Guild Wars 2

OIIIIIO.7825:

If you can find any videos of Tage I would suggest checking them out.
He is one of the best guardians I have ever seen, and I bet you could learn a few tricks from watching him play.

tbh kinda over rated now that i watch his streams

Aza.2105:

Booms.2594:

shout guards are fine BUFF MEDIS

Both shouts and meds are fine imo. They need to buff signets and spirit weapons. Both of which no one really uses.

meds are not used competitively but yes it’d be nice for signets to be buffed. tbh spirit weapons are cancer and I dont want those buffed.

You came back for eles to be buffed again. Honestly diversity in teams is pretty strong you can actually see top teams in NA not running guard or warr or thief at all. Solos and teams are seperate but you can still soloq in teamq so you get half decent tempted with the risk of fighting a pug

shout guards are fine BUFF MEDIS

Maksim.4516:

P.S. You should try standart bunker with intelligence sigil.

Medi guard buffs

“If the Team Comp shows “GW,ET,E”, that means the team is composed of Guardian, Warrior, Engineer, Thief and Elementalist. The first set represents heavy class, second set is medium class, third set is light class. If you see an X, that means the class is not included in the team comp. For example, “GWW,X,EM”, that means the team is composed of a Guardian, Warriors (two of them), Elementalist and Mesmer.”
A+ for effort

i love you all blu i swear you better give me a shout out

Lopez.7369:

holodoc.5748:

The moment you hear glass plates breaking its too late because it means the magnet has already been set and you’ll get pulled in less than a second. You can try whatever you like it wont save you unless you specifically have stability or are out of range (unlikely with a 1200 range). Magnet is unblockable, it has a ridiculously low CD of 25s and it’s extremely hard to spot when deployed because of the visual effects. Mesmer pulls/pushes won’t help because a) GS is usually out of range when chasing, b) curtain needs time to deploy.

There is no doubt Skyhammer can be interesting. However its undeniable that some tricks on that map are way more cheaper than others, like Magnet. My proposal for Skyhammer still stands – add a stability buff bellow the gun. If someone still falls to the cheap KB/push/pull tricks it will obviously be his/her own fault.

You know you can dodge the magnet, right?

The people defending Skyhammer are obviously wrong and in a small minority, but you seem to misunderstand basic game mechanics.

you know magnet is invisible while in stealth right

wow this is one of the worst theives ive ever had to watch

Ozie.4176:

Moobs.8231:

Virtue of Courage
as it’ll usually block a steal and ruin the thiefs burst as well as give protection for the rest of the burst..

I actually didn’t read the whole guide but you’re missing a few things. Namely you can’t block steal with aegis because it steals the Aegis before it does anything else, just like with Stability.

Anyways, you’re missing some of the smaller things that a Guard can do for his team such as Aegising for someone when they heal, staff auto for proccing intel / phising for crits if you don’t have intel (since you can sidestep orb) and Guards rotating into 2v2s, hello? They are pretty trash at 2v2s. Unless I mean, you’re trying to run 3 points, but its still less than ideal to have a guard in a 2v2. Oh and if you do take a 2v2 it should never be with a thief and probably not with a mesmer.

Decent guide over all. g8 m8 would r8 8/8

not true guard/thief and guard/mesmer are both very strong 2v2’s when assaulting a point. you force one person ont he other team to stand on point with you while your thief and mesmer can kite the 1 other person to their liking, which makes them extremely strong.
guard/ele is also practically unbeatable no matter what
guard/warrior is a good combo for tanking a point too, the amount of sustain these 2 can bring can allow your team to 2v3 for minutes at a time.

Why would I proc intel with auto anyway the dmg is horrible and I have 3 attacks anyway so I can just auto if orb misses (it literally never does anyway)?

You’re right about the thief steal didn’t really cross my mind but if you have stab up then it doesn’t matter cuz its the 3rd on the priority

uberkingkong.8041:

Moobs.8231:

uberkingkong.8041:

Xista.7391:

Axelwarrior.9084:

Xista.7391:

Okay. Dodge or avoid the invisible magnet.

I’ll tell those guys who i pull off.

It’s not invisible, you can clearly see the engineer using it and the white lines pointing at you

They only last a split second, very faint, and are near impossible to see in any sort of team fight. Someone is going to die if my teammates break the glass for me.

Countering the predictable stuff is easy. Stealthing behind players who break plates and baiting dodges is what kills people

Obviously a 2v1 gives someone an advantage, but it also means somewhere on the other side there is another one person advantage going on. Also when plates start cracking smart players don’t just stand there and let you pull them, even if you sneak in, they will be on there guard just like how everyone is when plates crack. Sure you may get him, but don’t forget your also leaving your team as a one person disadvantage elsewhere and they will down that lone guy as easily as you downed the guy with your 2v1 advantage.

For the 1v2 on sidenode and hammer fights I’d say necromancer is the best because of AE fears also he does have stability and can teleport back if he falls.

As I said before, Skyhammer is a high skill level map, people have there own tricks up there sleeves and being ready for them is key. Many more aspects of the game is made known which makes Skyhammer highly skill played map.

its not skillful i just banish people off by baiting dodges and byebye

and to the people who think you can dodge S toss magnet you are literally kittened. the only way youll ever know its coming is if you HEAR the S toss which basically means you have to be by yourself.

That’s why its highly skilled map, if you think you can bait anyone with dodges you’ve gotta be kidding. Good players don’t fall for that.

Also, don’t assume they wont be doing something to you as well, to make it sound so easy as you do. You will be getting pressured as well, once you miss your pull or have it broken by a stunbreak than your going to have to do other things to make it easy as it sounds and I’m sure a good player can give you a run for your money.

I’ve already mentioned the ways to counter that, a Mesmer pull or push, a necro fear, blind fields, having stability, stun breaking, hiding behind your NPC, using the elements around you.

As I mentioned before this map is highly skill played map, you have to be aware of many other aspects of the game other than someone immobilizing you and dpsing you to death.

Also the sounding of the glass starting to shatter is very noticeable and seeing classes that have pull utilities run away and go invis are clear indicators of whats going to happen and is easily countered, in a 2v1 fight sure someone could set you up, on any other map its the same deal, that lone person is suppose to lose anyways but can win, just like that can happen on skyhammer as well.

tell me how youre going to know whether or not Im going to last second cancel my banish lmfao thats what i call baiting dodges

uberkingkong.8041:

Xista.7391:

Axelwarrior.9084:

Xista.7391:

Okay. Dodge or avoid the invisible magnet.

I’ll tell those guys who i pull off.

It’s not invisible, you can clearly see the engineer using it and the white lines pointing at you

They only last a split second, very faint, and are near impossible to see in any sort of team fight. Someone is going to die if my teammates break the glass for me.

Countering the predictable stuff is easy. Stealthing behind players who break plates and baiting dodges is what kills people

Obviously a 2v1 gives someone an advantage, but it also means somewhere on the other side there is another one person advantage going on. Also when plates start cracking smart players don’t just stand there and let you pull them, even if you sneak in, they will be on there guard just like how everyone is when plates crack. Sure you may get him, but don’t forget your also leaving your team as a one person disadvantage elsewhere and they will down that lone guy as easily as you downed the guy with your 2v1 advantage.

For the 1v2 on sidenode and hammer fights I’d say necromancer is the best because of AE fears also he does have stability and can teleport back if he falls.

As I said before, Skyhammer is a high skill level map, people have there own tricks up there sleeves and being ready for them is key. Many more aspects of the game is made known which makes Skyhammer highly skill played map.

its not skillful i just banish people off by baiting dodges and byebye

and to the people who think you can dodge S toss magnet you are literally kittened. the only way youll ever know its coming is if you HEAR the S toss which basically means you have to be by yourself.

Zord.6130:

DP(trickery) thief vs Condi Necro should be a 50%/50%. This ratio can be changed by the following:
-Lyssa Runes on thief(add 10% to thief)
-Nightmare Runes on Necro(add 10% on necro)
-Necro running stunbreakers(add 10% on necro for every stun breaker he is carrying).
The only way for a DP to beat a Condi necro is to stick on him constantly with Shadow Shot, go in stealth for a quick burst and keep sticking on him, while CCing the necro with Steal, Stolen Skull, Basilisk Venom.
I’d open in stealth with BV, do some damage, interrupt the heal with Steal, go back in stealth and interrupt the heal again with the stolen fear.
The moment you fail to land one of those, you lose (as DP).

SD thieves are way better at dealing with necros thanks to their many Condi removals.
After the Dhuumfire nerf, necros are way easier to take on for thieves.

sd thief is actually coutnered by condi necro

very strong
it loses to condi necro though

Vamp Rook.7835:

Fractal tournament had about 7k viewers, ToL2 Qualifier 2 about 700…and better prizes.

Fractal tournament also has better prizes than the International All-Stars.

#Shame

what a surprise theres more casuals in a casual game

MEDI GUARD BUFFS

Billionaire.5607:

Great Guide! One thing I haven’t seen a lot about is condition control. What I mean by this is paying attention to what kind of conditions your team or yourself has, taking note the amount of stacks, durations. Too often I see guardians blow all their shouts to remove conditions that doesn’t need to be removed at that time for that current situation. For example, if you don’t need to kite, you are sitting on a point let that cripple run it’s duration.

From my experience (others can clarify):
*Poison – Always remove when able
Note: Some classes can reapply poison quickly in those situations I tend to let it run until I need to use a bigger heal. Also if the fight is finished and you notice the duration is almost over + you have enough health, then don’t cleanse it! This goes for most conditions after a fight is over it is usually best to let them run their duration. However keep in mind any team-mate that might need a cleanse depending on their health pool.

*Bleeds – Short duration, low stacks? Leave them be, wait until you have high stacks or long durations to clear them all at once.

*Cripple – If no-one needs an escape, kiting, or w/e let it run out.
*Vuln – Depends on amount of stacks and who is being focused.
*Torment – Depends on situation, duration
*Confusion – Depends on stacks – High amount then clear
*Fire – Depends on duration, but usually keep cleared
*Fear – Depends on situation
Note: How/When I clear this: If there is a team fight then I clear it to keep my team in the fight, If I happen to be left on a point, caught moving from one point to another – I’ll let it run its duration.
Immob: Are you/they being focused? Short duration? Wait it out.

Using your shouts at the right time makes a HUGE difference. Spamming them can work yes, but why use them when you don’t need to? That way you have them ready for those moments that really can make the difference for yourself and your team.

Anyone else want to add anything? Is there something I am missing?

ty for this post I knew I should’ve gone into detail about cleansing condis, pretty much everything you said is dead on
one thing you didnt mention is that you shouldn’t cleanse off condi’s for JUST yourself unless youre taking focus from a necro or something

Evan Lesh.3295:

Replays would of course be amazing. However, it’s not as easy as ‘using Gw1 code’. Replays and match history can live side-by-side. You don’t want to have to open a recording every time you want to see if you won or lost your last 5 matches.

forget the match history stuff just make replays possible

Best
Strength, Pirate, Soldier, Hoelbrak, Nightmare
Viable
Balthazar, Ogre, Melandru, Traveler, Scholar

Abe Kleine.3568:

Josh Davis.6015:

To clarify a point in the original post:

Regarding the “Skill Bar” segment, we’re going to be covering future balance updates for both the ranger and engineer. We’re only covering two on each episode because we want to make sure we’re conveying the information in a more easily digestible manner, and we want to make sure we’re giving every profession its due in terms of coverage.

More professions will be covered in the coming weeks.

-Grouch

Are you guys gonna do something about those Guardian Spirit weapons? I’d sure like to be able to use a set of utilities without being laughed at for its insignificance

turret engi, spirit ranger, bannerbunker warr, WHY DO YOU WANT SPIRIT WEAPON AIDS TOO????

manveruppd.7601:

Match history would be nice, but I actually think match recordings would be better. I would happily pay gems for Spectator Mode-style replays of my games that I could download to a “Replays” folder to rewatch at my leisure. Not all of us record all our games after all, and an in-engine replay would take up a lot less HDD space than a video. Plus, an in-engine replay would allow me to go check out what my teammates or opponents were doing, and therefore learn and improve as a player a lot more.

Not to mention how much it would help pro teams review their matches and make multi-camera, multi-pov video replays of their games to upload to Youtube for publicity purposes, or to make tutorials for crappier players like me!

this would be one of THE MOST amazing things ever done by anet if they can pull it off

and the above 2 posts are why im so frustrated with soloq, no one takes it seriously and you end up getting PO’d because your team is mentally impaired

One very small note you should switch the two DPS guards in TPVP, the first one listed is more of a “variant” than the second one listed

oh youre not level 80 yet. it doesn’t really matter yet til then.

just get zerker

hehk.8705:

masskillerxploit.2165:

If avi can carry NC like he always does. Maybe. Otherwise nope.

More unsubstantiated trash talk from the mesmer from the biggest joke of a team NA.

tichorum.2415:

Yeah NC and Mega in advancing. I predict NC beating Mega on August 24th, however.

Thanks for the support man, GL to you in the finals.

thanks bro

TheThiefMaster.3812:

Moobs.8231:

Elitist.8701:

S/D thieves aren’t OP. In teamfights they dont have that much sustain, they only have 3 evades every 5 seconds unless they use Signet, and once focused they die really fast. They cant 1v1 engis, hambows, eles, or Necros ON POINT which is the only place where 1v1s matter. They’re only slightly more mobile than D/P thieves in terms of landspeed. Speaking of D/P thieves they HARDCOUNTER S/D thieves. Black Powder destroyed any X/D thief.

That’s a funny thing to say considering our thief who runs s/d never loses to caed

Thats because that thief is outplaying caed , d/p counters most thief sets aside from P/D because the latter doesn’t require you to go in melee range thus negating the blind spam.

caed is probably the best d/p thief mechanically so i think youre pretty stupid saying how it counters s/d then because no one should be able to beat him on s/d

I think there’s a menu option somewhere for turn off escape for menu

Quick Ferox delete your posts like they did so you don’t look bad!

Acrisor.8097:

Staff ele was never good. Look at all the builds that failed miserably in tPvP just by playing with staff ele. Look at Tournament of Legends 1 and other competitions where staff elementalist was the least played profession, and statistically elementalist was one of the least played professions overall (with or without staff). Staff ele should not be OP.
If there is something to be nerfed here, that is staff ele. The PvP game is not centered on teamplay and combos, it is focused on 1v1, so there is no room for staff ele in tPvP.

who cares what hte majority of teams did if the 2 teams who made it to the finals were running staff ele? get a clue

right here with ya bullet

If you’re hiding behind illusions you’re not playing it right

D/d ele probably??

What the hell is a spellblade?

Word is someone rigged results so you’ll probably see anet just pickin whoever they like

Jomo kenyatta.7351:

Chaotic.9742:

Sad to say but I feel like this is a case of you being outplayed. A great ele will frustrate you if you don’t know how to fight one properly. On the other side, an avg ele will die pretty easily since they won’t have the proper cooldown management. Yes you heard me, eles have to manage things to be great despite people saying they can faceroll and be OP. They can and will die when you attack them and know what to interrupt, when to fear, when to condi load, etc. It’s all timig. Just practice more and less qq.

if you dont know who duke henry is then you clearly dont play pvp that much and therefore have very little insight into what it entails. 1. your not even top 1000 and you think you can basically say to one of the best necros in pvp ‘’ learn to play’’ your the reason this game doesnt develop properly cause you assume its qq when he genuinly cares about the state of pvp, you never play team que, and if you do you play against the bottom of the barrel therefore meaing you dont see any of the top players he faces on a daily basis, you need to learn to play cause your not even close to his level.

Or he just plays NA and doesn’t know those names cuz I don’t

Elitist.8701:

S/D thieves aren’t OP. In teamfights they dont have that much sustain, they only have 3 evades every 5 seconds unless they use Signet, and once focused they die really fast. They cant 1v1 engis, hambows, eles, or Necros ON POINT which is the only place where 1v1s matter. They’re only slightly more mobile than D/P thieves in terms of landspeed. Speaking of D/P thieves they HARDCOUNTER S/D thieves. Black Powder destroyed any X/D thief.

That’s a funny thing to say considering our thief who runs s/d never loses to caed

5 in virtues for boons and 5 in radiance for the blind

ive been running air/rage on GS and air/generosity on S/F and I think its the best setup so far

FeelsAlright.5860:

Darnis.4056:

Sizer.2654:

Nerfing air/fire sigils would actually buff sd thiefs lol atm these sigils give u guys extra burst to pressure us , hf trying to kill us without them

Sizer knows for a fact that if Sigils were nerfed the sustain/burst damage on Thief would take a big hit.
Don’t let his cool demeanor fool you.

Do Sigils effect both parties? Yes, does it effect the Thief who is evading most of the damage in between his own proc CD’s more so ? Yes it does.

Do The 7k Larcenous strikes hurt? Yes they do, Do they hurt more with a 4k(double) proc and 3k steal? Yes.

Ls can only hit for 7k with 25 might + executioner + 15% signet on a zerker. Most of the time it’s 2500-3500 in a 2/0/0/6/6 build.

dreaming here with you bullet punch

TehGems.1947:

Very nice answer.
Now I’ll ask for some advice. Currently I’m running GS+S/F with full zerk stuff.
On my weapons I have sigils of force and accuracy. I don’t plan to pve much from now but just wvw (and spvp), so what sigil should I cut from my weapons? The obvious choice seems force, but I want to be sure seeing as they are pretty expensive on the TP.

tbh those sigils are a lot weaker because air/fire sigils have shorter cd’s (specifically air at 3s) and will give a higher dmg boost

hehk.8705:

cymerdown.4103:

Agreed, if your team is heavy roaming, Hizzy Brizzy is much worse. The squishier the team, the less effective allied healing is and the more tanky you need to be since nobody else can stand on point. Also the more skirmishing your team does, the less effective melee range healing is.

I have found getting breezy allows you to turn a hambow or d/d ele into a full fledged bunker while you can patiently sit off to the side and use your CDs more supportivly. It is also good for moving, even squishy, teammates out of executioner or bolt to the heart range.

idk if I may just be biased because saying, “I am getting breezy” in TS is too much fun.

if youre off node youre probably running kensudas virtue build not AH anyway

mPascoal.4258:

Blackjack.5621:

legendaries are more common than some rare weapons, nothing special anymore

This is true. I use the Warden Greatsword on my Guardian (t3 cultural from Sylvari, cultural weapons can be used in all races) and I see way more Sunrises and Twilight than copies from my weapon. Ppl often ask me what weapon is it.

My certain votes are:

EU: Sizer, Bullet Punch
NA: BLU, Kensuda. Five Gauge

Rest was not random, was based on the texts, but I don’t remember all names, these are the ones from the selected I want to see.
I would also voted in Magic Toker or Caed if they were there, aparently not I would like to know why

to be totally honest toker wouldnt deserve it

popaz.1524:

Ken recommended me using Healing breeze and after I tried it, I never looked back.
It is SO useful if your rotating to a point your teammate is already engaged in.
You can basically heal him back up instantly since the heal is close to 8k
plus it can be used with combination of focus so you don’t get interrupted.

As far as build goes, both AH and Virtues are strong builds.. I personally use Virtues but a lot of it comes down to team comp.

p.s.: Good guide!!

yes I like using healing breeze too, but it really depends on comp tbh. I dont like to run it because Im on point 99% of the time since we run with mesmer+thief who cant stay on point for me to pull off pretty much ever.

cymerdown.4103:

Hey guys, I was thinking of an amicable solution for the “BLU problem” , which is the conflict being caused by the fact that of all people, BLU by far is the most deserving person from NA (and the rest of the world, for that matter) to travel to this tournament, but not in contention for most deserving players. Here’s my proposal: BLU offers to drop out of the running, in exchange, I will open a crowd source fund to pay for his plane ticket and hotel room for the weekend. I will put 500 USD into this fund, and depend on the rest of the NA and EU communities to help out with the balance. If the support for BLU is really there, it should be no problem coming up with the 1.5k or so remaining dollars to get him to Germany to appear as a guest. Let’s see the most deserving players from each region play in this event, while still making sure BLU gets to go. The man has put his life into this game and its PvP scene, it’s time to give a little back.

100$ from me pledged

JohnnyZero.5619:

Well if the TOL is anything to go by … a comp with 3 bunker-ish warriors can beat an established, coordinated team.

can beat a 3 condi spam comp with no bunker guard designed to beat meta comps by focusing down bunker guardians easily **

Swagg.9236:

Moobs.8231:

Can’t teach what you don’t have either

You take that back. I’m excellent at Whack-a-Mole and rock-paper-scissors. These skills translate directly to “high-level” GW2 PvP.

surprised i found you in the top 1000 leaderboards tbh

Can’t teach what you don’t have either