Guild Wars 2

There’s a difference between structured PvP, where people want serious games, and casual PvP, where players just want to brawl and troll. Both modes offer different kinds of fun, I think one should simply pick what one likes and respect other people’s preferences.

Also, not all players are driven by ingame rewards. It’s true that ingame rewards can help set a goal for players, or help the company have players stick around (thus generating profit). But many of us don’t actually give a **** about whatever rewards, and simply enjoy the mechanic of the game.

Hotjoin used to offer a stream of uninterrupted games where you could very easily get this casual fun – fast map rotation, no loss of tempo, players coming and going as they wished… Ranked games do not. You need to queue for X minutes. You need to play Conquest seriously (no more fooling around with worthy opponents). You cannot learn new classes or experiment with gimmick builds, or you’ll get flamed. Matchmaking does not work. More often than not, a game brings more pain than joy.

But I’ll agree that hotjoin, butchered as it is now, doesn’t make much sense anymore. It was great in the past, with lots of fans playing it – and they killed it with a poor vision of the game direction (structured PvP above all, inefficient reward system, misunderstanding of what players liked…).

What now? Players have moved on, the game is getting old (and it’s poorly optimized at that), and their vision of serious PvP topped by a professional scene appeals to few players only (if I believe the twitch viewership). I believe they urgently need some fresh air in the vision.

I used to love hotjoin. You’d join any running game, play any class or build even if you sucked at it, and play games after games without having to wait. If you met players you didn’t like, you’d just change servers. It was simple, fun and casual, exactly what I was looking for.

Then they butchered the game mode. They removed 8v8, because they thought PvP had to be serious conquest. They remove the “Play now” button, so that people would play unranked and ranked, thus lessening dramatically the population of hotjoin. They added dailies and made them active in hotjoin, resulting in many players cheating the mode even more.

That is really a shame. The best PvP games I’ve had have been on hotjoin, between 11pm and 3am, with people who were just having fun fragging others with no hard feeling. I’m a casual PvPer with 5k games under my belt, just wanted to chill, is all. Why did they have to kill my game mode and force me into the hell of ranked games?

I’ve tried season 4. That was my first season, it was a disaster and an incredibly frustrating experience. Had to wait way too much time between games, to play with people who were… nah, don’t get me started on this. I stopped playing at diamond with a >55 winrate, because it was unbearable.

So remove hotjoin… I think it’s a bad idea (no offense). I’d rather they make it great again (it’s in the air du temps), let casual players like myself enjoy it, while dedicated players can stay in their ranked games. And if the population is too low in these, don’t try to forcibly acquire more players by butchering other game modes, just fix the failing game mode until it becomes attractive…

Sorry for the rant.

Supreme.3164:

HAHAHAHAHA they even gave reveal to warrior, they don’t know how to buff this class anymore…they basically gave warrior everything…oh wait, they still need stealth and clones

Warriors getting reveal is the biggest joke ever. Especially on a shout

Warriors do not have access to stealth, teleport, condition transfer, boon removal, chilled, poison, aegis or protection. They only have one skill or trait giving fear, torment, regeneration or retaliation. To me, this is not “everything”, but YMMV.

Basically, warriors have a certain identity, with strong points as well as glaring weaknesses. Weaknesses can be taken advantage of, and builds can be countered. Nothing new actually, it is actually the same for most other classes. Pretty boring stuff.

IMHO, there’s a lot of work to be done on the warrior class, way more than what the patch has brought. Too bad we won’t ever see any of it.

Cool vid, loved that intro. It’s nice to have you back.

For the food, have you considered the plate of mushels Gnashblade?

I’ve been recently playing a bit of WvW, with my old guild. I didn’t know about the meta, so asked my guild leader what he wanted me to run. I think you’d love his answer: full zerk with runes of durability, GS/Hammer, boon duration food and sigil of absorption on the hammer.

@kdaddy

I was a bit upset yesterday, maybe I wasn’t clear. Fighting on mid, one player goes down, and starts being cleaved. I, as a warrior, cannot revive him: too much damage around, some skills on CD, the situation is not favorable at all for a rez. The person targets me while in the fight, then says on team chat: rez. Then he explains: you have endure pain (EP).

I was flabbergasted. EP is not a magical skill that lets a warrior disregard any kind of difficult situation and rez in a breeze. Not only did he not realize the situation we were in, but he also did not even know what EP was actually doing, as he honestly admitted in the chat later.

I know I’m just an average player, this is my first league, started from amber and currently in diamond with 119/212 (56%), mostly soloQ (duoQ for the latest games). Maybe you’re right, this can be considered grinding, and I actually deserve to be paired with a player asking “rez me with endure pain” when overwhelmed in a fight. How would I even know?ANet does not publish the strength of the players, their win/loss stats and ratios…

I know this thread is not really constructive, and I apologize for this. This is just the expression of the frustration I have playing ranked PvP. I have played some PvP games before – and in most of them, I had good games, way way more than in GW2

… it prevents direct damage only. It does not give stability. It does not prevent the application or ticking of conditions. It does not prevent retaliation or life steal.

It’s okay to not know that when you’re a beginner. The game has a lot to learn from, after all. But… how come that, while being diamond currently, I’m paired with a player who tells me to use Endure Pain to rez him while 3 other cleave and hard CC around like mad? And when I explain, tell me… “Oh, I didn’t know”!

Match-making is terrible. But with the week-end factor, the match making becomes abysmal. This is utterly disheartening, you have to wait until 11pm in a week day to get decent matches…

I mostly play vanilla power warrior in PvP, it’s alright. I’m not sure the hammer is playable though, most classes have received better access to stability, and it’s often overused in PvP. I play either GS/Bow or GS/Axe+Shield, both demolisher/strength, str/def/dis.

In general, if you truly want to be competitive in PvP, you’ll have to buy the expansion. The berserker specialization brings good stuff like Eternal Champion, Fatal Frenzy, Skull Grinder and Headbutt on the table. Other classes have received even better things.

The least popular (games without one of these are not uncommon):

• Elems are not very popular. The class has been nerfed, and only experienced elems have stayed faithful to it. The class still works though, mostly support with good damage.
• Warriors have bizarrely fallen out of grace. The class has not become weak, but simply seems to have lost its favor.

The regulars (almost always 1+ in each game):

• Necros and thieves are popular classes, but paradoxical ones. Bad necros and bad thieves are (way) more common than good ones, which is often key to victory or defeat.
• Scrappers, druids, chronomancers and revenants are the same as ever, polyvalent classes, solid and dealing decent damage – possibly too polyvalent. More power druids creeping in these days, good to see.

The super popular:

• Dragonhunters have become super popular, having 4+ per game is not unusual. It’s not that the class is too strong, although some things could indeed be nerfed (as for most classes), it’s just that most players still don’t know how to deal with it.

Obindo.6802:

Elegie.3620:

Archilus.4590:

Headbutt’s self-stun does not trigger the last stand trait.

I’ve noticed that too. There are so many bugs with the warrior currently…

Pretty sure it’s intentional

I don’t think so. You remember when Headbutt would trigger Distracting Strikes on yourself? Or that it does not currently work well with the runes of the Krait? This shows the skill is coded in a strange way (the self-stun part being non standard), trying to reuse common parts, then overriding manually for each skill interaction. To me, they’re just missing some.

Also, the way Last Stand is coded is bizarre, which possibly makes the interaction harder to manage. Last Stand should activate Balanced Stance after you’re controlled, to let you be interrupted – but it triggers right before it. Mix it with the self-stun part, and it’s no wonder it doesn’t work.

Well, this is just my interpretation.

Archilus.4590:

Headbutt’s self-stun does not trigger the last stand trait.

I’ve noticed that too. There are so many bugs with the warrior currently…

I main a warrior, and I do believe that resistance is a bit too strong – reducing a portion of the damage inflicted by conditions would be an interesting choice. However, this change would be quite difficult to balance, conditions currently being too easy to apply and reapply (IMHO). Warriors would certainly need some additional compensation.

Still, regarding Berserker’s Stance, few players actually know about how it works, its CD and duration – and even fewer take appropriate measures to deal with it (baiting, kiting, hard CC-ing…). I’m quite perplexed at this, and obviously not unhappy, as condi builds and classes relying on blinds get heavily punished by this inexperience.

Liked it, very nice sequences, plus I had some good laugh here and there (invisible thief kill, rampart dodge troll, hilarious death from above…). Thanks for sharing!

Glad to see some vanilla power warrior, happy to get a glimpse back at hammer warrior… Each time I reequip my hammer, it lasts 10 minutes, then I give up… stability and blocks are way too cheap now

Congrats on getting your level 80! Full berserker is good, no worries – however if you’re not used to fighting other players, prepare to get killed a lot. Berserker gear is powerful, yet fragile. Don’t hesitate to use some knight/cavalier pieces to get some toughness, removing them progressively as you gain experience.

The following is pretty close to what I run: berserker/defender axe/shield/GS. If you find yourself falling regularly to conditions, switch Rousing Resilience for Cleansing Ire. If you cannot craft Defender runes, go for any power runes (Strength, Pack…).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR3enMdAlhgVhAehAElilrADJAkASdK5gWXN49zWaftA-TVCHABDcQAI4BAAwRAAE1feSJYBXAgI0Ng9+DAp8jUAZu1C-w

Warriors can also be played in a condition flavor – and using dire gear can give you good passive defensive stats, so you’ll die less at first. if you’re interested in this, just follow up.

In PvP, you don’t use your gear, but equip PvP amulets. I suggest you try the Demolisher one, which inserts some toughness in a berserker-like template. Also, PvP is free, it’s a good place to learn fighting. You can “hotjoin” custom arenas (need to manually select available servers), or try yourself at unranked games (learn how to play Conquest first, though, possibly with a friend).

I feel the shield is actually pretty good on the warrior. It theoretically forms good synergies with the class:

• The stun is great, it helps a lot in weapon combos, plus it can be taken advantage of with some traits: Body Blow, Distracting Strikes, Unsuspecting Foe.
• The leap is nice as well, can work with self combos (torch, bow), and provide more with Powerful Synergy. There’s a seriously annoying bug with Warrior’s Sprint, though.
• The long block is a life-saver, and Shield Mastery is simply one of our best trait all around.

Most of the time, it’s true we don’t take full advantage of the shield, though. That’s not as much a shield problem as trait design issues:

• Body Blow and Distracting Strikes are good traits, but work for condition builds, and Strength has no place in the Defense/Discipline/Berserker template. If going hybrid, then Forceful GS and Berserker’s Power are better options. Plus, most classes have stability now (thank you HoT), so condi-on-cc has become a bad option altogether.
• Unsuspecting Foe belongs to Arms. The trait line is not good enough, despite the excellent Signet Mastery. Maybe, if they could add the shield to the list of weapons working with Dual Wielding?
• Powerful Synergy… is a strange beast. I don’t really see a good usage of it. Haven’t given much time to it before, though.

Cygnus.6903:

Flails are awesome, so are Greataxes and Landspears. this game needs more weapons.

I dream of a warrior running GS/Halberd…

Cygnus.6903:

Btw, my next vid won’t be Rev. I like playing it but I kind of suck at it. Won’t be Warrior either, though.

My bet is on thief! Welcome back.

Josh Davis.6015:

We’ve been talking about personal score a bit. I’m personally of the opinion that it isn’t representative of a player’s effort in a given match, and it also can be incredibly misleading and potentially lead to bad gameplay habits (5-capping home).

If you were to redesign personal score, what would you do? Does it track different types of stats? Would you want your personal stats displayed to other players?

It would indeed be great if the personal score could reflect the contribution of the player to the team victory/loss, and highlight good players’ rotations. I’m a casual PvPer, stronger players will derive much better indicators, but w/e

Main:

• Killing a player (incl. assists): +5,
• Being killed: -5,
• Reviving a player (either directly or through a stomp): +5,
• Decapping a node: +5,
• Capping a node: +5 if not decapped in the next 20s, -5 if multicap,
• Assaulting a node (in combat, neutral/enemy node): +1 every 10s if outnumbered,
• Defending a node (in combat, own node): +3 every 10s, +1 every 10s if outnumbered.

Giving points to secondary mechanics is super tricky, I don’t really know how to capture a good usage of the mechanics. Let’s say:

• Treb first shot: +2,
• Treb hitting player: +3,
• Treb missing player: -1, evades do not count as a miss,
• Treb destroyed: +10 if treb was used before with successful hits,
• Treb repaired: +10 if treb was used before with successful hits,
• Creature killed: +15, +5 if it puts the team ahead, -5 per node not owned after 10s,
• Lord killed: +15, +15 if it puts the team ahead, -5 per node not owned after 10s,
• Any kill at Calm / Tranquility / SkyCannon / Spirit: +5,
• Fighting at Calm / Tranquility / SkyCannon, being outnumbered: +1 every 10s,
• Calm / Tranquility / SkyCannon / Spirit: +5 (too complex to assess),
• Bell: +10 per bell level (max of red/blue level), -5 if multicap, -5 per node not owned after 10s.

Being out of combat, either camping an owned node or scouting a part of the map. Project final score as momentum, as current score + diff from caps, then:

• When losing: -1 every 10s,
• When winning: +1 every 10s.

Thanks for being around!

You got my +1 two secs after the start of the vid – I guess we’re from the same generation, and used to listen to the same things. Nice entrée, looking forward to the main dish

I’ve started roaming a bit lately, and I feel things have changed. I run nearly the same thing as you do, just full marauder/defender for the armor and berserker trinket, with Eternal Champion. I’ve yet to adjust: even with a GS, mobility is a big issue, plus the damage output doesn’t help much against bunkers (and there seems to be lots of them in WvW these days)… Got trolled hard by an elem yesterday.

Mr Godlike.6098:

5. after 4 seasons still don ‘t know how each trap works and walk casually along the freaking edge of TEST OF FAITH! PLZ read how this thing works https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Test_of_Faith . And also why you guys like to eat whole damage from Procession of Blades – maybe it’s time use invulnerability skill’s or blocks?

That’s what they call shooting oneself in the foot, right?

Overall, I agree with you, most players don’t know how to deal with DH, and should reflect more. However, I do think DH is a tiny bit too strong – too many unblockable thingies.

Przemyslaw.5891:

Would be great to have few different modes in pvp but it’ll never happen. Really, Anet cannot balance game at state as game is now, so it is impossible that they can balance game for 1v1 or 2v2 or whatever

I’ve seen worse balance, I guess. Plus is it really relevant in that case? Balance matters for competitive play, but less so for casual ones – and all game modes do not need to be competitive. Also, balance can only be achieved after a mode has been created and experimented on, after gathering player data.

Any new game mode would attract more players, revitalizing the community, creating positive feedback loops. Instead of their trying to achieve something perfect each time they deliver, I’d rather they provide new stuff – and focus on improving the more popular ones, like they did with Conquest vs. SH or CY.

Cynz.9437:

I have better idea: how about removing those passives on first place.

Sure, let’s do that. Forget about my suggestion. Your idea is better. Let’s have this for next balance patch

There are many traits which come with internal CDs. For instance, a warrior has Defy Pain, Last Stand, Dead or Alive… For now, I cannot keep track of most of them during a fight, resulting in some of my tactical choices being unfortunate gambles.

I would love for ANet to add some visual indicators of these traits, with the CDs. A mere list, using a basic color scheme or simple visuals, which you could freely position on the screen (like the minimap or chat containers), would be okay.

You lose the passive effect of the signet when you activate it. The elem has a way to keep it up with the trait “Written of Stone”, but not the warrior. As Warlord has said, you use the signet to fill your adrenaline.

You can accumulate and maintain your precision stacks by repeatedly casting the Healing signet alone, if I remember correctly.

Skittledness.5106:

Hey everyone it’s Jeffies from Never lucky:)
Tarcis was playing the squishy amulet to make up for the loss of damage of their bunker comp.Its not a optimal build but because of the Druid/ele and other supports he could afford to run glassy.

That was their version of reaper/scrapper, I guess. As a power warrior, I certainly enjoyed watching something else than the current macebow condi warrior. The choice of Destroyer amulet was ballsy, and well beyond my capabilities to play, even with support.

Thanks for sharing, and congrats on making it to the WC. I wish you the best in your coming matches.

Hello there,

For those doing the 4th season of the PvP league, would you mind sharing your builds and experience, how you’re doing, how the warrior in general is doing (roles, nemeses…).

Cheers.

According to the MM algorithm, the system seems to solely calculate the players’ rating from the game final result. However, a victory is achieved not only through team effort, but also through individual performance – and assessing that latter component through the final result only seems insufficient. I don’t get why there’s no heuristic component involved, in order to properly boost or degrade the individual ratings of the players.

Also, there’s a significant lack of transparency from Anet. It is really hard to provide useful suggestions when the company refuses to provide any figure related to PvP, like the overall population, class repartition, players’ ratings and so on. Players can only speculate, mostly wrongly, which fuels the frustration and inhibits positive contributions.

Enough is enough, I give up. The match making is just not working for me. Every match, I see one of my team mate going down in less than 10 seconds, mostly in 1v1. There’s too much of a gap between the levels of the players in a game. Each game is a roulette, the winner of which being the team not having the worst player of all 10.

This was my first league, and my memories of it will be the most painful of all in the game. I’ll make sure to relate my experience to my friends, to make sure they don’t waste their time with the league.

Aside from this frustration, this is a big disappointment. I like the fighting so much in this game, that I don’t mind the balance issues here and there, nor the profession bugs. What really disappoints me is that there seems to be no technical value in matchmaking, nothing new to invent, and that seemingly bigger challenges have already been solved in GW2… and yet it does not work.

Good luck to those persisting in the league, I hope you’ll have a good gaming experience there, living exciting and intense moments, and possibly making friends.

67 matches played in this new league. This is my first league. Most games are… incredibly bad. I can down some of my opponents in matter of seconds. Some of my team mates go down in matters of seconds as well. Each game is a big WTF. I’ve tried to rotate differently, many times, tried to adjust, tried to think… I’m at a loss at what to do now, a bit upset about it.

How many matches must I play until it becomes balanced and enjoyable?I believe I’ve invested way too much time already in that failure of a league, I’m on the verge of giving up, and telling all my friends and guild mates about that disastrous experience, so that they stay away from that plague.

Hi,

Sometimes, the guardian mace block animation does not clear, which means the guardian is always shown with its protective shield, even if it is expired. In PvP, this makes the fights unmanageable (when to attack if the guardian is shown to always be blocking?).

This bug has been around for many months now. It’s becoming a serious problem in PvP since guardians have become so popular after the patch, so I think it’s time to fix it.

Thanks.

Cynz.9437:

Well, i am sry (or am i?), i spent half match begging them to help me – 0 reaction. So yes, eventually i became mad and yelled at team WHY THE HELL THEY DON’T EVER LOOK AT MAP OR HELP TO DEFEND HOME!!!!

It felt good :P

I understand your frustration – I think many of us have felt the same in the last days. Current games are not fun at all for me, besides a few rare exceptions. I’m just going on in the hope that things improve when people reach the division they belong to.

Venting one’s frustration on the map chat has funny consequences. Of course one feels refreshed, but others feel bad. As a result, they may start to misbehave as well, propagating the frustration to all players. What’s ironic is that it may sometimes hit back the original source, without him/her knowing, creating a feedback loop.

He went AFK before you reported him, remember this is the very reason you reported him. In short, his strategy is to go AFK in all games, maybe to abuse the system, artificially lowering his level now, to benefit from bonus pips later, with win streaks…

Him saying what he said was just to upset you – his strategy was already to stay AFK for many games. You have nothing to do with his decision, he’s just made it so it looks like it’s your fault, to make you feel guilty.

Can’t you just buy your own arena? It costs 200 gold plus some daily fee, but you can split this with your guild mates or friends. This way, you could farm whatever you want, with people you know, and even open it to the general public (as an arena owner, you can kick or ban players).

The quickest way to farm would be to properly PvP, though. Wait for a few days so that stronger players climb up in higher divisions, then try ranked games – whether you win or lose, you advance your track. You’ll improve your mechanics in the process (which will be useful for PvE as well), and might even enjoy it

Light Of The Abyss.5927:

@OP…. You said the games are close. What more do you want? Last season the games were always favored to one side and people complained. Now there is a thread on games being close? People just like to complain

Yes, people sure like to complain

Some games are close in terms of final score, but all of them exhibit too high a difference between players’ skills. This considerably influences tactics in place, and you find yourself not playing conquest, but playing … whatever mess it becomes? It feels like victories or defeats are artificial, nearly a matter of luck. Most games make no sense, and are not satisfying.

Shield #4 does not remove immobilize anymore when traited with Warrior’s Sprint?

Doug.2841:

What would be the F2P version of this build? What do I pick instead of Berserker?

There’s no F2P version. The point of the destroyer amulet is to add condi damage, using Berserker skills (Skull Grinder, Shattering Blow). He also uses Geomancy/Doom, but the sigils alone do not justify the use of the amulet.

You can still run mace/shield and GS, replacing Berserker by Strength. In that case, you’d change your amulet to either Demolisher (my preference) or Berserker. This would become a standard vanilla power build, although one would often use a main-hand axe rather than a mace.

Fivedawgs.4267:

Signet of might is a gimmick, a good DH shouldn’t lose against a SM warrior unless you manage to pressure him enough… can always be wrong though still I ran SM during S2.

Honestly, I don’t remember playing it before in PvP (maybe a rifle thing?). However, seeing all the blocks being around (DH, mesmers, revenants, warriors), I’ve given it a chance since a few weeks now, and have been quite happy with the results. I’ve even tried Arms / Defense / Discipline (but don’t do it – it sucks).

The passive helps the damage output, and the active can be a nasty surprise to opponents. It’s actually often lethal when you proc it when the opponent’s HP is below 50%, because you can also benefit from Heightened Focus.

DH are tough to deal with though – way too much active defense. The Signet of Might makes fights a bit easier, but does not offer a free win.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

The games are close despite the disparity between subjective player skill level and yet you think it’s the biggest variable…

What are the other parameters you are alluding to and why do you think the most important parameter show such a little impact (game still being close despite that).

Sorry, I’m a bit unclear. I believe that a stronger player can dispatch a weaker player in matters of seconds. As such, the choice of rotations is greatly influenced by this factor – not identifying the weakest player can lead to wrong assessments of situations (e.g. you think you’re gonna +1, but you get into an unfavorable fight).

The games are balanced because this disparity exists for both team, I guess. But I feel it is wrong to focus on weaker players because you know this is the result of the matchmaking, rather than assessing the situation as if all players were equivalent (with different roles and classes). You don’t really play the game, you play the system.

I’ve just started soloQ ranked games, and so far the match making seems a bit strange. The games are close, but the disparity between the levels of the player is enormous. This is important, because the individual level of players can completely influence the outcome of the game, way more than any other parameter.

The way this level is currently assessed is possibly flawed. I would suggest, at the very least, to include the total number of games played in PvP, to separate beginner players (say between 0-100 games), intermediate players (100-200) and the rest (standard matchmaking).

Hi there,

I’m slowly catching up with the PvP US qualifiers, and… I’ve had such a nice surprise when seeing what Tarcis decided to run!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR5enMdAdhgVhAukCElilqA7d02antIFgGQAQpHE7yBA-TpRHAB5XGggLAA57PAwRAYgHAQAHEAA

What do you guys think of this? I felt that he played strongly during the series, and I’m a bit disappointed I won’t be seeing more of him in September. For those interested, check the amazing sequence going from 04:04:55 to 04:07:35.

https://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/82279493

I could be wrong, but I think your facing a premade means that in your team, you have a premade group as well. You’re the unfortunate complement – and the opposite team has probably its own unfortunate complement.

Yesterday, I tried the feature for the first time. We grouped at 3 people after a satisfying game, and went on with a few more. This gradually lead to much more intense games, the final win rate not changing much.

Why don’t you give it a chance, when you find players you enjoyed playing with? There’s no need to interact socially, just say hi and play. You’ll eliminate some randomness of the matchmaking (i.e. be paired with players whose skill you know).

Hi,

AlexPan.8614:

While I agree with point #3, this has the balanced between similarity of player skill level and Q times… Different people have different concerns, so this will always be up for dispute.

I understand that, it’s just that the more I play, the more I feel that players in the games are way stronger than I am, and I don’t get what I’m doing in such games (although I’m having lots of fun). I did a few more games yesterday, and queues times went up from my usual 1-2 minutes to 3-4 minutes.

AlexPan.8614:

Other than that… Yeah, play unranked until your defeats aren’t as spectacular and grind hotjoin (try dueling rooms to work on your mechanics).

Thanks for the advice. I’m actually a former heavy hotjoin hero, who wanted to try unranked games for a while. I cannot seem to progress in hotjoin with these classes, but I’ll persist. I’ll try dueling rooms too.

AlexPan.8614:

Glad you’re having a good time in PvP though. Hit me up in-game if you want someone to play with (NA time zone)

I’m on EU, but thanks very much for the invitation, appreciate it. Happy PvP to you.

From what I watched, the ele was fine. It was a bit more squishy than usual, but did more damage – in the hands of an experienced elementalist, it didn’t seem like a bad trade at all. I think that there were actually two different ele builds played, but the second build got replaced by the standard one afterwards.

The qualifiers were really nice. What was the most interesting was the comp Reaper/Scrapper, with the reaper doing excellent damage and going down a lot, and the scrapper reviving it incredibly fast with the gyro. It definitely gave 55 an edge – plus the mechanical skills of the players were so high. NA should be instructive in this regard.

TCG didn’t use that comp, and relied as usual on super high individual skills, with a superior rotation knowledge (plus Helseth did some very fine plays). Vermillion went the road of the Reaper/Scrapper too, and used the reaper build of 55 for the final game. Orange Logo displayed some great potential, looking forward to the future.

Overall these were exciting games, I enjoyed watching them. I was on the French stream, and the casters were definitely great – a nice camera focus on the important parts of the game, and some solid real time analysis on what happened.

Hi,

LazyDad.2037:

I can not seem to get the 6th slot ability (aoe torment, poison etc 35 sec cooldown) to trigger when I use head butt

It seems to be a bug with the self-stun of Headbutt – when you’re under stability, the 6th effect of the rune still procs normally. It’s been discussed recently on the PvP forum, not sure if the bug’s been reported/acknowledged though.

ReflectedRed.8025:

You need to jump at the same time when using Infiltrator’s Strike, not when using Infiltrator’s Return.

Works perfectly! Thanks a bunch.

Hi,

I’ve seen some thieves using Infiltrator’s Strike twice in a row, without porting back. According to what I watched, one should press #2 and spacebar at the same time when doing Infiltrator’s Return, but it doesn’t work for me. I have no problem doing jump dodges 100% of the time though, so I think my timing shouldn’t be wrong. What am I missing?

Cheers.

I’ve been doing a lot of unranked games recently, something I’d stopped doing months ago, if not years. What follows is some feedback on my experience – some of it is probably common, sorry about it.

I would like to know and track my MMR over time (figures and graphs). It is simply a factual measure of my progress as a player. If I pour efforts into the game, then I want to see this figure increase. If the figure stops increasing, then I can seek advice from stronger players. Without this figure, there’s no way to know if I’m making progress or stagnating, and this is a bit disheartening.

In a game, I would like to know the MMR of my team mates and opponents. I don’t mind seeing it after the game, nor if it is made anonymous, so as to avoid bad manners between players. What I care for, though, is a factual measure of the strength of the different teams, to get a hint of whether the game was favorable or not, and how I should have dealt with it (play more aggressively or conservatively).

I would like the MMR of each player I play with to be closer than mine, if possible. I understand that other match-making parameters should compensate for the level discrepancy between players, and that tactics should be adjusted during the game. Still, I believe that the individual strength of players is more significant in the general outcome than is currently considered.

I only played one class. This is because my mastery of other classes is significantly inferior. I would love to play other classes – but a single attempt resulted in a spectacular defeat, because the level of my opponents was the same as usual (and my own level with the secondary class was bad). I am perplexed: how am I supposed to improve in other classes – grinding hotjoin?

The overall experience was positive and enjoyable. I don’t know how many matches I had in the last few days – maybe fifty (there’s unfortunately no game history available?). I remember having maybe 5 RQs or AFKs (10%), and the same ratio of toxic players (but my block list is huge). Queues times were between one or two minutes, even during the night.

Donut.6914:

Chrysotile.1589:

Here is a rare view of my warrior outside of of the Heart of the Mists.

I dig this a lot. Nice to see somebody go for a realistic look, this is the most original one I’ve seen in a while.

Loved it too.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

The build is losing some potency against DH. I think I can beat a node assaulting DH, but a node defending DH is a different story. Preset traps are no joke.

Indeed. As a Strength warrior though, I feel it’s a bit better. You optionally remove the aegis with a ranged skill, then close in with a dodge (Reckless Dodge) or with GS #3, and don’t lose too much doing so as you inflict damage. I keep the signet of might either for the focus or the virtue, and this definitely help pressuring them. Tough fights, though – especially if they’re mobile guardians.

Incidentally, I’ve been trying S/D thief recently, after watching Sizer’s stream. It’s very fun to play, easier than I thought, and he uses the Lotus dodge, like we use Reckless Dodge. Coming back to the warrior, I found myself guilty of double-dodging… and it worked better than expected.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

@Elegie- I use a different rune set ever day practically. They are not set in stone. Yesterday was scrapper runes. Wednesday was strength runes. Tuesday surging, Monday pack, & Sunday Vamp. I am trying them all to see which 4th and 6th bonuses really turn my fights.

I’d be interested in your opinion on all these, once you’ve tested enough, if you don’t mind.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

Nice to see a signet of rage build though!

I sometimes use Rampage, but honestly I find it a bit subpar now. IMHO it’s too easy to counter (kiting, blocking, moa…), it’s too vulnerable to conditions (even if I try and get some resistance before), the hard CC is met too often with stability, and the damage output isn’t significant when compared to the regular damage of the Strengh warrior anyway.

In this build, I activate the Signet of Rage before a fight (in some other builds, I prefer to keep the passive). The swiftness has become increasingly important I think, 25% isn’t enough against most classes. The long fury, and to a lesser extent the associated might, really help in dealing good damage.

I’ve been doing some unranked games these last days, and I definitely like the Signet of Might. The passive is pretty good, and the active can help turn situations on guardians, mesmers and revenants.

I use something similar to your normal build, a vanilla GS/Axe+Shield setup. I’m not sure yet about the runes to use – I like Pack, but your choices are worth trying. Thanks for sharing.

Spartacus.3192:

For Solo Roaming i think Defender runes are way better than Durability. Durability runes really shine when in a group and you can share those boons.

I have an exotic berserker set with defender runes, it’s really good, especially on GS+Mace/Shield.

However, there are many builds which do not include blocks, such as GS/Rifle, GS/Hammer or GS/Bow. In such builds, the only block would be the aegis-on-heal, and I’m not sure this creates enough value from the rune set, compared to other rune sets.