything that can get me not moving or unable to use abilities. So rangers, hambow warriors, shatter mesmers, condi necros. Those are all great counters.

I have actually abandoned the build altogether as my MMR seems to have gotten me in a higher tier of players, now I am using something I put together that keeps the teams guessing. =)