Guild Wars 2

Shockwave.1230:

Chaith.8256:

The impact on the build make-up for teams is 3 delicate balances.

• Direct Damage vs. Condition Damage (Tied in further to Condition Removal)
• Tanky Stats vs. Sustained Healing.
• Sustained Damage vs. Burst Damage.

So on those three fronts… we’ve encountered a pretty large shift away from a focus in Condition Damage. That’s because Eles now do a great job of counteracting that, with the re-buff of Cleansing Water, and Generosity/Purity Sigils have become viable.

We’ve also encountered a shift away from Tanky stats (toughness, vitality) and a movement towards group sustain. Monk Runes, Sigils of Renewal, Celestial Amulets, all of these April 15th additions helped on this front.

In regards to Sustained Damage vs. Burst Damage, the presence of Strength runes has allowed sustained damage builds to flourish, and simply overwhelm enemies with might stacked Auto-Attacks and cleave. Burst damage is rewarding still, but the defensive risk makes it hard to justify over a sustainable, high sustained pressure DPS.

So… what we’re seeing on NA is a huge focus on high Sustained Damage carries, and a nigh invincible healing-based Core, of Guardian, Ele, and Engineer/Ranger.

Something interesting in my mind is that the second comparison made in the list above doesn’t apply to glass cannon’s at all.

Something else that’s interesting to me is that for the 3rd comparison, It seems like D/D ele and Warrior can do both burst and sustain.

Well, I consider Glass Cannons to be a kind of wildcard in a comp, not something that NA players build their comp out of. Heck, even Thieves that run 10/0/0/30/30 berserker S/D are more sustained damage than burst.

I think that Ham/Axebow Warriors and D/D Eles have a couple bursty moves (Eviscerate, Churning Earth, Fire Grab) but I feel like sustained DPS suits them better.

The impact on the build make-up for teams is 3 delicate balances.

• Direct Damage vs. Condition Damage (Tied in further to Condition Removal)
• Tanky Stats vs. Sustained Healing.
• Sustained Damage vs. Burst Damage.

So on those three fronts… we’ve encountered a pretty large shift away from a focus in Condition Damage. That’s because Eles now do a great job of counteracting that, with the re-buff of Cleansing Water, and Generosity/Purity Sigils have become viable.

We’ve also encountered a shift away from Tanky stats (toughness, vitality) and a movement towards group sustain. Monk Runes, Sigils of Renewal, Celestial Amulets, all of these April 15th additions helped on this front.

In regards to Sustained Damage vs. Burst Damage, the presence of Strength runes has allowed sustained damage builds to flourish, and simply overwhelm enemies with might stacked Auto-Attacks and cleave. Burst damage is rewarding still, but the defensive risk makes it hard to justify over a sustainable, high sustained pressure DPS.

So… what we’re seeing on NA is a huge focus on high Sustained Damage carries, and a nigh invincible healing-based Core, of Guardian, Ele, and Engineer/Ranger.

Recommend Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist, and Engineer. These professions, when built properly, are inherently tanky enough to allow you to trade blows with anything, and prevent you from normally being hard countered.

Shaogin.2679:

Any advice on playstyle with that build?

twitch.tv/chaithh

It’s a competent 1v1, teamfight carry, and support.

Set up kills with Magnet, Overcharge Shot, and Net Shot.

Support your team with Healing Turret, Detonate, and Acid Bomb every time you can see your team sustaining damage.

Play defensively with Grenade Kit if you need to.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpErtbxkLseNCbBNqxI6OWlN+5DEgkC-TJRHwAFeAAc2fAwFA4YZAA

It’s survivable, but hybrid. Played like a power Engi, with Rifle.

Edit: My hybrid tournament build

Bhawb.7408:

Kernave.5732:

Can anyone list the music they were using on the stream please quite liked a few of the songs :-) thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSYxT9GM0fQ

This was the only song played.

LOL. Nice.

The music was all played from the Monstercat channel playlist on Youtube, I’m guessing.

brannigan.9831:

The idea that people from one part of the world are better on average at a video game is ludicrous at best. Taking the game more seriously, spending more time playing it, and having teams together longer does not equal more innate ability at the game. In a strange way N/A should be respected because we realize this game isn’t worth putting much effort at all into. I guess when you have the welfare state minding you 24/7 some Euros have plenty of time to waste on bland games with almost no incentive to excel. Most of us in America have better things to do.

Laughing at the idea that people from one part of the world are better on average at a video game.. And then coming up with the idea that due to the Welfare State, Euros on average don’t have much better to do – all in the same breath.

Impressive deduction, lol.

• It’s survival was nerfed last patch.
• It’s damage is garbage.
• If you aren’t 90%+ health the entire time, you’re not fighting an Engi that can 1v2 on point, and is most likely just.. a power Engi with a Rifle.

Constructive Criticisms:

• You will get dunked by conditions if your burst skills get blinded. Without Longbow in this meta, for reliable cleansing, is a bad move. Relatively low HP pool, too.

• 30 Strength is generally very wasteful, due to changes made to Sigil of Intelligence. Use that sigil well, and you will have no need for that trait in order to get big eviscerates.

If you’re an axe man, I recommend you try something like this build: Use the last 2 trait pts wherever, and pick your favoured defense adept trait:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAneTjMdUFaZIGewJSgqgCtAoBUPENeOA-TpBBwAkLDA4EA45IAg5BAUb/hNHCAA

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

dolyak signet’s stability can still be stripped.

hmmm yeah i should probably reanimate my topic about rampage. thanks for reminding me!

So.. you wouldn’t see a problem with buffing Balanced Stance to be un-strippable in practice and having Dolyak signet remain worthless by comparison?

You should probably call it a day regarding the skills & balance suggestions lol

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

ok, how about this then?

Balanced Stance
You enter into a balanced stance.
8 Stability: 8 s
8 Swiftness: 8 s
Interval: 1 s
Duration: 8 s
Breaks stun

Notes: Breaks stun on activation and grants 1 second of Stability and Swiftness per second over 8 seconds.

the “sure footed” trait will increase the duration from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. and i think overall boon duration needs to be around 50% for be useful in this situation.

so how does it feel like now?

Gee maybe it’s not a good idea to make common Warrior stability completely impossible to strip and counter?

I can see that suggestion happening for things that have 20 second stabilities (elite transforms).

This thread is pretty silly…

It’s strippable because it’s stability. Remember that having stability doesn’t impede you in any way that Mist Form, Elixir S, or Death Shroud does. All of these share something in common.. you have no access to your regular skills for the duration.

Seeing as Balanced Stance is still a must-have for competitive Warriors, and Warriors are still very competitive, what’s the problem again?

It would clearly break Dolyak Signet compared to Balanced stance because one would potentially be unstrippable.. what’s your excuse for why Dolyak Signet doesn’t give some un-strippable stability? Is that not a ‘true signet’ lol :P

Balanced Stance is one of the best utilites out there, bud. Kids would get wrecked if I could slot Balanced Stance on my Power Engineer.

JoopFOX.9510:

http://www.twitch.tv/blu42 you can hear the Chinese announcer there. They already hired one.

I thought you were making a funny, implying that Blu’s shoutcasting could normally be mistaken for someone speaking in Chinese.. but, no. The in-game sPvP announcer sounds great.

WilnerGW.3275:

Hi guys;

I have a lvl 20 warrior. If i join some SPvP arena, my level and my traits go to lvl 80.

But my gear doesnt. And i dont get any Runes/Sigil.

Is there any difference between me and a lvl 80 character? Should i wait till im lvl 80 to do SPvP?

Ty every1.

Actually you do get lvl80 gear, sigils, and runes.

Edit those on the “PvP Build” button, on the overhead PvP UI.

Everyone here has stated that it affects 5 allies, but cone abilities in this game are often limited to 3. Just throwing that out there for those who are testing.

I think a better comparison for Ranger traps would be Thief traps.

Yep, still invisible.

Mike.4830:

Lets be real, GF would get farmed… they are far from the best team NA, and EU is far better than NA….. Only team that would stand a chance is Outplayed By Children… they were seeded 4th bc they are new, but they will win the ToL for sure

Very candid and well said. /respect

lol j k

If you mess with that much, the new functionality will be more like … summon and instantly detonate. Necromancers are currently balanced around having to pre-plan your getaway as a common responsibility.

Whatever you say, bud.

You should use Healing Turret, and Accellerant Packed Turrets. You’ll get more sustain, more quickness, due to being able to keep it on cooldown easier, especially if you miss an Overcharged Shot.

It affects your might stacking ability a bit, but it’s a worthwhile trade-off imo.

Because not every win gives the same matchmaking value increase…

It’s telling you that the wins your guildy achieved were against much higher rated players, and launched him farther up the leaderboards.

Advent.6193:

Well, Chaith. I’ll give a known heavy pvper his cred. However, P/D being in decent shape does bupkis for the fact that P/P is still -almost 2 years- in, considered the most craptastic of all Thief weaponspreads.
With that in mind, what would you suggest? I personally wanted to see some form of evasion play built into the set, but obviously ANet and I don’t agree. /shrug

My logic as to why P/P is pretty craptastic is because there are no defensive mechanisms imbued into the weapon set.

S/D Flanking strike evades… S/P Pistol Whip evades, Shadow Shot’s teleport and blind,

With P/D, simply landing Shadow Strike while pressured, or offensively, will pretty much make you impossible to catch. Teleporting 20 times a minute gets extremely tiresome to enemies that are melee or AoE based.

Every 3 skill has a mechanic that allows you to avoid counter-pressure… with P/P you are locked in a channel and you can’t evade anything. That’s kind of a big downside, haha.

Pistol/Dagger weapon set is highly viable, even in tPvP, but boring. Watch Caed’s stream and observe..

Vital shot is fine… the hybrid damage from Shadow Strike is simply too amazing to think about buffing auto-attack damage.

That’s a very new and refreshing idea, of which I am a fan.

Currently, if a solo thief, for example, can make a big play and down an enemy, in an outnumbered situation, I feel that this play often isn’t rewarded enough. The enemy who’s in force will just double revive the downed enemy, no penalty incurred.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

My Build

Yikes man – Gadgeteer, and traiting Energized Armor for +71 power? I would just go with Rifle Mod.

Glass toughness, no stunbreak and no protection o_o. Man mode engi.

Mnemesis.8257:

chaos.1893:

Hi i back to game after 6 monts brake and i have problems in pvp ,so i am looking new pvp build 1vs1 after last patch , i dont know wchich wepon i should use now.
Is pistol- shield still OP or rifle better 1vs1? and what build+what armor should i wear now.

As usual, more information is needed to help you here. Do you prefer damage or conditions, maybe even a bit of both? Is dodging something you find difficult or not have enough of? Do you like kits, turrets, elixirs or gadgets; perhaps any combination of them? At this point all anyone can really do is throw out builds that work for them and hope it’s something you gravitate towards.

With the recent changes to 2h weapons using two sigils, I now like to use Rifle more often than not. If you are a fan of being above average in everything, then I like to use this build. I always have vigor up, great defense due to prot on CC and the recent Celestial buff in PvP. Damage is great, especially when using Runes of Strength with Sigil of Battle and Sigil of Strength (which does not show up in build due to editor not updating yet) granting you 20+ stacks of might easily. Again, we could use more information from you to give you more feedback on whatever it is you like to play.

As an un-related tip, be sure to pick up Backpack Regenerator in your celestial build. It’s an absolute must-have! 8340 passive healing every 60s, to trigger, just swap kits once every 10s.

I suspect that some forms of A.I were blanket buffed (even player spawned A.I) when the update to PvP NPCs happened.

Fight the Guild Lord, Chieftain, Svanir, 8 Profession dummies in the mists, etc. They were all blanket buffed – I think there was some carry over on to specific A.I player abilities.

Obsidia.5127:

Not sure what is happening but sPvP is seriously screwed up today.

- I won a SoloQ and didn’t get the win, the other team did.
- I had a 5v1.
- I had a 3v2.
- I had a match that didn’t start – It was just us waiting for about 5 minutes until we got kicked out.

Whoa, man. You are having a worse day than I am, then. Sorry that GW2 is being so wonky for you.

Justin ODell.9517:

How long ago did this happen?

Under 30 seconds ago.

Apparently the same thing happened to one of their teammates, so it was a 4v4.

It was the same players, on the same map. It’s like the match restarted, after finishing, and pulled most of the people back in, but not all.

I just finished a team Queue PvP match, and exited the match, and left the mists.

2 seconds later, my team’s ‘Queue pops’ even though I had no received any invites, let alone accepted any, and there is no way for me to get in, while my teammates fight, outnumbered.

As we speak, I am getting a stack of dishonoured and a free loss. Sweet! Good thing this game’s still in Beta.

Edit:

Apparently.. no roster was even sent out, but we all ‘accepted’ it and ‘submitted’ it without any player input.

While we’re at it..

Dire Amulet: 942 Condition Damage / 643 Toughness / 643 Vitality
New Settlers amulet: 942 Condition Damage / 643 Toughness / 643 Healing

Wait no, because that’s aids, lol. I think that if a tanky stat is desired, there has to be a drawback in damage.

Ugruk.4069:

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

well you can play a tanky ele with stable dps…. dont ask me bout build coz i wont share it dont want it to be nerf by lots of player playing it.

Wow such special, it’s the 6/2/0/4/2 with rifle celestial and strength + might stacking sigil amiright?

Rifle ele FTW

Xaylin.1860:

Explosive Powder should work with #2 which is nice.

Nope.

lilz shorty.1879:

Forsaker.9213:

What about using ESL weekly cups as a elimination to the big tournemnts? 1-2 months before such tournament team will have to dogn in to the esl and gain some point after wining vs team , that would bring more teams to ESL , kinda sad to see 6 same teams every week

I would say this is a good idea if the ESL wasn’t held at the worst time possible. A Saturday night. Needs to be held in the early afternoon, or even Sunday.

I know.. what the hell is Saturday night? Worst time possible for a tournament.

Updated one!

ronpierce.2760:

Chaith.8256:

ronpierce.2760:

Chaba.5410:

What’s the precursor for that one? I want!

Precursor to “The Shaft” is obviously “The Head”…

Lol, nah. It should be something like: “The Flaccid One” – that way it can have an easily understandable power gain, when it you power it up with legendary components.

I thought this was all about pvpers getting screwed? Pretty sure in that case “The Head” comes before “The Shaft”.
It has been a… Long, slow, painful process…

Ahh.. I see what you did. I didn’t consider how the sPvP orifice fit into this.

Pyriall.5027:

I’m not looking to compete and that has nothing to do with why my position is what it is. What affect does me competing have to do with what I’m talking about? What’s so had to understand about that? Did I say I would be able to put together a team that would beat top teams?

Well, you basically won’t stop talking about the real possibility that any team of competent players that have never competitively tPvPed for the last year are going to form up this week and upset the top teams, and how unfair the 8 team reserve is to these guys.

Might as well put your game time where your mouth is!

Pyriall.5027:

You’re not going to get an argument that the better teams are more deserving, the problem is how did you come up with who the better teams were? Especially for this stand alone tournament as a prerequisite to entry. Those teams that won what ever tournament reaped the benefits of those tournaments. Those tournaments have nothing to do with this one. There was no announcement that said, “A-Net sanctioned Mistepedia tournaments, placement in those tournaments will result in guaranteed placement in the tournament of legends” What if ALL those older teams came back that were considered the best teams of the past came back? Should they then bump the teams that competed recently?

You’re still actually suggesting we don’t know who the better teams are, because tournaments are all individual events?

Nevermind the same 3 teams per region that simply plow every tournament and team queue for the last 6+ months, it’s a mystery, guys.

Penguin.5197:

Having my 4 second immobilize overwritten by a 1 second immobilize was always a pain, so no it shouldn’t be reverted.

However, you should still be allowed to like dodge like through a ducking animation and/or allowed to turn, etc.

My 2s knockdown is overwritten by a daze. Use your abilities intelligently!

glaphen.5230:

Most abilities will still auto turn to the target if you aren’t trying to move anyways.

That’s even more reason to just make turning possible, then.

ronpierce.2760:

Chaba.5410:

What’s the precursor for that one? I want!

Precursor to “The Shaft” is obviously “The Head”…

Lol, nah. It should be something like: “The Flaccid One” – that way it can have an easily understandable power gain, when it you power it up with legendary components.

Pyriall.5027:

I would be curious as to your position if you didn’t stand to benefit from those 8 reserved slots.

You mean, would I be against reserving the spots for the 8 most likely teams to win?

Seeing as the reservations only hurt my hypothetical chances of not getting into the tournament from 46% to 54% if there were 100 signed up per region.. I figure it’s pretty meaningless seeing as there’s already an inevitable chance that RNG wouldn’t choose me for entry.

If I only acted out of self interest, I would probably say “no thanks” to reserved spots because it hurts my chances of getting to whack the free loot piniata, but if I thought about actually taking this tournament seriously, and preferred to see some later bracket, streamed matches, of people playing at a high level instead of what looks like the Solo Queue content that I see every day, then I would say yes to the reserved spots.

Pyriall.5027:

And you may not like my response. I didn’t pay Blu or Mistepedia for this game. I didn’t purchase gems to support Blu. Blu can edit the terms of his tournament all he wants, but this isn’t an issue if A-Net pulls the legendaries as a reward. So as much as you want to say this is Blu’s tournament, it isn’t. Take away those rewards and we wouldn’t be having a discussion.

Arenanet has an equal obligation to everyone who’s purchased gems, sure. That’s the flimsiest of points when you consider they either put Blu in charge of ensuring the tournament is organized well, or these are decisions from Arenanet themselves.

The tournament will be as competitive as possible as a priority, as opposed to making an equal opportunity loot piniata for all supporters of Arenanet. Teams are reserved, and seeded.

Jasher.6580:

Serious question, do you think you can build a team that can beat Good Fights?

He might be able to build a team that could place in the prize bracket – you don’t have to single out a certain team and compare. That’s why randomization of the last 56 teams is not ideal.. even so, the 8 team reservation is a step in the right direction.

Pyriall.5027:

How can you use a prerequisite to reserve 8 spots when one was never announced? Keep it fair to everyone, I don’t think that is too much to ask.

I’ll explain again, but you may not like my explanation.

Blu is adding this reservation, apparently, because he feels it’s necessary to ensure the tournament’s quality. Do you think that Blu just likes to trick the PvP community? Blu’s actions imply that he would rather edit the terms of the Tournament, which he is within his right to do, than randomly select 64 out of approximately 100 teams per region. If he did that, there simply would be too huge a chance that the teams who would have normally placed in the #1 – #8 spots would get robbed of their deserved win, which is deserved because they are the strongest 8 teams.

Simply put, this is a competition. It’s supposed to be as competitive as possible. When you are participating in a tournament that’s being sanctioned by a promoter and organizer of the competitive PvP community, you need to expect that policy will reflect the ideals that the best teams are trying to be prove which one is the better team. That’s a potential reason why the most competitive teams are guaranteed spots – because excluding a team that’s of the strongest #8 is a bigger risk to the preservation of the tournament’s competition.

Edit: But we will find out the truth, in Blu’s own words on the 15th.

Pyriall.5027:

Personally I believe my weekend tournament teams are much stronger…See how arbitrary that is?

I’m not going to press this issue too hard, but I would just like to address all these ’devil’s advocate’ things you’re bringing up for the sake of debate..

Because Blu will be basing his 8 team reserve on reasons we do not know yet, he said he will explain who and why on April 15th. There is clearly a criteria based system he’s putting to use here, and it’s not based on a random whim like you’re claiming.

It’s probably just based on criteria that non-competitive teams don’t excel in. IE: Previous tournament performance.

Manuhell.2759:

Chaith.8256:

The best builds have little to no control. Your move?

Asking for a link for those builds before replying further – and be aware that by control-oriented i’m not talking only about proper control skills; immbolizes and suchs are on the table, too.
Still, from a logical standpoint, my point is still true: if the mode doesn’t require you anything else than making an opponent stay out of a point, whoever does it better by design has an advantage.

Heh, I was referring to the most reliable builds in tPvP right now:

P/S Bomb/Nade

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIq6ZHxSfF17IyoCdmoH5nlpffeIXsFEC-ToAAzCpI0SplTLjWStsaNWYKC

P/P Nade/Toolkit

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQJAqalUUpEr1XxkLseRiMqQnBqQeJSh+ZZfe8WsFEC-TsAAzCuI0SplTLjWStsaNE5swcBA

Rezz.8019:

Anyway: what is YOUR criteria to decide which teams are “most legendary”?

Simply the strongest team at the conquest game mode. May the strongest team win. I have said this like 40 times.

Rezz.8019:

But: it is completely unfaired that you make that biased decision and you play god and choose those 8 teams based on how much YOU like them.

• snip *

…gets the exclusive privilege over me just because they are more social and all that stuff. Make it fair.

That’s it.

• Blu personally likes good teams.

• And they’re more social.

• And all that stuff.

Nailed it!

Okay, the 8 reserve teams that Blu chooses

BLUna.7928:

When we release the teams that will be chosen (on the 15th) I will be saying exactly who these teams are and why they were given those slots.

So just hold your horses, bud.

Pyriall.5027:

That’s a crock. If you’re going to make it random, make it random for all entries. Instead you have some arbitrary measure as to who those 8 select teams will be. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it is a composition of teams that you are familiar with through previous tournaments. Though I wouldn’t normally disagree with those teams entering, there was no prerequisite established from A-net to participate in the tournament. They said plainly, everyone can participate. So either open it up to all the teams OR make it random for everyone.

Here is another mistake made by A-net, leaving this pvp “reward” in the hands of someone who may potentially have a bias towards a player or group of players. At least there will be an appearance of bias either way with the current way this is going to be handled. If A-Net wanted reserved spots, they should have said three weeks ago they were going to reserve spots for teams who have the highest average MMR or something.

Whelp.

• Arenanet is backing this tournament with prizes, but I’ve personally never had the impression that they had a team or any employees officially sanctioning/overseeing what is more accurately called ’Blu’s Sponsored Tournament’. It’s kind of hard to blame someone for making a perceived mistake who really doesn’t have their hands in it.

• It’s obvious that 64 teams per region is the maximum that can be accommodated. There can apparently be no way to allow more signup teams to join. Expectations were set too high, it’s natural to feel let down.

• The reason why having no reserved team slots, and a 100% completely random selected matchup and team entry, is one reason: quality of results. If by chance, the top 8 teams are not allowed to compete, of what quality will the rankings be? May the best teams be rewarded accordingly.

• As for my previous suggestions to incorporate MMR into the placings and seed the tournament accordingly, I still feel that would be a more fair way to go, rather than randomization. This is because that will increase the chances that the best teams will place better – even if it is a marginal increase. There is a definite possibility that a team who might not be randomly selected for entry could perform better than one of the reserved-spot top 8 teams, among the rest of the randomly selected entrants, and land in the reward bracket.

As long as the organizing decisions for this tournament will further the goal of accurately depicting which teams are the most legendary in descending order, then I am for it. Unfortunately, randomization of the last 56 teams per region is not the optimal choice.. but it could be worse, in terms of promoting the more accurate results.