Guild Wars 2

I’ve fought alongside and against some very good rangers, I admire their skill and perseverance with the class despite what the general opinion of Rangers thanks to it being a popular class that brings the many Bearbow jokes, and how they’ve been balanced.

Better than the average Thief perhaps..

grifflyman.8102:

Seasons destroy communities

Not true for everyone, Anet allowing that window of opportunity for mass amounts of players to stack on a server for free or at a reduced cost though, I can imagine some communities suffered from it.

I wonder what Kingface is up to lol. No one has answered my question about Vizunah’s comeback in their current Match-up, do they have a new alliance?

Alot of people are naturally competitive, burning out is your own fault if you don’t take breaks to enjoy the game.
Yes wvw as a competition is a bit of a joke thanks to anet, I don’t see the problem with drama and the forum wars its all part of the experience although some people take it too far that it becomes toxic.

I think we had a good lead over BB two weeks ago and let it slip, our population dropped for various reasons also, but that’s no excuse.
Early mornings and afternoons aren’t our strongest hours though, even Riverside managed to reset a lot of our stuff last week.

By the way does anyone know what happened to Vizunah? It seems they are catching up to Elona, are they back from the dead?

Nanyetah Elohi.4852:

who gives a frak about roamers feelings. They don’t contribute that much to anything but themselves.

They kill a few yaks and people trying to get back to their tag, but that is not much more respectable than trolling.

I kinda know what you mean when there are narcissitic ones who think they’re from Team Awesome as though they are gods gift to roaming scene, not all are baddies though – some just want to have fun and they can make a small but important contribution.

Fair and quality fights is hard to come by in WvW because there are so many variables; enjoy whatever fights you can find, you can learn from unless you go up against the most OP builds.

Emoting and griefing is just bad sportsmanship unless you were aggravated, that’s often the case in wvw because alot of kittens.
Everybody of course starts a true duel by bowing and at the end you expect people to act respectfully.

Worrying about PPT only matters when you have a close match-up, as it is the Score is determined by Coverage Wars and Population – so yeah sadly it’s irrelevant for most and it adjustments to make it a more relevant Score Mechanic.

I love the strategic side but rarely see it, PvD is just boring and its kinda sad to see some people so wired in the ppt system even if you are winning or losing by a large margin.

The CDI hasn’t Bore any fruit sadly.
It’s like the Devs took a holiday after EoTM, then they finally brought Account Bound WXP after months of promising it and so they think it’s enough to show positive progress towards WvW that we envision.

Look how they implemented Transfers before the Tournament though, they don’t listen.

No, but if you are skirmishing around the bloodlust or the south ruins you are likely to get interrupted by blob or any other run roamers. I fought this thief the other night who beat me once, but I re-specced and ran back to give him some payback that he just stealthed and reset the fight once he got outplayed, gg to him for taking the moral loss.

Some people I duel use certain builds that you might not be prepared for, or they might have stacks Bloodlust, fortitude and strength – not every has that YOLO attitude.
I expect no one to run in the OS because there are people watching and its a respected duelling area.

Basically pugland like EB with more incentive for people to farm than PvP, in fact it has balance issues and too much pve stuff, npcs and cliffs..

Its sad really because it’s wasted potential and resources, wvw has many issues that need addressing as it is.

@gensokyo It wasn't pretty on BB Borderlands I have to admit, we had too many Squishies. Too much match-up talk anyway .

And don’t listen to people saying we’re giving up already due to past events, most of Deso is going to try to Fight and Compete. The only problem is we lost quite alot of our Population after the initial Tournament influx, which may be alot of PVE’ers but you know strength in numbers is quite important in WvW.

Grats and see you on the battlefield.

Well over here in the EU you have two Servers who have far more coverage than any other in their corresponding League: Gandara and SFR.

If you are paired with these type of dominant Servers the other 2 have to fight over 2nd place which is just Three Points, which may technically bring more Competitive and Variable Match-Ups , but it just isn’t Fair when you are better off playing the system by coming 3rd so that you can end up in a more winnable Match-Up, in which you stand a better chance Maximum 5 points.

So yeah, this points system is flawed and open to exploitation and manipulation.

Who the heck wastes a 45 second Shadow Step for Stomping and Ressing, other than to show off?
I don’t get the issue with Stealth Stomping; there are other means to Stomp that are equally as annoying, but even when I try to Stealth Stomp some downed states can interrupt me.

Downed State needs a rework perhaps?

Deniara Devious.3948:

I am often encountering S/P thieves in WvWvW, spamming pistol whip. I just do not understand why people complain about condition spam as I think spamming pistol whip is as brainless and lacking skill. I think pistol whip should have the same initiative cost in pvp and WvWvW. I also never understood why revealed is 3 seconds in WvWvW and 4 seconds in pvp. Stealth is far more powerful in WvWvW and in fact the culling and the server lag makes sometimes the stealthed opponent appear just 1 second. I think for WvWvW revealed should be 5 seconds and the maximum duration of stealth (using combo fields or any other method) should be capped to 8 seconds.

I don’t know what reality you live in but Pistol Whip should be the least of your problems as long as you avoid the Chain burst, which is easy enough if you know how the Skill works.

5s Revealed would simply break the flow of many Builds, as much as Stealth is a annoying mechanic many Thieves rely on I don’t understand your argument for such changes because of ‘Culling’ and Lag.

I would not go to EoTM for a challenge.. it’s like EB but somehow worse IMO.
By the way ‘True’ WvW is whatever you want to it to be.

Randomly Skirmishing around has brought better results for me than all my WXP chests! (right at the end of vid)
RNG for the Chests are not great for most, but the lucky few.

http://youtu.be/N8xR1FphPrQ

I would have thought alot of Servers already had established Communities by now who have their own Websites and Voice Comms.

I’ve never really heard of, or seen anyone calling for reinforcements in LA or anywhere else; the one time I remember this happening is when Archaos from RUIN did this while they were on Desolation..

I still enjoy my thief and I’ve adapted to several sword nerfs fine, a lot of the qq is over one weapon set though – I’d like to see more Thieves moving away from using D/P but its not going to happen with the way things are balanced, people can play the way they want to play and I can imagine there are those Thieves that feed off the qq.

Weren’t you the one that complained about Shadow Refuge when I made an analogy about the Pigs, Wolves and Wooden Houses? Shadow Step isn’t a problem as it has a kitten cooldown, Anet seems happy that many rely on Stealth and Shadow Arts for survivability and Burst which is the case for many Basic D/P Builds.

There is nothing we can do as, maybe it’s intended for each Class to have certain builds and sets with a lower learning curve – it’s just that Thieves probably has one of the most annoying ones especially while Roaming.

Here is my own play-style no matter if it’s Small or Large Scale, which is high risk and alot of fun not to say I'm the best kept secret EU..:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0M1t78kpos

The reason I posted this video up is because I wish more players would be willing to try out some Diversity themselves even though Anet may have nerfed some of our more difficult builds to master, they are still very much viable.

Prysin.8542:

To be honest, i am so sick and tired of people not getting it that this is NOT a 4 hour a day – seven days a week competition. It is a 24 hour a day, seven days a week competition.

If your server cannot deal with nightcapping, find a solution. Perhaps push harder during daylight hours, or Lyssa forbid, buy a guild or two playing during your servers “downtime”……

It’s a videogame at the end of the day, you can understand why many will not put in the hours for the sake of PPT when most Match-Ups are decided by off-peak capping that leads to one-sided match-ups, as much as it does not help their wvw community – there is nothing they can do within their powers unless WvW populations are balanced.

You also have to think about those Servers on the EU who all speak one universal language, compared to Communities like Desolation’s who have a whole bunch of players from all over the World, there’s not many Guilds or players they can ‘buy’ or recruit that can speak their language.

In the past we’ve had a French Server: Vizunah who everyone must of heard of, whom dominated the EU Ladder for extended periods of time no matter the Ups and downs they had against ‘International’ Servers and those who tried everything to stop their Domination.

Many accused them of having Canadians playing off-peak, but I believe them when they said they had none – which gave birth to the ‘Viz Zombies’ meme.

1 Ascended ring out of 700 or so ranks, but I found Ogden’s Boots in my bag the other day from somewhere and I don’t do PVE much – it was a bit like when I found Zap in my Bag last year.

Zeke Azul Falcon.5176:

Deli.1302:

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

Desolation – Seafarers – Vizunah
I miss this rivalry for all the epic fights with some high quality Guilds like Bull/Kaz, ECL , GH, VoTF, RG, WL, ZDs, nd so on – and also for months worth of match-up thread wars espexially Sacrx vs Troma <3
Eventually we would get split up, but it seemed like we were destined for each other lol.

The Sacrx vs Troma was amazing xD

any good videos of these?

There’s too many old Videos to link from the many Guilds back then, none from me personally cause I was a Guidless EB pug back then.
That was really the Golden Age of Tier 1 in the EU.

Personally I roam around a bit aimlessly keeping check of the map and my surroundings from a distance, but I don’t recommend just keeping an eye on Dollies – rather the Sentries for any Snipers.

Look out for white swords at camps and keeps/towers, sometimes it’s just someone contesting when otherwise Orange Swords is the best indicator of any Large Scale Group movements, especially keep an eye on Bay and Hills Cata Spots, and the Ruins behind Briar and Lake.

Spotting and Tracking any sized Groups is best done with a Mobile Class as you you will need to avoid getting splattered, which happens alot to me -.-
Use Vantage points such as the high ground away from the Enemy groups, which helps prevents most Deaths unless you have a roaming gank group running around.

Oh and never say “Inc” in mapchat that will annoy alot of people, at least it does on my Server. “Inc” is far to vague and try to report accurate numbers of enemies if you can unless your PC can only handle low settings.

Desolation – Seafarers – Vizunah

I miss this rivalry for all the epic fights between some high quality Guilds like Bull/Kaz, ECL , GH, VoTF, RG, WL, ZDs etc and on EB pugland – and also for those months worth of classic match-up thread wars especially Sacrx vs Troma <3
Eventually we would get split up, but it seemed like we were always destined for each other lol.

This Tournament obviously still shows up all the problems with the PPT system, Server superiority should not be determined by the biggest Zerg who can go round capping stuff off-peak. What’s the point in putting effort in defending and all that during the day when stuff will just get flipped overnight?

Anet does not have a clue how imbalanced WvW populations are between servers as you have seen with how they implemented Pre-Tournament Transfers, so the only option is to change the way PPT is gained, but not by applying players caps on each map. It should be about clever strategy and smart PPT play with all the additional points you can gain from Yaks, sentries and stomps otherwise it just badly balanced Competition – which remains a fact.

WvW is far too casual in many ways, but is that what Anet’s intends it to be?

Rivalry is all good for the competition as long as we remember its a game of war; albeit a flawed one. I loved how close this match-up was and all the fights even though I did not get to play as much as I wanted, all this could’ve been avoided if we played the PPT better – 300 points is nothing that could’nt have been gained.

Time to move on and concentrate on the current match-up.

twisted fate.7251:

I also think KISS off of gunnars hold is worth a mention here, I’ve seen them handle 70man blobs with 20 rather casually

Are you seriously telling me they’ve changed much from this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czuvK89gPVU

I’d say as far as organized Guilds it would be GH, GD, RG and VotF to name a couple.

Terrahero.9358:

To sum up this week in European Gold League.

So much for your whole “Swiss Style” tournament, ey arenanet?

^^ This, gg Anet.

Dee Jay.2460:

Gandara turned any “competitive” spirit in Silver League into a farce. Biggest joke since Desolation in Season 1.

So really, no surprises anywhere. All servers performed as expected, which was to be expected, because PPT is the worst scoring metric for WvW I have ever witnessed.

Two Match-Ups in the EU Gold League have been extremely close, this is when PPT isn’t so skewed by Coverage and Population.

But the System they are using to Pair up Servers for the next weekly round is flawed, there is more chance of getting maximum points rather than being in the most Competitive Match-up – where you still have little chance of winning.

Condi-Bunkers were already annoying. I don’t how much worse it is now, but there is definite something to think about now with less damage in some cases with certain Builds, especially if you lack the cleanses to counter the amount of Condis that get re-applied – which may mean we need more Vitality than Toughness unless when running with a group.

In regards to the change to Lyssa Runes, it seems the first few boons you receive are Protection, Regen and Swiftness.. it still cleanses Conditions but the boons you may receive are pretty useless now – for Stealthless Builds it makes alot of difference.

What Server and Side of the World are you playing on? I still see plenty of D/P and P/D thieves more often then not really. I use 10/10/0/20/30 at the moment myself.

I’ve tried to get the EU side going, but IMO alot of people use that site for personal promotion – not me though honest! I ended up being chased by a entire 30 man KISS Group from Gunnar’s after my little experiment.

Some threads ended up rather like it was the old days without all the infractions, it’s just that it’s not very frequent on the EU side, and then you have some who need consistent moderating.

Quick pockets is probably the most useful GM trait out of the whole lot really, and I think you can accumulate a decent amount of Might Stacks with Power of Inertia.

If you also want a good amount of HP instead of Toughness especially if you put 0 into Shadow Arts, then it is still viable even though putting 30 in Trickery or elsewhere may be more useful. (Practiced Tolerance in CS)

As Dayra points out that’s how I think it is, it means a chance for the lower ranked servers to accumulate some points and so you may eventually get a variation of “competitive” match-ups.

Honestly I used to have a problem with it, but it takes alot of practice, patience and Camera work to be used properly. It isn’t a great single target damage source because most of it’s Skills are easily avoidable, but the Cluster Bomb Blast finisher and Poison Field Combo is extremely useful in certain situations.

It’s extremely useful against Classes like Mesmers or even Thieves, and in a Zerg it is what makes us a useful Class which also let’s us collect a ton of lootbags.

It’s an amazing AOE utility weapon really.

You have to take into account that there is no fixed schedule of match-ups.
BB taking the lead this week is a bit of a surprise and so it seems Vizunah is not the same Troma inspired Community, whoever finishes 2nd or 3rd this week could still end up winning next week for max points.

And then there is population sustainability especially once players complete their achievements, how long will players be motivated beyond that?

The queue was popping up for some of us but it didn’t load us into the BL we queued for, it ended up kicking some of us out of the queue.

Corpse Flakes.5369:

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

D/P is not easy to Counter with S/D that is. I’d perhaps use up a Slot for Devourer Venom along with Basilisk as a counter, while making sure they can’t land a backstab if they enter Stealth.

I pretty much feel safe with S/P along with Sleight of hand which messes up their combinations and uses up their Init, that’s the key to beating many Thieves who aren’t all that as they think they are with Stealth.

I won a 2v1 with SD vs DP thiefs. They liked to backstab at the same time so I got twice as much out of my evades. I guess I won because they were stupid though, but DP is extremely predictable and the movement SD gives you will let you completely destroy them.

Yea admittedly the Skill Level of the average player in WvWer is not great, but GG on that. I’d like to give it a go even though it sounds tough, they are extremely predictable – P/D Thieves however are pretty annoying Built right.

Ohai Phoebe!

I think Troma left a fine legacy despite the amount of hatred people may have towards Vizunah, i seems without him they haven’t got quite the same community or leadership.

I still wouldn’t underestimate them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished in the Top 3. Also everybody get’s double teamed at some point, strong or weak.

As mango mentions you can still perma stealth which I’ve witnessed for myself, not forgetting the Descent of Shadows Trait which gives you Blinding Powder after Falling.

AnnieGYG.6842:

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

it’s worse than the Scenario during Season 1 in Silver with “Tankolation”.

Nope, it’s completely different, Gandara never asked for this or tried to manipulate our ranking for it.

I know.
The thing is most of our population in Deso are not Seasoned WvWers, but they are there just not a lw ays- we are stacked in a sense ourselves.
Anet should of closed or started this Transfer period before it got out of hand.

Gandara is likely the most stacked Server in the EU, it’s worse than the Scenario during Season 1 in Silver with “Tankolation”.
I’d imagine their population will stabilize somewhat unless some guys decide they’ve had it with their queues, gg Anet on that.

It takes alot more than coverage and numbers in the Top 3 Tiers aswell, it ain’t easy organizing with queues and fresh pugs, so it ain’t something to gloat about wiping with 30 pugs unless you were all Bearbow rangers..

We have http://www.gw2wvw.net/forum but it’s not as Active in the EU section.

Troma retired a while ago so it seems as though they aren’t as strong as they once were looking at your current match-up.
Maybe they will rally later on, who knows where they will finish?

Deso itself has potential to finish higher than the last 3, but no higher than 5th really. I’m looking forward to meeting SFR once again, at least we know where we belong.

D/P is not easy to Counter with S/D that is. I’d perhaps use up a Slot for Devourer Venom along with Basilisk as a counter, while making sure they can’t land a backstab if they enter Stealth.

I pretty much feel safe with S/P along with Sleight of hand which messes up their combinations and uses up their Init, that’s the key to beating many Thieves who aren’t all that as they think they are with Stealth.

Defending is viable as mentioned with good communication between Commanders and Scouts, especially stationary Scouts who can man the cannons when needed – but boy is it boring.

Also you need ton of Superior Arrow Carts and Trebs covering all gates, it isn’t guaranteed you will succeed as you’ll still need coordination, numbers and skill to engage the Attacking Zerg.

I think it could work out okay but depends which boons get’s priority.

GG anet. Only they did not predict such a thing would happen – overstacking also means many fairweather players will be stuck in queues and can’t play which sucks for you guys.

EoTM is not the solution it’s their own measurements of True WvW population and the transfer system are all badly thought out.

Throughout the weekend Deso came out in strong numbers, but I doubt think we’ll have the same numbers throughout the Tournament.

Tonight we faced massive BB numbers on multiple maps and got overstretched, the only other thing is that AR has little to no coverage besides prime time so it’s between us and BB – who do not have much early morning Coverage.

Shadow Arts is considered Cheese? Really?
Sure you get an extra second of stealth, a stealth on low health, aoe blind, cleanses and heals which allows us to swing momentum for a crucial backstab, init regen and might stacks but I’d hardly call it that – it’s just that it Synergizes well with the Stealth Mechanic which you have to admit is annoying by Design. In comparison to Shadow rejuv in Acro you have assassins reward which is no where near as powerful a heal!

I refuse to put points in it if I can help it unless I use Venom Share otherwise I prefer to use points elsewhere.