Guild Wars 2

Passwords that are easy to remember and pass the complexity test (at least for GW2) http://xkcd.com/936/

If your criteria for easy class is, “Which class has the most get out of jail cards I can use while I sit back and camp with my long range weapon, without regard for how effective I will actually be in a fight”, then yes, maybe Mesmer is the right answer.

However, your DPS is pitiful in comparison to a LB ranger because all your Illusionary Berserkers will just get mowed down by AoE, and when you meet a decent thief you have no counterplay with your phantasm build.

You might also get the top score in a PvP match, that doesn’t mean you actually contributed to a match. All you have to do is be an unnecessary +1 to every fight and point cap to rack up points.

Shatter is still the meta (Guide by Jurica / Metabattle), however if you are used to playing PU then don’t expect to succeed right away.

Lictor Alpha.3724:

Meaning, you are fighting 3 guys, you summon you’re phantasms, kill 1, and now you are just stuck standing there for 30 seconds waiting on cooldowns until you can attack the second guy and then repeat for the third.

Fay, I’m responding to what is either a gross misconception or mischaracterization. No mesmer stands in place waiting for 30 seconds or whatever the cooldown is just because their phantasms have despawned.

1. You don’t need phantasms to do damage, they just supplement your damage.
2. You can get phantasm recharge rates down to 12 seconds using traits.

I think a workable definition of a crutch would be some sort of defensive trait or skill that allows you to cover for mistakes in play but which reduces your overall or potential efficacy. However, Decoy is more than just defensive stealth to drop target, it’s clone production and a stun break, and it can also set up an offensive play. Blink is in many cases a defensive skill, so should it be considered a crutch? Maybe, but the Mesmer is such a fragile class that it requires utilities to maintain decent survivability. I would agree that a Mesmer build that has a lot of stealth in it has given up too much offensive potential. Torch stealth does have an offensive component, but there are more offensive weapon skills that can be slotted in 4/5.

I also think the argument could be made that Absconditus’ sPvP build is using a couple crutches, after all you’re not using a more offensive skill (e.g. Mirror Images, Mantra of Distraction) in place of Decoy, instead you have Mantra of Resolve and Signet of Inspiration. You don’t have portal either, which is arguably the greatest force multiplier for a Mesmer to utilize in sPvP (you can be into two places almost simultaneously). Instead you have 3 (mostly) defensive utilities.

Better question would be: How much defense does a Mesmer need, and which defensive skills are optimal?

Actually, you do make a point which I missed: that line comes up twice at the beginning. You could have given that feedback much more constructively instead of villainizing the OP immediately and mentioning no specifics while asserting that the video was “dripping with vitriol”. It wasn’t, but I can understand that certain parts could have been phrased in a more friendly way. Most of it is totally neutral.

So, given how much effort goes into making videos like these, and the fact that this is meant to help others, why didn’t you think that the OP would have welcomed constructive feedback? Instead you attack someone after they put a lot of effort into trying to make something positive.

mbh.8301:

It won’t get stickied because the tone is dripping with vitriol.

You forgot /s

Oh god, you’re not serious are you?

Thanks for making this! It deserves to get a lot of views and I hope that it does.

zaced.7948:

Bertrand.3057:

so instead of blindly raging I think we can all agree that offering constructive criticism is much more sensible.

99% of the players ignore every kind of advice if you don’t use the sledgehammer-to-face method since they think after 2 won games in hotjoin on skyhammer they are the pinnacle of skill.

I think this whole thread shows why a sledgehammer to the face is not the optimal delivery method for information, even though I agree that it often appears to be fully warranted. I gave advice to both sides in that paragraph with the hope that someone will take that advice to heart:

Bertrand.3057:

Perhaps the best thing for less skilled players to do is to ask others what they’re upset about, they may actually get valuable advice about how to improve their play. Likewise, this kind of verbal abuse clearly doesn’t elicit trust, so instead of blindly raging I think we can all agree that offering constructive criticism is much more sensible.

robertul.3679:

From what i understand:

Pic1: there were multiple downed people on both sides and somebody from your team didn’t stomp/finish an enemy which resulted in a lost team fight.
Pic2:Someone went to kill animal and as a result the team fight was outnumbered in enemy’s favor. And apparently after that someone mockingly said “you can thank me” for the npc kill.
Pic3:A lord push was needed to win and that push almost failed because not all players were present despite it being announced and even blinked on the minimap.

The language and attitude is bad, the reasons might not be.

^^

These players’ communication skills may be lacking, but if the OP doesn’t understand the reasons for these kinds of reactions even after 28+ months of playing 10 daily PvP matches (and presumably getting civil explanations/criticism from more patient players), I think it’s safe to say that his situation is rather exceptional.

Perhaps the best thing for less skilled players to do is to ask others what they’re upset about, they may actually get valuable advice about how to improve their play. Likewise, this kind of verbal abuse clearly doesn’t elicit trust, so instead of blindly raging I think we can all agree that offering constructive criticism is much more sensible.

Power necro in lich form is going to outdo anything for DPS if it’s not immediately shut down. Don’t expect any build to be comparable, but keep in mind that a decent team will focus you, strip your stability, and CC you hard.

If you are going for a hard spike with shatter mesmer, try to get an interrupt in before you actually land your F1 shatter. You will put 8 stacks of vulnerability on the enemy from a single daze and interrupt. GS2 is also great to land at close range, especially when traited, because it’ll give your enemy vulnerability and give you might.

When you use F1, you should make sure your clones are properly positioned so that your enemy can’t just kite them. Standard practice is to make a triangle of clones around the enemy.

Focus isn’t optimal for sPvP, if you want to run MH sword then try pistol or torch. Otherwise just run a staff on your swap with GS.

DarkSyze.8627:

Thread like this for example; https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Things-you-found-confusing-as-a-noob/page/2#post4797918 violate policy and rule.

How exactly is that thread insulting or abusive? It’s people talking about their own experiences of being a new player.

In solo queue I’ve been mostly using portals for far caps and buffs on TSS, which means it matters less if my teammates ignore it. I may not be able to contribute as well to a fight as some other classes, but I don’t feel like dead weight to my team.

I run staff, not MH sword, and find that the mobility and ability to stay back from a fight lets me live longer and therefore contribute more. GS knockback is enough to deal with SR, the staff field is good for interrupting revivers.

It helps if you can consistently land moa.

Eh, nerfing something is not the same as creating an imbalance. Let’s look at your examples:

• Example problem: a certain amulet is “too good” on two certain classes in Conquest. Example solution: nerf Might across the whole game and all 3 game modes, along with runes and sigils, affecting all players and discouraging highly organised synergetic play.

It is still optimal to have full might stacks, and there are still certain classes that are able to stack might in ways that other classes are not. I don’t see how might was balanced to begin with or how this introduces an imbalance.

• Example problem: mesmers are “too good” in confusing low-skill players in skirmish scenarios. Example solution: nerf all potential damage output on mesmers and render them next to useless or easily replaceable in all 3 game modes.

This will never be a reason for changes to mesmer balance. PvP balance is focused on high tier play, not beginner play. That’s why bunker specs that can dominate in beginner play have persisted in the game: they have no place in competitive games. Issues that mesmers have in PvE has to do with content design, not overall damage nerfs, but as they exist they really have no issue in terms of damage or utility.

• Users are already discussing nerfs to stealth because of Stronghold, and the same will happen with stability/immunity and heavy CC builds.

No such changes have been announced, and until you can explain how such changes that are being speculated upon would detrimentally affect PvE play, you aren’t actually making an argument against them.

DarkSyze.8627:

For server to have alot of omega golem, they need alot of player to use. So problem is not omega golem but server population. (a server can be very rich than all other server to buy omega blueprint; if they do not have player to use them, mean nothing)

When a server has a much larger zerg, it can still be slowed down sometimes, but this is pretty much impossible if it has omegas. Any effort to deal with the population imbalance directly creates a lot of problems, but reducing the availability of omegas will help an outnumbered group by taking away one of the tools that the zerg has.

You can make golems harder to mass by doing the following:

• Increase the supply costs of golems dramatically.
• Make it impossible to refresh the despawn timer of golems.
• Make it impossible to transport supply from one map to another.

DarkSyze.8627:

Build is not problem; trait is; did you forget; you can not get full build before unlock and reach 80 level? I am still low level and do not have full build and i do good damage because i trait critic, increase damage.

You are fighting much more experienced and fully-kitted players using a character with inferior level and gear, and you refuse advice offered to you by more experienced players. I’m not sure why you expect an outcome apart from being destroyed instantly.

Getting to level 80 and getting a full set of exotic gear is easy, stop trying to get the game changed just because you are so obstinate.

“Please nerf level 80 characters and exotic gear”
Signed,
Level 40 character with fine gear

Tom Gore.4035:

I was once so proud when I got my Gift of Battle. Truly when I wield my legendary one day, people will know I’ve killed hundreds or thousands of enemy players.

Yeah… well that didn’t work out so well in the end.

What are you complaining about, the 2k achievement point club is a very exclusive one! :P

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Aberrant.6749:

No, not clueless. Unless you’re staying up 24/7 doing zerg busting all week you’re not going to be making much of a difference in the overall PPT. Coverage and numbers > skill. Seems more that you have illusions of grandeur… which confirms my point about zerg busting inflating egos.

Yes, clueless. Absolutely clueless.
You don’t have to be present 24/7 to make a difference. By your logic you yourself don’t make a difference either. In fact no one makes a difference according to you.

Zerg busting guilds working closely together with the main zerg can make a HUGE difference. Any zerg commander can tell you that. Just ask Of Disco, Prosecute, or Choo. They love us (zerg busting guild) because we give them some breathing room to actually cap stuff without getting blobbed down every 5 seconds.

He didn’t say you make zero difference. He said you don’t make much of a difference.

After your zerg-busting guild has gone to bed, if you only have one server left with a zerg running PvD they will flip all of the maps within 1 or 2 hours. Unless you have zerg-busting guilds online 24/7, that PvD will mean far more for PPT than any of your coordinated efforts.

In terms of “difference”, think of it this way: How much PPT do you lose if you lose a primetime player (especially if there is a queue so someone will fill their place) versus a player who plays off-peak? The difference going from 5 to 10 players, or 10 to 20 players, or even 50 to 100 players, is much more than the same difference in raw numbers near or past the population cap. What would the PPT gain be if your guild stopped playing primetime and started playing at an hour when WvW activity was at its lowest?

I typed this up on my phone, so there are a couple details I’ll clarify:

• When a dolyak is killed, there appears a failure timer, probably around 60-120 seconds. If the dolyak doesn’t get ressed before the timer runs out, the event fails.
• It has to be hard-ressed like a supervisor.
• The guards wouldn’t despawn unless the escort event failed, but they could be killed (before or after the dolyak).
• If the guards aren’t killed or fighting anything, they will res the dolyak.
• Players can also res the dolyak.

Of course, this is just one idea. A possible variation would be to make the yak lose 10-15 supply every time it was killed.

Sabwa – Yes, it would be much harder to take a camp with two dolyaks inside, but it would defeat the purpose of guards being able to res if they just despawned. Perhaps the problem in the first place is that dolyaks spawn in camps even when they have nowhere to go.

Rimmy.9217:

Sure, but since there’s no penalty for losing (and no reward for winning), there’s no particular need to insert an arbitrary and artificial mechanism for “balance” based on time zones.

Isn’t there a penalty/reward? After all, people do play for points. You expressed your concern about getting your points contribution reduced, if you didn’t care about losing/winning, then why should you be worried?

If this game were more balanced (I’m not proposing mechanisms, the game would also be more balanced if every server simply had more balanced populations at all hours as well), then there could be even more of an incentive to play for points. There could even be more rewards tied to it. I’m not saying that people should be rewarded for winning matches in WvW as it is, but I’m sure plenty would love a game that had more emphasis on strategy.

azyume.6321:

The problem isn’t the points, the problem is the lack of coverage. OP is trying to use a bandage to fix something that isn’t entirely broken while ignoring the real problem. Why all 23 servers, well more if counts the EU as well, should suffer just because your sever have a recruitment problem and doesn’t have a early night/EU/OCx crew?

While talking about this, can you please come to a good point as why the tier 1 and 2 servers will have their efforts diminished when they have plenty of players around to fight, take and defend during those times you judged to be “nightcapping”?

It’s not a server recruitment problem. Recruiting players to fill that time slot for your server is the bandage that fails to address the underlying causes.

No recruitment of night crew will solve the issue, because all that does is shift the burden from one server to another. The population playing during certain time slots is simply much, much smaller, this has to be taken into consideration in the design of the game.

I thought that I could write a better response than Rimmy ;p

LucosTheDutch.4819:

I gave it a second thought and came to the conclusion that I’m okay with “neutral” players who can enter all towers and keeps, BUT,

“neutral” players should still be killable. I can kill neutral mobs, so I should also be able to kill “neutral” players.

Under the condition that I can kill them, I’m fine with “neutral” players who can enter all towers and keeps.

Also “neutral” players should not be able to attack lords of course and they can’t cap anything.

So they can still:

Kill players
Kill siege
Kill NPCs including workers
Build and use siege including golems
Scout players
Scout siege
Scout walls and gates
Drop portals
??

The one suggestion I heard was to let the turn into blind 1-hit critters that can’t carry bundles or supply. Now, I’m not saying you can’t also patch out all of these things in some way, but why go through all that work to cater to your greediest, laziest, whiniest, most cowardly players? What does that say to everyone else, including other PvE players who have gotten one or more Legendary weapons?

As I mentioned, Gift of Battle wasn’t always a trivial accomplishment, WvW is intended to be a part of Legendary completion.

Rimmy.9217:

My party flipping a tower and your party flipping a tower, regardless of whether it’s an empty tower or a defended tower, still ends up with my efforts earning only half for my server what your efforts do.

Let’s imagine that this difference in point allocation were proposed outside of the divisive context of time zone favouritism. Would you still say that this kind of penalty is unfair? I think there’s a valid argument to be made that PvP should play a bigger role in server score than PvD, and that taking a defended tower should be more rewarding for a server than taking an undefended one.

I don’t believe that a crude fix like the OP proposed is fair or appropriate, but there are alternatives to the existing PPT system.

I definitely agree that increasing incentives for active defense is a good way to boost overall WvW rewards, but part of that will involve fixing how those events track participation. I think the devs have signaled that this is something that will be improved in the expansion, of course it’d have to be well-executed.

There was a decent discussion a while back (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Suggestion-More-Events-in-WvW/first) about how to shift the WvW mentality from PvD. One of the ideas I raised was to give map-wide rewards based on participation in small events as well as overall success over short periods, kind of like how there are map-wide events in the new PvE maps. Perhaps they’d integrate something like that in the new map, one can only hope that someone paid attention.

Dante.1763:

Thats where you are wrong, Map completion forces players of both types PVE and PVP to go into the places they hate if they want a legendary. (emphasis added)

Let me stop you right there-

Firstly, this is entirely untrue since legendaries can be bought off TP.

But if we skip that point, let’s consider what a legendary should be, since this is the condition under which you suggest that a PvE player is “forced” to go into WvW. A legendary is a unique, high-end weapon that demonstrates your mastery of the game in all its aspects (sPvP excluded). WvW participation is meant to be a precondition for acquisition!

Along with completing map exploration in WvW, you’re also required to have a Gift of Battle! PvE players forget this and don’t complain about it now because this requisite has been utterly trivialized since they started giving badges away like candy in Achievement Point chests and Edge of the Mists. But there was once a time when anyone who wanted a legendary would have to actually play WvW and kill other players (IIRC there was a time when NPCs didn’t drop badges), or at least risk an encounter in the jumping puzzle.

Getting 500 badges back then was much harder than getting 1k, maybe 2k or more badges today.

On the topic of reward tracks specifically, while I’d probably be delighted to have an extra means of getting loot in WvW, I don’t know that it’s good for the game overall.

• There’s already a couple different ways to get rewards in WvW, instead of bloating the system, why not work on the existing ones? The one argument I would consider is replacing an existing system if it does not work well at all.
• Reward tracks are one of the unique draws of sPvP, and requires people to learn PvP in a way a WvW reward track might not. This would really throw a wrench in the development of sPvP.
• Imagine introducing a reward track in PvE. That would basically homogenize/cheapen all the PvE activity, since you could just find an optimal way to advance the track and avoid content you didn’t like or found too difficult. Since part of WvW activity is PvE/PvD, I don’t think that this is a frivolous proposition.
• A WvW reward track would be more appealing to PvE players than just a straight increase in rewards because it would allow them to access rewards they might otherwise not wish to pursue.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Wow dude, no need to be so hostile/rude like that. That’s totally uncalled for. Calm down.

Yes, I did read his post. Yes, I do see the bigger picture. Obviously just like you I don’t want opportunists and farmers swarming to WvW for the rewards, hence I’m fine with WvW being less rewarding than grinding Silverwastes for example. I already said that. Did you even read my posts?

Eh, you dismissed Tom’s response by telling him, "We fight hard to ensure you PvE players got your server bonuses. You might not realize it but it’s because of us WvW players that you get exp bonuses, bonuses to crafting exp, bonuses to gold from monster, etc. etc. etc. " instead of actually addressing the argument being made. If you did read his post, there’s no indication of that in your response.

One of the risks is that WvW can actually be a lot more rewarding if people gamed the system, and even a moderate increase in rewards can encourage that. So yes, it might still be less rewarding than PvE when played as WvW, but would also be more rewarding than PvE when played as PvD.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

As for rewarding the winning server each week and you bringing up the possibility of people swarming to 1 server: That won’t happen and even if it would, it won’t be an issue due to the population cap on the WvW maps. If everyone would swarm to Blackgate they’d only hurt themselves, because instead of being able to play and get rewards they’ll be stuck in the queues forever and not getting anything. That is one reason why these sort of things usually sort themselves out. For example: a lot of guilds from tier 1 servers have been transferring to tier 2 in the hope to find more balanced fights and shorter queues there.

It happened already in previous tournaments, I think every tournament has seen a net transfer towards higher tiers. People who are just looking to get claim tickets don’t really care about queues anyways. It’s only the WvW players who would suffer. Since you say you went to the #3 server, obviously you didn’t care so much about the incentive to be on the winning team that you say should be added.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Tom Gore.4035:

As long as the rewards remain way below PvE levels I’m fine with increasing them.

Why should it be way below PvE rewards? In my opinion the PvE players are already a very privileged bunch. They get the most stuff, the most updates, the best rewards and Anet in general caters a lot to the PvE players. PvP got some much needed love as well, but us WvW players are still stuck with the same old maps and an extra pseudo-WvW map used for karma training or leveling alts. On top of that the rewards we get are super lackluster.

Wow, did you even read the post? It has nothing to do with PvE player entitlement, take off your blinders and consider the bigger picture instead of giving a reactionary response based on your own entitlement as a player.

The reason why WvW rewards cannot be carelessly increased is because there is a risk of breaking the game mode if you do so. WvW is less rewarding than PvE partly because opposition from other players makes it impossible to get the maximum amount of rewards.

If you make WvW rewarding enough to be an enticing destination to PvE players, some of them will try to game the system so that they can maximize the rewards. This is exactly what happened in Edge of the Mists, where you now have some groups that are very toxic to anyone who tries to PvP in that zone. By encouraging people whose intent is to blob up and avoid fights, you will ruin the one appeal that WvW has to its core player group, which is diverse and challenging PvP encounters. If you lose these encounters, WvW players will leave the game no matter how generous you make the rewards.

I’m not say WvW rewards should be left as they are, but they can only be increased if the whole system is changed so that zerging and PvD is not the optimal way to earn rewards in WvW.

Regarding your specific suggestions: It doesn’t matter if you make it a reward track system if the reward track is advanced the same way WXP is advanced right now. As well, tournament rewards need to be implemented very carefully because if you just make it rewarding to play on the winning server then you just encourage stacking on a single server.

^ If you’re not dealing enough damage, it’s probably because you’re not landing your attacks, rather than being because you don’t have enough offensive stats. If you’re struggling, mixing in defensive stats will give you some breathing room to actually land attacks and learn how to put pressure on your opponent.

Ragnar.4257:

Rewards are relevant because it’s a snowball effect.

Lots of reward-monkeys going to chest -> lots of true PvPers gankers trying to hunt them -> lots of actual PvPers hunting the gankers.

You take away the bottom tier, and the rest collapses.

Oh my god, it’s an ecological pyramid \o/

Primary producers = Loot chest
Primary consumers = Reward-monkeys
Secondary consumers = Gankers
Tertiary consumers = PvPers

Yeah, obviously what I said was simplified given the comment I was responding to. If you want to talk about how traits affect the equation there’s a lot of possible directions for that conversation. Same with the skills involved with playing shatter mesmer (my post before that is concerning offense because the OP clearly struggles with that).

Just look at this thread and consider the audience.

DarkSyze.8627:

shadowpass.4236:

AnniMira.2506:

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

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

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

lmao.

Ok first off, you are running a full zerk mesmer (light armored class). It doesn’t matter if you are ascended or not, ascended zerk adds no defense regardless.

And you are talking about 2 different classes. Thieves can 1 shot with backstab. Mesmers can 1 shot with shatters.

shadowpass, can i ask you question; i hear all the time, “because you run zerk”, so why is wrong for other class to wear zerker and thief not? Is ok for only thief wear zerk and not other class?

It’s not wrong for other classes to wear zerker. shadowpass never claimed that. If you want to get advice from other players, there was another thread with a lot of useful info which you refused to consider or acknowledge. Don’t put words in other people’s mouths for rhetorical points.

All shadowpass was pointing out was that zerker gear doesn’t give you the defensive stats you need to survive a burst, whether it’s level 80 ascended or level 2 common. The only caveat is the defense bonus from armor pieces, but for light armor professions this is quite low.

Zerker is totally viable for mesmer but only if you know how to avoid burst damage. Thieves are actually more vulnerable with full zerker because their health pool is 2/3 the size of a mesmer’s.

AnniMira.2506:

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

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

Shatter is not an easy build to play. Don’t expect results you see in videos like Bamf Joe’s before you have much experience.

You need to learn how to play your enemy and time your shatters so that they will get hit by the shatter. If you just position your clones haphazardly and hit shatter when you have 3 illusions up, chances are your enemy will have time to react to the shatter and dodge or run away from them. One simple trick is to set the clones up in a tight triangle around the enemy, then they have nowhere to run, and if you time an immobilize you can prevent them from dodging.

As with any burst build, you also need to watch for your enemy’s defensive reactions, you can set up a burst but if they have a block or endure pain or a teleport, etc. it’s not going to do much.

Finally, you are never going to get 10k in your combat log as mesmer, each shatter hit registers independently. If you land a full shatter, however, it may well add up to over 10k,

AnniMira.2506:

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

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

Not sure if there’s a video out there with a mesmer viewpoint, but Yishis posts a lot of videos as D/D thief which is high burst, there are two pretty decent mesmer fights on this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEEYhovtwBo

You can skip right ahead to the mesmer fights by expanding the video info and clicking the links.

A thief often does have the advantage against the mesmer in a 1v1 but as a zerker mesmer if you find a less experienced one you can definitely beat them. D/D thieves can use the mesmer’s clones for an easy cloak and dagger stealth, but if a good mesmer can interrupt the CnD and catch the thief with a full shatter.

1. Why on earth are you running scepter as a zerker mesmer? It’s a condition damage weapon with zero utility.
2. What are your traits?

Go here: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/
Enter your build in WvW mode.
Make a post in the Mesmer section, and listen to the advice they give you.

If it is unlocked (visible in your bank wardrobe) then you should be able to transmute the skin onto an existing armor piece using your hero panel wardrobe.

Power.2957:

These are some interesting insights. It’s probably all valid but personally I can’t bring myself to accept that people care that much about loot and not having fun =/ The rewards in Obsi have always been unimportant (at least to me) and there have been many times I have gone there to do everything BUT open the chest.

I’m not saying that everyone goes to OS for the loot, but I think what made it interesting was that there was this traffic of people just trying to get to the chest. There probably aren’t too many people who regularly hang around OS, and going there just to interact with the same people would get boring fast. When there were more people overall in OS, there were more opportunities for spontaneous encounters.

I think that your assessment of the main reasons why OS has been abandoned is totally off. It has to do with factors external to the puzzle, not changes made to it. Basically, loot. Without loot to attract players in the first place, there’s no critical mass to support an active PvP environment.

• PvE players looking for badges can now just go to EotM
• PvErs don’t even need to EotM, they can get enough badges from achievement chests to finish a legendary.
• Since blueprints can now be sold on the TP, this actually means the siege drops are trivial, so it’s not even worthwhile for WvW players to go here.
• Badges aren’t worth much for anything, period. If you’ve been playing WvW for a long time, you have more than you know what to do with.
• Loot in the rest of WvW has been improved quite a bit, I don’t know if there have been any improvements to loot in OS.
• Most players have the puzzle achievement by now.

There were also some stealth (unannounced, pardon the pun) nerfs that made the puzzle harder to run through. You can’t use the active rune bonus on centaur runes while transformed, and backpieces with lighting effects (e.g. Mad Memories) aren’t useful in the dark room anymore.

I used to do the puzzle pretty much daily, but I haven’t bothered with a long time. I went there for the chest, but I enjoyed the encounters with enemies too (preferably after I already obtained the chest). I do agree that it’s sad to see it so forlorn.

Assuming you run 25 stacks of might all the time, you’re only losing 125 power. You should still have bloodlust and guard stacks (350 power), hoelbrak runes (175 power), sharpening stones (~100 power, scales higher with knight’s), and of course you can get zerker weapons and trinkets.

As for what’s the optimal balance, that really depends on you.

You can’t guest to another server’s WvW or enter an objective without taking it. However, match-ups change every Friday evening so you aren’t always playing against the same servers and as the same colour.

Just check the WvW maps regularly, it may take several weeks but it’s really nowhere near as difficult as getting the rest of the legendary. Your server is ranked quite low, but so are the opposing servers, so you’ll get a lot of variation in the match-ups.

Yep, Super Classes also have infinite trait points!

Look, you can either spend all your time crying that certain classes are broken (you’re wrong, but it’s impossible to convince you otherwise because you’re a selective reader and won’t acknowledge legitimate counterpoints), or you can actually learn how to play against those classes. Plenty of people would be happy to offer you advice, if you’d just take it.

THINK ABOUT IT WE ARE OFFERING YOU A WAY TO PLAY YOUR CLASS LIKE A SUPER CLASS AND BEAT ALL THE OTHER SUPER CLASSES

DarkSyze.8627:

Bertrand; So you say tanky gear is answer for not instant kill? Do Super Class use tanky gear for not instant kill? No! So it is ok for them to not use tanky gear and wrong for other class to not use them? I find funny because like rich example; rich say to poor, “It is fault for not have more”? who control instant damage? Thief, Elementalist and Engineer.

Knowledge of different classes, anticipation, and quick responses are the answer for not being instantly killed. Since you can’t seem to handle that, I recommend running something tankier. When you play tanky, you aren’t punished as severely for your mistakes as when playing something glassy.

Unlike the rich vs. poor argument, you can actually try out being a so-called “Super Class”. Tell me how playing a glass cannon build as thief, engi, or ele works out for you.

I don’t know about making WvW specific sets, that would make transitioning between different sets more of a headache for players who don’t stick to one game mode.

Account-bound runes wouldn’t be a bad idea though, and maybe some special food/oils? Those are the most expensive purchases for WvW players.

DarkSyze.8627:

Problem to other class is how can thief kill and other instant kill damage class; engineer, elementalist kill so fast? The other class who don’t instant kill damage is the one using skill-skills; not other way around.

Again, have you played glass builds? If anyone so much as sneezes on you, you’re dead. If a race track analogy can be applied, it’s more like shortening the track for both sides so that the race isn’t mind-numbingly drawn out.

It’s impossible to instantly down anyone with tanky gear, they’d have to sit there and eat the damage. If a player is prone to doing that then it doesn’t matter what build they play against, they will lose.

HtFde.3856:

That’s another part that’s often overlooked in the “thieves are op” discussion – the ability to grant that blasted stealth to other party members. The most fun I ever had were 2 thieves + 1 mesmer + 1 engi at Golanta. That group downed 12 people before they had to run (only to be back a few minutes later and farming everything but the main zerg which ran by them). Now do that with, say, 1 ranger, 1 necro and 2 guardians …

Not sure if you’re implying that comp should wreck a zerg or suggesting that it’s impossible… Because I’ve seen videos where TCHU does that (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFJ_ycKw76w and they’re not the only guild that does this). They regularly take apart small zergs with a 4-5 man comp like that (often 2 guardians, 1 necro, 1-2 of another class like warrior, ele, ranger) because they have huge AoE burst potential paired with high sustain.

Brewergamer.8357:

Now I know people on this forum will cry, (there were even people crying saying that Arenanet would go bankrupt IRL when I suggested cosmetic unlocks, now we have cosmetic unlocks and everything is fine, there were also people who said that if you got pve rewards in pvp it’d ruin the game) but in reality the forums are generally just the vocal minority, the vast majority of the ingame community would want populated wvw maps trust me.

EDIT: I also wanted to comment to people saying “MEGASERVER TECHNOLOGY WILL RUIN THE GAME!!!” People said that before they added megaserver technology for PvE as well. PvE now has megaserver technology and it is MUCH better for it.

This is just a whole lot of empty rhetoric about how change is good and the silent majority agrees with you, etc. If you want to make a decent case, don’t waste your time or my time with these insubstantial arguments.

Brewergamer.8357:

I am on a T1 server (Tarnished Coast) and any time of the day (even right now, as of 2:10pm, middle of the day) there is like a small group (less than 10 people) on any map at any given time. Earlier in gw2s life the maps were always populated but now only EOTM seems to be adequately populated. I think that all maps should use megaserver technology to populate them. Set up like 3v3v3 servers like EOTM instead of 1v1v1 there just isn’t enough people in wvw for that anymore. It would make alot of people happy to see the wvw maps populated again.

Instead, let’s watch a video from one of your opponents from just a month ago, not because I particularly enjoy zerging videos, but because it exposes how wrong you are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCI-GEp9Cxc

That’s not a 10v10, not even close.

Now it is true that on most servers you don’t get large clashes like that at every time of the day, and there have been some proposals to merge some of the smaller WvW servers together. That isn’t what you’re suggesting here.

What you’re asking for is for all players to be shunted into a single megaserver system for WvW which will give fully populated maps at all times of the day. This would be great for people who like really big zergs, and play at odd hours, and are too casual to bother moving to a more populated server or care about how their team performs. This sounds like an EotM player to me.

WvW players need more than that, because WvW is a team game that has to work at many levels. Yes, there are PvE events that require coordination and can be done with the megaservers, but even those are mostly just learning about a static event chain. Successful WvW requires constant communication, knowing your enemies and your allies, and responding to the actions of others.

Whether you are talking about commanders, scouts, roamers, infantry, or part of a raiding guild, the team that forms a WvW server is invested in a community that has a history, they’ve chosen a home with a particular style of WvW (people who are tired of constant zerging will move down tiers), and they require tools like TS to work together effectively. That’s all lost once you’re thrown into a giant pool of people which changes constantly.

What’s worse, if you try to lump all the servers into three permanent teams, you risk losing balance entirely because people could just move to the most populated team. Even under the current system, servers usually don’t have a guaranteed win or loss in their matchup because they can get paired up or down the ladder.

Unlike EotM, WvW is about lengthy matchups, not just the play on the ground, so it doesn’t work if you don’t have maps that are continuous through the week. See how much groaning there is just when the game forces a restart when a patch comes online. Now think what would happen if you spent hours getting a keep upgraded, with your whole team defending, then your shard was just shut down because there weren’t enough players. The kind of drama that keeps WvW exciting will disappear if a WvW map becomes just one of many shards.

EotM is an overflow map. There are multiple shards for EotM, which means that the map that you came across doesn’t even represent the state of EotM because no such thing exists.

points to thread

Devs, take note: EotM is a joke. Axe the rewards for playing in EotM, please.