Guild Wars 2

bump.

anyone else?

fishball.7204:

More like they should make people who DON’T reroll when there are 3+ of the same on the team already lose 1 pip.

wouldnt it be better to fix matchmaking instead of punishing players for Anet’s matchmaking (which is out of the player’s control apart from rank/division changes)?

but yes, agreed that comps should be locked for ranked games, if you want to cheese with 4 thief please play unranked no matter how good you are with 4 thief

tl;dr answer, rally botting = feeding.

Comes from WvW, zerg busters (organised WvW guild focused on killing trains/zergs) would target rally bots so they can get downed guildies up. Rally bot in pvp is a player who goes into fights, doesn’t do anything (useful), getting downed and stomped so enemy team can ress off of them

Strange question, apart from the DH meta that seems prevalent from low-ruby downward, is there any strat to picking against/with a team comp?

To explain why I’m asking this, I believe a meta does exist because there is a “most played build” out of the higher ranked players in PvP, and if there are meta builds there must be counter-meta builds, whether in the same profession or not.

So can anyone link me to “strengths/weaknesses” info for all professions this season, each profession separately? Is this even possible to answer in one post, or is the decision-making process too complex when it comes to comp? Ideally I would like any advice on how to counter-pick professions- kind of like ranked matches in MOBAs, where there is a pre-game draft and you pick and counter-pick professions. I used to do this a lot in s3, would pick ele/engi if we needed bunker, thief if we needed mobility, necro for more condis/condi transfer…

Here’s an example for direction sake: If your team is 4 ranger and 1 ele (you are the ele), what do you do? Hope for the best and roll with it? Switch to something more useful based on enemy comp? How do you know what to switch to? If one of the rangers asks you what to switch to, what do you tell them?

inb4 pick 5 DH, DH OP, DH no counter, etc.

I play WvW for WvW, not to see other people’s shiny skins, badges, achievements, etc.

Everyone gets a standard model, so vain or not, you’re either a dps boost or a bag to GvG/serious WvW players

On the other hand, I still dont understand why, that after 3 years, there is still a lack of CHOICE re: visual options (i.e. hide other players badges, hide own badge). I never understood this about updates, why the devs would remove one thing. why risk making a group of ppl unhappy, when you can just allow them to pick one or the other…

Regardless of whether or not it was announced or someone is crafting their legendary right now, it was a bad change that unnecessarily gates an otherwise reasonably accessible item for legendary crafting

I can only run thief or ele well (ezmode class, its like the new shout heal warrior with more utility). my necro, warr, and guard are geared but im bad at warr and guard. I might try engi since they can sustain so much, but since Sabell’s performance against Orange Logo in Pro League i’m surprised ppl dont focus down engis more!

mesmer is a lost cause for me, i would much rather prefer killing them in ranked than playing as one

as for soloQing, I am still doing that, but then we go to the original problem, stuck in the 50/50 (still stuck after 4-5 hours of ranked yesterday). i understand the matchmaking algorithm is probably right cos im in the right division/tier, but again point of the thread is how to improve and move further from current position

Thank you all, I will look into recording my gameplay eventually if my specs allow.

I should also improve my attitude, I leave 90% of losses salty but need to be more positive and constructive to myself and teammates. It is hard when someone tells me “haha I’m here for dailies” or “testing new build” and I have been stuck around the same tier for awhile

@Justine I will edit in many airhorns and mountain dew logos everywhere, skrillex music with hashtags for yolo and 420blazeit and unnecessary 720 camera spins during my thief play (but seriously thanks for the tips, I have a lot to learn for videos and gameplay)

EDIT: I also just tried dueling 1v1 today, I definitely lost more duels than I won, but big problem I noticed was ppl running really strange thief builds… ones that are great for 1v1 but kind of gimmicky and not really seen in actual ranked play. should I keep dueling these guys?

To the team I just joined, my power died right when the map loaded. I am very sorry for the d/c. Texting this from my phone using data minutes after I lost power. Block had an unannounced outage just now.

If you ever think “wow matchmaking really screwed me over this season”, this is definitely a worser feeling, so count your blessings

fishball.7204:

<snip>
If e-harmony had this type of matchmaking they’d be out of business.

lmao, +1

hello thieves, been playing lots of thief in ranked PvP but I’m stuck in that good ol 50/50 trap. Yes, matchmaking has its problems, but there are plenty of threads about that. I want to focus on how I can improve my thief play as a soloQer.

What should I do to improve, should I just keep playing games and watching streams/recordings of pro league players? I enjoy Sindrener’s gameplay a lot but now Im not seeing any improvement in my own skills.

I run the d/p meta and swap traits depending on the other team comp (mostly in elite spec line). I am always moving around, rotating, decapping/capping (depending on map situation), +1 fights…

but I am starting to notice myself getting pressured into equalising fights (making 1v2 into 2v2) and getting better score reviving allies than participating in teamfights… if I don’t, team yells at me for being useless??

but the most important point and tl;dr is that I want to get better, and I’m wondering how I can find a reliable way to measure improvement because ranked matchmaking is so volatile for team comps and actual player skill

thanks for reading, looking forward to feedback!

Hi all, quick update, thanks for all the plays on my track so far! Here’s a YouTube version in case anyone prefers it over SoundCloud. This is my first ever music “video” in my 11 years of writing so I hope it’s on par with current standards.

Video link: https://youtu.be/VeKVJ1krPmU

“For Glory”

Link: https://soundcloud.com/tim_six/for-glory (PLEASE turn up your speakers/volume, the song is relatively quieter than most to allow for volume spikes – no jump scares, you can see the waveform on SoundCloud)

Haven’t posted any songs here for awhile, been busy with IRL stuff but now that I’ve had some time to both play GW2 and get my creative juices flowing, I managed to create… PvP lobby music(?)

This piece is a tribute to Season 3 of Guild Wars 2’s PvP Leagues. I spent about 15 hours straight writing this (only interrupted by bio breaks). Even though I’m not the greatest of PvPers (mainly Thief), I especially enjoyed climbing the ranked ladder this season. I hope the sounds from this track can inspire, motivate, encourage those competing for glory in the Heart of the Mists, as those are the things the Mists gave me to write this song.

A big shoutout to Anputt, Priscillia, and Ascast for a great PUG team experience on May 25th. May you find glory, and glory find you… in the Mists and beyond!

More details about the track on the track’s SoundCloud page.

Hope you enjoy listening!

EDIT: For usage, please contact me here, private messages, YouTube, etc… I would love to see this used in a PvP/WvW/GvG montage, maybe even on a Pro League stream someday?!

I once had a dream like OP. I made a song about it.

https://soundcloud.com/tim_six/shadows-of-the-past

A little bit more context: this was written back when we didn’t have Megaservers and guesting was almost mandatory for temple events. Orr maps on just about every server were empty, save for the few players who were mapping or wandered in out of curiosity or by accident. Those 3 maps, as empty and broken as they were, are still my favourite 3 in the game. Exploring them multiple times, I would always fantasize about what Orr was like before Zhaitan. I always hoped to one day see what was shown in the wallpapers that featured Orr: the mass exodus of denizens leaving their crumbling ivory towers, the Risen attacking and ravaging the land of its innocence and beauty, and ultimately, the fall of an empire…

tl;dr: there should be an instance of Orr when it was all nice-looking.

Caiden.9074:

Reisinger.4203:

Astralporing.1957:

Caiden.9074:

Definitely not a requirement. Even min-maxing, a 5% margin of gain just isn’t worth the fuss.

People that went crazy about the might nerf apparently do not agree. And it’s bigger than 5%.

VaaCrow.3076:

If you work 20 hours a week and a Co-worker works 60, Do you feel you are entitled to the same rewards? No.

It’s supposed to be fun and entertainment. If i wanted hard work, i’d stay in RL where i have enough of it already, so using examples based on how RL is supposed to work (no pun intended) is getting you nowhere.
Also, in RL there are actually lot of people that work less and yet earn more than others, so even in that regard the example is flawed.

Trying to reason with people who think that way is a waste of time. Fortunately, that conservative mentality is dying off as baby boomers age.

I agree with what you said, I don’t play this game to work some more. I don’t know why sadistic players keep trying to justify grinds.

That’s a bit harsh. Look, the only reason my stance on Ascended gear is, “It doesn’t matter” is because it hasn’t affected me or what I do. I’m in a tPvP ranked team, I do WvW, dungeons, and everything else. I have ascended accessories, but no weapon or armor. I can still complete dungeons in good time, win most of our matches, and contribute to our efforts in WvW. (For the Coast!)

My point is, I would be equally upset if say I went up against someone holding a point, or roaming, and I just got slam jammed despite doing everything I knew was right to win. If gear became a major factor in my fun and performance, then I would be worried.

But it hasn’t. Full ascended gear is a nice bonus, but that’s all. I guess I’m also lucky that I find all the skins are kitten , so I’ve got that going for me.

That’s ok, but it’s a bit irrelevant to my point… I’m criticizing people who think “you reap what you sow” using real life examples. This is not the first time people have used that argument on these forums but I don’t think enough people have spoken out against that mentality because it’s so pervasive (and doesn’t work in most economies nowadays either).

I am fine with the state of PvP armor as you said. But ascended does not affect that at all since everyone is on level footing stat/armour wise there…

People please

This is the same group of devs who finally realized it was a good idea to explain why they patch certain skills just 2 years after the game release.

2 years…

Astralporing.1957:

Caiden.9074:

Definitely not a requirement. Even min-maxing, a 5% margin of gain just isn’t worth the fuss.

People that went crazy about the might nerf apparently do not agree. And it’s bigger than 5%.

VaaCrow.3076:

If you work 20 hours a week and a Co-worker works 60, Do you feel you are entitled to the same rewards? No.

It’s supposed to be fun and entertainment. If i wanted hard work, i’d stay in RL where i have enough of it already, so using examples based on how RL is supposed to work (no pun intended) is getting you nowhere.
Also, in RL there are actually lot of people that work less and yet earn more than others, so even in that regard the example is flawed.

Trying to reason with people who think that way is a waste of time. Fortunately, that conservative mentality is dying off as baby boomers age.

I agree with what you said, I don’t play this game to work some more. I don’t know why sadistic players keep trying to justify grinds.

tl;dr

Ascended armor is stupid

Rashy.4165:

Boob sliders.

“Hi, this is Omer from mmohut dot com and Imma be doing a first impressions gameplay…”

Lazaar.9123:

It’s not quite that simple, because of the particle effects.

I encountered a bug a year ago when I tried to transmute my subterfuge hood to my rascal mask, they somehow ended up combining (one clipped onto another) for a few minutes and then reverting to the subterfuge hood skin right after. Looked great, I thought it was some easter egg but when it reverted I knew it was a bug. Such a shame.

Point is, it’s not that difficult to implement.

I have been using the SweetFX graphics mod for almost 2 years. The game is too ugly to play without it.

uknortherner.2670:

I’m not an RPer although on every MMO I play, I usually reside on an (un)official RP server. Why? Because RPers help to build that immersion that it often missing in MMOs where your typical activity consists of go here, kill that. It’s fun being able to stumble across RPers in the wild and listen in on their conversations (much as you would walking into a pub and listening to the conversation at the bar) because it helps to create that sense of a dynamic living world.

The Megaservers, for me at least has all but killed off RP in Piken Square outside of the main cities. The hunter’s lodge in Queensdale is now deserted when I go by, no doubt because the RPers are on a different instance, and the Sunday night meets that used to take place in Shaemoor near the BLTC posts have all but vanished.

I would like to see an option where clicking on an RP option somewhere, places you in an instance with RPers but I doubt this is even possible to implement with the game as it is. It was telling that in yesterday’s HoT annoucement, all bases were covered (PvE, WvW, PvP, Guilds) except for RP.

What a shame.

You summed up my thoughts completely. I cringe every time I see a blue-haired anything running around, let alone players with stupid names spamming mapchat with #yolo and crap like that.

It doesn’t matter how big the RP population is, what does matter is that the RP population were grouped together at one point and now they are scattered and there is no more immersive atmopshere.

RIP ROLEPLAYING

naiasonod.9265:

You shouldn’t play any of the core professions at all. The real profit is in playing an Economancer. As an Economancer, you will have to acquire or utilize your existing proficiency in spreadsheets and data trending in tandem with other existent resources to identify profitable markets and systematically exploit them.

In this fashion, you will generate the class’s core resource – gold. With gold, you can acquire virtually anything you might desire in the game, up to and including Legendary weapons. Via careful cultivation of your class resource you will meet and tackle Trading Post challenges that will subtly differ from week to week, ultimately earning your way into the almighty Legendary flipping market, where the stakes are at their highest and your entire fortune might be multiplied or lost with the shifting of the economic climate’s tides.

The Economancer has no need to pvp – they can, if played to a respectable level, afford to simply buy anything they might desire anyway, with very little to necessarily entice the Economancer to direct involvement.

The Economancer has no WvW advantage except perhaps for the distantly secondary advantage of never needing to bother with it if it isn’t in their interest.

The Economancer will be as specifically suited to PvE as their skill, knowledge and willingness to expend Gold for just the right combinations of gear and utility items to support themselves and a team in dungeons, at world boss fights and even in lower-tier pre-agony fractals allows.

Don’t settle for being a mere peasant-caste vagabond! Play an Economancer today, and learn the powerful truth of that the Golden Rule means that whomever has the gold, makes the rules!

LMAOOOO this should be standard GW2 copypasta for class selection threads

Bastionne.9473:

I’ve psyched two of my friends to join playing this game, they finally agreed. I was so happy and waited for this offer and willing to buy them the game. However, when I click buy it says there “Digital Heroic Edition -$39.99. Digital Deluxe Edition-$59.99”.

I even tried using the page that says “Discover what waits beyond Point of no Return” that shows “Guild Wars 2 75% off” . Still the same thing. This is false advertisement. I do not see how I can buy Guild Wars 2 for my friends at $10.

It is possible I think I will get discount later after I agreed to buy at $39.99 (with 75% off at end of bill), and then in the end, no discount. That will be a rip off. So much for anticipating this sale.

Well they said January 24th 8am pacific time – January 25th 11:59pm pacific. Technically it starts now…

HIRE OP NOW

I now know why people put /15chars after their posts

Louveepine.7630:

Rha, I proposed some hairstyles, and I still work … But I do not know if the developers involved Asura like it, or do not want to deal with the Asuras.

You should be getting paid for these suggestions

Fyrebrand.4859:

I agree. Wild, videogamey “novelty” hair styles are cool and all, but don’t always suit the personality/look of the character we may have in mind. Some more variations on “real” styles would be appreciated.

Also, hime cut please!!

The amount of crap in this game that breaks immersion is fine, until megaservers happened… Now RPers and those who like RPers but don’t actually RP have to put up with “Yolo Swaggins” in neon blue hair running around everywhere.

It took Anet 2 years to learn why other devs for just about any other game explain the reasons for upcoming patches…

Was it really that hard???

The majority of the “dev notes” for this upcoming patch are completely useless (relative to other games) but it is a step in the right direction.

2 years…….

Sylvari never bothered me for some reason, even though since I started playing I’ve thought humans were and still are the master race. So therefore… I will neither vote for or against kicking Sylvaris… Charr Asura and Norn on the other hand…

Sorel.4870:

You’re back just in time to hop on the hype train! Choo choo!

Indeed!

Chugga chugga chugga chugga

CHOO CHOO!!

You have come to the wrong place… Go to “players helping players” if you want to be convinced to come back

But since you’re here, there is very little reason to come back. A lot of bad changes have happened for alts. Try it, dislike it, and play another game shortly after

Not sure if this has been suggested before, but…

Why not let players keep their aquatic weapons stowed as a cosmetic when running around land as well? When the player enters combat, the skin changes to the equipped land weapon. Once they leave combat and stow the weapon, it changes back to the aquatic weapon.

I had a look at trident and spear skins recently, it’s a kitten shame they aren’t displayable out of water.

Level 80 Engineer named Ignatius Drake, it was my first character and I didn’t know what combos were or how they worked, so the character was virtually useless in every respect…

Bad NPE back then, have they included anything that teaches new players about combos?

The bright side is that I’ve remade the engineer, but due to lack of traits he once again takes his old spot collecting dust on my account… Much like my account in general though, lol…

Warrior GS handles 3 and 4, axe DPS handles 5, the profession was naturally made for 2, and warrior has superior map clearing. When I played, all I did was map. I have gotten 2 world completions on thief and warrior and 40%+ for every other class except for necro which I made last (because of the abomination of the NPE trait unlock system I have quit before doing anything on that new character). Warrior is MUCH faster than any other profession in map clearing.

But I mapped when traits were unlocked all at once. Warhorn 4 + Signet of Rage with warhorn traits is the easiest, longest-lasting swiftness you’ll ever see in game, together with GS 3 (the whirlwind thing) and GS 5 (the charge thing) you can chase anything down faster than anything else.

I should add thief has relative ez-mode. Instead of destroying everything you come across you can stealth and pray you stay in it for skillpoints. All I did on thief was go d/d and spam death blossom with initiative regen traits. Add caltrops to dodge and it’s the easiest mapping experience ever. Warrior is still faster though because you still risk the chance of running out of initiative as thief and you’re naturally squishy.

Like I said though, haven’t played since the trait update. Not sure what the game is like now, but I still think my experience is relevant for your purposes.

Really want to get back into GW2 now, only thing stopping me is the horrible trait unlock system. Bring back old system PLEASE

I tried WoW for my first time trying to get away from GW2, but it was really bad… then I tried TERA and I’m still very satisfied by what I’ve done and seen there. The draw distance makes GW2 look like a joke. Even LOTRO has better draw distance. But I have to admit I’m still waiting for a trait system patch for GW2. If it doesn’t happen then I just won’t play this game again. No big deal though, never forget that there are plenty of other (free-to-play, buy-to-play) games out there and there are more games coming from other developers

I stopped playing GW2 since the update, just move onto other games and let this place die. Ego-hungry gem store customers will/can only support the dying game for so long…

Since we are not subscribers, only way to get the message across to this ignorant corporation is to protest with your wallet (refuse to buy gems) and time (just play something else so the active player population drops).

Danikat.8537:

Lady Celtaine.3760:

Never heard of Foci before lol. But guess it makes sense I mean you don’t get Octopuses do you?

[Biology nerd] Actually that one is debatable, sometimes to the point of being quite controversial. In short ‘octopuses’ and ‘octopods’ are both considered correct. Octopi is not because that’s Latin pluralisation and the word is greek. [/Biology nerd]

But focus is latin (I think) so foci is correct.

Technically if they want to be consistent they should also change ‘forums’ to ‘fora’ as well.

Interesting! As for the forum update you will have to wait for September 2015 feature patch

Are you telling me Legos, deers, and sheeps aren’t actual words too? :O

Lady Celtaine.3760:

Behellagh.1468:

Makes those level to 20 scrolls a lot more valuable now.

Thankgoodness I had one in my bank. I had certain unlocks pop up retrospectively having used the scroll to jump to lvl 20. This kinda peeved me though… it seems new players wont be able to join a guild and benefit from the experience of other more experienced players until they are level 16.

“downed skill 2 unlocked”… oh dear god…

I was QQing about the trait system before but this is next level bad… I suggest all pre-patch vets hug any new player they come across…

Fix works, thank you OP for the thread and thanks Spydor! Game is now playable again!

Some background info on my own experience: I have had no prior experience with GW – GW2 was my first game out of the two Guild Wars games – and I haven’t even seen trailers of the predecessor prior to buying GW2. Seeing it for sale on Steam, I did some searching and found a free trial which lets me start prophecies. Well, I was somewhat unimpressed as expected, but mostly disappointed… but the disappointment was at GW2, rather than GW1. GW1 seemed a lot more vibrant, immersed me into lore instantly, and had a certain type of charm to it that GW2 has. I prefer the GW1 camera, skill flexibility, exploring, and even the questing. The characters look a lot better too. Also, humans being the only selectable race is actually something I prefer. The first cutscene with that King and Scribe had better voice acting than anything I’ve heard in GW2… What went wrong with the sequel?

I also felt a bit ripped off after running around and doing stuff for about 30 minutes… The music was way too familiar and some of the skills I unlocked I recognized right away… Whether or not it’s acceptable to recycle your own content is a different discussion topic altogether, but personally I felt like I was playing Sims 2 after buying Sims 3 (and several expansions)… In Sims 3, everything was presented as some authentic, unique feature. To a Sims newbie like myself at the time, it was true. Then I managed to try Sims 2 and was surprised to see a lot of that “new and authentic content” actually be recycled content from the previous game… Sorry about digressing, I hope it is at least a helpful metaphor for some.

I realize that people will disagree, and if you do, I see your point. There is no reason in reinventing the wheel. We have all seen that over-development play out in the traits update, which people are still being vocal about it on and off forums. So maybe it was a good idea to recycle things after all. I was not there to experience the transition from GW1 to GW2, so I don’t know how this impacted the people who did go through it.

The only thing stopping me from purchasing GW1 and expansions is just the age of the game… but aside from being evidently dated, the game to me felt like what GW2 failed to become. If Anet just remade GW1 with GW2 character models and skills, I would’ve happily bought it.

tl;dr: I have never tried GW1 but my experience with the game was fun and enjoyable. It made me wish GW2 was more similar to GW1 in many aspects.

I didn’t know how bad traits were for new players, until I emulated one with a new alt…

I had a sudden urge to try out this new trait system, so I rerolled an engineer I previously deleted and leveled it to 80.

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!

I don’t get traits until 30 (which makes me as fast as a mesmer until then, with my rocket boots), then I learn that I have to do some stupid event or pay to gain what is really a QoL thing for engineers, and at that point I realize I have to do this stupid event-hunting or skill point/gold grinding just to unlock my traits…

Okay, so I complied with Anet’s dumb enforcement of PvE, and sought out events and jumping puzzles… only to realize that I was severely undertraited in all approaches, which made things similarly difficult for me to complete them.

I had 3 traits when unlocking HGH through HotW. I’ve done many HotW runs, but this was by far the worst – I was lucky enough to have a patient and strong PUG to carry me, even as the second engineer in the group.

Why doesn’t Anet just spend the time implementing better tooltips + tutorials? Why wasn’t the story designed around teaching a player how to use certain skills and combos? This is the reason why this trait system was implemented, no? Either it was to force the population to play PvE, which is supposed to make sure that players know what they are doing before they enter endgame content…

They forget that those who refuse to play along with this stupid trait concept would just go to EotM/Fractals/WvW/PvP to farm gold + skill points.

I know my feedback is a bit late (as shown by the 40 previous pages in this thread), but I hope they still mean something and I’m not alone in feeling alienated with my toon

StinVec.3621:

Reisinger.4203:

<snip>

Unlock the blue commander tag on a single character right now for 100g (plus 250 badges of honor) and after 9-9 when the feature pack is implemented all current and future characters on your entire account will have access to using the commander function, along with the additional colors. Wait to purchase it until after 9-9 and it will instead cost 300g. It is recommended that you unlock it now while it is still at 100g even if you will not have need for the commander feature immediately so you save 200g over waiting until a future date (after 9-9) to purchase it.

Thank you!

I’m a bit confused as to how this is going to work now – if we purchased a commander tag right now (for 100g), do we get the four colours after the patch comes in?

Regardless, it’s good news that the 300g per colour plan was revised!

OP sounds like a kitten roleplayer.

Before you get all angry, I am (also) one of these kitten roleplayers. Well, less so about roleplaying, but definitely kitten. I used to go on TC for RPers just because they didn’t have eyesore armor or character names. The megaserver ruined all of that, so now I see people like “aojfgwep” (gross exaggeration) running around.

Again, they existed long before megaservers… I just didn’t have to ever read their disgustingly poor character name.

Well said, OP. Agreed on all points.

I think I read somewhere (Reddit or official forums, from a dev) that Anet probably won’t add much to character voice cues… Think about it, for each race, there are 2 genders. 5 races x 2 genders = 10 voice actors needed just to add a few new lines. I also read that sound was already a huge component (filesize-wise) of the game so they have to limit it.

Those cues would certainly be nice though, like Brink’s voice system. NOT Dragon Age Origins voicing though. Right idea (wise, angry, suave, etc. voice options) but horrible implementation (different voice actors for several options and it just sounded bad).

tl;dr you are asking too much of Anet, they have to divert resources to voicing lame, forgettable characters like Brahm and so forth

@OP: I’m about as optimistic as you are when it comes to GW2 updates. These are all QoL things. The cost-free update to traits and armors are most likely to scale with the gold nerf though, so in other words, it’s like we have 2+2=4, and then suddenly 3+1=4 is some novel, innovative idea. So… you are right. A lot of this is just hype-building over nothing. :P