Guild Wars 2

Background: I currently main Shoutbow for Genesis, previously DD Elementalist. I also play Double Ranged Shatter Mesmer, Panic Strike DP Thief, and Hammer Sc/F Medi Guardian.

First comment: There aren’t really any other Mesmer builds that I would like to be in the meta. Clone death promotes passive gameplay. Phantasms are fire and forget. Mantras are instant cast, low counterplay, bullkitten. Part of the issue with Mesmer is that if anything other than shatter was viable, it wouldn’t promote competitive play. Sure, you can run those builds if you find them fun. If you play well, you can make them work. I just don’t want any of those builds to be optimal with the way they’re designed.

Second comment: Your observations about Mesmer are true of all professions. Warrior can only play Shoutbow, as the role a Hambow would fill is better filled with a Cele Rifle Engineer, a Thief is better than a Killshot Warrior, and a GS/LB warrior doesn’t really fit into a role against most current meta comps. Guardians are locked into the Hammer Medi Guard build, since the only reason to bring a Guardian over another class is the way Ring of Warding sets up burst in team fights and Bunker Guardian was pushed out of the meta in favor of double cele. The way stealth works, there’s not much creativity involved in Thief builds in conquest; you’re locked into DP or SD.

Third comment: Mesmers aren’t locked in to using Portal because other utilities are weak. They used it because Portal is so god kitten strong. Mirror Images and the condi clear mantra are both decent replacements for it if you don’t want to run portal, and more are options if you don’t run Shatter Mesmer.

@Jasher: Define top-tier teams. Most of those specs are ones that are old meta and aren’t run anymore. Hambow, A/Sw LB, etc. On the topic of landing shatters, the higher you go in skill level, the more you need to do to set up your shatters. Obvious shatters won’t land, but I think that’s okay.

@Alexander: Mesmer wins 1v1 versus Power Necros, Engineers, Warriors, and goes even versus DD Elementalists. Thieves and Medi Guards are beatable in 1v1s, but counter Mesmers hard in team fights. In team fights, they require team support to perform well, but I think that’s good. Apex runs Nnight, Genesis runs Zeromis, and Cunning Stunts was planning on running Braiin on Mesmer. Max and Blaze are both starting to form teams with Mesmers. Mesmers are fairly strong right now. If Medi Guards were touched some, they would be incredibly strong.

Both the Academy Gaming weekly and the AspectGG Pugquests allow you to sign up as free agents and compete without a team. Two of the three weekly 5v5 events allow you to sign up without a team. Only the ESL Go4GW2 cups require a team, and they’re supposed to be more competitive anyway.

@Aztex

Many PvPers don’t see the Mini Llama has anything special. However, I play every game mode, and it does get a lot of comments. I think more people want the Mini Llama than you think, and adding to it isn’t a bad call in my opinion. Constantly creating new casual rewards for PvP would be a lot of effort and consume resources.

On the topic of rewarding players faithful to the game mode: I expect that to come more when they finish with the leaderboard/ladder. At the moment it’s lackluster, but I think it’s wrong to say they’re ignoring it. Anet is just… slow… sometimes.

If you disconnect consistently enough for this to be a problem, it’s not fair for your teammates.

One of the main goals for ArenaNet right now is to try to get people who haven’t to try out the game mode, since they might like it. Mini Llamas aren’t supposed to entice the top tier players. It’s to get new players into the game mode and reward the mid tier players. Remember in the ToLs where you got a Mini if you got past the first round? It got a lot more people to try out competing than there would have been. You just need to understand who they are targeting with this reward.

@Royal

Cele Ele is being pushed out of the meta by medi guards. Shoutbow is more op currently.

We’ve still got room for some more people. Come win some shiny gemmers!

I haven’t gotten my work schedule for this week yet, but hopefully I can be there for the next one. I heard the matches this time were all really close for the first one.

Sadly I won’t be able to make it (I was overruled on the time), but it looks like it’ll be a really fun event. Good luck to everyone participating!

@ronpierce

- Streamline downed effects. All or no “knockbacks” should move a downed skill (Overcharged shot does, Warrior hammer 4 doesn’t. I don’t understand the inconsistency.)

Launches move corpses. Knockbacks don’t.

It’s a team-wide cleanse. For a self cleanse, you’d be right, but the skill is AoE.

Turret health cut in half.

Implement PvE’s death penalty in PvP.

This will nerf turret engis and bunker comps.

Shadelang.3012:

and they will never be used again….ever…in any situation. Unless they got a MASSIVE HP boost.

And the whole world would breathe a gigantic sigh of relief.

BlackTruth.6813:

At least it isn’t D/D Ele Signet abuse..

The DD Ele signet was barely used… It was only relevant as something people could rage about while DD Ele was overpowered, not as something that actually mattered.

#CounterplayPls

kitten’ salt is real.

Even Olrun is better than quite a few of those

Even Olrun is better

Even Olrun

Even

Olrun

:*(

Or those players are playing on off classes and not taking the game seriously, as we are wont to do.

Bert.7408:

Olrun = number 51

All of my teammates are up there. I get carried so hard, bro!

I cry erytime.

DevilsGlare.7658:

Lol, I am an “old timer”, Chaith. And this old timer remembers how completely irrelevant you were for the first 2 years of this game. Your biggest issue? Your attitude, and your inability to rotate properly. Which is ironic really, because you happen to be defending your “godlike” rotations as of these days.

It’s no accident you became apart of a winning team the moment celestial amulet became a thing, really. I’m humble enough to admit you’ve always been a solid engineer mechanically. But, my team could always rely on you overextending and being out of position to snowball a fight. Good thing you’ve got celestial on your side, eh?

Not sure where this is coming from. From a mechanical standpoint, I think there are several engineers stronger than Chaith. However, I do really respect his rotations and situational awareness. How often do you see people get back caps when he’s the one keeping track of the node? You haven’t played with him recently, and it doesn’t even seem like you’ve watched the matches, because you’re just pulling stuff out of your kitten .

Booms.2594:

also to be fair, when GF dominated there was no competition whatsoever

I don’t understand how a team being dominant diminishes their accomplishments. You’ll always hear people talk about how the old school players were so much better, but now they quit and there’s no competition in the game. Now, though, it’s convenient to say that the players now are just that much better? Your argument is pointless and stupid.

Booms.2594:

oh yes so you played a meta build when it was meta and now you play another meta build when its meta. ok.

Meta builds are called that because they are strong. Running a meta build is about getting the optimal reward from your skill. On another note, I think you need to differentiate between meta and cheese, because many people here combine the two.

Sol.4310:

If I was to balance Celestial Amulet, I would almost completely remove Power/Condition/Critical Damage from the Amulet leaving the sustain and might stacking alone, big reason the Amulet works so well is due to the Critical Damage scaling so well once you reach around 2k power.

That’s way too big of a nerf. The whole point of the celestial amulet is to have an even spread. A jack-of-all-trades but master of none. At the moment, it’s the master of everything because of might stacking. Might stacking is what needs to change.

@uberkingkong Hi. I’m Olrun. I don’t know how much you follow Nhymx, but I picked him up for the first Tournament of Legends and placed top 8. He did a really good job supporting our full burst comp, and I love the dude – he’s fun to play with. However, you’re overestimating him. He was a strong team player, but fairly weak in 1v1s.

I’m down to try it out when I’m pugging around or in solo queues.

I play DD elementalist for my team, not zerker staff ele, but yes we are quite good. We place 3rd in the first Go4 weekly cup on NA. I play zerker staff ele in WvW, where your positioning can carry you and let you put out the deeps.

I’ll stream my participation in the MP 2v2 Weekly tonight, then! twitch.tv/olruntheblade

Oh god, why would I run that in PvE O.o
I generally run GS/LB in FotM, sometimes with Phalanx Strength, depending on the fight and party comp.

Hi. I’m Olrun and I currently play DD Elementalist for Olrun And Kizos Happy Hour Of [Love]. In addition, I play Zerker Staff Ele in WvW and GvGs, along with a little PvE. I play most nights from from about 8pm EST to 2am EST. There would be some Warrior gameplay in there, since I’ve played that class the most, but I’m flexible in what I play. Would anybody be interested in watching me stream? I wear a Bidoof hat!

Hi. I’m Olrun and I currently play DD Elementalist for Olrun And Kizos Happy Hour Of [Love]. However, most of my experience in the game has been on Warrior across all game modes. I was wondering if anybody would be interested in seeing me stream. I play Killshot, Hambow, A/Sw LB, A/Wh LB, and Rez Warrior in tPvP, Hambow, Hammer S/Wh, and Destroyer Warrior in WvW and GvGs, and I also play PvE, including dungeons, level 50 fractals, and the personal story from time to time. I was just wondering if anybody would be interested in seeing me stream. I play most nights from from about 8pm EST to 2am EST. Obviously there would be a lot of Ele gameplay in there, since I main DD Ele and play Zerker Staff in WvW, but I’m flexible in what I play. Would anybody be interested in watching me stream? I wear a Bidoof hat!

Bleeding someone out is a standard tactic. Don’t put yourself in that position.

I believe I’ve seen him in team queues before, so I would hazard a guess at NA.

You’re not the Nate I know!

Best warrior multiverse, reporting in!

Obviously, Eura, they need a Kill Shot Warrior!

Are you going to trash talk your teammates behind their backs like every other team you’ve been on?

A lot of people do use the Fight Club Teamspeak server. Skype is also a likely culprit. When playing in major events like these, we recommend that you play from a different IP address, do not connect to Skype, and use a different, more secure TS server. The following message is displayed to all users on connecting to the Fight Club Teamspeak server: “If youre planning on using this TS for WTS/ToG, please have a seperate TS prepared to use in the event of trolling/DDoSing as this TS will be a prime target for trolling.”

Typical creepy Acandis…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRBHRhG2IHNN12VjbNs3mYXQku1saTWcJkBeB-TJxHAB1eSAOZ/hlKDAwTAAA

I find this to be more effective. Playstyle is you CC, Immobilize, and Chill for your minions to track them down. Other than that, you just try to survive. Double energy really helps with that, and renewal sigils with Transfusion helps keep your minions up. Warhorn is really nice for interrupting a Guardian’s Shelter. If you do that well, you can debunker a Guardian incredibly fast.

Rank literally means nothing in regards to matchmaking. It’s all based on a hidden rating value. However, keep something in mind when you read these posts:

1) Bad experiences stick in your mind more than good experiences (generally speaking), so sometimes it feels like more 4v5s than it is.

2) Getting 4v5s is a fairly random occurrence. It’s a form of RNG. With any form of RNG, there will be outliers. Those outliers are the ones more likely to post about it on the forums.

@Flumek

You’re wrong about one thing… The score system is great for infuriating people by boasting about it.

It’s more than just that Simon. Imagine someone is just about to dodge an attack (say a projectile, not a physical attack). If you don’t stop the projectiles mid air and keep track of where they are (which isn’t something that’s very easy), you end up affecting the outcome of that fight.

Still available.

You’re mistaking hotjoin for team arena.

CoooOOOooo! Quaggan is best ele NA! How would anyone reply to this? You really need to thinks things through, Backpack.

I definitely think it’s possible with the right build, but I just haven’t seen it being run effectively in team queues.

^ kitten excuse for losing to eles on his engineer.

Backpack’s honestly not trolling here. Necro wins every 1v1 except against a really good ele, and even then it’s a close fight. Engi always loses to necro, but beats everything else. Ele is definitely below those two in terms of 1v1 capabilities.

I think the main thing that’s missing from Backpack’s list is the synergy of Guardian/Mesmer/Thief. It may not be meta on NA, but it’s still a strong comp.

The NA meta is much different. The typical comp in NA is 2 eles, 1 engi, 1 warrior, and 1 other. The other can be an engi, a warrior, a necro, or a thief. I feel like it’s possible to build around all the classes, but the classes I rank high stand out on what they bring to any comp they’re added to.

Elementalist – S
Engineer – S
Warrior – A
Necromancer – A
Thief – A
Guardian – B
Mesmer – B
Ranger – C

No offense, Thad, but I think your assessment of multiple player’s skill levels are off by a significant margin.

Option 4 – Play with Acandis. Kill self as he inevitably throws every game.