Guild Wars 2

Main problem is that many people send message in their PvE server about upcoming WvW events, which helps get new players in WvW.

Would I go on PvE megaserver map to say : “big rush from ABC on XYZ borderland at 10 today! Hope to see you there!” or “Introduction to WvW for ABC server on X map on [date and time]”. No Wouldn’t want the ennemy to know we are getting ready for something.
Sometimes we have a keep attacked, not enough to defend, send a few people on the PvE maps to gather troops, and people do come and help out.

This ability to easily reach out to PvE population is going to be taken from us.

No; If people didn’t somehow enjoy the way things play in their server, they wouldn’t be there.

I guess Vabbi is proud of it’s achievements because they did it all by themselves. Do you think they’d be happy to go up just because they got merged?
Transfers to gandara had some bad effects on their community… Do you believe that merging servers wouldn’t have effects on their collectivities?

How can you suppose (if I understood correctly) that it would not effect the way these smaller servers play?

The more people are packed together, the more they tend to clump together and make zerg.
Would they be 20 or 50 men zerg, they still are zergs…
for small groups, lower servers are more manageable, and it should stay that way, that is, allow people to chose server according to gameplay instead of trying to make all servers the same.

Plus, the names… you know names are either in reference to GW1 or to great GW community figures? this merging idea takes off all the lore…

won’t work, since it’s XP and not ranks that are added

I got a main, rank 100

I create a newbie, get him to rank 4 (1000 wxp, 1000 wxp, 1000 wxp, 2000wxp)

Switch to my main.

Combine the new ranks to my main. My main is now 105.

(main would be R101)

scerevisiae.1972:

I think it would be better all-round for #2 to leap in then out with evade so ranger can property fill the role of “mobile melee DPS” with evade as the core mitigation mechanic.

The auto clearly needs fixing, weapon skills shouldn’t cause you to lose control of your character.

It would make sense IF sword AA was ranged.
If one does 2 -go in, then what? attacking would break the #2 chain, so either attack and have no “get out” ability or #2 in, #2 out, then wait for weapon swap CD?
I do not figure any combat mode that would make use of a “retreat” on the 2nd hit.

I’ll just state a few fights figure, to illustrate

a) AA target.
b) Target shows animation of healing = #3 – poison strike
c) Target shows animation of big attak, I dodge
d) Target shows animation of big close-range attack = #2, wait for attack, #2 back in.

a) AA target
b) target is hurting me, I’m low on life, I have 3 seconds before my heal hits in, #2, switch angle, #2, switch weapon to ranged, heal, wait for ennemy to close in, switch back to sword

a) AA target
b) Big AoE incoming – with steady focus, better not dodge out of it, = #2 back, AoE lands, then #2 in, AA again, losing few DPS over time.

Number 2 back is a “get out of there” move, with a possibility to go back in fight fast.
Proposed #2 would just be a gap closer with no reason to use the back move…

And gap closer, we have on GS… don’t see the point in making sword more like GS…

Would be nice, indeed!

(followed from previous)

If the idea would carry on, nevertheless;
Regarding pet swap : I think a trait should allow for spirits to transfer to swapped pet.
A way I see traits could be changes :
Adept : Vigorous Spirit : your pet and up to 5 allies get (random number) +10 (random number) vitality per active spirit; (adept because vitality is not considered a must in most setting)
Master : Spirits Unbound : active spirits are transferred on pet swap (shouldn’t be free, nor inaccessible)
GM : Natures Vengeance : spirits effects trigger on pet death or pet swap (would be strong, so hard to get, and in concurrence with the new master, so have to chose between a cleanse that doesn’t hurt the pet (compared to the wilderness tree one) and more active effects for spirits).

I find it would help with keeping pet alive and make synergy with the spirits being on the pet.

Durzlla.6295:

So, me and Jcbroe were talking with some people about spirits, and my idea (based off of Battosais idea) for spirits is that you “summon” then for 60s (like now), but instead of an actual spirit a wisp floats around your pet (blue for water, purple for storm, orange for sun, yellowish brown for stone, white/almost white blue for frost, very large green wisp for elite) each one would give a passive effect, this effect would be “every 5th hit X effect occurs.” This passive would NOT be very powerful and would provide a very mediocre buff for everyone effected.

However, activating the spirit would “kill” the spirit and make your pet radiate with an aura, this aura would provide a pulsing benefit to allies near your pet as well as make your pets every 3rd attack apply a stronger effect than the passive.

EX: Sun Spirit: Summon a spirit to aid your allies in battle, causing every 5th attack for allies in range to Burn for 1s. Duration: 60s

Suns Might: The Spirit uses it’s remaining energy to imbue your pet with strength, causing every 3rd attack to blind and burn the target for 2s, and to give allies within X radius 1stack of might for 5s every second. Duration: 5s

The traits would OBVIOUSLY have to change as well, I’d like to see them become something like this:

Vigorous Spirit: renamed to Invigorating Spirits, is now the Grand Master trait, effect changed to: Your pet gains increased stacks for each spirit and aura attached to it.

Spirits Unbound: now an Adept Trait, your spirits CD is reduced by 20%

Natures Vengeance: The active effects of the spirits are increased, additionally effects of the spirits occur a hit earlier (IE passive effect is now 4 hits, not 5).

This would 1) remove cluttering 2) make spirits more fun to use and less mindless 3) allow MORE counter play to how spirits are, now killing the pet would end ALL spirit effects as well as the pet dying, this makes loading up 5 spirits into your pet very risky, but at the same time VERY powerful 4) this would allow tankier pets (such as bears and pigs) to be stronger in more aspects of the game 5) this doesn’t necisarily hell PETS in WvW, but it makes spirits less easy to pick off and die to AoE and 6) it makes spirits less point demanding to be good, but still rewards (and encourages) dumping points into spirits.

I don’t like the idea, even if it might be good. (side note, I never played spirits build)
1) A ranger using spirits as a damage sponge, is loosing out (need to use their active at the good time to be effective). Since spirits don’t really attack, spirits are just somewhat helpful against ranged foes (melee get at us – don’t mind the spirits. Beaten quite a few spirits ranger, and have yet to be beaten by one… cheese builds are usually skilless play that makes almost sure wins… not sure it applies to spirits rangers)

2) Screen clutter.
And what is a minion master necro?
I know they have their own issues, but I sure don’t find 4 passive spirits to “clutter the screen” that much.

3) Pathing issue. Hate how the pet always goes the long way around when I jump over something. If I want an active, might want it here and now, not whenever my pet feels like being by my side. (Especially when going in a keep’s lord room to summon the elite and rez the lord… the pet won’t make it to the lord… and given it does not stay close to me, even on passive, pet keeps wandering somewhat at 600 around me…)(can add to it the elite spirit summoning for self-rez that requires great timing and quite some skills while having spirits on unreliable wandering pet would make it impossible to self-rez)

4) The pet is way too unreliable.
Right now, it’s pretty easier for a ranged ranger to “save it’s pet” (with F3 “come back to me” to get it out of AoE, for instance), but then the ranger would not get the buffs.
But, when meleeing, the only way to get the pet elsewhere is guard (given there are no other foes in range), which has a too long cast time, with a not fast enough pet reaction time to be really effective in allowing for pet repositionning. (and once every 15 seconds is not much for pet repositionning through a fight)
With the inability to direct the pet, comes the fact it’s harder to keep it alive, thus the necessity to swap it, this lose the effect for too long.
Possible solution : Change F1 to trigger “attack”/“come back to me”, and F3 becomes a targetting repositionning tool (which would also help all ranger builds). (Don’t think a CD is warranted, the counterpart of using the repositionning is a loss in DPS, and used to late would not allow the pet to have time to walk out of AoE).

I first came in WvW, cause I found PvE lacking, and wanted to give it a try.
I stayed in WvW because of the warm welcome I had there.
Community is everything.
When I log in, I’m not much looking forward to playing, I look forward to connecting with people I came to consider as friends.

Other than that, why I’d rather WvW than PvE is for the awesome fights. I love outsmarting the enemy, winning battles when the odds are against us.
Nothing better than the thrilling feeling I can get at that point.

No, reset time never gets changed because of local times changes.

Depends a lot on their build…
Some will corrupt your boons, some will transfer the condis you apply to them back to you, so the best bet is to not get boons and not give condis, until you know what they can do.
Most are stronger at close range, especially in death shroud, and yes, interrupting life drain is a must (especially since they can drain from you and your pet).

Life blast can hit pretty hard also, so I’m usually going with at least one ranged pet (spider), place myself so the pet is between me and the necro (few roamers take Unyielding Blast (Life Blast pierces and causes vulnerability).
(ususally have a cat on swap, so I try to have the cat out when necro is not in DS, and switch to spider when he is in DS)

I usually keep my burst for when they are in death shroud (I’m playing mostly condis, with few direct damage), and just whittle them down when they are out.
Makes for long fights, but most go well…
(Keyword : kite, kite, kite – they are slow and have one gap closer in DS, so easy to kite.) Try to never allow them to get withing 600 range from you, especially in DS.
If you cant interrupt life transfer (green bubbles), get away. Same with tainted shakles (green strings)(600 range).
It gives you torment (3 stacks, somewhat 1k base when not moving, 2k when moving), and it will immobilize you at the end of the skill, if you didn’t get away, allowing the necro to close the gap…

One can’t expect to beat someone who has a roaming build with a bus build.
One can try, but not expect to.

And even good roamers often change some utilities or trait when they see they are likely to fight some other class.

If I see a necro or an engie anywhere, i’ll put on at least one condi removal on my skill bar. If I see a war, stunbreak would be my natural choice. If I see a roamer I encountered previously, I will change things in order to counter his or her spec.

My roaming spec is close to my bus one (for not wanting to retrait all the time – new maj gonna be nice). But I know I am bound to lose duels with my bus build.

You say yourself you don’t have the best build for roaming, but you think that is not a L2P issue? You think you should be able to win them all without having to adapt?

Gonna quote a signature I love :
“Hi Anet, please nerf rock, paper is fine
Cordially, scissors”

Learn to adapt is a L2P issue.
Know you can’t win? Run before the fight.
Didn’t see the ennemy before he was on you?
Learn to be aware of all that surrounds you.

But first, go in the guard subforum, and ask for a build to beat mesmers.
Shouts won’t cut it, as far as I know…

[quote=3856839;jihm.2315:]

AR(EU) don’t really have one… most guilds and commanders have their own.

My guild’s not translating too well, but it’s along the line of “we’ll get (spill/make flow) their blood”.
One of the pug commander calls something like “are we crazy, or are we not? let’s go we’ll break them”.

Not real battle cry, but motivators…

(nice thread, btw)

ViRuE.3612:

butch.8136:

About time that pvp got something, no?

And WvW didn’t get anything? Maybe not what you wanted, but it did get it’s share of updates.

Don’t think anyone would argue with what PvP got (except maybe, you know, people who play PvP).

Can you list what updates WvWvW got? I mean this as a serious question… I’m struggling to think of more than one – which was an update promised last year.

We had a pretty big one with BL cap points and EoTM, even if it wasn’t something we wanted… (do you think most pvp people are happy with their upcoming changes?)
We also had a nice upgrade in loots in the past months (wile PvP is earning close to nothing, right now).
We did have quite a few bug fixes (with maintenance patch)
We will have account bound WxP with next patch.

That’s quite a few updates…

Add to it all the changes brought by runes and sigils changes and ferocity, that might quite well change the meta…
In dev time, it’s a lot.

All game modes keep complaining about the others getting more… looking at the big picture is pretty much showing we all get somewhat equal long-term changes.

And now, just look at posts in one section. One ask for server merger, 10 people come say it’s a bad idea. One ask to leave servers alone, 10 people come to state how servers should be merged. Someone propose a new way to calculate PPT, 10 people state it’s a bad idea, someone propose a new idea base on these reactions, more come to say something along the lines of the first idea would be better.
Until we can give them united feedback, anything they will do will have some people unhappy.
They cannot please everyone. Not because they are clueless, but because they cannot possibly please all of us.

I’d rather have them work on fixing bugs than give us new maps. Many people are asking for new maps and don’t mind the bugs. Some people say put EoTM as PPT maps, some say, we need more balance, some say EoTM as PPT would ruin balance, some say it already did. some say we should get maps rotations, some weeks BL’s would be with quaggans, others, they would be as they are now, and EBG would get an exchange with EoTM to make MU less like they always are the same, while catering to the needs of smaller server that wouldn’t fill more maps… One way or the other… choices they make will displease some people. But they do their best to keep the interests of their players in mind…

clint.5681:

Cactus.2710:

It seems that there are two groups of WvW players … those that preferred balanced matches and those that preferred a sense of server identity (we can’t really have both under the current server structure). Given that far and away the most requested WvW CDI last fall was the one on population imbalance, and given that the prevailing sentiment in this thread seems to be in favor or retaining server identity, I’m guessing that just about everyone who wanted balanced matches has already bailed for a different game.

You are right

I’m on AR (EU), last of gold, we get steam rolled… I’m all for balanced match-up, ankitten ot speaking of a reality I know nothing about…
But I’m still against forced mergers and playing with unknown people.
Seeing it’s position in league, it’s hard for my server to recruit, but we do, and a guild is moving over this week.
I do not believe it’s all up to Anet to do what needs to be done for balanced games. They can take measure that would help, like progressive transfer rates, but in the end, it’s up to us, the players, to balance things out.

I know situation is worst in NA, where there is a big difference in server population, even when servers are next to each other in ratings. But this is not Anet’s doing; it’s players who do that.

From what I heard, even games using factions have differences in population between one and the others (one being way higher that both others).

There is no miracle solutions. Only us, the players, can solve it.
Always waiting on someone else to solve our problems is never going to get us any where…

Will there be a way to connect with a server-specific PvE population?
(eg: for a general call to come and fight in WvW)

Everything is always about making choices. Would it be more speed, more damage, more defense… it always comes at the cost of something else.
I almost never run with speed signet, and it’s my choice, and it hardly stop me from following my group, given group swiftness availability (mesmer focus, war’s WH, ranger’s WH, ele’s staff air, guardian staff, war banners…).

I hardly ever lag behind if I start with the group with any of my characters, and none have the speed rune…

How are WvWers expected to recruit amongst their PvE population if we have no way to contact our server mate in PvE? (eg, a commander stating he’ll take lead on x map at x time, or server indicating they will give a formation at some time).
Some announcements are not meant for the world to know, only the server…

(and I know there are already risks of other than server mate to see the announcement, but megaserver will make it almost impossible to know if people from my server are there)

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

From the blogpost dated April 3rd, 2014:

" The Megaserver System and the Future of WvW

Though we are moving to our new megaserver model in PvE, it’s extremely important to us that we maintain the level of identity and competition in WvW that we’ve established since the release of Guild Wars 2. The entire game mode is based on battles between different players aligned to the named worlds, and as such we have no plans to remove this concept from WvW."

This is encouraging news; I’m glad to see WvW identity and server-pride will be maintained. However, this brings up a question.

How will guild chat be handled in WvW following the PvE Megaserver rollout?

The motivation for asking this question is the following scenario:

• Guild Shiny Happy People is on server X.

• A portion – but not all – of the membership of guild [SHP] transfers to server Y.

• [SHP] now maintains two chapters of the same guild on two separate worlds.

• The Megaserver rollout occurs and the two chapters of [SHP] – one on server X and the other on server Y – are merged into one per the blog:

" With the new megaserver system, you’ll find it infinitely easier to play with all of your guildmates—and better yet, someday you’ll simply have one guild!

Because worlds no longer separate players, we’ll eventually make sure that guilds are no longer separated either, that every guild member will be contributing to and benefitting from the same unified guild chapter."

• As world/server identity will be preserved for WvW, what happens when the [SHP] members who were on server X enter WvW, use guild chat (now unified across worlds per the above), and their guildmates on server Y can read what they’re typing? Especially worrisome if server X and server Y are pitted against each other in the same WvW matchup.

The above is not a hypothetical scenario, either; it’s happened on the server on which I play. Seventy percent of the membership of a WvW guild transferred to another server. The thirty percent who remained behind are still maintaining a chapter of the same guild and remain active in WvW.

Guild chat is guild chat…
WvW chat is not.
don’t put in guild chat what you don’t want the other faction to not know…

Omaris Mortuus Est.2738:

Lauranda.1342:

Eotm is also not wvw. Its spvp in wvw clothing.

Tom Gore.4035:

There is nothing structured in EotM. It’s PvE in WvW clothing.

WvW is a lie, it’s PvE in sPvP clothing

it’s PvE in sPvP clothing sold as WvW

Depends what I do. Roaming is not much, scouting even less, following the bus, maybe 2 to 4 gold per play session? I don’t really pay attention to gold income.

When I lead, I ask for donations, and many players naturally send me their looted plans, some even propose to make superior.

I usually send some money or plans to leads (when not leading) and/or scouts too, even if they don’t ask, cause I know it’s expensive.
But the problem is not really the loot, wouldn’t mind it being somewhat higher, though, the problem is that, as a lead or scout, we often end-up spending more than our earnings.

Tl;DR
When leading/scouting/defending, loot seems low
When following the bus (attack) it seems somewhat equal to a normal PvE session (not dungeon/champion/world boss farm).

No.
I feel attached to my server.
Though many guilds threathen to leave if we were to end up in gold, they decided to stay.
It’s not because they enjoy knowing we’ll get facerolled days in/days out with no chance of winning, it’s because of the strength of the community we created.
Any system that destroys that is bad.
Noone wants EoTM to spread through WvW.

What would be my reason to fight?
24 hours on one side, 24 hours on another side, for a fight that lasts one week?
And what do you do of language-specific servers?
Though I could manage on an English server, I’m French, chose to be on a French server, even if that meant being outside my timezone, because I wanted to play in my main language.

I don’t like EoTM for the lack of communication, the lack of meaningful fights, of reason to go and beat the other colors. I enjoy the friendly rivalry we (Augury Rock) have with Vizuna and Jade Sea…

it’s all part of a bigger picture that I can’t put into words. EoTM is fun to level up, to gain badges and be in for a good laugh when I bring a friend over, and they know nothing about the map, but the fact there is no identity/community makes it bad to go.

I’m already sad that the new change will make it harder to recruit in PvE for WvW, I sure don’t want to lose the identity we created over time…

mrauls.6519:

To be honest if confusion was toned down I’d be happy. That’s the ONLY thing making condi spamming professions so ridiculous right now. If they didn’t have access to crazy amounts of confusion it’d be an even playing field

Confusion was already toned down, and a lot…

WvW, small scale, many viable builds (trappers as x/30/30/x/0; shouts, as 0/0/30/30/10)
WvW, big scale, not much is considered really good, take spotter, healing source and entangle with, if possible muddy terrain and warhorn, for a mid-melee build, and your good to go. Some prefer to go zerk and do big damages from a distance, but it’s harder to play with fast moving fights without dying (imho, dead is no DPS, better do less and last the fight)…

jihm.2315:

perma daze, confusions and damage that will eventually wear you down even if they play a survival build ,
also dissappearing and spawning clones all the time, real gods of space and clowns at the same time.

I’d love to know the build that does all that!

About how to defeat them:
Learn to spot the real one, and only mind the clones, phantasm if they get close.
It did take me somewhat a half hour of duelling with a good mesmer to avoid the initial burst, somewhat 3 hours to know clones for what they are, and a total of somewhat 5-6 hours to be able to spot the player fast enough.
That duelling partner changed build many times through our encounters, so that I didn’t know what to expect (Pu? Condi? Stunlock? Other weird spec?).

The basis is always stay far from clones and spot the real guy.
Rest is timing the escapes and holding on my burst for when it would be effective.

After this intensive formation, I was able to win over half duels against other mesmers.
No matter how you enjoy learning (you can duel, look at videos, go spectator mode in PvP, or bring the class up yourself), you have to go and learn what makes other classes strong, and where they lack. This is the only way to learn. so when you state “what difference would 3 month or one year do”: It does not make any difference if you do not want to learn. If you want to, and you do spend time learning, it does all the difference…

Immediate impact of this news for WvW.
Where will we make “come join us in WvW” messages in PvE maps?

That usually got us many players out of prime time…

And I’m also afraid of the 41% same language people… I chose a french server, even if it meant not being in my timezone, to play in French, and want to keep doing so.
Writing in french in EoTM to people I play with already gets me “use english” messages…
I hate the implications of it, even if we’ll have to “wait and see”.

Plus, some servers have great communities, and I find a 5 or 6 percent chance to join the map with people from my guild or server is way too low to allow for great communities as we had…

I’m really afraid to see what they’ll do to WvW with that change…
Don’t want to make an other EoTM out of it : (

The patch will not mess with most ranger’s builds, but allows for new builds.
Trappers will not be affected by it.

Ryan.9387:

You may want 10-30-30-0-0 if you like not dying to condis.

condi removal is not needed in all game modes

Beware the OP bear!
Big Head Bear

OP?
Do you see the kind of (absence of) damage you will be dealing?
Most attacks would hardly out DPS war’s healing signet… and some (keen edge) demands lower health to work…

That’s a funny build, but I hardly see anyone running with all these condis removals (many being so situational that they would harldy work, some not being real condis removal (stun break) and most not being launched as soon as they are off CD (Lightening reflex).

I did not play gw1, so I sure don’t know how it might turn out.

But I’m playing WvW, and unless we have some real control over the pet, just like we can have over our character, this would be a big no.

Do we need an even more passive play than pew-pew form a distance with a pet tanking?
Do we really need to put more reliance on a pet that’s unable to avoid AoE’s, and pretty easily kiteable (foe just have to jump on a rock for our damage to be negated), and the way the environment is, most of the time, if we put ourselves in a “safe spot” pet has an insane travel distance to go, while jumping over things foes can get right at us…

I’d rather they focus on making the pet less of a liability than try to bring too much into play.

Long post, using some formating would make and easier read

Anyway…
WvW builds were taking advantage of the higher crit rate of trinkets and accessories. Some might say it was legit, some might say it was an unintended exploit.

As far as exotics went, it wasn’t too bad, because the game was somewhat balanced around it.
People who will be hurt the most, are not the glass builds, it’s the ones who only had crit % on trinkets.

Now, it’s all about normalisation. People who stacked crit in trinkets, and not in armor knew the rate of trinkets was higher. While it was not for any other stats.
It’s just about normalizing so that balancing will be easier….

If you and your guildies have been min/maxing using crit damage trinkets, you will be hit hard.
The percentage on armor is not much.
eg
for zerk ascended, heavy armor :
now,
(helm) 2% crit damage, will become 34 ferocity, so 2% crit damage, +4 points left. (better)
(coat) 5% crit damage, will become 76 ferocity, so 5% crit damage, +1 point left (slighlty better)
(back) 5% crit damage, will become 35 ferocity, so 2% crit damage, +5 points left. (nerf)

(math is 15 ferocity = 1% crit damage at level 80)
(right now, crit damage is not a major stat, so it’s based on the value of the secondary stat of each pieces)

Micro-lag and latency is often (not always) an ISP problem.

Reverence.6915:

snip

Well, you add to this XP and WXP per minute of siege refresh (eg, 5 minute left is 55 minutes worth of refresh; 45 minute left is 15 minutes worth of refresh), and give back dolly escort XP and WXP, and the only type of scout left out is the open field / roamer… (which arguably can have sentinels and enemy roamers and camps)…

Some say it might be achievement-related (eg, the world where you make the most achievements), some other, that it is time-related (eg, the world where one spends the most time).

Dolly in WvW are my favorites
though Sylvan hounds really are cute
Too bad it gets off after disconnects…
I wish I could turn it back on, had no time to screen last night

One of the most sensible idea I saw to reward structure scouts

Lol, loved it, thanks guys!
first noticed it on mobs, the saw my drake coming back at me, I was pretty shoked, only then did I realized every one got big headed

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

I think the proper way to handle things would be to make individual rewards tied solely to participation (achievements) while giving the winning servers some form of in-game prestige. Maybe a statue or plaque in Lion’s Arch (or whatever the hub city is now) that displays a list of season champions, or add those server names to the lore/game dialogue… basically, something that places emphasis on server pride and encourages players to be emotionally invested in their chosen homes as the game evolves.

Right now, it’s just a mad dash of transfers in search of shineys. Or a cash grab, depending on your point of view.

And most players asking for a better reward for winning server of S1 wanted just that, something to show they won, a statue in their LA was something mentioned. Few really asked for better rewards over the other servers (though many complained they got worst rewards than others); most know they won by coverage, though some really put big effort to pull extended shifts in close MU and were disgusted at getting lower rewards than servers below.
The same is pretty much now happening, Servers that tanked (from EU gold to EU silver) will have a better reward than server that didn’t…

But we can also say that this is part of server play… so…

Even at 9th position, whith many guilds stating they would leave if we stayed gold, they decided to stay, because of the community.
We might get at the point of jumping to each other throats before the season ends, but, in the end, the community made it so we lost few players to other servers, despite knowing our reward would be lower.

We don’t expect to come any close to winning a single MU in all the tournament… but we decided to try and have fun nevertheless…

Game is designed to have fun. If a skin is more fun for someone than it’s community… What can we do?

main problem I have with that are
1) Some might walk around with their tag up, just to get “commander ranks”, thus getting people mixed up on who they should follow.
2) how do you counter the trolling commander that took siege without firing it? This would just give more “strength” to trollers…
3) Level system would make new commanders even less desired. It’s already hard to start commanding, you don’t want people to be “oh, let x tag up, he’s got more points, so it’s better for the server”

Side note: if you’re not sure that your commander is to use your donations to WvW purpose, why do you give?
I am used to give a little something to commanders, just to thanks them for allowing me to have a good time in WvW. Would it be siege or gold, whatever I give is to thank him/her for giving time for the server. Whether he/she uses it for a new skin or more siege, what is the problem? The donation was not aimed at tying that commander, just at thanking him/her…

Millillion.5914:

One good reason stuff like this isn’t done in most games is that actual, useful contribution to a group effort is extremely hard (impossible in most games) to quantify. You could have one person who just scouts for hours at a time, occasionally flipping camps, and though he might be the most useful individual person in the entire map, he still wouldn’t get rewards for doing the sort of stuff he isn’t doing, like taking towers or killing players.

Which comes down to the ability to track scouts help and have 50% sucess linked with scouting (eg : resetting x minutes of siege, escorting x amount of dollies, speeding x amount of workers, buying x amount of upgrades (though that one would be dangerous… risk having someone buy it at the wrong time… like a build x defensive siege achievement could be disastrous), etc.).

Forgot to mention here one kind of lag: The forever buffed lord.
(There is no time on the lord’s buff bar, and we know the enemy had it for more than 5 minutes)
In the same line, there is the always on book (healing book from gardian), and I once had the never-ending barrage.

I saw someone mention he didn’t lag on EoTM, and I have to say, though I sometimes experience some lag in EoTM, it’s not comparable to the regular WvW (EBG&BL) lag.

Prysin.8542:

snip

The kind of ideas I like

Though it should be clear wether the radius is me or the pet.
Both have advantages ans disadvantages (eg: dungeons, one might want the radius to be the pet, while WvW, one might prefer to have it be the ranger…
or given it"s hard to place the pet where we want it, the radius being around the pet might be problematic, while the ranger usually knows where he stand.

We can also ask the questions the other way around…
why would you bring a ranger when you could bring an elementalist, mesmer, or guardian?
Elem – either build for support or DPS, DPS elem is awfully squishy, support elem has low DPS…
Mesmer… pretty good against one target… in other settings? yeah, not so good.
Gardian… even built for DPS, he’s not hitting that hard. And built for DPS, he’s not helping the team as he is expected to do… so, less DPS for support…

That is the crux of the issue. Rangers can’t maintain 25 stacks of might and vulnerability like mesmers, elementalists, and warriors.
I’d like to see the build of one of those class that can bring and keep alone both might and vulnerability… these are group efforts, and rangers can contribute to these (maul, fire, WH)
They can’t put those stacks to work like the high base damage of warriors and thieves.
don’t look only at the combat log when measuring ranger’s DPS… you might be surprised at how much they and their pet together can achieve…
They can’t maintain stealth on the entire team to enable them to skip large, annoying portions of dungeon paths like thieves can.
so the only point of thieves is skip and damge…
They can’t reflect projectiles like guardians and mesmers.
Ever saw the lupicus ranger’s kill? Ranger have no reflects? Come on!
They can’t provide emergency instant resurrects like guardians and warriors.
The can, and many times through one fight (if they place the spirit right)… (elite spirit: CD:180 sec., up for 60 sec, can revive every 30 sec) compare with war banner : CD 240 seconds, up for 60 seconds, grants boons (fury and might) that a balanced group should get all the time, without it, so useless boons (if the banner is needed, the earlier call about 25 constant might stacks is not so exact) (so banner is usually a one-time revive on 240 cd) Guard: no idea about it’s revive skills, so can tell.
Oh, also, banner takes 2 seconds to cast, so it’s a 2 sec DPS loss, thus the 1.5sec of ranger spirit is more efficient…

So, unless you can show me specific builds that makes it so the war, mesmer, thief, ele, guard, can do all of the above with one build, I have the impression your argument is a poor tentative at dismissing rangers, blindly guessing what we can and cannot do, based on general assumptions.
Properly built rangers can bring lots to the team, in fact, rangers can bring pretty much anything the other class can, and properly build, can bring the same levels as the other properly built classes.

So, I’ll be waiting for your 25 stacks might + 25 stacks vulnerability high damage bannering war, or elem, or mesmer (that also reflects projectiles, eh?)

Oh, btw, your only stated purpose to bring guardian is to reflect projectiles, and rez people, which is not much of a purpose… for the insta-rez people part, I can’t say how well gardian do, since I saw nothing from them that insta-rez… (only saw a teleport to a down ally) for the reflect part, gardian have a slighly higher uptime (10 sec / 40 sec) (rangers: 5.5sec/ 25 sec – with vulnerability and retaliation)
Which makes me think about about those light fields gardians keep putting everywhere… would you really have me believe you love them, when they overwrite the fire field?
Right…

TL;DR
A ranger getting tired of being told I excel at nothing, while noone has yet been able to show me the marvelous “any other classes build” that does everything better at the same time than I…

There’s a funny one-shot build with Norn ranger (not effective on duration (for long fights), but nice troll build).
But otherwise, race really don’t matter (racial skills have been made weaker than professions skills to avoid having race/profession schemes)

Now, all professions have their ups and down.
If you want to play with people and be welcomed everywhere, War or Guardian are the way to go.
To play just for fun, though, any class will do.

Rangers have awesome animations, and ok power or condi or support builds, so we can play it pretty much any way and have fun with the content.
Beware, though, of the description :

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation

It is not the most accurate description (though that is true for most professions).

• We are the “archer class” because we have access to both bows, but, as for anything in GW2, range is making less damage than melee.
• They are indeed “capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows”, as long as they are PvE mobs, or new players.
• Traps need to be traited to be good (main good point about them is that foes do not see them until they are triggered), spirits bring nice buffs, but they die easily.
• Pets buffs are nice, but, as of now, buggy. Anet stated they would work on their responsiveness for the upcoming patch (feature pack).

We do, indeed, have the capacity to adapt to any situation, on paper (with our vast array of abilities). But, we need traits to make most of our utilities really usefull. The upcoming patch will help with that.

If you enjoy having two characters to care for (you and your pet), I’d say go ahead. If you can’t accept to “lose” somewhat 30% of your DPS in a pet AI on which you have few controls (eg, if you want those big numbers all for yourself), I’d advise you look at other classes.

Now, about stats, it really will depend on what you like to do.
PvE (high level and rushes) is as much Power, crit chance and crit damage as you can do with, with as few vita and toughness as you need to survive (which is true for all professions)
Roaming: I personally like alterations / traps, but there are a few good healing/regen ones – some direct damage, some alterations.
PvP – casual, any build will do, but the high level current meta is spirits, not sure of the exact spec.

I also like to play a mix of alterations/power, but it is not optimal, so it’s just when I play alone.

The fact that the pet do not scale with the ranger helps to make some nice dual builds (eg: ranger alterations with a power pet) without loosing.

Hope it helps you!

Yop!
Not really gonna speak about damage (not yet sure how Dwayna rune will turn out), just a few observations (times based on the builder’s data, not the in-game datas – might differ) :
- Burn is a per tick condition. The smoldering sigil adds .5 sec on torch #4 (from 9 to 9.5 – so you don’t get another tick), and nothing on #5 (once again, no other tick). a condi rune (eg sigil of bursting) would be better (condi damage from 1264 to 1332)

- When running around, Signet of the hunt is nice, but you do not have weapons that demand placement (eg:shorth bow)… It might help to kite in combat, but I would consider swapping it for lightning reflex (survival), that also gives you vigor (avoid damages with more dodges) and is a stunbreak and will take off immibilize after the update…

OmaiGodman.2098:

Astral Projections.7320:

Idk. I’ve gotten used to seeing the game through a tunnel of UI elements above, below to the right and to the left. If I could actually see the environment around me and not feel like I’m wearing blinders like a horse, it wouldn’t feel like Guild Wars 2.

If GW2 is a “tunnel” of UI elements, then what is this?

This
is
horribe…

Blude.6812:

and fix the cursor that you can’t see during large battles as well (options to customize it)

Full support to that… looked for an option for it, and was sad to find none… bad to have to use ground targetting ability to try to find the pointer…

Answering different points mentionned above :
*PvE/PvP: Toxic Alliance are integrating a more “dynamic” gameplay, and some mobs in EoTM are also taking a more “player-like” skill rotation. I don’t think they can easily change current mobs, but I expect them to integrate more of these. (maybe they are test to know what players feel about this new mechanic…

• Mob dodge : what is the use of a dodge after getting hit? Would it be for the pet, or a mob, it does no good. No solution really satisfactory.
• Faster/more consistent mob AA: would already be nice; once again toxic alliance were good at it.

I’m mostly a WvW player, but I found toxic alliance were nice to fight (compared with the usual mobs). Taking a pack of those mobs was somewhat challenging, compared with the usual content, and I sure wish Anet would implement more things like it, cause it helps bridge that gap between PvE and PvP and it might demand something else than “big numberz” to win the fight.

Hylgeriak.8250:

WvW season 2 not even started and I don’t come any near getting into WvW within my available time window of approx. 3 hours/weekday…how are we supposed to participate in the upcoming content?

Proof:

how are we supposed to participate in the upcoming content?
1) not be on a server that stacked and now should be in gold (would have been, with one more pre-league week)
@anet:any solution on queue
2) content and achievements can be done in EoTM, so Anet already offered a solution. That it’s not one that you want to use… not Anet or anyone else here problems… (you know you can get your guild on the same EoTM overflow? probabilities are high that you are not the only from your guild in queue…)

int randInt return.7810:

A yak will attack the door of a keep it nornally visits, if the yak was already en route when the structure fipped to an enemy color. Normally these yaks are slain by the guards I believe, so they don’t last too long.

But when the dolly is garded (with the upgrade : gards killed gards), and can’t enter because of the flip, it will start bashing at the door…

Not a new feature

Change in weapons:
Ballistas open walls, ac opens doors, rams and catapult attack enemy players,