Guild Wars 2

Huge improvement over last year, the lvl 20 scroll is a bit underwhelming, but everything else is great.

a t s e.9614:

Great games but I think Apex could have won if they played something more cheesy like the last ToL. I mean , DPS guard is kinda of a troll spec to bring in a tournament.

The players from both teams are very good but a mesmer/ DPS guard cant handle condis , so the comp helpled a little bit.

I wouldn’t called dps guard a troll spec, however the big problem is team fights. Dps med guards are terrible in team fights without the right support. They are great for roaming and 1v1, however team fights they are very vulnerable. For team fights you’re better off just going AH with zerker and shouts. This gives you more sustain, and also more team support.

Full celestial no, however mixing cele pieces can be very beneficial.

Really not expecting much. Probably a new mini, and birthday booster.

Please no more Bloodstone…

For pvp the standard dps builds are usually 0/6/6/1/1 or 2/1/6/1/4.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR8dlsApaolDxbI8DVR8QlZK+i2UVAgz1/QQkDA-TZQaAAQZAA

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRArf8dlsApaolDxbI8DRh/Qkj1FTB4cd55HA-TZQaAAQZAA

There are a lot of variation of theses, however these ones are the most common seen. Also if you haven’t read this thread it has a lot of informative information:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/first

AtlasSi.9130:

cheese.4739:

If you’re going to run a legendary in sPvP, it has to be Kraitkin, Kamohoali’i Kotaki or Frenzy. When folks see you with one of those on Foefire they’re going to be seriously impressed.

Failing that… take Rodgort. You deserve some respect if you can stomp skilled foes while wielding that – or in the case of Mesmers, if you can be at all useful outside of a sloooow 1v1 decap with it.

Raid on the Capricorn #neverforget

I never got to use Kraitkin on Capricorn.

Really wish Kraitkin was a staff, awesome skin.

I like being shiny though!

Next on the list, I want to discuss sigils, runes, and consumables. After that I’ll go into detail of all the different stat choices to choose from and how to gear.

They’re both decent builds, however they just play a little different. 0/1/6/6/1 will give the most amount of sustain since you are traited heavily into Valor, and using AH. However 0/1/1/6/6, gives you the most amount of support, however your sustain isn’t as great because you lack all the armor and AH. So it really just depends on what you’re comfortable with, and your team composition.

As for weapons, generally staff as you said. Mace/Shield is great for support, using Mace/Focus is a bit more selfish. Hammer is also really good for the amount of CC it brings. Scepter can be decent too, for the range and slight CC. I really wouldn’t recommend GS for bunker, you’re better off going hammer in that situation.

Chicago Jack.5647:

Harbinger.8637:

Shielded Mind is decent I really don’t have a problem with it, if it was just an extra stun break for yourself, then yeah it would need some love. However a group stun break is extremely strong.

well when you’re facing down two hambows, an extra source of stab is WAY better than just a simple stunbreak.

There’s a difference between a stunbreak and a group stunbreak. A group stunbreak is one of the most powerful tools anyone can in any group situation. I’ve always believed that Indomitable Courage has overshadowed Shielded Mind, simply because if you have Stab you don’t need a stunbreak. However they fill two different roles. Indomitable Courage is more of a proactive trait while Shielded Mind is reactive.

Shielded Mind is decent I really don’t have a problem with it, if it was just an extra stun break for yourself, then yeah it would need some love. However a group stun break is extremely strong.

I do agree that the other two do need an overhaul. I’d like to see Permeating Wrath and Supreme Justice combined into one trait. Maybe that would be too strong. However I don’t really think so, and it would give people incentive to actually use Permeating Wrath.

It’s larger than 15gb, when the game first was release it was around 15gb. However more and more content has been added, so naturally it’s much larger now. I actually just downloaded it yesterday. It was around 19gb now.

Guards that spam burning. Who would have guessed…

Elite Skills

Elite skills are powerful skills designed to be used infrequently and have a dramatic effect on the tide of a battle. The last slot on the skill bar is reserved for elite skills. Elite skills typically have much longer recharge times compared to normal utility.

Renewed Focus- The most used elite skill by far and for good reason. RF has a fairly short CD, and also gives you the ability to become invulnerable. However the big benefit is that it recharges all your virtues. This skill works best if you’re traited heavily in the virtues line. I’d recommend at least one point into virtues (Inspired Virtue) if you plan on using it. Renewed Focus is now considered a Meditation, meaning it’ll benefit from traits such as Focused Mind and Monk Focus.

Tome of Courage- This is a VERY powerful skill that can easily turn the tide of a battle. When using Courage you are granted protection and also your toughness and vitality increases by 100%, this makes you extremely durable. Courage has extremely powerful support skills, such as Light of Deliverance, which will fully heal you and five other players. However be warned, try to make sure you have stability before using it. You can easily be interrupted if you don’t, and the elite will be wasted.

Tome of Wrath- This is the least used elite, however it’s still fairly strong. It has the ability to apply might, swiftness, fury, and quickness to yourself and allies. Which is very helpful, it also cripples and weakness foes. Conflagrate really isn’t that good since it just applies burning, and very little direct damage. However Judgment is quite decent. It does a good chuck of damage and also knocks down five foes in a 600 radius. However just like Courage, try to have stability before using it.

Spirit Weapons

Summon weapons that follow the guardian and can fight or aid, while also being able to be commanded for an additional effect.

Bow of Truth- Probably the weakest spirit of the group, and I wouldn’t recommend using it. It cures one condition every five seconds for you and allies, also it has slight healing of 357 per shot. When you command it, the bow does AoE healing of 96 hps for ten seconds. Due to recent changes the bow now scales with healing power.

Hammer of Wisdom- The strongest spirit of the group. The hammer has a lot of damage potential with a slight CC option to boot. It attacks foes with a three-hit chain. The last hit causes knockback. Also when commanded, the hammer performs a three second knockdown. If you’re running spirit weapons, this is a must have.

Shield of the Avenger- A somewhat useful skill. The shield follows behind the guardian and periodically generates a Shield of Absorption that absorbs projectiles. Also the shield will not begin generating the shield until a nearby ally is struck. When commanded, the shield will fly out and apply weakness to foes, this also acts a stun breaker.

Sword of Justice- This is just straight up dps, the sword serves no other role. It’ll attack every 2.5 seconds, and does a decent amount of damage. When commanded, the sword will do an AoE attack that has higher damage than the standard attack.

Signets

A Signet is a type of a slot skill that grants a passive effect while equipped and additional benefits when activated. During recharge, the character loses the benefits of the passive effects.

Bane Signet- One of the better signets we have. The passive increases power, which is always useful, no matter the build. However the active is quite good too. A 1200 range knockdown for three seconds is extremely useful since Guardian’s don’t have that may soft CCs. I definitely recommend this for dps builds.

Signet of Judgment- Another very useful signet. 10% damage reduction is quite significant, and it’s also a stun breaker! However the active on it is quite underwhelming, granting retaliation to yourself and allies, while inflicting weakness on foes is nice. However, for the most part the only time you want to use the active is for the stun break.

Signet of Mercy- I don’t like saying skills are useless or bad, however Mercy is REALLY underwhelming. The passive is fairly mediocre, since healing power doesn’t scale that well. The active seems like a great idea; however it’s really poorly implemented. It has almost a four second cast time, and only revives one person, sometimes it doesn’t even work. Also throw in the fact it has a ridiculously long CD time. I cannot recommend using this.

Signet of Wrath- Wrath is another subpar Signet; condition damage also scales bad, so an extra 180 condition power is like 45 more damage from burning. So as you can see, that’s very insignificant. However the active is fairly decent! Three seconds of immobilized is quite good, and it works quite well if you trait Binding Jeopardy and pair it with the scepter and hammer.

Utilities (continued)

Shouts

Motivational phrases which instantly aid nearby allies with boons or condition removals.

Hold the Line- A widely used shout and for good reason. It has a fairly short CD, and gives protection and regeneration. This is always a solid choice if you are having a hard time choosing which shouts to run.

Retreat- This is somewhat of a mixed bag when it comes to shouts. Rarely is it used in a combat situation. Generally it’s used to get from point A to point B faster. Due to the recent change with lowering the CD, this shout now is very viable and should be considered if you plan on running a shout build.

Save Yourselves- A very useful tool for any guardian. It gives you access to a large amount of boons for an extended period of time, and also acts as a stun breaker. However the ability to draw conditions from allies to you makes it an excellent choice. However because of this you need to be careful when you use it. If you’re low on health with little to no condition removers, I wouldn’t advise using it. It’ll just spell your demise. Also you need to be cautious of skills like Corrupt Boon and Well of Corruption; these can cause this skill to backfire on you.

Stand Your Ground- Arguably the best shout available to Guardians. Extremely short CD while granting AoE stability and retaliation. Also it acts as a stun breaker to boot. Generally every Guardian in WvW runs this on their build. This is almost a must have for any build.

Meditations

A type of utility skill that involves teleportation, healing, condition removal and AoE damage.

Contemplation of Purity- A solid and simple skill for any build. It converts all conditions you have to boons and acts as a stun breaker. There are a few things to be cautious about. First it has a high CD time, so you need to use it smartly. Also just like with Save Yourselves; you need to be careful of skills like Corrupt Boon.

Judge’s Intervention- One of the few teleports available to Guardian. The damage from this skill is fairly low; however it makes up for it by being a 1200 range teleport with AoE burning. Also it can act as a stun breaker. This is a very solid skill for any build, since Guardians lack mobility for the most part.

Merciful Intervention- This is an interesting skill, a 1200 range teleport with healing potential for yourself and others. Due to recent changes, this skill is now a shadowstep, meaning you have control over where you port to. However, if you don’t port to an ally, you will not receive the shadowstep, nonetheless you’ll receive the heal for it. This is now a viable meditation due to it’s mobility factor and healing.

Smite Condition- A solid skill, very short CD with great AoE damage. Also it acts as a condition remover. To get the most out of it you need to make sure you at least have one condition to get the max damage output.

Let them farm. Ranks never really met anything in the first place, and April feature patch even further diminished there value.

This has already been discussed to death, but speed isn’t the problem. Guardian simply needs more soft CCs. Guard has plenty of gap closers, however staying on the target is the problem. A speed boost does help, but it’s not really optimal because a majority of the time you have some form of swiftness. However I don’t think Anet knows how to implement it. Too much and dps Guard would destroy everything.

I’ve given up on any major changes to Guardian. Anet obviously has their minds made up on how the profession should be played, and are too stubborn to really change anything. Yeah Guardian is in a pretty decent spot, however there are still a lot of traits, skills, and builds that need some love. However I really don’t see it happening, and Guardian will continue to remain in the same stale state for almost two years now.

I know I sound pretty pessimistic, but after almost two years now, it’s quite disheartening. I find it harder and harder to even log in.

That’s because the game is boring to watch. Don’t get me wrong it’s a blast to play, but watching is subpar. Too many graphical effects, and little no room for clutch plays or comebacks. I blame most of it on only one game mode, but that’s a different story. There’s just no tension or excitement in a match. I’ll use csgo as an example since ESL one is happening. Watching someone pull off a 1v2 and disarm is amazing, nothing even comes close to that in GW2.

Spartacus.3192:

Thanks, would this be better? Or should i dump the AH?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARSlsApfntCxWI8DRBDRkjNYntNedRUAA

That build is fine, I use to and still run builds like that, just different weapons. Zerker ammy with Solider runes, and it’s a great team fighter build. Not so much for soloing or holding points alone. It can work in a 1v1 situation, however it really depends who you’re fighting.

I’d recommend reading this thread if you haven’t already:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Silven-s-PvP-Guardian-Build-Guide/first

All those builds are still viable.

lilz shorty.1879:

Harbinger.8637:

I would agree to this, but not in the current form. Everyone knows that the leaderboards are a complete mess, and having any rewards tied to them would be a mistake. If they ever start seasons or revamp the leaderboards, then yes there should be rewards and incentives for them. At the moment this is the best choice, best teams get the flashy version of the armor, while everyone else can still get a non-flashy version.

Yeah I agree with you. But thats what I am also saying/implying. They shoudlve used the time to redo the leaderboards and implement some sort of league/ladders that are meaningful to have exclusive items ON TOP of the exclusive tournament items. It would be better if the tournament was just for cash/finishers/some exclusive items, and winning in team ques was for exclusive armor/weapons.

Right now where we stand:

- The same top teams will win these tournies until they get bored of playing gw2 completely.

- Other teams will try but will still probably lose for the most part(not saying this to be mean but its true). The only way to overcome this is to get a plentiful amount of teams to start playing, which leads to the third issue.

- People have zero reason to still team que atm, and learn the game because there is no incentive and even if they do, they will still not have the experience and may shy away because they just get stomped by the top teams, so they end up quitting anyway….So their mentality is, why even bother practicing or entering the tourney when they are going to lose.

If there was a reason for teams to practice everyday outside of tournaments, teams would naturally get better overtime before actually quitting.

You pretty much summed up GW2 pvp since launch. There’s no reason at all to form a team or play team/solo q. Most people would rather just go into hotjoin, and farm rewards there.

Maybe Anet doesn’t have the man power or resources to put into pvp, who knows. All we can hope for is that these ideas are implemented one day. However at least they are heading in the right direction.

I would agree to this, but not in the current form. Everyone knows that the leaderboards are a complete mess, and having any rewards tied to them would be a mistake. If they ever start seasons or revamp the leaderboards, then yes there should be rewards and incentives for them. At the moment this is the best choice, best teams get the flashy version of the armor, while everyone else can still get a non-flashy version.

For solo roaming your best bet would be a med build. There’s a large variety of them with x/6/6/x/x being the most common. However, Healway manner builds also work fairly well when solo roaming if you’re looking for something with a bit more sustain. Once you start talking about small group, then AH builds also become viable.

Aoko.3562:

Harbinger.8637:

Depends on what you’re going for. When it comes to personal survivable, Melandru is your best bet. Soldier (Trooper) is more of a team based rune, yes it works on yourself, but the real benefit is for your allies. Also it forces you to use shouts. Hoelbrak is also decent, however that’s more useful if you’re going more offensive. All great runes just depends on your play style, and what you are trying to accomplish.

I personally want to have a tanky dps deal.. 1200~1300 healing power with decent offensive. This allows me to both roam and help members in my party. I know that many classes will counter this build etc, but it’s just how I enjoy playing and I’ve been trying to find the perfect amount of healing power/condi removal/offensive stats.

Pumping out a high amount of dps with that amount of healing power is somewhat difficult to accomplish. Healing power is a strange stat that doesn’t really scale well, and only really benefits from some skills, (Selfless Daring and Empower being the biggest). However if you drop some hp you can increase your dps output significantly. If you want to go more dps, I’d say get it to around ~870 hp, that’s when your Selfless Daring still heals for 1k, and you can increase some other offensive stats. Yet still be tanky.

You can never have enough healing power, since there’s no cap. However from experience I find 1200 to be more than enough, without sacrificing too much from other stats.

EliteLinus.5641:

Well met fellow Guardians!

I’m back from a year-long break, and I’m pumped to get back into WvW. I noticed however that these guides are about 5 months old now.
Are they still up to date?

Thanks in advance

Been taking a break for the pass few months, however most of these builds have been around since launch, so they stood the test of time. As far as I’m aware, there hasn’t really been that many major balance changes since I made this guide.

Finishing up utilities, and posting.

Depends on what you’re going for. When it comes to personal survivable, Melandru is your best bet. Soldier (Trooper) is more of a team based rune, yes it works on yourself, but the real benefit is for your allies. Also it forces you to use shouts. Hoelbrak is also decent, however that’s more useful if you’re going more offensive. All great runes just depends on your play style, and what you are trying to accomplish.

While Spirit Weapons aren’t the best, they are viable in pvp and wvw (if you solo roam or small scale, larger fights they just evaporate).

The hammer is easily the best spirit when it comes to pvp/wvw. It hits extremely hard and has CC potential. The sword is just straight up dps, so it’s not a bad choice either. The shield I find too unreliable, with the way Shield of Absorption procs. However it’s viable and can be used as a stunbreak. Lastly you have the bow, and it’s terrible. Horrible condition removing, and subpar healing. Never use it.

If you want to make a spirit build, it’s best to take only two spirits. Third slot can be whatever of your choosing, I’d personally go SYG or Purging Flames.

Seifer Thalaen.7869:

Harbinger.8637:

Seifer Thalaen.7869:

Harbinger.8637:

If people want to run something other then meta builds more power to them. Sure it may not be the most optimal build, but who are you to tell them what to use. If it bothers you that much just stick with teamq.

I obviously already go tq with team (And with this second account too..pug ftw), but getting ganked because your mates run usueless specs even going soloq for fun is not…well…fun at all. I also went PU, rifle war, condition guardian, hb gs war, venom share thief and many other crap specs like those, but i went hotjoin, for sure i won’t get into rated stuff (Even if pointless like soloq) being a cripple for the whole team just because i want to play crap things…even if it’s just soloq i’ll do my best for the team (Like rerolling bunker guard even if it’s boring but we have no guard) and i’m just asking from my team the same effort…if i lose it’s ok, but if i lose because ppl don’t care about winning and about the team (So about me and other 3 players) it’s not ok…at all…they are the ones who should leave rated tournaments being the real “toxic” part of this game.

Here is where the problem lies. You expect everyone to have the same mind set as you, and hold them to your standards. This isn’t going to happen, especially in soloq. Like I said before if you have that much of a problem with it just stick to teamq, which you said you do, so this shouldn’t be a big deal really.

And that’s also why competitive side of this game already died long ago…because ppl care bout nothing..

The lack of attention from Anet, and the stagnate state of pvp is what killed any hope of competitive play. Soloq isn’t a competitive game mode, all they did was take hotjoins and slap a broken leaderboard on it. 4v5, Skyhammer, and terrible mmr. People pretty much just play soloq for fun, and I don’t blame them. They also play for the rewards, and it doesn’t matter if you win or lose. You still get progression on the reward track.

Seifer Thalaen.7869:

Harbinger.8637:

If people want to run something other then meta builds more power to them. Sure it may not be the most optimal build, but who are you to tell them what to use. If it bothers you that much just stick with teamq.

I obviously already go tq with team (And with this second account too..pug ftw), but getting ganked because your mates run usueless specs even going soloq for fun is not…well…fun at all. I also went PU, rifle war, condition guardian, hb gs war, venom share thief and many other crap specs like those, but i went hotjoin, for sure i won’t get into rated stuff (Even if pointless like soloq) being a cripple for the whole team just because i want to play crap things…even if it’s just soloq i’ll do my best for the team (Like rerolling bunker guard even if it’s boring but we have no guard) and i’m just asking from my team the same effort…if i lose it’s ok, but if i lose because ppl don’t care about winning and about the team (So about me and other 3 players) it’s not ok…at all…they are the ones who should leave rated tournaments being the real “toxic” part of this game.

Here is where the problem lies. You expect everyone to have the same mind set as you, and hold them to your standards. This isn’t going to happen, especially in soloq. Like I said before if you have that much of a problem with it just stick to teamq, which you said you do, so this shouldn’t be a big deal really.

If people want to run something other then meta builds more power to them. Sure it may not be the most optimal build, but who are you to tell them what to use. If it bothers you that much just stick with teamq.

The lack of communication is really disheartening. People can say what they want about Allie, however at least she was here replying, and keeping us in the loop. The only dev that even replies now is Evan. Anet said they where busy with the China launch, and that’s understandable. However there hasn’t been a dev post in months about pvp or the direction it’s heading. It makes it seem like they given up on pvp, and they wonder why the pvp community is so negative and bitter.

Mainly the community, I just log in to chat with guildies and friends. Nice part though is no sub fees. So I can just log in every major patch to see what’s up. If I like it, I’ll play it. If not, I’ll just wait for the next major release, no big deal.

I like how it’s better then the pvp rank 80 dragon…

Got to get those gems!

I think it’s a well known fact that there’s not much competition in this game. Even Anet knows that, that’s why they been going the route they have. Just making pvp more accessible to everyone.

Gw2 pvp is fun and great at times, however if you’re looking for something more competitive you’re better off going somewhere else.

Ele has always been a decent counter to guard, however Ele has been lacking in past few metas so people kinda forgot about it, now they are viable and a threat again. They are difficult to beat because they are somewhat similar to guards, relying on boons and such. They also have a lot more access to conditions and mobility.

Boon strip work well against them. Searing Flames and Sigil of Nullification.

This is probably one of the biggest mistakes they made. Yeah we have six maps each with a slightly different mechanic, however at the end of the day it’s still conquest. You can only throw so much fluff on conquest until players get bored.

Stark.1350:

Tao.5096:

You have 6 maps for pvp.
Don’t confuse EotM with WvW.

WvW still is very active and enjoyable.
Bar brawls are active, not sure how much, but those Funny Game Mods have their own use.

There is so much to do in game, that I doubt that you need more instances and other fancy features.
Guild missions are available to Guilds which can do them. And you can get an awesome rewards for their currency. So if those aren’t popular, then it’s the fault of Guilds, not devs. Feature is there.

The only thing I agree with this topic would be need of GvG.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about here. 6 maps of the same game mode. Gets tiring after a while.

We do guild missions. Once a week. But after you’ve done them for over a year, we can do all of them in our sleep.

I’m really confused by the rest of your message.

Yup only one game mode has really been detrimental to pvp. Sure having one game mode is fine at launch. However it’s been almost two years later, and we still only have one. You have six maps with some slightly different mechanics, however at the end of the day it’s still conquest. It gets boring, and it also fosters in a certain type of game play.

Obviously there were too many Hambow in que, so you couldn’t join.

Seriously though, this happens from time to time. Like Lux said just try to relog. I just restart my client, and it fixes it.

I’d just go for full troll mode. Kick, Stomp, Fear me, and Rampage.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I think he’s a Condi/DPS/Meditations hybrid build, not a pure Medi-zerker.

I can see your point of view, however lets look at what we know.

Six into Valor for Monk Focus
6k crit with Smite Condition
Scepter/focus and sword/torch
Maybe around 14k hp

I think it would be safe to say he has six into Radiance for Right-Hand Strength, he’s using two one handed weapons after all. 6k Smite is still high even against a light armor target, so that makes me believe he’s mostly power/ferocity. Lastly he has around 14k hp, so we know he’s not full zerker. If I had to take an educated guess I’d say he’s mostly zerker with a few pieces of Soldier or Valkyrie running 2/6/6/0/0.

However this is all speculation, and I could be completely wrong. I’m just looking at the facts presented, and making a logical assumption.

BlackBeard.2873:

Not arguing with anybody, but I do want to point out that win percentages are still completely worthless, as it includes wins/losses from a previous time, when matchmaking would put the 5 best players against the 5 worst in a string of 10 players. Thus, teams were always stacked, and being higher on the leaderboard gave you better teams and worse opponents.

Most of the win percentages that differ significantly from 50% are still a vestige of this, as they reset MMR but not win totals.

This is actually very true, I played quite a few games under the old matchmaking system. My w/l became extremely inflated, I had a +70% w/l just because the teams where always so imbalanced. Since the new system my w/l has dropped to 64-65% and remained steady there even after +1200 games. This is still fairly high, but I do contribute a lot of it to the old system.

The festival is going to be until July 1st, so I believe that’s why Anet hasn’t touched the drop rate.

Romek.4201:

how is this good news? they say with this “NO patch before july 1” – even for pve

thats more than 1 month nothing

It’s good news because it is likely a new zone(s), and not just some temporary content. I’d rather wait another month and get some content that doesn’t disappear in two weeks.

Goods news for PvE, and as always PvP/WvW get nothing.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/get-ready/

He’s most likely running 2/6/6/0/0/ or 0/6/6/1/1, pretty much as full dps a guard can go in pvp situations. The thing about these builds, they have no sustain. Sure you get heals from meds, but the longer a fight goes on the more the fight turns into your favor. That being said thief does have a hard time against dps guards. If you can survive his initial burst, and get him to blow his CDs then you should be fine. Also condition thief does a number on these builds too.

Seems like most people have the same reasons. Friends and the combat, which is understandable. These things kept me going for sometime too. I personally haven’t played pvp in a couple of weeks now, and I honestly don’t really miss it. As for Wildstar, it’s a solid game. It takes a different approach then GW2. None the less it’s decent mmo, and I look forward to playing more of it.

I’m curious on what keeps people playing spvp. Its almost been two years now, we still only have one game mode. The competitive scene is pretty much nonexistent. Balance is better, but it’s still nothing to write home about. Same goes for rewards. Leaderboards need a complete revamp, and lastly we still have maps like Skyhammer in Soloq.

So why do you keep playing pvp? Do you still find it fun? Do you still have hope Anet will finally add some pvp content one day?

I’m just curious on what keeps you going.

It’s a visual glitch that has to do with lag. The down player is simply just in another spot. As stated above, just use some type of movement base skill ( e.g. Leap of Faith or Rush) this will take you to the real spot, then just dps.