Guild Wars 2

Are there plans to introduce new mastery lines?

I was waiting to do the clock tower and somehow got ported onto the top of the waiting area. Wish I had the chance to get better shots, but once that round of the clock tower ended, I got ported back to the waiting area. The last shot is of another clock tower in the distance; it was spinning really fast.

I believe if you have an enemy selected, you are body blocked by him. If he doesn’t have you selected, I do not think he will be body blocked (even if you have him selected).

So uh I guess you can body block yourself if you wanted to…

In GW1 you could make picks for GvG tournaments. Depending on how well you did, you received reward points which you could exchange for Zaishen keys, among other things. It would be kind of neat if they could implement something similar.

Yep, I’m sure. I thought the same thing at first, but observing the yaks, and working out a practice problem bear out the 25% reduction in travel time.

The wording is very specific: swiftness increases movement speed by 33%. This results in a 25% reduction in travel time.

Let’s say you are running 10 miles/hour. You need to get to the store before it closes, and it’s 5 miles away. How long does it take to get there?

(10miles/1hour = 5miles/xhours) = (10x = 5) = (x = 0.5hours)
So it takes you a half hour to get there. 0.5 hours travel time.

But the store is closing and you need to get there fast, so you instead run 33% faster.
(10miles/hour x 1.33 = 13.33miles/hour). So you are now running 13.33miles/hour. How long does it take you to travel 5 miles now?

(13.33miles/hour = 5miles/xhours) = (13.33x = 5) = (x = 0.38 hours)
Now it takes 0.38 hours of travel time instead of 0.5 hours.

Finally, 0.38/0.5 = ~75%, ergo by running faster, you take 25% less travel time. There is some rounding involved but you get the idea.

As I mentioned, observing the yaks supports this, and I think it makes sense. My initial reaction was to be a little disappointed that it only got the supplies to a tower 25% faster, but when you think of it in terms of real life consequences, the yak can get to its destination sometimes over a minute sooner, which can make all the difference during critical times.

Nice writeup, very thorough. I was working on a similar post but more lecture-y/anal. On that note, here are some tidbits you might find interesting. I welcome/request that anyone interested please verify these numbers; corroboration helps strengthen any conclusions we might reach. Most of these observations are from Wildcreek tower in Eternal Battlegrounds, which is fed by Rogue’s Quarry.

Tower workers seem to upgrade at somewhat different speeds.
Wildcreek workers consume 10 supply every 30 seconds, while Klovan workers are lazier and take 37 seconds, I believe.

A yak takes approximately 2 minutes to get from Rogues to WildCreek.
*He then takes 48 seconds to return to Rogues, for a round trip of 2 minutes, 48 seconds.

A yak takes approximately 5 minutes, 10 seconds to get from Rogues to Wildcreek to Stonemist.
*He then calls the Enterprise and beams back to Rogues instantly. Total trip time is 5 minutes, 10 seconds.

Travel times are reduced by 25% if the yaks are given permaswiftness
This makes a yak’s trip from Rogues to Wildcreek 1 minute 30 seconds and a yak from Rogues to Stonemist 3 minutes 50 seconds.

As I mentioned above, I observed the Rogue-to-Wildcreek/Stonemist yak the most, but I also got some data on the yak that travels from Golanta to Klovan to Stonemist:

A yak traveling from Golanta to Klovan takes:
1 minute 55 seconds to arrive; or 1 minute 28 seconds with permaswiftness. A yak that travels from Golanta to Stonemist takes 4 minutes, 30 seconds to arrive; or 3 minutes 25 seconds with permaswiftness.

Using the data above, I drew some conclusions that I wanted to discuss. I am using the Rogue/Wildcreek/Stonemist route as a model, but I think other towers will suggest the same conclusions:

First, I want to point something out: by owning Stonemist, you are reducing the rate of supply income of the towers that are on the yak’s path. It takes Wildcreek nearly twice as long to get supplies when Stonemist is on the route, because once the Rogues’ yak reaches Wildcreek, he continues on to Stonemist taking an extra 2 minutes, 22 seconds (remember the total trip time from Rogue’s to Wildcreek to Stonemist is 5 minutes, 10seconds). If he dies along the way, it’s a 5 minute wait for a new yak to spawn; disaster.

Another thing I think people don’t realize is that ordering a structural upgrade puts the structure in a vulnerable state. The worker(s) that build the upgrade are constantly drawing supply from the depot. For example, say an unupgraded, nonswift yak delivers 35 supplies to Wildcreek and continues on to Stonemist. The Wildcreek worker there will burn through those supplies in 2 minutes (4 of the 30second consumptions). Then he will pick his nose and wait until the yak brings more, which will take 5 minutes, 10 seconds.

In this scenario, it is impossible to build up any supply in the depot of Wildcreek until that worker is done with the upgrade—he goes through it faster than the yak can deliver. Let’s say the upgrade is to fortify the walls — that costs 200 supply. Assuming the tower starts with zero supplies, the yak will need to make 6 trips to deliver enough for the upgrade to complete. And that’s assuming no players remove supply from the depot before the worker can get it.

6 trips = (6 × 5min, 10seconds) = over half an hour before the upgrade finishes. What if the enemy comes after 15 minutes? There will be no supplies in the depot, but 100 supplies tied up in the wall upgrade. I think we’ve all been in a situation where 100 supplies in the depot would’ve saved a tower. Also note that in this scenario, a second worker doesn’t make the upgrade go faster; the time it takes is dependent on the yak. I mean, I guess when the yak brings that final delivery, having a second worker will make it end a little bit sooner than a single worker, but you get the point.

I’ve seen instances when we’d just taken a tower, with zero supplies in the depot, and someone immediately orders the reinforce walls upgrade. I’m sure they felt they were helping, but when the enemy came back 10 minutes later, all the supply that had accrued was tied up uselessly in the upgrade. Of course, there are many variables: was there supply in the tower’s depot before the upgrade was started? Are the yaks being permaswifted? Has the enemy been docile, making it a good time to start an upgrade? Do we own Stonemist? Context/situation is the key.

Anyway, sorry this is so long. I welcome anyone to double check my math, it’s possible I made an error somewhere. I’m tired as heck right now. I hope this post was clear; I know it was pretty dry. The ultimate goal of this post is to hopefully encourage people to think about when it is appropriate to upgrade.

Ok, thanks for the replies. That’s disappointing

Do the pictures have to be at the bottom of the post? Any way to put them in the middle? If not, can I link an image from another site and have it show up in my post? There is an example of doing that in the FAQ (it shows how to use bbcode img tags) .

Matt Witter.6982:

RunForItMarty.6875:

If I hit a guy with an upgraded cannon, does it remove his boon before applying the damage?

The cannon will apply the damage, then strip a boon.

Ok thank you, good to know.

If I hit a guy with an upgraded cannon, does it remove his boon before applying the damage?