Guild Wars 2

Amazing advice. Thank you Manticore. Had no idea you could turn off ground targeting.

Hey there gear heads…

After a long love affair with the Flame Thrower, I’ve decided to try grenades out for a bit. I dig the kit, but I’m having a bit of trouble with the mechanics of the ground targeting. I want to toss a ton of grenades in seconds, but the ground-targeting is cumbersome and I’m losing precious battle time aiming the nades. Any tips or tricks? Tricks on how you use your keyboard? Mouse usage? I know you can just place the mouse on target and hit the number key twice for result, but this still feel awkward.

Thanks!

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Kardiamond.6952:

Airstu are you new on NSP? I’m not talking about this week.

NSP used to kick both BP and AR kitten early on.

We had two match up vs NSP, and both time it would be +600 for NSP and +10 for others servers.

Just looked through all the scores since we switched to week-long matches, NSP has defeated AR once (dec15-22) and BP never.

Time to change that. Starting with tonight’s wvw server reset. Be there.

I for one love being the underdog server (NSP). We have to fight twice as hard as the other servers and pay microscopic attention to tactics and force distribution. Plus there’s something extremely satisfying about triumphing against the odds. SUCH a great feeling when AR or BP lies dead at our feet or we take a key position. Yes, we lost a bunch of guilds to the insanity of server hopping, but I say good riddance to those opportunistic cowards. The guilds and commanders that stuck by NSP are top notch WvW players and good, solid people. We got a lot of heart over here at NSP. We’re all heart.

As for AR and BP, I got no beef with either of them. They both seem like good, hard-working servers. Plus, look at the numbers. We got the most heated, evenly matched scores of all the NA tiers. And we aim to keep it that way.

http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA

It’s Kaineng. Same exact thing happened to our bracket (NSP). AR and us just waited them out. After they moved up WvW went back to normal. I’m not exactly sure why they dominate so insanely. I heard a bunch of T1 WvW guilds transferred to Kaineng (a low pop server) back when transfers were free in order to farm kills and essentially gank the lower tiers. I also heard they inject steroids into their wrists and eyeballs before each match.

Love this idea. I’m gonna start an Asura only guild on Northern Shiverpeaks called
“Death From Below” [DFB]

Casia.4281:

Might stacking is not super useful, as the power going into the HORRIBLE scaling on FT means about nothing.

FT is a defensive kit really. As unintuitive as that sounds.

I really beg to differ on this one. Defensive kit??? That’s bookah logic. I’ve noticed a big uptick in numbers when the might is on verses when there is no might (plus I switch back to rifle and grenade kit frequently so whatever scaling happens, it’s offset). And using FT as offensive kit works quite well for me. All it needs is a little kick from time to time and the right play style. If you use Elixir U & B before FT 1 you can peel off 3 FT 1’s in the time of 1 normal one. Does a lot of dam and very effective. Plus, if you strafe left and right while blasting a big group you can flame a ton of people simultaneously and without an annoying red circle to let folks know where not to stand. FT works the best when you are in a group in WVW facing off another group. And it’s amazing for preventing rezzing and finishing off 3-4 downed foes simultaneously.

As per one boon stack = 1 boon for the purposes of Energy Conversion Matrix, I stand corrected. But if you’re a big Elixir drinker, it’s still a good trait, even at 4-5% boost.

Beautifully constructed and very fitting! 9/10! Please tell me Makk is a Necromancer.

I’m a female engineer by the name of Warpgate.

Meet my winsome Engineer, Warpgate. Cutest pyromaniac ever.

Is the Sigil of fire AOE flame blast localized on the player or the target?

Nice tip Ganondwarf! What runes do you recommend for might stacking? And I’m also curious what sigils people are using with flamethrower. For runes I went with Superior Rune of the Flame Legion:

(1): +25 Power
(2): +15% Burning duration
(3): +50 Power
(4): 5% chance to cause burning for 1s when hit. (cooldown: 5s)
(5): +90 Power
(6): +5% damage against burning targets.

And for Sigil on my rifle I went with Superior Sigil of Earth to stack bleed even more cuz my crit % hits 64% with Elixir B added in.

+60% Chance on Critical: Inflict Bleeding (5 Seconds)

But I’m thinking I might mix it up with the runes and sigils to try something different. Maybe Sigil of Smoldering? Or Sigil of Force?

I love flamethrower. Use it all the time. But I went with a slightly different trait line that I find quite effective. 0/30/0/30/10.

We go 30 into firearms because having a high crit rate is essential to this build. Plus you are applying burns constantly, so the +300 to condition is primary. We grab “Precise Sights”, a great trait that combined with your high crit will have you stacking vulnerability on your targets like crazy. “Napalm Specialist” next because you want your burns to last as long as possible. Then Juggernaut, because this is a flamethrower build. The real strength of Juggernaut is in the might gain. At least 15 seconds before battle try to switch to the FT kit as it takes a bit for the might to build to 6.

I went 30 into Alchemy. The vitality is important as you need health to stay alive in close quarters combat, and concentration is invaluable because this build is all about keeping boons up and on. I go with HGH, Deadly Mixture, and Self-Regulating Defenses. HGH is an AMAZING trait, although not very glamorous seeming at first. HGH will actually give TWO might boons for 20 seconds every time you use an Elixir ability. So that includes Elixir B, the tool belt skills, Elixir U, and Elixir H. Between all three utility skills and their tool belt skills, you can keep your might up around 11-14 which is very strong. Deadly mixture gives you that 15% dam increase for flamethrower, but the hidden gem of the alchemy trait line imo is Energy Conversion Matrix (deal 1% extra dam for each boon on you). So if you have might up to 14, that means a 14% dam increase. Then add in all the other boons Elixir B / U/ H gives and you’re looking at an 18% increase at times.

Lastly, I put 10 points into tools. Tools is a weaker trait line but that 10% to crit dam is VERY effective with our high crit % and Adrenaline Pump helps when we need to leap back to safety. The big pick up here is “Speedy Kits”. This instant speed boost when you switch to Flame Thrower is VERY useful for rushing in fast and chasing down foes. Or you can do kit refinement and use the nades kit with the FT kit, switching to nades when you need a quick blast.

Okay. If you have a good flamethrower build (juggernaut) and HGH in traits, pop Elixir B & Elixir U just before you reach your opponent. Then spam 11111111111 on FT. With the quickening from Elixir U, you should be able to get three flamethrower blasts on your foe super fast and down them before U wears off. EXTREMELY effective if you have high crit %/dam/condition dam. Netshotting them with the rifle before you attack helps big time. While it’s true that Elixir U has a debuff, most of the time the one that procs is the “no endurance regen one”, and who cares. Also, HGH gives you 4 stacks of might off U and B as well. The only downside is that you lose the utility slot you need for U and these days I’ve been using grenades and kit refinement in there. Also the toolbelt skill for U is random and difficult to use. But it’s still a nice FT kit trick. Also, use FT skill 2 on your approach to target.

So it’s:
Netshot
Elixir B
FT 2 while running to target
Elixir U
FT 1111111111111
Boom, they are downed.
Spray corpse with fire.

Thanks for the info all! Good to know the sigils are working. I did some tests and they do indeed seem to be functioning with kits. Yeah, I think getting your rifle stats on grenades or any kit is the goal. Hopefully Arthuria is right and it’ll happen in the near future. Seems simple enough and much needed.

I would LOVE an Elite Sniper Kit skill. It would equip a beautiful sniper rifle that only lasted for…. a minute or two tops before vanishing. During that time you would have access to a whole range of skills connected to the sniper gun. A very long range attack, some kind of ranged vulnerability applier, a stealth ability, and a “headshot” ability that would do a ton of single target damage.

Also, why not have weapon stats affect the kits? That’s not complicated at all.

I’m pretty sure kits are not affected by sigils. Are you certain about that? Where’s your source?

Asura. Without question. We are the mad inventor race. Case closed.

Let me start by saying I LOVE this class. I’ve played an Engineer from day one and the aesthetic is my favorite by far. GW2 is the best MMO I’ve ever played. Great game. But there are flaws in the Eng class that become apparent the more you play and no weapon stats /sigils carrying over to kits is one of the major ones. Turret weakness & viability is another.

We all know Eng needs a buff/fix and this is the perfect way to do it. I don’t understand the logic of “weapon kits are new weapons so they are not connected to your other weapon’s bonuses.” Kits are utility skills. Not actual weapons. If they were actual weapons then we would be able to boost them with gems and sigils. The effect of the current system is that we’re at a huge disadvantage to classes that use their weapons constantly. Switching to a kit is actually a massive debuff. We’re being punished for using a core mechanic of our class.

Either make kits affected by weapon sigils and stats OR allow us to graft sigils and gems to our weapon kits / buy components that can be grafted onto, say, the Elixir gun that would add on stats and have a slot for a sigil. Like an “Elixir Gun Upgraded Carbine”.

Thoughts?

Its become clear that WvW is often a numbers game. My server is extremely dedicated to WvW and has some amazing commanders. The trouble is our numbers are often fewer than the opposition. Although the dedicated players are on all the time, fighting tooth and nail with smart tactics, the opposition often garners points simply by the number of players they have. “Outmanned” as it stands now is little more than a badge letting you know you’re screwed. The bonuses don’t help with combat at all.

In addition to this problem there have been a lot of posts about match-up imbalance where one server dominates for a few days and pulls so far ahead in the point count that it becomes pointless to play because catching up is impossible.

My idea is to work into the game a kind of “Turn-the-tide” quest line that would become available to start for the bottom server of the three, or once they have acquired enough “Outmanned” buffs (make them like badges so you can hold onto them for the week).
I’m not sure how the dynamic event would start. Maybe this “Turn-the-tide” quest line could be “purchased” with enough Outmanned badges? Or if you dropped below a certain number of over all points in relation to the other servers. Regardless, the quest would give the losing or outmanned sever a series of tasks to accomplish, similar to the “Ogre” or “Dredge” tasks, but much more complicated and time consuming. Like collect a series of items, run them to another location, summon some creature, etc. The result would be that one or a series of Dragons would be summoned and start attacking the keeps and castles held by the other servers. These dragons would be very strong and hard to kill. Zergs could form around them. Think of them like big siege with AI. And they would remain on the WVW map until killed or until a series of towers / keeps were captured by the team who summoned them. Not sure on duration.

For the outmanned or badly losing server, it would give them something to hope and fight for. For the winning server it would be very fun too, because they’d suddenly have big things to kill and a chance to get good loot and XP from the dragons. It would recreate that kind of “Hail Mary” Lord of the Rings plot line in so many fantasy narratives where an all-powerful oppressor is overthrown by the underdog because of a magic ring or small band of dedicated heroes.

The key would be to set a proper cool down on the amount of times the “Turn-the-Tide” quest line could be activated. And also to make the quest line difficult enough / the Karma cost high enough that it couldn’t just be activated at the drop of a hat but would require a series of dedicated players working for a few days to make it happen. And to make the dragons tough enough to actually make a difference. Also, you’d have to figure out a way to avoid servers exploiting the dragons when they weren’t truly outmanned or overwhelmed. And to make sure the dragons weren’t SO powerful that a good server couldn’t defeat them and still hold onto map control. And also to make the dragons a relatively rare occurrence in WvW. Something that occurred at moments of extreme imbalance or steady outmanned situations.

Plus, a huge undead dragon attacking SM would just be so epic and something you could use to recruit players from your server with.

Thoughts?

I think the idea of a good WvW game is that it should be about skill and tactics. Not numbers beats all. I was playing a few days ago and we were overun by a massive zerg for 24 hours. Not sure how they got their numbers that high and that consistent. The zerg had the worst tactics I’ve ever seen but they were still winning. I saw them throw down Alpha Siege Gols in the middle of AOE covered choke points so we could easily destroy them. Or build rams against walls. Or get trapped in crevices of our keep under canon fire. It was sad to watch, but they still dominated because of the high numbers. Something wrong there.

I dig that idea, Funeral. Would be amazing to ride them.

Another good idea from Braxxus.

Smart thinking Outspoken. That would certainly help. But would people be kicked if they were already on and the enemy numbers dropped?

Its become clear that WvW is often a numbers game. My server is extremely dedicated to WvW and has some amazing commanders. The trouble is our numbers are often fewer than the opposition. Although the dedicated players are on all the time, fighting tooth and nail with smart tactics, the opposition often garners points simply by the number of players they have. “Outmanned” as it stands now is little more than a badge letting you know you’re screwed. The bonuses don’t help with combat at all.

In addition to this problem there have been a lot of posts about match-up imbalance where one server dominates for a few days and pulls so far ahead in the point count that it becomes pointless to play because catching up is impossible.

My idea is to work into the game a kind of “Turn-the-tide” quest line that would become available to start for the bottom server of the three, or once they have acquired enough “Outmanned” buffs (make them like badges so you can hold onto them for the week).

I’m not sure how the dynamic event would start. Maybe this “Turn-the-tide” quest line could be “purchased” with enough Outmanned badges? Or if you dropped below a certain number of over all points in relation to the other servers. Regardless, the quest would give the losing or outmanned sever a series of tasks to accomplish, similar to the “Ogre” or “Dredge” tasks, but much more complicated and time consuming. Like collect a series of items, run them to another location, summon some creature, etc. The result would be that one or a series of Dragons would be summoned and start attacking the keeps and castles held by the other servers. These dragons would be very strong and hard to kill. Zergs could form around them. Think of them like big siege with AI. And they would remain on the WVW map until killed or until a series of towers / keeps were captured by the team who summoned them. Not sure on duration.

For the outmanned or badly losing server, it would give them something to hope and fight for. For the winning server it would be very fun too, because they’d suddenly have big things to kill and a chance to get good loot and XP from the dragons. It would recreate that kind of “Hail Mary” Lord of the Rings plot line in so many fantasy narratives where an all-powerful oppressor is overthrown by the underdog because of a magic ring or small band of dedicated heroes.

The key would be to set a proper cool down on the amount of times the “Turn-the-Tide” quest line could be activated. And also to make the quest line difficult enough / the Karma cost high enough that it couldn’t just be activated at the drop of a hat but would require a series of dedicated players working for a few days to make it happen. And to make the dragons tough enough to actually make a difference. Also, you’d have to figure out a way to avoid servers exploiting the dragons when they weren’t truly outmanned or overwhelmed. And to make sure the dragons weren’t SO powerful that a good server couldn’t defeat them and still hold onto map control. And also to make the dragons a relatively rare occurrence in WvW. Something that occurred at moments of extreme imbalance or steady outmanned situations.

Plus, a huge undead dragon attacking SM would just be so epic and something you could use to recruit players from your server with.

Thoughts?

Last time I felt like an Engineer was when I used the Elite Supplies trait and dropped a ton of turrets and then threw down even more turrets from my utility skills. I love the aesthetic of turrets. I’m mostly a WVW player though, so within 20 seconds of doing that I realized that turrets are almost useless on the battlefield. So it was short lived. Turrets are just FAR too weak to be viable and that utility slot they take up is too valuable to waste. Sometimes while PVE’ing in TA I’ll use a Rocket Turret for its knock down, but that’s about it.