Only reason I still do ranked is for the loot. MMR system is still janky. Anet freely admits there are classes that dominate ranked because of “low skill floors”. So I go play… Try to win at the same time trying to ignore the numbers if I lose because I’m in the left of their bell curve, and have fun. It’s just a game.
I find both necro and warrior can stack conditions faster than they can be removed while still having an otherwise viable build. I can build to do nothing but clear conditions and try to live for 10 seconds, but if I do that I’m doing zero damage. Like OP, if I don’t clear the that first burst of condi… I’m insta-downed… but then they throw the 2nd, 3rd and 4th set (doesn’t need to be 2v1) and it gets frustrating.
At some point people should really realize that skill is only truly 1/5th of your placement. Go for the chests…get golds… let the try-hards gloat all they want for playing 10 matches and landing in the land promised to them while you win more games then them but get punished mmr-wise because ANET thinks you’re worthless. At least you can get more dye and stuff this season…and golds!
Shion,
I’ve seen a similar thing…hundreds of people playing and I’m teamed up with the same 3-4 people 4-6 matches in a row. It can either work for good, or terribly bad, like when teamed up with a pair that would keep running back to the same point over and over, get owned, and repeat. You’d think with so many people playing, you’d get team variety.
I must have the worst mmr in all of my matches, because if I win it’s 13, if I lose its 13-17…always. As I mentioned in a prior post the system has some fatal flaws, so I’m just going for the dye chests (and gold).
The new system has a fatal flaw the old system had. It punishes and rewards people based on their role. Warriors & Guardians can face tank and deal tons of damage, so this system makes it appear they “contributed” more even if they are off in a corner. A thief can be doing his role of capping and decapping, and plus one’ing where there’s opportunity, but has “contributed” less even if his actions save the game. Or he can be in the thick of things dropping people left and right and letting the tanks finish them as if impact strike and shadowstep are on cooldown than a peg is suicide. An elementalist can tank up and camp a point and defend, yet that doesn’t show as part of their “contribution”. If you lose because your team gave up, yet you fought your bum off and got 75-80% of your teams stats, you still get punished quite harshly because you got an unfortunate match up. Until these things are addressed, PvP is always going to be the same. Your rank is only minimally attached to your skill because in reality you’re only 1/5 of a team in every match. That in mind, my goals for this season are adjusted. Not gonna worry about the icon next to my nametag, instead I’m just gonna get my rewards chests (tons of dyes, and one of them is 20g!). Beyond that, I’m gonna ignore the leaderboard because it doesn’t mean diddly. For future seasons the question is how can they better calculate contributions based on what each class is geared towards.
Bug or just bad matchmaking?
Neither. This is how MMR works. The more accurate it gets, the less it moves.
So a player who plays 10 games gets 200 mmr for each win…yet someone with the same ratio that plays 100 games gets 10. How does this make sense?
Yeah… they get 200 for a win though, I get 13… and lose 17 on a loss. They don’t even have to play more than a couple of games to stay where they are. I’ll have to play several hundred to approach half of where they are at 10 games.
I get 13 for win, 17 for loss. Someone says it has something to do with how much you contributed to the match…but when I pull 3-4 of the different award things I still get 13 on a win. Some people get over 200 for a win… why… only Anet knows.
Given it a chance… and getting diminishing returns. People can play 10 matches and rack up 2000 points… whereas others only get 10 points per win, 13 if they’re on a 5 game streak.
I had one los cuz of thief daily !
You just validated what thieves have been complaining about all year. If you walk into pvp with your thief, people will start with death threats.
Albostan your logic is flawed. If you’re going to rank, you can’t lose…. at all. A win you gain 10 points… a loss you lose 13-16. If you’ve played 10 matches this season, you’re pretty much stuck where you’re gonna end up. I’ve won four or five in a row and gone up slightly, only to lose that and more when my luck shifts and my team loses three in a row.
I do play thief. Have for 3 years. I built a dragonhunter and brought him into a match after visiting metabattle.com… literally just mashed buttons and didn’t have anyone telling me to kill myself because of the class I was playing.
This is the first I’ve read that it has a delay… honestly it’s never been highly useful because by the time they’ve taken the damage it doesn’t matter any longer. That and even with the interrupt it very rarely ever takes effect. I haven’t seen a cooldown on it anywhere, but I’ve only seen the pulmonary impact damage one in maybe 30 interrupts.
DH, Ranger (runes and sigils), Warrior, Necro mainly. They changed a couple things on thieves, but nothing that anybody really has any utility for.
I never thought id be the one to complain about thief seeing as I mained it for the longest time before HoT but this new staff acro dodge spam meta is so stupid, idk how you can nerf it but like acro needs a nerf.
Well it’s one of two builds thieves have left…should we just get rid of thief entirely? Looking to the base of the issue… thieves are desperately looking for more survivability. They no longer do the greatest dps, most toons now can hit a button, or have a trait that makes them immune for 7-8 seconds at a time (longer than any burst), and the only thing that can get through is conditions, but thieves have difficulty laying them on faster than they can be removed. So… if they’d give thieves more utility maybe you’d see less of this annoying (easily countered) build.
(edited by Link.1049)
I tried it… it’s a no go. Runes seem to have been aimed towards ranger, though deadshot would’ve been cool had it been for thieves. It’s a good idea but opportunity cost to other runes and sigils is too great. Stick with Marauder and Scholar like always.
yeah, just blind literally everything any chance you get. Equip the heal on hit skills and vault.
Also, reason we’re seeing all the “heavies” and class stacking is because the classes aren’t balanced. If you want to win, you’ve got to play one of Anet’s preferred or favorite classes. It’s extremely frustrating when you have people playing their main characters that don’t happen to be in Anet’s good graces and then get people telling them they should kill themselves since they didn’t switch to a dragonhunter before the match started. Unfortunately that’s the way it is this season and every season. You’ll have one or two get lucky, but for most, if you want to improve your MMR, play one of the favored classes and your odds will increase.
Team composition is NOT random. With hundreds of players in the game, constantly stuck with the same 4… 4 out of 5 matches.
In the past I’ve ranked Ruby each season….this season… each win only gives me 10 points so it’s unlikely I’ll rank at all. Whereas the leaderboard shows people that have played what, 12 games? Are legendary already.
When I started playing GW2 3 years ago it was a very enjoyable game. Yes there were bugs here and there and balance was always a bit wonky, but manageable. This PVP season though, you’ve done it Anet…you win. The new rewards chest are tempting, but the overall system is absolutely busted. Diminishing returns on wins in rank, terrible matchmaking (same people in every match), you’re not welcome to play if you’re not playing one of the 4 favored classes, and the icing on the cake….the power-scaling. We’re down to what, 2 classes that don’t have at least one option for invulnerability against all attacks for 7-8 seconds? You say you want to shake up balance… WHEN?!?!?? It’s the same favored classes season after season. It’s the same punishment for being randomly assigned to a team that have different playstyles that don’t mesh, and the same story of “oh just wait for the MMR to settle”… Seriously. Some people have played what 12 games and are ranked legendary, yet others can win 12-15-20 in a row and still be stuck in silver because they only get 10 points a win. Having spoken with a few of those that work there, do ANY of them play all the classes? Had one tell me, oh, just use the same build that you do in WVW, it’s the same. It was like he’d never played the game before! Had another say oh, it must be balanced because such and such class is really popular. It’s popular despite your seemingly constant efforts to destroy it. Not everyone wants to play a guardian, a warrior, a ranger, or a necromancer.
switching out another skill there makes pulmonary show up in combat log
OH… if this helps, looking over the logs, although I have headshot as the skill…it’s showing up in the log as impairing daggers, and so not giving the interrupt.
Apparently this isn’t an issue for everyone… but I made a post a few weeks ago and can’t find it, and now it’s still an issue. Out of maybe 30-40 interrupts pulmonary impact will only come in the combat log maybe once. When fighting, no noticeable change to enemy health with a successful interrupt. Now that ranked has started I went an entire match against an ele, interrupting her as often as I could… zero pulmonary impact. Is there a cool down I’m unaware of? Does it only affect elite skills?
If I could get suggestions for new builds for this season of PVP. I was running d/p meta up until today when I found out the hard way it’s nuked by the other classes new buffs. I’m getting one shot by just about everything…and when I try building to counter that, I get condi nuked. In ranked, I’ve only seen 2 other thieves all day. One of them was insanely good, but I couldn’t even see what weapons he was using much less his build. All I know is I didn’t see any signets. I tried asking him what he was running but he’s one of those types that won’t respond at all.
1) No… pulmonary impact isn’t working at all.. on the ground, in the air.. nowhere.
2) No… I get the interrupt, no damage with it.
In a zerg you thieves are basically useless. Sure, with a small group you can pick off the weaker link, though honestly as someone who mainly plays thief in WvW, we’re by far the least effective class in zergs. We do better roaming, though since they’ve merged servers it’s all zerg all the time.
I’m curious what this thief build is… how is he getting both condi and damage boosts from kills?
Working on an interrupt build… have pulmonary impact selected in the traits area. It doesn’t work. Checked my combat logs over the course of an hour… I can interrupt with head shot, but the pulmonary impact doesn’t occur…ever. In WvW.
I know I can still try to avoid the F1 spear throw in the first place. But if you ever get hit by the first part of F1 skill, you seem to be completely at DH’s mercy.
The second pull part is unblockable and unevadeable. During the whole time being attached to the spear, the only option is using an invulnerable skill. The DH can then use LB2 or some other hard hitting skill to bait out your dodge and then interrupt it by the pull and then chain together some other powerful attacks.
There are quite a few other pull skills in the game and they are all evadeable. I don’t understand why this skill has to be this extra strong.
-1) every profession has way to play around the pull
-teleport out from the traps
-stability
-invulnerability-2) everybody can save a dodge and use it the second they get pulled in
-3) everybody can LoS the DH trying to use the pull, he won’t be able to pull you over from a lower level or from behind an obstacle
Not everything must be A to B gameplay…..
I’d have to counter this:
1) Can’t teleport out of baby gates. Which if they’ve tethered you is step 2.
Stability & Invuln- thief only has 1 option- bandit’s defense…which is shorter than the trap lasts, and usually a guardian will already be ready to drop again as soon as it’s done.
2) You get pulled in…which is a knockdown… you get up and dodge because you’re taking 1/8- 1/2 of your hp in damage each tick depending on your build…congrats, you’re still in baby gates and get knocked down again.
3) Only works when you have terrain to get behind and time to get there… if you’re chained and not 1 step away from terrain change… you’re dead.
Overall, if you can manage to catch them on cooldown they are droppable without breaking a sweat. Otherwise, if you can manage it, use evades to close the gap… blind and dodge to get your damage in and get out of his trap before you get stuck in it. Unfortunately unlike the other classes dh traps are pretty much instant for him to set so you have to rinse wash repeat.
Ok so update from trying this evade to hell and back build for the past few days. It is GREAT in PVE. It operates ok in PvP… though I find it takes a long time to down someone, and when you finally do you’ve got to snap yourself back awake. In WvW… it’s completely and utterly useless against player characters. If you’re on a borderland that has no players on it, you could solo most towers with it… with players around, it seems impossible to get any of the evades to actually function, I’ve managed to get 1 or 2 off before being completely stun-locked.
…and as Caithe is gliding away on Aurene, the actual new Thief specialization takes aim with their long ranged rifle and snipes her from the sky. The aptly named Assassin would also carry on the Anet tradition of naming one of the elite specs after an in game stat.
Wait… what? Daredevil isn’t an in-game stat, nor is dragonhunter, etc… Can you clarify?
Just wanted to reach out to ANET to say thank you for a couple things that I think are on the right track. The latest living story arc and the coliseum in PvP reminded me what started me on GW2 to begin with. Of course, there are fixes here and there to be done, but overall good job.
I don’t know what to check… in the controls I see I can manually pick up my loot, but where it says Autoloot…there is nothing there, and it seems counter-intuitive to attach that to a hot-key.
Was playing a match and went to jump the elementalist in the graveyard. She popped some skill right as I went to steal. She knocked me back… not a few steps away… not outside of the capture circle… but rather into the waterfall, past the point causing falling damage. Has anybody else had this occur? Is it a known bug or just random occurrence? Was seriously one of those WT..WTF??? moments.
You crossed their names out in the center…but left them in the lower left.
Autoloot has never worked for me, came up today during WvW. Is there some other setting other than paying the points to get it that I have to do like under options?
Thank you… I experimented and found something quite similar works well for me in pve, wvw and pvp (though in pvp it can be hard countered if built for it). One thing… why not havoc mastery or the one below that in your daredevil line? You have no physical skills.
This be the healing cheeze build you seek. Have fun and remember to dodge!
Do you have a link to this version?
this for WvW, not sure of the PvP variant, but its a place to start at least.
The Interrupt build isn’t cheese as it requires timing to put meaningful condi on a player and lacks stealth. Int builds may look easy but node bunkers have reflect, blocks, invulns, etc making it more difficult to play. Good players know how to avoid Head Shot spam. Lotus Training is only good for covering condi not actually burning someone down. The build is significantly less effective in sPvP compared to WvW due to food and sigil differences. Basically the build is useless against decently played Tempests, Guardians, DH, Scrappers and Druids.
The far more deadly evasion version in sPvP is D/D with Death Blossom and Needle Trap. The stealth D/P Poison build is no slouch either as it is capable of dropping 15 stacks of poison on a player in a couple seconds and then goes stealth.
Howdy,
What’s the pvp cheezbuild where all you do is dodge…dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge? loads of conditions… can rarely be hit, constant healing, I don’t see any weapons on the person but keep getting set up against them. Just want to get to Ruby and be done with PvP for another season but every time I get that 4th pip… boom. So want to try this build to see if I can clear it
Going into PVP season… seeing that the shatter Mesmer monstrosity is going to be in every match…still can’t counter them with all the evades in the world. Seems like if I build to counter this meta, it leaves me open to getting destroyed by the other classes. Help?
WVW is no where near ready for another tournament.
Dragonhunter IS a cheez build lol.
Depends on your game mode and what you’re up against. You’ll either own or get owned, for thief there is no happy middle.
Based on past seasons, and today’s… whatever you call today…is it better to wait a week or two before doing the PVP season so it doesn’t completely wreck your mmr early on? Was in a match earlier where when we started one of my teammates looked at the roster and said “oh crap… this is one of the pro-teams…good luck guys”. Before we got totally smeared in emerald, with one of us in amber.
or shadow refuge to eliminate the extra steps with pistol and heartseeker
… activate basilisk, pistol 5 from afar, heartseeker, shadowstep &/or steal. Pistol 3 for the extra blind. Lay traps, dodge, lay trap (gaining stealth), Lay trap, dodge…enemy moves again, move out.
In all seriousness, most of the folks currently on YB (during NA at least) are more concerned about having fun and getting decent fights.
I disagree… YB is the only server I’ve encountered that will send an entire 50 man zerg after 1 person.
I disagree with op.
The latest nerfbat to the throat (I strongly disagree with the 1 second cooldown on stealth skills, it’s class-breaking) gave me an idea for a new elite spec for thief. Something a bit more Robin Hood-like, which would give thief more utility in team fights.
For now I’m calling it Vigilante, but name’s not important. It would build on rendering shades boon stripping, to give it more utility then it currently has (because honestly I haven’t seen a thief seriously committed to shadow arts in a long time, given the other trait lines offer more to thief builds since HoT came out…feel free to disagree). The build would rob from the rich and give to the poor, and have options to do damage for each boon stolen, OR convert boons stolen to conditions. The thief would have utility to convert conditions to boons…and would hold on to all boons for their durations, unless using a utility skill that would transfer all his boons to his teammates, gaining evasion for a short period of time (so they can still function as thieves, get in, get out, look for an opportunity). Another utility could work like impairing daggers is supposed to work (currently it’s a bit too clunky to be useful). Each of the boon daggers (3) would place a condition that prevents the target from receiving it’s next boon, within the timer (base time to be determined via testing, affected by condi duration). This new condition would be able to be cleansed like normal conditions.
It would take more fleshing out…but perhaps it’s something worth looking into?