Guild Wars 2

That’s weird, all I’m seeing are reapers and daredevils.

Once you understand how everything branches out from the confluence into the 4 lanes, the map isn’t that difficult.

And yes, I admit it, I do enjoy the meta on this map when it is organized; its a pity it only happens every 2 hours

WvW is in a really bad state right now. Looking across the matchups, none of them are competitive, with at least a 30,000 point difference between 1st and 3rd in all matches.

My latest theory is that all the CC and AOE makes it impossible for smaller, outnumbered servers to be able to put up a fight to reclaim territory. You basically have to try and ninja to get PPT, because once you get into a fight its a simple numbers game; the outnumbered side gets immobilized and killed, and there is nothing they can do about it besides run from the fight.

With all the elite specs throwing CC and condi out, WvW is pretty unplayable right now. At least if you wanna have fun with real fights and not watch a giant blob of red circles on your screen which you insta-die if you happen to touch.

I switched to Valor/Virtues/DH on my mediguard (GS and Scepter/Focus). Will I have better luck running this set up with condi/burn gear (vs. power)?

I saw a video of a guy in PVP testing condi vs. power on a warrior and condi won hands down for overall damage; will this be the case with guard also I’m wondering?

Are there any answers here yet? I just rage quit WvW because it is so infested with nothing but mesmers and necros who have no problem with my biggest swings at them.

Do I need to put my guard on the shelf and concentrate on another class? And what class dominates necros and mesmers?

Loosmaster.8263:

I want an Elite rune that can instakill 5 players and poison everything in a 1500 radius!!!

That’s called running a necro. They need to rename WvW necro-land since thats all that runs there any more.

a) It is generally agreed that slivers, pigments, linseed/flax, and coarse sand are the big barriers to scribe costs. Just reducing the amount required on these would be very helpful, especially for “useless” objects like decorations.
b) some of these recipes require 6 or more sub-levels of crafting, reusing the same material multiple times; this is confusing and tedious and leads to mis-use of ingredients, increasing the costs. Can some of these levels be eliminated?

For instance, to make a kit containing sandpaper it requires:

Kit > Sandpaper > Paper > Pulp> Plank > Log

That’s 6 levels and you haven’t even used the kit for a decoration yet!

c) Yes, resonance times are ridiculous; I’ve noticed that New Year’s decorations take 1 minute (very good), but a guild banquet takes 24 hours(?). Is this to force us to buy resonance (yet another gold sink, like we didn’t put enough into scribing the material to begin with?)

d) By the beard of Zeus, please add a TP to guild halls. I keep losing my place in the recipe when I have to leave the hall to pick up materials.

Vikkela.7261:

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

I still use the base guardian builds but changed out Virtues with Dragon hunter because of the overwhelming strength of the DH virtues (and the option to use trap now and then).

I switched back from DH recently since all that CC-spam makes the DH virtues unreliable in big fights that seem to negate all the stability you can toss out

Come to think of it, I have been having problems with Wings of Resolve now and then. I thought Wings of Resolve was supposed to break immobilize; is it bugged?

Sird.4536:

Vikkela.7261:

Nothing dumb about realising the fact that this elite spec too made its core class obsolete.
What reason is there to not go DH? Burn-hybrid and AH-shout build?

Base guardian is still strong in wvw

I still use the base guardian builds but changed out Virtues with Dragon hunter because of the overwhelming strength of the DH virtues (and the option to use trap now and then).

My guild did this mission last week and accomplished it without too much trouble, but it does take some prep work, and we fell into an ideal situation for it.

1) Most of our borderland was the wrong color, including the northern-most camp
2) We were able to re-cap both towers and garry prior to taking the camp
3) Once we took the camp, everybody escorted yaks to the 2 towers + garry

This all probably took a 1/2 hour which is about the best anybody will be able to to do. It is recommended that your guild look for opportune times to accomplish this mission (either recapping a northern home bl camp or your corner in an enemy bl if you have towers and keeps to run supply to.)

I’m not sure how guilds are doing this on tiers that actually have populations to contend with.

Malkom.5607:

I was using Soldier’s armour with Hoelbrak runes. For weapons LongBow & GreatSword. This seemed fine for taking camps with LB good for scouts and GS for Supervisor and Guards. Problems occur when a player turns up as my LB seems useless and I rarely get near them to use GS – so sometimes I replace LB with Sceptre and Torch as very occasionally I get lucky – chain opponent then jump to them with GS and use traps – rarely beat them though. Actually – i still don’t appreciate the rationals behind choosing weapons and matching optimising them against opponent types.
My build was based this from a previous poster:-

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVEQJARWnsABtCh9CBWdC8DhlEiS+5n+r/aZDgDIbG+vAE-TlSDwAwU/ZwRAQvmgEPAAa7PAwEUUlfw1BI5SAoQJIZAK2CA-w
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After your previous post I’m using Soldiers armour with Dolyak Runes, and using GS plus Sceptre and Torch. My build is still DH Virtues and Valor but I don’t yet know the theory behind this – need to think about it. Think I’ll try you AH build with DH Valor Honor tonight and try to figure how it works.

By the way, i used to play Necro when in EotM and had more success with 1v1 fighting as Necro did a lot of ranged damage. However once I moved to EB / Alpine Borderlands it didn’t work for me because there are many more higher skilled opponents there – thats why i chose Guardian combat healer – i couldn’t fight so tried to heal people and keep them alive.

Sounds like you are getting closer. A reminder that AH is much better in a small group since your heal is based on boons you are giving to your team mates (a good staff empower can be better than a healing skill); running as a single, I would stay on a medi-build.

The build you cited is an excellent boon giver but has little in the way of damage or “selfish” protection, both of which you need for single roaming.

I recommend perusing the Guardian forums and Metabattle builds for this. Metabattle is by no means the bible as I’m learning but it gives you a better idea of the synergies of skills / weapons / runes / food etc.. My roaming build is a combination of the “Meditation DPS” build and the “DH-Meditrapper” build in the “Conquest” category.

As for closing distances to opponents, I typically start with Judge’s Intervention to plop myself on my opponent . This really helps with dropping traps and whirling blades on top of them before they know what’s happening.

Also you can immobolize opponents with both scepter and GS (and DH spear for that matter).

I tried running torch in WvW and found that I needed the extra protection that a Focus provides instead. Shield of Wrath is a great bailout skill to let you recover from an engagement as you figure out what to do next.

Not sure what you have for gear or weapons, but for a tank frontliner the AH build is still the best IMHO (Altruistic Healing + Pure of Voice).

I have 2 guards, one is the Traveler Rune medi-DH mentioned above for roaming and my main is an AH tank w/ Hoelbrak runes.

I still use staff/GS in WvW. I’ve switched out the virtues line for the DH and run the healing trap and one other trap, picking traits for maximum survivability and condi clearing. Not sure at this point of DH or Virtues is the way to go; the jury is still out on this.

If you really wanna bunker up go with staff + mace/shield – this one is almost 100% support and probably not the best for roaming or small scale parties.

Malkom.5607:

Sorry to bring up an old thread but this might help some clickers, especially the older ones like me.

Don’t give up because I’m sure very few of you are as bad as I am, and if I could improve then so could you.

Actually, I’m changing my aims because its clear I’ll never be a good fighter – simply far too slow. Despite all the improvements to my:-
– keybindings
– G300s mouse
– character builds
– better armour/weapons
– and practice practice
I’m still hopeless against most players although definitely improved against NPCs.

I have put a lot of practice into movement and fighting but I’m simply too slow to move and to figure out what is going on around me either in a 1v1 or a small melee.

Last night I knew something was wrong after fighting in EB & Borderlands, so looked at some of my medical tests from 2001 – my motor skill speed was 12th percentile, and a university motor skill test in 1974 had me bottom of class – so slow they said i must be dead. Thats almost 90% of people naturally faster than me, plus WvW tends to attract skilled players, many of them Ninja-like.

Anyhow, thats me, but for everyone else:- if I could improve by following the amazing advice in this thread then surely most other players could make far larger improvements and perhaps become Elite – so don’t give up hope
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There is still lots for me to do in WvW – i’m in a nice friendly guild with some roamers – perhaps one day might even take a Lord by myself and capture a tower – still a lot of fun stuff to learn – just hope they don’t make NPCs more intelligent though

I read about your problems with the mouse buttons. I tend to only have one skill bound to the side mouse buttons; usually the one that requires targeting (so I can stay on the move with the keyboard as I drop it). I do use the other side buttons primarily for targeting (nearest target, next target, calling target). This way I’m not accidently hitting skills that I didn’t mean to use. I then keybind my other skills closer to the WASD area for easier access with my left hand. Put your most important skills (ie heal) on the button that is easiest and most reliable for you to find (for me it’s T, as I have my virtues at Q,E,R).

As for your slow reflexes, there are options. I can’t remember which class you are playing but some options may be:

a) tank frontliner – become the meat shield your zerg needs; focus on surviving and drawing enemy attacks to you. Most times you can casually rotate skills and dodges to stay alive doing this (at least as a guard that I am familiar with); max your armor and vitality and don’t worry about damage; sit back and laugh as people try to bring you down. Look at some commander builds if you want to really maximize this.

b) backline damage dealer – get that necro or revenant rolling; sit back and spam aoe as others protect you.

If you are looking to roam it’s a little more difficult as reflexes are needed; for this I suggest practicing your burst combos and your “escape” combos until you have them down. This take a lot of practice and familiarity with your skills.

Or just go mesmer roamer and run your face across the keyboard during a fight; that always works too.

EDIT: I just read your original post; are you still running dragon hunter? For roaming I still use a meditation build but switched out the virtues to DH with pretty good results. Pretty much all of my buttons heal me AND deal damage. Also, don’t underestimate the importance of armor and health in any WvW build; you need some sustain in a 1v1 fight, especially with a low-health guardian. I always switch out my GS stats to Soldiers when I enter WvW and sometimes even the amulet on my roamer if I am running with groups of 5 or more.

So Keeps are hard to take but SMC isn’t?

I would have to disagree a bit with you Yuffi (fellow guildie). Defenders need to be much more active now since an attacking army can cut off supply and drain keep supply by attacking and weakening walls and gates.

Defenders can’t just hold out for the timer to fix a wall any more; they must venture out to retake camps and protect dolyaks, and they must protect and fix walls at the same time. These are leading to more fights IMHO, and I like the “Art of War” feel that it is bringing back to the game.

Without auto upgrade, taking a reinforced or fortified objective is a HUGE deal now that roamers can work to keep them paper by flipping camps and killing yaks as often as possible.

Thank goodness, my thief killing guardian was ready to file for unemployment.

It will be great to see some thieves roaming again.

Vikkela.7261:

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

Hmm I got rid of smite conditions in favor of a trap on my medi-DH and kept contemplation of purity. If the bug is gone, should I be switching these out for more damage (WvW)?

Personally I’d go with:
Purification – Interrupt, Blind, Regen, +8k heal on trigger
Smite Condition – Fury, Damage, Heal, condie removal
CoP – Condie removal (not used for the fury)
Test of Faith – Damage, Protection, Interrupt
RF – Simply too god for your survival to be switched out

Very close to what I run right now; I still use Judge’s Intervention to close gaps but will definitely consider switching it out depending on the situation.

Also, I assume you run with the trap trait (Piercing Light) with two traps spec’d? I keep switching between that and soaring devestation. Again, I suppose it depends on if I’m roaming or running with others.

Hmm I got rid of smite conditions in favor of a trap on my medi-DH and kept contemplation of purity. If the bug is gone, should I be switching these out for more damage (WvW)?

Green! No! Blue! No Red! Server pride!

Maybe Anet can find it in their heart and give Rupert the gift of flight so he can remain above the skies of Stonemist.

I think the camps is easier now because the supervisor is off in a corner and you don’t have to aggro and kill every guard since they are all standing outside the circle.

I feel for you man. What was supposed to be a glorious and fun aspect of the game (guild halls and guild hall decorating) has turned into an expensive, contentious, guild killing debacle.

I would love to get the meeting minutes for the discussions on guild hall upgrade and scribing requirements. It looks like it was put together by the same guy who initially set the WvW achievement levels (original Yakslapper AP would have taken 10 years straight of killing a yak every 5 minutes (no breaks, no sleeping.))

Wait, I’m sitting at 392, what did I miss?

I don’t care so much about the lost gold from levelling if it means that decorations and other recipes are made more affordable

I would be fine with the desert maps in a rotation IF

- The oasis event is elminated
- Fill in all the cracks so I can get around and not fall to my death.

One of my bigger problems is auto-upgrades which is already being addressed.

I think DH is a must for everything at this point. I have switched both my AH tank and roaming mediguard over to DH and with very few additional changes and have had very good luck with them in WvW (once I figured out I didn’t HAVE to use a bow.)

In small team battles that spear of justice is a real godsend, and it is hilariously funny to pull people off of walls right into your trap with it.

- Quaggan security team

- Fighting minis

I’m guessing most of those extra deaths are people falling off cliffs?

Yeah are you making an Auric sword? It looks like you need an exalted sword core and a recipe?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Auric_Sword#itemct8

You forgot – 7. Stand on a platform and do nothing until Mordy falls dead. Hit him if he comes close.

Ayrilana.1396:

Many investors projected Star Wars to surpass Avatar in ticket sales. This is likely not to happen although it came close. Was Star Wars a failure?

I assume you mean worldwide since it will blow past Avatar by $200M domestically. It’s guaranteed to overtake Titanic but Avatar’s $2.7 B is a big number to overcome. Not sure why foreign countries liked the giant smurfs so much.

Yes! These are flipping decorations! They serve no purpose other than making the guild hall pretty! They are supposed to be fun, not a horrible horrible grind and gold sink.

World completion needed for a flipping globe?!?! Is this a sick joke?

Please fix.

If you want a real good laugh, take a look at the recipe for the Tyrian Globe (requires GIFT OF EXPLORATION) and then look at what you get for it. That is some hilarious trolling Anet, grats.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3u17lg/built_tyrian_globe_much_crying_involved/

I thought it would be a chore to unlock my Herald, but it didn’t take too long at all between WvW, sniping easy points in old Tyria and grabbing the easy VB and AB points.

Some builds just trump other builds and there is no way around it.

I think DH / Guard is generally at a disadvantage for roaming in WvW right now compared to Warrior, Ele and Mesmer. I sure wish they had given a speed trait with DH so I could switch out of traveler runes.

That being said, I have had some luck with a Medi-DH; Pretty much all of your skill buttons provide damage + healing at the same time as well as the wings of resolve if traited for damage. I don’t even bother with the longbow, I’ve just kept using my GS and scepter/focus.

- I thought the story was fine but too short, especially the end, which was very abrupt
- 50% of the new maps are generally unusable (DS you have a few seconds every two hours to catch a good map, and TD is just avoided totally by everybody).
- Elite specs and the Rev were designed to be OP to encourage their use. I suppose that’s ok if you like playing the new specs and don’t mind investing in new gear for optimizing, but if you like your old builds you are left out in the cold
- Guild halls and scribing – dat gold sink, yikes
- WvW was completely destroyed by punishing small havoc guilds (see guild hall above), a terrible map, and horrible imbalance with the new specs. I had always considered WvW the endgame content of this game but now it’s just sad.
- Guild missions were a net negative; a minor amount of convenience with guild instances is offset by terrible bugs and reduced rewards.
- Developing the Raid was a complete waste of time considering how many are actually doing it.

I just don’t understand how they could come up with a fun and rewarding map like SW and then make the HoT maps like they are.

1v9? What’s the problem here? Just grab your dragon banner and wipe them!

I think the development time for the Raid was a total waste; these resources could have been spent to fix the game in other areas that badly need it.

I’m holding out for nukes. Them dragons will be easy pick’uns with nuclear weapons.

I’m trying to think how a megaserver based wvw could work. Anyone familiar with EOTM can see the obvious issues with it. Here are some random thoughts, discuss:

The problems:
a) Do you keep servers together or disband everything and go guild based? What about pugs then?
b) How do you ensure friends and guilds can get on the same map together?
c) Do you still have a pre-set number of maps or do you have overflow maps? If pre-set, why not just reorganize server populations?
d) Why would anybody defend an overflow map?
e) What about mixing of bad players with top tier uber-zerg guilds on the same map

Solutions(??)
a) I would retain the servers and assign servers to the red/green/blue based server activity and success in WvW (not sure what metrics to use here, caps, kills, participation etc… of each server). Server movement would change each week but people would stay on the servers they are on to retain some scraps of “server loyalty”. Stats could still be kept on the “best” wvw servers for bragging rights.
b) See c) I would use an overflow map system but have a safety stock of spots open so that guilds can add and subtract members and get them all into the map (what this number is, I don’t know, 50 out of 200?) Also the map populations would be very visible so groups doing a run could choose the map they want to go to.
c) I think an overflow map system makes sense to allow for fluctuations in activity. This would be the whole point of the change, to improve gameplay at all times of the day. The information on overflow maps would need to be very visible so that people aren’t wasting time and resources on a map that is potentially closing. So for example a screen would show “map 1”through “map 10” with the corresponding populations and activity. The number of maps would be determined by the biggest population between red/green/blue. (So turning out numbers would still be an advantage). The other two “colors” would need to fill and defend the maps opened by the largest population.
d) Why defend? There need to be decent rewards for “winning” the week; they need to be more attractive than what a karma train can offer. Make WVW an EVENT again! Dust off those tourney tickets and hand them out every week for purchasing skins, gear or PVE rewards (reward tracks?) Map sizing will still need to be time gated (dunno this time frame if it’s 8 hours or daily; 3 hours in EOTM seems too short to bother with upgrades etc…) and I think PPK needs to be a part of it to get those fighters and zerg hunters back into WvW. And yes if you are on a low population server, it is more likely your map will disappear, but do you really care if the gameplay is a million times better?
e) Mixing of players can be handled through both a) and c), ie the top servers turning out players will be placed on the higher priority maps.

Good luck with Anet’s current gold sink, gem sink, cash sink F2P mindset.

$3 × 6 = $18 to extract your runes; its a bargain!

Ariana.6428:

Hello,
I want to get the expansion but I want to get the most out of the story. I know GW2 doesn’t have the strongest story, especially when comped to the first game, but does race have any effect on the story of the expansion, since the plot seems to be more Sylvari focused? Will playing through the Heart of Throns story be different as say a human or a char, than it would be as a sylvari?

Thank you.

I’m very early into my 2nd run with a new toon and it seems the dialogue changes down the line based on your initial choice when you first reach the crash site (saving sylvari prisoners vs. reinforcing the camp)

Agreed Yuffi. My roaming time in the BL has gone down to almost nothing (and my overall time playing GW2) because of these changes; the auto upgrades and huge keep footprints make running a small re-capture group even more tedious. Add in falling deaths when I’m looking at my map to the list of complaints. I’m not interested in running a constant jumping puzzle while I am WvWing.

I know I should probably be running around and getting familiar with the new map but because of these roaming challenges I have no desire to.

As a guardian main, I have recently been trying out berserker in HoT PVE and have been very underwhelmed. As a AH guard, mediguard, or DH I can breeze through HoT content with no problems; with berserker it is a real struggle. Perhaps I need to tweak my build, but it doesnt seem like warrior has any “bailout” skills to recover and heal up, and has to rely on a high health to get by. And where is the dps?

On a guard I can heal with shouts, heal with meditations, or just flat out blow the enemy away with dps on DH. Also I have ranged damage available, which seems to be becoming more and more important.

I’ve tried hammer, I’ve tried GS, I’ve tried longbow, and I’ve tried sword/torch. What am I missing to make this berserker build viable (and fun)?

Nova Stiker.8396:

You can no longer use them on your alternative characters to get them hero points.

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Why change that?! I actually loved maxing my alts elite specs by playing my favorite classes in WvW, way to ruin the charm ArenaNet. Less WvW, more grinding hero points in the Maguuma Jungle.

No! Having fun is not allowed! Grinding only!

You need to do the DS run to see the real ending.

This hits the nail on the head. We finally did a guild run in the new BL last Saturday and I missed half the fights because:

a) I could not find a route to the commander (if I died or was selling stuff and had to catch up)
b) I fell to my death while looking at my map to find a route to the commander

I suppose it will get better with a little more knowledge of the “proper” routes but I’m not sure I’ll be spending much time in the BLs to learn them.

Hmmm map overhaul? Fixing bugs? Server / world changes? I wonder what this could mean.

tryme.6295:

For crying out loud… you all forget that we don’t have to pay a dime but the initial price! While MMORPGs like WoW pay 15$ every month and they don’t get much more content than us in their expansions. While we will continuously get more and more FREE content + progressive story. Oh and please don’t go with the “but the gem store waa-waa-waa” you can buy gems with gold and its not that expensive.

And it’s 5000 gold to level up scribe; that’s $500 real world dollars or nearly 3 years of subscriptions fees to successfully do one small aspect of the game. I wonder if anyone has tallied up total guild hall costs in real dollars?

So assuming 48 servers, that’s 31,000 per server (at 1.5 million). You’d think we’d be able to muster more than 3 people in our BL for WvW in primetime.