Guild Wars 2

I’m currently looking for a tier 6 to 8 NA server with a friendly community, I’m not that interested in larger zerg fights. I tend to prefer smaller group fights, home defense, and roaming. Occasionally, I do enjoy playing chase the tag. My play time is generally day/morning and I rarely play during evenings. Success and wins are not required, but you know they are nice. I’m looking for good fights and good players.

While I like my current server, I am simply not enjoying WvW as much as I did and I think it’s time for a change. Any help with suggestions would be lovely.

While I did agree with merging back in the day, with megaservers I don’t feel hindered. I think the problem in WvW is you lose, players don’t like to lose. Ideally you should have a 66% chance to lose, if population and skill levels are properly balanced. Most players don’t want that. They want a 66-100% win chance in their favor, they stack servers, they win, yay internet points. Merging won’t stop that attitude, in fact there would be a hellish explosion of rage this game has never seen. People screaming for gem refunds from transfers, or how Anet ruined their servers community.

I’m on EB. I have been since the early release. I’ve seen EB top, mid, and now bottom. I take a lot of breaks in between. I like bottom, because I have to pick up my game, I need too. I have to pull more weight. EB has given me so many great fights.

Before (or during) the mass exodus, I remember holding our last tower with a commander who has long ago left us (actually he quit I think), and I remember it was around 12 of us on arrow carts, against a zerg of 40+. Our commander sat in TS encouraging us to hold. The walls went down, they rushed, we pushed them back. This repeated till they portal bombed us, which I remember was right on top of my ac. Cry havoc and let the arrow cart fly, we all targeted the spot. I was downed, my arrow cart destroyed, but I held and fired as long as I could. We wiped them. We kept the last tower. And I was the only causality. My fellows lifted me and all rejoiced. We had won. The last tower was ours. We broke the train.

That’s my favorite WvW story, and maybe not unique or uncommon, but that’s my server, that’s EB. You have 40 and we have 12? We will hold. We don’t always have the numbers, but we have teeth. If we can’t take you head on, we’ll nip at your heels. If you take our stuff, we’ll take yours. Some of us would die where we stand rather then give an inch. It seems a lot of us strive for the fight and not the win. It’s lovely.

My opinion may not be popular, but don’t reward WvW. Either everyone gets the same prize, or no one does. Next make server transfers free to lesser servers. And just maybe, the populations will trickle down and we’ll get balance.

I’ve also heard suggestions of just doing things like the more players in an area, the higher a debuff stacks to discourage blob play.

I like this system, but the only flaw I see is not all servers are created equal. Population differences are a major problem in WvW. Don’t ask me how to fix it, because there isn’t a good way. Players want to win, so they stack on the servers they think will win.

This is why I feel these seasons are moot, and rewards should either be for everyone or no one. /shrugs

Now my opinion may not be popular, but I actually think EOTM should just stay as a Ktrain. There are several reasons, it keeps up-levels generally out of WvW, no one likes a rallybot, but if you want to level in WvW that’s fine. I strongly recommend you get on your server’s TS/Vent/Mumble, and ask for tips. People are really nice generally, and a lot of them we’ll go out of their way to try and help and protect you.

But back to Eotm, it also keeps the Ktrains out of WvW. I don’t mind the odd Ktrain, you can use it as an excuse to bolster your numbers and zerg rush when the enemy is weak, but in WvW I’d rather land grab and hold. Often after a successful Ktrain in WvW, the numbers die off and holding those new points becomes difficult.

Because up-levels melt. You don’t want to hit another zerg when your zerg is also filled with up-levels. Even in WvW Ktrains a good commander who knows they have a lot of in-experienced or low level players will be hesitant to hit another zerg head on. You risk losing the zerg, losing points, and getting pushed out. Which, oddly, is less of an issue in EOTM since it has little or no value to hold.

EOTM also tends to be greatly unbalanced, and I’m not even talking about colour populations, but the maps themselves. It’s not a fair playing field, and I don’t think it should be remotely serious unless they seriously overhaul the map. It’s got a lot of fun points and neat tricks, and I will admit I’m sad it’s depth and complexity has been reduced to a Ktrain.

P.S. I hate killing up-levels. There’s no challenge, and it’s not a fair fight. I’m of the opinion killing an up-level probably shouldn’t grant any reward. Sure I still kill them, but I won’t go out of my way to kill one.

Welcome to GW2!

First off, I will say GW2’s combat is a lot more active than WoW’s, so you need to be ready to dodge and kite mobs depending on the situation. You can’t really just stand there and take a beating, at least not when you start out. You can invest in more tanky builds or gear later on, if that’s your choice. Now the question is what did you pick for your first profession? Elementalists, mesmers, and theives can have a higher learning curve to play. They tend to be squisher or more difficult to start with. That’s not to say you can’t play them, but remember their learning curve is a little rougher. So you need to have some patience with them.

Now it sounds like you got a bit lost in the zone, so one thing I’d like to point out is you can do lower level content at any time. You scale down. So if you are having difficulty with a certain zone, you can use the Lion’s Arch asura gate to take you to Vigil’s Keep and chose another races city, chose new asura gate again, and try their starting zone. This will give you a new place to explore, and a bit easier content if you need a few extra levels or maybe you’re just sick of looking a jungle or snow.

Another small point, always consider carrying at least one ranged weapon. Depending on what profession you chose, it’s always helpful to have a ranged weapon for the times when you realize that mob hits pretty hard, and you move into kite mode. Kite mode generally involves you carefully running circles or running away from the mob while you dps it down. If you are kiting the important part is simply to make sure you don’t run yourself into more mobs. Always know what’s behind you.

Finally know your abilities. Read them very carefully. You have combo finishers and combo fields and it’s important you learn how to use those to your advantage or simply what they do. To make a combo you need a combo field under you or the mob. Let’s say a fire field is down. If you use a projectile finisher, the mob will be set on fire. If you use a leap, you will get a fire shield. If you use a blast finisher, you will get Might(a very nice stacking buff.) And so on and so forth. If you don’t really have any combo fields or finishers, that’s fine. When you do events, there will be lots of people to synergize with and give you lots of combo options. Maybe you’ll lay combo fields down for them to use, maybe you’ll use theirs. Combo fields appear as white rimmed circles on the ground. Red rimmed combo fields are enemy combo fields, and you must run or dodge roll out of them.

I hope this helps just a little.

Excellent, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll ensure my condition duration is pushed to 70%, I think it’s around 50% right now and look into dire sets. And make sure my condition damage is 2k+. Lots of good news. Grenades are just such a fun build.

And yeah it was a specialized zerg group, it was depressing how perfect they performed, and my guild wants to follow suit. I like my charr a bit too much to abandon it. My Guardian is fun to play, but I like the distance and versatility my engineer offers.

I wasn’t hear for the season, I honestly don’t care that much about who wins and loses, because like you say it’s a numbers game. I play to have fun, when I do play that is. I see both sides of it here, the top players get rewarded and get a unique reward. They get to be special for a season with their fancy finishers, they did work hard.

But I do agree that trying deserves a reward. It’s not political correctness and everyone needs to feel special, not all, though most would accuse me of it. It’s because this is a game. And game should be fun and rewarding. Why not have a thanks for playing trophy, err, finisher? Some people put a lot of effort into the game and I feel they should be rewarded even if they come in last. Why? To keep them playing and coming back. It’s like a slot machine will pay out a little just to keep a person playing. By the sounds of it the rewards were pretty bland as it is. I think it be funny to give everyone a dud type finisher… like a number 1 that just falls over in the animation (season one failure type joke), while the winners get something awesome and flashy and shiny like shiny 1 that spins and drops on their target. Or bounces or something neat.

Now I tend to be pretty casual in WvW, but I enjoy it. I generally play my engineer, because I like lobbing grenades at things. But I was on my server’s TS listening to them discuss well trained zerg teams. We brick walled on one a few days ago that was made up almost completely of Necros, Guardians, and Warriors. They spammed CC, and stomped us. And it got brought up that condition builds are terrible for zergs, because most Guardians run cleansing builds. My question to the wonderful people of Engineering forum, is do you feel conditions are a hindrance to the zerg with cleansing being much easier these days? Do you think that person is just being silly and conditions are still awesome? And I shouldn’t worry about my little condition engineer grenade thrower of kitten fluff(I play Charr mostly), and continue with the spec I love. Am I still providing for my team? Should I consider a power build more focused on blast finishers much like they state is a far better choice, CC and hit hard they say…? Should I just take my guardian along, who is sturdy and more designed as zerg supporter?

I always use my grenade kit, the second kit is often bomb kit, tool kit, flame thrower, or rarely a mine for a doorway. Then I try to run around with the a stun breaker or flee like Elixir S, or rocket boots depending on the situation. My build is the average grenade build of 30/10/0/20/5 and I’m using rabid gear. My runes need changing. I was testing out perplexity back when they were first released(I made myself a heap of them), and wanted to see if the added condition damage and confusion would be a good choice in smaller fights. I tend to take extended breaks from GW2, so I never did test it out. But I see no one else uses them, so I assume it was a poor choice and a waste of mats =P

You can’t, and it’s not nice to poke fun of them for not using it. If they don’t want to use, they don’t want to us it. No one should be forced to do something they don’t want to. I don’t like dailies, so I don’t do them unless by accident. I don’t like Fractals, so I don’t do them.

My server makes fun of the pugs(which is a poor term for them, since it stands for pick up group and then are more like floaters or followers or puafs: pick up and follow) and often calls them cannon fodder. I’m fine if people don’t want to get into TS. Sometimes TS can be a terrible place with people talking poop, and acting stupid. Sometimes it’s just someone barking orders. Sometimes you find out one of your teammates is able to target untargetable siege, and then you get to listen to your team discuss why it’s not cheating. Other times it can be fun, with jokes, and good times. Like when we all decided to wear Christmas colours and be a Christmas zerg, even though our enemies can’t see it… and we stopped for pictures. That was cool.

No way I like my baggies. It’s pretty much the only way I get most PVE rewards. Plus it’s a good way to try and bait PVE players in WvW. Everyone likes baggies. Baggies did not cause zerging, zerging has always existed. Please don’t take my baggies. I really like them, in fact I wish WvW had better or increased PVE rewards. Not more than PVE of course, but still more. I am greedy though.

I do agree that defenders need a reward, but how do you work the reward so someone doesn’t afk or even use scripted movement. Do you give them massive rewards when they kill someone in or around the point? Passive meters? What about class balancing issues which are more apparent in smaller teams?

Honestly, while I agree zerging can be a pretty cheesy tactic, this game lacks easy ways to retaliate with small numbers to zerg bust. You could remove the limit to 5 targets for any non-cc ability or buffs. But then if you can’t CC an entire zerg how would you break it? They could add in more wall/bubble abilities to help break up a zerg, but that still won’t save you if you’re out numbered. They could make it easier to use certain sieges like trebs and catapults, that might help, but that also might break things. They could make oil indestructible, that might help. They could still kill whoever uses it with aoe, but the oil would always be there, which could help push attackers off the gate. Then people would just go through the walls though.

So what’s left? They could try adding a new type of siege, like a tank or special golem. It would be affective on players, but weak on siege and doors. Basically the MAX suit(see planetside 1/2) of GW2, but for infantry only.

Or they could just population limit maps. It’s a cop out, and a pretty terrible idea, but if you limit the populations so they are forced equal on all sides, you might get smaller or lesser zergs.

But honestly? I don’t think zerging is ever going away. Those battles where it’s a back and forth struggle will always be rare. And my server once defended our last tower with maybe 15 people against a zerg simply by building a lot of siege(superior arrow carts) and bottle necking them. We were lucky though, we had a heap of supply. They did almost portal bomb us and win, but we spotted it, pointed our siege, and wiped them out. It was a good day. None of us thought it would work.

A lot of people have made some great comments, and I’d like to add a small issue I have. I agree with a lot of the issues people have brought up and this might be considered a nub/newbie/scrub complaint, but…

I love to explore, find hidden areas, events, jumping puzzles, etc, but one small issue that comes up is some of this hidden areas are not solo’able. I’m far from a way point, on my own, facing some pretty fierce mobs and generally not coming out ahead. In some cases I could bring in an alt more suited to the strategy required, but where is the fun in that? Maybe I could try convince people in guild or map chat to aid me, but a lot of players aren’t exactly friendly to such requests. It really upsets me that they have this beautiful world to explore and all these wonderful events, but if no one is around, in some situations, they can’t be completed.

I remember the last time I explored I found a hidden cave area with these ghosts and torches. I had to light the torches and kill the vet in a certain time frame. At the time I was on a thief going against several ghosts had a pretty heavy ranged attack. My problem? It was impossible to take the three ranged ghosts one by one, I had no long term CC, no reflects, and not enough defensive cooldowns. If I was on my mesmer or guardian, I would’ve easily been able to dispatch them. I ended up getting up to the vet twice. Clearing these three ranged ghosts using clever line of siting, however when I had gotten the vet to about 10-20% they would spawn back and finish me. I finally gave up and then got so discouraged, I simply decided to stop playing for a while.

It would be very nice if these out of the way places were less group orientated and/or scaled well with groups. It seems off if I’m on my own to call in aid or change professions. I want to explore and see all the beautiful places of the world they built, but often get hit with cruel mechanics. It actually discourages me from exploring, even if it’s rare I find a situation I cannot overcome on my own. You could argue “well it’s a mmo stupid pants, get some friends.” I don’t think I should need to call in the cavalry to humor my little adventure which most likely will have a tiny to no reward.

I always knew they’d remove magic find gear, either because of abuses or the fact it seems out of place anyway. The thing I hate about it is I normally throw magic find on characters 75 to 80 to try and help them find some nice yellows and extra crafting mats to make good gear. I look at it like a way to boost your chances to get into better gear.

Personally I’d rather have the flat buff for all my characters or the food buff. The problem is this sets a disturbing trend towards not min-maxing is a sign of selfish behavior. If stuff dies in a reasonable amount of time in a dungeon, I don’t care if I carry someone. I’ve only done one or two fractals and non of the dungeons here. I don’t really like running them in other MMOs simply because I hate the way people treat others. I’m worried, like someone else in this thread mentioned, that this will give more fuel to that fire. I really just want to play for fun and exploration.

Honestly why can’t we just play for fun? What happened to us as players? When all that matters is speed and the fastest way to advance, are we really still having fun? Or did we just turn something that should be a fun past time into a mini job?

I think this happened to me too. I just completed the first part with Roxy. When I completed the event I got a Karma Box and two money bags. I don’t think I received any Karma from the box(nothing popped up and I’m pretty sure I had the same amount entering and exiting the event, 49k.) I was still in the story event area when I tried to claim it, but I did get money from the bags! When I left Roxy mailed me another box, and this one gave me 2k in karma, which clearly popped up.

So not sure if the reward from the event is bugged, claiming it in the story is bugged, or I just didn’t get the popup.

I’d be careful doing the delete character tactic. A.net might get heavy with the hammer, if you know what I mean.

But honestly the Super Adventure Box is about fun, so just go have fun playing it. I think I have 6 alts that could run it, and I run it one character when I feel like it. I’ve gotten one skin, sold it, and will in time get enough bauble bubbles to purchase the skins I do want. I kinda feel bad for the people who are running it non-stop, but maybe they just enjoy it that much.

I was disappointed I didn’t get to run it enough. It was a quick dungeon with some nice drops, and by the time I found out it was going away, I had enough time to run it once more. I’m surprised it was a relatively quick time frame for the dungeon, but then again it was almost “too good to be true.”

I bought one 5 pack out of curiosity and that was even when I knew the drop rates were bad. I wanted to at least try a few. I didn’t get anything, so it’s not something I’m likely to repeat.

I got 3 rares on labyrinth trash, but none from the dungeon. Bad luck is bad luck. I did get a black lion salvage kit, so I’m happy about that.

Edit: Also it was mentioned by Anet yesterday(ish) that MF does not affect chests.

This dungeon has crazy good chances at items (even gem items like repair kits, boosters, salvage kits, etc.) I love this event. I just wish there was less of a jump puzzle to it, but it’s fun. Generally as a Mesmer I port people to the lower platform.

Charr Mesmer no boost!

Kept getting to the stairs and bumping my head and falling. But I finally made it and got my booties. Oh sweet sweet victory.

Or you could buy out the cheap exotics and sell them for a profit after the event is over….

We get a book… if you do the scavenger hunt. That’s a neat addition and the flaming book has some very nice stats to it, better than most backs I’ve seen.

But I do agree. I would’ve loved to have something else other than crafting mats for my troubles. It makes me a little sad. I was really hoping for something really neat. Like an armor skin or a weapon skin or whatever. Oh well. Still. Fun event.

It was fun, I did a few things. I’m short around 60 or 70 pumpkins for my carving achievement, and I think I’ll skip it. Too many pumpkins. I farmed doors, I farmed in the labyrinth a bit (the drop rate with magic find was really nice.) I did MK a few times.

So far the only thing that’s upsetting me is there’s very little to show for my participation so far. I was really hoping for some armor and weapon skins, but alas they are a gamble in chests. Then again the event isn’t over yet, so maybe I’ll still get lucky or they’ll add something. At least I have my flaming book.

Hold on to the shield, sell it after the event. Infact, buy out shields that hit a low enough price and resell later if you feel so strongly that the worth is 100g. Given that there isn’t really a gear ladder in GW2, I can foresee those shields still being worth good money in 6 months. On top of that, they look cool and people will want them just for the look, so hold on to them.

New models would be nice, or more basic models even. I hate getting and upgrade and learning it looks the same or just like a previous piece I had. I don’t even mind the ‘boring’ armor. I just wish there was more of it. It almost feels like there are half a dozen different ‘basic’ armor styles.

I also have a hate for Mesmer starter gear and some cloth sets, which has resulted in my Mesmer being a Charr… because no one wants to see a Charr in a miniskirt. Also Charr are cool imo.

A lot of people dislike the camera. For me it’s the camera issues + right clicking targets. I don’t know how many times I’ve had tough situations swung my camera around for the final kill and “Why am I targeting that mob? OH GOD DON’T PULL MORE! &@(%&#!” That targeting on right click when I swing my camera makes me ‘frowny-face’.

I’d like the camera fixed, and either sticky targeting, or right click no longer targets and attacks. Most likely sticky targeting.

I’m not sure if inspect and duel will fix the community. I just for see someone following me and duel spamming me. However, I do agree. There is a lack of community yet there is a community. The lack is you never feel connected to another player, even if they are there playing with you. You still feel alone. In fact I think I’ve talked to one person in the last week of playing GW2. And they said thank you for helping them do an event and sticking through it and the following event. I thought it odd to thank me, but I did /cheer and said “Anytime! Happy hunting!” Now I’m not the most social MMO-er these days. WoW, kinda killed that part of me. But this seems silly. I haven’t even really found a guild either. There’s few ways other than the forums and watching spam to find one. And I don’t trust guilds in spam. I try to watch when I do WvW for repeating names or groups, but I never see more than a few of each name so far. Making finding a casual, but good WvW guild difficult. And I don’t stand out in the zerg.

I think this turned into a mini-rant. But in short, yes we need more community. Sure there is a feeling of sharing and helping, but it’s still falls short of real community. Perhaps this will change when I finally find a guild that suits me and I suit them.