Guild Wars 2

haviz.1340:

mosspit.8936:

Does make me curious how did they get those “free slots” though…. /Rhetoricalquestion

Why is it rhetorical? Guild/Friends running legitly path 4 until last boss isn’t conceivable?

More likely to have kicked a payer out of the team, earn 20g per moron who pays.

It’s a clever business.

It’s definitely allowed.

It’s also disgusting and everyone in their right mind should block the players of this “PR” guild.

If only he had 40% less HP.

Many of the bosses have far too much HP. Jellyfish for example.

Nerf his HP and buff his attacks. We’re not in there to prove our patience, we’re there to prove our skill.

Usually you need to actually head up to the instance portal and just click Enter Explorable regardless of whether it says you’re joining your party or making your own.
In regards to slot selling – yuck. Just yuck.

Well, there’s the toughness condition precision amulet.

Race: Human
Sex: Female

Assassin’s Coat and Vigil Leggings

Dat seam

Also, hair when running: http://i.imgur.com/3W7Ax.jpg

Absolutely great idea! Except everything besides the kill streak.

Having a text over your screen going “X is on a killing streak” would be great.

Everything else you’ve posted is garbage.

It’s there because options are nice.
And don’t even start with LoL, it doesn’t strengthen any arguments whatsoever. Especially not when compared to an MMO that is best compared to a shooter, like Team Fortress 2 for instance. Multiple team sizes, multiple servers.
And I really hope you were joking when you decided to mention LoL here. It’s about as far from Guild Wars 2 as any game could ever be.
The only similarities that could possible connect LoL to Guild Wars 2 is matchmaking. And that’s not really there either is it :/

I’d go with Bomb kit because of Big Ol’ Bomb, and other good control options such as the blind field (which you can use to stealth through using your shield 4 ability)
Flamenommer’s blind is bad, all it has going for it is the damage and the single knockback.

urinfamousr.7631:

the problem with thiefs is 1 they have no cd on their skills

they have no cd on their skills

no cd

Get out.

Brinson.7289:

Archonis.7249:

urinfamousr.7631:

Pyrial.2917:

The other problem is there is no real penalty for bad play with the initiative system. If you miss an ability, for instance using HS out of range (or it being dodged) you should be penalized with additional initiative use.

just REMOVE initiative its stupid we all have cd’s except the thief class…

If you remove the initiative system, you do realize that the people that are QQing about how OP we are will still be QQing. Due to the fact that IF they take out initiative, they will have to buff our individual weapon skills and adding extra affects to our abilities to compensate. So in essence, we will hit even harder and be given more durability in straight up fights.

Umm your skills are your skills; why would they need to do something extra special?
They aren’t auto attacks you know….

Probably to add up to the now broken class that is supposed to excel at single-target burst damage, which, by removing initiative, will be severely underpowered unless of course buffed accordingly to hit hard enough to compensate.

Also, fun fact: Initiative is a curse. Instead of having several cooldowns ready, all your cooldowns are ONE cooldown.
How kittened is that?

Arheundel.6451:

Rezz.8019:

What exactly would thieves do if they didn’t have HS? Wouldn’t they just be useless? Mesmer should have portal nerfed/removed, other than that it’s perfectly fine.

You mean removing the auto-face/leap/finisher skill? Well maybe you’ll learn to play without relying on a broken skill…just maybe lol

Agreed, it’s absolutely broken. Not overpowered though, it just has a mind of it’s own, making you jump all over the place. That’s broken.

This is indeed the case, which makes the Vigil Legs quite useless unless you wear a trench-coat – something that the game has way too many of.

Please fix this

You mean the ogres?
They’re not exactly greenskin.

Regardless, it COULD work, although I doubt they’ll have a high chance of becoming a playable race, based on the fact that they value pets more than anything, meaning Ogres would preferably, if not always be, a ranger.

Bichpwner.4012:

We’re more likely to see the current bosses get improvements and changes over time, easier than redesigning the entire PvE dungeon endgame I’d imagine.
It’s a solid point you’re making though, so many of the bosses really are basically mobs with higher health

I believe they were going to redesign most of the dungeons to be able to compete with Fractals. Of course, I would provide the source but it slipped out of my hands ._.

Here’s the deal: Orc/Orges, whatever you call them – Greenskins! are not a part of the Guild Wars universe, and they shouldn’t pop up out of nowhere absolutely unhinted.

If there’s ever going to be a new playable race, you might want to take a look at the other known races, such as the Tengu, Kodan, Quaggan, so on.

Thank god this isn’t ever going to be implemented.

I was also just about to link that trait, DreamOfACure :p

If thieves ran 50% slower while stealthed, there would be absolutely no reason at all to get a stealth-build.

Stealth does once again not mean invulnerable. I know that WoW allowed for a semi-sort of invulnerability, by only having AoE abilities deal damage to stealthers, but in Guild Wars 2, EVERYTHING is an AoE ability that can be used whenever you want to, target or not (of course with very very very few exceptions.) Meaning you can just swing your sword in the general direction of the now-permacrippled-thief, and he’ll die instantly.

This is a bad suggestion.

Fun fact: I was in a group where 3 members died at approx. 40%. We 2-manned it.

You need to keep moving, and keep an eye out for the arrow. Once you get the hang of it, I’m sure we can all agree that you can probably 2-man it from 100% if you were skilled.

Is there really no-one who would like an actual reward for doing the PvP daily?
I’m swimming in tickets and glory boosters, there’s not even any point in logging in to complete the daily.

Have PvP daily award 200 rank points and 200 glory as well.
Getting a ticket and a booster isn’t exactly amazing

It would seem you chose the wrong forum.

Ahem This needs a bump!
Please please please make the Wintersday music theme available for purchase or download or something, it’s so evil, yet so cheery. ermagerd!!

Stealth is fine. Get good. Win games.

Mmm, XX Intro

Probably because GW2 doesn’t encourage TPvP at all.

nerva.7940:

Logitech G9x or go home tbh. best bang for the buck. you get weights, durability, huge dpi, 9 buttons for $100.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104261

Razer is complete garbage. it’s cheap and breaks in less than a year. while my Death Adder felt great under the palm, it broke after 6 months of moderate use. Naga’s record isnt any better.

My record with Razer mice is great. My record with Razer keyboards however.

The mice are top-notch, absolutely perfect. You need to absolutely WANT to break it, for it to break.

BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T EVER USE THEIR KEYBOARDS

Rajani Isa.6294:

1.66 per 1 would be a faster recharge.

As in, instead of needing to wait 1 second for 1 second to go off your cooldown, you now need to wait 1.66 seconds before a single second has been recharged.

God, it’s so hard to explain :P

Evan Lesh.3295:

Rika.7249:

I believe it only affects the recharge rate. Meaning your cooldown doesn’t increase, a second just becomes 1.66 seconds.
So waiting for a 3 second cooldown with a 3 second chill on, will take you 1.66×3 seconds.
I might be wrong though.

I believe this is correct, but don’t quote me (I’d have to go check the maths). On a 3 second cooldown started at the exact same time as a 3 second chill, the the chill would end and leave the skill with 2 seconds left. The first 3 seconds to pass are recharging at 33% the rate, so only 1 second worth of time is cooled down, leaving 2 left after the chill is gone. Effectively turning the 3 second cd skill into a 5 second cd skill. However, you can’t always say that chill will add 1.66 * duration as cooldown to a skill because the skill may already be very close to finishing its cd. If this still isn’t clear or questionable, I can find some time to go dig into the code some more.

I was hoping you could generally say the following:
Your recharge rate for cooldowns is ALWAYS 1 second per second (if that makes sense?)
However, if chill is applied to you, then for the duration of the chill, your recharge rate is 1.66 second per second. Regardless of whether you have any cooldowns or not, the rate at which your cooldowns will recharge will be 1.66 seconds per second, as long as you have the chill condition on you.

If a cooldown is ready in 0.5 seconds, and chill is applied to you, the recharge rate is still 1.66 per second, meaning 0.83 seconds till your cooldown is ready, instead of 0.5 seconds.

Then again, I’m horrible with math. shiver

Poxxia.1547:

@Rika: You make it sound like thieves are brainless. You don’t stealth and stay in the same place or continue to run in the path you were running before. Unless I am surrounded by enemies who unload a lot of AoE that simple strategy is not really doing anything … like 90% of the time. And it is not because I am smart or they are dumb … but I am invisible. There is imho only 1 case where it works most of the times.

Even while saying this I cross my fingers for an AoE-nerf. Imho ppl are at times not even aware of what they are hitting.

You can still roughly follow the thief if you just land the first hit while he’s stealthed.
And if he’s a glass cannon, that one hit might blow him to pieces.

I believe it only affects the recharge rate. Meaning your cooldown doesn’t increase, a second just becomes 1.66 seconds.
So waiting for a 3 second cooldown with a 3 second chill on, will take you 1.66×3 seconds.
I might be wrong though. Also, Psikerlord, does it affect the ability to dodge? I thought only immobilize did that.

I use the naga. Just for convenience really.
It’s not “better” than an average mouse as is, but the side-buttons can be really useful once you get used to them. Instead of reaching for 6, for example, I just tilt my right thumb. Also ensures that my hands never leave WASD.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Rika.7249:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

But instead of attacking me personally

BlueprintLFE.2358:

then you must never have played a match in your life against an average level warrior.

Aha.

Also, according to you, multiple threads on same topic = must be true.

I see where you’re coming from. That’s just not the case at all.

And I will always fear an elementalist more than a warrior. Churning Earth can come out of nowhere.
100b needs to be initiated with something beforehand, or I can literally out-WALK it before it does any reasonable damage. It needs bolas or bulls-charge or something alike to be even considered a threat.
I’m keeping Quickness out of here, because I believe that’s the heart of the problem. Yes, that makes sense.

And it would seem we’re playing the same game, but your perspective is blinded by the amount of threads telling you sob-stories of how that one time, “a wurior chrgd meh n i deded, muz b OP”
And that’s all good and fair.

All you need to realize, is that far too many of these threads are written by people who raged because they played bad, and this needs to be justified by writing a rant on the forum.

And let’s face it. The “easiest” abilities to blame are abilities like Hundred Blades, Kill Shot, Evisc, Heartseeker, Backstab, Grenade Volley, so on. Cuz they feel cheap.
But that’s just because you lack the experience to see it coming.
You know it’s coming. Suck it up.
That’s what seperates 100b from Churning Earth.
It can come out of the blue. You think you’ve gotten out of its AoE. And then NOPE.avi

Mate I appreciate us having a level headed conversation now, no name calling available, but without you ever even knowing me how would you say I lack the experience to see it coming? I play TPVP as an ele (no surprise there) and I also play a downer as a high dps warrior so in fact I understand he warrior very well, I have a LOT of games logged in on a warrior, and if you know how to set up 100B on a good bunker target in the middle of a chaotic mid battle (say graveyard) you can easily land the whole combo. Now all this doesn’t matter because read my posts mate I’m not complaining about warriors damage or 100B or frenzy or the combination of those at all! I’m just disputing the fact about churning earth being more frightening, then a bull rush frenzy 100B warrior that knows what he is doing, (can wait for a target to be engaged with someone else, deliberately draw out stun breaks, or dodges, or chooses a target that the team needs out of play that is at half life, by the time they react hey will be dead.) a full blown GC 100b can kill you. From 100-75% to 0 depending in hp (trust me I have done it) A churning earth is not going to kill you unless you are already about dead anyways. Now a churning earth can Definitely help wear a target down no question there if they don’t pay attention to the bleed stack yes, but kill you with 4-6k damage? No definitely not.

Anyways mate good luck out there mate maybe I will see you in some TPVP or SPVP some time.

I sure hope so.
No grudges

BlueprintLFE.2358:

But instead of attacking me personally

BlueprintLFE.2358:

then you must never have played a match in your life against an average level warrior.

Aha.

Also, according to you, multiple threads on same topic = must be true.

I see where you’re coming from. That’s just not the case at all.

And I will always fear an elementalist more than a warrior. Churning Earth can come out of nowhere.
100b needs to be initiated with something beforehand, or I can literally out-WALK it before it does any reasonable damage. It needs bolas or bulls-charge or something alike to be even considered a threat.
I’m keeping Quickness out of here, because I believe that’s the heart of the problem. Yes, that makes sense.

And it would seem we’re playing the same game, but your perspective is blinded by the amount of threads telling you sob-stories of how that one time, “a wurior chrgd meh n i deded, muz b OP”
And that’s all good and fair.

All you need to realize, is that far too many of these threads are written by people who raged because they played bad, and this needs to be justified by writing a rant on the forum.

And let’s face it. The “easiest” abilities to blame are abilities like Hundred Blades, Kill Shot, Evisc, Heartseeker, Backstab, Grenade Volley, so on. Cuz they feel cheap.
But that’s just because you lack the experience to see it coming.
You know it’s coming. Suck it up.
That’s what seperates 100b from Churning Earth.
It can come out of the blue. You think you’ve gotten out of its AoE. And then NOPE.avi

I like how this guy acts like he knows the overpowered exploit, and ANet are acting like FBI, closely watching his every word in this thread, waiting for him to accidentally spill the secret.

PowerBottom.5796:

Oxstar.7643:

How to counter glass cannons.
Dodge or block.
Once their burst is done, kill them.

That’s how it should work, but it doesn’t with the two glass-cannon-classes widely considered IMBA; Thief and Mesmer.

There isn’t really an Option to give them any return-dmg, mostly because of invisibility.

Also, dodging is easier said than done, with Mesmer being able to stun and Immobolize you with skills that have a rather short CD.

With Thiefs, the Problem is, that they can just kill everything in an ongoing teamfight, where ppl have used up their defensive CD’s and maybe don’t have enough endurance to dodge. Besides, good thiefs tend to come out of nowhere, which makes it almost impossible to dodge the backstab, even with perfect map-awareness and reflexes.

It definitely works that way.
You can just swing your melee weapon in the general direction of the thief. He doesn’t go super-sonic speed by stealthing, unless he for some reason decides to use a teleport/steal.

I agree with Mesmers though, illusion shatters are impossible to avoid when all the illusions are stacked up at different ranges. You dodge the first one, you eat the other 2. You dodge the other 2 and you eat the first. Or you dodge both and have no endurance left, and then you’re in for a beating.

Xom.9264:

A MMO with a pvp system where you must avoid this god mode attack or die instantly will fail to ever have a decent size pvp player base. MMO players dont like that kind of 2 second fights game play.

“Or die instantly”
You have never died instantly to a HB warrior.
Never.

Also,
“A MMO with a pvp system where you must avoid attacks or die because you don’t want to avoid them will fail to ever have a decent playerbase. MMO players don’t like having to avoid stuff, or thinking in general.”

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Rika.7249:

Easy to avoid? Try kill shot.
Besides, it can already tear a glass cannon apart, like a warrior’s 100b.
Churning Earth is fairly wide aoe wise, and you can blink with it while it’s charging.
I’m infinitely more afraid of being immobilized next to a Churning-Earth casting ele, than I am being immobilized next to a kitten warrior.

Hahaha this made me Laugh out Loud. Good one, churning earth hits on an average for my non bunker specced ele for 4k damage with an 8 stack of bleed. Ooh terrifying… Immobilized next to a warrior is guaranteed death all things being equal, and no one else is around, trust me my warrior eats immobilized players. Pick your poison, he’s immobilized (in this hypothetical situation he’s not breaking the immob as you clearly pointed out by getting hit by long cast churning earth while immobilized) should I 8-15k hundred blade him? Should I 6-10k eviscerate him? Or should I destroy him with kill shot, which easily hits 8k…easily All of these warrior abilities wreck waaay harder than a churning earth Lmao. I don’t care about the HB argument on whether its op or not just stepping in to fight blatantly false information, if your more scared of being immobilized next to a churning earth ele, over being immobilized next to a GS/Axe/rifle warrior then you must never have played a match in your life against an average level warrior.

I have. The difference is, Churning Earth ends up doing 800 dps for x seconds afterwards. Oh, and did I mention he doesn’t even need to use an immobilize, he can just teleport right in, with the whole thing charged up. And then he can proceed with his usual elementalist business. Warriors have no business other than HB and Eviscerate. That’s the difference.

And nobody does to a single hundred blades, unless they’re asking for it by not using any sort of defensive abilities, walk around without an amulet, and shouting “SLAP MY BUTT WITH YOUR GREATSWORD.”

No. It doesn’t happen.
Seriously, it doesn’t.
And that’s why I fear Churning Earth more. It can come out of the blue, out of nowhere and eat your face – and that’s only the beginning, we all know what happens afterwards – the elementalist poses a threat! Unlike our heavy geared friends, who don’t pose a threat anymore, after they’ve burned their HB.
Also, define an “average warrior.” He’s pressing one button. The elementalist is pressing one button. You can’t press one button wrong. Especially not when your enemy is incapable of escaping.

But hey, I can tell you haven’t played Guild Wars 2 yet. I can highly recommend it, compared to whatever korean MMO you’re playing where warriors oneshot people, and elementalists are no threat.

MrQuizzles.6823:

Chriswck.6490:

Jasher.6580:

Rika.7249:

There’s no one-shots in the game, with the exception of Kill Shot and Backstab against really absolutely nakedly squishy targets.

100-blades hits X times. It’s not like it’s something that just falls from the sky and is unavoidable. It has a long cast time. Here’s a solution: Walk away. Dodge. You know it’s coming. You have NO excuses to not do anything about this one-trick pony build.

If you decide to eat the whole thing, then sure as hell you deserve to die.

The “LOL NOOB JUST DON’T GET HIT” argument is getting old. The point is, giving one ability the capability of taking your life from full to zero isn’t balanced. This “one trick pony” apparently doesn’t work on good players… only bad players right? So why have it in the game? To frustrate bad players and discourage them from playing pvp?
Obviously because it doesn’t work on good players am I right?

And 100b isn’t the only offender. I am looking at you too Thieves.

That is exactly why it is still in the game. If 100b successfully one shots the majority of good players, then perhaps your question will be slightly more substantial.

Clearly, you see the distinction between good and bad. This means that any bad players can get better, if they simply try. Granted, it takes time and perhaps a few more tries just won’t do yet. But saying L2P is getting old as an argument, when evidence clearly points in favorable of it, simply reflects your reluctance to accept how it is.

Honestly, the sooner you accept it, the sooner will you learn and move on to better things.

Yup, and that’s exactly why it’d be absolutely fine to have Churning Earth one-shot everything it hit like it rightfully should, as it is hands-down the single most difficult to use and easy to avoid skill in the game. I thank everyone here for the tremendous support they’re giving my idea. Almost everyone in this thread is making some really good arguments for it.

Easy to avoid? Try kill shot.
Besides, it can already tear a glass cannon apart, like a warrior’s 100b.
Churning Earth is fairly wide aoe wise, and you can blink with it while it’s charging.
I’m infinitely more afraid of being immobilized next to a Churning-Earth casting ele, than I am being immobilized next to a kitten warrior.

Holy smokescreen, what have you been smoking?

3 seconds daze on pry bar?
15 sec cooldown on battering ram?
Stealth-vision stunbreaker?

This is all very very unrealistic.

The only notably realistic / should be thing you have listed is picking up turrets.
But your suggestion is horrible.
Half the cooldown if you pick up your turret should be the case, not that whack.
And the downed state? Lol.
Increased thwack damage? Wow.

Esrever.8613:

I hope they remover cloaking or 50% of thief dps or 30% of thief’s speed.

TheGuy.3568:

Be realistic and try your very best not to troll.

Sheesh.

I hope they’ll release at least some of the content they’ve said they had in the works.

Thieves can still be interrupted.
Stability is a common buff. Most classes have some way of applying it. Engineers can use Elixir S to finish people.

Stealth finishers are the least unfair of all finishers.

Xom.9264:

Rika.7249:

Jason Segel.2908:

Seether.7285:

Jason Segel.2908:

My slot 2 has the same attack speed as you, yet deals a max of 7k, while you can easily to 19k-25k. I am specced with 60% crit damage, 2200 power, I should be able to hit you witha 19k-25k, yet you have probably very close to the same stats and hit so much higher.

Your ranged ability which can be used on the move should deal as much as the stuck-in-place melee attack? Please tell me more about game balance issues and your solutions for them.

Turn it into a stuck-in-place melee attack that deals the same amount of damage. Being able to move while casting it doesn’t really help much to begin with, that’s a null-point. So make it deal more than 7k damage then, make it deal 10k-13k, it only has 600 range have to be fairly close anyways, you can always “dodge out of it” according to you, so I SEE NO ISSUE.

Here’s the world according to Jason:

You take one swing out of the 10 in 100b, and you have taken them all.
There is no middle ground. You take none or you take em all. 0 damage or 13k.

Another fun fact about Jason’s world:
There’s no way to remove immobilization.

It’s like he’s playing an entirely different game.

Most the time there is no way to remove immobilization, burst skills are on much faster recharge then stunbreaks.

What game are you playing? Oh thats right you are playing faceroll unbalanced mode thinking its skilled play.

Oh, so you play an entirely different game too I can tell.

It sounds like you play a game with no means to remove conditions. At all.
And you have never heard of stunbreakers. And either you take 0 damage or you take 13k.

I’m afraid you’re mistaken, the game here is Guild Wars 2.
What are you playing?

Nekroseth.5186:

Whell thank you for the anwsers all!

THe B switching might help a lot.
I imagine free tournaments like Gw1 arenas, i liked them, but not even comperable to ab matches fun (atleast to me) . But if nothing else, we try it. The others might like it.

On side note : in my first years of mmo ing, araund 2004, when L2 started to kick in, i loved the pvp. I wanted to make big sieges, and so on.
But right now i feel bad abaut playing a chaotic, “run araund” with barely any players, or 1vs 200 man zergs.
In the last few years big scale pvp was a crap, and sadly gw2 didnt improve that by a lot. (my opinion)
But might give it a shot later araund 60?plus.

If we are at the point btw, might i ask what classes are best currently for pvp? Or what setups? I hear a lot of “bunker-Counter bunker” and stuff. Are team-class builds that important?
Any examples?
Thank you!

For tournament play, class-builds are very important.
Currently, Mesmers, Necros, Eles and Thieves are very strong. But I have to say, every class is useful in its own way. Anet has done a good job with that. Guardians are great bunkers, Engineers can be great healers/bunkers/roamers, warriors put a lot of pressure on points and rangers have been made a lot better with the last few patches.

What I’m saying is that there’s options for every class, so mock around with it and find a style you like, then perfect it

Jason Segel.2908:

Seether.7285:

Jason Segel.2908:

My slot 2 has the same attack speed as you, yet deals a max of 7k, while you can easily to 19k-25k. I am specced with 60% crit damage, 2200 power, I should be able to hit you witha 19k-25k, yet you have probably very close to the same stats and hit so much higher.

Your ranged ability which can be used on the move should deal as much as the stuck-in-place melee attack? Please tell me more about game balance issues and your solutions for them.

Turn it into a stuck-in-place melee attack that deals the same amount of damage. Being able to move while casting it doesn’t really help much to begin with, that’s a null-point. So make it deal more than 7k damage then, make it deal 10k-13k, it only has 600 range have to be fairly close anyways, you can always “dodge out of it” according to you, so I SEE NO ISSUE.

Here’s the world according to Jason:

You take one swing out of the 10 in 100b, and you have taken them all.
There is no middle ground. You take none or you take em all. 0 damage or 13k.

Another fun fact about Jason’s world:
There’s no way to remove immobilization.

It’s like he’s playing an entirely different game.

Jason Segel.2908:

Kaimick.5109:

Jasher.6580:

Kaimick.5109:

I have never been one shot every in this game, in fact I am thinking that a one shot is not even possible in this game. I am 100% sure you got hit with a few skills and you just didn’t notice in time.

19k-25k hundred blades is not uncommon.

yes and dodging is not uncommon either

Explain to me how you get out of a 3-4 second immobilize(which cannot be cured or removed). Takes 2 button pushes for a warrior to kill you. He can do it at ANY TIME HE CHOOSES.

Further proof you don’t know what you’re talking about. Don’t spread ignorance.

You dodge it.
No, seriously. That’s what you do. He uses bolas.
They’re very visible. Dodge it. Then you don’t even need to dodge the 100b. Problem solved.

Also:

Jason Segel.2908:

Explain to me how you get out of a 3-4 second immobilize(which cannot be cured or removed)

Jason Segel.2908:

Further proof you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I’m not entirely sure whether this is a bug or not, but it is disorienting and makes me sleepy for some reason:

Heart of the Mists. This place is very mist-y (which is to be expected), however!

I was fiddling around with my graphics options earlier, and I turned Post-processing off.
Suddenly, the world was sharp and full of life and colour!

Is this intentional? Is there some bug with post-processing?

Free Tournaments are not ranked, and are great for practice too!

You should definitely queue together in a Free Tournament if you want to play on the same team. That is sadly the only 100% guarantee that you are always on the same team.
Switching teams on random servers is sometimes unreliable, and teams might be scrambled every battle, so it’s not guaranteed, sadly.

A welcoming guide, with things you wish you had known!

Joining the same game
If your friends are in the same party as you, as soon as one of you joins a PvP match, you can rightclick the portrait of said friend, and click “Join in PvP battle.”
Alternatively, you can open the PvP browser, and look for the server with a “friend icon” – looks like 2 people next to each other, on the right side of the server. This means your friend is in this game. Though I’d prefer right-clicking your friend and join-
This will make you join the same game as them. However, it is not guaranteed that you are on the same team. BUT!

Teams
You can deal with this problem, by pressing B, and clicking the + on the opposite team. In most public games, people will come and go throughout the battles quite often. Keep an eye on the teams, and as soon as one team is uneven, have your friend join that team.

Tournaments
Free Tournaments are not as high-and-hardcore as you’d think! This is actually a preferred playstyle for many casuals, because the battles are more controlled, as they are only 5v5, compared to some of the 8v8 SPvP servers. You have nothing to lose and everything to win. You can queue alone as well! Just click “Join free Tournament”, and submit your roster, with only your name in it. If you want to play with friends, this is the way to go! Invite them to your roster and then submit it. If you win, there’s even sweet rewards waiting for you! I HIGHLY recommend that you and your friends join a free tournament. It’s great fun, and it’s nicely organized.

WvW
Not much to say here. It’s a bit like marmite. Either you love it or you hate it.
I’d give it a chance if I were you, you and your friends can make quite a difference in a small squad – more than you’d imagine!

Hope you’ll give everything a chance, and best of luck!

Jasher.6580:

Rika.7249:

There’s no one-shots in the game, with the exception of Kill Shot and Backstab against really absolutely nakedly squishy targets.

100-blades hits X times. It’s not like it’s something that just falls from the sky and is unavoidable. It has a long cast time. Here’s a solution: Walk away. Dodge. You know it’s coming. You have NO excuses to not do anything about this one-trick pony build.

If you decide to eat the whole thing, then sure as hell you deserve to die.

The “LOL NOOB JUST DON’T GET HIT” argument is getting old. The point is, giving one ability the capability of taking your life from full to zero isn’t balanced. This “one trick pony” apparently doesn’t work on good players… only bad players right? So why have it in the game? To frustrate bad players and discourage them from playing pvp?
Obviously because it doesn’t work on good players am I right?

And 100b isn’t the only offender. I am looking at you too Thieves.

Because it delivers some good pressure, controlled.
If I know I’m at the risk of taking a 100b to my face, I’ll want to save a cooldown for that. If I don’t, I’ll take that 100b in my face, or at least most of it. It is still a long cast time. Being hit by 3 strikes does not mean being hit by every strike.
You make it seem like that.
Also, why have any AoE abilities in the game? Only the bad players will be hit.
This logic does not work.

100b is what it is. It delivers some great, yet predictable burst. Suck it up and deal with it.
Also, let me just use your words against you:

100b is easily avoided by good players. Bad players are punished for this. Why have it in the game?
That is essentially what your argument is based on^
What you are literally saying by that is “Either you get hit by every strike or you get hit by none of them.”
So let me point out something for you: There’s actually a middle ground. You can take half of the hits. You can take 25% of the hits. Or 75%. That’s why it’s in the game.
It’s not a hit and miss, stop treating it like one. And stop saying one-shot. One-shot implies one ability with one damaging hit, that deals more damage than your target’s full HP.
Backstab can do that. Kill shot can do that. 100b cannot one-shot, as a single strike does maybe around 2k damage.

I don’t mind Fimbul’s abilities.

His health, however…