Guild Wars 2

I wouldn’t mind seeing rank points attached to pvp daily/monthly. Maybe about 150-200 from a daily, which is about a match worth, and a few thousand from the monthly. It’s not like people are flying to rank 80 anyway.

Now that we can spend gems on custom arenas, it might not hurt to attach some silver like the pve daily does.

Yep I can do that combo before the HS animation leaps out of the middle of the BP field. You don’t need macros to do it either. It’s not tough.

If you BP, HS, and then steal within a half second after the HS, you don’t lose stealth and can land a BS. It’s pretty standard d/p thief burst.

Larcenous strike is so sexy in tpvp, I wasn’t expecting it to steal two. Pair it with bountiful theft + thrill of the crime in a team fight… so powerful if you get the right boons.

That moment when you steal a 20+ stacks of might from an HGH engi

A certain GS S/D double bird bunk ranger build could straight up kill most builds in this game on off point, without ever coming close to being downed. It’s only going to be stronger now.

As a pure tPvP player, the shortbow nerf makes me

Thief has to stand outside of team fights with SB to survive, and this will drop our damage contribution.

On the brightside, I was not expecting 2 boon steals from larcenous strike. That could be quite strong.

I don’t think bonus pool could work in GW2, because this game only has MMR.

Bonus pool works in sc2 because they have both visible ladder points and a hidden MMR. The bonus pool only applies to the visible amount.

LoL has a similar method with visible LPs (league points) and a hidden MMR, but they have decay on LPs + dropped from visible rankings after 4 weeks of inactivity.

I’m fairly sure the concept of decay doesn’t exist in a base elo/glicko system (correct me if I’m wrong). Modifying someone’s MMR based on inactivity would create inaccurate skill level measurements. I believe Glicko 2 has a form of confidence that decreases due to inactivity, but this only makes your rank more volatile when you start back up. It doesn’t change it if you aren’t playing.

I wouldn’t mind seeing a similar setup added here with some visible number rating on top of your hidden MMR, and some decay/bonus on the visible rating.

Different skills have different power coefficients which cause their damage to scale differently. It’s not displayed anywhere on the tooltip, but they have posted them a couple times in former patches. That’s probably what is happening here.

This is great. I’m really hoping with the addition of custom arenas and spectator that a solid community takes off, and this is a good step. I know a fairly good team from launch (NA) that may be coming back with this patch, if they do I’m sure they’d be down for being shoutcasted once they hit their stride again.

I’ve used knight’s armor with berserker jewelery just fine in a build similar to this. I’ve also played it in full zerk, which is totally doable as well if you are good at evading.

Thief gets 2k heal… mehhh survivability still sucks, makes no difference
Thief loses about 2k damage in burst…. omg the world is ending burst builds are trash now!!!!!!11!!1!!1! (whatever do you do when mug doesn’t crit now?)

:D

I would not mind seeing some of the steal items reworked, particularly engineer. No one ever stands in that. Maybe warrior’s too, as a thief can’t really stand up in melee in a team fight where that sort of aoe shines. It’s strong if you can pull it off though. Guardian and ele are decent, if the ele item was ranged it would be great. The others are fine.

I would not be opposed to knocking down the CD a little bit, but I’d be surprised if they did it.

Gamblit.5041:

I think Yishis[RIOT] made the best video to demonstrate how overpowered is D/P spec with stacking Stealth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRcTKt47ixk

Funny thing is you can actually get off 4 hearseekers in 1 BP if you know how, which this guy doesn’t do. Makes it even better.

D/P is in a good place. If you run it in tPvP against top 200 premades, it certainly feels like it is right where it should be.

This talk about BP+HS perma stealth is all good and well, but you aren’t capping/defending any points or killing anyone while you’re spamming it. It just prolongs fights, which a D/P thief usually doesn’t want to do. And if you’re trying to brawl as a D/P thief, you’re doing it wrong.

If anything, I think offhand dagger needs a buff. Dancing dagger is next to useless ever since the nerf, and CnD is kind of meh.

That’s one of the reasons I don’t even use trickery in my d/p build, even if tons swear by 25/30/0/0/15.

I could see going up to bountiful theft if you really wanted to be a big boon stealer. I guess shortbow would get a little bit of benefit from it, if you did s/d sb. That’s a lot of boon theft with the new skill, would be interesting to see how it played.

I personally like acro, though I wish hard to catch was a CC breaker as well. Would be worth considering 30 in it if it were.

You could have probably ended that second fight much faster if you were running SB. You could have kited him after the initial burst and he wouldn’t have been able to land a CnD, would have gone down after a couple hits. P/D doesn’t have many stealth options outside of heal/SR if they can’t land CnD.

I only included pvp changes on this list. Some of the pve stuff about agro and such I didn’t add.

Mesmer
-Mostly bug fixes
-Points will now decap while Distortion is active and the mesmer is alone on point
-Moa Morph now usable on the move. Reduced the distance traveled for Flee (Moa form 5)
-Mantra cast time reduced from 3.25s to 2.75s
-Illusion of Life cast time may be slightly increased in future patch

Necromancer
-Corrupt Boon and Epidemic are both unblockable, but still require LoS
-Flesh Wurm and Flesh Golem have increased health
-New empty slot on death shroud. This will have a new condition in the future. Considering a dark themed dot similar to poison that does damage with an adverse effect.

Guardian
-Did not want to bring down with the boon hate changes in place
-Spirit weapon health increased
-Sanctuary and Shield of Absorption no longer block treb shots
-Want to improve traits as a whole in the future

Tourney Changes

-Spectator Mode: Watch anyone, see their entire build and equipment setup. Devs want to focus on shoutcast tools to help promote community.
-Leaderboards: Ability to search for friends and people, possibly provide an API for external websites.
-“Very aware of” the need to split premade and solo queue, looking at this for the future.

Spirit Watch

-Initial orb spawn delayed for 10 seconds
-Ride the lightning distance reduced while carrying the orb
-Invulnerability skills will now cause the orb to be dropped
-Channel time to grab the orb increased from 2s to 3s

Future Changes
-Want to add a solo queue
-Want to work on progression, especially for new players, to give others incentive to play. Revamped reward system
-Really want to aid shoutcasters. They seem to want to give the community the tools needed to promote involvement, host their own tournaments, etc.
-Have plans to “do more things” directly with the community, but did not comment on what or how.

SotG notes in text form for those too lazy to watch the full video!

General Skills

-Confusion and retaliation split for PvE/sPvP/WvWvW
-Retaliation damage will now show on the UI similar to how confusion works, devs want retaliation to be more short and bursty than a long uptime buff. Say fields are a reason for the high uptime.
-Passive signet stat increase cap changed to 180 from 90. Some actives will be changed.
-Happy with haste changes. Negative haste effects are reduced, duration increased slightly. Want to slow down the pace of the game.

Warrior
-Want the warrior to focus on either CC or damage, and have team mates cover the option they do not choose.
-New trait: Dogged March. Replaces Turtle’s Defense. Reduces cripple, immobilize, and chill durations by 33%, and gives a small amount of regeneration when hit by these conditions.
-New trait: Burst Mastery. Combines both grandmaster Discipline traits. Reduces burst skill recharge and adrenaline used.
-New trait: Discharge of the Empowered. Grandmaster Discipline. Increases damage to target by 3% for each unique boon on them.
-Signet of Might’s active now causes the next 3 attacks to be unblockable.

Thief
-Want the thief to be more survivable and versatile.
-Reducing their overall burst, but still wants them to be the best burst class.
-In the future, may increase base damage slightly so thieves can trait a bit more defensive
-Wants to increase thief mobility. Possibly cause steal to work as shadow step if nothing is targeted.
-Some traits may be compressed together in the future.
-Mug can no longer crit, but also heals for 2000 + healing power.
-Flanking Strike has improved animation that better tracks the target, now costs 3 initiative
-Larcenous Strike added as a follow up to Flanking Strike. If it lands, this hit will steal one boon from the target. Costs 1 initiative. May consider traits in the future to share this boon with the team.

Ranger
-All pets have increased vitality and toughness.
-Pet F2 abilities now have much faster activation times, and pet AI has been improved
-May consider making other pet abilities controllable as an option in the future, but don’t want to overwhelm new players
-Pet leash range may be decreased in the future.
-Spirit health increased
-Spiritual Knowledge trait now gives spirits a total 70% chance to proc

Elementalist
-Want to bring down cantrip Ele without affecting lesser used builds
-May buff staff in future patch
-Mist Form: Can no longer use utilities and heals while active
-Ride the Lightning: Now a 40s recharge if nothing is hit, 20s recharge if target is hit
-Signet of Restoration: Passive heal slightly reduced
-Cleansing Waters: Now removes 1 condition with a 5s CD
-Swirling Winds no longer blocks trebuchet shots
-Glyph of Storms air and earth durations slightly increased

Engineer
-Want to diversify builds
-Grenades may be slightly reduced in future patch.
-Bombs, turrets, and gadgets may be buffed in future patch.
-Healing Turret: Initial heal reduced, overcharge and passive heal increased. Overcharge now drops a water field, cures conditions, and has a 20s recharge.
-Incendiary Powder: 4s of burning every 10s with a 100% chance.
-Elixir S: Can no longer use utilities and heals while active

Since we’re talking builds now…

If you want D/P and feel initiative starved, but don’t want to give up too much burst, try something like this:

http://tinyurl.com/bw3722m

I actually prefer it over the standard 25/30/0/0/15. It’s a pinch more defensive with a lot more ini regen, without losing too much offensive kick.

Atherakhia.4086:

No one suggests the condition build with p/d and sb?

That build was nerfed with the revealed and caltrops nerf. It’s also (IMO) one of the most boring builds in the game to play, since it mostly revolves around 2 abilities and a utility. It can still work, but it’s not as strong as it was.

Here’s an example that can be modified in a lot of little ways: http://tinyurl.com/cvab5zo

The D/P advice here is good. I actually found D/D to be slightly easier to burst with but the offhand pistol utility is just too good to pass up.

The D/P burst combo is black powder (5), assassin’s sig if you are running it, heartseeker (2) followed immediately by steal, then backstab (1). This will allow you mug without breaking stealth, so you can backstab. You can also basilisk before the burst if you want.

D/D burst is prebuffs (basilisk, signet), cloak and dagger (5) immediately followed by steal, then backstab (1).

For this kind of build, you should run SB and use it generously. Until you’re more experienced you should only use your dagger set to burst or finish off a single opponent. Otherwise stay off points and support from range with poison and clusterbombs. Difference between a good and bad thief is positioning and knowing when to go for the burst.

As a burst thief, never engage in 1v2s and never get into the middle of a team fight. You will go down too fast. Use your mobility to backcap whenever possible, and support allies by dropping targets quickly and then getting out. Thieves are all about creating favorable opportunities. We aren’t always optimal in “fair” fights.

Had some people asking me about the buff/boss timers, so edited to add timer details for forest and temple maps at the end of the guide.

I would be happy if the monthly was harder and gave rank points as well. It’s super easy for anyone who does any amount of pvp, and the rewards are pretty meh.

Besides volatility, there’s also the likelihood your two MMR ratings aren’t exact. The player with the lower MMR would gain more rating from beating a higher ranked team, because they would be less expected to win. That’s without considering volatility.

EDIT: Ninja’d!!!!!

swinsk.6410:

I don’t think I saw him once BP+HS+steal to backstab.

This doesn’t work if you are traited for mug. If you steal in stealth with mug, the mug damage will break the stealth and you won’t BS. That is why a d/p thief will BP+HS+BS then steal.

I played d/d for probably 300 tourney games or so, and d/p for another ~200 and still going. I personally find d/p superior in every way, once you get used to the burst combo. The OH pistol skills are just far too valuable.

Also, a d/p thief can stack 8 seconds of stealth at will if they have full ini, 12s if spec’d into shadow arts. If you have fast ini regen, you will come out of that stealth with full ini again. So that’s something neat a d/d can’t do.

“I think thief ran. Stomping the eng….. mNG(#$(#$(!!!!” -horrifying stealth gank death
“I don’t see anyone crossing, noobs prob all going mine” -horrifying SR gank death
“&^%#” -horrifying any match where a burst thief is roaming that you didn’t see death
“Going for svanir steal” -horrifying miscalculation death
“Bottom buff up, going for it” -horrifying unresponsive pug vs premade temple death
“Wiped them mid I’m going to backcap” -horrifying you forgot the other team respawns death

I’m assuming he meant “Solo queueing isn’t meant for gw2 leaderboards in their current state”.

I agree that it works fine in games that have it supported.

Luthan.5236:

What about the buffs at Temple of the Silent Storm?

Bottom buff is almost always preferred, but it’s possible to get in long team fights trying to take it. If that happens, see if you can take top buff and back cap points.

Thanks everyone. A good pvp scene needs more than a few top teams to do well, so I thought I’d try to encourage others to jump in with these tips.

Writetyper.1985:

Super swell post son, I’ll be sure to bookmark and redirect anyone requiring the guidance towards it.

Also,

To quote a decently fun fps dressed up with an MMO loot system. You. Will. Die. You are going to lose.

Which one?

Borderlands / Borderlands 2. Quest against big optional boss named “You. Will. Die.”, or in bl2 “You.Will.Die. (Seriously.)”

I threw a bunch of game references in here

There isn’t really an spvp p/p build, because no one runs that weapon set in tourneys. The set’s damage is too easy to avoid, and it lacks any sort of stealth or mobility.

Mid Match Mechanics

The match starts soon! Before the match, communicate! There is a good chance you’ll get ignored like the filthy gold selling botter you (probably) aren’t, but communicate anyways! Even if it’s as simple as “I’ll go home point”, let your team know. If you get ignored, well, at least you tried. You might even get lucky and get someone to respond, at which point you can unleash your flawless Art of War shenanigans with your newly found friend.

Communicate. I’m rehashing this because it’s important. Also because everyone should love hearing themselves talk, and who really needs a response anyway? Seriously though, even if your team is as mute as Anet is on feature release dates, you should communicate. “Going mid”, “2 inc home”, “stealing boss”, “buffs in 30”. Little effort to type, but keeps your team in the know.

Be Map Aware. This is one of the things that separates the keyboard heroes from the bronze sculpted greek tourney gods we all adore. Always know where your entire team is. Always have a general idea where their entire team is. Always know if you have enemy dudes respawning soon. Know this, and you know when you can take risks and when you can’t.

Realize that svanir died 2:45 ago and will be spawning soon (every 3 minutes!). Realize that temple top buff pops at 11:30 and 5:30, and that both mids pop at 8:30, and watch the time! Know this, and you can give your team a little win that might add up to the big win.

MAKE GOOD DECISIONS. I cannot stress this enough. This is perhaps the most important thing in pvp. More important than your build, more important than how good you are at 1v1ing. You wanted to be the guy, and then finally became him? Well now it’s time to be the boshy. Make. Good. Decisions. Here are some good ones for a solo player {[(disclaimer these might not apply to premade games. This is a solo guide!)]}

Do not overcommit to the opponent’s side. Do not overextend. This is the biggest mistake I see with solo players. Your opponent can easily reinforce from home, and a team wipe will almost certainly cause your team to build a deficit. If you are up 2 points to 1 and you just wiped their team at mid, DON’T!!11!1!!@!1 push their point. I know you want to. I know you reaaaaally want to. But don’t. They will be respawning, and you will die, and then your team will be outnumbered at mid and lose.

It’s ok to bunk. Yes, it’s true. Most solo join people don’t like to admit this. If you are up 2 points to 1, or even if you are down and 4 of your team mates are pushing mid, it isn’t the end of the world if you hold home. Even if you aren’t a guardian. You don’t always need to go zerging around like a mindless WvW horde. Defense can be the better idea.

That said, know when to push. If you are winning mid at 4 good guys to 3 bads, but losing home 1v2, you should know it’s ok for you to go for the back cap to make up for the home loss. Home is easier to regain, and there’s no guarantee you’d get there in time anyways. BUT! if you see one of your team members going for the back cap, stay and help win the fight.

These are just a few suggestions, but there is no perfect answer to every situation. People far better than me could write entire guides on just this topic. This category is one that everyone can constantly improve on, and when you get really good at it you will notice a nice increase in the Enemies Crushed (W) column vs the Driven Before Enemies (L) column. P.S. don’t forget to protect your women.

Take the Little Wins. Little wins add up to the big win. This could also be called don’t be greedy, don’t be Captain Ultimate I can win that 1v2 on far point, don’t be that guy that thinks he is #1 mesmer NA when he’s probably really #31 mesmer NA. If you have the points and cap lead, be content to defend what’s yours. Keep up that smart play and they can’t catch you!

Finally… Personal Mechanics. This is how well you play your build. I put this last for a reason. This is a skill you will naturally improve as you continue to play, to a point. If you are at the point that you need to make conscious effort to play your build better, and you are reading this, you are probably pretty decent and looking for something outside the scope of this guide. I am not here to discuss specific builds or write a how-do-I-play-thief-without-spamming-2 guide.

THANKS FOR READING! If you made it this far, you probably deserve an award or something. You can go home now. But if you really insist on more pain and suffering…

I’m expecting no new features and a handful of balance changes that inevitably make some group of people rage.

I would like to see the complete removal of hot join in its current format. Have a few different arena templates that can be checked out for free, or spawned based on population of the current templates of the same type. These templates could have set, unchangeable options… like one set up similar to current hot join, one set up for dueling, one set up as deathmatch (no caps, just pts on kills). These would all be open to everyone for free.

Then, if you want something specific or want a private server, you can buy your own arena with gems and customize the options however you see fit.

RockonHarder.7235:

I don’t get this leaderboard. i have one of the highest win % and yet my rank % put me on the bottom half compared to my guild.

It’s not based on win %, it’s based on your hidden MMR (matchmaker rating). We don’t know the specifics, but generally winning against people with higher MMR than you bumps you up a lot. Likewise losing to someone with lower MMR to you drops you far. Winning against people you outrank and losing against people that outrank you don’t affect your place as much.

Lux.7169:

…someone in my guild has 117 losses and 0 wins… how is this even possible?

Welcome to Join Solo!!!

:)

SAB weapons are from running SAB. You can take the skins to the mists and convert them to pvp. Racial armor is rank 60+ armor.

I would personally prefer a decay system in place to encourage people to play to stay on top. Otherwise you have people that would get high up and just quit to maintain that. Make it so that it only affects people above the baseline. LoL used to use a decay system in their elo ratings.

Reverse decay systems are pretty cool too, but I don’t think that would work here. SC2 is an example of this.

Theplayboy.6417:

I don’t think its needed. Good Players and New Good Players and Teams will naturally increase their ratings. The line is always moving until the next reset. If you don’t play you will continually drop in rating. If you do play and don’t consistently win you will move all over the place.

Thats not really how it works. One person’s rating gain is another’s loss. When you are at the top you have much more to lose then you have to gain.

Against anyone, the top rank player would lose more total rating points from a loss than they would gain from a win. However if that top player quit, they really wouldn’t be going anywhere from that position. They might drop some spots, but nothing substantial.

In NA it seems like many of the top players queue together, but not always in set teams. If you are lucky enough to solo join into one of those partial premades and win, your rank will really shoot up because you will usually be matched against other high ranks. That happened to me a couple times.

Most 5v5 servers these days are duel servers. If you want to avoid that, join 8v8s with 10+ people in them. If you insist on playing 5v5s, maybe try tourney solo join, but be prepared for rage if you are newer or less skilled.

Hopefully custom servers alleviate this somewhat.

Sansar.1302:

I am 85%, only solo que, have i any real hope at getting higer with no team ?

With some skill and a lot of luck, yeah. I 100% solo queued myself up to about rank 150 at one point. After that I had a stretch of 4-5 losses with several 4v5s that kicked me out of the top 1000. I’m back in it though.

If you are solo queue and able to get into the top 1000, expect your rank to fluctuate wildly depending on your pug luck. Anet’s MMR system does not give you much room for error if you have a few bad games in a row.

Some games do this, Starcraft 2 is the first one that comes to mind. It makes more sense there though, as they rate in divisions that they lock at season end. So you could be locked in platinum and playing awesome, and after the first game in the next season put in mid-high diamond. They use last seasons end MMR to determine a start point for the next season, though wins/losses are wiped. If you miss a season, you have to start back over from scratch.

It would be cool though if they eventually added seasons that ended with large tourneys that you register for with a set 5 man. The seeding order could be based on the average leaderboard rank of your members with only a set number of teams qualifying. If not enough register, the top teams would get a “bye”. Give some reward to the winners (legendary skins, new skins or titles, w/e). After the tourney, the boards would reset. Could do these every 3-4 months.

That would probably instantly revitalize the pvp community somewhat, and more people would make set teams. Though at the pace they develop for spvp, this would be unlikely.

Most mesmers you find in spvp will be running a shatter build.

Engage at range with your SB and keep up pressure with clusterbombs. This is effective against their clones. Poison them when they get around 50-60% health. If they are s/p, watch for the pistol stun and try to dodge it. Watch for the pistol arm to raise. If they catch you in it you need to stun break or you will eat their shatter burst, which if you are gc will take you down. If they are GS, try to dodge the initial berserker whirl.

Assuming you are running standard burst, keep up with SB pressure until you need to heal. At that point while in stealth, pop your basilisk (and assassin signet if you have), then CnD→steal→bs burst them as soon as stealth drops. Finish with HS if needed. This will handle most bad to average mesmers.

Who cares if this game becomes an esport? I don’t get why people make a big deal of this. If you like it, play it. If you don’t, then don’t.

I fell 43 spots from 2 wins and 0 losses. Something seems off with this. Guess these leaderboards aren’t really even worth looking at yet.

I would like to know, or at least see the ratings of everyone. The rankings look to be very volatile. I have friends who have moved over 100 positions since late yesterday. It’s impossible to tell if that’s from large rating changes or if everyone is just so closely rated that big moves are more likely.

Builds are important, but that’s not everything. You can also work on improving your team’s communication and each member’s map awareness and decision making. A lot of that comes with experience.

Honestly S/D works perfectly fine with any of the common D/D builds. The switch from MH dagger to scepter isn’t drastic. You’ll have slightly more defense from earth and air blind, slightly more burst heal with an instant instead of a channeled, and your fire rotation will be a bit more bursty as well.

I actually prefer it in pve over d/d, because the fire burst (ie DT) is not hard to land as compared to pvp. The only ability I really don’t care for is shatterstone.

Lavadiel.6231:

probably some day aNet will realize how bad scepter auto fire and air are and buff them and we get quite nice weapon.

Arc lightning did get buffed last patch. It now hits anyone who touches the arc between you and your target.

I think it’s the fact that we really have no idea how volatile the MMR is in this game because we can’t see it. We also don’t know the starting level of new players, of which there are many lately because of the laurels.

It could be that there aren’t enough players. It could be that their MMR really is broken. Or a 3rd possibility is that MMR is so volatile that a partial/full premade losing 1 or 2 matches against other premades may find themselves up against solo people who have won a few in a row, or new players who may not have established MMR yet. We can’t know for sure though.

FWIW I solo queued about 10-12 matches last night. I only hit an obvious premade once, and only once was I paired with an obvious premade. With all the people in this for laurels, the majority of my matches were 4 people rank 20 or lower, usually 1-2 of which were under 10, plus me (r40), vs 4 low ranks and a higher rank.