Guild Wars 2

The last screen shot looks pretty normal to me. The blue party had 2 emerald ranks and 3 sapphires, your party had 4 sapphires and 1 emerald.

I can’t see what profession the 2 individuals were that were disconnected from the match were, but their team was well balanced. They had a couple power players, a good condi player and likely an auramancer. They likely outperformed your party.

I know losing is hell, even by a big gap in score like that. But … it’s happened to me a couple of times. I’ve been so “outmatched” by the other team that I’ve suffered a score under 100 to their 500+ score.

Sometimes that happens. It shouldn’t happen every time, not even most of the time, but it can and will happen once in a while.

’ “It’s no measure of skill to put me in a match against a stacked deck that I’m intended to lose. Then, I get punished for losing by having the deck stacked even more against me. I’m told that if only I get good , everything will be OK and I too will get good teams.” ’

I was looking at a team I just lost a match to: My whole party were sapphires and this team we lost to were 3 rubies and 2 sapphires. This is exactly what I don’t want, a matchmaking queue that puts rubies and sapphires together/against each other.

But if there aren’t enough sapphires to queue, then where else we get opponents?

Losing is bad enough. When you lose to higher tier team though, there is an unsavoriness to losing pips against higher ranked players. I know you have to lose your pips when you lose … but there is additional penalty to being queued against higher ranked teams besides just losing a pip.

Your posts make me smile. I don’t want to call myself a pvptard, but in a good team, I’m pretty good. In a bad team or on my own, I’m not good enough. But I understand your point. I’m inclined to think premade parties is the only way to avoid the issues you are having with solo queuing terrible teams.

That makes a lot of sense. I am usually considering the daily profession wins in pvp and wouldn’t mind if they decided to do away with that particular daily “achievement.”

Oh, I must have been unlucky and queued your team a lot. Haha.

I’m in emerald division and I’m seeing the mordremoth and dragon finishers on multiple players on other team. So … I thought those finishers were really cool and I looked to see where I could get them. Say for both of them you have to rank up, but doesn’t say how high.

So, me and my friend in emerald are wondering if we are facing ruby and diamond ranked players. If so, it might explain my huge loss streaks. (And that is my perspective just from the “other side of the pond,” so to speak.

That looks pretty lopsided to me too. Only thing I could think of is maybe 5 rangers got in a party and queued. The question is, why? Could matchmaking really be that BAD?

I don’t know if it’s truly possible to match make for “skill” because party composition plays such a huge role in success or failure.

Some party comps dominate. Others do not. It’s luck of the draw with me.

Oh, sure, get good and learn how to beat a dominating party composition. Easier said than done when there is a reason they are dominating. “Overwhelming, overpowering” damage.

Not implying it’s fair or unfair or balanced or unbalanced, just stating what I experience.

I love my elementalist/auramancer. It suits me. But, I don’t like to be in a party with another elementalist or another 2 elementalists.

Yesterday, I queued into a party that had 2 eles (myself and one other) and one player changed to his ele and made our party go with 3 eles. This cost us the match, I believe. I was very annoyed with that player who came in on one class, then looked at our party composition and switched to elementalist.

P.S. Oh, Wolfric, I’d love to know how you can take down power builds because I can’t and I’m jealous of you. Haha. Especially when it’s 1v2 or 1v3. Maybe I’m just bad or maybe I’m unlucky. Or both.

If your loss streak is only 7 or 8 games, be happy. My loss streaks are higher. I’m not brilliant with computer programming or software development, but I know what my strengths and weaknesses are and the environments that I’m most vulnerable in. And party composition is my worst enemy.

How that equates to high loss streak for me is in the mix somewhere. But, it’s definitely not all me.

I don’t believe PvP is ever fair or MEANT to be fair because there are always players better and worse than you. Every one of us is better than someone else and at the same time, worse than someone else.

If you approach winning versus losing as a “fair” proposition, I think you have an unrealistic view of reality. Someone does not win because it’s fair or unfair for them to win. They win because they beat you.

And by the way, I’m not speaking about “cheating.” Obviously, that’s not fair. Victory is sweet, losing is hell. Fair has nothing to do with it.

“Anbody who lost 18 in a row is a really bad player. I am really comfortable in saying that.”

That’s possibly true. But, a broken clock has the correct time twice a day. Huge loss streaks seem statistically unlikely. What are the odds of your getting put in really bad parties with really bad players all the time? 100%? 90% 75%-85%

For odds to be tilted so heavily in favor of failure for “really bad players” requires odds being constantly tilted in the favor of other parties having “really good players.” And what are the odds of that? If you ever solo queue, aren’t you always wondering, is this a really good party or really bad party this time? How can I queue the really bad parties with the really bad players all the time as opposed to queuing into parties with really good players?

I am in emerald division and I feel like I keep getting matched up to teams with division IV or V ranked players. And out of my last 10 games, I only won 1 match. So, that’s 9 losses. That’s just out of last 10 games. That’s not counting all the losses before last 10 games.

If I have to get in matches with IV and V players, can’t they at least land in my party?

The OP’s suggestions were the BEST. Anyone that comes along after asking for nerfs (to any class) is the WORST.

I hate nerfs, ninja nerfs kitten me off BIG TIME and I quit a lot of games because of game developers constantly doing “re-balancing.”

I’m an auramancer tempest and mesmers kill me all the time. Though my original character in this game was a Mesmer, I stopped playing with her because she is too weak to do anything anymore and I’m struggling too much with her in pve. I don’t know what hit me. I don’t know all the stuff they did to nerf the Mesmer, but mine is virtually useless.

She’s full power build, ascended armor and weapons and the prospect of rebuilding her and gearing her is too expensive.

She is retired for lack of functionality. She is no longer any fun to play.

My first character in this game was a Mesmer. I loved her. I did so much in the game with her. But now, I struggle with her. She can barely kill mobs in pve let alone be effective in pvp against other players.

She is a power build and I haven’t really looked at the condition build for her as she is in ascended gear. The prospect of changing builds on chars with ascended gear is quite expensive.

So, I have put my Mesmer on vacation ankitten ow playing with my tempest/auramancer. A good Mesmer (which most of them are that I encounter in pvp) kill me with no problem. I need to learn how to survive against mesmers.

This was a very good thread with lots of good information. I don’t agree with the people saying DH is 8th worst class. But, that’s my opinion. I think DH is an incredibly strong class and give me tremendous difficulty as a tempest. But, not 1v1. I can handle a dragon hunter if there is no warrior in the vicinity and/or thief backstabbing me in the process.

But, I agree, the “class stacking” I’m seeing in the matches are troublesome. Pro pvp’rs can disagree with me about this as they have probably compensated or overcome the disadvantage of fighting a match against 3 necros, warrior and DH. As for me, I haven’t. A party like that will defeat me every time unless and until I can learn or outheal the condition damage.

Also, as a tempest, I am not a killer. I get discouraged and worried when my participating in the match is only 15 points when I, in fact, have over a million heals to other players, hundreds and hundreds of condition removals and boons to other players — and that’s not counting the ones applied to myself.

Often I find my team leaving me to “bunker” a point and hold it while they charge off and die. That is a terrible idea to leave your auramancer sitting alone at a point to defend. I want to follow the strong team members and assist them in the fighting to take over points, not defend points by myself.

I am new to pvp and I am struggling. I am basically unskilled. I am struggling in the school of hard knocks learning to play my class effectively.

However, I do find myself in parties that seem to be very, very unskilled as well. Which is fine because we can all “learn the ropes together.” However, I do experience losing streaks up from 5-13 matches in a row. As a struggling beginner, I expect to lose, but I expect the losing streak to be more along the lines of 50/50.

My concern is being queued with and against Div. IV and V ranked players while I’m struggling in Div. II. Players ranked in IV and V are likely playing with a dedicated team and queuing up against unskilled, less organized PUG players is just an “all-you-can-eat buffet” for hard core dedicated pvp players.

Since I am new to pvp, I can’t compare it to S1 because I didn’t participate in S1. But, I don’t want to be placed in with or against Div IV or V players. I won’t complain so much about Div III.

I would like the game to be set up that if Div IV or V players are going to take Div I or II or even III players in groups with them, that they be scaled up to Div IV or Div V rather than allow the system to scale their party down to Div I, II or III.

“Im pretty sure its the Runes that become account bound after you extract them.”

No it isn’t. I checked that. I extracted one rune from an exotic helm and the rune after extraction was not bound to the character.

I didn’t attempt to extract a rune from a pair of ascended shoulders after seeing that warning. Heavy ascended armor is passed back and forth between my guardian and revenant. I don’t need to have my ascended armor bound to the character extracting the rune.

This burden and imposition is very limiting on players that want to try new builds. Exotic gear is not cheap either. I think it would be very nice if Anet would remove this type of “penalty” for purchasing their upgrade extractor item and using it in ascended gear items that the game graciously allows us to share between our characters.

I have purchased 6 upgrade extractors to remove very expensive runes from my ascended gear.

What I didn’t expect and was very unhappy to discover is the warning that the item will be bound to the character after extraction.

Runes are a huge expense in game. The extractor items are a significant expense. But losing the ability to transfer ascended gear from one character to another is an astronomical burden.

I think it’s a real slap in the face to players that spend the time to craft ascended items and then put expensive runes in them to add this character binding burden to us after we invest in the expensive upgrade extractors.

Bad form Anet. I understand the revenue stream you may need from the sale of the upgrade extractors, but to bind the ascended equipment to one character after using the tool is over the top.

Sounds good. I’m afraid to use aoes … don’t want to hit other mobs, but I’ll try that and keep moving.

Brother …. if you’re wife is watching soaps, maybe you should “grind out” some more romance in that marriage …

I’m still a bit noob with this event, but I understand the basics. What I don’t understand is, why don’t we try to kill all the mobs in the blighted tower part after we kill the Preserver?

They keep spawning and it gets increasingly difficult to get to the next preserver. I’m the one that has trouble getting through the throngs of mobs after the preserver is killed. Any tips?

I never target mobs, only the preserver. But after a few preservers, there are more and more mobs. Would it take so long to kill them all?

There is interesting debate going on in here. There are good players and there are gold farmers. Anet has probably done what it thinks is best for its game so that legendary weapons will never be an item (or its materials) that a bunch of gold farmers will start mass producing and selling.

Clearly the legendary weapon is an onerous process. Right now, I’m just working on the process and leveling my masteries. I am getting a bit frustrated with certain things. Time gated items are a HUGE frustration, but at least gold farmers aren’t mass producing those items and selling them for gold.

Gold farmers ruin games both directly and indirectly. They devalue in game economies if they aren’t controlled and they create onerous systems in games just protecting in game economies from the effects of gold farmers.

From what I can see in this game, Anet does a pretty good job “gold farm proofing” their game.

I don’t know about the guilded halls, but I’m in a guild that got theirs and it’s great. Our guild is looking to add active players. So, you can join with us if you want. This isn’t meant to be recruit.

But, there are lots of bugs, I’m sure they are being worked on as expeditiously as possible.

You just can’t really dismiss them so fast. Just take a break and come back and play when you’re less frustrated.

Maguma is hard, and I hate that I can’t solo the map. But, I have made a couple friends. I run into players that are struggling like me and they add me to their friends list and we run off together to try to get the hero and mastery points.

No map in Maguma is as hard to get around in as Dry Top. I hate that map for no other reason than it is a pain in the arze to get around in.

What I think is really cool in the HoT maps is how the put those exalted armor sets there for us to play with. It’s like finding a car parked on the side of the road with the keys in it and a tank of gas. Really cool.

Dragon Stand event is a grind, but I like it. I’m not the best at it and I could never command one of those events, but I am getting the idea and helping where I can and getting lots of exp for doing it. But, I buy the hero exp/magic find boosts in the gem shop. They’re worth their weight in gold.

Don’t give up on this map. It’s not meant to be played for hours and hours on end. Some players will play like that. But go in there and do a couple things you can, stumble around a bit, find other players, FIND ME, I’m always looking for friends to play with. I can show players around a little bit and I hope they can show me some things I haven’t seen yet.

I am a Mesmer in beserker stats ascended armor and I tried to solo walk through Dragon Stand map and I was annoyed that I saw no events on going at the time, but like all but 2 waypoints were contested.

Everywhere I tried to walk, I saw groups of mobs in threes, 2 normal + 1 veteran. I can take on a vet or I can take on 2 mobs, but I can’t take on all 3 by myself.

It would be nice is Anet didn’t make changing stats on our gear so expensive. I can’t afford the runes as it is, let alone to pay for the gem store extractor that goes away after you use it. I know it’s for revenue, but it would be so nice if Anet would give us an rune/sigil/infusion extracting device that is permanent. I will pay 2,500 gems for it. Heck, charge what you want, I’ll probably pay. But I can’t keep paying for multiple single use extraction items from gem store.

I’m pretty sure Anet won’t do this because it may not be a significant enough revenue stream for them. But, for us, it would be nice.

Very useful thread. When I run these HoT maps with my friend, (he’s a ranger, I’m a Mesmer) we can see here how to help each other better with your analysis. Thanks.

I get disappointed when I can’t join a DS event because it’s full. That’s disappointing. But, life is full of disappointments, so I go do something else and maybe I get lucky next time.

I HATE snipers. The only thing worse than a sniper is … 2 snipers. hahahaha

I’m a new comer to this Dragon Stand event and let me tell you what I like. First of all, I was confused, I didn’t understand what was going on. BUT, they make it very, very simple and easy to get back to the event if you die. After doing this event a couple times, I figured out some of it.

Concentrate on mobs with “X” over their head. Don’t attack any other mobs. Stay in a concentrated group hopefully with a strong commander. Keep moving, do not stay behind, and sorry to say, no way to help rev downed players. They can rez up and get in the event quickly and easily.

I really like the Dragon Stand map. I love the event. It’s a great way to grind our exp for leveling. It’s challenging and it fills my bags with much need materials and pleasantly surprisingly valuable items too.

Don’t give up on the map. Don’t get discouraged if no stops to rez, they really can’t. They’re not being jerks. It’s easy to rev up and get back to the event. The path is clear, you don’t need to fight mobs delaying you from getting back to the event.

I was doing that chapter with a friend, just the 2 of us, and the same thing happened to me. My glider wouldn’t open and I died and got put in the “time out box” while he went on with the boss. I asked him to just die so we could start over, but the npcs kept rev’g him and wouldn’t let him die.

I had to stand in the “penalty box” while he killed the boss on his own. I had like 3 or 4 chances to open my glider, but it didn’t open. I did everything I was supposed to do, but it wouldn’t open. His opened though so I thought I must have done something wrong.

I don’t know what I did wrong, but being put in “time out box” and not being allowed to rejoin the fight SUX.

1. Snipers
2. Pocket Raptors
3. Smokescales
4. Frogs
5. Rolling Devils

All these mobs are unmanageable in numbers. My only thought on these mobs is that they can use their over-powered skills a lot more than we can use ours. The eva on the Smokescale is extremely annoying, but I can kill one, maybe even 2 by myself. But that’s no guarantee.

In the Story, like second chapter, they put in like 4 or 5 snipers and it’s impossible to fight that. I died so many times and kept coming back. But, basically, I had to let most of the npcs fight the snipers.

Hahaha, I say that for all the maps.

The hotdog is right. I’m in all the maps now, but I’m still really struggling to finish Verdant. Auric Basin is a very nice map. Tangled is not so nice. Dragon Stand is my favorite map. I love it. It’s like running through Jurassic World with the jungle and all the sound effects. But, I’m only rank 16 right now. I saw player with rank 90+ and that dude had to either be a GM or someone that’s been playing nonstop since the content went live. Others were in their 70s grinding their mastery levels on DS event.

Some players just grind and then stop playing which is going to be tragic for me because I need help getting around. The mobs are too hard for me to solo all the time and if I don’t get lucky and run into other players, I get stuck at a point that I can’t get beyond.

I love that there are so many events on the maps that help us level up the mastery ranks. But, the maps are cleverly designed that you have to graduate your masteries in order to access more of it. I’m right now trying to find that mastery point that is above the canopy on some of the burning wreckage up there. There are places in all the new maps that I just can’t get to either because I can’t find it or I can’t survive the mobs. I’m a solo player and I’m reaching the limits of solo play.

I don’t like to complain about games because this game is very good and the artistry is wonderful and I love the stories. However, I am having a very difficult time in the new content solo’g. And let me just tell you all how much I LOVE THE SNIPERS. Especially when there’s more than 2. Oh, joy! But, experience is a cruel teacher and for all my characters I have, I find that I have to change builds to try to get around better. I’m uncomfortable doing that because exotic gear is expensive and when you find something that works, you like to stick with it. But, it doesn’t always work in the new content. Pocket Raptors and rolling devils are another joy to discover. HAHAHA.

I’ll keep plugging away at it, but honestly, I know I can’t solo the new content. It just isn’t meant for solo players and I accept that. I’ll go as far as I can. I know how difficult the “The Way In” was. I followed someone into that because we couldn’t access it by ourselves.

I love them too. And I also love the glittering weapon skins. And, yeah, they are kinda girly, but I’m a girl gamer and I love BLING. I kind of like the pretty butterfly wings too, but they are too small.

I tell you what I do if I encounter a champ boss for a hero point: release the champ boss and run and wait for a group of players to come along. I opened a champ boss for a hero point the other night and I ran and the mob paced around the map, didn’t despawn. So, about 6 more players came running up and I jumped back in the fray and got the boss.

That’s kind of solo’g it.

I’m kind of not too caught up on all the changes yet. Some of it just goes right over my head. But, I really like the gliding. That is fun. The bouncing mushrooms are fun, I like them a lot.

I play a Mesmer and don’t really get the chrono thing that well. I didn’t really do much with the beta, I’m afraid. Kind of a busy person with work and can’t really immerse myself to the extent other players can.

I’m not a hardcore player, not looking for too much challenge and unfortunately, the new maps are knocking me on my butt. I’m needing help getting around in there, really can’t solo the maps the way I did for the other ones.

I kind of think our characters need to be stronger, but maybe that’s what all this mastery thing is. I mastered my chronomancer thing, but don’t see any of the skills anywhere. Are they all passive?

I’m afraid I’m a perpetual noob and have to stumble around the maps and learn everything the hard way.

Good luck to you and do everything he Qugi suggested as soon as you can. We all have been getting those phish messages in game. You’re not the only one.

Is it just me running fibre optic internet that needs to wait 90-120 seconds or longer for game to load from log in screen?

And getting around Lion’s Arch is sluggish.

The referencing real life people is not strictly enforced. I’ve been running my guardian who is named after a former conservative Republican congresswoman who is alive and well. There is nothing disrespectful about naming characters after real life people.

But, I will confess, if after playing that character for months and they all of a sudden demand I change it, I’m not paying to change the name. They better let me do it for free. They didn’t stop me from making the character with that name.

I see no reason not to allow him to name his character after Donald Trump.

I don’t like the dungeon selling, but it’s probably good to let players have some means of making gold.

When I look at dungeons and they’re all selling spots, I don’t go. But, I do need all those dungeons and I don’t ever get in one.

Anyway, it’s just a pc game and I do other stuff besides dungeons.

I don’t fully understand how the game mechanics will be for “keeping the boss busy,” but mobs usually agro on the player doing the most damage. That’s not tank build. So, sounds like some dedicated healing might be called for.

If not convert your excess mini pets, then maybe they can make a new npc that you can trade that extra mini pet for an item of your choice?

I appreciate a massive game like this takes so much work and time, but when real money is involved, even if this seems trivial, it should be a priority. I will send ticket. I was happy with it at first, now I don’t like the one-size-fits-all. It’s not attractive. Trivial as it may be, real money was involved in its purchase. That makes it definitely NOT trivial.

that sounds like bot’g activity to me … but if someone is afk and bot’g, then there’s really no benefit to hitting the boss once and stepping aside. If they’re afk and bot is running, why not just dps the boss and pick up loot.

So, I don’t know if they’re bot’g or not. It’s kind of boring to sit there on your char and then hit the boss and stand around idle while others are struggling to kill champ watching the whole thing just dragging on.

It sounds like a very frustrating situation for you.

I know this topic has been discussed, but I’m disgusted with the Monk fashion. I paid gems for it. When I first got it, I liked it. Then something happened and the whole shape of the fashion changed and it looks terrible. It’s not attractive on my characters, whatever class/race they are.

I want to return mine. Unless you put it back to the way it appeared when I first bought it, which was the same week it was released.

Can I get refund, please? Thank you.

I have the white wings and I also want the black wings. And, honestly, if they would do it, I would love it if we could do some artistic expression with wings, like make them sparkle, or have like rainbows hues or glossy look or butterflies flitting around them or just letting us color them with glossy, sparkly dyes. It would be more fun. I want my bling bling.

But, like any fashion, I have to be in the mood to wear them and I can understand that these wings are a distraction to other players. Sometimes they are a bit distracting to me, especially on jumping puzzles. So, mine are not checked atm.