Guild Wars 2

Le Rooster.8715:

I’d also like to add we’ve done very well so far this week we have a 80k point deficit atm from Tarnished Coast and we still have minimal WvW guilds, i’d say we’re doing quite well.

I’d say SoS and Mag are both doing quite well this week. This has turned into a fine matchup with good fights around the clock. Yeah, the raw score’s not close, but it’s actually pretty rare in WvW for the score to still by in doubt after Sunday night. SoS is winning the delta.

I like servers that can keep bringing it regardless of the scoreboard because there are good fights to be had. I’ve seen fresh tactics this week and had fun every time I logged in.

I look forward to the rest of this match, and facing you all again in the future.

ParaldaWind.4523:

So, since BO5 are dumb…

Haha! I was reading fast and I thought it said the 80s were dumb. Whew, that could’ve started an argument!

CrimsonHandHiro.9574:

I think some of your guys left some stuff back in the Keep. There’s a few War Banners and Discarded Garments, we’ll just keep them in the lost and found for later.

Oh, thank you! Also, did anyone happen to find a spleen? I lo—- er, uh, I mean, MY FRIEND lost it in there, and I’ll get it back to them.

Proper respect to Maguuma [NOVA]. You all had a great, well-timed, well-coordinated effort to deny TC supply last night on MBL.

When we started to get serious about defending supply lines, you wiped the siege in Vale twice, and we had to commit more and more people to be successful. And I never saw /laughs or other silliness. NOVA knows how to play WvW and knows how to bring it. Well done.

When I first played with the torch, I just liked it, despite the silliness of breathing blue fire out of my mouth. So I’ve stuck with it, ankitten earing 80 and WvW time.

For those who do use torch in WvW, how do you get the most out of it? I do have +20% to burning foes from 10 Zeal and 25 Radiance. Are there other things you like to run with torch (teleport to foe?) or things you do in battle to make your torch more effective?

I have it paired with scepter for the ranged option and the immobilize.

Have any torch tips? Thanks.

Very helpful, thanks Defektive.

The tooltips are not high-quality compare to the rest of the game.

Skill tooltips are sometimes a little vague, trait tooltips can range all the way down to “awful.”

Here’s a made-up example that rolls many of my pet peeves together:
“Has a chance to burn nearby foes when you receive a critical hit.” Really? What’s the percentage chance? How long is the burning? Is there a cooldown? What does “nearby” mean?

Would be nice to have this info right in the game for all skill and traits and not have to tab out and go digging in the wiki.

I run swordhorn/greatsword in WvW. Do the sword2, greatsword3, and /or greatsword5 evade attacks? How are they affected by lines of warding, cripples, chills, etc?

I try to observe, but there’s usually so much going on in a battle (particle effects everywhere) I can’t get a read on these things.

IT’S MAGIC.

No, actually, I totally agree with you. Goofy skill. And yet, I’m glad I have it!

That’s a really good idea.

After months of fighting each other, FA and TC look forward to fresh challenges. New tiers, are unveiled, FA and TC turn to each other and say…

Peetee.9406:

The one up and one down system would have produced dramatically better results.

I can’t agree with you there. In a quick count, I saw 3 servers that moved more than one tier up or down. With 1U1D, you’d have servers in every tier (except 1 and 8 ) that were 2 tiers away from each other last week.

I’m not sure I’m a fan of the new system — I was worried about mismatches when they announced it — but some servers are doing better than expected. Look at the rating points Sea of Sorrows and Crystal Desert are gaining right now. No, SoS isn’t winning, but they’re fighting like wolverines in tier 2.

Clearly the glicko numbers weren’t predicting actual performance, as many of the lower-ranked servers are shown gaining points right now.

Maybe alternating weeks would work. After 2 or 3 straight weeks of these random-weighted matchups to allow the glicko to repair its numbers a bit, do one week of straight tiers followed by 1 week of random-weighted. Rinse, repeat. Guaranteed the most balanced matchups one week with a chance for some variety the next.

I’m almost exclusively WvW, here’s my list:

1. Wrecking zergs with Static Field

2. Damage bath!

3. Scrubbing siege off wall tops

4. Rapid attunement-switching to activate “on weapon swap” sigils

5. Can almost always make it through a zerg into a friendly doorway

Heh heh… all this just made me imagine FA and TC linking elbows, dancing, and singing “Cameraderie.”

kittybock.5683:

I have lead TCBL almost daily for 5 months…. I salute my Guild, Primal Fury and the TC Militia, with whom I have spent many a 10 hour day….but I am, sadly, looking for another server.

salutes and drops tag

Kitty

Kitty, many many people, commanders and soldiers alike, know how effective you were with a very diverse group of players.

Wishing you the best in your gaming future, but also….

saving a spot for you here— just in case.

Current powerhouse?. Waiter, I’ll have whatever Dhampyr’s having.

My only interest in staff was for the speed, though I know some like staff 1 for tagging in WvW. When I found out that sometimes the speed symbol doesn’t even pulse as I run over it, I discarded it altogether.

Now I’m just slow and dependent on the charity of others. =)

Korbaal.6402:

Bet you cant even notice this pic is edited.

You are now my favorite Guild Wars 2 player. Welcome to T2! Help yourself to the cookies.

Mandar.9813:

TC and FA are expecting to show us who is boss and put us in our place as T2 noobs…

No. Servers that scrap their way up to T2 do not simply get smacked back down. It is known.

Welcome, Dragonbrand. And hats off to you and FA for that can of whupass you opened on DBBL last night at reset. We were hard, hard pressed, but it resulted in some of the most interesting and novel engagements we’ve had in a while; not always the same old spots doing the same old attacks and defenses.

ninjambo.3784:

The thing i hate though is when they dont outnumber you 3 to 1 they all seem to get urges to go into towers and stand on the walls. Its really weird but its a trend I’ve been seeing lately :/

We’re playing out an important chapter in our character’s development that we’ve been plotting for weeks over lattes at Starbucks. Please don’t interrupt our discourse on self-doubt, dragons, and The Hero’s Journey until we get to the bottom of the script. We probably also have a couple people at any given time erping behind the supply shed.

If I have Retaliation up and someone I have not damaged hits me with an attack, does that tag them for purposes of me getting credit if they die?

Tallis already said it very well, but I’ll repeat. Our goal in filling our coverage gap was not to make it to T1, but to alleviate the frustration of having a great night (NA) and wake up to find every last bit of progress scrubbed away because we just didn’t have players.

On the TC forum, there’s no talk about a push for T1.

Shroom.9026:

Lanimal.6541:

Where is WM?

Taking a break, enjoying other games.

Thanks for stopping by with actual information, Shroom! Is there a particular game making a splash, or are people into lots of different titles?

And yeah, KN Garrison was 2v1 last night. With two servers trying to take it, and only one to defend, KN was under a lot of pressure, but fought like honey badgers.

There was a funny moment as the TC zerg zoned in and started swimming across the map to the SE gate instead of the SW we might have been expected to attack. We saw a sea (literally) of Aspenwood heading that way. Our commander said a single word which would appear on this forum as “kitten,” and we all went into evasive maneuvers like a flock of sparrows when a hawk appears.

It’s been kind of a golden age for tier 2 these past 5 weeks. Zero blowouts, but not static either. KN and TC have each had a crack at every color. (Hooray for our world completionist friends!) The fights have been intense and often relentless. Cookies to the people on all three servers who keep tier 2 hoppin’.

Neeho.3859:

For staff, Fire 4, Water 4, Air 3, and Earth 2, 4, & 5 are all abilities to help you get away or prevent a melee character from quick closure.

My staff elementalist is awfully useful in WvW. Yes, when I get splattered, it is often because someone closed on me. Every build, every class should have tradeoffs. My ele can scrub siege off walls and rain death on enemy groups. She can area heal allies and stop enemies. Gotta be a weakness somewhere. When I get too tired of being squooshy, I go play my warrior for a while. If he wants to get siege off a wall, he needs a trebuchet.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Best-and-worst-classes-for-WvW/page/2#post1735204

In that thread, elementalists are consistently listed in the top 2 most useful WvW professions.

Staff is weak 1v1 PvP, but I don’t see how to buff it without OPing the class in larger WvW fights.

Thanks for the replies. Have any staff eles tried this in WvW? Does it save your bacon when people close on you?

I’d be giving up Sigil of Force, so I’m inclined not to change.

Does Sigil of Hydromancy work as the tooltip says it does? I have it on my warrior’s weapons. It says nearby foes (plural), but I haven’t been able to confirm it hitting more than once.

And what is “nearby”? Will it freeze anyone I’m targetting if they’re within weapon range?

I avoided the “on weapon swap” sigils because I thought, ideally, a staff ele is not “nearby” his enemies. Will it still chill them if they’re at normal staff range?

Murderin.8269:

I transferred (to T2) from T1 and the zergs are nearly as large. Especially Kaineng during certain times of the day.

This is true. I love my Coast and we have great competition in T2, but it’s not the best place for a 5-person team to find other small teams to fight.

During the week, a small team can get things done (cap camps, etc.), but when there’s enemy contact, it’s usually. Not… a 5-person team.

I missed most of last night, sacked by the lagbeast, then imprisoned by the queuemonster. Oh, well, went to bed, just means I’m fresh for this morning.

Serious question: I know there are some people who feel that, on an enemy borderland, it’s best if the two southern servers don’t seriously push each other, and instead both profit more by heading north. So I expect to be 2v1ed when I’m on TCBL. Is this a widely-held view, or do a lot of people see each borderlands as a wide-open free-for-all?

It seems awfully hard to get past Bay/Hills if you start in the south, because the northern towers are only supplied by north camp. And yeah, I’m rambling now.

Have a week of great fights, everybody!

IRSyKo.5843:

You guys are doing really great work in FA BL tonight TC.

Thanks. You all gave us absolute hell the night before as we tried to take Bay. And tried. And tried. In fact, if anyone sees my spleen lying around under some siege, please mail it back to me.

Looks like congratulations are in order to FA for getting the best of us this week, and to Kaineng for extending their streak. Tier 2 is a great place to be right now.

Fantastic, thoughtful post. I’m bookmarking it. (And changing my build.)

I like a lot of your choices. Take a look at Glyph of Storms, some people really swear by the blind ability in earth attunement.

Also, look at some of the defensives like Arcane Shield and Mist Form. Your staff skills will provide a lot of damage, and if you rotate attunements, you’re probably not going to need to spam utilities for damage. So use them for survivability. I usually run Shield because it can be popped while channeling Meteor Shower without interrupting your channel.

As a great elementalist once said, “When you’re dead, your DPS is zero.”

Quenta.2978:

This been quite a fun match up so far.

Agreed! The scores are more competitive than a lot of matches, and not because of scissors-paper-rock time zones, but because of really even forces. I’ve seen some great battles this week, and some novel ones. Attacks and defenses from directions I’ve never seen on the Borderlands before.

Our guilds on TC are fantastic. They’re efficent (dare I say “ruthless efficiency”) and organized, but they’re also very welcoming and will integrate you or your guild into our effort. Nobody acts like they own the server. Some of our most effective and appreciated guilds are former transfers.

We go toe-to-toe with anyone — when we’re on the map — that’s why we could really use more Oceanic/ Asian/EU players!

Master of Timespace.2548:

A fact

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Dragonbrand: I could not find my spleen on the battlefield of DBBL before I left last night, so I assume you are holding it as a prisoner of war. Please contact me to discuss terms. I am willing to fork over large amounts of cookies to ensure its safe return. My other organs, recently returned to their rightful places by a skilled priestess of Dwayna, look forward to a reunion.

Yikes., Coral! Hope you feel better.

Hey, I just dropped in to bring the chocolate fountain for the cookie buffet? Where you all want it? Greets, DB and Mags! Let’s do this! And let’s do it with cookies!

No, it’s not fair. It’s not designed to be. The sPvP is supposed to be more carefully balanced. WvW offers some different experiences, including large-scale battles. But by the nature of what it is, it’s difficult or impossible to make it “fair.” Some of us really like the challenges it offers, even if our server doesn’t have an even chance of winning a given match.

So it is what it is.

I do understand the beef of world completion players who have to hope for the WvW team to pull off a miracle. I’m not sure making it part of world completion was a good idea.

I have a guardian currently at level 25 and my main focus with my 80s is WvW. I’m not sure if I’m going to like the playstyle in WvW. It seems a guardian would have trouble getting around the map quickly, and not output especially good damage.

So IF you like playing a guardian in WvW, what’s your role, and what do you enjoy about it?

Zombie, what a great way to share your talent! Thank you for what you’re doing for the community.

CroBoi, this could be the high point of my day.

I am from the USA, so I can only speak for my culture. Readers from other areas, feel free to add your perspective.

I see a lot of posts on this forum from people dissatisfied with WvW because their server does not have a good shot at having the highest final score in a matchup. Obviously that score measures something or we wouldn’t bother to record it. But must we accept it as the only meter of the value of an activity?

Guild Wars 2 is a game. And it’s not even a real game. It’s 1s and 0s, pixels of light. No one can win a college scholarship or a big free-agent contract by winning a WvW championship. Jade Quarry players have yet to appear in Nike commercials.

In the USA, we have this focus on championships in our culture. If a team doesn’t win the Super Bowl, their season was a failure. If a golfer beats 154 players out of 156, he or she “lost.”

Was my sports team’s season a failure if they didn’t win the league, but I had some great times with friends, enjoyed some wins, and saw some amazing performances and thrilling finishes along the way? It was a disappointment, but not a failure.

We’re robbing ourselves of the full enjoyment of our (or our team’s) accomplishments. If I’m playing a game with friends, hit the shot of my life, but my team loses the game, that was still a pretty great shot. It’s still a time to enjoy and a story to tell later.

There’s nothing real at stake in WvW. We can choose what our definition of fun is. If we need a “scoreboard,” we can pick the final score, or we can tally how many badges we get. How much karma, how many levels, how much guild influence. We can try to leave the map redder than we found it. We can hope for a daring escape or kill to remember.

If we have to win the final score to have fun, we’re robbing ourselves of some good times.

Some may say that’s the mentality of a loser. I say, if I have more fun than you, I win.

WvW is a more satisfying game if one focuses on winning battles and making progress while one is online, and less on the final score.

What does the final score even matter? Does the winner get a pony?

Ungood.3054:

Really? Things look evenly matched to you? Lets have a look at the numbers then, humm shall we.

Tier 2:
Blackgate – 231
Kaineng – 192
Tarnished Coast – 140

That is near a 40K difference between 1st and 2nd, and a 90K Difference between Blackgate and Tarnished Coast.

This has been a great matchup for me on Tarnished Coast. Great fights everywhere I turn. I would much rather play in a tier where I have competitive battles and lose the final score than to play in a tier where the final scores were nearly even, but the battles were PvDoor because of timezone differences or whatever.

I’d also rather face the 4th and 5th best servers, if I’m number 6, than the 8th and 10th.

I understand that other servers may not be as satisfied as I am, so I don’t presume to speak for you. But, judging by out community forum, a lot of people on TC are energized about the current matchup and look forward to in continuing.

Also, I think Kaineng and Blackgate very much enjoy the cookies we serve at our yakwalks.

I use signets of water, air, and fire. The passive speed buff of air is very handy moving through the lake in wvw. Activate water early and often to ruin a player’s day. I like the pre and burn fire gives me, but your mileage may vary.

Staff elementalist is a strong choice for tower defense. I’m not sure about the value of summoned weapons in that role, but none of our elites are that great, so you might as well try out the fiery greatsword.

Jayne.9251:

brought to you by our naked golem!

Oooo! Sassy!

Karuna speaks true.