Guild Wars 2

Mouby.7096:

There is not a single reason why you would want to have both gamemodes in one que. People voting for “no” either missclicked or like to troll.

Are you one of those people who believes that if an opinion doesn’t agree with your own then that opinion is wrong?

Or it could be an attacking NPC that places Big Ol’ Bombs when it gets to the Lord room.

leman.7682:

Over a year ago Anet sat down with the community and talked about possible new game modes in a Game Modes CDI.

Here we are 16 months later with an announcement of Stronghold that will initially consist of one map and new gameplay.

There are already topics discussing this horrible, unexplained example of slugginess.

What I would like to ask is: how come that during the HoT announcement Colin Johanson comes on the stage and says that guilds are going to form guild teams that will play Stronghold to fight for the top spot on guild leaderboards and then Grouch and Nightmare say something completely different during the Ready Up?

You’re either making it a feature connected to guilds with separate matchmaking, ratings, leaderboards or combining it with Conquest into one queue using the current leaderboards and MMR. In either case, someone wasn’t telling the truth.

Is this going to be the ‘fractal leaderboards’ all over again? Get your stuff together and for once decide what you want from your game. You know, like professionals do.

Err….. they didn’t say there wasn’t going to be a Guild leaderboard. They just said they are going to put Stronghold in Ranked and Unranked Queues.

The presence of one, does not exclude the other.

I understand why they did it but I think it shows big lack of faith on their part.

You say condi turrets but no flame turret.

It doesn’t seem like you need more than one person to play defence. And with the verticality of the map, that could easily be a Ranger or any class that can nuke things from the roofs of buildings.

The Tourney is only about a week away. Please don’t forget to sign-up and send your Team name to me in-game; Dirame.8521.

Check-ins start 10 mins before the Stream goes live and you’ll be checking in with me as well.
Stream will be live at www.twitch.tv/bloodytech

Screenager.7804:

initial thoughts are

• how are points scored in this map and what is the final win condition?
• what are the rewards and reward tracks here and will it impact your existing pvp ranking?
• how are leaderboards split, e.g. team, solo, all together?
• can we solo queue to this as a merc?
• can we build siege in this as it looks a bit like wvw mechanics are involved here?
• the trailer shows skritt that look like moba creeps what are these?
• for guild groups goin in what is the benefit to their guild beyond being the best, does this feed back to guild halls perhaps? (wild speculation appears)
• the reward tracks and unranked have been great at pulling in lots of PvE centric players to the mists. Will it continue with an unranked mode in this or are you looking at other ways of broadening the demographic this appeals to ?

Some of the stuff you ask is already answered in the PC gamer article. You may want to read that.

I think some of you are overstating the relevance of the NPCs. Make it 8v8 in CAs and whilst it would be chaotic, I think it would make for a fun watch. More than we may realize right now.

Silv.9207:

You can’t pretend that ANet can do something about how good the other players are to play, making your match more balanced.
ANet can only match up you with other random guys with unranked or ranked arena.

If you find a enemy team with one that don’t know how to play at best it’s class it’s easy to win, the same for your enemy if in your team there’s someone not good to play.

That’s not a ANet problem at all.

They CAN solve the problem. This assumption is based on how the old system worked. But the thing we have to realize is, they’ve announced Guild Leaderboards for the expansion so I don’t think we should expect any drastic changes till then. Unless they would be so kind as to rewind to the old System, but I doubt it.

BlackBeard.2873:

Dirame.8521:

The bug is caused by the distance between the player and the Buff itself. Players have to make sure they are standing close enough or they won’t get it.

Huh, is it due to using blink-like skills while channeling, or even people who just start the channel. If it gives you the option to start channeling, you should be in range.

Perhaps its related to server desyncs and differences in positions (like failed stomps).

It happened to me more than once and in one situation, multiple times on multiple tries. I had to move closer for the channel to go through. You literally have to stand close enough that your hand looks like it’s in the Aura. I’ve even tested my theory on the Ferocity buffs just to make sure and it seems to be the case.

BlackBeard.2873:

I had asked this in a stream before, and the consensus seemed to be that temple wasn’t being played b/c they still hadn’t figured out a bug where somebody full-caps the buffs but they aren’t properly awarded. That can completely throw a match, and would be horrible in a real for-$ tourney. I am not sure if they have worked out this bug yet, but I would hope they add it back when they get it figured out.

The bug is caused by the distance between the player and the Buff itself. Players have to make sure they are standing close enough or they won’t get it.

Quell your loins Keks. We heard you the first time.

Selfish Bunkers won’t be the meta, more supportive roles like Staff Eles, Shout Warriors and Tome of Courage Guardians will definitely become more prominent though.

I don’t think Cele will go away either.

That being said, burst roles will still play a part. The ability to take things down fast before the enemy can heal it is definitely needed in a game mode like this.

Hey guys, I made a video detailing 7 Things you may or may not have missed in the Teaser trailer shown during the WTS Qualifiers. Automated Trebs and Disney Castles Ahoy!

I think “Adventure” is a misleading name for the one they showed. “Activities” or “Challenges” would be a more apt name.

When I think of an adventure, I think of the personal story or the living story or just running around the world or doing a mini-dungeon or a jumping puzzle, now that’s an “Adventure” but doing “Activities” to beat scores? That’s not an adventure, that’s a Challenge or an Activity.

Misleading name in my opinion. Was expecting something more “journey-full”.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Mastery points acquired from Old zones can only be used for Old zone Mastery Tracks. New Zone Mastery Tracks require New Zone Mastery Points, so no your concern is unfounded.

The article doesn’t say that, it says you can play any content to unlock mastery points. Mastery Points are account wide and can be spent anywhere, just like WvW points. The experience bar for each zone is shared between your characters, just like PvP reward tracks.

IRT Ohoni
I might be wrong with what I’ve said above but this is what I got from what I’ve read. The points you gain from leveling up in other zones can be spent on Maguuma tracks but points are only used to unlock tracks not level them up from what I also gathered. If you have characters in Maguuma they’ll level up whatever track you have and gain you points and your characters for other maps will do the same for the maps they are in.
So really, you’re not losing much from playing the other zones, you could possibly be unlocking tracks a lot faster than other people but not leveling up one track faster than those who are committed to that one track.

EDIT: Yeap I was wrong;

Each Mastery track is tied to a region of Tyria—they must be unlocked with Mastery points gained in that region and can only be trained in that region. With the launch of Heart of Thorns, there will be two Mastery regions: the Heart of Maguuma, encompassing all PvE zones that are part of the Heart of Thorns expansion, and the core Guild Wars 2 world, encompassing all PvE zones currently available in the game today.

Lishtenbird.2814:

To train a specific Mastery track, you must first unlock it by spending Mastery points. Mastery points are awarded for completing various pieces of game content. Things like completing a chapter in your personal story, completing certain achievements, reaching hard-to-find locations, overcoming challenging encounters, excelling at adventures found within the Heart of Maguuma, or earning 100% completion for a map will award Mastery points.

TL;DR: to unlock Masteries, you do what we currently do in the LS: grind obligatory achievement tasks until you succeed.

Lol yea, pick the part that emphasizes your point the most when the whole paragraph actually lists a bunch of tasks for you to do.

The description of Masteries is broken down as this, to unlock Gliding, you can play any content to gain the mastery points. To level up Gliding, you must play in the Maguuma jungle because it’s a Maguuma track.

Not bad if you ask me. It won’t feel like grinding unless you as the player deliberately make it so.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Dirame.8521:

I personally find that this build could be way more efficient but in order to do that I’m probably turning the build into something else entirely.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaRnsISNaWmGOqB3aGx0gO9VqSSJVAKdJOxCA-TZBFwACODAOeAAL3foaZAAHCAA

This is prefaced by the fact that I fought someone running your build earlier today and didn’t find it all that intimidating.

The fact you chose Disruptor’s Sustainment undermines absolutely anything you might have to say about any Mesmer build ever. And I’m not trying to be mean by saying that :P

I won’t argue with your experience. Instead I’ll simply say, when I play the build I’m not there to intimidate people. I’m there to defeat them.
I have a solid track record of accomplishing this

My build was just a theory. Then I tried the build and I noticed, I hate waiting for Phantasms to do damage. So, meh.

I personally find that this build could be way more efficient but in order to do that I’m probably turning the build into something else entirely.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaRnsISNaWmGOqB3aGx0gO9VqSSJVAKdJOxCA-TZBFwACODAOeAAL3foaZAAHCAA

This is prefaced by the fact that I fought someone running your build earlier today and didn’t find it all that intimidating.

Nabbis.8095:

Seems like IGN jumped the gun. didn’t find any other of the major sites doing a article yet.

I think they said it was an exclusive.

Ronin.7381:

Dirame.8521:

The question is, with all this information you’re giving Konig, could it be that Rytlock died in the Mists and the Mists just made a copy of him? And as he’s been a direct part of the mists (based of the fact that he died), he now has all the information he needs to battle the Dragons? No Human god intervention required?

I’m not sure he’s dead. Although, in creating a character to try out the new profession, it wouldn’t be implausible to be a character whose backstory is that they died and were reincarnated through the mists. IE Death Knights – although under very different circumstances. That would be kind of neat but I’m not comfortable with throwing in the towel and pronouncing Rytlock dead… yet.

The theory is not that he is dead but that he died only to be reborn.

The question is, with all this information you’re giving Konig, could it be that Rytlock died in the Mists and the Mists just made a copy of him? And as he’s been a direct part of the mists (based of the fact that he died), he now has all the information he needs to battle the Dragons? No Human god intervention required?

Yo mama’s so fat, she’s immune to stability

Also, more gameplay with commentary; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNHK72dsXdE

Grimwolf.7163:

As long as they’re melee, if you’re forcing them to carefully circle around all your mines (which you can run straight through), then you’re still getting a big advantage off them. Fighting in an open area doesn’t seem like it’d be that bad.

Indeed but ranged characters would eat you up and that’s the issue. Then again, as long as you pick fights you can win, you should be fine and dandy.

Yea I wouldn’t advice playing it in an open area but if you are enjoying it then, awesome!

Yo mama’s so dumb she thought Bloodstone dust was edible.

That one goes out to all ma ascended cooking homies!

Exedore.6320:

The problem with both of those is the over-reliance on NPCs which de-emphasizes the actual player-vs-player combat. Do you really want to see a “PvE specialist” role develop in a PvP format?

That’s not a question I can answer for everyone. It’s up to the community on that one.

But if you are asking me personally, I’m totally okay with it. It’s part of the challenge.

Exedore.6320:

My thoughts on the pros and cons

Conquest
This is the ideal competitive format. Map mechanics (trebuchet, etc) and NPCs are kept to a minimum – just enough to shake things up – which keeps focus on the PvP combat. The three-node mechanic forces teams to go on the offensive instead of sitting around and stalemating. At the same time, the nodes serve as a way to break up the teams into smaller groups usually avoiding a large spell-effect laden team deathmatch. Compared to a pure deathmatch format, balance doesn’t have to be as tight; different numbers of players and available cooldowns tend to offset finer imbalances. Build variety is also higher because there are many more roles and strategies when you consider the full map. With regards to “esports” conquest is a friendly format because it offers something that a person who is less knowledgeable about GW2 can follow. The node status, score, and player positions give a high-level view of game state and momentum.

However, conquest has struggled to achieve high popularity. The deathmatch crowd – those who only want to fight other players and have nothing else involved – will be critics of any format with objectives. For the general playerbase, PvP had a poor start with a lack of rewards and infrastructure while seeming disjoint from the rest of the game. The format can be frustrating for new players as it does a poor job of teaching map-level play while masking individual weaknesses in group fights. On the “esports” front, the initial bunker-heavy team compositions led to uninteresting gameplay and at the same time, shoutcasting tended to focus on the details of fights rather than the overall map-level. All those have improved, but the initial damage may have been too much.

Stronghold
Going off the limited descriptions and the data-mined map, stronghold seems to have significant involvement of NPC and map mechanics compared to conquest. It may even go so far as to overshadow actual player vs. player combat. If the map mechanics are toned down, then it becomes a race to kill the opposing lord as fast as possible, with defense mostly ignored. Both alternatives make for a bad competitive PvP scene. However, it does have enough of a high-level strategy for the less informed player to follow.

The format has a lot of hype because it’s new and because of GW1 nostalgia. However, I doubt it will play out like GW1 GvG. ANet has added a lot of secondary mechanics to try and split up players from that big deathmatch fight in the middle. Also, the comparisons to MOBAs are stretching. Although there is a lane mechanic with an NPC, the overall playstyle has a significant difference. While it may be good for casual play, I don’t see it being competitive.

I love your comparisons and I think you’re onto something but the significant thing I can see from your post is lack of information on what Stronghold is actually like, leading to you having little to say about it.

If I was to inject some conjecture into the matter based off of what I’ve seen of the map and what we’ve been told. It seems that the Supply in the middle will act as the capture point, players may have to employ runners to run supply back and forth between mid and base (ala Jade Quarry from GW1) to spawn NPCs, whilst trying to prevent the enemy team from doing the same. These NPCs may be the only ones who can pierce the gates (this would be a good idea because it would force the protection of these NPCs and herald the use of more support builds).
Teams will obviously have to slow each other down, emphasizing the importance of damage and control builds.

If Stronghold works as I have explained above, it may require more variety in builds than Conquest but that being said, it all remains to be seen.

Yo mama’s so fat, the Dragonbrand is actually her stretch mark.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Dirame.8521:

Could it be that a new “race” in the likeness of Razah is actually planned? And Anet is just being coy?

Because a new area was data-mined earlier this year before the HoT announcement and it sounded like a training instance to me.

I recall it being said that was to be a training area for the NPE that was, thankfully, scrapped.

I think a new training area would be great though. At least one like the Temple of Balthazar.

Yo mama’s so fat, Anet has her planned as the next expansion.

Chaith.8256:

Static Discharge, the trait itself, is honestly not that great. I just hit a light golem for 404, on a berserker amulet. Error 404, Damage not found.

If it got nerfed just so it can function with toolbelt abilities, it’d be another trashcan trait, compared to other options.

The direct damage of all these passive procs aren’t that great. But It’s all about the crits that come from them and the fact that you can get a ton of SD procs in a short space of time.

Ronin.7381:

Dirame.8521:

Could it be that a new “race” in the likeness of Razah is actually planned? And Anet is just being coy?

Honestly, I really-really hope that is not the case. Razah was nothing special appearance-wise. He manifested a form based on that which he first received contact from, a human. I’d much rather see Tengu, Hehkets, or some such. Besides, we already got that so far with the Sylvari, I wouldn’t like seeing a new Sylvari 2.0.

“Abaddon is back. WE ARE LEGION FOR WE ARE HIS MINIONS NOW!”

It wouldn’t be about Abaddon but more about the mists and how it functions. It’ll be more like “The mists……., it has always been here, watching, waiting….. for the time to rise!….”

Could it be that a new “race” in the likeness of Razah is actually planned? And Anet is just being coy?

Because a new area was data-mined earlier this year before the HoT announcement and it sounded like a training instance to me.

Yo mama so fat, she has her own gods and elder dragons.

Yo mama so dumb, she tries to use the Mystic forge as an actual toilet

Yo mama so fat, people in WvW try to kill her cos they think she’s a dolyak.

Yo mama’s so cool, when she gets feared, she walks the other way.

Yo mama’s so cool, when she gets chilled, she gets deep freezed.

Yo mama’s so dumb, when she speaks, she applies 5 stacks of confusion.

Yo mama so fat, when you apply burning to her, she smells like roast pork.

Yo mama’s so fat, when I entered Omadd’s machine, all I could see was her.

Yo mama’s so massive, Divinity’s Reach is her belly button.

I don’t think Stronghold should be on there because it’s not like we’re going to change it coming into the game. And personally I actually like the idea of Stronghold.
What we can affect is the introduction of 2v2s and 3v3s.

Munitions. Explosive Ammo; Your next 5 attacks deal additional explosive damage.

Bots. Helper Bots: Release 3 bots that give you minor buffs. Red bot: 180 Power, Blue Bot 50 regen overtime, Green Bot: 180 Condition Damage. You can blow these bots up to do additional damage.

Bots Attack Bots: Release 3 bots that deal damage to your target. Your damage is reduced by 20% whilst these bots are active.

You are correct. It does not work.

Sweetbread.4701:

And what about the group of people that just want to pick up the game and play without being forced to face teams with serious pre organized class composition and communication advantages over them? Somehow you thought separating ranked and unranked was more important than keeping matches fair and enjoyable. How does that line of thinking even work?

The line of thinking they have can work BUT the question right now is, is it working?

Right now, from my observation, a lot of people are getting into adhoc groups to jump into Ranked PvP, great!
But also from my observation, people who form adhoc groups find that it’s too easy to win a lot of the matches they are in. And the people who go in solo, tend to find that matches are either amazingly easy or your team is just all sorts of lost. There’s no sense of challenge, for either the Teams or the Solos.

The only challenge I have from queueing in Ranked right now is, trying my best to correct mistakes that people make and that gets tiring, let me tell you.

Personally, the most fun match I’ve had was against a pre-made and that was in December. I’m going to keep playing to see if anything changes because all I keep hearing is, we’ve changed that and that and that and that so that’s probably why B is happening. I guess the result of a testing phase is I pull my hair out a lot.

Ronin.7381:

Blind folds, to me, are symbolic. It was said to see the Gods would blind the observer because it was so much power that the eye of humans could not interpret them. There must be some special connection because I do not think it’s a coincidence in how similar a Revanent and a Ritualist are. But I think the blindness is to symbolize having seen the universe in all its glory and thus aligning one’s own spirit rather than sight – or some other metaphorical cool-nonsense.

Ritualists themselves relied on their spirits to “show them the way” so I do not think this is a coincidence. Makes me wonder if we’ll see the Paragon and Dervish one day in new unique forms that all barrow from the lore.

I doubt we’ll see the Dervish. In fact I think the Guardian Specialization is Dervish but that remains to be seen.

As for Rytlock and his “Revenancy”, I’d like to think he actually met someone in the mists that could explain what he saw (if we were to go according to your theory) because a man doesn’t just go blind, and then automagically know exactly where he has to go to solve the problem plaguing the world.

E is Saul D’alessio. I said it first, no one can take that away from me. I win at the game babai!

Have you actually tested that the condi removal and the regen doesn’t work? Because the contrary has been said.

Vaskal Ashfur. Very similar to my GW1 Ele who was Vaskal Ashbeard.

If the “only moving foes are knocked down” part was working, that would be fine but it doesn’t work at times. Knowing that, I think the KD duration should be 1sec instead of 2s, just to compensate for the glitchiness.

You don’t need so many chills to pull the infinite chill off. All you need is Spectral grasp, Dark Path and Chillblains and that’s that.

Morwath.9817:

Dirame.8521:

- No use of glitches or bugs; For instance ele lightning whip stow/cancel double heal.

For instance it doesn’t work anymore.

Haha, I’ve edited this post so many times, can’t believe I forgot to remove that.

Hi all!
For those who don’t know me, I am Ceimash. Part-time shoutcaster and the brain behind the 6v6 GvG Tournament.

CeiMash’s 5v5 GvG Monthly Tournament
Dates; Sat 21st Feb for Both NA/ EU
Prizes;
1st Place: 2000 gems each
2nd Place: 1600 gems each
3rd place: 800 gems each

This tournament is being organized by me and hopefully sponsored by arenanet’s gems. If I wasn’t such a broke human being I’d also add in a cash prize for the winners but alas, I am a broke being of human flesh. That’s part of the reason why it’s a 5v5 because there’s not much incentive to find that extra guy.

If you guys are interested in jumping into a crazy tournament that takes GW2 back to it’s roots, please proceed to READ THE RULES below. I’ve added a new rule to the list that I think will keep matches interesting

Also please sign-up with your in-game name. And send your team name to Dirame.8521 when you sign-up.

The General Rules
- Obey the GW2 EULA/ Terms of Use
- No Class stacking. For example; No dual necros.
- No use of glitches or bugs. Known or unknown.

Only map; LEGACY OF THE FOEFIRE
Number of Players; 5
Number of Matches: Best of 3
The rules of this map are not all simple;
Rule 1 – Killing the Guild Lord wins you the match BUT

Rule 2 – You must capture the middle node once, before you can kill the Lord. If you do not capture the middle node before attacking the Lord, your team will be disqualified.
Rule 2a – You only need to Capture the Middle NODE ONCE.

Rule 2b – Even if the middle node is neutralized away from your favour, you are still allowed to kill the Lord as long as you’ve captured it before it was neutralized.

Rule 3 – You can only capture the middle node, capturing the side nodes will see your team disqualified.

Rule 4 – The match is set to run for 15 minutes. If by the end of those 15 minutes, no team kills the Guild Lord, the team with the highest score from holding the middle node wins the match.

NEW RULE;
Rule 5 – If at the 5:00 minute mark, no guild lord is dead, both teams will be allowed to push to kill the Lord.

I plan to hold these tournaments from now up until the expansion. When I’ll be transitioning the GvG tournament into a Stronghold Tourney. Hopefully by then I won’t be such a broke human and I can make it worth your whiles.

EU Signups: http://binarybeast.co.uk/xGW21501240 Starts 4pm GMT
NA signups: http://binarybeast.co.uk/xGW21501241 3pm EST

Watch the stream here: http://www.twitch.tv/bloodytech

Thank you to all those who sign up, it will be fun.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Sup guys,

An idea for a little psychological experiment hit me and I’m hoping that some of you guys could help out!

What I’m looking to find is what its like fighting against a Mesmer (Shatter, Lockdown, and/or Condi) as an Engineer? I have a few questions going forward:

• Which type of Engi build do you feel best fights Mesmer?

• What Engi skills (weapon or utility) are most important to have in this fight?

• How do you feel about Mesmer in general?

Noticed I didn’t answer all the questions so I’m going to do that now.

Which type of Engi build do you feel best fights Mesmer?

Condi builds for the most part but Burst builds can to.

What Engi Skills are most important?

If it’s Pistol/Shield then it’s Static Shield. If it’s Rifle then it Overcharged Shot and the immob. Elixir S, Tool kit, Rocket Turret, Flame Turret, Slick Shoes, Grenades and to a certain extent Rocket boots.

How do you feel about the Mesmer in general?

The good ones are fun to fight. They can beat Engies but you just have to know how to do it.