Guild Wars 2

Nice vid! I originally didn’t like P/P, but now I’m tempted to give it another ‘shot’….

Clockwork Bard.3105:

Black illusions?
Mesmers, we have a member of the Toxic Alliance in our midst. Ready the purple butterflies.

-summons an illusionary blast of butterflies in every shade of pink-

I had the impression that minions were as important to a necromancer, as a pet was to a ranger, or illusions were to a mesmer.

My ‘build a minion’ will only be consisting of Shadow Fiends. A Shadow Fiend army!

Cu Chaspel.4806:

He can’t seem to stay out of trouble can he :P

I know, right? How many times have we saved his life?

Edit: Well well well…look who I found again…

And how does Scarlet know about my sister? FYI Scarlet, Deborah would be kitten proud of her little sister, from thieving street rat to a hero of Tyria. And if you make me fight Tybalt, I’ll be joining the zerg to hunt you down and tear the petals off your head.

Poor Trahearne…everyone hates him, and no one ever gives him a chance.

Odd as it is, I found Petra on the 2nd floor of the Tavern…but I have the Street Rat storyline. I shouldn’t even know her, right? Yet she talks like she knows me.

No wonder why we can’t find our fellow thieving street rat in Salma District. He’s been captured by the Toxic Alliance! The poor guy. He just can’t stay out of trouble.

(Sadly, I don’t have a screenshot of him in a cage. I’m too busy whacking the cage to pay any heed to who I’m freeing, so I didn’t notice it was him until he spoke. I just got a screenshot of Quinn talking in the chatbox.)

Necromancer looks very fun to play, but I can’t get over how creepy and – yech – disgusting the minions are.

/cringe

The Shadow fiends aren’t too bad….is it possible to build a necro that summons only Shadow Fiends? And ‘by possible’ I also mean able to play PvP/WvW/PvE competitively without the need for other minions.

LadyRhonwyn.2501:

Why? There are risen of the other races, playable races… I just said that there might be corrupted Sylvari out there, just like there are corrupted of the other races.

Sylvari can’t be corrupted by the Risen – it’s part of the lore. They can die to the Risen, but not turn into one. It supports the theory that the Sylvari were ‘destined’ to defeat Zhaitan since they can’t be corrupted by him, especially since the Firstborn awoke not too long after the Risen arrived.

It’s not only Sylvari – there’s no plant-based Risen. Ever saw a Risen Great Oak?

The closest I’ve seen a Sylvari ‘corrupted’ was in Caledon forest. There’s a swampy area with defeated Wardens. If you try to revive them, they’ll explode, and risen maggots come out and attack you. Maybe this is all Zhaitan’s magic can do in trying to taint the Sylvari.

Is it really that big of a deal? It takes half a minute to wp back and forth from the city and out on the field, and only costs 5 silver for travel.

Before I got GW2, I I came from a ‘free to play’ game. Free to play yes….but pay to win.

Buying this game was worth every single penny. I’ve never played a sub game, but I could never go back to another cashshop mmo. I’m spoiled by the balance in this game.

I can happily choose how much I want to pay for GW2, when I feel like it. No required subscription, and no gameplay mechanic that enforces the need for cashshop? Yes please.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Have you looked into the RARE recipes you might not have discovered yet?

Buy the inscriptions on the TP, discover the items and then salvage or sell on TP (depending on what you need). They don’t provide a lot toward 500 but every little bit can help you get to 450 and open up the Ascended material refinement tier.

I actually didn’t consider that, and I don’t think I ever had to discover any rare lvl 80 recipes. But their rating is at 375, and I’m already at 430…that’s a difference of 55 levels. Would it even be a decent gain of exp?

I’ve only crafted three exotics so far, so I still have plenty of recipes left. But this potion is still listed as orange in my crafting panel. The potion only costs 1g, as opposed to exotics that average 5g. (buy materials, make the item, sell on TP) If the gain of exp is the same, I’d rather make the potions.

Anyone? Thoughts?

Being able to fight on a mount that grants speed just feels too OP in a PvE enviroment. If you just want to move through someplace quickly, then what’s wrong with an alternative of having a consumable item that grants an environmental weapon, with a spammable speed boost? I’m sure there’s already something like that in the game somewhere.

GW2 has to have a good balance reason to not include a mechanic for ‘long duration speed boost’ on top of combat. If they wanted they could just do that with food. And we have food that grants movement speed, but they’re just based on kills for activation. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food#Swiftness And it’s food, so you can use this in WvW.

The only un-countered argument supporting mounts, is cosmetic. That means no speed boost or extra utilities, and you just look cool while fighting something. I personally don’t like the idea of seeing players on mounts out in the open world. Maybe….just maybe…a cosmetic mount for commanders in WvW while they lead their zerg to victory….that would be kinda cool. :P

I’m back , looking for advice again. :P

My second weapon choice has been S/P, but I’m trying to pick a different one for WvW (partly because of the updates, partly because of a ‘bad habit’ that nullifies skill 2’s usefulness)

My habit involves hitting the hotkey more than once to make sure a skill gets cast. On a class built with cooldowns it’s fine, but not for a thief. On sword skill 2, It just insta-warps me back and forth from point A to point B. I guess it can be an annoying distraction that confuses my enemies before I deliver a burst, buuuuut…..it doesn’t always work out that way….

My entire gameplay and build is based on being stealthy, so I’m intent on keeping offhand pistol. (main choice is D/D. I just use blinding shot, swap weapons, leap and get stealth, then burst). Since I already have a dagger for a main hand, I wanted a different variety. I tried P/P for awhile but overall didn’t like it. It felt more like a cautious ranged weapon choice, than one for mobile bursty damage. I suppose it would be tricky to gauge a thief going from range – leap in – out in – range, but against a good player, they would just watch for my weapon swaps.

I really like playing with the sword, and I learned it’s not just for ‘leaping into’ a fight, it’s also good for ‘leaping back’. If we’re close range, I hit 2 and set the shadowstep in front of my enemy. Then dodge and lead them around, then shadowstep back for a surprise attack or quick getaway. I can’t figure out how to mimic that with a dagger, and I’m worried if the distance nerf is going to affect that move.

Mesmer AOE is more of ‘support’ damage than actual damage. When it comes down to zerg fights, we exceed the most on utility importance, then overall damage importance. Condition damage, cripple/speed boost, knockbacks and skill interrupts, boons, veil, portals, combo initiators, and time warp (really tricky to drop, but I’ve seen it wipe an enemy zerg if done correctly).

I really don’t know what to advise for aoe damage. Perhaps maxing condition damage and mixing it with a shatter build? I wonder if that would work….

I liked S/P, but with all the changes, I better start getting used to another weapon set. I’m mostly sad about the change to skill 2. No more escaping certain death if I stunned…

Would it still work if you’re immobilized? That’s going to be the deciding factor for me in changing the weapon combo.

I don’t think thief is that bad. Spamming 1 can usually get enough damage for me to rally. Mesmer has it worse. The summoned rogue can do nice damage, but illusions don’t draw aggro/attention as effectively….and when they do, they don’t last long anyway. But deception is next to useless. At least a thief can choose where to shadowstep to while downed. the generated clone draws aggro (usually right next to you, and the enemy going for you right after anyway) and rarely lasts long enough for you to heal and get back up. And worse, you need a target to cast it. You’re as good as dead if you can’t see what’s killing you.

Just to add:

I wouldn’t assume the Sylvari are free from ‘every’ dragon corruption. The Risen yes, but I’m more inclined to believe it’s because of their biology (they’re botanical, not biological).

The Brand has plants corrupted by the Crystal Dragon (I don’t remember the name), so I would guess the Sylvari could be corrupted by that specific dragon. It just so happened that there weren’t any Sylvari in the area when the Dragon flew overhead, and corrupted the land below.

I applaud the Asurans for cleaning the mess left behind by the Inquest. If only their dedication was as wide spread among the rest of your krewes. Why are the Asurans so intent on establishing their own personal prominence? Would it not be more rewarding to dedicate their time to selfless devotion? I know there are Asurans who make such sacrifices, but plenty seem so very intent to use their intellect in a desperate attempt to reach new heights, yet still fall short of its grasp. (No underlying pun intended)

Perhaps….just perhaps…..the Asurans view their pursuit of knowledge in the same light as our Wyld Hunt. Are your desires to understand the Eternal Alchemy just as important as our call to fulfill our duty and destiny, witnessed within the Dream? The very ebb and flow, the very heart that pulses within our actions and our decisions…to become connected and intertwined to something of great importance…do the Asuran’s steadfast dedication to the Eternal Alchemy mimick the Sylvari’s search for the Wyld Hunt?

But yet….as I think of this….I’m reminded of how the Asurans wish to achieve a social prominence as the outcome of their experiments. It feels as if there is more interest to gain recognition, than to understand and appreciate the Eternal Alchemy you revere so greatly. When I look at the Asuran hard at work, boasting of their importance, I can only see them kitten blinded by their pride they forget the heart of their dedication, their thirst to unlocking and understanding their Eternal Alchemy. As they delve more into their research, the more they forget their thirst of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, focused instead on the sake of usurping another Asura….or backing another boast to their intellect. And I am all the more saddened that such a race of such potential…..cannot witness the beauty and grandeur placed right before their eyes.

I hope with every fiber of my being that the Asuran race do not fall blind to their pursuit. It pains me to think what could happen if they completely forget their goals, to keep only within the confines of morality not out of good intent, but purely for favorable outcome, and would ditch such efforts if given the chance. It is what I see has become of the Inquest, and it is not what I wish to see to poison the rest of the Asuran race. And yet….your speech echoes my concerns all the more loudly. Such an intelligent race, that understands so little.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

(Jeez, that’s a wall of text)

A) I fear it is yourself who is reluctant to admit your proud race is not perfect. If you had been willing to delve more into understanding the situations present, you would have seen the tar elementals within Charr territory are not from a source of neglect, but instead the indirect outcome of the Flame Legion’s attacks. The Charr are vigilant in nursing a scarred landscape, to once again be bountiful. Within time they will mend their machine’s impact on the land, and once the major hurdles overcome, work toward a more eco-friendly design on their equipment. (For one, I believe it’s safe to say that a Charr is more likely to avoid unnecessary explosions. The Asurans seem fascinated by this)

As to your kin’s treatment of the slimes, they are sentient beings. Yet they are caged, probed, experimented on, mutilated, and forcibly altered, all in the pursuit of knowledge. If this is the Asuran response to species they deem of lower importance, then it saddens me.

B) You may have no intent to harm the land, yet the extra measures to ensure the protection of the ecosystem, have more than once gone ignored. I have witnessed unstable experiments a multitude of times, as I transverse the jungles outside of Rata Sum. The Charr’s land had suffered war, and it still is a battleground with the Flame Legion and Seperatists around. I cringe to think of what damage the jungles of Metrica Province would suffer, should they be exposed to war as well. I fear the Asuran will be just as guilty of polluting the land, should they face a powerful entity in battle.

C) I never admitted their junk yards were perfect. The best weapons to protect the land are naturally the ones that come from the land itself, and can return again once it has served its valuable purpose. But allow me to ask this: If the junkyard is where the charr gather their refuse, then where do the Asurans leave theirs? I have not seen any place that Asurans dispose of their broken-down golems. And do not state it is because golems ’don’t break down,’ because they most certainly do. Do they return to their natural components once they serve their purpose? Do you reuse the parts and make new golems? Or do you simply toss them into a conveniently nearby pool of lava? (Although I’d expect the last one to trigger…explosive results). Tell me, is the magical energy residue gleaned from the golems, impacting the land in some way? Are the Asuran able to understand the long-term effects of their arcane magic’s influence on the plants and animals?

D) Perhaps that was secretly my attempt all along (to appear too incompetent to participate in your experiments). The lack of concern for the welfare of certain test subjects (granted, the Inquest are much worse) frightens me. It is as if a creature who is not deemed intelligent are only as important as to how many tests can be run. I’m content to have found the medium where I can walk among the Asura, and not be nagged to have a sample of pollen collected from my head.

Well…after making a brand new character, I’ve found the beginner maps to still be pleasantly populated. I guess maps right outside the city (or lvl 80 maps – I’m not counting those since they’re kind of ‘end game’ content) still have people running around. But the mid-level, and more remote maps are empty.

I’m currently at 430/500 for artificing. I want to know if the Grawl Snowman Potion is viable to level up to 450. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grawl_Snowman_Potion

I’m trying to ‘save’ money, so mostly I’ve just been crafting exotics and selling them on the TP. But if this potion can get me to 450 faster, I don’t mind dropping the money for it.

Conncept.7638:

Drap a post in the LFG tool, this is exactly why it has an open world content category.

Did that once, no one cared. Dungeons have faster response. I’m more than capable of soloing on the empty maps, but it’d be nice to run into random company and meet new people.

I’ve compiled a list of ideas that might make WvW more enjoyable. Let’s see what others think of them:

I. Upgraded Commander Tag
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Improved-Commander-Tag/first#post3177009
(Warning: Wall of text eminent)

II. Supply reminder
Unless a keep/tower is being attacked, taking supply from their deposit will prompt a reminder. IT will say something along the lines of: “Supplies may be needed to upgrade this tower/keep. Are you sure you want to take supplies?” Most people (I suspect newcomers) don’t realize it’s vital to leave supplies alone in the keep. If a keep/tower is being attacked, there won’t be a prompt.

This doesn’t apply to camps.

III. Balance suggestions for uneven server population.

1. I’m really interested in the more strategical aspects of WvW, and I know supplies can be a game changer in the long run. If a server is vastly outnumbered out on the field, there can be a temporary ‘supply drop’ only available for as long as population is uneven. This supply drop will only be open if server population is uneven, and will close once it’s stabilized. If one server can have numbers to their advantage, then the other server can offset that with access to supplies.

These drops can be located at the waypoint, or if people feels that is too OP, available in the main keep. (Garrison and EB keeps)

2. Some might disagree with me on this. If there is outmanned buff going on, camps, towers, and keeps captured are worth more points than without the buff. There’s more risk involved when trying to capture territory for your server, so shouldn’t they be worth more?

3. Lower the cost of upgrades if a server is outnumbered. There’s less punishment to upgrade a post that is all the more likely to be flipped again by the opposing server.

The main idea is to create a handicap for servers that cannot amass the numbers to match up to other server populations. Once the low pop server is able to stand on even ground with larger servers, the handicap will lose its effectiveness. The main idea is to attract more players into WvW by giving them incentive to keep fighting (or playing :P ) without getting discouraged so easily by a large number dictated indirectly from how many zerg blobs the other server can fit on maps.

I’m from CD, and after two weeks straight of going up against a server that has the ability to zerg all of BL and EB, it’s discouraging. It’s even more discouraging knowing we’ll be facing high pop servers on into the season. It’s not a three way fight anymore – it’s a match to who can win second place the fastest before their server’s population gets too discouraged to continue, since first place is already a given.

IV. Valuable territory.

1. I’m a bit biased on this next idea, and it might need to be worked out more. The suggestion is to increase the value of a tower/keep/camp the longer it is defended. This way people won’t purposely lose territory. I don’t want to make karma trainers suffer, because it’s another aspect of WvW (and some karma trains can amass territory quickly for their server). But there’s no real incentive or reward in defending a strategic location.

2. The more upgraded a keep/tower/camp is, the more points it can earn. Right now, a fully upgraded keep is worth the same as a keep that’s not upgraded. This would reward points for making territory more defensible, and indirectly increase their strategic value. In the long run it will be more defensive and more challenging.

3. Increase the value of territory based on location? The further you are from a waypoint, the more points a territory will be worth. I’m personally not in agreement with the idea since it might conflict with the ideas above, but it could work. Enemy borderlands would be worth slightly more points then land in your own borderlands. Eternal Battlegrounds would still be a ‘free for all’.

Exploring is one of my favorite things to do in this game, but several of the maps feel empty. I’ve seen group events that can’t be completed alone (hence the term group) but no one’s interested enough to participate. I’ve gone into some of the major events, like Assault on Fort Cadence in Sparkfly Fen, quickly realize it’s impossible to solo, and have no other choice but to leave. I pass the same place a day later, and the event is in the same state as I left it. I doubt it made any progress.

There was another instance I was in map chat, inviting whoever wanted to join me to go into a little-known event that gave access to an isolated part of the map. Only one person answered. I called for anyone else but no one responded. Either no one else was talking, or the two of us were really the only people in the entire map.

It just seems like such a waste to have this great content that no one else takes time to enjoy. It wasn’t always like this – when I first started playing GW2, people would just flock to events. Now the same events won’t even start/finish because there’s no one on the map to do them. Doing the event alone just gets boring.

JobCreator.1956:

Arikyali.5804:

“insert previous wall of text”

Text blob crits for over 9000.

I figured it was better than double posting. Lawl.

Spanny.9256:

2) is the focus 4 curtain move going to be viable in terms of actually giving you more speed boon duration? the way it is now (i know i sound repetitive), you aren’t able to gain more speed boon duration if you already have the speed boon on you. other skills, such as shouts, warhorn skills, and the guardians staff symbol will still give you more speed boon duration even if you already had the boon. why can’t the mesmer’s curtain be fixed so that it works like the guardian’s staff symbol, where it will just keep replenishing the boon to the specific duration shown on the tooltip even if you’re standing in it. if the curtain worked like this, you could run through the threshold as many times as the curtain was up and youd still just have the boon replenished to whatever the duration the tooltip said.

i only ask the second question because i feel like mesmers aren’t as effective as they can be in roaming zergs where everybody is giving allies speed buffs. when a mesmer puts a curtain down in front of a speed buffed zerg, people dont even bother to run into it because they know it wont give them more speed boon duration if they’re already buffed, and continue to keep a lookout for the next guardian to put their staff symbol down.

The speed boost is mostly to help stragglers catch up to the more effective speed boosts before they go away. I need to check, but I think curtain veil also overrides a certain speed boost, so you don’t receive the more effective one. I notice a few times where I’m not running the same speed as the zerg, if I’m dropping veil.

If you’re struggling keeping up in the zerg as a mesmer, a way around is to have blink in your utility skills. At least you can jump up and cover the distance you lagged behind.

Although we really need a decent speed boost……

They’re not going to be re-coding an entire map just for flying mounts. I explore a lot on my chars and I’ve found a few places where you can glitch through a mountain and come out at the edge of the map. If you were flying, you’d be able to see the map isn’t one unbroken plane. It’s landscape floating in the air.

(Devs, please don’t start breathing down my neck now that I mention I found a few glitchy spots. I won’t tell any – um, I won’t tell too many people where I found them!)

Xillllix.3485:

So Cd… Thanks losing (without a fight) your Garrison to us tonight!

It was for a good cause

Arikyali.5804:

…but this was the kind of SBI players we were tired of. The kind that runs away in fear from an equal zerg fight, but safely gloats in the middle of a blob. I’ve seen my share of SBI zergs the same size as our CD zergs, that turn tails and run.

Why you gloating?

Oh gosh, there’s too many to list….

I remember a somber easter egg I once came across. There was a dead seraph on the road, who couldn’t be revived. Upon examining him, he was surrounded by hoofprints, and his dead eyes were staring up at the sky. You had the option to close his eyes so he could rest. But upon doing so, you’re suddenly ambushed by a group of centaurs. They were using the dead Seraph soldier as bait. >.<;

That was the final turning point in regard for giving mercy to centaurs.

I don’t like the idea of mounts in GW2. A part of this game’s charm is exploring, and mounts remove that. The waypoints are available for faster travel, and we don’t need anything else.

The maps aren’t designed for mount travel. They’re designed to encourage people to go out and explore. If we had mounts, people would just rush from one end-game point to another, and ignore the content in between. They’ll get there faster, finish them faster, and get bored sooner. GW2 is trying to avoid that. We don’t have quests at specific locations – we have events that pop up randomly. There are plenty of secret areas on every single map – places you won’t find if you’re just speed running with a mount. And if you don’t take the time to stop and gather from a node, or kill some random monster, you won’t amass materials for your crafting. You’d have to spam dungeon runs instead, which is boring and nothing more than pure drudge work.

No mounts.

SBI, can some of you guys please stop defending your blobs? No one needs to point out it’s all ‘unfair matchup’ and not SBI’s direct fault they have a zerg on beck and call at every map. We KNOW. We GET IT.

Given the chance, I would love to have CD fight against the serious WvWers in SBI. The majority (I say majority, not all) of their current zerg force just seems to be people who don’t know how to put in any real effort or strategies.

CD and BP are all burned out / discouraged of the scores, and I bet more of the experienced SBI WvWers don’t really want to fight this round anyway.

CD was attacking an upgraded SBI keep earlier, and we were beaten back by ac fire, cannons, and sheer zerg numbers. In the whole mess I spot an SBI mesmer laughing at us. I just shook my head at that silly mesmer. There was no real reason for her to troll laugh. I haven’t seen too many direct examples like that from SBI (thank goodness), but this was the kind of SBI players we were tired of. The kind that runs away in fear from an equal zerg fight, but safely gloats in the middle of a blob. I’ve seen my share of SBI zergs the same size as our CD zergs, that turn tails and run.

The siege of our upgraded CD EB was a real challenge, so I know not all of SBI is “mass blob is the only win”. There were a few times when we stood at the walls and wondered what the heck you guys were actually trying to do, but it was a real challenge nonetheless.

Let’s just assume our once overly upgraded and sieged keeps (shame they’re gone now, they were quite impressive) were an equal matchup against the current blob force (and the endless stream of supplies available at your homeland BL. Those trebs would not stay down….). It was like an unstoppable force meeting an immobile object. They held out for a really long time. But our poor upgraded garri was ninja’d by 5 omega golems when the already small force in CD BL had to jump to EB to help defend there. Five omegas were available to be built to take down a fortified keep that only had a handful of defenders inside….It was flipped before I even got there. CD did manage to pull off the same ‘ninja flip’ with the fortified SBI keep (the same one where that silly mesmer was laughing). We didn’t have 5 omegas, we had 6 rams.

On an added note, some SBI roamers are a bloody nuisance. I’m honestly more wary of these roamers than an SBI zerg.

Well, my initial concern was to see if I had come across some unfortunate stealth glitch, but since other thieves haven’t encountered this, then I’m glad it’s likely not.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Perhaps you used the smoke bomb too early. That is, someone started channeling stomp, you use smoke bomb, smoke bomb stealth wears off, and then the stomp finishes.

Perhaps that was it. I usually try to spam 1 on the lowest enemy health in an attempt to rally, so maybe by habit I accidentally hit the key, and cancelled my stealth. It was just so chaotic, I can’t recall every second of detail.

Atrophied.8725:

But if AOE loot is bound to a key (NOT AOE loot on Interact – that’s something different), you don’t even have to get off the AC at all. Just spam your loot button while firing.

Oh really? That I didn’t know….

bigblah.3285:

Arikyali.5804:

And if I’m firing from an AC, I leave the bags alone until the end, because I’d rather shoot the zerg than stop to pick up loot. Sometimes loot bags run out of timers and will vanish forever.

Just in case you didn’t know, you can bind a key to “AoE loot” in the options screen. Using that key, you can pick up all the loot bags around you even while you’re firing away on an AC.

Thanks for the info, but I know. I just don’t want to let go of the AC and have to readjust the camera angle again. Those two seconds could be vital.

And I just thought of something else to say: to the mesmer that managed to hide inside our keep when SBI broke through the outer gate, I want to apologize for my actions after we had killed you. He/She was hidden a decent amount of time, so kudos to them for managing to avoid our sweeps. After we killed him/her I did a “/no” emote. I did not realize until later that it might have been viewed as disrespectful. My intent was to say “No, you’re not gonna get our keep.” and nothing else. I have nothing against mesmer porting, (My main is also a mesmer) and it’s just another tactic to use in WvW. IT was just as in good nature when I waved at the SBI zerg we found hiding in the lake waiting for the mesmer port. I hope he/she will read this post and accept my apology. I strongly disapprove of rude actions over a dead opponent – it’s stupid and lame. I earn my wins, and I bow or salute to people in WvW who I thought did pretty darn good.

Shonie.5297:

I think it was more like we had a million and you had 5. Throwing numbers around is so fun.
What difference does it make anyways. AC’ing a chokepoint is so leet or something? When there’s nothing left to take on a map except the overly fortified keep of a server having everyone sitting on AC’s, I guess we don’t really have a choice. Congrats on holding your keep temporarily at the time?

I guess i just don’t understand the mentality behind making fun of the server that’s beating you handily.
Nobody from SBI has come out and been ignorant, yet there’s been so many people from BP and CD that post trash like you just did. ‘Stormbag Isle’?
Again, it’s just a product of us holding most of your towers and you guys having whatever population left holed up in a keep on superior AC’s guarding a choke point.
If you want to sit in a keep like that and farm a few bags, good on you I guess, your keep will still fall eventually. But don’t blame SBI, it’s a result of the population disparity between the servers. There’s nothing we can do about that. It is what it is.
When BP is playing against NSP and IOJ and the exact same thing is happening, do you think it’s fair when they claim you blob, or only win because of numbers? Borlisbag Pass?
It’s just dumb and it needs to stop.
Try losing this match with some dignity. It’s just as hard to win with dignity and a lot more people should try it. Especially when the outcome is merely the result of population and coverage.

Of course we’re going to fortify our keeps and siege it up at choke points. It’s an obvious counter against an enemy who has a zerg size that vastly outnumbers ours. There’s a very good strategic reason why people don’t want to lose keeps. I’m not going to explain the specifics of why on the forums, but it should be obvious.

Just look at the scoreboards – SBI probably has a zerg at every map, and both CD and BP are forced to defend. SBI’s sheer numbers can rip whatever zerg BP and CD has. It’s not fair. The outcome is population coverage like you said, and you have to give kudos to the two servers that are managing to hold their ground despite all odds.

There will be foulmouths in every server – SBI is just as guilty of trash talking as CD and BP are. Every server is. You cannot say ‘nobody’ from your server is being disrespectable. I agree people need to stop with the name-calling. It doesn’t do the reputation of any server any good.

I can’t speak for BP but I can speak for CD. We do have dignity, thank you very much. One angry post does not sum up the entire attitude of the server. Thank you SBI players who are willing to admit that the pivotal reason they are winning is based vastly on numbers, and not using the match up as an excuse to troll posts and ridicule the smaller server size.

Oh, and fyi, CD is not just hiding scared behind fortified walls in the keep. We’ll rush out and face the zerg if we know it’s not a stupid suicide mission.

…and farming loot? I don’t get very much loot in zerg fights because I’m too busy moving around in a fight. It’s a tiny loot bag and probably holds some junky npc-able stuff. I’m not gonna risk running over to get it. And if I’m firing from an AC, I leave the bags alone until the end, because I’d rather shoot the zerg than stop to pick up loot. Sometimes loot bags run out of timers and will vanish forever.

SBI, stop trying to take our keep in EB. How many times have you tried to storm in? First trebs, then ram power (did you use rams that time?), there was once when you brought three golems, and a mesmer port (we’re lucky we spot him/her just in time), through the back door, circling around and flanking….give us a break! Go bug BP for their keep!

…I do have to admit I’m very happy to see CD outmanned, and still holding onto our keep. <3

Sifu.6527:

I think this is what happened.

You used Shadow Refuge but you got downed due to random attacks and AOEs. As a habit, you probably used number 2 to teleport but with Shadow Refuge still being up, you got revealed. Since you’re down, you cant see if you have the debuff or not.

I do remember trying to teleport out of the aoe and toward an ally, but I was killed before I was able to do so.

Sickle.6502:

Think this promotes elitism too much, sorry, but I don’t think this is the right idea for commanders.
Most of them are players who buy the tag and instantly expect you to do what they say anyway, and your suggestion will just make that worse in my opinion.

No.

How would it make it worse? Could you elaborate? A commander who gets too overbearing and snobbish would just be voted down. Good leadership also needs good communication and respect. The ‘elite’ commander tag would only go to people who have deserved it in the long run. And even then, it can still be lost.

Gwalchgwn.1659:

He knew that part, read his last line first paragraph: But… I got stomped

You mean ‘she’.

The zerg was still a moderately safe distance away. If they were closer, I’d just try to flee without risking waiting for refuge, cross my fingers and hope I get away. The head of the zerg just sorta…leaped for me and I got immobilized. (Or stunned. I dunno, I just couldn’t move)

I’m confused if this was even possible. I was on my thief in WvW with a small group of people. While we were trying to cap a supply camp, an enemy zerg rushed in, so I threw down shadow refuge the moment I saw them. A few of the ranged attacks hit me (not enough to be lethal), but I remained stealth. I was waiting to flee once I got the max timer for stealth, but it was as if the zerg was able to see me while I was hidden, target me, and get me downed. Unless there was something off with my graphics I’m pretty sure I was still stealthed when I got downed. Even if shadow refuge’s stealth was gone (does it go away if you get downed?) I cast smoke bomb by habit. But…I got stomped.

Did they just rush up to my refuge and spam enough aoe that it could be mistaken for getting a target on me? Is it even possible to get targeted for a stomp while stealthed? It’s never happened to me before. Someone suggested a ranger might have unstealthed me, but…I’m pretty sure I did not lose my stealth at any point at that time. At no point did I attack. I’ve been in enough small fights where I cast refuge and the person just loses me. Even in the middle of zerg fights I’ll cast stealth, wait a bit, then move.

An underwater dungeon would be fun. A lot of people don’t like underwater combat, but it’d certainly be something different. Personally, I like underwater fights…

…especially in PvP scenarios where most people don’t know how to fight underwater.

The current commander tag can be bought for 100 gold. But everyone knows it’s not a direct link to leadership quality – it’s how good you are at making money.

I want to suggest an upgrade for commander tags. You would still need to spend 100 gold to obtain them, but it would also have a secondary tier, that can only be obtained by good leadership. The idea I had was that players could vote up commanders. After a very large number of votes, it would raise to the second tier, denoted by a different color.

-This is something that is highly susceptible to abuse. To counter this, I would suggest that votes obtained from people in friend lists and guilds would be worth considerably less than people who are complete strangers. Votes are also limited per account, so no swapping to alts to increase votes. I have no idea how this could be coded in, or if it’s plausible.

-It needs to be an amount of votes that would prevent obtaining the higher tier in a short period of time. Getting to the second tier in say, a week, would be too short – you can’t master commanding that quickly. My idea is that it would take an average of perhaps two months before amassing the amount of needed votes.

-It would only be fair to include the option to vote down a commander, but again it would be susceptible to abuse. Perhaps it would need five negative votes to subtract one positive vote. That way one bad mistake on a newbie commander won’t result in a flash flood of negative votes.

-The amount of votes should also be hidden. We don’t want people running around with a tag on yelling ‘vote for me!’ And I want this system to disprove on ‘farming’ for votes. If you don’t know how many votes you have, you won’t focus on it. It should just be a surprise when you get the second tier.

-There should only be a limit of two tiers. If there’s more than one, people are only going to follow the higher tiered commanders. Those of lower tier won’t receive the knowledge of running a proper zerg, and they won’t be able to learn. It should only be “basic commanders” and “elite commanders who’ve spent a lot of time commanding and knows what they’re doing” (Where theoretically an elite commander should be knowledgeable enough to tell the surplus of his zerg to follow the other commander for better map domination).

-Once the second tier is received, it should still be possible to lose it. This way someone won’t take a long dedicated project of getting the elite status, and use it to troll people.

-In WvW, some servers will out-populate others. By that, you’d theorize that highly populated servers would be able to amass more elite commanders more quickly than low populated servers. Perhaps the current map population should be taken into consideration when a vote is tallied. The more people there are on the map, the less valuable the vote would be. The end result should be a vote on whatever server to be the same value, regardless of population size.

-You start with a score of 0, but you can’t go below 0. If you start out poorly you won’t have to work double time and be punished for your past actions.

-Once the second tier is reached, there could be a cushion of extra points given, so it won’t shift back and forth without stabilizing.

I want the idea where a new commander would go through a training process, and be graded by their peers. You start as a leader by buying the blue tag, and you get a visible recognizable promotion if you become a great leader. Elite commanders should be a rarity, but it won’t stigmatize non-elites. A commander can be just as good without having the elite tag – but commanders are more inclined to work toward the promotion, and thus emanate better leadership qualities.

I want the idea to be something like this: Did you know in martial arts, the black belt is not considered to be a master? They’re considered to be beginners. The colored belts before the black belt are meant to teach you the skills to become a beginner. Amassing the gold would be the colored belt, getting the tag would be the black belt, getting the elite tag would be getting higher in the black belt category.

It sounds good in theoryland, but it’s bound to be different in practice. What’s your input?

tl;dr version: Have the ability to vote a commander up and down within a very controlled voting system.

Thanks for the info. I really want to run D/D because….well, it looks cool. (I plead guilty – part of the reason is aesthetics). And it’s so useful to catch up to fleeing targets. I’ve heard it’s one of the trickier weapon combos to learn. I think I’m going to have to learn how to play it without autotarget…

I forgot to mention I also want my thief to be a roamer/scout, and not just a ‘zerg assassin’. What would you advice to focus on: condition damage, raw damage, or a balanced mix of both? Regretfully, the last game I played looked down on DPS-like damage and promoted only raw power, so that ideology sort of stuck with me when I came to GW2. I know GW2 isn’t structured the same (it’s way better :P ) but I don’t really have a concrete understanding of how much total damage output either one gives.

Even if CD is finishing with third place, I have to say I’m still proud of CD. One instance DB had flipped several of our territory in EB, and were likely headed to our keep. The zerg I was in ran out to meet them. I swear there was a split second where DB just stopped and stared in confusion to see a zerg probably half their size, running straight at them. We kept on running – by pushing them off of Aldon, chasing them into Rogue, trapping a few in Wildcreek, past the front gates of our keep, into Klovan, and out into the swamp until not a trace of them was left. Best zerg chase ever.

It was sheer epicness. Everyone knowing exactly what to do, when to do it, with instinctual harmonious coordination.

I’ll take quality over quantity.

If you’re a commander, I ask you sit through and read what I have typed. It will only take a few minutes of your time.

A good commander can shift the tide of WvW to their server’s favor. The tag doesn’t denote good commanding skills, it only goes to show who has the money to buy a tag. Everyone knows this. And I have seen several good commanders coming from my server – which is commendable for a server that is almost always outnumbered 3 to 1.

Just a few days ago, with some good tactical strategy, our server rose to second place and took a decent lead against an opposing server. It was pretty darn impressive, seeing how we had been stuck with third for days, and managed to switch places in only a few hours. Everyone was intent to keep it that way until the end of the week.

But instead of working together and pushing to keep second place, drama and arguing broke out, resulting in a ‘punishment’ to the entire server(how this resulted I don’t understand). The result: we lost what we gained faster than the time it took to get it.

Being a commander is difficult. It’s not a skill you can pick up right away, and it’s not a skill you can learn without dropping the gold for the tag. Those following the tag and insulting commanders put pressure and strife for everyone on the map. It only makes everything worse.

But a commander also has to know how to handle people like this. The commander carries the responsibility of the server winning. It’s totally understandable if someone needs a break to get fresh air – in the end, it’s only a game. Go and live your life outside of GW2. But I would not expect to see commanders to purposely turn their back on an entire WvW community and issue a ‘punishment’ to the whole server as a result. Frankly, I am personally disappointed with how my server has handled this situation. Commanders do not possess such power, no matter what money, guild, influence, or whatever else they may have.

Commanders aren’t above the people they command – without a zerg there’s nothing but a nice easy target. They’re there to lead the zerg. A zerg without direction will just disperse and get picked off one by one. The end result is the opponent winning and everyone on your side losing.

If you’re a commander, don’t let yourself get provoked. And don’t answer with retaliation of any sort. It will solve nothing. It won’t fix anything. Those that come to WvW to win and have fun will be the only ones that suffer due to your actions. The backlash of purposely allowing an opposing server to win, goes against the integrity of a commander. Those that insult and ridicule probably don’t even care enough to contribute, and just want to prove their ego. This is the worst kind of people and are best to be ignored.

I’m not going to name what server I witnessed this from, nor the person(s) who were involved. I wanted to say my piece, and I hope all commanders on any server will take this to consideration. Maybe one day I’ll actually put in the effort to gather the gold and get a tag of my own.

My thief will be hitting level 80 soon, but I need advice on running a WvW thief. I get the impression that any build aside from Berserker is frowned upon. But since I’m still learning, I want a build that can offer some leeway, instead of a hardcore ‘high risk/high reward’ mentality.

I run d/d and s/p. the main thing I struggle with is timing my skills – but that’s only gonna come with practice. :P With that skillset, how effective would a Valkyrie build be? Is there a way to optimize lifesteal for thieves? I want a thief that can leap in and out of enemy zergs for surprise attacks, but can still survive when I accidentally miscalculate my shadowstep. (Currently my traits are 20/0/0/10/20. I very much like the stealthy skills, so I’m tempted to cap toughness when I hit 80. Would this be a wise decision?

Last question: Why do I see so few thieves carry a bow? There’s so much dislike for it. I would think a thief that can optimize stealth/power and condition damage could be very deadly with it.

As a Sylvari I must side with the Charr on one strong and vital point, which the Asurans are sadly lacking. The Charr may have machines that breathe smoke and fire, but they are ever vigilant of preserving their land, ensuring its use for many future generations. Their machines are not only for war. Nothing goes to waste – their junk yards recycle and reuse their metal, instead of tearing more resources from the land. This eco-friendly stance will provide a long lasting growth, within a land that is already parched and dry.

However, you Asurans are careless. When your toxic alchemical experiments go awry, it poison the land. I have seen rifts that transport confused creatures into other lands. And who knows the long-term effects of your dire mistakes? You are not at all content to clean up after your own messes. All things have a right to grow, and that includes your ‘test subjects’ whom I hear you experiment on with little concern for their welfare.