Guild Wars 2

Brutaly.6257:

People exagerate. This isnt the end of the world.

Did they add useless stuff, yes they did.

Did the offensive guardian need more dps, in sword in particular, no it didnt.

Is kindled zeal still useless, yes it is.

Was the change to Sos a nerf, no it wasnt. In most scenarios its a buff and in some a huge buff. The fact is its only in one scenario its a nerf when you have no other mean of swiftness, you havent traited larger symbols and dont have time to stand still in the symbol for approx 0,2 seconds.

Did we know that the preview wouldnt change to release, yes we did. At last if you read what Anet previously posted about their development cycle and the time frame they need to alter stuff in that cycle.

The only thing we should be upset about is the fact that Jon peters clearly stated:
1. we didnt have the full picture and there was more to come than the part the posted in the preview. Clearly the preview was the entire patch so there was no big picture and this is a bit worrying.
2. He recognizes that the offensive guardian isnt in a good position and they want to address that and yet do nothing in the patch to fix it. We dont need more condition damage and more damage to 1h sword, what we needed was working spirit weapons, more utilities in zeal in particular, fix of our signets and working symbol builds.

What we got actually mostly addressed the defensive traitlines and the defensive guardian setups.

One might hope that Jon actually trait a 30/30/x/x/x with full berserker and go into wvw/pvp and try to make it work.

Its not doom and gloom, certainly. But its disappointing that it seems the promise of a power guardian was a over statement. With key issues like mobility and lack of cc not addressed it makes their idea of a dps based guardian just a fantasy. And of course I’m speaking in regards to pvp.

I was actually hoping the heal would be good, but shelter is still the best option the class has.

swiftpaw.6397:

Wasn’t expecting much for shattered aegis, however quite happy with the now 10% dmg on powerful blades.

I already knew shatter aegis was going to be bad, its a adept trait and I don’t have any faith that the devs were trying to make it viable.

The powerful blades change is probably the best change in the patch.

Nabbo.2845:

3/4 of a second would be okay for a Meditation but the full second is just awful. Not sure why it makes sense to have to prep a full second cast before bursting.

Its very hard to use. You have a low heal with a cast time. That cast time is a interval were you take lots of damage. So this makes it were you have to precast the heal before a fight. Which in most cases you have full hp.

If you are low on hp, getting off the cast and then doing damage is almost impossible and not worth the trade off of losing shelter. Also, the litany of wrath is only good with aoe. So in 1v1 scenarios the healing effect is quite bad.

Disappointing. Thank you anet!

Really, the cast time for the heal kills any viability it may have. Why choose it over shelter?

Mightymealworm.8409:

Mace weak points are lack of mobility and no cleave on 3rd hit from auto chain. The lack of cleave is a sloppy fix to multiple healing procs from hitting multiple enemies, I would put money on that.

That would make sense. Because the first 2 attacks are cleaves but the last isn’t.

To the OP, I think the mace is a decent weapon. It hits very very hard, protectors strike does a lot of damage.

Harbinger.8637:

I’m getting Celestial first! Most people will probably just get zerker though.

Celestial any good?

Guardian’s shield is a support weapon as opposed to Warrior’s shield which is a defensive weapon.

The type of support Guardian’s shield offers in a pve environment is almost non existent. But works well in pvp. The shield definitely needs to be reworked so that its appealing in all aspects of the game. Not just one.

I wouldn’t call it useless, but just very limiting.

Noah.4756:

Even though they buffed Glacial Heart two months ago it’s still not useful. The 30 second cooldown and the inability to choose when to use the chill makes it a very lackluster trait. You’ll be better of with a Sigil of Hydromancy which has a cooldown of 9 seconds.

Ring of Warding can be potentially useful if you time it right. But you can’t move when you activate the skill and so it becomes hard to catch someone. That’s why most of the time I see guardians use the skill to keep people out instead of inside.

If they could somehow make our elite skill Tome of Wrath more attractive for guardians it could potentially be slotted to finish off players. It has all the right skills: Cripple, Knock Down, Swiftness, Quickness, Fury and a Burn.

Several patches ago they buffed glacial heart to be a 100% chance. Then when they changed it to a aoe skill they nerfed it back to a 50% chance to proc on crit. I don’t know why, but either way it would still useless.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Is there something wrong with Glacial Heart?

Everything is wrong with glacial heart. A rng proc based upon a rng proc with a long cooldown and a short duration and only works with hammer.

ZoroDaOtter.3859:

Anet apparently wants us to sit in one place and chase people away.

Well said rofl.

I think their design philosophy of the class is just sitting in one spot and keeping others off that spot. But they didn’t think what would happen if the target doesn’t want to be on that spot anyway…..aka kiting.

So while we have aoe dominance, its a useless feature if you can’t keep people there. Maybe they should have bags of loot inside the guardian symbols in order to lure people to come pick them up.

It could be a precursor in one of those bags.

A thief in stealth with scorpion wire has no effective counter play. And yes, classes with knockback and fear spam dominate skyhammer.

Justin ODell.9517:

Ulalume.9584:

No offense, Justin, but unless you have several friends to queue with team arena is a a horrible experience. Since solo queue pops take so long, I’ve been pugging team arena for the past couple of days. I consistently find myself in matches with guild groups of four r1 players on my team. I am sure the newbies try their best, but they just have no clue how to play their class, let alone in a tournament environment. Of course, these total blowout matches wouldn’t happen if you introduced a rank requirement for competitive pvp…

I wouldn’t advise anyone to pug team arena unless you have at least two buddies to queue with so you are able to carry two newbies. I’ve lost 95% of my team queue matches and the only reason I still queue up is for giggles. It is hilarious how many players die to Svanir or manage to never run over a node, not even by accident, throughout an entire game.

I believe there are a few guilds that exist solely to allow you to find people to Team Arena with. I’ll mention it to Josh, maybe we can increase their exposure.

PS

Remove skyhammer from soloq.

Justin ODell.9517:

Ulalume.9584:

No offense, Justin, but unless you have several friends to queue with team arena is a a horrible experience. Since solo queue pops take so long, I’ve been pugging team arena for the past couple of days. I consistently find myself in matches with guild groups of four r1 players on my team. I am sure the newbies try their best, but they just have no clue how to play their class, let alone in a tournament environment. Of course, these total blowout matches wouldn’t happen if you introduced a rank requirement for competitive pvp…

I wouldn’t advise anyone to pug team arena unless you have at least two buddies to queue with so you are able to carry two newbies. I’ve lost 95% of my team queue matches and the only reason I still queue up is for giggles. It is hilarious how many players die to Svanir or manage to never run over a node, not even by accident, throughout an entire game.

I believe there are a few guilds that exist solely to allow you to find people to Team Arena with. I’ll mention it to Josh, maybe we can increase their exposure.

Hey Josh,

This sounds like a great idea actually.

Justin ODell.9517:

Aza.2105:

This might be worse, you may get communication sure. But Team Arena it seems like its more geared towards a dedicated group of pvpers.

The fact it is geared toward more dedicated pvpers is why I think the OP might enjoy it more. Though, I agree… there are some very good players in this arena and it can be very hard to win.

Aza.2105:

Between 4v5, skyhammer, being grouped with rank 5s and other clueless players….its frustrating. I can understand the OP perspective.

Agreed. We’re working on all of the above.

Aza.2105:

The worst part of all, your rating is tied to your wins and losses. But how is it your fault if you played well but everyone else did not? It would make sense for a static team to have a group lose and win ratio. But solo needs something better, like overall stats.

It’s the nature of the beast. PvP is a team sport, and that may sometimes suck in solo arena but do keep in mind other players are being treated the exact same way. I’m experimenting with ways to compensate for this as far as MMR and matchmaking is concerned, but I wouldn’t expect this to change for rewards or ladders.

Aza.2105:

Hey Justin, I’m currently in another 4v5 whoooooo! And it will count against my overall record.

Why are you posting on the forums during a match?! Get back in there and stand on those circles!

Nothing I can do in a 4v5 unless the other team is completely brain dead. Due to the nature of capture point types…winning crippled is almost impossible. I’d rather have the /resign option from gw1. So I can at least lose with dignity.

Like someone mentioned above me, I think spvp could use a ready button when you get a pvp pop. So there is no excuse while you are afk in the match. If they don’t click ready in time, the spot should be given to the next person in queue.

Justin ODell.9517:

Thedenofsin.7340:

snip

I’m sorry you’ve gotten matches you don’t enjoy. We’re working on addressing the skill gap on multiple fronts.

In the mean time, have you tried Team Arena? You may find it more your speed.

This might be worse, you may get communication sure. But Team Arena it seems like its more geared towards a dedicated group of pvpers.

Between 4v5, skyhammer, being grouped with rank 5s and other clueless players….its frustrating. I can understand the OP perspective.

The worst part of all, your rating is tied to your wins and losses. But how is it your fault if you played well but everyone else did not? It would make sense for a static team to have a group lose and win ratio. But solo needs something better, like overall stats.

Edit

Hey Justin, I’m currently in another 4v5 whoooooo! And it will count against my overall record. Probably means I will have a higher chance to be grouped with players who don’t know what they are doing and people who just leave game. Awesome!

SpehssMehreen.5897:

When the edge of the mists come out we can all play there and not in the WvW borderlands, few if any will play there, even now a proper wvwer would know that ppt is just an arbitrary number, Most people will be in Edge of the Mists and its overflows, much to the discontent on devon carver who wants server “competition”

WvW isn’t about competition, its about coverage. Should the winners get better rewards for having better coverage? Its not showing they won because superior strategy and tactics. But only that they had more people around the clock then their “competitors”.

The only thing that superior rewards for the winners would do, is cause players to server hop to the server with the most coverage so they can win.

This is exactly what wvw deserves and I think I can understand why they did this.

Bash.7291:

Harbinger.8637:

From what I’ve seen of the livestream, it can be a very powerful heal if used right. Only problem is it’s easily countered. Any type of blind or block, will ruin it. Also if you get CC or anything like that. However I can’t wait to try it out. I like skills that you have to play smart with instead of just spamming everything.

I am still curious to see what the healing power ratio will be, and if healing power effects the 20% at all. Also, i can see scepter/torch being pretty useful with it as it allows you to still get some hits while snared/immobilized.

Nope it shouldn’t. The 20% is based upon the damage you do. So the more damage you do the bigger the heal, the smaller the damage the lower the heal. So the new heal won’t benefit support or tank guardians at all.

Mikau.6920:

Harbinger.8637:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Harbinger.8637:

The base heal seems to be around 1.7k. So you really do need to trait meds.

If this and the 20% heal per hit for 5 seconds is true, Shelter and Signet are still going to be better. Lower that CD, then, we might be talking up to par to them.

Actually it’s less then that. About 1.5k, this time I did it with zero healing power. Here’s a screen.

Lol. This skill is junk. May be good on PvE, but on WvW and PvP is useless.

PS: The Ranger and Warrior skills are so OP!

@edit
They are probally still balancing those skills, look at the duration on both Print Screens:
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/gw2-litany-of-wrath-guardian1.jpg
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/123998/gw013.jpg

Did you see the skill while they used it on the stream or are you just going by the screenshot?

I watched the video as well, my opinion is this skill is probably one of the best new heals. Up there with mesmers and eles. Here are some fun facts I observed:

1. You are healed for burning ticks
2. The skill lasts 6 secs
3. Meditation traits indeed do affect Litany of Wrath, so this means around a 4k base heal if you are full valor.
4. Within that 6 sec period all damage you do heals you, that means if you do mighty blow and smite condition that all heals.
5. The more targets you hit the more healing you do (typical aoe cap of 5).
6. The more damage you do the more you are healed for.
7. CD is 24 secs when traited, making it guardians fastest recharging heal skill.
8. Seems to benefit burst over channeled skills, I was impressed with mighty blows healing but greatsword’ whirling wrath didn’t seem that good in comparison.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Brutaly.6257:

On a serious note, totally useless skill unless you land a focus/mb burst or lay down the smack with symbol bombing on a crowd while having it active.

I completely, and extremely disappointedly, agree with you. I think even for PvE, this skill is a HUGE let down.

I imagine you will be lucky to land one skill when you consider lag, animation time and after casts. Really the duration is way to low to be able to do anything.

akamon.2769:

@Aza, Electro – thanks for the clarification, guys. : ))

i’m again, assuming, medi traits will work. if not, like Electro said, why not just make it a heal skill. though does sadden me it wasn’t instant like “all” meditations with the focused mind change. plus, it’s a really low base heal. but we shall see!

NP.

Found this for you if you haven’t read:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Discussion-Skill-Unlocks-in-sPvP

Yes you have to unlock new skills in pvp.

akamon.2769:

i dislike when they merge threads, haha, things get all messed up for me.

and haha so there is a cast time. lol. this new heal skill just lost it’s biggest potential for me. someone said that medi traits don’t affect it. can i get a source on that?

if medi traits DO affect it, and i assuming so cause that’s a tiny heal of 1.5k base. so +2k = 3.5k with monk’s focus. then you would have to pull off 23.25k worth of damage in the next 5 second for it to be on par with SoR’s base heal, given the same cast time.

well, still definitely gonna have to give this a try. again, assuming it works with focused mind, the added fury is nice to have. plus, it’s our heal with lowest CD to boot, again, when traited and if they work. lol. too many caveats.

When I had the meditation traits and they didn’t lower cooldown, add fury or the extra heal to the skill tooltip. This could be a error though.

Obtena.7952:

It’s fine even in a non-meditation build. It’s on the same scale of our other heals. My disappointment is that it further enhanced builds that don’t need enhancement. I mean, how much healing do we actually need? In a meditation on top? A little silly.

I’d say we need a lot of healing to buffer the fact that the class has low health, mobility and escape mechanisms.

Brutaly.6257:

Bash.7291:

Move meditation Traits to Zeal, lower AH healing, We now have an offensive heal based in an offensive line, and if people really want they can pick up AH, but as a med build really isn’t that effective anyways.

I agree with moving medi to zeal. It would be a very wise choice indeed.

What i would like is a fourth virtue for a weaker version of AH when passive and AH for the entire team for x sec when activated and the master trait in valor should boost that AH effect. This would move more support into valor which it lacks atm.

This would make 30/x/30/x/x the best burst build (toughness is needed in tpvp and wvw so it only makes sense valor and zeal is the burst since burst is the best form of damage in pvp. It would also make meditations heals available while using AH. I think this would put zeal in a much better shape and full berserker, full offense builds viable in wvw.

This would also improve our virtues greatly and untraited virtues are really weak atm.

The 5 sec duration to the buff is just too low. I think we’d be able to get one or two skills off before its gone. Probably not worth it.

Plus, guardian has no way to stick on the target. So it will be even more useless when we get kited.

Bash.7291:

Aza.2105:

Ah so Bash was right, it does have a cast time!

Wasn’t me that said it lol.

lol my bad, I meant Brutality.

The new heal isn’t even affected by mediation traits afaik.

Ah so Bash was right, it does have a cast time!

Bash.7291:

Aza.2105:

Bash.7291:

It would still be a good trait line? Not sure why you ask that.

Not really, meditations are the best thing about it lol.

extra group toughness, Toughness to crit, mace damage/healing power, burn on block, AH, Purity. There are still plenty of decent traits to choose from… I would much rather our zeal line be usable…

Yea but they are all adept traits, except mace. There is no denying they are decent.

I feel if spirit weapons became viable, zeal would start to become a bit better. They would also need to consolidate the two rogue spirit weapon traits (virtues and radiance) into the zeal tree.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Brutaly.6257:

Yet an other buff to a trait line that dont need a buff.

Im disappointed, i think this just makes the balance of zeal, radiance and condition builds even more difficult.

Yeah, I said earlier in this thread that I didn’t understand this either. The Valor line is great as is. No need for this skill to be Med.

Brutaly.6257:

Bash.7291:

Move meditation Traits to Zeal, lower AH healing, We now have an offensive heal based in an offensive line, and if people really want they can pick up AH, but as a med build really isn’t that effective anyways.

I agree with moving medi to zeal. It would be a very wise choice indeed.

What i would like is a fourth virtue for a weaker version of AH when passive and AH for the entire team for x sec when activated and the master trait in valor should boost that AH effect. This would move more support into valor which it lacks atm.

This would also improve our virtues greatly and untraited virtues are really weak atm.

Don’t agree with remove Med to Zeal.

However, I think the 4th Virtue idea is a great! This could also remove the dependency on some builds that want to utilize AH from the Valor line, and help strength the sustain with those that remain in 30 Valor. However, not so sure about putting it the master trait for it in Valor. Maybe it would be good for the 5 Honor since they’re about to either move it or nerf it.

Kumu Honua.2751:

I want a shout heal “Get over it!”

LOL!

Well Zeal already has its niche, its spirit weapons. Unfortunately spirit weapons are bad.

Brutaly.6257:

SilkySmooth.1574:

its imposible to have a casting time because its a meditation

What? I cant find anything arenanet has published that states that all meditations from here on and forward will be instant? What they did was make meditations instant so they could fit in the lack of fury in that trait and adressing that the trait only improved a couple of the existing meditations.

Ofc its possible, you assume it wont be. I can also assume (i dont though) that there is a casting time since all other healing skills in the game has casting time.

Tbh its logical that it should be casting time on it since there is no trait that makes it instant and there for its easier to balance the percentage of the heal. I hope its instant but i wouldnt be suprised if its not and i can also find reason to have a casting time.

Anet specifically stated when they changed focus mind that meditations felt clunky with cast times so they made smite condition and merciful intervention instant casts. So I’m assuming that logic will apply to Litany of Wrath as well.

Bash.7291:

It would still be a good trait line? Not sure why you ask that.

Not really, meditations are the best thing about it lol.

fadeaway.2807:

Ugh. I don’t want to see meditation guardians in my pve groups unless the valor line and meditations themselves are made more group friendly rather than totally selfish.

Merciful Intervention would be good if it worked as it says it does. But overall I feel valor is a pvp thing, really it would be great if they split pve/pvp skills it would make things a lot better.

They could do something like AH and Monk’s Focus both heals allies in pve. Can’t do that type of thing as the game is now because it would be OP as hell in pvp.

Bash.7291:

Move meditation Traits to Zeal, lower AH healing, We now have an offensive heal based in an offensive line, and if people really want they can pick up AH, but as a med build really isn’t that effective anyways.

Then what would valor do?

I think the new heal seems good, the more damage you do the more you get healed for. One of dps guardians problems in pvp is that they don’t have very good defense, the new heal in theory could help elevate the problem.

akamon.2769:

i assume you can turn say a decent sized heal (something like shelter), close to a burst heal, just below Signet of Resolve. so say.. 4-5k+2k=6-7k

though if course, we’ll have to see come release day.

maybe not as big an issue, wonder how much it’ll cost for the new heal skills. and was it said that if unlocked in PvE, we get it automatically in PvP ya?

I think you still have to unlock it in pvp.

Ezrael.6859:

Aza.2105:

It will have nice synergy with monk’s focus.

I hope it’s synergy rather than necessity.

Probably a necessity for dps guardian. I’ve been thinking if I’d try the new heal + monk’s focus first or new heal + AH and hammer. Hmmm

I’ve been experiencing the samething, the game feels like its being played in slow motion since the lag is so bad.

I’m on the east coast of the usa, where are you guys from?

Tarsius.3170:

Hunter.4783:

Keep in mind you should add +(healing from Monks focus x healing power modifier). I wouldn’t be surprised if this heal outshined all others in a MF medi DPS build.l

Good point, MF adds 4900 healing per minute assuming you have 0 healing power

( this skill is going to be hell to add to my healing spreadsheet )

I’m more curious about how much health it will return when you attack and how long the buff lasts.

Tarsius.3170:

Ludus Rex.1562:

I’m really bothered at the 30s CD. I just want one short CD heal to trigger certain rune sets. Ah well..

Well, with a medi build you will probably have 10 points in Valor at least, so it’ll be 24 secs.

I was kind of hoping for a heal that would ease the need for points in valor, but Litany seems like yet another cattle-prod to put all 30 points in there.

I’m guessing the “80” is the base heal per hit while active and then the damage percentage is added on to it. I wouldn’t hold out much hope for more than a 0.2 modifier

Say your whirling wrath conservatively hits for 10k ( all 14 strikes ) – you’ll be hitting for an average of 714 per strike ( ignoring the difference in projectile co-efficients ).

Our heal would be 80 + ( 714 * 0.1 ) = 151.4 or a total of 2119.6 (5299 per minute)
with a 0.2 co-efficient it would be 3119.2 (7798 per minute) and 0.5 would net you 6118 ( 15295 per minute )

So how charitable will Anet be given though our other skills come in between about 9.5k and 17k of healing per minute with 1000 healing power?

In PvE where you can do 40k+ Whirling Wraths with the right group, this would equate to 9.1k per cast of healing with a 0.2 coefficient and a 21k of healing per cast with a 0.5 coefficient

I don’t feel we need points in valor, its more of a choice in pve. For pvp however that is a different story.

I personally like meditations but I’d prefered if the new heal was a consecration. So from your theory, its basically a heal with functions similar to AH and Zealous Blade?

foofad.5162:

Elusive Power is really not worth investing 5 points in just for it. If you’re going 30 Honor anyway, there’s no complaint; but putting in 25 is really pointless. You’d be much better off putting that in Zeal, Radiance, or Virtues.

Yup, thats why I said if Elusive Power worked when endurance is full (as oppose to not full) then it would be no brainer to take it with this build.

I wish they changed it, but I don’t think they will.

John Corpening.9847:

Would you keep rank acquisition the same as it is now?

If not, what would you do to improve rank acquisition?

Remove the rank system, replace it with a stat tracking system that tracks the players performance in many aspects of spvp.

Total points captured
Longest time holding a point
Total killing blows
Total killing assists
Total heals
Average killing blow per match
Average killing assist per match
Total/average number of team revivals

The stats should track performance in hot join, soloq and team q. Individually, not together because how someone plays in hot join doesn’t mean this will translate over to team q or solo q.

It will have nice synergy with monk’s focus.

Norjena.5172:

34se

fadeaway.2807:

Aza.2105:

fadeaway.2807:

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

You can do it yourself very easily. Use GW2Buildcraft to generate both builds, and compare the effective power difference. One divided by the other will tell you the % difference between the two.

Most (or alot) traits, are not calculated by buildcraft. It´s better to draw both builds on a paper, burn it. And then try to read out of the ashes what is better.

I would say (to Aza) 25 in zeal is worse. Cause there is no usefull Mastertrait.

And 10% dmg to symbols is not so strong. Picking up unscathing contender and a 10/25/0/25/10 build will be “maxdps” with our Hammer. But most times vulnerabilty is not at 25 stacks. And 15/25/0/20/10 will be better.

Or at least. “Hammer DPS Support” 15/25/0/30/0, no traited WoR and so on. But Symbolic Exposure+Empowering Might, could be usefull in some groups and if u can´t hold UC active for lo period of time.

Edit: Fadeaway calculated it already, saw it too late.

But there is still the lightfield, which is preventing my gruops from effectivly stacking might in combat. -.-, The Hammer could be so great, but this combofield….

I think 10/25/0/25/10 would be a no brainer if elusive power was changed to provide the +10% damage increase when endurance is full. The +10% damage is hard to maintain with how the skill works now, its at odds with vigorous precision.

Thanks to everyone who provided calculations.

Justin ODell.9517:

Admiral Zombie.8624:

A lot of people are misunderstanding what is happening. People who have earned their rank emotes and finishers will get to keep them as they are.

If I understand what people are saying, and I may be wrong, many people are treating ranks as more of a lifetime achievement. That is certainly something to consider in regards to the future reward system replacing them.

Hey Justin,

Do you think we can get a stats system that tracks different attributes that the player has done in pvp?

For example:

Most healing done
Most points captured
Longest a point has been held by the player
How many killing blows you have
How many kill assists you have
Number of attacks blocked
Number of attacks dodged
How many times you have been downed
How many times you’ve been defeated

You get the point I’m sure. But I feel if we could track individual stats then it would be easier to get a broader perspective of our own pvp abilities and that of others. And it could also show areas you need to work on. Such as if you have a low capture point stat it show you may need to work on learning how to capture them more effectively.

The leaderboard could then show the players stats as well. I think it would be great for the game.

Justin ODell.9517:

Aza.2105:

Since the new matchmaker rolled out, things have been worse for me. Before the change I was grouped with players of similar rank with the rare chance of having someone who is low rank on the team.

Using the ladder tiers in matchmaking should help with that. We’re also still discussion ways to better place new players onto the MMR curve.

I feel that would help a ton if you guys get it working right. Being grouped with players who are ranked far below you and 4v5s are serious issues I’d say. They both make moving up in rank harder than it should be.

fadeaway.2807:

Symbolic power is a rather poor grandmaster minor trait.
Consider the base damage of hammer chain being 296 + 333 + 370, and the symbol being 185 per tick (925 total with writ of persistence).
The total being 1924, roughly half of that coming from your symbol. That means roughly a 5% increase in overall dps from a 10% increase in symbols.
Mighty blow causes this overall increase to drop, as your dps comes less from the symbol and more from mighty blow.

100 power and just under 5% more dps is nice, but I think I’d rather have 10 in virtues for the consecration. The virtue of justice spam causing 3xMight alone will probably make up for the dps.

Thanks for taking the time to put things in perspective for me. I appreciate it!

Justin ODell.9517:

Well, now that the news is out I guess I can spoil this one tidbit regarding matchmaking. In addition to your MMR, we will also be using your ladder tier when determining who you play against, so as you travel up the ladder the odds of being matched with new players is reduced. This filtering becomes less strict as you wait in the queue, so people can still find matches during low concurrency.

I’ll be working with Josh and the others to get a blog post out and start a discussion about matchmaking in the near-ish future, and we will likely talk about the 4v5 issue at the same time.

What do you guys thing we should do in the meantime while we continue to work on the new server infrastructure, matchmaking, ladders, etc.?

Hey Justin,

Since the new matchmaker rolled out, things have been worse for me. Before the change I was grouped with players of similar rank with the rare chance of having someone who is low rank on the team.

Now, every time I win I see the players rank is single digit or in the teens. Its sort of like a catch 22, you have to win to move up so you group with better players. Yet I’m constantly put on teams with players who are new to pvp and don’t know the game mechanics or maps.

It makes winning extra hard.

foofad.5162:

Aza.2105:

fadeaway.2807:

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

You can do it yourself very easily. Use GW2Buildcraft to generate both builds, and compare the effective power difference. One divided by the other will tell you the % difference between the two.

Does it take symbolic power into consideration?

fadeaway.2807:

I believe it to be our top dps weapon now, and the 15/15/0/20/20 build is even more fantastic. More prot, more dps, more vulnerability.

I’d go so far as saying 15/25/0/20/10 could challenge greatsword/1h users for the crown.

I’ve tried both of these builds, both are good. I like 15/25/0/20/10 the best though.

I want your perspective, do you feel putting 25 points into zeal for the extra power and +10% extra damage on symbols? 25/25/0/20/0

I suck at math, can you hook up some numbers to see how they two builds compare?

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Flytrap.8075:

I think a spirit weapon is the most likely to happen.

Doesnt the bow spirit weapon already do this?

Kind of, it heals but its very hard to use and it doesn’t scale with healing power. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone who uses bow of truth.