Guild Wars 2

Mogar.9216:

That is so not true. Bunker meta has been around since release. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the best way to win is bunker up a pt. Since kills get you so little pts compared to holding a pt. What changed is cele meta made the bunkers do as much damage as burst as well. So the old meta that required 1 or 2 dps changed to all bunker now.

That’s not strictly true. During closed Beta, and Open Beta the majority of all players ran Berzerker builds. Bunker’s only began to creep in as people grew tired of being 1 shot and having an inability as a Berzerker to secure a point.

Random Weird Guy.3528:

Runewolf.8456:

It’s almost like Thieves and Mesmers were built to hunt squishies or something….

You’re suggesting that the primary role of a mesmer is to hunt down squishies? Mesmers are actually a good counter to celestial builds if they don’t have a thief on their tail.

Sadly they can’t do anything for an entire match if they do

An article discussing the possibility that these two classes and their burst are the reason why people avoid going glass cannon builds for PvP.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/guild-wars-2-are-thieves-and-mesmers-cause-meta

It gets overwhelming votes because it’s quick, not because people love it. Courtyard is a terrible map and a terrible game mode for Guild Wars 2.

Lopez.7369:

Again, we don’t need these complicated solutions. Every other game, from chess to World of Warcraft to WildStar to Starcraft 2, uses systems that gravitate your leaderboard rating to your matchmaking rating. There is no reason Guild Wars 2 can’t replicate this decades-old system.

Also, there’s no reason to believe this leaderboard point system, which is terrible, won’t stick around for leagues. The worry is that leagues will essentially be based on time and matches played, similar to the current system.

Does anyone know why they aren’t replicating these systems?

Jade Arkadian.9280:

I was just wondering…. After dishonor is fixed and turned on, how will the system know that a player is really AFK and not holding a point instead? Or maybe you are not explaining how it works to avoid some AFK players to bypass it?

The game already warns you that you’ll be flagged as AFK if you don’t use any skills or move while playing PvP.

brannigan.9831:

You should always lose at least a point for losing. Sounds harsh but might fix things in conjunction with tightening up the matchmaking some to make very unfair matches (solos verus groups) extremely rare. Would make it much harder to grind your way to the very top with an average win rate just by playing a ridiculous amount of games.

I think so too. It’s bizzare that you don’t, really. It’s very generous and it does help solo queuers however. The Hearthstone Rank system looks really great actually.

Volrath.1473:

unless someone can teach him how to hack the game there is nothing anyone can do about the thief class, at this point it is as good as a punch bag in pvp

Are you playing a different Guild Wars 2 to the rest of us? Evasion Thieves are amazing and comfortably demolish most classes 1 on 1. Longbow Rangers, Mesmers, Guardians and Necromancers. Hardly struggling…

There’s only certain classes that can comfortably kill a Turret Engineer and it’s a Longbow Ranger from full range or a Greatsword Mesmer. The Fire Sigil procs combined with huge damage from range make it super easy. For Mesmer, it’s particularly easy because you can cause a lot of AOE alongside your Shatters from a long distance. I always eat Turret Engineers incredibly easy.

Teutos.8620:

laokoko.7403:

Anyone know what other esports games do?

In other games the points you gain depends on how close you are to your MMR.

The simplest solution, and the solution I’d currently recommend is from World of Warcraft.

Our old ladder system just ranked us depending on our MMR, but it was possible to reach the highes MMR with a lucky 3 games win streak. With a point system, where you first have to farm up points very slowly, you are not put onto the front page after 3 wins, it will take some time to climb up the ladder. And in the meanwhile your MMR will adjust, and the first 3 lucky games will count less.

But once you have play ~50 matches, your score points should be near your MMR. And since the points rewarded depend on your current MMR, once player might end up on the ladder with 1700 points, and another with 1900, depending on how good he was.

Other games take those points, and place them in a league system. Instead of just earning points, you are placed in a division, and to jump from one division to the next one, you also have to have a certain win chance while facing opponents at around your current division level.

The league system should be the end goal, since it offers small goals for the players. It is far more encouraging to climb up a single division and to just earn another “100 points”, but for starters, the obove mentioned system from WoW would be nice too.

I really like the sound of that.

klarkc.3754:

I don’t like the idea of having two leaderboards, that is weird and not useful. The number of games and pvp “rank” (wolf, bear, dragon, etc) already do the job of a experience/farm meter.

The question is: what is the BEST meter of player skill? A simple MMR isn’t good, because with a too little number of games you can reach the top of leaderboard. The number of games MUST be relevant to your position on leaderboard. My only concern with the current system is the little impact of lost games, implying in a rising and limitless farm of points.

A simple adjust on odds of winning fixes this issue, to grant less or even zero points for lost games where is not supposed to win.

I suppose technically, with this proposal, there would only ever be one active Leaderboard per player. Season, then once you’ve finished Season it would turned to Ranked.

Teutos.8620:

Don’t like the solution. With such a system I could only play if all of my four friends are around, where I have the max winning chance. I could not use subs or just play with two of them.
In such a system it would also be best, if I just played with all of them at around 6am where I get no other teams, and can farm soloqer all day long.

Perhaps they could provide users with a choice when they queue for Ranked, selecting either Season Leaderboard or Ranked Leaderboard. Alternatively, you could just play Unranked, as it was intended.

New article on Ten Ton Hammer discussing the failings of the current Leaderboard system, with a possible fix proposal.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/guild-wars-2-spvp-leaderboard-failings

As a Mesmer it’s incredibly easy to kill turret Engineers. You just Greatsword them to death from a distance. Easy.

Xaylin.1860:

Have been waiting for a discount on the aetherblade skins for ages.

That’s a lovely look for Mesmer. Well done.

A Berserker Shatter Mesmer has around 18,000 Health. A Mug combined with a Backstab and/or Plasma is more than enough to deal 8,000 damage, especially if Superior Sigil of Air and Fire trigger.

Only just now on my Thief, I hit a Mesmer for the following:

Steal 1408
Backstab 4647 (Critical Hit)
Lightning Strike 1098
Fire Strike 1307

I then used Shadow Refuge to restealth. At this point, I ate my Plasma and dealt the following damage:

Backstab 5017 (Critical Hit)
Shadow Shot 3197 (Critical Hit)
Heartseeker 4668 (Critical Hit)

That’s a total of 21,342 damage within the space of around 7 seconds. I’d consider myself a very bad Thief but a very good Mesmer. Unless I can stealth during the first spike, heal and run away, I’m at an immediate disadvantage because I’ve already been forced to use a Stealth and my heal. All it then becomes a case of is waiting for the Thief to re-appear. Sadly, there’s no skill in finding or spotting a Thief because there’s no skills on offer to make them visible.

In the current Meta of stacking Might and an abundance of Boons, Mimic is incredibly useful. I’ve recently been using it with amazing effect. Arriving to a fight, taking 20 stacks of Might and Fury before a triple Shatter melts most players. It’s also a brilliant way of getting Stability and Swiftness on a regular basis. At a 30 second cooldown, it’s also very forgiving if you miss.

No one is saying you can’t beat a Thief as a Mesmer, but it is unquestionably difficult against skilled Thieves. Like I said, a single Stealth + Mug is enough to take almost half your health. Any competent Thief will Stealth again and burst you once more. If you’re beating Thieves easily it’s because those Thieves are bad at their class.

It’s pretty impossible for a Mesmer to win against an equally skilled Thief. A single Stealth + Mug can almost kill you. If they re-stealth, you’re doomed the moment your stealth runes out.

Cynz.9437:

any buff to ranger moblity would follow massive nerf to range and ranged dmg in general… there is reason why thief ranged options are laughable

You do realise Engineers have permanent Swiftness and Vigor and are capable of throwing Grenades at 1500m? Oh and they also have Slick Shoes for a full burst of speed and if using a Rifle, a Leap as well.

infantrydiv.1620:

Chaith.8256:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

A LB/GS Ranger I’d argue is better than a Mesmer at the moment. Its ranged burst is unrivalled with a very small cooldown on Rapid Fire. Combined with area cripple, a ranged knockback and two invulnerability skills (Counter Attack and Signet of Stone) it’s still got lots of survivability. A Mesmer is still great but the casting times on Phantasm skills are long and Shatter cooldowns are also long. A Longbow Ranger can put out single target damage so much easier – it’s point and shoot.

Mesmers are closer than Power Rangers. Counter Attack and Signet of Stone aren’t really invulnerabilities..

What’s really the difference is that Mesmer has better damage avoidance through superior stunbreaks, multiple vertical teleports, and better ‘invulnerabilities’, then the in combat mobility is the cherry on top.

Of course damage is easier to do by locking on to a target from 1500, and 2111112111112, that much is true.

The kit that a Mesmer brings as a long range nuke is also superior in the fact that it doesn’t rely on Projectiles to do its damage. There are multiple counters to projectile damage that could easily be used against Power Ranger if the spec ever became common (the most obvious being running say, two focus offhand elementalists).

In addition to that, both current meta long range nuking classes (Mesmer and Necro) have access to very good boon strip as well as both having strong vertical/porting kiting abilities. Both of which Power Ranger lacks.

Not saying I want power ranger buffs, just pointing out the differences :p I’m fine with power ranger where it is.

Oh there is definitely a lot of differences – some of it good, some of it not so good. A Longbow Ranger is countered quite easily, but I’d also say the same for a Shatter Mesmer. A single dodge against a Shatter or area of effect against illusions/phantasms removes all their potential damage spike. Ranger’s just have a really simple play style that with enough practice, is hard to go wrong with.

I’ve played LB/GS since closed Beta and I miss very few Rapid Fires’ – I would like some form of Boon stripping though, even if it came from the pet.

Shikobro.5319:

Eurantien.4632:

Ranger is in a good spot, just engi, ele, necro are a little too strong atm for ranger to have a place. If you can’t find a place for ranger its probably a l2p issue. Your problem is probably pet control.

Ok so, “Rangers are good, l2p”. Your post isn’t actually saying anything, I mean thats cool and all but I actually laid out my thoughts on rangers, and why I believe they are not up to par. Rangers getting more viable once the cele meta gets inevitably nerfed is a good thing, but thats just a case of class A “looking” better because class B got worse, not because class A actually got better itself. Ranger is still gonna suck after the nerfs. I honestly have no idea why any team would pick a zerk ranger over a thief or mes, what does a zerk ranger even bring to the table?

But anyways, what are your actual thoughts on rangers?

A LB/GS Ranger I’d argue is better than a Mesmer at the moment. Its ranged burst is unrivalled with a very small cooldown on Rapid Fire. Combined with area cripple, a ranged knockback and two invulnerability skills (Counter Attack and Signet of Stone) it’s still got lots of survivability. A Mesmer is still great but the casting times on Phantasm skills are long and Shatter cooldowns are also long. A Longbow Ranger can put out single target damage so much easier – it’s point and shoot.

As for Condition Ranger’s (which I play often) I think they’re pretty good, the only thing we really lack is Swiftness – we’re so god kitten slow.

Its Evades are fine, but as a Condition Ranger you have a very unreliable Leap (most Condition Ranger’s actually use Axe, not sword) while you have no swiftness or permanent Vigor, unlike an Engineer.

Ranger really isn’t in a good place. It lacks the utility, mobility and survivability of the Engineer if running Conditions, while it also lacks the control and sheer burst potential of the Necromancer.

While a Longbow/Greatsword Ranger deals amazing damage it lacks mobility and group utility. It’s a very selfish build.

The new Leaderboard is so fundamentally broken. Regardless of my skill it’s impossible for me to reach #1 because I play less than others. I cannot physically catch their Point gain and that is stupid.

So what’s the point in a Leaderboard system that simply rewards time played over skill?

At the start of this PvP Season after a few days of Ranked matches I reached 74 on the Leaderboards. Having taken a break for a few days over Christmas I’m now out of the top 1000 at 95%.

As it currently stands I’m hundreds of points behind the Rank 1st player. My questions are:

1. It doesn’t seem possible for me to get back up the ladder and be competitive. It seems I would have to play hundreds of games and play every day to get there. Is that the case?

2. Why are some matches I join almost guaranteed losses? I played 4 matches today solo queue and 3 of them were against full pre-mades when we were pugs. I lost 2, won 2. Will the 2 losses mean my wins were entirely pointless?

Thanks

Still looking? I’m a Necromancer, play every day, have been in top 250 on Leaderboards and write about GW2 as part of my job. I’m still looking for a team I’ve played since closed Beta and am more than willing to listen and adapt

What days do you play those times, Jekkt?

Experience playing Guild Wars 2 since closed Beta.
Ranked above 300 in solo queue ratings.
Significant experience in Team queue.
Online every day.

Whisper me or mail me in game on Oople or the account name here.

I think a Condition Ranger or Celestial Engineer would fit into that comp. Are you staunchly seeking a Warrior?

Justin ODell.9517:

Lewis Burnell.2493:

How are we now supposed to find out our PvP Rank? I queued today for 10 minutes and got no ranked queue pops. I’m Rank 52 and previously rated 320 on the Leaderboards.

Ladder rank? The beta ladder does not start until the 16th.

What time were you queuing?

Thanks for the reply, Justin. I’ve tried queuing Ranked 3 times today. The main queue was this morning at… 11am UK time. I waited and waited but no queue. I switched to Unranked and got matches instantly. I’ve tried a few more times today (2pm was the last I think) and got nothing again. I asked in map chat and people said there were no queues popping at all.

How are we now supposed to find out our PvP Rank? I queued today for 10 minutes and got no ranked queue pops. I’m Rank 52 and previously rated 320 on the Leaderboards.

I’m finding the new system really confusing and its not clear to me how I’m being paired. I’m winning almost every match by miles.

Where can I even see my rating or profession rating?

I’ve played probably 10 matches and only lost 2. I played a further 6 team matches and won all 6 (by a mile). Clearly the gods are for ever in my favour.

Ten Ton Hammer have just posted a new interview about PvP and the upcoming update. You can find it here – http://www.tentonhammer.com/interview/guild-wars-2-pvp-interview-devon-carver-josh-davis

How do you trial certain builds like… support Guardians?

My friend and I are actually looking for some players. We’re both experienced, he plays Condi Engineer and I play a support Guardian. Are you EU?

I had several matches recently where one player, who was on my team every time, would play for the first few minutes and if we didn’t secure the mid-point would go AFK and proceed to tell us how kitten we all were. He did this multiple matches and as you might expect, 4v5 matches become very difficult.

Matches can easily be turned around even if you’re 100 points adrift but some players just go instantly AFK when they think there’s no chance of winning.

Is there any way this new system prevents such behavior?

Do you use TS all the time, or do you just guild chat until a group gets going?

I’ve applied to your guild a good few days ago but haven’t heard a thing? Really interested in joining you guys.

Tamaki Revolution.3548:

I can see how the change is bad from a few of these pictures, but a lot of the "After"’s look a lot better than the befores (poster above me). I have 0 Salad people though, so if the general consensus is that the older versions are better, I do hope that they can fix the changes.

That’s personal taste. I spent many hours finding the right dyes and combinations to work with the hues in the “before” picture. Now I am left with a garish, neon glow that lacks any subtlety.

The difference is enormous on some colour sets. I had a perfect blend of pink/yellow on my T3. How this can be considered better I have absolutely no idea. It’s garish, lacks any kind of subtlety and will leave me spending hours trying to find something similar. Unfortunately the new system doesn’t allow for that either. Please change it back

Can anyone please link me this magical sPvP spirit build, because they’re still downright awful.

The most frustrating thing for me isn’t the majority of which Jon has discussed, it is the lack of action against builds that are downright outrageous or professions that are just hopeless in sPvP.

For example, the latest changes to the warrior (while positive) are ridiculous for those of us fighting against them. I’ve practiced for hours upon hours against a guild mate (rank 40) who plays his warrior and the stun/daze combination (with greatsword and/or hammer, or greatsword/mace/shield) leaves no room for error by the player and the functionality of the skills means the warrior is always at a significant advantage.

When a warrior now has multiple stuns, at cooldowns of 25 seconds or less but when everyone else has stun breaks at 35 seconds or more, it isn’t uncommon to be killed instantly – with no ability to escape – if you have a single skill on cooldown. With effective rotation of stuns, a warrior can pretty much keep them up.
I’ve now lost count (and raged) at how short sighted this is. What does ArenaNet expect us to do: pack 3 stun breakers in the event we encounter a flavour of the month warrior build?

It makes me wonder if anyone at ArenaNet has yet to even encounter this and if they realise it’s a problem. It’s almost as frustrating as:

• Longbow rangers being horrendous in sPvP.
• Every ranger still running shortbow/traps and/or spirits (even though spirits are still GARBAGE everywhere else in the game).
• Bunkering still being mandatory for almost every profession.
• Berserker builds being completely useless for every other profession that can’t stealth.

I fully understand things take time, but when you have 4-5 Living World teams the allocation of resources for Jon and his team is clearly somewhere at the bottom of the pecking order and that’s a real shame.

I’m relatively new to the Necromancer (level 50) and keep hearing many people stating its burst potential is now really good- in sPvP however I don’t seem to achieve this?

I’m currently running 30/30/10/0/0 using Scepter/Dagger + Staff.

Can anyone let me in on the skill rotation needed to burst people down? I tend to be opening with Enfeebling Blood > Grasping Dead > Corrupt Boon > Change to Staff but I’m not sure this is achieving the burst I need?

Any help is welcome please

Can we expect any improvements to this weapon any time soon?

1. More damage.
2. Greater ROF.
3. Greater speed to arrows.

That would do nicely, thank you

Is there any possibility that many of the legendary weapons can be brought up to the standard of Twilight or Dawn?

I have a Kudzu and it’s relatively “unfinished”. The bow string is enormous and out of place, it has no “glow” (it really should make you glow golden) and the 5th skill on ranger (barrage) doesn’t fire golden arrows.

This isn’t the only unfinished legendary as the Meteorlogicus also suffers from a lack of flashy animations. For those seeking legendaries and those who have spent a lot of money on them, can one member of the ArenaNet team please put aside an afternoon to sex them up a bit?

Thank you

The Emperor Glory.3927:

Game needs powerful CPU. You can get a little more from your CPU by turning off Hypertheading in BIOS. Also get a 2500k and clock to 4.5GHz and you will be golden!

Are you kidding? I run a 2500k O’Ced to 4.5ghz. I have a 560ti Twin Frozer, an SSD, 8gb of RAM and the game still runs awful in WvW. Perhaps you’re “golden” if you turn all the graphics to the worst but running at anything reasonably good looking is impossible to maintain 40fps or higher.

I think many of you are overcomplicating the problems in order to find solutions.

Robert has already noted sensible and possible options to many of the ranger pet problems. The primary two for me are providing swiftness to a pet when you ask it to “return” as this would alleviate much of the damage it receives when travelling back to the ranger. With the second being providing the pet with a Boon or effect to become temporarily immune to damage when you dodge. This would be the most sensible solution to area of effect skills. Pets receiving Aegis or “Blur” when you dodge is a very viable idea and one that would likely result in alleviating many pet problems in dungeons.

Everything else Robert mentioned in his list is fantastic. What I don’t really agree with is “More defensive pet skills.” 99% of the rangers I know simply leave their pet to its own devices and then complain when it dies. Actively managed, pets can be really formiddable. Adding a greater number of defensive skills to pets would make those of us who actively manage them, far too powerful.