Guild Wars 2

This happened the other day, I laughed and logged for the day. I mean if this happened rarely, I wouldn’t really have any problem with it. However, instances like this occur way too frequently and it’s a real turn off.

Hopefully it’s sooner than later, in my view, this is some of the worst balance I’ve seen in a long time. If this league starts with no balance patch, I don’t even really a desire to participate.

It’s mainly just Test of Faith that needs to be looked at. Give it a cast time or something, there’s no reason it should be instant. Fragments of Faith is instant, but that’s also a stun breaker, so that makes sense, and the damage from it is also lower because it’s more of a utility trap. Procession of Blades does the most damage, but it has no other utility besides damage. Also very rarely does anyone get hit by the full duration of it. You don’t see Light’s Judgement too often because it’s extremely situational and even than it’s really not that great and you’re better off going a different utility skill. Purification is a solid heal, nothing really too strong about it, it also has a lot of counter play. Finally you have Dragon’s Maw, which is fine. Long CD and you have to give up survivability to take it (Renewed Focus). It can easily be dodge or you can have stab or something and just ignore it.

So yeah, it’s mainly just Test of Faith that needs to be looked at. It hits extremely hard, hits multiple times (if you cross the threshold), instant cast, protection, cripple, and it’s unblockable.

The biggest issue with DH is the visibility of the traps themselves. Sometimes you can see them other times you can’t. If they were more visible, like Necros’ marks it would be a lot more balanced. Also you can’t really tell what type of trap they put down. For instance, let’s say you’re doing a 1v1 and the DH put down a trap. Is that trap something like Purification something you wouldn’t need to dodge or use stab for or is it Dragon’s Maw, which could turn the fight easily, and that is something you need to dodge through or have stab/stunbreak ready. Also the nature of conquest heavily favors DH, it’s a class with a lot of AoE and control and people are stuck fighting on small points.

All I know it’s nice to have a viable DPS build on Guardian. Sorry, power medi was not viable at high end play, sure you could make it work, but there are better and more viable choices.

From a bunker Guard point of view I’m actually glad they added Minstrel; it gives a lot more options with builds. Before it was Cleric, Solider, or Cele; most of the time it was Cleric, and since Cleric has zero vit and Guard already has the lowest HP pool. This forced you to pretty much run Solider runes at all times. Now that Minstrel is here you can actually run other rune sets and builds. Bunker Guard with Cleric already did pitiful damage, even if you used intel to get crits. So might as well just give up that power and take stats that are actually useful. For instance, combing Minstrel with more boon specific runes can give you up to 67% boon duration; you can get 87% if you use the staff trait. This is a huge buff considering how boon centric Guards are.

There are a number of reasons why. Bunker Guard is generally seen as boring; it’s a lot slower place with more reactive type gameplay. Most people just want to play dps; either a bruiser or just straight burst, a lot don’t care for straight support, which is what bunker guard is. Also bunker Guard relies extremely heavily on your team, if your team is decent it’ll do well. However, if they are incompetent, it’s almost useless. On an actually team, bunker guard is very viable, however when it just comes to soloq it’s really just a coin flip this is due to rotations and lack of comp.

Also everyone is drinking the burn kool aid because it’s extremely easy to play.

Also stuck but not on this account though.

Laci.3167

I don’t even know why I’m bothering with this post, but whatever. This game’s MM is straight trash when it comes to solo. Removing soloq was one of the worst possible decisions Anet has ever made when it comes to pvp. Soloq was more popular than teamq, yet it was removed because high ranked teams had nobody to farm anymore, so they combined the player base, but that’s a different story and I digress. If you have somewhat a high MMR and solo, you just constantly get screwed over; apparently there was a bug causing this and it was fixed, but I have yet to see it. However, I’ve got to the point of not caring anymore; I don’t expect anything when I solo anymore. Like others have said, you win some and you lose some, it’s best to take that advice if you want to stay sane.

Oh here are my last ten matches, this is pretty much a daily trend for me.

It was obvious FoF wasn’t working as intended. Depending on the target the trap would hit for around 2k-4k, now times that by two or three. It’s not balanced and any sane person should agree. It’ll still be a good trap even without this bug.

Bezagron.7352:

This is great to see, showing variant builds to existing builds using the DH elite & the so much disliked Traps. Regarding your build have you tried Hunter’s Fortification. This should greatly improve your build further against conditions.

That’s actually a very good idea, don’t know why I didn’t think of that. HF would be a better choice, since this build lacks AR from Virtues.

Updated the build/link with HF over BGH.

So, I heard that Fragments of Faith was extremely powerful. So I decided to test it myself and I can safely say this is strong, probably a bit too strong due to the synergy of certain traits. This build has the ability to instant down people, not only in 1v1, but also in team fights. The reasoning for this is Communal Defenses and Shattered Aegis. The trap already hits extremely hard, however it also grants Aegis, and if you’re using Communal Defenses and Shattered Aegis your allies will also benefit from it. So it’s a huge damage spike for your team. Another thing about FoF is that it puts down multiple sources of Aegis; so after you use one, you can pick up another. Since Shattered Aegis doesn’t have an internal CD, this just means the damage keeps coming. Also due to the trait Hunter’s Determination, you’ll get two sources of FoF.

Here’s the build if anyone wants to test it out. For weapons, you just use what you’re comfortable with when it comes to medi guard, same goes for runes and sigils. What I linked is what I just use. Keep in mind the builder still has the old descriptions of traits for DH.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAR8dnsABVDhFdCeDB8Dhl4B7afNpyBVBgGQBQe/FAPgA-TZhFABAcBAAvMgCPBABOIAzs/AA

Also here’s a quick video I made. It just mainly shows how insane the burst is and how quickly people can go down. The quality of players probably isn’t the best due to the time I qued at, however it’s just mainly to show the burst of FoF.

There is actually a very strong build for Dragonhunter. I’m still playing around with it, but I know some others that are using it. It’s pretty good.

Yeah it’s pretty broken atm, guess I’ll go do something else!

Evan Lesh.3295:

I’m hearing arguments for not showing badges during a match, but what about just standing around in the lobby?

I see no issue with them being displayed in the lobby; I mean that’s one of the whole points of a badge no? It’s some thing to be displayed. When it comes to a match, you could take a CSGO approach about it; ranks are only shown at the end of a match.

I can somewhat see the justification for the nerf. It shared the shortest CD of all the shouts and is arguably the most powerful. 45 seems like an odd number though. Personally, around 40 would have been fine (32s traited). Most Guards will just go back to running RF anyways, most still run RF to begin with. Also, speaking of useless elites something really should be done with Signet of Courage. Healing interval is too long and with a 4.25 cast time; makes getting it off almost impossible. At least the Tome of Courage gave you stab (if traited), however, it also gave you protection and around 10k more hp, so you could get the skill off. Standard bunker guard has around 13.4k hp, there is no way in hell you are getting this full heal off; unless the enemy team is completely oblivious. With all that being said, the shield changes look to be nice and the normalization of SYS is great (should have happened years ago, but whatever, better late than never).

Evan Lesh.3295:

Matchmaking is always trying to make 50/50 matches. There is no active streak-prevention built into matchmaking other than the fact that your MMR adjusts each game. Since you’ve been playing so much, your MMR is ‘certain’ and changes slowly. It has certainly adjusted over the course of the weekend, though.

I suggest watching your game history via a site like http://gw2efficiency.com/account/pvp that uses our new PvP API. This way you know exactly what streaks you’re on.

Edit: Both your streaks were when you played Engineer, which has a lower profession MMR than your account and other professions. Looks like you win more often on Thief

That’s an interesting website, hopefully there’s a better supported and official one in the future. Anyways I decided to check it out and what I got was fairly typical. I guess it’s my fault for soloq 95% of the time. Sure some of the losses are close, so I guess the system is working as intended, however that doesn’t make it any less frustrating at times.

Yeah, it’s happened every game for me, mass disconnects, no point in playing atm. Oh well more time for mgs v.

So after playing some pvp, DH is alright. Traps are ok at best (excluding Dragon’s Maw, that one is pretty good). It’s hard to get a viable build with them. The bow I actually like. True Shot hits extremely hard (+5k crits on light targets), Hunter’s Ward is also very powerful. Using the bow with a medi build works well enough. Overall; I like the bow but I feel it needs some tweaks, however the traps and traits are lacking atm.

This is only early impressions though, around 20 games with it.

Anything condi heavy will eventually take down a bunker guard. Guard does have the most condi clears available (can have up to 16 clears, 15 of which are group clears). However, even if you’re managing your CDs right you’ll still eventually get overwhelmed.

Personally, I feel both trees are viable when it comes to medi. In my view, it mainly comes down to what weapons you are using. For instance, if you’re running hammer and scepter/focus. It would be more beneficial to go with Zeal, since you have two sources of immobilizes and can take advantage of Binding Jeopardy. Furthermore, the minor traits are symbol based so this is an added bonus for hammer. Obviously, if you’re running two one handed weapons you want to go with Radiance. Overall though, I still believe Radiance does more damage than Zeal. Zeal relies too much on symbols, in pvp this can work due to the nature of control. However, in wvw it’s much more mobile, so they are less effective.

Llama da best. Seriously, no more llamas.

It’s more or less the same; every pre-patch build still works effectively. I’d even say it’s better due to the fact that stats aren’t tied to certain trees and with the addition of new traits such as Smiter’s Boon.

I agree with this, there should be more exclusive pvp rewards. Currently there is the Glorious armor (both sets), Balthazar, and llamas. None of these really require skill to achieve. Anyone can just grind out games and get them. The only one that did require some skills was the Glorious Hero’s armor, however with the introduction of the new leaderboards that also just turned into a grind.

Titles, weapons, armor, seasons, ladders/leagues, and etc. There is so much they can do, however I doubt it’ll ever happen at this stage.

Personally, I’d be in favor of having my WvW guide removed. I’ve haven’t been keeping up with it as much as I should due to other obligations. There’s some outdated information, such as traits, that I haven’t got around to fixing. Guides need to be up to date and current in order to pass along adequate information and advice; at this time I don’t believe it accomplishes this.

Honestly, I love shield, and I still prefer it over focus when it comes to bunker in pvp. However, in my view, it needs some slight adjustments. Shield of Judgment should have either Taunt or Resistance added to it, if those are too powerful then add Aegis. As for the Shield of Absorption, maybe have it reflect instead of absorbs projectiles, and also make it a blast finisher. Furthermore, the trait (Stalwart Defender) is fairly underwhelming. It competes directly with SiN. SiN applies to your whole party and you only lose 30 toughness; compared to Stalwart Defender, which you only benefit from. Additionally, SiN doesn’t require a certain weapon to get the bonus. The 20% skill reduction isn’t enough to justify it, they need to significantly increase the amount of toughness you gain from Stalwart Defender.

I haven’t died that much.

I’m not expecting much; a title, a booster, and Queen Jennah.

I played hot join quite a bit when the game was first released. It was fun and nobody really cared about winning, it was just death match for the most part. It was just good mindless fun. Now though, I haven’t touched it in ages. I really don’t see the point, most of the time it’s just filled with farmers and the rewards are worse.

This has always been a problem with bunker guard, due to their mobility. When you’re playing with a team, the problem isn’t really there since some type of third party communication will probably be used. However, when it comes to soloq and just playing with randoms, it’s one of the hardest things about bunker Guardian, you don’t know how your teammates will react nor do you really know their skill level.

It’s going to come down to your map awareness, your experience, and your ability to read fights. For instance, let’s say your team is holding mid and home, you see your teammates having issues and might lose home even though it’s a 3v3. If you leave mid; it’s pretty much guaranteed to get capped since you don’t really know where the other enemy players are. However, helping your team is paramount and preventing a wipe, so it would be best to go. However, this could also backfire; your team could get a hold of the situation before you get there and you’ll lose mid for no reason now. Nevertheless, there are also other factors you need to take into consideration; current score, if players are respawning, and also your and your opponent’s comp.

I know this probably isn’t the answer you wanted because it’s really not clear. You’ll make good decisions and other times your decisions will be questionable. All I can really recommend is try to be in team fights as much as possible, also the more you play the better you’ll get at making these types of decisions.

I’m enjoying it, it’s an improvement from the cele meta before.

So, I haven’t played in a while was taking a break, but I plan on starting again. Last time I played was when they changed stab into stacks, so as you can tell its been a few months and I’m out of the loop. I’ll start updating the guide once I’m comfortable with the current meta.

It’s just a stress test, four hours total. Regardless I’m definitely looking forward to Tuesday.

It’s nice that you made changes to the algorithm and other issues with the leaderboard. However, the rewards are still lacking. Llamas just need to stop, making slightly changes to them doesn’t make it more captivating. Then you have the Glorious Hero’s Armor, which pretty much looks exactly like the reward track armor. Personally, there’s zero incentive for me to even bother with it. Regardless, I’m not participating, since I’m taking a bit of a break from GW2.

Hopefully one day, we actually get pvp rewards that are meaningful!

Rant time: There is so much you can do. Titles, gems, keys, finishers, exclusive weapons and armor (Glorious Hero’s Armor doesn’t count because it’s just a reskin), precursors, legendaries, and I could go on. Yet, all we get is some reskin of a mini and armor. If you had better rewards people would actually want to pvp!

Like some other people have stated, you don’t use it. Litany of Wrath is a high risk, high reward skill, however the risk far outweighs the reward. When it comes to your healing skill you don’t really want to take unnecessary risk. Which is why Shelter is generally the preferred choice in most situations. You’re guaranteed a solid heal and you can also use it to mitigate a great deal of damage.

I like the concept behind Litany of Wrath, however, there is a lot of counter play against it.

StugLyfe.2134:

MithranArkanere.8957:

Engineers can’t heal their turrets nowhere nearly as fast as a guardian can heal spirit weapons. Engineers can’t also stack tons of boons on them. Spirit weapons also hit harder than minions. The only downsides spirit weapons have are duration and lower health.

I’m not against changing them, but if you solve any of their downsides, you’ll have to compensate with some other downsides.

Give and take.

Uhm have you ever played guard with spirit weps? They do not heal lol where did you get that idea, they do not even regen ooc. Way back at release they were invuln and guess what most guards didn’t use them even then. ONE turret blast kills all spirits, same goes for any shatter or any AOE attack they die to 1 slice from thiefs lol , anyone that says not to buff spirits has never played them. Also you have to invest points in 3 trait lines just to make them usable at all. Before you guys spout off about them you really should l2Try. DEVS PLS BUFF SPIRIT WEPS JUST LIKE TURRETS

Spirit Weapons are affected by boons and healing. For example, if you uses Empower, they’ll benefit from the heal. Another example would be the active from VoR, they would even benefit from the passive if you were to choose Battle Presence.

MyPuppy.8970:

What about the player base? What do we have to expect when playing solo ranked?

My experience soloing in ranked, the players are on a much higher caliber level. I consistently get into games with players like; Tarcis, Hman, Phanta, OE, and etc. It’s one of the reason why I play ranked because I run into a lot of great players. Sometimes I face Abjured or some other high ranked premades four or five times in a row and that can be annoying. However, for the most part my games are good. Here’s an example:

The leaderboards really don’t mean anything at the moment, so I don’t see the point in getting worked up about them. These are complaints we all heard before, and everyone knows the new system has some flaws, plus it’s the off season so there are no rewards tied to them. Hopefully, once Anet kicks off a new season, they’ll have taken everything they have learned into consideration from the test and off season, and we’ll actually get a meaningful leaderboard and leagues maybe.

I had this problem awhile back.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Whriling-Wrath-bug/first#post3067861

It had something to do with tab targeting and causing it to rechannel. It was fixed, however the problem could have manifested again in a different form.

I know people don’t want to hear it, but Guardian is in a good spot. Yes, there are small tweaks and QoL changes I feel that are needed, nevertheless, Guardian has a number of viable builds and roles that can be used competitively.

Kindled Zeal definitely needs to be reworked, it’s useless, even more useless after they added Amplified Wrath. They either need to combine it into one trait with AW or just rework it entirely.

Tage is an outstanding Guardian, easily one of the best, if not the best. The hammer virtues does a number on Abjured comp. Their comp lacks stab for the most part, this allows the hammer to be extremely efficient. Also pretty much a hard counter against Nos and Toker.

Abjured will most likely win. I’d like to see them lose though, I have nothing against them. However, it would be nice for another team to win for a change.

It’s caused by Protector’s Strike, it’s a visual bug, that causes the visual to say up indefinite.

This game sometimes… is really bad. I don’t take back what I said before, however nights like tonight make me wonder. Played five games in a row, all against the same premades. (also had to wait +8 mins for all of them). My sixth game I finally get other soloqers and the game starts 4v5.

Definitely makes me not want to play anymore,but I probably will.

There’s no reason to drop guard as your main. I have ~3k ranked games played on guard and ~5k on guard overall, and I still play it to this day.

You just have to know your limitations and what you can and cannot do. For example, d/d ele and engi (depending on the build), you probably won’t win unless you significantly outplay them or they make mistakes. Generally any other profession (builds) you can beat in a 1v1 if played right. However, pvp is more than 1v1, why people get so obsessed with it, I’ll never know. It just comes down to knowing your role and what you can and cannot do. There are just some situations you cannot do or it’s a bad matchup, you have to except that and play to your strengths.

I don’t hate pvp and the majority of my time is spent in soloq. The new system actually gives me close matches, rather than all the blow outs that happened back under the old system. Naturally, the system isn’t prefect and I’ve been at the receiving and giving end of blow outs. However they far and few between compared to the amount of matches I played.

For example this was the last game I played, and a majority of my games follow this trend.

It’s like deja vu, same thing happened tonight. I also got the added bonus of playing the Dankening…

All while soloqing.

Played them multiple times tonight, when I was duoing, can’t really say I enjoyed it.

It’s not that bad honestly, it’s even somewhat of an improvement from the old soloq.

I’ve been flip-flopping on this lately because it can be hard to explain sometimes. So far this off season I’ve played over 500 games, the vast majority have been solo and a few duo and tri. For the most part, all my games have been fairly close. Of course there are exceptions, and I get games when I’m wondering why I’m playing with these players. I go against premades, sometimes even multiple times in a row, and yet the games are still fairly decent.

Compared to the old soloq, where the majority of my games were never even remotely close. Personally I feel the system is working great, when there are adequate numbers of players online within my skill level. Naturally, everyone is going to have different experiences, however for me; I’ve seen huge improvements since when they first introduced the new system back in December.

Or maybe I’ve just gone past the point of no return and I’m just rambling.

Instead of making a new thread, I’ll just add this here:

Just some bunker Guard gameplay footage I put together trying out new things, featuring Merciful Intervention.

So Merciful Intervention, a fairly underutilized skill for a couple of reasons. It’s a meditation and medi builds are generally dps heavy and have no real use with it. So players just prefer Judge’s Intervention, since it doesn’t require an ally to teleport. Also since it’s a meditation it doesn’t really see any use in other builds. After playing around with this skill some more, I’ve come to the conclusion, it’s actually decent. When using it in a bunker build, it gives you added mobility, something bunker Guards sorely lack. It also allows for rez and escapes that could not happen without it. Is it a situational skill? Yes, however it’s a skill that can easily mean the difference between a wipe and a victory. Are there better bunker tools out there? For the most part yes. However, MI allows for some fun and creative situations to come out on top of.