Guild Wars 2

Well, that’s the point of being a bunker: deal low damage but live long enough for team mates to come help.

This is basically the reason why I stopped playing months ago.

If you join with a team, you’ll most likely face a bunch of pubs and destroy them.
If you join alone, you’ll most likely face a premade and get stomped.

Also, daily PVP achievements injected a bunch of PVErs into the system who couldn’t give half a kitten about PVPing and are in just for those laurels.

The only thing that could make me consider getting into the PVP scene again is the creation of a system that caters to both solo players and team players. We’ll see what happens when Custom Arenas go live for everyone I guess, but I’m not getting my hopes high.

It’s not the build alone that makes a player good.

Check out this channel on YouTube. It’s full of amazing strategies, tips, builds and everything PVP related:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GuildWars2Online

No.

On second thought…

No.

Rerroll.9083:

locking weapons killed many builds. Many weapons that lack mobility died that day.

Who plays staff ele now? No one.

Staff will never have RTL, so it will never be worth using.

Exactly this.

Every profession who has movement skills on a different weapon than their main got damaged with that change. I can see how it is exploitable to an extent, but still it wasn’t worth removing the possibility altogether imho.

And yeah, enough derailing. Wouldn’t want people to miss the point of this great thread here. :P

Very good points in here.

I particularly agree with the character lock during matches and preventing people from switching character. It’s just cheap and proves nothing but the fact that you’re being a sore loser and want to win at all costs. From the moment they locked skill bars and weapon swap (a choice on which I still don’t completely agree) they should have done the same for characters.

There’s no pleasing you people, is there?

(on a serious note: I agree.)

kirito.4138:

The downside to this are players just going into tPVP matches and AFK dead on the floor just to get the end game credit. Saw this several times yesterday.

This is exactly what I was afraid of: PVErs who join PVP for the reward and couldn’t care less about playing PVP the way it should be played.

Blah.

You should challenge the top Warriors, cuz I don’t think ANet employees play their game.

Probably everyone saw this nerf coming, that’s why no one is complaining about it.

I mean, come on. 50% of the players rerolled an engi for the easy kills.

As an Engi myself, I’m glad this build got removed before we had the chance to get pigeonholed in one role.

Kind of mixed feelings yere, but I’m generally gonna say Yes.

Not dying in half a second is good, but this makes Elementalists and Bunkers even more immortal now.

I think it’s obvious by now that the PVP team is heavily understaffed. I can’t really say if it’s the general impression coming from the forums, or if it is by their own admission in a SOTG, but it’s evident that there are problems with implementing changes and fixing things.

One thing stuck to my mind during the first SOTG: I don’t remember who was it, but one of the top players told the developers that we PvPers can help. If they need infos or feedback about this or that feature of the game, top players are very willing to help and give advice on what works and what doesn’t. And it’s not just the top players: even here on the forums we see a whole bunch of fellas willing to give plenty of advice and solutions to the common problems of the game.

That got me thinking: why not crowdsource the game? With the help of the community members, you can speed up the development process by having us playtest stuff and even write bits of code if you allow us. Other companies actually promote community participation in the form of letting players create addons for their games or providing a PTS to see the effect of future changes, why not do the same here?

If you give us a framework for addons, a ton of the minimal changes that people would see implemented (like small UI tweaks, inventory management, what have you) could fall entirely on the community while the staff can work on more important stuff. If we wanna go past that, I’m sure there’s tons of skilled programmers in here who could easily implement a “Right Click > Duel” fuction to the game or analyze and fix many of bugs every profession has.

So, what I mean to say is:

• Make a Play Test Server, so you can receive immediate feedback on the planned changes and fixes.
• Release parts of code to the community so we can help implementing what needs to be implemented asap.
• Allow us to create addons, so the small things or “utilities” can be taken care of by the community.

A community is a great resource. Don’t waste it.

Alex Yip.9036:

So many play warr,But I didn`t see many warr in pvp
Is that warr in pve?

That’s the reply to the question “which class do you think is the weakest”, not “which class do you play”.

Yes. Besides the fact that paid tournaments don’t exist anymore and minor class balances that don’t really change anything in the end, the game is still the same.

Oh yeah, there’s a new map out. Nothing to be thrilled about, anyway.

It’s still the same. Check back in a couple months.

When there’s not enough solo players, you’re bound to get matched vs premades.

It’s not a flaw of the system, it’s just a matter of low PVP population. If there were more solo queuers around your rank, you would most likely end up vs them.

Lack of interest creates lack of updates.

Lack of updates creates lack of interest.

:(

Nope, and they don’t have burning either, but they got so many ways to put conditions on people and to remove boons that I would expect necros to be the natural counter of anything that falls into the “bunker” category.

I’ve always considered Engineer to be my “main”, even though lately I’ve switched to Guardian because people keep asking me “don’t you have another class to bring?” when I join paids, and well… I don’t get it.

Even though I’ve played engi in every shape and form, I don’t see how a condition heavy build is going to destroy an Elementalist. I mean, what can an engi do that a Necromancer can’t in terms of conditions? The build above isn’t even using ‘nades, which I’ve found to be the most effective way to stack conditions quickly on a target.

Maybe the mix of burning + confusion? But what good does it do when an Ele can cleanse conditions that fast?

Please enlighten me.

When you face a team of 5 Elementalists in paids.
It just happened, forgot to take a screenshot tho.

Lots of stuff we can’t really talk too much about. <_<

My only gripe with a matchmaking system is that it’s going to be increasingly hard for high rank people to find a team to compete with.

Sadly, rankings and matchmaking create separation. This is going to result in longer queues for everyone and high rank teams facing low rank teams anyways, when an equivalent high ranked team isn’t available for a match.

We’ll see what happens after the update.

A random map every time you join a tournament would be awesome.

If we can’t have that, at least a daily map would be better than playing a week in the same map over and over.

On the bright side: this system gives you the perfect opportunity to test your builds and strategies specific to that one map, but on the darker side… it gets old fast.

Make maps random. Srsly.

I feel this.
I’m already kinda discouraged by trying out new classes because I reached rank 34 and people probably expect me to know the profession perfectly when they see that number. The truth is, I’ve got 34 ranks as an Engineer and I’m just now starting out Guardian. This is why I always leave my Champion Genius title on, so at least people might realize that Guardian is not my main.

Anyway, you make a good point.

I’m not much of a Guardian expert, but I came up with this s/tPVP build that has been working quite well for me.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7Fcg;1NFF30I3ZG-90;9;5ETJ4;15;004B57;2YoG6;2Ewk2Ewk25BH

It’s a damage build. It works by stacking might on yourself and vulnerability on your opponent. Applying blind to enemies will give them vulnerability and make them miss the next attack, which adds up for survivability.

Swapping weapons, scoring crits, blocking with your focus and using Virtue of Justice will give you might stacks.

Meditations are helpful for survival and mobility, since the Intervention along with Sword #2 will help you stay on target, while Smite Conditions will do some damage, cure a condition and heal you a bit.

I’m a bit unsure whether to use that sigil or not. If I have to roam a lot, I’ll use “Retreat!” instead of the sigil, or if the enemy team is condition heavy, I’ll just go with Contemplation of Purity.

You can either spam all your blinds (Virtue of Justice, Greatsword #3, Focus #4, Sword #2) in a row to stack vulnerability and burst, or just cycle the blinds to maximize your survival.

Let me know what you think.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

I’m thinking 5 asura mesmers with very similar names. has anyone encountered one yet? I’m imagining the chaos and confusion. :O

I rememeber 5 guys from my previous server (Ring of Fire) who did this. :P

5 Asura mesmers, they were called something on the lines of:

Ooo Ooo Qoo
Qoo Ooo Ooo
Ooo Qoo Ooo
Qoo Qoo Ooo
Ooo Qoo Qoo

They all looked the same of course.
Greatest trolls ever.

I wouldn’t say there are “weak” professions anymore. I think by now everyone has a basic grasp of what a class is capable of, and how to use it more or less effectively.

The problem is that some professions are still pigeonholed in a specific role without any other viable option, and that’s the aspect the devs should work on.

Well, considering how the game is structured, as there isn’t the holy trinity and every class can do a bit of everything, there’s no limit to the game modes you could come up with.
I think a system like this is very adaptable to a number of situations, and even if now we’re used to the 5 people team setup, nothing stops the devs from pushing it to 10, 15 or more.
A team with more than 5 people would require different maps tho, much bigger than the ones we got now. Hell, maybe even our current control points game could work with 10 people, but in that case you should put something like 5 control points around the map. :P

Awesome, I’ve been wanting to ask the forums for something like this and I’m glad you came up with the idea.

Thanks a lot, it’s really helpful. If a mod is reading, I’d recommend a sticky since a thread like this is useful to everyone.

1v1 style like it is now but with a random map instead of forever Temple would be perfect imho.

I hope it’s going to happen.

Rank doesn’t do anything but prove the time you spent PVPing.

Generally an high rank player is “stronger” because he has more experience and generally knows the game better than a low rank.

I say, stop drawing attention on us.
We don’t want any nerfs. :P

Sincerely,
-The Engineer Community

Stuff that activates when you use an healing skill can be activated every 10 seconds by simply equipping the Medkit, you don’t need to actually use the F1 Heal or drop any packs.

I just had another Engineer try to pull it off on me.

All it took was 1 dodge so… no, it isn’t too powerful. lol

I, for one, welcome with open arms point no. 3.
About everything else, I feel your pain as well.

I can’t wait to see what the patch is going to break.

Will the loading screen bug be back? Are we gonna see naked clones again? Who knows what could go wrong this time: maybe Thieves will get their Heartseeker range increased to 2500 by mistake, or switching attunement on Ele might result in 5 blank slots instead of a new set of skills.

Can’t wait to find out!

Not at this very moment.
Check back next month, some stuff should have happened by then.

I’m up for this.

I’ve been playing PVP quite casually so far, but I’d like to try playing on an higher level. I like the theorycrafting and troubleshooting part, they’re two of the things I like the most in this game.

I’ll give you a whisper when I’m home later.

You need gold for PvE. I don’t do PvE, therefore I couldn’t care less about getting money from PvP.

But, if it can be helpful to lure new players in, then I’m all for it. :\ Some form of tangible reward for the PvErs out there, would be cool I guess.

6/10.

I still think it’s overall a good game. The fact that PVP isn’t gear based justified the whole purchase for me back in the day. I like the fact that it’s skill, and not how many hours you’ve been grinding to get gear, that determines the victor.

I like how fast paced it is and that there is no holy trinity. Maybe the current meta doesn’t allow it, but every profession leaves quite a bit of room for creativity when it comes to making builds, and that’s an aspect I like.

What I don’t like: lacking every feature of an e-sport, map and game mode variety is definitely too little, some classes are definitely too powerful compared to others and the devs seem to be oblivious to it. About this last thing in particular, I don’t like how the devs are completely silent when it comes to plans for the near or far future and how they’re so slow with fixing and balancing.

All in all, I’d say GW2 is a solid and fun game. Could be infinitely better, but for now its PVP is much better than everything I’ve played so far.

Is there a guide somewhere about the basics of bunkering on Guardian?

I decided to take a break from my main class in tournaments and would like to give Guardian a try (also because the character I made came out super hot).

I can’t find a basic guide anywhere, so I was wondering if you guys could point me to the right direction.

Many many thanks.

Unless you’re a Thief who can just stealth and leave, or a Mesmer who can crap more clones and leave, failing to use stun breakers or defensive abilities in general will usually result in your soft little body being shattered or backstabbed to death.

Some classes might require less defensive “skill” to perform correctly, but for some other being unable to time a defense skill perfectly is too unforgiving: hope your stunbreaks are available or you’re down. I don’t know what makes you think that defense is too easy in this game (and I’m assuming you play either thief or mesmer), but I can assure you that most of the people out there need to rely on perfect reflexes or equip 2-3 stunbreakers to survive a burst.

This game is way less than forgiving when it comes to defensive skills, I think you’re completely out of your way.

Syeria.4812:

Combo fields are great, and an incredibly important part of the combat system, but from my experience as well, they are rarely intentionally used (at least amongst PUGs I’ve played on and premades I’ve played against).

So the question is, are players not using them because players are bad, or because the combos themselves don’t offer sufficient benefit?

To use an MMO example:

In FFXI, there is a combat mechanic known as skillchains. Essentially, by using weapon skills in certain orders with proper timing, groups would do massive bonus damage. In addition to the skillchain damage, casters could time another effect (Magic Burst) for even more bonus damage.

At lower levels, players often didn’t have the knowledge or skill to use skillchains. They didn’t know which skills to use, or which order, or how to time the use, so they didn’t use them. That’s a failure of the players, and not an indication of a broken system. The system worked great, and players just needed to get better and use it properly.

Later in the game’s lifespan, at higher levels, the composition of groups changed. WAR/NIN x5 + RDM axe burns became prevalent. BLM almost completely disappeared from groups. Other changes like that led to situations where setting up and completing a skillchain just wasn’t an efficient use of time. If you didn’t have a SAM or BLM in your group, the extra damage from the skillchain didn’t outweigh the costs of coordinating its use. This is a failure of the combat system. Players stopped using skillchains because they didn’t make the group better off.

So, getting back to GW2 here, why aren’t combos used very frequently? Are they just not worth it? Dropping a cluster bomb into a fire field gives you AoE might, but the duration on that is ridiculously low. If they’re not worth it, Anet should balance them to be stronger. They could (for example) double the duration on might from combo fields and make it grant 2 stacks instead of 1.

Personally, I think it’s mostly an issue with player behavior/knowledge and how the current meta works. Right now, there’s not much focus on synergy. It seems (at least outside the real top end scene, where I haven’t played at all) everyone builds for themselves, and wants to be a self-sufficient player who does their own thing rather than actually coordinating with their team. How do we get players to actually be aware of, and to utilize teamwork and synergies like combo fields?

Ah, setting up Freeze bursts while leveling on crabs in Kuftal Tunnel.

Those were the days, lol.

You know, to be honest I think every downed state should be like the Engineer’s. An auto attack, a single target interrupt, an AoE interrupt available after 10 seconds and a self-heal.

It looks gimp compared to what other classes are capable of, but from a PVP perspective I think our downed state is the most balanced and it should set the standard for all the others.

Unpractical to use, they require too much team coordination which is often impossible in the heat of battle, and the effects are honestly not game changing at all, considering the buff they give is either irrelevant or lasts too little time to actually make a difference.

As an Engineer, I blast my own fields when I can to give myself a little edge, but that’s about it. I hope using combo fields will be easier and more rewarding in the future, to actually make them worth the trouble.

On a positive note, I’ve been able to enjoy a couple days of Mesmer-free tourneys and it’s been great.

So Engineer is my main, and it’s basically all I play because all my keybinds and my mind are set on Engi skills. I’ve had a sad, short lived career as Guardian and Necro, but since I suck at those I just tried my best to improve on my main class.

Lately I’ve been told that Engineer is “alright” in Free Tournaments, but it’s totally not wanted in the current meta because it doesn’t bring anything to the table that another class can’t do better.

I feel I can fill several roles alright, be it roamer, bunker or burst, but why would you want an Engi when you can bunker as Guardian? Or why would you want an Engi when you can just add another Thief to the team? Or why would you have an Engi hold close or mid point when you can just throw an immortal Ele there?

I’d like to know how the community feels about Engineer. Overpowered? Underpowered? Does it have something special in spite of other classes? Would you bring an Engineer in the main team or would you have him sit on the bench and replace a “main” class that is missing?

Thank you for any reply.

I feel the same. I’m rank 33 and I feel as noobish as if it was my first day PVPing at times.

Sometimes you put so much effort into the game, just to get defeated and /laughed at by a rank 2 Thief who accidentally caught you at 50% health and off guard and 2-2-2-2s you.

The only advice I feel like giving is that you should probably focus on one class. Knowing all of them is good because you know how to counter everything, but focusing on one class will improve reaction times because some thought processes will become automatic, and same goes for muscle memory.

I hope it makes sense for you. :x

I don’t use grenades anymore because it’s impossible to hit with them reliably, unless you’re hidden in a dark corner and rain them on people during a team fight. Same goes with Bombs, sadly. Even if you run around a point like an headless chicken, it’s not hard to avoid the small-radius-even-if-traited bombs.

Imho the damage nerf was unnecessary: hitting with grenades is too hard, that alone justifies hitting for a lot of damage when you actually hit.