Guild Wars 2

can we just rename soloq to hotjoinq?

Lol @ the people saying GS ranger is bad when they don’t even play it competitively. Just because “you” can’t play it and win doesn’t mean it’s not viable. It’s probably stricter on team comps, but it’s definitely viable in the right hands i.e. Eura. If you want to use GS, I think Eura is the most experienced in this so I’d take his advice.

This would be nice to have! I am more interested on your decision making using this build too.

some rought examples:
- Is it worth fighting this guy?
- Do I need to swap utils for certain team comps
- When should I use certain utils?

First, spvp = pvp in general. tpvp = tournaments. So you mean you are EU top 100 in teamq and soloq (both reside under tpvp).

With that aside, I hear ya. If I was in EU I’d definitely be open to pug dungeons anytime. I’d try to make some casual friends who would do the same in EU.

They should have different cds for each “level”.

Then separate the burst buttons into f1, f2, f3.

F1 consumes 1 adrenaline bar, F2, consumes 2, F3 consumes 3.

Adjust cds accordingly. This way, you can still use burst at lower adrenaline without being affect by the level 3 cd changes.

Yep. Still hate skyhammer. I’m really trying to play this map, but cannot enjoy it in soloq at all.

Clearly, this is the best map mechanic ever

Is Mirajane a Fairy Tail reference? O.o

Sounds exciting and the new armor set is very awesome for the prize. Voting for Helseth, Sizer, Tage, Super, and ROM for EU and Kaypud, AK, Supcutie. Quilja, and Five Gauge for NA.

This map needs to go. July 15th, let’s remove it pls. ty

Assuming matching-making works in all % ranges in LB, I somewhat agree. Given that your team is evenly matched, a player can carry the team through consistently if he is much better than most players on the enemy team.

For the cases of match-making that does not work, 1 person cannot make a huge difference in a 5 v 5 game. Even if you are better than every person on the other team, if your teammates are worse, you will lose.

In my opinion, match-making does not work well due to low queue population and/or the algorithm they use. So yes it is luck atm.

maha.7902:

tichorum.2415:

The OP doesn’t know what he’s saying. That tournament had like 50-60 viewers. Even the Mistpedia Weeklies get a couple hundred.

?

Our dungeon invitational had a solid 1.3 – 1.5k

I can vouch this, since I watched up to semis.

spirit weapons ftw

TGIF? or TGINS?

Thank goodness it’s Friday, but I’ll be even more thankful it’s not skyhammer when I soloq tonight.

Skyhammer appears too much in soloq. Please make the % chance to roll the map to 0.

Replays would be amazing

welp I signed up for ToL to get an exclusive llama finisher but they added it in the gemstore right before the tournament.

wouldn’t be surprised if they did it again

Best change was when they added skyhammer in soloq

Lue.6538:

Having the chance to veto 1 map before placing yourself in the queue would be sufficient.

If you limit it to being able to veto a single map, there is still a rotation of 5 maps in the pool. A bit of theory:
Player 1 vetoes skyhammer
Player 2 vetoes Kyhlo

These players would still be able to end up being paired as they’ve got 4 maps still in the pool to choose from.

Player 3 vetoes skyhammer
Player 4 vetoes Spirit watch
Player 5 vetoes kyhlo

Then the team is formed, the map pool is restricted to 1 out of 3 maps: foefire, forest, temple.

The game then locates 5 opponents whos pool contains any of these 3 maps.
/theory

I’d consider that a viable choice in soloQ, but for teamQ I’d say each party would be restricted to vetoing one map, thus limiting the possibility that players attempt to efficiently narrow down the pool to 1.
Should this have too much of an impact on queue times then perhaps reducing the amount of maps present at any time would be an idea:
Set a rotating map pool, let there be (light?) 2 or 3 maps in rotation and let the rotation change every 3-7 days.

Or if one map would turn out to be far less played than others, implement a system that grants additional “rewards” to players for playing a certain map and have that map have an increased chance to be selected from the map pool for X days.

I think it could work, but in reality I’m just interested in being able to veto skyhammer.

The complexity of the matchmaking will extend the queue by a lot depending on how they decide to confirm a team.

If the team is confirmed by common map choice, then the matchmaking becomes increasingly longer to match with each added filter.

1. Player 1 chooses skyhammer to veto. Queues up.
2. Player 2 chooses skyhammer to veto. Queues up.
3. Let’s assume they are the only ones in the queue, then they’ll get matched up. Okay 8 more.
4. Player 3 chooses spirit watch to veto. He’ll get matched with Player 1 & Player 2 but since they don’t have the same veto—it’s an additional restriction to match people.
5. Now this pool of player 1, 2 and 3 can’t play anyone who has anything but khylo, legacy, ToSS, and nihfiel. And this is only 3 people. By the time it reaches 10, there actually may only be one map you can play.

The only way to avoid this would be to not do a pre-filter and/or match people if they have the same preferences first, then match people with common intersections after a certain time limit.

1 veto works great for 1v1. But 5v5 will require more programming and factors to reduce queue times.

Edit – OR
You can create 6 groups for each filter. If 1 filter represents a map. Then break it into 6 fixed pools people are put into.

Players that vetoed Skyhammer
Players that vetoed ToSS
….
6 maps veto pools

Then players in those pools would get matched up with each other. Only con is no one from the other pools would ever get matched with each other.

Since the complexity of the vote system comes from the individual vote intersections. Just make it a team vote when you are paired with people.

That way you don’t need to process the matchmaking any different than it is right now.

1. When the 5v5 is set. Prompt two screens for player teams to choose their veto’d map (the enemy team wouldn’t see your team’s votes and vice versa).
2. Any map with at least 2 vetoes would not be rolled into RNG.
3. Then intersect the list of remaining maps from each side and randomly select a map.
4. Also, make sure the system doesn’t move away from map selection until all players vote for each side or it times out (Insert kicking and re-matching one player in this phase).
5. Then reduce the overhead wait time from 2min to 30s or less because if the phase before won’t move on until all players voted, then we know for sure that all 10 players are ready.

Expected Outcome
- Queue time to match players together remain the same
- Each team gets their personal choice of maps they don’t wan to play. And each player gets 1 vote.
- Overhead time is only the time it takes to vote 1 map per person for each team (2min wait time can just be made into this period) + getting a new player due to afk.

i.e.
Team 1 vetoes: Skyhammer, ToSS
Team 2 vetoes: Spirit Watch, Skyhammer
Legacy, Khylo, Nihfiel would be randomly selected.

TL;DR @ Expected Outcome
Current Matchmaking Time + 2 Minute Map Selection (or 1 minute) + 30s or less leniency before start => Barely a minute more wait time than it is currently for preferences added.

Worst Case
- 4 maps would be eliminated (At most 2 maps could be chosen from each team with a 1 2 2 split) => Still have 2 maps to randomly select from.
- No players vote or all players vote different maps => Map selection times out or doesn’t impact anything, anything less than 2 votes for each team will intersect and make it into the random selection => No increase in prep time with map selection time limit.

Worst Case with AFK Reroll system
(Map selection would reset every reroll until you have 5 votes total at the end for each team)
- Player is afk during map selection => Reroll all players who haven’t voted for another => Added overhead = SUM of time it takes to get new players per reroll.
- Player deliberately chooses to not vote to get requeued up => give priority to people who are already matched than people who are queuing recently => don’t allow any players dropped by map selection to queue for a certain time limit.

*EDIT – Other issues to consider: *

When to prompt map selection?

Allow teammates to talk to each other immediately via /team as they are matched at 5. Then you don’t have to include any loading time to discuss map selection and you can prompt in HOTM.

Evan Lesh.3295:

a t s e.9614:

Evan , so the filter can’t be implemented because of Q times? Because if there’s a vote system it still not the player choice but the majority.. And those who love skyhammer will never get that map basically.

Filters will always impact queue times, which is very undesirable. We should avoid anything that increases queue times or effectively create more queues.

You’re recognizing the problem with majority voting, but there are ways around it. Specifically balancing randomness with player voting. A few people have mentioned having random vote options, which sounds good. It makes it so the most popular choices aren’t always available. The remaining question is: How often would the least popular map (by any amount) actually get played?

Also, please do not focus your feedback specifically on Skyhammer and why you don’t like it. There we always be a least popular map and we should take that into consideration.

You are going about it the wrong way. For any competitive game, you don’t force a map to be played. Players choice usually reflect what maps are the most balanced and games and/or tournaments adjust accordingly.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Skyhammer is only an example of a map that some people have vocalized that they like less than others. There will always be maps that people like more and less than others. What I’m trying to get from you guys is to think of how a map voting system could work with regards to all player preferences. How could we ensure that players can always get chances to play their favorite maps?

It’s not that hard at all to come up with a fair voting system. Just give people an option to deselect one or two maps. People will play their favorite maps with people who also enjoy the same maps that way.

If they want 100% chance to play their favorite map: play hotjoin.

Also, I’m sure someone has said it already but the best way to make sure more people have matches with the filter system is to have the number of “omit selections” to only 1 selection.

Ideally, most people would just hate one map (cough skyhammer). So just have only 1 map you can choose to omit, then at least you’ll have at least 5 maps to match for each player. More intersections = more matches.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Darnis.4056:

As a fan of skyhammer this feature would make me sad ;_;

Thank you for responding, as this is a very real case we would have to handle. What would make this feature work for you?

This case is already being handled currently, and it’s biased. Do you think that skyhammer should be a competitive map given ALL the other map types? IMO, no.

Whoever made the final decision for teamQ maps already knows that it’s not fitted for teamQ. So why is it ok for soloQ? The only difference should be you are not in a team.

If someone considers the fact that you are not on a team makes it less competitive so it’s ok to add non-competitive maps to soloQ, then why add ranking to soloQ if you are already adding non-competitive variables to soloQ?

Having a leaderboard normally means that the game mode is intended to be competitive and balanced. We have loads of other balance issues right now, but one issue that is not common for both soloQ and teamQ is map rotations.

However, if you consider soloQ just as competitive as teamQ, then why not add skyhammer and spirit watch to teamQ?

Hopefully the answers to these questions will incept the inconsistencies I am trying to portray.

Darnis.4056:

As a fan of skyhammer this feature would make me sad ;_;

Giving people a choice makes you sad?

Not sure if thread serious or not given Kitt’s ranking.

But if serious, in a 1v1, I would just leave a point and come back unless you can dodge the auto by strafing/LOS or that in/out trick someone mentioned.

If in a team fight, get one of your teammates to boon strip stab and/or focus on him immediately.

or we could just remove skyhammer

They could also fix it by making the squad system better. More visibility on players in your squad and more visibility for players to see that you can join a squad. And probably more squad benefits too for both sides like small buffs.

Blinks are determined by a pathing algorithm not by LOS. All you need is the target and an available path to him (although sometimes the paths are not physically apparent)

I think it’s better to look at profession & builds. Easiest builds to play atm are

- Hambow Warrior
- Turret Engi
- Decap Engi (although turrets are more on the rage now)
- Spirit Ranger
- Bunker Staff Ele (x/x/x/6/6)
- Power Necro w/ Lich Form
- Bunker Guard

Sad to say the only thing balancing shadow rejuv is a game mode like they have in spvp.

Kitt.2567:

1 1 PastorTroy.1635 Wraith Al Ghoul 10 3 76.92% Jade Quarry
2 1 Avitori.6093 Avitori 326 170 65.73% Sea of Sorrows
3 3 Celtus.8456 Josre 780 498 61.03% Crystal Desert
4 1 boak.6258 Boaky Biguns 115 67 63.19% Jade Quarry

---

Any1 knows which class they are, or if you know, what builds they run?

Lol are you prepping for a bout against them in queue?

brannigan.9831:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Usually builds come first then skill. Most people get high in LB due to lucky RNG teams and just have an upper hand with a good team comp or by random chance — good team synergy (always in the right places at the right time).

Also the higher you are on LB, from my experience, the more likely the people on your team will know what to do. The bottom LB and people still in % ranks usually experience very imbalanced teams and often causes this ongoing back and forth of losing due to 4v5s (b/c casuals join but then leave or ppl who hate skyhammer leave) and/or because there’s this one guy carrying his legendary thinking this is pve.

Being in top soloq doesn’t mean much except you soloq and you know how to play.

You act like anyone could just roll into solo q and over hundreds or thousands of games achieve a 65%-70% win percentage. If its so easy I invite you to try. I know I couldn’t do it and I’m fine with it. It has already been explained about things evening out over a a lot of games. You can choose to totally disregard Math though if you like. I am not saying there are not a lot of things wrong with solo queue but to me if you can win at a 65%+ rate over a lot of games that is a sign of skill and there is no need to add a lot of bs caveats or rationalizations to it. To be honest it does not reflect well on the people that say it isn’t. It’s either ignorance (i.e. like refusing to believe that things don’t even out over a long period of time) or hatin’.

I don’t disagree with you. I just don’t like making generalizations when the system is not that good (LB <> % win rate), especially when the game type encompasses 4 random variables outside of yourself to determine your victory.

I haven’t said anything about the current top 4. I watch people play, and if they are good to me, I’ll say that they are good. LB system sucks right now so I won’t make a generalization and say top 4 will always have the best builds and/or playstyle.

remove skyhammer pls pls

We had a pvp patch, aspect arena!

Usually team comp + builds come first then skill. Most people get high in LB due to lucky RNG teams and just have an upper hand with a good team comp or by random chance — good team synergy (always in the right places at the right time).

Also the higher you are on LB, from my experience, the more likely the people on your team will know what to do. The bottom LB and people still in % ranks usually experience very imbalanced teams and often causes this ongoing back and forth of losing due to 4v5s (b/c casuals join but then leave or ppl who hate skyhammer leave) and/or because there’s this one guy carrying his legendary thinking this is pve.

Being in top soloq doesn’t mean much except you soloq and you know how to play.

skyhammer obviously

When you cast Ice Spike on Staff Ele, there is no white circle to show where it will land. A lot of times, I can’t tell if I casted it unless I zoom out or look up.

Thanks,

Watching streamers helps too. You can pick up builds, burst combos, when to do what, etc.

Here is one of Shin’s (good Warr WvWer) build:
http://intothemists.com/guides/1039-shins_hamtastic_build
(May be outdated, but can be a starting point).

http://www.twitch.tv/shinryuku_ku

Usually for me the order of how to get better is this:

- Know everything about the class you play
- Looking up standard/popular builds, test them out
- Practice on chosen build for at least several games in spvp, then make modifications unless you get stomped pretty hard, then probably make small adjustments until it seems more viable
- Play other classes to know how they work

PierPiero.9142:

but for condi damage is not better pistol shield ?

With the introduction of celestial, it allows a mix and match of condi and direct damage and cc to be possibly more effective that full on condi. Pistol and shield can give more condi damage but it’ll always have the weakness of condi cleanse. Having a variety of options (directdmg/cc/condi) allows you to pressure you opponent in many different ways and turns out to be more consistently useful for most situations.

brannigan.9831:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

PierPiero.9142:

using staff + scepter/shield means that you don’t have a melee weapon … correct ? having staff and scepter for me is strange… i usually tend to have a melee weapon and a range one ..

Correct, however, most guard melee weapons are more for dps, if you play bunker and want dps, that isn’t going to work out.

Scepter is good because it can do some dmg, but it can also immobilize to help decap (shield knockback -> immob) and/or set up team bursts (good teammates will recognize cc’d enemies and focus on them or you can call target when they are immob’d).

If you aren’t used to have those two weaponsets, mace/focus is usually the other pair or you can get shield too if you want. The reason why range is usually better for bunkers is because you normally shouldn’t run off point. If you have melee, then you need to chase; if you can’t chase, then melee is worthless. A bunker’s role is to stay on point. If you move off point chasing then your job as a bunker has failed. Thus range is usually better since you can stay on point, and still oppress enemies.

Why would you need to chase or run off point ever as a bunker? If people run off a point thats what you want them to do. Healing Breeze is working as intended its been buffed multiple times. A-net is horrible with tool tips.

Right, the goal is to not be off point. Generally, having an melee weapon usually means you intend to use it effectively. For most melee weapons, you cannot use it effectively by sitting on point but by being within melee range at all times when you are using it.

As a bunker your role is to be on point (unless you need to rotate with another bunker-like char on your team when your cds are down). That means the moment the enemy is outside of the cap point, they are more than likely out of range. Now, the moment an enemy is out of range, your melee weapon absolutely useless—that was my point, that this is the disadvantage for melee. And that’s why scepter and staff is definitely a viable option—NOT the only one however.

I don’t mean to say “don’t use melee cause it’s bad”. It’s as viable as you can make it to be, but one advantage of scepter, is that it can consistently keep pressure on opponents regardless of their position (and every bit of damage counts in close fights! even if it is weak). This is just my suggestion, at the end of the day, it’s a game, play whatever seems fit.

edit: When PierPiero said he normally carries melee, it sounded like he wanted to be able to do damage. If he meant carrying mace and supporting, then that’s pretty standard. Lots of different choices, different advantages. Test them out.

I play with 16 characters with different builds. 2 of each profession. #identityproblemserrday

Most played
- Sky Avalon [Human Male] [Spirit Weapon DPS Guard]
- Fun Size Surprise [Asura Female] [Celestial Rifle Engi]
- Aerlume [Human Female] [Power Necro]
- Miss Railgun [Human Female] [SD Engi]
- Box of Chocolates [Asura Female] [Shatter Mesmer]
- Mehmento [Asura Male] [Bunker Guard]
- Avatar Asura [Asura Female] [D/F DPS Ele]
- Ayasteria [Human Female] [PU Mesmer]

Others
- Lilia Faiden [Human Female] [Hambow]
- Test Subject W [Asura Female] [GS/Rifle deeps warrior]
- Otenkii [Human Female] [Zerk Staff Ele]
- Puahaha [Asura Female] [Epidemic Condi Necro]
- Rwoarbear [Human Male] [Zerk Longbow Survival Ranger]
- Plays with Moas [Asura Male] [Spirit Ranger]
- Kia Tsuki [Human Female] [D/P Thief]
- Pookahboo [Asura Female] [S/D S/P Thief]

I should get a 16-sided die..

Reviving this thread in memory for the Bazaar of the Four Winds that gave us this awful map. Pls remove it in soloq.

PierPiero.9142:

using staff + scepter/shield means that you don’t have a melee weapon … correct ? having staff and scepter for me is strange… i usually tend to have a melee weapon and a range one ..

Correct, however, most guard melee weapons are more for dps, if you play bunker and want dps, that isn’t going to work out.

Scepter is good because it can do some dmg, but it can also immobilize to help decap (shield knockback -> immob) and/or set up team bursts (good teammates will recognize cc’d enemies and focus on them or you can call target when they are immob’d).

If you aren’t used to have those two weaponsets, mace/focus is usually the other pair or you can get shield too if you want. The reason why range is usually better for bunkers is because you normally shouldn’t run off point. If you have melee, then you need to chase; if you can’t chase, then melee is worthless. A bunker’s role is to stay on point. If you move off point chasing then your job as a bunker has failed. Thus range is usually better since you can stay on point, and still oppress enemies.

Been using a slight modification of the engi celestial rifle build. It’s a really good balanced build with survivability, good direct and condi damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpEr1XxkLseRCbBNqxAqOIyOWlPfgAkUA-TJRHwAFeAAc2fAwFA4YZAA

Edit: the staple engi celestial rifle build is the one garythesnail posted.

(0/0/2/6/6) Shout bunkers are pretty solid for uncoordinated play. You can sustain yourself when alone and also support teammates if they around.

Don’t use dolyak, use soldier runes for shouts.

Use staff + scepter/shield or staff + mace/focus for support (personally prefer shield/scepter for knockback and range). Use mace/focus + scepter/shield for self-fish play (you have more survivability).

I’d go AH only if you have a coordinated team. AH is less effective if your teammates often spread out and never focus on team fights (like oppressing far constantly, and having 1-2-2 splits or 1-3-1 etc).

Post patch bunker guards haven’t changed much although some top teams used healing breeze in their setup but heard some controversy on whether it’s working as intended (heals too much I think most say). The last few patches focused mostly on dps guards, so the bunker builds haven’t been affected that much.

yay frands! thanks for the posts, will team up soon!

Barret.4095:

just watch http://www.twitch.tv/zellqt he is the most jacked, tan, and handsome mesmer in the game he might also show you how to lose your virginity.

wait til saturday when he can streamarino. drunk stream or riot. see you there #mahdooky

Forgot whether I posted today, but pls remove this map.