Guild Wars 2

I have been asked to use gs4 for gates. Having pistol 4 shooting the gate would have been nice in this case. It is standard way to help with the gates.

I have seen gs4 phantasms running after a running enemy. Their spins does not hit because enemy runs away? I would like to see this verified with video so that nobody makes false claims. Not me, not you.

I have to verify it: if I hit the gate, then illusion do shoot the gate. That means if I use pistol 4 on enemy player and start running away or just kiteing, the illusionist does not shoot enemy. That would be bad.

Yes, I complain about mesmer because my 12y daughter selected mesmer – a girly character – as first character and now she has useless char which requires a nerd mastery to be anything useful. She plays (male charr) warrior now.

Today in WvW, a fellow mesmer had pistol 4 illusion shooting at the gate. I switched to pistol too but my pistol 4 illusion did not shoot the targeted gate – the illusion just did stand there the whole time.

Too many times I have seen how gs 4 phantasms do nothing or are just running after enemy doing no damage. And now this.

I wish mesmer’s illusions would be more active. In WvW, the enemies are not like PvE bosses. Enemy kite around, goes to stealth fast – no room for lazy and day-dreaming illusions.

Someone mentioned Ether Feast is our only viable health skill. For last days I have stared how this skill works in practice. In WvW, the health may drop fast – I have soldier gear + dolyak runes for their toughness. The same has happened in PvE too.

Typical case is that the health drops under 20%, and Ether Feast increases the health only to 25%. E.g., we had 10v10 fight in a camp and I could not fight because I had to try avoid the enemy and use all my invisibility skills while waiting the EF to come out of cooldown.

In the same camp fight I had targeted an ele. Someone else did damage to ele. Ele’s health dropped to 90% but immediately and fast raised back to 100%. This repeated every two seconds or so.

In some other random 1v1 fight, ele did not loose health at all. Health bar was solid 100%. At least I tried to do damage.

I’m looking at Mini Kasmeer Meade – is it simplified version of Kasmeer Meade, and how simplified? E.g., eyes stare straight forward. Anyone could take comparison screenshots?

Buy ascended trinkets this way: Amulet from WvW laurel vendor: 20 la + 250 BoH. Accessories from guild vendor: 2x(12 gc + 5 g). Rings from WvW laurel vendor – 2x(25 la + 250 BoH) – or fractal vendor – 2×10 pristine fractal relics. Fractal vendor could be better if you run fractals daily.

The difference between exo and ascended trinkets is big enough. Armor could then be exo. Ascended trinkets are account bound – you don’t need multiple copies of the same set.

Some toughness is good to have, specially in WvW but also in PvE. I would even maximize the toughness in WvW for longer fighting.

When a thief or a ranger drops your health to zero pretty fast, you sure start disliking the zerk builds.

How do you make gold in WvW? For me WvW is wasted time from earning the exo dropping bags and the badges from EotM, from earning rewards from dungeons, from earning pristine fractal relics from fractals, from completing the maps.

I play squishy mesmer and it cannot go and tag every in the enemy zerg. Need to play from some distance. Most of the time I don’t get lord chests because apparently the chest is damage based – mesmer is very weak for fast damage: crit hits of 300 are real, compared to 3,500 of ranger’s long shot.

My solution has been to tag up and mark the place where action happens so that people find us. I have sieges with, just in case. If I have followed tagless guild, I have tagged up when we are about to take something bigger.

I’m planning to start the map completion runs on daily basis. Some other motive than purely taking objectives and fighting.

coglin & johnno, how is your server ranked with that attitude?

Your server too? That is the reason why guild commanders like to command only their own. But we have a good number of pugs in TS and most of them follow commander.

How things are at top rated servers? Tagless guild groups running around?

When our server does not have a commander, would our server benefit if a tagless guild commander would tag up – and move to our server’s ts from guild’s private ts?

Sure guilds may have their private runs, but when there is no commander, it probably is not a bad idea to remind that it is our server’s map, not guild’s private map. We have many pugs who wishes for a commander when there is none.

I vote for tag description. Just simple field where to type text, no predefined purposes.

I also would like to see all our players as green dots in the map – not only nearby players as now. That way I would know where to find our pugs when there is no commander or when there are only guild commanders.

There is reason why mesmer is least played, and why warrior is most played profession.

I play mesmer and see it every day in WvW: “you critically hit … for 10 using [spatial surge]”. I see every day that my damage just ticks the enemy. Enemy runs away from my clones and phantasm. I cannot even run away because mesmer is darn slow. In zerg-zerg fights there is no change to make triangular shatter positions, and other silly things, for bursts. Clones and phantasms die in zerg-zerg fights pretty fast.

I tried my ranger in WvW, and enemies had to run away because longbow 1 made 3,500 crit hits at every shot. Now that is what is needed in WvW.

Mesmer does not need a shield – mesmer needs a direct damage weapon suitable for WvW.

For wvw, I varied my 0 2 6 0 6 build to 0 2 0 6 6 with Shattered Conditions. As explained, my play style is not 1v1 but more like panicing in zerg-zerg fights where I hit F1-F4 with Illusionary Person. If SC works like I understand, each F1 to F4 removes one condition from 5 allies – 20 conditions removed. How it is?

Based on my experiences in wvw, the phantasms and clones hits once, and then die in enemy mass. Immediate F1 could be better. Have to try that TD but too good to be true holds every time – mesmer is not a lawnmower.

Finding the commander of enemy zerg is possible, but targeting is a bit more difficult – done it once. But mimic works with any ppl in the enemy zerg – just target to the main blob. But mimic is not for me, because I don’t use any food, boons etc.; eventually positioning and movement is the big thing.

I would also check the guy who soloed a fractal with mesmer – asura fractal something, Reactor. He used 4 different builds.

I have now played this build extensively in wvw. It is a thief-resistant build. I use F1-F4 more than ever due Illusionary Persona – greatsword does so little damage that I tend to support our players with IP shatters only – I simply ram to enemy party and start shattering.

I switched to scepter because I find sword poor in wvw. I want continuous movement and s2 is opposite.

I plan to switch to pow prec Toug (knight) armor and trinkets for maxing toughness and improving crits. Ptv gives time to actually fight with thieves but more toughness, the better.

For sure, the full zerk is a wrong build in wvw.

What stats? armor, trinkets, weapons

I have traited Illusionary Persona – making shatter effect on me as well. When I press F1-F4, what will happen (1) if I don’t have target, (2) if the target is invisible – the thief, (3) if I don’t have clones nor phantasms out?

I’m hoping that when I press F1-F4, they create area damage/condition which hits invisible thieves.

The game is rated for 12+ years children too. What profession a 12 years aged girl would pick? Mesmer. And ranger because ranger has pets.

What mesmer build is suitable for children?

How about picking two random trait lines and setting them to 6, and make a build? I have been wondering if a build with two maxed traits lines is always better than a build with one or none maxed trait lines. Like 4 4 0 0 6 vs 6 6 2 0 0 vs 4 4 0 2 4. I had that last one in use a while ago.

Choises are:

0 – 6 6 x x x
1 – 6 × 6 x x
2 – 6 x x 6 x
3 – 6 x x x 6
4 – x 6 6 x x
5 – x 6 × 6 x
6 – x 6 x x 6
7 – x x 6 6 x
8 – x x 6 × 6
9 – x x x 6 6

There is this opposite: many expect the commander to be good. When the map has no commander and there is a group activity, I tag up so that more ppl can find us. I just mark the spot. But I’m learning… I carry sieges, start looking for next thing to do, place ram/catas. I also quickly tag off if the group was just roamers, and start escorting dollies etc basic stuff. At quiet times, we have taken as large as Bay and Hills.

So, when there is no commander, anyone is free to tag up and try commanding.

I also use tag to mark mesmers in SM. And mark my portal when I’m porting people to inside – I don’t hide in keeps nor in SM, but just regular portal pickups. Most often tag is useful if an incident needs more players and fast – and I explain the purpose of the new tag in the map chat.

One of our WvW commanders has noticed the lack of mesmers in the zerg. But then, a lot of enemy mesmers can be found from Stonemist Castle

I had full zerk 4 4 0 0 6 shatter build. Then I started thinking what is needed for WvW.

Maximize Veil’s invisibility because then the zerg can make better surprises, and have more protection due invisibility.

Maximize blink and personal invisibility so that portal bomb can be taken to deep within enemy zerg – e.g., in SM castle and keeps. Maximized invisibilities gives more personal protection when trying to reach commander – most often after death as solo run.

Need to be able to move in the front of our zerg, and in the enemy blob – for that portal bomb. Maximize fight time in zerg-zerg fights.

In fights – even in 1v1 fights – there is no time to make clones and phantasms. And the enemy can easily avoid them.

Can shoot enemies from walls and the like. Makes area damage.

Usable as WvW commander. I have already tried and learned small scale commanding.

-*-

Here is how I altered my initial build:

I kept ascended zerk trinkets – all purchased from wvw and guild vendors, LA laurel vendor is too expensive. Can be purchased from fractal vendor too.

Armor is PTV, soldier – power as main, toughness, vitality. Dolyak runes: toughness 175, vitality 100. The (6) regenerates health every second, but sure, not enough in zerg fights.

I kept zerk weapons. Greatsword with skill 2 and 4 makes sort of area damage. Secondary set is irrelevant: sword/focus for movement. Because the set cannot be changed when needed, I use only greatsword in fights.

Greatsword has force and accuracy sigils just because they were there. As I don’t have dodge-clone, sigil of energy is not that important. But dodging is important in WvW.

Traits are 0 2 6 0 6: I / VI VII XII / II VIII XI. Important traits are: far-reaching manipulations for blink, prismatic understanding for maximized invisibility, illusionary persona for shatter.

For Adept and Master traits of Chaos and Illusions lines I selected some protection without actually thinking the whole complexity. Illusionary Elasticity could be better for increased greatsword area damage – more lootbags?

Ether Feast seems to be only viable healing. Blink, Veil, Decoy, Mass Invisibility. Portal is also needed in bringing people to the fights – a shortcut or when walls/gates have been repaired. I don’t do hiding in SM or keeps – portal is still well used.

My playstyle is is not well-tought. F1-F4 are a sort of panic buttons. Because there is no time to get clones up or cooldown is on, the Illusionary Persona is most important shatter source.

But you need speed when you die and rush back to the commander. This happens in important moments when you’re going to loose or win SM or big keep. Speed counts.

People without swiftness tend to drop to the tail of the zerg, and that means that they get even less swiftness.

Gem store has +15% speed booster. I tested it and it is better than nothing. I wanted try sword/torch and sword/sword – instead of sword/focus.

You may want test it. Compare. Maximizing zerkness is not always the best.

What is now clear for us but not for a couple of posters here: don’t sell items via LFG system. Directly or indirectly. And I would like to continue: use TP only to sell items – then there is no need to advertize, and you’re doing it anonymously as well.

Like in real world, exchange fees and taxes are for some a pain, for some obscure reason.

You played well.

We need the duellist playmode. That sure would reveal in long term what profession is best – if any. I have seen thief to win 1vN easily – regular WvW players as opponents.

I use scepter when I need one-handed range weapon. Its quality and status as condition weapon are unrelevant. Main-hand sword is very bad in zerg vs zerg fights because it is melee and skill 2 freezes me.

I rather would like to learn to use the current scepter. Slowness just means we don’t have another pew pew scepter.

Off hand sword has shorter cooldowns than pistol or torch. Is that better by default?

How about sword/focus with rotation s3 s3 f5 s2 F1.

Sword/torch with t4 s3 s3 t5 s2 F1. Retaliation.

Both looks better than sword/sword and are melee only due the rotation order. Torch 4 helps to get close enough. Even guardians can be melted with retaliation.

Without focus, I tried speed boosters – 1 hour +15% speed. It is better than nothing with s/s or s/t or s/p. Traveler runes are +25% but I prefer mesmer runes – in believe that they help. Focus 4 gives +33% – add that to the front of the rotation when s/f.

What do you do if your BMW is not what is promised? In GW2 – a consumer product – the hackers are a fault, not listed in the product description. I’m sure, if your gameplay is ruined by hackers, you are entitled to compensation and return/refund of damaged in-game items. I hope this is done at server and guild level. Thanks.

Alternative is that we ask a law which forces Anet to implement tools to detect the hackers – a part of computer crime. The game is rated for 12+ ages – Anet should be sure that hackers cannot make harm to children. E.g., use hacked means to ruin children’s gameplay.

I have seen only “friendly” hackers who target only sieges and NPCs… but when this changes? How would I know if a thief or some uses speed or fly hack to catch me when I try to escape?

Does the license disallow an external program which records all player positions, IDs etc. for post-checking if somebody cheated? Such program would not alter the game, not the gameplay, not unbalance it because the check is done later. (I also would like to post-analyze all fights and deads just like icehockey matches are post-analyzed in detail.)

Please show how to solo camps? Best spots to lure the guard to? How light geared professions can do it? How Guard Killer and Defend lines help.

Sentry turrets from EotM just does not fit to pure WvW. In EotM, they can be placed so that they cannot be detroyed – that is the problem with them in EotM. There would be unbreakable sentry turrets if that is the spirit.

MS hacker thief at GH too – took omega golems with ballista. I submitted ticket for refund/return of the golems. In-game items may be subject to consumer laws. Ask customer service to refund if you lost your golems and sieges – ask to deal the hacker problem if they ruin the gaming experience – if the server community asks it, the better.

The game is not what is advertised – no hackers are mentioned even they are a part of the gaming experience. Anet should add them to the official disclaimer.

A hacker is a paying customer too – that seems to count more. Anet?

So the player is like moving sentry turret.

How about some kind of equipment which can be unequipped:
-Normal skills from 1 to 0 goes away
-Skill 1 scans and sends info about what the scout sees – only what is seen, not back side
-Skill 2 gives some invisibility
-Skill 3 gives some mobility
-Gives exp, and map chest if scouting long enough
-When unequipped, nearby enemies are notified
-After unequip the player should be unable to fight for 2 min

Last two are to prevent that the device is not used for the zerg mobility. The player may refresh sieges in that 2 mins, or just run with the zerg.

Hmm… it can be misused to earn the map chest. Exp and map chest should depend on the enemies seen and reported. Skilled scout sees more enemies before being killed

Someone has written commander’s compedium – a pdf document. See this forum. Could be better source for ideas than random thoughts of this and that.

How about getting opposing teams to make the videos together. Acted fight scenarios could be clearer.

Here are some ideas on what to include in videos:

Repair your armor.

Take supplies – use camps – ask if you can take from keep. Most often commander will do the supply round – wait until then.

If dead, when to use wp? In massive fights, at the time when nobody has time to revive or should not have time to revive, going to wp saves allies time for fighting. Sometimes it is good if dead stay, e.g., if wp is a far away. I revive if I know the player is good and valuable in the fight. I also revive warrior and guardian because I play with mesmer, light.

Don’t always follow your commander. Many times only heavies go with the commander.

Dodge dodge. When?

Don’t stay in red circles.

Build rams/catas first. Then clear cannons. Then oil.

Don’t make swords. Don’t slap. Or do slap.

Clear walls with the commander. Don’t go to the lord room.

I suggest more accurate combat log. The game constantly records actions and values to memory from which the log can be dumped to file or viewed in-game.

Recording to circular buffer in compact binary format, not as clear text as in the current combat log. Circular buffer 10 minutes or longer (for 3 h runs?). Both combat logs may co-exist.

The reasons:
-Combat log should have e.g. health and endurance values
-Be longer – like last 10 minutes
-When dumped to file in text form, an external program can be used to filter data and e.g. sum up the total damage
-Possibly directional damage information – some skills depend on positioning
-3D positions and orientations of player and attackers
-When a skill has multiple targets, the data could be filtered to show what and where was hit – e.g., if mesmer want look at success of shatters

An extended combat log is suggested.

“You critically hit Rabbit for 173,315 using [Mirror Blade]”

Did I instakill the rabbit?

Now I’m not sure do I understand the combat log. That is insane big damage. What is going on?

I was just killed and finished by these duellist. A couple of enemies apparently had stopped from their zerg to chat with our players in middle of action. Nobody of our players helped me in the fight.

If they stop chatting or duelling, the rule is: do not finish. And if you finish, let me later turn you to moa in the middle of your duel

The expansion could be purchased with credit card – just like gems are purchased now: in game. I’m against purchase with gems due that gold can be earned easily in the game or otherwise, even illegally.

(Yes you got the attention

People complain in wvw chat more than me here – I just agree them based on my own experiences. I’m really curious is the game unfair. Certainly wvw is not always fun if one has to run repeatedly for trying to reach commander – just to be killed by thiefs who stalks. See my post for the game difficulty levels. “Casual” level would be fine for me, ability to run away – like in PvE – to commander.

misterman above writes something I have wondered too: why I get downed even the combat log does not show that big damages. Is combat log accurate? In any case the game could constantly record the detailed combat data which could be viewed later – e.g., now the combat log does not show my health. Last 10 minutes of recording would be fine for most cases.

I have seen hacks used. People complain in wvw chat and here forums about them. I’m too worried. I’m not only one who asks if some players use hacks for easy kills.

I don’t solo that much – I often run in the tail of the train from which thieves like to pick out players. Other players does not care what happens in the tail.

I used sword/torch + sword/pistol with no help. Sword 2 freezes the mesmer down while enemy keeps moving – I needed a ranged one-hand weapon. But scepter is here unrelevant: 10,414 crit is.

I have shatter build. Shatter is based on clones, but they are lazy and slow. Enemy can run away from them and shatter does no damage. I check enemy’s health bar and see nothing like those noob cases in youtube videos. I have tried different traits, tested in pvp lobby.

Btw, I would like to see mesmer vs thief fight with these thiefs that instakills from invisibility. I have seen a lot of youtube videos where mesmers and others kill clearly noob thiefs and others. Sad.

In game, I have seen thiefs which makes fun with regular wvw players, killing them one by one in 1v6 fight, for example. I regularly see exp players complaining about thief’s overpower.

“critically hits you for 10,414 using [Backstab]” – I had full health.

I have lvl 80 mesmer. Full zerk – exo armor, ascended trinkets. Anything non-zerk would have less damage. Max crit hit I have done is about 2,000. How to get 10,414 in a split second with mesmer?

So far best weapon (of mesmer) against the thief is the Moa bird. But you may know how hard it is to get invisible thief as target for the whole cast time. Specially if thief surprises and instakills.

Thief vs my mesmer:

“You critically hit … for 623 using [Ether Blast]” (best damage in that short fight)

“critically hits you for 8,277 using [Heartseeker]”

8,277 vs 623 WTF

When I saw Hang Gliders in Arche Age video demo, it looked discusting. So, are GW2 skies filled with gliders? I hope drawing distance is short that not everyone screenshot is ruined with them. In clear sky nothing hides the gliders….

Hopefully they are restricted to certain areas – partial maps. Tomb Raider style way to find a way.

Next, player houses to PvE maps…

Ah. Shows that many think this is ok idea if this topic pops up repeatedly. Let developers decide about this matter.

I did read about duelling in WvW and people are against it. Me too because I have accidentally started whipping them. I also have ignored enemies because I was not sure if they duel or not – it is too late to go and help when enemy starts stomping our player. I also have ignored a player who was watching duels but then attacked the tail of our zerg.

Anet can program and detect this severe hacks automatically. It is very simple to check if a player char is flying too much, or if travels unexpectedly fast. It was not a long ago the devs said that they got and they are still getting new tools for hack detection.

Devs have said that they have to witness the hack in use by their own eyes. Yeah right, what a waste of their time.

Any news on the duelling map?

Perhaps a metaserver map for multiple instances.

In WvW, the colors are green and red – us and enemies. In duelling map the colors could have different meaning.

Everyone is green when they arrive to the map. Green is neutral – cannot be attacked nor gives boons to duellers.

If a player wants to fight, the player chooses another color – a few colors to choose from. Different colors would be able to fight against each other.

If a player chooses orange color, will the player see allies in orange color and foes in colors they choosed.

No character color toning. The real character names for all. No whisper limitations. No chat limitations.

In WvW, duellist must not be in the same party, because invisibility would not work. In duellist map, the duellists could be in the same party – the color would set the ally/foe status.

Chat channels for different colors. Like “say” channel so that the map could have multiple groups with the same colors.

Colors would allow 1v1, 1v10, 3v3v3, 2v3v4v5 fights.

For avoiding trolls who select the same color and ruins the duel, perhaps all involved could be in the same team. Outsiders would not affect the fight. The team would limit the color chat channels to the team only.

Confused?

Not until I have good character….

So what is the build for power pew pew ranger? And for oneshot instakill thief? A thief which can be invisible 90% of time making fool of 8 our players? A thief which can kill 6 players by some easy noob rotation – as raged by our exp player who was too killed by that thief.

PS. Some of these pew pew rangers leave like 7 red circles on the ground – rapid fire and simultaneously 7 red circles on the ground.

Yes, thief cannot instakill but the thief took 95% of my mesmer’s health – full zerk mesmer.

And why full zerk: I just ran after a ranger a few minutes hitting with greatsword – my zerk mesmer could do damage only 5% – or less – on one hit. To get enemy down, it has to be zerk. I could have ran over the whole EB after ranger, but still not get him down.

Otherway it is different, when I have ran away from a ranger, the ranger has got me in a couple of seconds. I have tried the suggested double dodge, but too soon the pew pew has started again and I have no more dodges left.

I have tried non-zerk: rapid and soldier, but they have not helped. Zerk is good because I often support our zerg using the ranged greatsword – both gs2 and gs4 does a kind of area damage which is good in enemy zerg.