Guild Wars 2

Yes. This is a good idea. Anet has proved admirably that they will correct their mistakes when necessary. 100,000 is FAR too steep.

God yes! PLEASE let me dye my wings pink, purple or red! No self-respectng Mesmer would wear blue wings.

tasha.4176:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gex5GpHj4m0

they look super sloppy and awkward.

Well put. They look like two old men with broken wrists waving white, crudely made “I surrender” flags.

Just previewed them in the locker and gotta say, there’s absolutly something wonky and super awkward about the way they move. Instead of seeming powerful or graceful like the other wings, the shattered wings seem arthritic, choppy and fragile, like a wet baby bird struggling to flap it’s broken, slippery fetus wings. I’m still gonna grind for them but I wish they moved more fluidly and with better coordination.

It’s totally fine. Just tested it. They still go down easy but the slightly longer fight allowed for another player to take part and get rewards. I like this change. Having said that I am a level 80 in full exotic gear.

Just tested it. Health levels are fine. Can still solo the Halo’s just fine. Can we go back to complaining about drop rate?

Oh dear lord, what did they do now? Haven’t been in today. Can you describe the change?

@Curunen – Awesome! Cool build! Yes, juggling the stealth is very important. If you blow all your stealth too soon you’ll be trapped out in the open. Personally that’s why I like cleansing conflagration. The cool down reduction on the prestige is really worth it and has saved me numerous times when all my other stealth options were blown. And yes, this type of build makes you feel much safer in WvW. A lot of people are attracted to builds that are pure damage with no defensive options because they like to see those big crit numbers. Those kinds of builds may seem initially powerful, but you wind up dying constantly. What good is maxed burst if you can’t last long enough to take anyone out or are blown to bits by a group? What I love about this kind if build is that it has very decent burst / condition dam but also amazing survivability. It’s a beast for roaming. Other players are used to fights being decided in a few seconds. When they realize you are not going down easy they panic and either die in bewilderment at the point of your sword or turn tail and run like crazy. You can also use it to def a tower by stealthing, walking out the door, hitting everything in sight with the combo then popping back inside.

Star Lancer.2901:

I’ve been trying this build out in SPvP and TPvP! I’ve never had so much fun with this as much as ever! I’m actually addicted to PvP on my mesmer almost as much as my guardian. xD

I should try Scepter/Pistol as well, but I’ve been rockin’ with both Staff and GS. I love the utility on Staff skills!

Anyway, I’m using the same runes, but I am using Sigil of Leeching for the 2-handed weapons and the same sigils you used for Sword/Torch. Since PvP is quite different than WvW/PvE, I’m using a Berserker amulet with Rampager’s jewel in it.

It did take me a few matches to get used to the playstyle, but it is reminiscent of being an assassin hidden in plain sight to get a burst out. I’m still trying to get Sword 2 to work to my favor, because I always miss with it.

Anyway, thanks so much for the fun build!

So delighted you are enjoying it!!! Your post made my day. That’s the main reason I love this build, it’s incredibly fun to play and it confuses the hell out of opponents. That have literally no idea what you’re up to. I’m gonna try that Sigil of Leeching out. In terms of pulling off the sword 2 skill with the combo successfully, here are a few suggestions:

1. When stealthed, choose clusters of foes to burst on. Run (blink or ileap) past the front lines to get to players that think they are safely spamming abilities from a distance. Thus may seem scary at first but your invulnerability will waste a lot of enemy cool downs when you pop into sight and they start attacking, thus making it easier to escape. You can stealth again and get out of there fast with decoy anyway. Also use shatter 4 a lot. More invulnerability.

2. Use a stun! Most players move constantly and blurred frenzy roots us, so we gotta root them. Pop Signet of Domination on your target while in stealth on prestige JUST before you hit them. Run up and trigger blurred frenzy. They’ll be stuck in your attack and catch burning. Sigil of Paralyzation helps here too. Magic bullet too.

3. Try to anticipate where they are running to and position yourself there to catch them so they run into your attack.

4. Make them come to you. Position yourself in view as a target, role to create a clone. When they rush you, hit prestige to blind, then immediately hit blurred frenzy. You will cut the stealth short and there might be a delay on the burning effect, but it’ll happen. Meantime that confidant thief continues to attack, missing hits cuz of blindnes,, hitting invulnerable you, taking damage, and staying in your target combo area.

5. Work with your allies. Just before you drop your main attack, get another class to chill or glue shot a bunch of players or pull them into you.

Enjoy!!

Kal Spiro.9745:

Ok, so this is for everyone’s good. Don’t do holograms, that’s tedious. Don’t do pinatas, it’ll take forever.

If you want to farm candy, and you absolutely have to do it right this minute, find a series of events that involves wave after wave of mobs, and a lot of mobs at that. My preference remains the Harathi Hinterlands final four, but Southsun Steampipe Stead is a good one too.

The reason for this is that every singe mob in the game has a really good chance to drop crates. Every single crate has candy and usually a handful of them. I think I got 5 from one. So you kill a huge mass of mobs over and over until you have an absurd number of crates. Then crack them all over for the candy inside. You’re active and having fun and if you really have enough time to play you will easily amass enough candy to buy your toy. Also every crate has the chance to drop that back item, so you might not even need to collect them all.

As a bit of an example, I did the Harathi Hinterlands final four once. It takes maybe half an hour. I collected 23 crates at the end of it. I broke them open for about a hundred candies. One even chain.

Got to kill 300 holograms if you want the achievement. Need the achievement to get the shattered wings. But good point in terms of farming candy.

I dig it. Although I wish the wings were bigger.

It’s human nature to want things early and to complete lingering tasks. There’s no reason these achievements need to be repetitive in order to make them last the month. Why not add a level of difficulty instead? Make the hologram monsters more challenging to kill and the number you need to kill lower. That would solve both problems.

Thank god they got rid of the checkerboard shatter. Still, Anet’s really got a few things to fix with Mesmer. Here’s my list:

- Clones should hold off hand weapons
- Scepter skills reworked
- 15% damage boost to confusion in WvW
- Useless traits reworked
- Zerker bugs fixed
- Pistol as a main hand weapon

NSP 4 Evah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NSP 4 life! Outmanned every night and still kicking butt!! Truly, this server has major heart. And GOM has good players too. Although NSP has to make up for less players with pure skill and strategy. GoM seems to rely more on brute force of numbers. They like to throw their pug corpses at our feet until we slowly suffocate.

But if any guilds are looking for a home, NSP is the place to come. Although small, our WvW contingent is hard to the core.

I have to agree. There is a lot of gorgeous design with this event. LA never looked better. And I love the way the fireworks explode in the sky. Lovely.

Gorgeous designs. I REALLY want that pistol for my Mesmer. Longbow is hands down the best. Absolutely gorgeous. Rangers must be chomping at the bit. Two complaints: scepter (as always) is disappointing. Just a chunk of jade? I like my scepters glowing with some kind of magical effect! Or at least delicate and fragile. They’re not maces for Grenth’s sake! Also, the sword design is way too cartoony. If we are going to have a Chinese dragon theme, please give us some Asian style swords!! A katana would be amazing, but if you want to stay away from Japan and go Chinese all the way, there are some gorgeous Chinese sword designs to draw from. IMO the sword looks like a giant letter opener. Ick.

I personally only spend money at the gem store on items I’m guarenteed to get. I don’t even entertain the idea that I’m gonna get anything from these events unless it’s an achievment reward (going for my free shattered wings).

I do think the above posters have a point though. The drop rate should be higher and if not, the whole “you need to buy RNG boxes to take the gamble” needs to be rexamined. The problem with Dragon Bash is that there’s too much “gambling” involved in this event. The Moa race gold sink gambling and this whole purchasable RNG box thing. You may say, “Who cares? Just don’t gamble! Don’t take part!” The big problem with gambling (as many gambling addicts know) is that the lure / trap of gambling can be very destructive and addictive. It is almost impossible for some people to resist and if sanctioned and encouraged by Anet it can result in some really upset, financially wounded customers.

If you have an object for sale, the consumer will gauge the price, weigh the time/effort/financal expense in accruing the item, then make a choice to get it or not. if they do spend the money they feel satisfied becayse they got what they paid for, and there are usually no surprises. With gambling it’s completely different.

The gambling cycle goes something like this. The consumer believes they have a chance of “winning”, that is spending a little and getting a lot. In reality the odds are stacked against them, but the BELIEF that you could win big (or in this case get the weapon skin) is tantalizing. So you invest, and start buying boxes or betting. At a certain point, if the consumer starts to lose, they become obsessed with the idea that only a few more bets will make it all worth it. They hate the idea of all the previous lost bets or boxes purchased being a waste of money, so they actually wind up spending MORE money. This is where it starts to really get out of control. The more you lose the more you bet. If you win, you keep betting, high on winning. If you lose, you keep betting. It’s a psychological trap. And it’s very, very dangerous. I know families in RL that were torn apart by gambling. One parent got hooked on gambling and secretly spent all their money, always thinking he could win it all back and make it worth it.

In terms of GW2, you can clearly see this psychological trap in play (albeit on a smaller scale). The posters on this thread got stuck in it. I saw someone on the forums openned thousends of boxes and spent almost $100 in a day. 0 tickets. Another lost 45g on Moa racing. That’s the gambling cycle demon in action. And I think Anet should be very careful about releasing that demon on their players.

Sure, you can argue (as casinos do) that the responsibility rests with the client, not the house. But the house is responsible for setting up the trap. And Anet should really reconsider this method for future events.

So I starting grinding these holograms and at first the drop rate was fantastic. Got 4-5 candies off each Mob plus at least 3 chests per Projector. After doing about 6 of em the drop rate fell drastically down to 1 candy per mob and 0 chests. Had to fight 3 projectors before I saw a chest. What gives? Is there a timer on the drop rate simmilar to dungeon tokens? I know if you run the same path in a dungeon again and again in the same 24 hour cycle the token rewards decrease. Same thing here?

I’ve never gotten an exotic weapon or armor drop ever. Been playing since launch. Granted, I ain’t doing as much grinding as some others, but still. Shoulda at LEAST gotten 1 after a year of play and 2 level 80’s.

I’m a man of refined tastes. Thank you Anet, for creating Dragon Bash! Gotta say, it’s pretty sweet so far (no pun intended).

@Birdsong – Amen brother! Shiverpeaks since launch!!!! Shiverpeaks 4 life!!!!!!!

I get why the OP is leaving, but personally I like being the underdog. Makes winning sweeter. Plus, being Outmanned hasn’t stopped us ever. We took SM outmanned and held it a kitten long time. NSP got the skill and stratigy to make up for the lack of players.

NSP: Outmanned and STILL kicking butt.

I do have to say that NSP is doing really well these last two weeks. We’re making a nice comeback. So don’t no one else think of leaving!

Seras.5702:

Why GS over Staff? Drop Chaos Storm down and you’ve got even more random conditions. And with sword & staff leaps for chaos armor you’ve got even more random conditions. Plus staff#2 is a nice tele-out with another clone.

Seems like the strength of this build is the surprise frenzy when you pop in and cause a ruccus, and staff seems better at making that ruccus more maddening.

Plus pistol can give you a nice stun so folks are frozen in your main attack. With signet of domination that’s 2 stuns! Very nice effect.

Seras.5702:

Why GS over Staff? Drop Chaos Storm down and you’ve got even more random conditions. And with sword & staff leaps for chaos armor you’ve got even more random conditions. Plus staff#2 is a nice tele-out with another clone.

Seems like the strength of this build is the surprise frenzy when you pop in and cause a ruccus, and staff seems better at making that ruccus more maddening.

A lot of folks trying this build have gone staff and loved it. As you say, the combo can be devastating, especially with chaos armor on for the main attack.

I favor Sword / Torch + Scepter / Pistol with this build of late too. I went with GS initially because I wanted a hard hitting burst damage phantasm to finish off fights. So iZerker or iDulest. The iWarlock doesn’t do as much burst for my taste. But staff does give some amazing utility with this build. Go for it!

I once fought a fellow Mesmer and it was a long, glorious fight. He killed me eventually, then very respectfully bowed over my corpse. Although it could be interpreted as taunting, I’ve been doing it in WvW after good fights.

Slight variation:
Basically it’s still 20(III,IX)/20(II,X)/30(IV,V,XII)/0/0. Weapons (S/T + Sc/P). For slot skills: Decoy, Blink, Signet of Domination, mass invis. Runes of Lyssa. Sigil of Fire, Sigil of Paralyzation, Sigil of Earth, Sigil of Corruption.
Food: Rare Veggie Pizza, Maintenance Oil.

Gives you 2 stuns to help pull off your main attack (Prestige + Blurred Frenzy).
And I love the Pistol.

I run my own build “Hidden Fire”.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Hidden-Fire-New-Mesmer-Build-WvW/first#post2095880

It’s a build that relies heavily on stealth / torch and can deliver both burst damage and condition damage with a few stuns. Amazing for roaming in WvW. I can solo a camp by myself (given the time). Basically it’s 20(III,IX)/20(II,X)/30(IV,V,XII)/0/0. Weapons (S/T + Sc/P). For slot skills: Decoy, Blink, Signet of Domination, mass invis. Runes of Lyssa. Sigil of Fire, Sigil of Paralyzation, Sigil of Earth, Sigil of Corruption.
Food: Rare Veggie Pizza, Maintenance Oil.

You will be missed, Commander.

I tried this build out yesterday. Fun! But ultimately not for me. I’m WvW almost exclusively and there’s just no survivability here. I guess that’s the downside of glass canons. The problem is that WvW requires you have good escape abilities that allow you to bewilder your foes and worm your way out of tight spots (or gain the advantage in combat through deception). With no stealth and no clone generation and zero defensive stats you really go down fast and hard a lot. Roaming is really hard with this mantra build. It works the best with a zerg, doing long range attacks.

An I missing something here? I’m grinding away for laurels to get ascended gear and I start to look more closely at the stats. Compared to the exotic trinkets I already have with upgrades, ascended gear is only a tiny, tiny bit better. Comparing rings it’s 11 more points of power, 2% more crit, 5 more precision. That’s nothing. Far worse of a boost than the cheapest food. Okay, I thought, it must be the infusion slot. But that’s only 5 more points, plus %1 boost to lord dam? What an I missing? A month of grinding for one ring that’s only SLIGHTLY better hardly seems worth it. Is it the cumulative effect? All ascended gear and you start to feel the difference? Hmmm….. Call me a noob’s noob but it seems like I’m missing something. Can you use other upgrades in the infusion slots?

I learned that no matter what happens in the universe NSP will always be outmanned. Unless it’s server reset night.

In all seriousness though, it’s true what the OP says. Anet remarked when instating this new system that they were curious about what would happen if servers of different ranks were matched up. What would happen if a rank 5 server was matched with a rank 9 server. Could the rank 9 server surprise everyone and win? The answer clearly is… No. The higher ranked servers win like crazy against lower ranked servers. The higher server gets bored fast and the lower servers feel grief. Whatever the solution is to a fair server match up, this isn’t it.

I think a few servers need to be combined, personally. To get the numbers up.

Okay, I got it. Sorry, but this contest is over. Thanks for playing.

Illusionary Victim
———————————
Creates a realistic decoy (or clone if there are more than 1 foes) of an enemy in a downed state, spamming abilities, calling to be rezzed. When foes rush over and start to heal the downed player, at first everything seems normal. Heal numbers pop up on the screen. But when the "player"’s health bar is full and they are rezzed (or when you hit the skill again), a shatter effect happens instead, damaging foes surrounding the illusionary victim and dropping a chaos storm field. Damage on the shatter is increased by how many foes are rezzing the victim.

Awww yeah.

I suggest 3 options for an elite phantasm:

1. Illusionary Summoner
Spawns a Phantasm that attacks and creates clones around itself, upping your clone limit by 3 more.

2. Illusionary Sniper
Spawns a Phantasm that attacks with a rifle, does high damage kill shots, and turns invisible when not attacking.

3. Illusionary Commander
Spawns a high health phantasm with a banner that grants boons to surrounding allies and causes fear to foes.

Interesting ideas. I see what you guys are saying, that add ins are like putting a band aid on the gaping wound of a more systemic problem. But I recall very vividly how the week after WXP was introduced there was a major uptick in player participation. WvW was full for days, which never happens on NSP. This was because everyone was curious about the ranks and wanted to level them up. It was glorious. Rewards can work. It’s carrot and stick. Maybe we need more stick! Punishments for not playing WvW! Just kidding, but who knows. Maybe it’s an aesthetic thing. If your server WvW rank falls Lions Arch starts to look more ruined and messy. Cracked walls. Overgrown grass. Faded paint.

I love WvW. It’s the main draw of the game for me. Here on NSP we have a hardcore contingent of WvW’ers who are devoted to winning. Unfortunately the vast majority of our server appears to be PvE players, endlessly grinding for shinnies in some far away fractal while our towers topple and we sink in ranking. The outmanned buff is often on, and we often find ourselves fighting twice our numbers, struggling to hold our points. The good result of this is that those who WvW religiously on our server are battle-tested and excellent players who have had to learn all manner of strategies to keep the mindless hordes at bay. We hold our own with diminished forces admirably. Still, it’s endlessly frustrating to lose a battle because we lack superior numbers. And I know we’re not the only server to struggle with this.

How can we solve this problem?
PLEASE POST YOUR IDEAS BELOW:

Here’s mine:

1. Several unique WvW armor / weapon sets as beautiful and epic looking as any Dungeon set (with particle effects). Have these purchasable with badges and set the price high. I did PvE for my dungeon set even though dungeon runs are not my thing. It stands to reason the PvE’ers would do the same. Plus, it would be fantastic to have your armor identify you as a WvW player of significant experience. Yes I know there is WvW armor now, but no one sports it because it looks awful.

2. Unique back pieces that are unlocked by completing achievements relating to WvW. Taking SM 20 times, etc.

3. A 1st and 2nd place server reward for the week.

4. Let our WvW ranks be VISIBLE to others if we want to display them.

5. WvW Living Story temporary EVENTS. I’m not sure what these would be exactly, perhaps you’d log on to discover that snow had covered everything in EB and an Ice Dragon was guarding SM. Hard to kill, taking SM out of the picture unless one server beats it, in which case the dragon will fight for you briefly. Regardless, making things change in WvW would add flavor and variety.

6. Have a silver or gold statue appear in lions arch if your server wins 2nd or 1st place in WvW for the week. Plus a general buff for the server in general, so people could FEEL the tangible impact of playing. So we’re fighting for something. +2% magic find or something.

POST YOURS

Personally I think there should be a 1st and 2nd prize, but no third. Just simply if you come in 1st with the most points everyone who logged at least 4 hours of WvW that week gets some of that reward. 1st prize would be better then 2nd of course. And maybe there’s some extra goodies for the whole server (or a buff), but I think the main prize should only be rewarded to those who actually played WvW. The whole point should be to encourage playing in WvW. I would also like a gold or silver statue that appears in Lions arch when you get first place or second. The 2nd place prize would solve the problem of the red and blue servers not competing once the green server pulled ahead.

I love this game, but there are far too many currencies. It’s clear that laurels are by FAR the most valuable currency, because of the whole ascended gear thing. I’m much more of a WvW player then a PvE player, but regardless every day I set out to try to get a daily done and I always fail. I’m not saying the dailies are too hard, just that they are SO time consuming. I have a life and a job. I don’t have time in one day to pull all that stuff off. And even if I do, the laurel rewards are so minimal. As of now (after playing since launch) I have about 5 laurels. My suggestion would be to make “weeklies” in addition to dailies. Also, as the title reads, it would be amazing if you could buy laurels with Karma. This would solve two problems right off the bat. 1. What to do with the TON of karma I’ve amassed and can’t spend on anything. 2. A way to get laurels that doesn’t require dailies for folks that don’t have the whole day to play. I don’t care if the cost is very high. Make it as high as you want. 50,000 karma for 1 laurel. That’s fine. Most folks would still play dailies, but knowing that I can EVENTUALLY get my ascended gear would be great.

P.S. I’m sure there are daily pros out there that claim to be able to finish them in 20 minutes or something. I’m NOT one of those players and I fully admit it.

Whiners are totally OP. They need a nerf now, across the board. In most environments, power, influence, and respect goes to those that have been part of said institution the longest and put the most time and effort into the organization. Only in the world of games do new, inexperienced players with a lack of skill and the LEAST hours logged have the most power. The reason is that Anet wants new players to join and get hooked easily, not frustrated and walk away after trying it for a second. They probably hypothesize that if new players feel powerful after playing they’ll stay. The irony here is that Anet’s real cash cow is NOT new players, but committed players who will actually use the gem store frequently. I played for a year before I used real money at the gem store.

Plus long term, committed players are the back bone of the game. They deserve some stability, some protection FROM whiners who come on, forum troll, then get our class builds nerfed into the ground (and then go play a console game). Say what you will about Blizzard, but they really defended their classes from forum trolls in WoW. I played a warlock and I can’t tell you how many whining forum posts there were about that class from tons of new players who hated to PvP us. Blizzard would always respond the same way: “These are the classes. We believe they are balanced. We’re not changing Warlock. Part of the game is figuring out how to adapt and beat other classes”.

With Anet, I live in fear of some whine-driven train building steam on the forums, the developers caving, and a whole build or class gone with the next patch. I saw it happen with “Confusion”. Regardless of what you think about confusion, a 50% damage reduction was INSANE and way over the top, ruining a ton of builds and making most of our condition gear useless. Anet needs to realize that keeping long-term, committed, hardcore players happy is VERY important for the longevity of these MMO’s. Casual players come and go. Hardcore players are here to stay unless driven away by dev mistakes. If the committed players’ feathers get too ruffled, we will eventually leave for a new MMO and the back bone will fall out from the game. Just sayin’….

Having said that, if you do find a class that you like as much as mesmer let me know! I’m looking for an alt too. Tried Guardian but it’s just too…. guardiany.

I started as an Eng and played it for a ton until I found my true home with the mesmer so I can certainly comment here. Engineer is fun PURELY for it’s aesthetic. The gadgets, the gizmos, the steam punk thing. In terms of actually winning fights in WvW in a satisfying, consistent way AND being a big help for your team, Engineer is frustrating and ultimately ineffective. The only advantage Eng’s have is that no one knows what weird thing they’ll pull out next, so you gain unpredictability. But the fact remains that the only viable offensive Eng WvW builds are either traited ‘nades or might-stacking flame thrower. Might stacking flame-thrower is only useful as a “cleaning” role where you swoop in on already downed players and finish them off. Nades can be very effective but it gets mind-numbingly boring sitting there throwing grenades. Tank-cat used to be a cool build, but then confusion got nerfed to the wall. Turrets (Eng phantasms) suck beyond comprehension. Mesmers are just the better class for WvW. Having said that, Eng can be diverting. And I do log on occasionally to keep the taste. But Mesmer rocks far harder. This is not to say Eng’s cant be powerful and effective. They can be, but they’re less fun to play.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Made a thread about this like 7 months ago and all i got is “back in betas mes had much more stun/dazes and for the final game they were removed because it was OP”… At the end the reality is, back in betas when Mez has much more rups these traits were useful. Rupts were removed because anet wanted GW2 to be a casual spam fest with no classes that can dominate another by shutting it down as it was perfectly possible in gw1. Rups were removed cuz its easy to remove but when it comes to traits they didn’t bother because you can’t just remove them, you need to replace them and they’re way too lazy for that.

Agreed. And now, after the dreaded confusion nerf we are cluttered with even more “traits that used to be viable but were nerfed and never replaced”. We need these traits REPLACED with new ones.

I run “hidden fire” build. Works great. Emphasis on invisibility, burning, and I’ve started using pistol with it.

Sleel.8365:

ViktorAlgeheri.9825:

To the GOM camping the exit of the dark area of the Eternal Battlegrounds JP, REALLY?!

Haven’t been WvW in a while. But really. If it’s red it’s dead.

There’s no honor among GoM.

Few Mesmers use Moa Morph. Mass invisibility is just too good. Time warp used to be amazing, but after it got nerfed I rarely use it.

Kasama.8941:

I’m surprised you didn’t go 15/25/30/0/0, as the 3 seconds of confusion from Confusing Combatants is great.

But then you lose the torch cool down reduction and condition cleanse. And as the whole build is centered around “The Prestige” you gotta have that trait. But I HAVE been using pistol more. So maybe if I went 10/30/30, and got the pistol trait, it might be worth it. Have to play around.

So I’ve been experimenting with an interesting variation of the original build using scepter and pistol / sword and torch. Very effective for roaming. Using Signet of Domination for extra condition dam + the stun. The beauty of this weapon choice is that it gives you two seperate stuns, from the Signet and from magic bullet. Plus pistol phantom hits really hard if you time it right.

In a way, we were lucky Anet initially underestimated the popularity of WvW because they kept their fiddling, meddling paws off it for a year. Suddenly they woke up and saw the potential of WvW and decided to start messing with it. And thus all these issues. And the one thing WvW players wanted (a reward for the server that won and better rewards / unique armor skins) have yet to be implemented. Although the 28th patch involving ascended gear is a step in the right direction. I used to play WvW religiously. Now I just check in once in awhile. Sad face.

Straegen.2938:

All the AC change did was cause a change in tactics which IMO is a good thing as it keeps sieges fresh. Taking a defended keep should be difficult.

My only problem with ACs are some of the creative places they can land. ACs should observe cover.

The problem with the change in tactics is that it favors the Zerg, and here’s why. Yes, keeps should be hard to take. But zergs are flash building arrow carts in open field combat. Their superior supply count and the fact that they probably have more prints gives them a huge advantage against smaller, outmanned groups. Not to mention that superior numbers means they can build 20 times faster. Rant all you want about “adapting with new tactics”, the point I’m trying to make is that if AC’s were intended to give an edge to outmanned servers or smaller groups, they failed miserably. Larger, dominating zergs now stomp unopposed. SM used to trade hands a few times a week. Now, there’s one battle for SM, at server reset on Friday. Then it stays controlled by the server that wins the whole week. Not fun.

The OP ain’t criticizing zergs per se, he’s criticizing the supposed “fix” to zerging which I assume was supposed to be AC’s. He’s saying, and I agree fully, that AC’s actually have had the opposite effect, making zergs stronger and making it harder for the outmanned teams to flip camps and towers. The golden age of WvW was before the April 30th patch when arrow carts were balanced and confusion was still effective. Those were the days when a good team of smart players on an outmanned server could still be a threat to a Zerg. Those days are over. Anet needs to understand the concept of “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” The good news is they’ve clearly seen the enormous error of their ways and are scaling back damage on AC’s to siege and reducing the range. But that’s not enough. The 80% dam increase to players needs to drop and confusion needs a buff.

By the way, did any players actually buy that weird little guild flag sticking out of your rear they advertised last patch? Haven’t seen a single person rocking those.