Guild Wars 2

Yannir.4132:

Please people, listen to Sind. He is the voice of reason in the QQ madness of the forums.

I know the limits of my skill and feel no shame trying/failing to imitate top players and asking questions. The rotational and matchup insight players like Sind have save us many many games of coming to the realization of some fact that they already know.

I dunno, 150 point difference comebacks occur in 1% of my games and they were pretty hype.

I’m rather conflicted about having a /gg button though, instead of going afk you will now have preachers in chat telling everyone to give up besides giving up themselves. It’s not like you can’t ruin the game quick if you afk in spawn already…

We can make constraints to a resign button like 4v5 for 2 minutes, no pip progress, only after 5 minutes game time etc. but it’s best to not have it at all. Games aren’t that long and if you can’t wait and need to relieve yourself, just close the game.

The competitive nature of PvP and perhaps because of how bullheaded I am, even if we are losing badly and players on the other team doubt the point of our existence, I will not stop playing + try my best to learn from them. I’m not giving up in spirit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6lkqqg/can_you_please_add_a_resign_function_to_pvp/

Points made in opposition by users to this idea include:

Proper mindset. Instead of having the invisible influence of “break the cauldrons sink the boats” (lack of resign option) indirectly encouraging players to fight on and play to win, you want to fish for a lucky comp and opening and give up otherwise. Toxic.

Abuse button. GW1 “Red Resign Day”. Losses grant pips, so what’s stopping ultra rapid pip farm?

As a PvPer, deal with losses. Grace in defeat. (Is this like in WvW where you Alt F4 before a stomp or jump off a ledge so you don’t “lose”? That’s rather childish.)

If it’s a definite loss, that’s your cue to try stuff with no pressure to win. Experiment with rotations and duel someone you had issues with. Take something away from the match.

20 minutes max and 13 minutes average is pretty short game time already. Bad losses that you know 3 minutes in probably don’t last longer than 10 minutes; LoL has a 20 minute limit on resign.

You are simply adding more official incentive to give up; we don’t need to encourage throws.

Maybe it’s just me but if you’re playing PvP even casually, you should always try to win. Improving and winning close games where you wouldn’t have before is the thrill of PvP. Hiding behind excuses like “oh I’m casual bronze silver gold why even try” “this is unranked why serious, kitten tryhard mom basement lololol” “you’re all trash but not me” “(insert personal attack whisper spam)”, the more you make excuses for your losses the less you’ll learn. You’ll slip behind people who improve and continue loss streaks.

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Not exactly the best advice, considering you will already be losing by the time you should consider using terrain against shatters.

My advice:

1) learn how to dodge shatters (have a chrono friend generate clones and shatter so you understand how and when they shatter into your dodge)

2) deny as much clone and phantasm generation as possible (don’t trigger second shield block, dodge every clonegeneration you can or bait clone generation onto your pet then swap them). depending on the build, you can use caf 5 to destroy clones aswell.

This subforum gets the best pipe-ins. Thanks!

Indeed, a lot of the time I feel pressured enough to leave point, and that is probably the result of eating too much of the Condi Mes’ sustained damage. I need to plan my knockback better.

I have yet to get a feel for shatters when fighting on point. I’m guessing it’s more about prediction at close range? At longer ranges I’ve taken the advice to stealth + dodge on seeing the Mesmer’s shatter effect, or using jump puzzles to avoid clones.

So by kiting and stealthing I can bait the Mesmer to put clones on pet.

I quote Shadowfall: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Questions-Ask-here

shadowpass.4236:

As for 1v1ing a condition mesmer, use the terrain to your advantage. Clones can’t jump so they have to path around obstacles you as a player can jump over. Stealth as often as possible because clones can’t track you in stealth and they will end up standing around doing nothing until you appear again. If you stealth and move when the mesmer shatters, the clones will explode at the position you were at the moment you entered stealth so use this to your advantage.

Chronomancers generally have a lot of evades/invulnerability/blocks/distortion so target a clone for easier stealths with longbow because they can’t dodge.

shadowpass.4236:

Mesmer – stealth off clones, dodge the shatters

zalt.8937:

Damage modifiers, probably running BM and MM; moment of clarity (50% dmg increase on next attack upon interrupt.) and remorseless (25%dmg increase on gaining fury.) along with two-handed training (5% dmg increse and chance to proc fury.) and might stacks. Common combo is maul, hilt bash (resets maul cd.) Maul. The latter maul will hurt.
Highly telegraphed skill tho, easy to avoid. Outside of pulling that combo off, ranger GS is rather lackluster damage wise, good utility and sustain tho.
Bottom line; if you see a giant bear emerging from the ranger, and this is really easy to spot and avoid, dont get hit.

This basically. The Ranger will usually be full Zerk or very close to it, running Tiger, stacking might and vuln, taking all traits that give him modifiers. It can deal an extreme amount of damage (I’ve seen 10k, but I think it can go up to 12k?) but you need to setup and make an interrupt.

There’s also a giant bear with 0.75 second cast time on Maul, 0.5 second with quickness. With low ping, still dodgeable/blockable.

I was a skeptic, then I tried D/P Thief, back in 2013.

It is tiring, you have to pay attention to everything, and you can’t mess up. You mess up, your team is 4v5. If you don’t, you create 4v5.

At a certain level around average, players can’t fend off the stealth spike a Thief does. But once you play one you will know the resource you have to spike someone is very tightly limited because you’ll never have full initiative and the enemy Thief’s presence is great pressure on you to do your job.

Sure you can always stealth off and not die, but this isn’t WvW Shadow Arts Thief. You have to make an impact aside from decapping and you have to secure +1 kills.

Good thieves are admirable, bad thieves are disgusting. No class is so extreme…

Maybe one day I’ll sit myself down to learn Thief again, but boy will the learning be like walking on Salt Road with bleeding feet.

I’m not sure we practice Necromancy outside of the relevant class forums?

Level 3 was apparently DDoS’d a while ago, it’s died down a bit these few days.

Huskyboy.1053:

I was playing Druid. At the beginning of the match I told my team that I’d help mid, but then I’d go far and to let me 1v2, and not to plus me at far. I My team was basically stalled at mid by the other team while each team’s thief went around capping/decapping. Eventually our ele went down mid and I had to go far when he got stomped.

I was successfully 1v2ing the other team’s DH and ranger when our DH plussed me. That allowed the other team to snowball our other 3 incompetent teammates 3v3 and ruined the game. I got these nice PMs from my helpful DH at the end of the game.

I’m not great so these are sincere comments, trying to learn:

If Ele goes down, but they seem to have a DH/Necro really low, do we go for the spike & stomp, and try to carry on the teamfight, or leave for far immediately?

If your DH isn’t sure the Ranger doesn’t have Signet of Stone/enemy DH has used RF… why is he coming to plus? What is he trying to achieve? I don’t see him having the toolset for a rapid +1, even a Necro would be better here.

I think lose mid → push far is a valid stall tactic for Mender Druid, right? A lot of the time even having a worse overall team won’t matter (unless huge skill difference) because 4v3 is very winnable. While setting it up can take some luck, a solid 1v2 stall should buy a lot of room.

I’m not too comfortable with going mid at start with Druid, no Astral Force can make an easy focus.

Crinn.7864:

There are several variants. The two big ones are Meta Power Reaper, and Meta Condi Reaper. Both of those have sub-variants that use shouts. There are also variants of those with different weapon setups such as GS power reaper which uses GS over staff.

Here they are, solid builds used at high level. You can also find playstyle advice on metabattle.

Generally, Power Necro with AxeHorn/Staff is off-point, kiting, and going in with Shroud only to secure stomps and cleave out a rez. You have a lot of pressure from stripping boons and proccing Spinal Shivers, and of course you have Shroud skills for on-point. You have unblockable CC and corrupts, and you can take down bunkers quickly in teamfights, opening up Eles, Engis, Druids to focus. You WILL be focused, so get good positioning to survive.

In no particular order:

Nos plays Necro. That’s it. Lots of videos of last season playing Power Necro. https://www.twitch.tv/noscoc/videos/all

Old footage of Prototype on Core Necro but what’s important is the kiting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt-veebHbYQ

Crinn here has a daily series using Spite/Curses: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCImCs2deTjCz1LQgPleI-Pg/playlists

You can watch Fisix’s gameplay: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/158953060

Posi seems to be controversial, but he’s got lots to learn from: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj-XQizU4oBtCc4yBck5emA

I’m no plat player, but I would say let go of minions. It lowers the skill floor of Necro even more (I’m not saying you can’t be good with it).

If you want to pick up positional play (you need to jump puzzle often and AI can’t follow) and teamfight with Necro properly, Power Necro meta build with Marauder amulet is very smooth. I find it very hard to take Spectral Armor and Corrupt Boon off my bar.

Condi Necro has more pressure, less sustain and can be very strong with support.

You can also try out Soldier Rune + Shouts, and/or GS variant of Power builds, or even go for Spite/Curses like Crinn when you get more comfortable surviving without Soul Reaping.

Justine.6351:

I just said eff it and went glass hammer in condi meta.

People running full glass already have a few screws loose, but you might just have removed all the screws when you go yolo glass Hammer Rev.

The crits are hilarious though.

Yeah, if a bug becomes reliable, it’s where the G.I.F.T. shines.

1. Intentionally cause the bug, free 20-30 seconds of “free kill” and 4v5.

2. Unintentionally cause the bug, leave him as is because winning is more important.

3. Unintentionally cause bug, kill out of “honour”.

There is no obligation to make things fair if you have the advantage. There is no obligation to behave well if there are no consequences to malicious behaviour. This is just how we operate.

Before the league, leaderboards, and solo/team queues, there was just the 5-man team queue.

We call it the yolo queue, because that’s what it is. You will likely have full 5-mans on voice chat versus 2/3/4 or most likely a sprinkle of solo players with 2-3 in a team. We used to check for teams by right clicking names and checking if the invite option is missing. Most often, you will get annihilated (back when there are a lot more tryhards).

I mean, there’s no reason to feel confident unless you’re with someone in your friends list, versus Vampire Katana/Undercoverism’s (this is NA 2012-13) full roster.

The team with the guy boring enough to queue as bunker usually wins. If you get a good run solo, everyone will start to invite each other because if you don’t, you will likely be stomped just for having people playing on different levels (also build “diversity”). When you do form a team of 3-4, you start winning. Then when someone brings in a “friend” who insists on a certain class/build, you start losing again (hint: gtfo).

It’s not balanced at all. 10% of the games will be close games.

Matchmaking has given me, as a solo queuer, more fair opponents overall and I enjoy some close games where I discover and learn about my mistakes, e.g. that rotation cost us/should have predicted that coming/positioning.

I think someone on the forums has said something about difficulty threshold – up to a certain point of challenge, it is obtainable with effort and rewarding. Past that point though, you get nothing out of failure. Matchmaking is trying to limit that threshold.

@Fluffball, thanks for the reply. Yep, not a lot of success with Engi unless they get focussed and auto-elixir procs.

I see what you mean about being spotter for the team. Although we can peel squishy classes, in big group fights we’re not really contributing (in terms of damage), unless it’s a rez/stomp situation, or maybe spike heals here and there. The root, when people have no CDs is basically an almost guaranteed kill.

Barrage is… not the best skill.

I wonder if anyone can be fast enough mechanically to Shroud 2 counter Ranger LB knockback.

I’ve seen this twice in sPvP but I’m not sure if he had stab from Foot in the Grave, but he was definitely reacting.

Hello, thanks to your advice, I’ve been able to utilise my LB with +400% efficiency.

I sometimes get tasty decaps, bristleback + rapid fire Thieves, and sometimes pull the 1v2 we need to get ahead in points. There’s the occasional knockback on rezzes and stomps. Sometimes you even get teammates that react to Ancient Seeds. I am grateful.

I need to work on getting my knockback cancels noticed though. Maybe bristleback mind games as well. And as you said, people do get very nervous when they pop a reflect but you just stow and don’t switch out of LB. They then tend to use more reflects and end up getting knockbacked sooner.

1. What do you think are the priority teamfight focus targets? Any conditionals, like a DH that just blew his RF? Necro with low Shroud? Power Rev? Peel the Thief spiking your team? When would you target the Engi/Ele/Druid?

2. Sometimes you get a full bunker comp and need the +1 spike roamer. Sometimes you just had a bad day and you want to plug people at 1500 range with vicious LB crits. Can you show me a balanced Power Druid setup, and a full out YOLO glass zerker setup for glory (sPvP)?

3. What’s your favourite pet for generating salt?

4. What’s the easiest and most difficult 1v1 matchups assaulting/defending points?

5. I capped home, got the far assaulter to retreat, but we are losing mid with 1 stomped. What should I be doing? I’m a rotato potato.

6. How do I keep a cap against a LB/SwSh DH in the first 10 seconds of the engagement when he spams all his CDs and traps to block my LB?

7. We know they have a Mes Thief far combo and I am defending. Mes engages and Thief is waiting for an opening to backstab. I am on Forest, Henge (home). What do I do to prepare? When I hold on for as long as I can but I die/have to leave and the point is full-capped with a portal, what do I do?

8. Can I also get an invite to [Wind]? I would love to meet other Rangers + get a pretty tag. I’m not ingame now, but can I whisper you if I see you online for the invite?

3rd Video:

@8:27 we should remember that with no pressure, Necro/Reaper is the absolute king of cleave. You don’t have coordinated CC/Pressure/Invuln… you’re not getting that rez. You’re all going to go down.

@9:14 a tidy Shroud swap burst. The bit of Power that you have is really nice on these squishy targets because you can proc Spinal Shivers that much faster.

I winced @12:20 when you did the clean GS + Shroud Swap (and at other points in the video as well). Actually, the video as you point out, has a lot of collateral Thieves and other things who aren’t pressuring you but staying next to you (and eating all of the AoE corrupts you spew out).

@13:18 Let them come toward you, but make it difficult and force them to choose to use a mobility skill just to get to you in time (so you can watch people try to hobble away). This is of course with ample LoS to avoid ranged attacks. You also talk about Stability, and earlier against a Thief you counted Steal CD to make sure Chilled to the Bone’s Stability can be used safely – this is one of the steps in moving away from skill spam and into the realm of duels and counters (and becoming a better player). I’m still trying to improve here.

@15:58 you basically have to try and calculate 10 seconds in advance whether you’ll need that swap burst or mitigation, with this decision made easier with support.

The most efficient way to deal with a Necro is massive ranged damage like full glass Rifle Warrior/Power LB Ranger which don’t even need to be near you. They also don’t have to do much more than remove most of your Shroud and let others finish you off. Because there goes 60%+ of your pressure and all your mitigation. This is also why Ele is so good – they give you the projectile hate you need to ignore them and get to cover.

Ario.8964:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Celestial was dominant long before the pre-HoT trait overhaul.

It was only used on engi, ele, and war prior to that. The huge overhaul brought it to use in every other prof. Unless I missed something which is possible because early cele era was when I really started getting into pvp. This is just what I saw.

I think I started around when Virtue Bunker Guardians were the kings of Kyhlo with Hammer/Sword+Shield. NA didn’t really go for AH Bunker until later. Then it was Condi meta with Engi + IP, and then Warriors finally get Cleansing Ire and enter the meta with Hammer/Longbow.

After that, it was the Cele stat adjustment (total stat increase of 23-27%?) and Ele/Engi/Warrior the only classes able to take full advantage of all stats. Warriors could pump out 7k Evicerates even in Cele.

Pre-overhaul, I was one of those Cele Eles in queue. 25 Might was not difficult to get and just going through rotations can pressure off anyone in a 1v1 (unless it’s another Cele Ele). I believe the counter was double ranged Power Mes.

I focused on RL after that and had no idea of the overhaul, it must have been rough.

I love reading detailed guides (a lot of papers in Uni). Guides that go into detail like this help me pick stuff up I probably would have needed a lot of games to understand on my own.

I’ve always been interested in Condi/Trap Ranger back in the core days but I didn’t have the “feel” for offensive roles. That is to say, I’m not great at dueling. However, reading this I’ll probably give it a try – I do like the shotgunning playstyle.

While I’ll be all for a current-meta reference point for Rangers, a compiled guide which is to some degree exhaustive, could take some time.

Getting questions answered in detail like this, especially scenario questions, is really valuable, and I love the interactive feel.

I used to think about trying harder, and I would have become a snobbier and rage-ier version of myself with more cardiac problems (because of salt content), if not for a constant 250-280 ping.

I was enjoying a constant 50-70 ping in the UK (EU servers), but not where I am now (while on NA servers).

With that, I have no way of dodging 0.5 second skills. The clutch things I miss out on are so apparent that I just get disillusioned. Now I just do my dailies. People seem to be horrified someone can play with 100+ ping, but I’m so used to it now…

I don’t think GW2 PvP is bad though – love the feel of it, though the skill design could definitely use some changes.

Video 2 @12:45, aerial sneak attack on Necro. This is how you NvN boys, you out-thief and jump that kitten with a giant scythe. #subtlety

Signet build has truly disgusting corrupt output (most of the video consists of people going from yellow -> red -> dead, great focus from your team), and that snazzy might is just icing. In fact I’ll call you a walking font of corruption right now. It looks pretty unforgiving to pilot though.

Charging into mobs like that, does your Ele suffer from frequent heart attacks?

Nice video again. Gotta mention good target calls.

What’s your favourite class/spec to explode with your corrupts?

Maybe you should watch Sindrener since he has a lot of videos on D/P Thief. He has a lot of small techniques useful anywhere, and gives a lot of tips vocally on how to rotate as Thief. Of course, he is also one of the best Thieves mechanically which you can learn a lot from.

Don’t create your own build, use the meta D/P build first to learn why it works. Trickery grants you a 20.75 second Steal CD, and landing Steal grants you a lot of advantages: 2 initiative, daze, stolen item, vigor, fury etc. Deadly Arts has traits that help secure kills, and Improvisation can actually reset utility CDs to give you an edge.

If you’re not understanding what you’re doing, just randomly playing won’t get you anywhere but frustration. Sorry that quite a few Thieves tend to be egoists, but you also have to know that no one has responsibility to teach you.

Some tips about your playstyle (I’m not a good Thief, rarely play the class):

You are the fastest +1 roamer. Look for existing even fights, focus on a target to down them quickly and leave for the next fight. You seek to unbalance fights as much as you can.

Your spike is mostly Backstab Steals, with interrupts from Steal daze and Pistol 4 proccing Pulmonary Impact to supplement your damage. Your Dagger autos are also very good damage, so while you are chasing a target with Dagger 3/on top of them with Pistol 4 fishing for Headshot interrupts, try to get a few swings in.

Stow your weapon, make it a habit. You can interrupt other actions so that you can get Headshots off when you need it RIGHT NOW instead of waiting for e.g. a Dagger auto to finish. You should also stow, because you don’t want enemy Thieves to proc interrupt PI on you unnecessarily.

Basi Venom allows your otherwise blockable attacks to go through… blocks. Such as a Guard/Warrior using their blocks and you need that Steal now. Basi Steal will allow your Steal to go through.

You achieve your speed by memorizing port spots and reaching them with Shortbow 5. You can maintain permanent swiftness easily. You can disengage with your stealth and mobility, there is no need to die in fights.

Watch enemy Thief. You are racing against them to perform +1s, and you are also in position to stop them from successfully performing +1s. Watch minimap and be aware of where an enemy Thief can be.

So are you just going to call everyone an animal if they don’t agree with you?

It’s not like there’s a lot of buttons to press on a Necro. If you’re low and you need that Shroud, control yourself and press Shroud just once. It can be pressed before the cooldown ends due to ability queuing.

There was a time when I spammed things in panic, and such behaviour belongs in the bronze/silver/PvE territory you seem to loathe so much and hold yourself above.

Using thief as an opening to illustrate your love for this games PvP seems to be fairly obvious.

It means that the moderator who moved it didn’t even finish reading your post/comprehend it.

Hello, thanks again for the advice regarding sPvP. Knowing what to watch out for and where I’m headed has made learning Mender Druid very enjoyable.

I have a build request for WvW – since I’m in a T1 server and the roamers are usually in pairs or 5 mans built for heavy conditions, I would like to know if a Survival build with the condition removal would hold up better than a support druid relying on CA + Signet of Renewal.

I’ll admit I’m completely new to setting up gear outside of PvP, so relatively inexpensive options, as well as modest survivability so I can learn the ropes would be awesome.

Nice video again. You stow your Elite and make people waste things, you wait for dodges to Shroud 2/GS pull, you are always trying to LoS and get good positioning, and I think one of the things I really have to work on that you do well is Shroud swap bursts, which you manage carefully.

(Sure it’s what a good Necro should be doing, but it’s worth mentioning anyway because to me, knowing and actually doing are different)

I’m slowly becoming convinced that Soul Reaping is not truly necessary (there’s also a Necro running without SR in sPvP). You can get burst LF from Shouts, you get great Weakness uptime with Spite + Curses traits + the pressure just from going into Shroud (the Rev ate all of it), and there’s generally more safety from corrupting boons than lasting that much longer in Shroud. Since if you’re caught out of position, no amount of Shroud will save you.

I haven’t built a Viper set yet, but it’s got that bit of Power to add some spike, and if you have an offensive style of play, it seems to pay off. Having support does help though!!

Playing Necro is just different from other classes, in that the way you look for openings isn’t to kite out CDs (usually) but to be aggressively pushing corruptions and keeping your momentum. Sometimes I see protection/stability and I lament the fact that if I were on Necro, that would be the opening I needed.

I think the monkey bamboo is too OP, it’s providing camouflage to achieve Necro stealth. Expect a nerf. I shall take away your secret sauce!!

Is… is this a wholesome thread?

10/10 positivity.

Chrono Rune + Wells! Takes me back, Power Necro (core) used wells quite a lot back then.

Looking forward to some gameplay!

Just had 2 consecutive matches, one where I pushed Engi into the wall in Forest, the other where a DH pulled me with F1 into a box on Coliseum.

It does throw matches, but as some have already said, the bug has existed for 5 years, it’s to do with how often the server checks for collisions + how fast you’re travelling while knocked back/pulled, and there’s no easy fix for this.

It just happens, and we have to deal with it for the time being.

JTGuevara.9018:

Bring back separate solo queue and 5v5 regardless of population.

If you want new teams to form so PvP can prosper, give them a reason to. Those decent, competitive players that left PvP? You’re not getting them back. They’re GONE. They’re already playing other games. Also:

Bring in 2v2, 3v3 TDM to unranked/ranked.

ANet, it’s time. Bring 2v2 TDM to queues already.

Before any of that happens, can we have save-able build loadouts in PvP?

I’m envisioning a mixed queue for ranked/unranked including different modes. Switching every game for the best build can be an extreme hassle over the long term.

Regarding ATs, it’s a mode to placate people who look for hardcore 5-man premades. It’s doing its job well. We simply lack the population to give everyone a chance to win.

AT was definitely a great added feature. Now we may sound greedy, but having options for the more casual PvPers, like the ideas you mentioned, wouldn’t hurt.

Are we putting on our tinfoil hats for this one?

It does sound plausible and doable, but it’s just hard to believe.

Bracing in case of troll post (no disrespect to OP).

I mean the fish name was hilarious so…

Gamble.4580:

And no condi dps on door?? How can a door not burn….. Bleed year if we being nurdy noon bananas but can’t burn?

I want to gives aids to those doors so bad.

Yes, because the score was for kills and node capture/decap, which misled players from the essence of conquest – you don’t blindly go for kills or stand on a point together.

The score also led to some facepalming arguments like “my score better, kitten” which made any attempts to teach proper conquest rotations and matchups moot.

Rangers/Druids are a very forgiving PvE open world class and that maybe why you see a lot of players taking them everywhere. I think even in unranked though, there’s a feature that doesn’t allow more than 2 of each class in a team beside group queuing intentionally?

Thank you! That was extremely helpful advice, and I’ll be sure to put them into practice for sPvP. I can see that Druid has seen better days, but Ranger as a class is so fun – mobility, evades, quickness, pet bursts, good sustain. Think I’m here to stay.

Not to mention the interesting builds possible in WvW with the freedom to tweak stats.

I hope the new elite of the future expansion will also be fun to play.

Edit: the answer quality is so high I think it needs a sticky.

I’m excited and greedy, but I don’t think asking for general tactics against all classes is a good idea!!

I’m mostly an sPvP player, in gold tier, played since 2012 casually. Now running Menders Druid.

1. While I know Druids are fairly good at pushing far, I’m not doing as well as I should fighting side-node builds. I find myself kiting and giving up the node too often. Advice against Condi Mes 1v1 when I cannot avoid (please answer this if nothing else) and handling Thief +1’s would be nice. Is there a way to stay on point with a DH popping traps?

2. Should I be 1v1’ing the Engi at all? What are our best matchups?

3. Is there a way to cancel pet F2s? When would you recall your pet in a fight?

4. What is our best damage pressure tool as a Menders Druid? And what are some of our best bait-casts?

5. How would you do a solid power rez under heavy cleave?

6. Teammate on point is around 20% health under focus and needs emergency spike heal. What should I do in terms of skill priority?

7. Compared to Engi, what unique skill set do we offer to the team?

I’m a solo Gold-tier casual who plays for the daily.

The combat system is just overtuned, with a very short TTK compared to other MMOs (it feels more like a MOBA in terms of pace). It seems very difficult to balance to me.

Right now we are in a meta where survival is based on CDs and good dodging, which does require more skill than previous bunker metas where the defensive boon spamming and tank amulets can carry you more. Bunker meta bores players and this is why we are having a faster paced meta now.

Frankly I feel spike damage has been toned down noticibly, and is a lot more manageable. With the amulet changes though, the top end of tankiness has of course decreased.

Elite specs are just overall better specs and not a sidegrade, which limits the build diversity you can build for while still competing with other elite specs. We have given up and settled for overall representation/viability of a class over diversity.

For teamfights, the game has evolved to the point where cleave is immense and node-sitting simply isn’t an option a lot of the time. Along with amulet changes, this means more than ever defensive CD usage (or rather, conserving by positioning) is key.

I’ll admit the CDs are carrying me a bit (a lot), but I find the current meta ok – a bit fast for my taste, but nothing unplayable.

If you’re 100-0’ing and getting 100-0’d in turn, you would have to be playing something all-in like Power Mes. Getting +1’d without CDs up is another matter, and even then you’ll know what killed you.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I just thought of what may be a happy solution: We could support the posting of the video in the profession section, if it related to playing the profession, but house a thread that links to various videos here on Community Creations.

Possibly best of both worlds… ?

English isn’t my first language, so I think what is said in the below paragraph is basically what you describe.

I think what could work is if any profession specific video is posted in the profession’s forum, a copy or “link thread” gets generated in Community Creations. CC can be treated like a twitter notification for these WvW/PvP videos, and people who are good at certain classes can give advice in the class specific forums, the “main” thread.

Because frankly, CC has a lot of types of content and generated at a fast enough rate that one specific thread will be easy to lose track of in there.

A recent gripe is that I found a Necro WvW gameplay video, with link to an even more insightful Necro vs Thief matchup discussion, in CC – but only because I found the link through google first. Without google, I would have no idea this thread existed, because it had been buried in CC 20 pages ago, while if it were in the Necromancer forum, I would have been willing to flip through a few pages to find something nice.

The author of the discussion even removed the Necro vs Thief video in the thread to prevent it from being moved to CC.

It’s fairly demotivating to make content with commentary and editing, put it up and get discussion going… then get it “deported” to CC where people with the potential to raise their gameplay simply can’t be asked to trow through CC to find a title that says “PvP” + “Druid” + “Commentary” etc. while buried beneath “WvW Thief roaming #956824” “my favourite cute little rat in Ascalon I kill for Life Force” “RL cooking using GW2 recipes!!” “GW1 story recap redux addendum postscript remarks” “nice waterfall screenshot I drew” “surreal Norn impressions”……

Here it’s just a request for class specific PvP videos, but I’ll also add that class specific WvW videos also share similar traits.

It’s 1-class focused, has content about intense player interaction, and generates very useful discussion, often on the level of tutorials – I would argue that while comprehensive basics class guides have their place, gameplay PvP/WvW videos are for those who have the basics down and are trying to branch out and improve their gameplay.

It would be very natural for a player, seeking advice on a certain class, to visit the class specific forum and post/look for gameplay videos, ask questions in them, discuss with better/different players. This is the most condensed and efficient way to handle class learning.

I’m not opposed to the idea of putting these content in Community Creations, if it brings the same convenience. Right now, it’s an unsorted mess, we don’t have mode specific tags, and it would be silly to implement an informal agreement on the format of thread titles just so we can sort created videos by mode and class…

Thanks shadowpass.

Ranger is still new to me. While S/D allows a lot of margin for error, LB’s lockdown is great for pressure. The intricacies of LB escaped me completely, and what you said will probably save me around 300 games/many hours in WvW flopping around.

Saiyan.1704:

Unless you’re a thief who decaps far, rotate mid to +1, rotates to home to +1 and win node, back to far to decap, rinse and repeat.

It’s why thieves are becoming/are OP in Conquest. They literally carry games with their +1 and decapping abilities. No other class carries nearly this well.

You either have a Thief to do these things, or you have to be able to counter the Thief by holding up the +1.

Builds have also been historically dependent on the Thief for making into the meta – you can either fend it off, or you have so much utility that risk of getting ganked by Thief is justified.

Rev was an interesting addition in that it was for a while, more Thief than Thief.

Yeah, I think a mentor system will be very nice – nothing better than player feedback in such an interactive mode of play.

Scripted tutorial showing crucial rotational knowledge would be nice, like an instanced story kind of thing (I dread the bugs).

If we can get AI updates for the class NPCs in HotM, it would be great as well. I mean, we don’t have to go as far as getting pro players to program these NPCs with meta builds and move priorities (like the FF12 Gambit/Macro system), but at the very least, teach the most used combos so we can practise dodging them. The current NPCs are like 50 metas ago.

SweetPotato.7456:

What are you talking about! Rev is one of the hardest to play profession! do yous see many who play it!?

All this legend switching is triggering me greatly. I’m still learning the rotations.

When I get Sword auto down I think I will try to press Sword 3.

Full glass Power Shatter has always been gimmicky and super vulnerable to Thieves, in exchange for their all-out, manly, one-shot power. SD Engi and LB/GS Zerk Ranger are same tier I think.

If you’re really going all the way ham, S/D Zerk Ele with Arcane utilities and Killshot Warriors are also on the list.

It’s an insane tradeoff for instant gratification, and if you play it, you have to succeed (or you’re just gonna get wrecked), so there’s nothing really OP about it.

RedCobra.7693:

people who usually just say “im losing because of bad teammates all the time” are very likely the players that dont understand these concepts.

I’m just a gold tier that floats around and only does daily, but in the PvP guilds that I joined this mentality is extremely common.

They won’t duel to improve their skills and blame matchup (but keep pushing into bad matchup because of “grudge”), they boast about “no one can kill me” or “watch them run lol” but have no concept of rotations and the team game (never retreat), and focus far too much on “personal success” while knowing nothing about managing downed state. Not to mention rarely, the people who are afraid to rotate alone and always go “I’ll follow you”… do you want us to hold your hand?

Then sure as eggs we’ll go “bad team” to pad the loss. Nothing learned.

I lose focus all the time, and can’t set a good example, but I think regardless of tier the basics of matchup and rotations should always be kept in mind for conquest, which newer players lack. Even with my limited play time, just thinking about and studying rotations has benefited me greatly – the rotation game has changed greatly since 2012 core days.

This means that in the Gold-tier games where the enemy team is doing better, because people usually fight & die on point, I have to basically wait for a good mid fight (druid/engi rez power), then push far and attempt 1v2 for the latter half of the match to carry the game (anyone on druid/engi can do it, nothing to be proud of). A Thief on the team that knows what he’s doing (and occasionally Mesmer that uses Portal) makes this a lot easier.

Of course rotations are a lot more elaborate than just win mid push far outnumber, and play out in reaction to the result of teamfights, but at the point when your team is actually making good decisions, because of the matchmaking system, it will be more often than not, one sided stomps, instead of the intense close games we all want.

huluobo.7036:

You’re just arena dogs

I won’t scatter your sorrow to the heartless sea. I will always be with you. Plant your roots in me. I won’t see you end as ashes. You’re all legends. We’ll make legends from bronze, take them into battle with us. We are Arena Dogs.

I think I saw a Guardian in my last Ranked game called “Im Here For Pips”.

So you’re having problems with Thief?

If you want to hit an enemy in melee who’s weaving in and out of you, you can stand still, and let go of your Right Mouse Button, then hit your Axe skills. The skill, without RMB will track your target while channeling automatically.

If you’re fighting a Thief with Pulmonary Impact, try to blind/daze/fear before attempting a channel, and check if he used Steal as well. If he’s just spamming Headshot, sheathe your weapons and try your best to kite and not get hit by his Dagger autos. Let him burn his initiative then you can cast safely for a period.

For Invulnerability, just wait out the CD, don’t try to hit them in melee. If it’s a Warrior with Endure Pain/Berzerker Stance, kite it, use jump puzzles, stay as far away as you can. If you can’t, control, shroud, or dodge his skills to wait it out.

For Blocks, you have a lot of unblockables in your Staff Marks and Warhorn. If it’s a Guardian who popped his blocks, use your Staff marks, chill and kite him out, or use your Axe 2 and wear out his aegis/focus.

You don’t just stand there and tank a 1v2 1v3, you run around obstacles, slow them down, and try to buy time. If you can’t kill anyone in a 1v2, you don’t need to try. Just hold out until teammates come.

That’s also quite a lot of games played (and you’ve posted many entertaining threads), shows your determination. I think if people piped in to help, and you take something away from the advice, you’ll pull ahead of the 50% winrate you have.

I would think Ceimash’s advice is the general gist of how to deal with a Warrior.

Most Warriors will actively try to get into melee with you so there’s no merit to holding the point then eating 2 F1s and popping all your CDs and dying to +1.

Maintain distance, and most Warriors will initiate fairly predictably with a stun like Headbutt which you can dodge (and screw him over for the next 10 seconds).

If you didn’t, you have Foot in the Grave, wait for the entry into Berzerk and corrupt that stability to stop his momentum.

At this point he’ll probably use Zerker Stance so kite that thing out if you can’t corrupt. This is where that RNG comes in handy if you have Sigil of Revocation, or you can force him below 50% with Power Necro.

If he has no Zerker Stance and is out of Berzerk, you have a good window to load him up if he doesn’t decide to gtfo. This is where you can weakness + Shroud brawl him down.

shadowpass.4236:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9CCOsActgFCB75LMt6ZLluAQVDurOWbrl8s0A-TFSEQBZUJ472f4APAAGq8rfq/AgjAwAuEAsTXQAAEgbezs5ND8zf+zhO0h2NP6NP6NvZpA+WvF-w

I would have to fur up pretty badly to die with this build. Think I’m gonna try this out. Before that though, I think I need some more 1v1 experience on LB.

Crit rate don’t seem to be a problem since I’m not going to be the one doing the damage anyway (Bristleback OP), though it’s probably rather easy to get Fury when I need it.

(I run this though, because I’m broke:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglZBD+fWQfoOTt5UW7JAUn+WlI9zA-T1hEwAYV2RVpwM1fut/AClgAMBdSXApAiYkF-w)

Vitali.5039:

RedCobra.7693:

let me summarise:

“Help im a sub-par player having trouble with a non viable cheesy build that has no place in competitive pvp”

Snakes are truly toxic

Where’s that purple moss when you need it?