Guild Wars 2

Hah perfect exactly what I was looking for!

I’ve been messing around in the map for a few days, and there are a lot of special mechanics which are just glossed over on the Wiki

So far I know Frostreach has the Forge that gives a 10% damage reduction, and then another temple to turn yourself into an invincible spark. Then there’s a tunnel from one end of the map to another…

I came here to see if there’s a better place for specifics on all the new map mechanics?

Then secondly, what are the emerging strategies? For example I’ve seen groups beeline right for the belltower in Frostreach and forego all the smaller objectives along the way. Then there’s that underneath-the-middle area with the three flags that for some reason see very little traffic, while zergs seem to ball through the Aetherblades spike trap area all the time.

I see thanks. Anyone know the formula on WvW Retaliation then or is it exactly 33% reduction? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.

From the latest patch notes:
Fixed an issue that caused Retaliation to do PvE levels of damage instead of PvP levels of damage.

Wiki doesn’t metion that Retaliation had a special PvP modifier for damage is this a known thing and is retaliation better or worse in WvW?

Elegie.3620:

• #F1… is unfortunately not very useful, except that it keeps stealthed opponents in check.

How does that work?

JonPeters.5630:

The biggest problem is IMO is actually the active heal. If we reduce the passive without doing something to make the active useful, we are just creating a different problem. Truly the active on this skill right now is in the following place. When I see someone press it I think “No No No don’t do that!” We are discussion some options here so if you want this to be constructive give suggestions towards improving the active. Reducing the passive is easy to do but we will not do it without solving the other problem. Also we will not greatly reduce it because it is giving Warriors a sense of sturdiness that we want their profession to have. Without strong heals, Warriors feel too much like everyone else. Setting them apart with strong heals has been good for changing their playstyle feel, but we agree it needs some tweaks.

Jon

My idea is make the active an AoE knock-back similar to Guardian wave of light.

The leverages the biggest weakness to HS: a quick burst down by multiple foes. By adding an AoE knockback/escape time for when you are being jumped by multiple enemies, in exchange for NO regeneration for several seconds, this would create some very interesting strategic decision making on the part of HS users.

Edit: knockback CC could also be used offensively or to prevent stomps… but in exchange for no healing, would YOU pop it??

Played 6 matches yesterday. 2 were extremely close losses of <30. 1 was 4v5 loss by >300. 3 wins by >100.

So just to add my percieved experience to the stack: sometimes MM works, sometimes it doesn’t… I guess they’re working on addressing it further but I’ve also noticed significantly reduced instances of 4v5s… feels like its <10% of games now. And when the match is really close it’s EXTREMELY fun win or lose.

So this is a tactics, not a class balance discussion… I wanted to talk about one of the scenarios I see come up in matches every once in a while, and I wanted to see how people have learned to deal with it because it seems like a really strong strategy.

In my admittedly limited spvp experience a fully bunkered-out guardian, played at least decently, can sustain a 3v1 for over minute, and most 2v1s and 1v1s indefinitely. Now not killing much of anything at the same time, but properly specced out this class has the best tank in the game, and they are very good at not dying.

Which brings me to the point of conquest: the game mode is much weighted to controlling the map points and winning for your team, not how many kills you get necessarily (even moreso when they switch to rewarding for match wins only). And in this role bunker guardians seem exceptionally strong because they can roll in and hold individual points for the longest time, as well as disrupt captures. Because the point timer is continually ticking (to 500), the bunker role becomes pivotal because they’re the masters of attrition.

Now I’ve seen this in many 5v5 arena games: a single bunker guardian can carry their entire team by tying up more than half the enemy team at points for a long time. By hopping between points simply disrupting captures and holding people off while not dying. And when you have 2 bunker guardians on the same team employing that strategy… while the rest of their team just runs amok doing whatever, the tactic just seems SO strong its GG almost from the get go no matter what your team comp is, if you have no bunker guards on your side doing the same thing…

Bleh now that I’ve vented I’m curious are there any solid strategies or counters to the bunker guardian point-hopper build? Has this been a known meta in spvp for a while? Especially in solo Q it seem way strong because it’s a 1-man strategy, but which requires coordination from the entire opposing team to counter and focus down the bunker to dislodge them from a point…

Cool, thanks. I haven’t tried some of those other combos yet….

Apply the 50% crit chance on the Earthshaker attack itself, or just the subsequent hits while they are stunned?

I’m having a hard time justifying this trait’s proclaimed usefulness since I only get like 2-3 hits after an earthshaker, less if opponent stunbreaks immediately afterward, over something more all-around useful like swiftness on crits.

And this is on the sPvP end; I can see UF having more merit when you have a WvW hammer train going and can more easily combo it off other people’s stuns as well.

Edit: For a post-patch build as well with 20 in Arms.

Axe #5 is a slight loss in DPS but in exchange for bigger AoE, hits up to 5 instead of 3, and still attack while dodging

Yeah but you’re looking at cooldowns of 60, 60, and 40. Signets can be traited for 20% less which brings them to significantly lower than the stances. For example:

Signet of Stamina: 36s traited. Passive perma half-vigor. Full condition cleanse on 1/4 sec activation, which is reactive rather than predictive like berserker stance.
vs
Zerker Stance: 60s cd for 8s of effect. 6s vigor traited. 40 adrenaline over duration.Yes you get a full 8s free from conditions but it’s easier for opponents to react to, they simply go on the defensive and kite until the stance is over then resume with the condi pressure, knowing you’re on a full minute cooldown afterward…

And I’ve tried using it but I still don’t get the hype over zerker stance… the signets just seem that much more flexible and reactive, on a shorter cd!

Actually yeah since I don’t typically run it.

Berserker stance has long cooldown, and doesn’t grant instant full adrenaline and dps passives like fury signet… But as I understand where it shines is in the escape ability, with the immunity to immobs, and cripples while retreating no?

I notice so many wars running these in their utility slots, along with the two signets for healing and ultimate.

I’m curious do they just shine for particular builds, or are these stances just the most powerful all-around utilities?

I’m wondering as well

For dual Axe/Rifle warrior, at strength master tier. Both traits seem kind of weak, especially compared to others at the master tier, but I honestly don’t know what else to take at that level for my weapons setup: 5% base damage or 10% critical damage?

I take it if you crit chance is over 50% then the 10% crit damage starts to win out, unless there’s some other calculations I’m missing where the base damage comes out on top?

Yeah leg specialist is really the linchpin of that build, and when you’re full glass some control is really necessary to bring along, both for offense and defense.

If you really wanted Crack Shot I’d substitute all 30 in strength for 30 in arms to get Furious (or Last Chance post-patch), along with either swiftness or vuln on crits at adept. This would be splashing in condition damage for a more hybrid DPS though.

Yeah I’ve been messing around with this “Hunter” build lately: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAU3XjcOtwJP+OMxBAzDjCqI1D7cLuUBxA-TgAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFB

Centers around snaring with leg specialist and then DPSing opponents down with the two highest coeficient burst skills in rifle and axe. Completely glass so you’ll eat it frequently if you get caught out of position, but man it’s a blast when it works and you’re sniping people for half their health bar!

Another suggestion to put to the community: what would you think if there was only a single BL buff that affected players only in the current BL map (instead of 3 global buffs)? And never active in EB.

I’m curious what would people think if the BL buff were amended so that the stomp bonus would instead be awarded to the player doing the stomping depending on how many BL buffs the “stompee” had on them?

As a way to incentivize players who are outmanned/outbuffed to come in and make an impact. E.G. a player stomping another with the full 3 Buff +150 to all their stats would receive 3 points for their server for the kill.

What do people think of this?

That one is great Ottohi! Very close to what I’m running. But you only have what 1 cripple skills with sword leap I’m curious why the leg specialist choice when the overall usefulness of something like Empower Allies seems much greater?

What are the “Orb Bonuses” for 600 stat referring to? I am new to WvW thanks for patience but I looked it up and saw that orbs of power were removed from the game some months ago for balance reasons.

Also 5% health comes from maxed PoTM bonus amiright?

Thanks guys I’m just trying to figure out the mechanics right now not really qualified to post on the debate.

Thanks. Actually I’m only at ~1850 power (pre Empower Allies; 2000 with it). Not a complete glass cannon

That said so for 5 trait points, Armored Attack is worth ~100 power, but also 50 defense and healing power. So ~200 primary stats points total, whereas 5 towards DoE provides +5% critical damage, +%5 burst recharge (almost meaningless), and +3% per enemy boon. I don’t think 200 primary stat points is really insignificant in AA the tradeoff better be worth it

Also for WvW mighty defenses is quite nice in large scale zerg and castle sieges, especially with arrow carts you can build 10-15 stacks in a couple seconds and then unload…

I’m still undecided, will have to run with DoE for a while and test it out I guess. Anyone else atest to its usefulness int he meantime?

I’d like to debate the usefulness of this trait. It seems very situational in terms of providing burst damage, against specific build or classes, but not a very generalist trait ami right? Let’s take WvW as a baseline, although I’m curious if people have found it useful for sPvP or dungeons running even.

In my case particularly, the tradeoffs I’m considering are with taking Destruction of the Empowered trait VS:

Defense: Armored Attack (5% of toughness as power.) Gives a decent base power increase of about 100, plus 50 defense and healing power. Good raw stat improvement for a minor trait.

Discipline: Mobile Strikes. Also a situational skill that requires particular weapon combinations to get the most out of. Correct if I’m wrong but unless you’re running a sword MH (for the leap) then there aren’t many compelling reasons to grab this trait.

Discipline: Warrior’s Sprint. I run longbow so this will only be active half the time. But reduces need for an offhand warhorn to maintain swiftness.

Discipline: Mighty Defenses. Requires Shield to build some might stacks. Also very situational but can build a lot of might stack quick.

What are the solo camp builds can someone please link them I’m curious

Ah what I thought it’s a hook to get people (like me) involved with crafting. Thanks

I’m not big into crafting and used to selling all my acquired mats on the TP.

So now that I’m getting some of these account-bound Ascended materials, are they useless to me as a player since I can’t trade them? Are there other ways to convert them into gold?

Thanks for the breakdown!

I just want the Crown Pavilion to open back up (I missed the first two weeks of release) and apparently somehow got it to lock after the closing ceremony.

How many invasion participations are needed to do that?

Hey Titan I’m curious why is the crit chance so low on many of these builds? Seems counter-intuitive esp when you’re stacking up to 100% crit damage, but on a 30% crit rate which seems to taper the DPS potential significantly. Is Cavalier > Berzerker just the current meta in WvW?

Bump

Ok so what about taking a second fire sigil on the second weapon set? Effectively retaining the same cooldown timer throughout.

Say you had 2 1H and one 2H weapon, would Fire/Force – Force or Fire/Force – Fire work out to better DPS?

I can see it’s obvious uses in Pvp, but has anyone here tried it and/or can speak to its usefulness in PvE? I’m not running sword, greatsword, or rifle, so it pretty much comes down to taking this, or extra swiftness from Furious speed as my 2nd slot Arms trait.

Assuming it will only go off in Veteran and above fights, is the extra fury worth it if I’m already running FGJ and Rage sig?

Thanks for the info!

Bump I’m wondering the same thing. Still harvesting up fortune scraps will they continue to be around after the 23rd?

Combustive shot on longbow applies a field for a full 4 seconds (at full adrenaline), this usually gives me enough time to get multiple skills off while standing in the same field e.g. arcing arrow, then often switching to axe/axe for a whirl finisher.

However I’ve noticed the combo doesn’t always go off for using multiple skills within the same field (like whirl finisher doesn’t always play the burning bolts animation). Perhaps its the case that only the first skill used within a field triggers the effect, but not subsequent one.

I’m just wondering is this a known issue and/or by design?

I’m curious what the relative damage difference between these two traits are now that Empower Allies has been more than doubled to +150 power?

Assuming Empowered will be with a reasonably achievable +6% (3 boons) damage increase. I know these two traits aren’t exactly comparable, but if you were to pick one at the 10pt tier now what would the tradeoffs be?

Confirm. Lionguard Mette was not there when I visited last night