Guild Wars 2

Zumi.6384:

I’d be interested to hear what your mesmer is running, because that looks very similar to what we’ll most likely be doing. Seems like a good combination.

@Sars – That’s exactly what I mean, it seems to be mostly about using each other’s combo fields/abilities well as opposed to having the “correct setup”

I’ll check with him tonight. I don’t know much about his specific traits and such just what fields he drops for chaos armor.

We focus less on burst damage and mostly on high mobility with the exception being the bunker guardian. The nice part is it is easy for one of us to peel off and heal up/reset cool downs so we can usually soak up burst damage and outlast bunker groups. That said Mumble (or Vent/TS) is probably our best asset. Being able to quickly call targets of opportunity makes any group a lot more deadly.

We run a bunker guardian, ele with a little bunker/good damage, a mesmer which is still being fine tuned and a d/d thief with healing. This mix has been working really well for us.

We frequently run with 25 stacks of might from the guardian/ele and perma swiftness. The guardian soaks up damage, ele shares auras drops fields, mesmer clones add battlefield haze and a thief that pops in and out finishing off players who drop below 50%.

Like Theon Greyjoy when Ramsay Snow was blowing that horn outside Winterfell…

Bit of language in this GoT mashup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcQnpYy8JZ8

It would be great if the API exported the current player count for each map. I wouldn’t mind seeing them in the in game UI as well, but the API would be a fine upgrade.

This change could certainly add some fact into many of the WvW arguments as well as help players get a better idea of where they might like to transfer to.

Since there is no cap on the points we can have, is a respec really needed? We can always play more and put points where we like.

Mammoth.1975:

Straegen.2938:

…

I actually ran into a few [SFH] towards the start of the week and thought you guys were pretty good. Best group I’ve seen from either AR or BP so far.

Thanks for the compliment. We certainly try to put up a good fight with our small guild (about 5 of us total) but we do get rolled occasionally. I have really enjoyed SBI this week because of the high number of camp/keep players guarding and roamers you have.

We have found good opponents on both servers such as the “vt” hammer guys who dropped us fast when they caught us strung out last night. I want a rematch!

Jyeoi.6027:

For SBI a lot are PvE spec. Lol. I kinda force those who run with me to make certain builds and use certain skills, even then it’s not fully adopted. Stubborn bunch!

If you like I could tell you more, but I’d prefer if you transferred hehe

I think this is true of BP as well. I see LOTS of players who seem to run PvE builds and play like they are in PvE. Glad to have them aboard but I do get frustrated sometimes with their poor siege placement.

Kodiack.2783:

Straegen.2938:

Consider what you are saying: 90% of BP is a mess and that mess is beating both AR and SBI. Either a server is fighting well against a good opponent or getting hammered by an unorganized mess making said server ineffective. I simply don’t believe AR or SBI to be any less effective or more organized than BP hence the score being so close.

Since the lower tiers are more PUG than organized guilds, everyone around here is messy some of the time. We all have zergs running on our servers in this tier at different times of the day, we all have skilled skirmishers and we all have to fight out manned frequently.

There is no dishonor in admitting an opponent is worthy… there is dishonor in the opposite.

wow. some things never change. that’s a long winded way of using the tired ol BP line, “we’re not bigger than you, we’re just better”

Guess what. 90% of your success comes form fielding a larger force than your opponent. That holds true for every server in every tier. Yet somehow, magically, this does not apply to BP. And that’s your main problem. Every BP troll that has graced this forums has come across and a clueless nub that can’t admit that they win because they have more …. 8 months or so later BP still thinks it wins due to skill.

Did you read my post, assume I was talking down to your server, or just decide to post your own troll post? I know this is the internet but don’t people get tired of yammering on about the same pointless message particularly when it has little to do with the CC’d text?

Our servers in this match up are similar, the fights have been fairly well balanced and the OVERALL scores pretty close. Can we be happy that many of us have enjoyed a good match this week without getting into a kitten measuring contest without a ruler?

What is with BURN and GOAT leaving BP? I need a TMZ style scoop on this!

Kodiack.2783:

You know, when our two most recent opponents that have faced both BP and AR are saying the same thing. You might want to figure that there is something to what they are saying.

Consider what you are saying: 90% of BP is a mess and that mess is beating both AR and SBI. Either a server is fighting well against a good opponent or getting hammered by an unorganized mess making said server ineffective. I simply don’t believe AR or SBI to be any less effective or more organized than BP hence the score being so close.

Since the lower tiers are more PUG than organized guilds, everyone around here is messy some of the time. We all have zergs running on our servers in this tier at different times of the day, we all have skilled skirmishers and we all have to fight out manned frequently.

There is no dishonor in admitting an opponent is worthy… there is dishonor in the opposite.

Icy.1396:

Also you guys failed miserably to take any keeps last night when we actually had coverage… You must feel a great scene of accomplishment rolling our map when there is a total of 5 players on it.

I don’t want to take away from either side during that battle because I think that lessons both sides accomplishments. AR fought valiantly to defend Bay but BP did come incredibly close to capping a fully upgraded and supplied keep on a capped map where the defender has more numbers.

Also worth mentioning is that defense did save keeps but lost a castle in the process. Had SBI focused AR map during that time it is likely AR hills or AR garrison would have fallen. Again lots of good fighting and both sides deserve and atta-boy IMO.

Arale.4207:

Medals don’t mean anything anymore due to the volatility of the matches these days. Stomping a lower coverage server 6 times will give you 6 medals, but that doesn’t mean you are a top server in the slightest.

It will average out over time though. I don’t think many really care but it is an interesting stat to keep track of.

Gravy.7589:

In the open field, AR has better movement, with far fewer numbers and are just overall a better server to face. BP blobs and now that they increased their numbers to win coverage wars, people want to chest thump thinking its something great. They won the points battle and they get………wait for it………nothing! Have you’re points Blob Pass, but when you face any server that has the same numbers, you will get rolled.

Depends on the map and the group you are facing. Deltona’s squad can win facing a much larger force in the open most of the time. I haven’t seen anything like that group on either AR or SBI (doesn’t mean it isn’t there just haven’t seen in). EBay (Rekz, GF, GH) forged several of our better groups into really lean stacking machines. If you haven’t seen it yet, probably means you haven’t been in the BLs around NA Prime because they have been running up the points on BL maps. AR had to queue their map last night to defend against that squad in Bay losing SM in the process.

I would argue BPs weakness is actually defense. We rarely siege up any structure, hardly anyone refreshes siege when it is built, few do escorts or guard, REALLY poor supply management (keeping the newbs from squandering keep supply is common) and we frequently let upgraded keeps fall without a fight. SBI on the other hand does a good job keeping supply and keeps guarded. Rarely do I take an SBI camp or keep and someone (or lots of someones) show up to defend it.

Long overdue as many have noted.

I would suggest bringing in a handful of “Ancient” armor sets styled after some of the better armors in GW.

I like the idea of a weaponless class like a Druid using shape shifting or a Monk and martial skills.

I could also see going into the steam punk line a bit more and building a marksman or sharpshooter class focused solely around mechanical projectile oriented weapons.

Other choices that could be interesting are the Bard and Shaman.

I would take it a step further and add a checkbox to only show items that can be used by the player which would include armor, weapons and cut out the need to key in level requirements.

Is this really an issue worth addressing? I get why people want limited balance in WvW and good balance in sPvP, but PvE is you versus the game. We really shouldn’t care if one class has an easy button over another especially since wins are shared. PvE isn’t a competition. If a player wants to coast through it, pick a warrior. If they want more of a challenge, look at other classes. All classes can enjoy the content so what is the big whup?

Yenn.9185:

AR attacking the weaker of the two is expected.

My experience fighting AR is that I never really know who they are going to attack. They frequently run karma/xp trains but their commanders seize opportunity more than they press a consistent attack against a server. Given that both Ebay, SBI and BP can all field larger forces it should be no surprise.

Icy.1396:

Strong words coming from the server who is incapable of taking anything major on our bl and is scared kittenless of us in the open field… Go back to SBI bl while they are not playing to make yourself feel better about you points.

SBI currently is viewed as the larger threat since they came from a higher tier so BP has been focusing them. If AR takes the lead, I am sure they will find out how difficult it can be to fend off two focused attacks. Ultimately, none of us are immune from two front attacks since none of us can field sustained full forces on every map and rarely even field them on two.

Score update for this match

The Bronze, Silver, Gold system waters down the “Legend” concept in the game. It is far too easy to become a “Legend” currently and after a player gets it they get demoted in a sense a bit later to Bronze Infantry. Doesn’t work very well in my opinion.

Below is a suggested starting point. I think the community could modify it and create a fantastic list:

00 Initiate
05 Recruit
10 Cadet
20 Invader
30 Footman
40 Journeyman
50 Assaulter
60 Vanquisher
70 Raider
80 Scout
100 Guardsman
120 Soldier
140 Trooper
170 Crusader
200 Knight
250 Veteran
300 Commando
400 Sergeant
500 Master Sergeant
600 Captain
700 Major
800 Colonel
1000 Brigadier
1200 General
1400 Champion
1700 Grand Champion
2000 Legend

By stretching out the levels as a player progresses, a Legend title will likely be held by those that put in hundreds of hours of WvW play. This change would make the title far more meaningful.

On the mini map anyone noticed that players in your group show as green dots instead of blue? Seems to work fine off the mini-map.

Eyefinity and the like isn’t the problem, ANet did this one themselves. Failing to lock the Field of View on the client is a PvP sin. People who can see more have a big advantage and it pays off big time with ACs. Many FPS games lock it for this reason.

I think it is fine to unlock it in PvE so players can enjoy their rigs but they should level the hardware playing field as much as possible in PvP aspects of the game.

Archer.1658:

I just entered the twilight zone. AR more skilled than Ebay? I couldn’t laugh harder, I really couldn’t. There isn’t a single person on AR who beats me, literally no one, none of their top sPvPers come even close. BP isn’t even in the category of "average"outside of Kyle and Skullclamp.

In my experience the average AR 1v1 is more of a challenge than the average 1v1 Ebay player. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of 1v1 skilled EBays, just your average seems to be adjusted to zerg play and not skirmish as well as simply having more players so numbers wise EBay will have more bad players.

Yall do have some scary good mesmers though. I don’t like to use the OP phrase but some of the ebay ones certainly border on it. Our team has started calling it mesmer wars because about 50% of the EBay skirmishing population seems to be mesmer. AR seem to be heavily thief based.

I am still not sure why EBay believes they have more skill than everyone else in T5. They do excel at zerging in T5, but get rolled in T4 and have zero chance in T3. Are T4+ servers more skillful? Maybe I should transfer back to T3 so I would have more skill.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Kalkz, I blame the lack of strategy and skill for BP on you. Why? Because well…you ARE BP apparently~

As for Kalkz… he fights well, he leads from the front, knows when to toggle the commander flag and keeps going despite the odds. There are a lot of forum warriors around here, but at least he has the WvW stats to be knowledgeable on the subject and a value to a server in the game.

Kodiack.2783:

There is NO alliance between AR and BP. This is why you see blue on red map and red on blue map. It is an agreement, between a handful of guilds/commanders. There are plenty of BP/AR commanders/guilds that are not part of this agreement. Guess what, they are free to do as they please.

This really is an alliance. One need look no further than the assaults on Lowlands with AR and BP fighting within combat distance of each other but not attacking each other. Those were cross server coordinated assaults.

Also, BP nor AR launched major assaults against each others waypoint locations and AR has left SM alone while BP controlled it for the most part. I know everyone isn’t on board but the majority are at least for now and IMO that makes it an alliance.

murdergore.8139:

This is just my two cents on this whole alliance between BP and AR as a Fellow AR person I think it was a horrible Idea, commanders in AR saying don’t fight BP in Map yesterday while I am seeing BP taking camps and towers in AR BL..I call kitten on that. I don’t post here often, but I follow whom I choose to follow and no commander in AR speaks for me or how I play. I sometimes zerg and sometimes roam its my play Style. Like the rest of this forum I am sick of this match up as well. Now quit your chest thumping and play that is all

Not everyone got the message and some chose to ignore it on both sides. When EBay was storming our BL midnight PST, a group in AR took a keep and all of our camps in our BL. Understandable and we took it back with minimal resistance. The same is true in your BL as I understand it.

The important part of the alliance is that the majority hold to it as best they can. With it in place we finally get a change of pace from weeks of the same ole fighting. This tier for the first time in weeks has some life to it. Heck BP filled up every map on reset night which I have never seen on this server.

Jinks.2057:

Yes with the new alliance AR/BP leave their towers/keeps a lil bit more often.

It became a feedback problem. Many BP players grouped up to stop being run over by EBays larger organized guild groups. Which caused EBay to group up to find fights since the skirmish groups dried up from WvW in this tier. I suspect AR had a similar experience.

The alliance tied up EBay zergs allowing the smaller teams on all the servers to roam more. We would still bump into larger zergs in our skirmish team but that adds to the excitement. Running into pretty much all zergs sucks the fun right out of skirmishing.

What a great weekend IMO. The alliance (observed by some or not) has been great for this tier as a whole. WvW had become stale for many with the same fights every week. This weekend we all got to enjoy a rare event in WvW and proved there are new ways to enjoy WvW.

Ebay was looking for a good fight and got one. AR and BP both got to enjoy some EBay offense rather than constant EBay defense. What came out of this weekend for me was a deeper respect for Ebay who held their own and even pushed back against waves of enemies from both sides. Holding onto Lowlands was certainly a feat.

All this freed up many groups that like to roam to get out and mix it up. More roaming fights this weekend than I have seen in a long time.

What started as a competitive match between BP and EBay, slid in the wee hours to the same old hanging on by our fingernails and landed on why are they still in this tier?

Most of my guild has essentially left this game and I am sure a few more will follow after months of being trapped in this tier. Shame because I believe my guild isn’t the only one suffering the effects from this stagnated play.

jesterscript.7493:

Every time I spend the 30 minutes necessary to kill one of these super “skilled” thieves in WvW they always come back with 8 – 20 other people as back up.

jesterscript.7493:

You keep telling yourself that while my buddy and I keep running around killing your dolyaks and taking your camps – strangling your supplies – while our zerg takes your towers and keeps that just can’t seem to get upgraded or repaired. That silence is your siege not having the supply to get built and that depression is the >1 number next to your Tier.

Most of the time a thief like that is probably killing dolyaks, destroying siege, popping weak players, locking up way points, harassing guards and getting players to chase them all along the way.

If they did stop to get players to chase them the only time one player keeping 6 or more busy isn’t a good thing, is when the other server has a big population advantage. If pops are equal, players chasing a thief is wasting resources.

jesterscript.7493:

Every time I spend the 30 minutes necessary to kill one of these super “skilled” thieves in WvW they always come back with 8 – 20 other people as back up.

Basically doing their “job”. Many thieves build to harass and tie up players keeping them distracted. If one thief keeps a half dozen players running around chasing their shadow, that is helping the server overall and generally does require skill.

Not every class is supposed to be good at every style of fighting. The thief excels in small skirmish fights but is generally weak in large scale fighting. In WvW 1v1 fights between players of similar skill, the thief has a decided advantage especially since most thieves run small skirmish builds. That same thief is of marginal value in large scale fights with little AoE, very few group buffs/traits and little durability.

Are people enjoying this matchup?

My guild has mostly left GW2 for other games and those that remain don’t play nearly as much. I suppose it is inevitable for us to move on, but the decline really hit with this matchup. Course most of our playing has been on non-tier dominant servers constantly fighting to stay on the map which tends to be demoralizing over time.

Nope. Like the game but I wouldn’t pay to play.

KStudios.2850:

I guess if anything it gives them the Overlook, which I’m sorry is hands down the most practical and defensible fortress in WvW. It’s location is perfect for trebbing just about everything in the north. It’s compact (unlike Stonemist), has very few doors (also unlike SM), and is situated uphill.

I do not agree that Overlook is the best keep. I would much rather have Green which is able to treb all of its keeps safely, short supply runs, very few obstacles to exit the main keep, bridge choke point on N gate and water gates that are actually under water causing siege on them to be difficult. Oh and as a small bonus lots of squitos to build bloodlust stacks in relative safety.

Getting out of the Red Keep is a pain and frequently requires falling damage to do so quickly. Long supply distances don’t help and being within striking distance of SM is a two way street. It is also easy to treb the inner wall from the cliffs by Anz.

Blue has it the worst though. The bridge choke point between their keep and the legendary waypoint is horrible as well as too many gates and distant supply.

jkctmc.8754:

Anvil Rock for the most part loves when the fight is brought to us. Anytime there is a huge zerg in our backyard, most of us are praising those who bring the fight to us,

LAZY! Calling for zerg delivery instead of going out and getting the good stuff!

:)

Wizardauz.3761:

@Straegen.2938 – Usually earlier in EST time zone or lateeee PST. In between that im usually on and leading. But if your ever looking for duels, we’d be happy to oblige. And we dont change builds or run dueling specs either.

I tried dueling but seems too artificial for me. I am sure I can pick a fight with a few of your guildies near the rear of a pack. Sometimes I don’t get the cream of the crop back there but finding EBay roamers is becoming fairly rare since BP has gone to running in numbers most places.

Strippling.3524:

[GF] is hands down the best guild for their size I’ve seen in any of the tiers I’ve been in. There are many skilled guilds, small and large, but [GF] has the most talent on an individual level as well as team co-ordination.

I haven’t gotten a real feel for GF yet. Sometimes they run in smaller groups and are dangerous. Other times I see some packed into zergs and hard to get a feel for their overall ability. I don’t think I have ever caught a GF solo. I will see if I can peel a few off from the pack this weekend and test the waters.

One of the better small groups (10 or less) I have run into was on DR. Cannot remember the name of the group but they have hammer/mesmer warfare down.

Canar.2064:

Though me and Archer have had differences, I can sorta see where he’s coming from.

No offence to you T5 guys cause you all put up a helluva fight, but EBay will win every time. So it’s not that much of a challenge for our bigger guilds. But when we elevate to T4, our numbers come short and even though we have skilled players it’s not enough, so I can see where his rant comes from. And people just buy into his trolling, their fault he’s successful. :P

Oddly the first week Ebay landed in T5, they lost. Still not sure what happened there. There was also a close week in addition to Ebays first T5 loss. EBay is also not blowing out T5 or they would move up. Ebay clearly has superior numbers but have been unable to close the deal. IMO if it weren’t for Sekz, the matches would be REALLY close. That guild frequently takes high value targets and backs up pk when a fight starts going south.

Jinks.2057:

Why is it  AR and BP refuse to leave towers until they outnumber at a minimum 5-1? Are GF and Sekz really that intimidating?

Both AR and BP frequently fight with the out manned buff on and consistently fight much larger forces. BP also rarely has commanders on every map so organized fighting is difficult. Ebay (mostly Sekz) has a habit of baiting forces out of a secured position then ambushing which has led to some turtling at least on BPs side.

knight.8926:

It’s been said before that a zerg has multiple ways to get rid of confusion. Honestly there’s more than 50 ppl than can use a condition removal when they see the purple dome being cast. Is everyone just blindly attacking?

Not everyone fights in a zerg, not every group has continuous condition removal, frequently enemy groups apply several conditions and removal order seems somewhat random. I am not saying it is OP but what I am saying is that it can do more damage than any other condition and has limited accessibility so other classes cannot share in its goodness.

Mesmers did get a big nerf early on but remain one of the most potent WvW classes in the game. They also have the two of the best elites in the game. They elevate everyone around them and when played well become killing machines.

knight.8926:

The only way confusion kills you is if you attack. Confusion mesmers have 0 dmg that you can heal through as long as you don’t attack while it’s on.

Heals usually trigger confusion as do most players dodges. Even removing it can trigger its effects. Confusion frequently slows/stops a side from attacking which allows the attacking group to surge. There is a reason people respect the purple dome.

Brando.1374:

[GF] looks for fights in the open field
in T4 when it was mag/YB they would actually come out and play, yes they do zerg (all servers have some sort of zerg) while in this tier unless they have tons of seige or numbers no one will come out of their tower/keep to fight.

I have respect for several guilds and players on EBay including GF. There are some really good players over there and I frequently get salutes when you guys bring me down. However, Archer just gives you guys a bad name at least on the forums. I know he is trolling but in a way he has become the forum face of Ebay. He complains about loosing in T4 and apparently doesn’t like winning in T5.

Archer.1658:

Population =/= skill. I wrecked CD/YB/MAG/BP/AR in the open field. Check again. Maybe you should put more effort into being good so I don’t get bored.

You wreck a lot apparently. Rumor has it you were helpful in expediting some guilds leaving your server while in T4.

Pic from last night when I caught a ranger GH solo

Course I did run into your guilds ranger, mesmer, thief camping our EB spawn a few minutes ago. The ranger was cake. The thief and mesmer… major skills and I mean major. I would have a screenshot of another dead GH ranger tonight but those other two kept me moving till we finally out numbered them. By the time I got back to the dead GH ranger, he released. /salute to those two because even numbers they would have won.

Archer.1658:

Sigh this match up is ridiculously boring. No one on AR or BP is a challenge.

Can’t hang in T4 and too many numbers for T5. My guild moved to T6/BP from T4/CD for more skirmish fighting. While in T4, I remember you talking a lot smack about zergs and how other servers had crap skill players compared to EBay. Course now they are all still T4 or higher and Ebay is in T5… hmmm. Maybe you should have put more effort in to stay in T4 if you wanted a bigger challenge.

Dance and laugh freely during or before a fight, but doing so after a fight reflects poor character.

IMO either they sucked and don’t deserve further attention or they put up a good fight and earned a salute.

Great balanced fighting in NA prime last night. SM flipped several times by all sides, plenty of skirmish fighting and not a lot of skill lag issues overall. Didn’t seem like any side was a push over either as most showed up and put up a skilled effort.

Highlight of my night was a lone EBay player charging into Spiritholme with a half dozen of us there just after we took the camp. We all stood around wondering what he was thinking. After talking with him he just wanted the POI and did a heck of a job getting it with all of us attacking him.

This again? Players dropping 200k or more damage with one ability is ridiculous. AoE is already broken and dominates the game why make it more so? If it is under the assumption that it will stop zerging, that will never happen with this change.

Imagine two big zergs fighting and dropping AoE… everything would be dead in a second with almost no chance to avoid the damage.

Move down tiers. Lower tier zergs are not nearly as frequent and can be managed by small teams with good play.

Valik Shin.9027:

Do people not realize u also get rewards for defending?

Yes, but not as fast. A zerg can flip locations quickly and do not have to wait for that location to come under attack.

Dokyo.3685:

Daendur.2357:

Aeolus.3615:

I would drop thief damage by alot, and give more loads of invisible options as traits and skills, any player can kill target with thief w/o effort its too dammn easy(damage wise not invisibility problem).

thieves can do a good burst damage… anyhow less than warriors.

Seriously? I’ve never been 3 shot by a warrior. Oh yea I also know they are there and can target them back which helps. Nothing like getting killed by “Unknown” that you can’t even target.

Biggest single hit from a player 16k… rifle warrior from a distance. Get caught with a knockdown from a hammer warrior and watch them wind up 100 blades dealing WAY more damage than a thief can do.