Guild Wars 2

Heya,

I’ve been off the game for a while but I’ve been looking for a solid team to bring me back. I was in the making for an AG/ESL team earlier in the summer but it fell apart and I got burned out of the game.

Anyway, I’m looking for a new team and I’d love to talk further with you guys. I have experience on most classes, though I mained druid/scrapper the past few seasons. I do/can pick up most of the classes really well so I can definitely be a flex player. PM me or reply cause I’d love to get to talking with yall.

— Jjohnsin

SnR becomes really powerful on maps where you can utilize the z-axis. Organized groups can usually interrupt the rez on say a level point without much cover. But on maps like Khylo and Temple where you can rez out of LoS and vertically, either up or down, on the z-axis it is nearly impossible to stop the rez…making it really strong.

I don’t know how I’d go about changing it without ruining its use in PvP, I’d have to think for a while about it…but I could see some change being possibly beneficial for the skill to combat it’s effectiveness on maps like that. But then again, maybe any change will make it worthless and not used like every other rez skill in the game

Ninski.5680:

style.6173:

Actually very much dependent on your class. Balance is the problem.

You can swap classes before the match begins and during the match, balance is not the issue at all, not to mention the game is quite balanced at high level play, most of the pvp community won’t be able to understand that though, so I won’t argue about it.

I don’t know if I’d say the game is balanced at high level play. There are still balance issues, different than lower level play, but they are still there nonetheless.

…but at least for climbing pips, team composition and class choice definitely plays a pretty big role. Being able to look at the enemy team comp and adjust accordingly can play a pretty big part in snowballing matches from the initial mid fight I’ve noticed…especially in solo q where a lot of players don’t swap 1v1 match-ups and whatever team wins the initial fight can take pretty serious map control.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

However I did 17 damage.

Warrior nerf incoming next balance patch….? 17 damage too high for proper class balance Kappa

Not going to lie though, I would be demoralized if I saw this in my combat log. Warrior really is worse than pre-HoT ranger pets..

I’d be interested in testing this to find out if there is actually a trait acting additively though. Never seen something like this before I don’t believe.

I’m not actually that convinced on SA being useful, even in group content if you aren’t running multiple venoms. Really all you pick up is 20% recharge, and a little life siphon. In instanced content, going CS will be a higher DPS increase (I guess I haven’t crunched the numbers) than going venomshare. Unlike the current venomshare build, which alternates between Death Blossom and Lotus..this is an adapted build focusing on poison uptime and dagger autos for DPS.

I might be missing the importance to venomshare though, what does it bring to the table other than a minor 8 sec CD on spider venom?

I’ve been toying around with the idea of a viper thief for quite some time, and I’d like to get some feedback on what you guys think so far about it. It is still a work in process though

Build Link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVn8lCdmiFNBWmCkmilWCb7QFdSUaBgQ0CYeEuCfhA-TBSBQB9TPg/2fojKDomSPAcCAc2DAwMKBbo6PkCYRhVA-e

I originally took Deadly Arts for potent poison and dagger training, and played around with deadly trapper. However it just didn’t seem efficient to me. So I took Revealed Training for the +200 power..because I think I’d use a modified rotation of D/D backstab thief. And the extra power helps us out.

I went into Critical Strikes mainly to make up for a lack of ferocity and crit damage. It gives us 17% crit dmg, plus 250 ferocity with fury (which will constantly be on us), and precision to ferocity which comes on viper gear.

Lastly, I went into DD for Havoc Mastery and Lotus Training (I haven’t played around with Bounding Dodger yet).

As far as food goes, I wasn’t sure so I took Veggie Pizza and Toxic sharpening stone to help cap out poison duration to 100% with the help of malice sigil (which opens up the opportunity to explore with runes). I went with runes of the berserker because it seemed like an obvious hybrid option.

Let me know what you think please, and in terms of viability (I know thief isn’t even that high up because of it’s selfishness) but yah. Let me know what you guys think, and improvements I can make etc.

— JJohnsin [BooK]

Matchmaking
Been saying this for awhile, but matchmaking needs to be a whole lot smarter. You can’t just put a Number on a player, call it his skill level and all of a sudden have evenly distributed matches. We all know that certain classes, builds, and team compositions do better in others and snowball the match easier.
Option 1
Choose the pool of players and make a 5v5 match based on average mmr as usual. Have another check system in place to redistrubute players based on team stats. For Example:

• After a 5v5 is set, calculate each team’s total condition damages and compare it to each other’s condi cleanses. So if one team have condi Revs and a Sig Necro, place that sig necro on the other team who has no condi defenses. If one team has way more AoE damages than the other, redistribute this class (the 3 dh on the team) amongst the other team instead. There’s a plethora of ways to implements another check system after teams have been distributed. Don’t say you “lack the tech” Anet!

I like this idea, but I don’t know how long that would actually take to put into the game and get it balanced. To equally balance between 10 members it would have to go through; weapon sets, traits, utility skills, sigils, runes, and amulets, for all 10 players. I don’t know if that’s difficult or easy as I’m not a game developer or programmer but it seems like a lot to balance before every match. I might be slightly missing your point though too, I apologize if I am.

Option 2
Either prevent class stacking or prevent same builds from being on the same team. This would diversify the game and actually make matches more fair. Again, a mmr number on a player isn’t exact science so don’t be afraid to intentionally skewing the “mmr has to be even on each side” mentality. It’s clear that the current matchmaking system is flawed.

I’d agree with that preventing class stacking this in that it will diversify the match. But it still doesn’t fix the problem of MMR tanking and low MMR players being put into matches above their skill level, causing the enemy team to snowball a map after one mid fight. Even if there were 5 different professions, it wouldn’t balance the mechanical skill of newer or lower MMR holding back teams due to proper rotation, etc.

Pip System & SoloQers
The current Leagues is fine for premades vs premades but not for Solo players. In fact, the League system feels like it was built just for premades only. I would recommend a “Party Up” option at end of game but… even then… people decline invitations because for some reason they just want to SoloQ.

I feel there should be 10 hotjoin servers dedicated for Solo players only. No leagues and no duo or trio team. Then place a Participation in Ranked Queue for players grinding out games without a team. Maybe have them receive tickets if won 200-400-800 matches @ 53% winrate or something similiar.

[/quote]

A party up option would definitely be interesting and maybe push more players towards group play. I see a problem with this in that if a team of soloq players who grouped after a win against other soloq players will start facing other pre-mades who might be on ts and stuff, leading to more stomps. But maybe there can be a separate matchmaking for soloq players who group and guild groups?

If I can get enough responses on this thread to continue and evolve the thread with constructive evaluation, I will start new threads with the specific topics I want to talk about and edit the first post I made with the links…just so we can be a little organized with conversation and not have 5 talking points all talking over eachother. Let’s see what we can do.

I just love this game too much to see it die a horrible, imbalanced, frustrating death.

Mysticjedi.6053:

Phink.9153

- Poor matchmaking

This, this is why I decided I’m taking a break. I would love to help beta league improvements and I would even talk with devs. I have over 2k games, but I’m sick of the poor matches. I’m also feeling more and more isolated because I enjoy soloing and it feels like the system is rewarding teams.

Yes, I know it is a team sport, but so is Track and Field. Individual performance should matter for something.

Things I would love to discuss:
- matchmaking
- pip system
- how soloqers can play (thinking GW1 had the right idea here)
- would love to listen to balance debates

I’ll see people in pve and wvw.

I think the pip system is a HUGE issue for soloq players and just about anyone actually trying to progress w/ out MMR tanking or running solid 5-man premades. So maybe that’s where we should start this discussion for a little while, before moving onto various other points.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve already noticed players leaving (friends, guildmates, and today..myself), something needs to be done quickly or PvP in this game will fall further into the grave it is already in.

Thanks for writing this up man, here’s to hoping at least someone at ANet reads this.

SlayerSixx.5763:

I find that its a lot less stressful to play with an objective other than winning in an environment designed to make it nearly impossible to progress in a reasonable manner. Focus on becoming a better player overall and you’ll find that you’ll enjoy yourself a lot more. I personally count it as a success if I can rack up over 150-200 points during an obviously losing situation (while doing what my class is meant to do, naturally). Once you feel you’ve gotten good enough on your own, there’s no other answer to progression other than making your own pre-made with other competent players.

That’s kind of what I’ve been doing lately before I decided I just can’t play anymore. I have over 1500 games on Mesmer (my main) so I know the in-s and out-s of the class. It’s just so tough with the current matchmaking to even practice rotations ya know?

I’m pretty much guessing that no changes will come this entire season as ANet does whatever it is they actually do. So I want to take this conversation into what we can do to improve next season and hopefully influence some people to come back into the game.

I’ve thought about stuff like pre-placement matches similar to other games, just to at least give a general spacing at the beginning of a league. So it isn’t a kittening mosh pit of random players of random skills. The only problem I see with this is that, at least in my opinion, if the matchmaking system isn’t improved then you will still see lower MMR players getting carried now and again, placing them in divisions they shouldn’t be in yet. I think this is mainly possible to the fact that, even if you have 4 competent players, if even one member dies early in the game it is so easy for the other team to snowball a map to win. Especially on maps like Foefire and Forest..I mean I think Forest is the easiest map to simply win the opening mid-fight and rotate to both entrances of the enemy team and farm them until 500.

So the problems I’m seeing is kind of this combination of poor systems
– Poor matchmaking
– Momentum swings so extremely losing even 1 player (which I agree, you should get momentum..but not be able to snowball a map 500-80)
– Easily snowballed maps
– A generally non-balanced meta, which in turn kinda wrecks low MMR players, which snowballs a map for the enemy team, and the vicious circle continues

Well, it has taken me about 45 minutes to actually post this but..I cannot soloQ anymore what so ever. Leagues are so imbalanced rn with poor players and poor matchmaking. I decided finally that I need to take a break before this PvP meta and leagues actually turn my love for this game into sadness and frustration.

I mean..just today I was doing my thing, soloQ’ing, get into a match vs 4-man premade with 5 soloq on my team. Ok fine, w/e. About 4 minutes before the match ended I ran into a long existing bug, the stuck bug (where you can’t dodge or move, but you can jump up and down repeatedly). Not only was I stuck in place for over 4 MINUTES, we ended up losing the match. And although I had the second highest personal score on my team, and most of the top player awards…I lost 2 pips. 2 pips. Against a 4-man. Where a long-existing bug kittening took me out of the game for like half the match.

So….in my time that I will be taking off from the game, I would love to collaborate with the community on what we can do to start shifting this PvP into something, I don’t know, playable. Let me know what you guys think (constructively) about what we can do, in the probably useless, hoping ANet might see it.

This has been happening to me a ton on Chrono as well. I think sometimes Continuum Rift along with skills like sword #3 and blink and stuff bugs me out a lot. I’ve had a few matches where I haven’t been able to move or dodge, just jump up and down, for the last 7 minutes of a match. 7 minutes…. I even tried blinking but that just bugged me into whatever spot I ended up blinking too. I’ve lost too many matches and fights because of this..

Yep, just like Pimsley said…almost everything in sPvP can be counter played if you know your class and the match ups. I haven’t had any problem since HoT dropped, and sure there are a few moments when a team AoE bombs a point and I’ll die instantly but if you’re playing smart and actually paying attention it’s really not too hard to counter play every class in some way. Also like the person above said, there are so many factors regarding skill level, builds, etc that skew perceptions of sPvP balance. But I do agree it could take some time to be looked at.

Hello everyone,

Alert and Oriented is a new sPvP guild a couple of friends and I have started for HoT. The original guild for the last 3 years has been [BBT], and we decided to rebrand for HoT! We are looking for semi-hardcore and hardcore sPvP players, with hopes of evolving into tPvP teams and climbing ladders. Anyone is welcome, experienced to beginner. However, we are only looking for people willing to improve, and give feedback to other players..as well as being polite, and helpful to other guild members. We will be setting up a voice server soon (probably Discord).

We are also looking for committed members for higher ranking positions in the guild! This will include being active and organizing events or parties to play with while online. Of course you don’t have to all the time..but we want to become a community and stress playing with others. We only expect part of your time be devoted to organizing and helping others in the guild, varying based on rank.

So anyways, come and hang out and have an awesome time with [AxO]! We would love to have you and start practicing for ladders/seasons as quick as possible. To join, send me a message on Reddit [Jjohnsin], ingame mail to Phink.9153, or a message on these forums. Will be checking continually. I will update and have other sources to contact, as I’m not on 24/7, just at work rn and don’t have their info. Many thanks for reading, hope to hear from ya!

— Jjohnsin [AxO]

Does anyone else really want an arena system in sPvP? I think it would be really fun to have arenas similar many other MMORPGs. You could have ranked and un-ranked games, tourneys, and it would add another layer/option to sPvP!

Phink’s Tanky Tool Kit Engineer!!
So, I’ve been trying to figure out a new and fun build to use for PvE. Well, I think I may have come up with one that I have found to be pretty good! Enjoy!
Sections:
1. Gear
2. Spec
3. Role in a dungeon
4. Rotation (kinda)
5. Ending
So, let’s get started!!

1. Gear: For this build, we will be using Knight’s gear. You can craft this gear, but it from the TP, or farm dungeons enough for the armor. Knight’s gear is toughness, power, and precision. Why do we want so much toughness though? For one, we will be very tanky, and engineer already has a high base health (plus we get a little vit from our traits). Second, we take the trait “Energized Armor” which gives 5% of toughness to power! That’s awesome! For your weapons, I use the Rifle (Rifle 5 gets me into the action quickly). I put a Sigil of Force on there just for a nice 5% bonus increase.
-If you don’t need to be so tanky, feel free to switch out some Knight’s accesories and necklace/back for berserker’s to get some more damage/crit chance.

2. Build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VV;4cPFw0a6FQFx0;9;5ET4J;14;024B;117;7EysYEycYB-lv0;5VW-a0f1kYq3w_6F-375B-7V-17V;9;9;9;9;9;4VA-6k

Now, for the fun part of the guide! The build we are going for here is an AoE based build that inflicts vulnerability/cripple, while doing a good amount of damage and still supporting our party. The skills chosen are pretty much necessary, however, you can always change out your elixir for something else if you prefer. We will be going a 0-15-30-5-20 build, picking up traits to buff our turrets, and deal more damage, while at the same time decreasing toolbelt skills and being tanky.

-Firearms: We take “Precise Sights” to inflict vulnerability every crit, which will be happening quite a bit for us (over 50% crit chance). We take the extra 5 points to get the increased damage to enemies under 50% health.

-Inventions: This is kind of the bread and butter of this build. First off, 300 toughness is awesome. We take “Metal Plated Turrets” and “Rifled Barreled Turrets” to make out Thumper do more damage, and keep it alive. It’s also important to keep our healing turret up. The biggest trait in this line is “Energized Armor”, converting 5% of toughness into power. That’s a lot of extra power. The minor traits just help us stay alive throughout fights.

-Alchemy: We had 5 points left over. Not necessary to put them here, but an extra 500 health isn’t too bad. Plus, Elixir B isn’t too shabby either.

-Tools: The tools line is awesome for this build in my opinion. We take “Power Wrench” to buff up our Throw Wrench (Which does awesome damage), and reduces out Tool Kit skills cooldowns by 20%! We will be throwing wrenches a lot, along with other tool belt skills, so “Static Discharge” helps add some DPS to our engi.

3. So, now that we have been over the gear and the spec. How do we use them in a dungeon? Well, we are around to take aggro off our team members, slow enemies to make kiting easier, remove conditions, make water fields (healing turret), do damage, and grant some boons. Playing as this kind of engi, we are meant to take a lot of damage…so that our team members hopefully don’t. Thumper Turret does a good job slowing down enemies for kiting.

4. Rotation: As far as rotation goes, I usually jump in with Rifle 5, swap to tool kit, throw down both turrets, use box o’ nails (TK 2), spam throw wrench on CD, and throw elixirs when possible. It could look something like this. Something to keep in mind is that Tool Kit 1 does cleave up to 3 targets.
Rifle 5 —> TK —> Thumper Turret —> Healing Turret --> TK 2 —> Throw Wrench —> TK 1 spam

I use the tool belt skills whenever appropriate, with the healing turret overload when the group takes a lot of AoE damage.

5. Conclusion: Well guys, I hope you all try out this build. Leave some feedback on how I can improve the guide/the build! This build isn’t nearly perfected yet, but it’s a good start, and it’s crazy fun for me to use. Hope I didn’t miss any important topics, but if I did please make sure to let me know! Have a great night everyone! Phink out! If you have questions/comments, just message me!!

Phink’s Tanky Tool Kit Engineer!!

So, I’ve been trying to figure out a new and fun build to use for PvE. Well, I think I may have come up with one that I have found to be pretty good! Enjoy!

Sections:
1. Gear
2. Spec
3. Role in a dungeon
4. Rotation (kinda)
5. Ending

So, let’s get started!!

Gear: For this build, we will be using Knight’s gear. You can craft this gear, but it from the TP, or farm dungeons enough for the armor. Knight’s gear is toughness, power, and precision. Why do we want so much toughness though? For one, we will be very tanky, and engineer already has a high base health (plus we get a little vit from our traits). Second, we take the trait “Energized Armor” which gives 5% of toughness to power! That’s awesome! For your weapons, I use the Rifle (Rifle 5 gets me into the action quickly). I put a Sigil of Force on there just for a nice 5% bonus increase.
-If you don’t need to be so tanky, feel free to switch out some Knight’s accesories and necklace/back for berserker’s to get some more damage/crit chance.

Build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VV;4cPFw0a6FQFx0;9;5ET4J;14;024B;117;7EysYEycYB-lv0;5VW-a0f1kYq3w_6F-375B-7V-17V;9;9;9;9;9;4VA-6k

Now, for the fun part of the guide! The build we are going for here is an AoE based build that inflicts vulnerability/cripple, while doing a good amount of damage and still supporting our party. The skills chosen are pretty much necessary, however, you can always change out your elixir for something else if you prefer. We will be going a 0-15-30-5-20 build, picking up traits to buff our turrets, and deal more damage, while at the same time decreasing toolbelt skills and being tanky.

-Firearms: We take “Precise Sights” to inflict vulnerability every crit, which will be happening quite a bit for us (over 50% crit chance). We take the extra 5 points to get the increased damage to enemies under 50% health.

-Inventions: This is kind of the bread and butter of this build. First off, 300 toughness is awesome. We take “Metal Plated Turrets” and “Rifled Barreled Turrets” to make out Thumper do more damage, and keep it alive. It’s also important to keep our healing turret up. The biggest trait in this line is “Energized Armor”, converting 5% of toughness into power. That’s a lot of extra power. The minor traits just help us stay alive throughout fights.

-Alchemy: We had 5 points left over. Not necessary to put them here, but an extra 500 health isn’t too bad. Plus, Elixir B isn’t too shabby either.

-Tools: The tools line is awesome for this build in my opinion. We take “Power Wrench” to buff up our Throw Wrench (Which does awesome damage), and reduces out Tool Kit skills cooldowns by 20%! We will be throwing wrenches a lot, along with other tool belt skills, so “Static Discharge” helps add some DPS to our engi.

3. So, now that we have been over the gear and the spec. How do we use them in a dungeon? Well, we are around to take aggro off our team members, slow enemies to make kiting easier, remove conditions, make water fields (healing turret), do damage, and grant some boons. Playing as this kind of engi, we are meant to take a lot of damage…so that our team members hopefully don’t. Thumper Turret does a good job slowing down enemies for kiting.

4. Rotation: As far as rotation goes, I usually jump in with Rifle 5, swap to tool kit, throw down both turrets, use box o’ nails (TK 2), spam throw wrench on CD, and throw elixirs when possible. It could look something like this. Something to keep in mind is that Tool Kit 1 does cleave up to 3 targets.

Rifle 5 —> TK --> Thumper Turret —> Healing Turret --> TK 2 —> Throw Wrench --> TK 1 spam

I use the tool belt skills whenever appropriate, with the healing turret overload when the group takes a lot of AoE damage.

5. Conclusion: Well guys, I hope you all try out this build. Leave some feedback on how I can improve the guide/the build! This build isn’t nearly perfected yet, but it’s a good start, and it’s crazy fun for me to use. Hope I didn’t miss any important topics, but if I did please make sure to let me know! Have a great night everyone! Phink out!