Guild Wars 2

Crimson Magdelana.9024:

We’ve heard the rumors, but holy cow…is it really that bad?

What happened to AR?

Read my previous post when someone else from IoJ asked the same thing.

Yes, it’s really that bad.

And I have no clue who was being a kitten the last time we met, but as Dov said, they’re likely gone. I only remember our last meeting being a very positive one with lots of friendly banter back and forth. Sorry if you felt otherwise….. :-(

Banzie.5248:

But so far what i’ve seen is AR not fielding nearly as many as they have in the past

Glad to be paired w/ IoJ again. You guys were a good group last time we (AR) met, and always kept it classy on the field and on the forum. A rare treat!

Re. AR, we’re not even close to the same server you faced last time. We’ve lost well over 50% of our WvW population due to one large guild leaving followed by numerous smaller guilds. Don’t expect to see us field very many, but continue to expect the same tenacity that we always bring. Ain’t no quit in the AR Regulars. ;-)

I’m sure this has been discussed before, but dang if I can find it, so at the risk of rehashing an old topic, here goes:

I was messing around today with modifying my attack power and seeing how it affected both non-crit and crit damage. What I found was….confusing. It seems that while the crit damage was significantly impacted (I increased my attack power from the low 2800’s to the mid 3400’s, so a substantial change), the non-crit damage seemed hardly affected at all. FWIW I was performing my experiments on Veteran Guards in WvW, so that’s why I thought I’d post this here in case that skews things vs PvE, etc.

Can some kind soul please explain what might be going on? Tyvm.

titanlectro.5029:

1) GoM does not have the population you think we have.

Yes we are queuing the map with the karma train, but that is because you simply cannot top that rate of XP/Karma any other way. People are flocking to it because it is so valuable, it is not our normal WvW crew. In fact, we have been recruiting PvE players and new players to join us on the karma trains, as an attempt to get PvE players involved in the WvW community. Trust me, these numbers will disappear when playing WvW is less profitable.

From our perspective, until that happens, you DO have the population we think you have. Typical karma trains roll around the map flipping camps, control points, and the PvE content. With juicy, WxP/Karma laden towers/keeps just sitting undefended (and paper), YOUR karma trains just flip everything. That’s no different to us than a PPT-focused effort, again from our perspective. Not saying this is good/bad etc, it just is what it is.

On our side, if we don’t want to get rolled, we need to be more focused with the resources that we have and do a better job defending. Problem is, it seems folks have pretty much given up already and they’ve either gone back to PvE or are happy flipping our stuff back and forth so we all get the same WxP/karma that you all got taking it (and you guys seem happy to let us do it so you can come back and flip it again…..our keep on EB last night was a perfect example of that).

Anyway, keep it classy on the field and I wish you success and a good roll this Friday. :-)

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

It’s just that we’re a heavily PvE-based server and easily distracted by shiny objects with particle effects.

LOL!

Now the peeps in the offices near mine think I’m insane because I busted out laughing when I read that. Thanks for that….keeps them on edge. ;-)

Myst.5783:

Yes, EB has HOURS long queues and a full map running in one group during the karma trains.

Wow….just wow.

As Dov said, we’ve (AR) been together with the likes of Ebay for MONTHS, who are competitive in T3, and they didn’t have numbers like GoM. Maybe they do now, but holy hoopleheads, why why WHY are you guys in T6/7/8 with your population?

To put it into perspective, one month ago, BEFORE we lost a huge portion of our WvW population, AR could AT BEST (ie. everyone getting on the same map) queue ONE map for maybe 10 minutes. Now…..hah! If we put everyone onto one map (NA prime time mind you….I’m not talking off-peak) we might be able to get 40 people on a map. 40. Total. Meanwhile GoM seems to be able to run 40+ zergs on multiple maps at the same time.

IMO we’re headed to T8, and if there was a T9, we’d likely go there. We’ve just lost too many people to be able to match 60-man zergs and unless we get EVERYONE onto a map, we typically have 10-15 (and more are leaving….it’s not over yet). GW2, to a large degree, is a numbers game, and no matter how “good” or “bad” you are, 10 vs. 60 isn’t going to go well for the 10.

Anyway, GoM, I am thoroughly convinced based on playing servers that are 2-3 tiers above you that if you picked up your game you could be competitive with them. Organize, train, work on tactics, and go beat the kitten out of some T3-4 servers. :-)

Asami.3572:

Yeaahhhhhh…. That started out just me being drunk in pangloss… I threw down 4 ballistas, 6 ACs, a treb, a golem, and then rams as the walls of a fort. Then started singing/yelling, “FORT PANGLOSS!~” in our TS. Then one of our leaders almost tripped over my fort walls. SOOOO he extended the Great Wall of Rams all the way to SM and then to AP.
THEN! The alpha golem wasn’t enough to be the Fort Pangloss Lord so I built an Omega >:D What can I say? The silliest things happen when booze is involved

LOL!!!

That’s it. You’re my next write-in candidate for President. A sense of humor AND a crafty strategist! ;-)

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

Stoked to finally be in a matchup against AR again. You guys were always my favorite server to fight against back near launch. And even though it seems you’ve fallen on hard times, this matchup should be a fun one.

I believe we (AR) are in free-fall to T8. About 3 weeks ago our largest WvW guild [ALS] decided to leave for T2, and while they didn’t fully depart until last week, their presence in WvW went to near zero almost immediately. Over the last 2’ish weeks, other guilds joined the exodus. It will be interesting to see where we actually end up.

I for one will just be happy to get out of “zerg wars” with servers that can queue all 4 maps on reset. Mustering 20 peeps on a map only to have it rolled by a 60+ zerg everywhere we went was getting old. I’m looking forward to some balanced matchups.

Panic.1862:

I will say that I am a bit disappointed that AR lost a significant amount of their WvW guilds

Not nearly as disappointed as we are.

Rebuilding will be a slow process….. :-(

Maartac.9457:

Think the Necro is now ok Not OP .

Just gotta jump in here and +1 this. You guys are a PITA now, and that’s as it should be IMO. Before, I’m sorry to say, Necros were totally UP in WvW. Now they’re competitive. Very happy for you guys.

Imagine, a class that actually IMPROVED with a patch! GASP!!!! ;-)

Steve Whitley.8359:

guesting doesn’t let you play in guested wvw but feel free to transfer

Ahhh…….didn’t know that. :-(

We’ll see re. point #2……

anzenketh.3759:

I wish ArenaNet could do something for you but they can’t. It would cause more problems for the game overall then the problems that would be caused just with your server. My Advice hold your thirds on your borderlands and EB. Until you are properly ranked.

Of course they can do something. It’s code. The ranking system spits out a number at the end of the match and uses that as the starting point for the next match. Just shave a few (hundred) thousand points off the rating so we align better w/ servers of equal WvW population and use that as a new starting point. Look at the rankings. Do you have any idea how long it will take the system to drop us 100k pts so we move down a tier? Too long….

Hold our thirds? You have no concept of just how outmanned (and disorganized) we are right now. Look at the map at the moment. We are off EB totally and have 1 tower on our BL. That’s all we can do! Thirds?!?! That’s not even possible if one of you (SBI or BP) wants to take something from us.

Come guest on our server. Only then will you really get a taste of what it is like……

I put in a support ticket on this but was told it was better discussed here. I’ll get this started so others from AR might chime in.

On the Anvil Rock server, we just lost a large WvW guild (ALS), and it is having a dramatic impact on our game play experience. Case in point, since the reset on 6/21, the AR players are “outmanned” on both our BL and EB. Take a look at the WvW maps right now, Tuesday, 6/25, 1pm PDT. We are ticking 55 pts….yes, 55. We have nothing on our BL and are about to lose everything on EB. This is a direct result of being paired with servers with far higher WvW populations than ours, which has been the case for 4+ months, but it just got a whole lot worse with the loss of such a large guild.

I would like to ask that Anet do a review of WvW (not overall server) populations and consider a one-time “re-ranking”. Without this, we will need to wait for the automated ranking system to take enough points away from us that it automatically moves us down, and that could take many weeks. In that time, the exodus from the server could make the problem even worse (assuming players don’t just quit the game altogether).

anzenketh.3759:

Who knows we might even pull off what we pulled off with AR two weeks ago. I hope that is not part of the reason for AR server frustration though. I was just as surprised as you were.

I don’t believe that had anything to do with AR’s decision to leave (and for all intent and purpose, they have left…..I see almost no ALS presence in WvW, so they have either already transferred or are PvE farming for the gold to transfer). Keep in mind AR dealt with 3+ months of BP/Ebay, both much larger than AR, now BP/SBI, also both much larger in WvW population than AR. The first time in the last 4+ months we’ve not been the “little” server was when paired w/ IoJ 3 weeks ago, and I think everyone finally got to taste what it was like to not get continually steamrolled by 60+ person zergs. I think ALS wanted to get out of that “always outmanned” situation and wanted to get into a more organized, evenly matched grouping. Whether they find that in T2 is anyone’s guess.

And I’m not giving up….yet. I hope Anet will evaluate our situation and even if they have to take an active hand in our grouping, “push” us down a tier or two so we can play a more evenly matched game.

If you’re on AR and also would like to move down for a better matchup, I encourage you to say something in this thread or better yet in the Suggestion thread. Anet listens to a quantity of players more than just one or two, so if a bunch of folks from AR chime in on this, they might do something……or not, depending on how everyone feels about it.

Shout out to ALS of AR -

Just wanted to say “Thanks!” guys and gals for your participation and leadership while you were part of AR. Really enjoyed rolling with you guys and fighting the good fight. I hope you find what you’re looking for up in T2.

For the rest of AR’s WvW population, you may want to start a petition (or just report this post so Anet reads it) asking Anet to re-evaluate our server population and re-rank us. Playing outmanned since reset, even in our BL, gets old fast, and waiting for weeks for Glicko to drop us sufficiently isn’t an attractive proposition……

Eviator.9746:

So my matchup has occasional fight clubs, so I jumped on my solo-roaming-specced engineer (Mask’s build). Not surprisingly a lot of thieves were there too. I lost all of a handful of fights against thieves (no problem against mesmer and warrior). I got a D/P thief down very low, but he kited me long enough to get his initiative back and finish me off. There was this other thief that was able to keep me dazed for half the fight. And boy he was able to continually get behind me so all my skills missed…that was annoying. Is that S/P? He kicked my butt pretty good.

Do you mean Blinded, or do you really mean Dazed? If Blinded, then yes, that would likely be D/P, which is a kitten build to deal with. With SS and BP (skill 3 and 5) they can keep you blinded for a very long time. Best bet is to AOE, but I don’t know your engie build so can’t give you advice there.

Also, depending on how the Thief is built, they typically don’t have a ton of condi removal (on their bar they can have Shadowstep on a 50 sec cooldown and that’s about it), so lay the condis on at the start of the fight (super easy if you’re p/p) and make sure you keep condi pressure on them by reapplying. It’s hard for them to kite you when they’re downed from all the CD that engies can apply. ;-)

To the OP, roll a Thief and learn how the class works. They bugged the pooh out of me as well, so I rolled one, ended up leveling them to 80, 60 of those levels coming in WvW so I could really understand the class mechanics and dynamics in that environment. It was eye opening (and a bit sad….Anet wants the Thief to be the “apex predator” in WvW and have given them the tools to be just that, even in the hands of a total neophyte).

Based on my experience with both an 80 engie and 80 thief (among other 80’s….sheesh, I need help, lol), many of the suggestions here are right on. The second a Thief ganks you for that opening 6k+ burst, you need to respond. Drop your SC elite to stun them, get some health, and get some distance. If you’re p/p, lay on the condis and start your CC skills (glue shot/glue bomb, BoB….anything to ensure that once they break your SC stun, they can’t get in a quick BS). This should turn the tide for you from 100% defensive to offensive. Don’t run!!!! Showing him your back is giving him a free kill. Thief gap closers are just too available (HS FTW anyone?).

If they Shadow Refuge, remember, they have to stay in that shadow refuge to stack stealth. They can’t just SR and poof they’re gone for 12 secs. They have to sit in there. Use that to your advantage. Pull them to you then prybar to the face, or FT the area, or grenade the area. They’ll take a load of damage and then THEY will be on the defensive (“OMG I didn’t instagib that engie….RUN!!!!!!”).

Between an engies CC and CD, you should be able to hold your own against a Thief with some practice. Worst case they’ll realize you’re not a free kill and just move on, best case you’ll start obtaining a taste for Thief-burgers. ;-)

Shanks R Us.2489:

Then kite away with box of nails and let the condi do the work for you as you use your pistols.

I was watching your vid and scratching my head wondering why your opponents were dropping so fast when I just didn’t see any “big numbers” like I usually see in vids like these. Then I started watching the condis you were putting on them right at the start of each fight, and even if they cleared the first round, you just piled on round two! Wow. Glad you’re on my team (AR). Guys like you just might gain engies a bit of respect vs. “oh look, free loot bag!”. ;-)

I have an 80 engie that I play around with in WvW from time to time, mainly just to be a kitten and annoy people in tower/keep offense/defense with FT and BoB. Setting people on fire then blowing them out of towers/off of walls just never gets old, LOL. Makes for a horrid roaming build though, so I roll with my Thief when I’m in that mood. Good on ya for making a roaming engie work. :-)

Baladir.2736:

One has doubt the wisdom of the AR commanders who have made another pact with BP, to possibly come in second, which failed last week.

By teaming with SBI, that guarantees at least a second, and possibly a first, once BP is trounced. Coordinating with another against a common stronger foe has always been the way of warfare for just this reason.

To ally with the stronger enemy plays right into their hands, guaranteeing them a first place. Why play this role and into their plans? The smart play for both SBI and AR is to go for the guarantee second place. If there are any alliances, that is the way of it.

I speak the truth and the truth rings true. This has been the way of the world since the birth of mankind. We should learn the truth from the blood of our ansestors and honor them by learning their lessons.

As others, specifically commanders, have already stated, there is no such “alliance”. Your conspiracy theory, both regarding last week and this one, is just that, a theory, and it’s just not true.

Here’s a little bit of a lesson for you re AR. I monitor TS and chat, and never, not once in the 6 months I’ve been playing on AR, has a commander, or anyone else, said “we need to do X to get Y points so we’re in Z place”. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd is a result, not a goal. As a server, we just don’t care. Sure, there may be a few who do, but in general, it’s just not important. And now the forum trolls will jump in and say “that’s why you bad”, or “that’s why you never win”, or some other kitten. I’ll nip that right now and say come guest on our server for a few days. You’ll see exactly why we come in 2nd or 3rd. Don’t worry, you’ll learn to really enjoy the Outmanned buff, LOL. You’ll also see that we punch above our weight, and that’s why we keep getting stuck with servers w/ 3x+ our WvW population, so bring your RAWRRRRR (or your speed buffs, depending on which group you’re with, LOL). :-)

sylpheedIIDX.5721:

I sure hope you guys don’t get 13 weeks of the same match up.

+1

Playing outmanned most of the evening and having our EB spawn camped by SBI brought back memories of our time w/ BP/EBay. I saw a few folks log into EB, see what was going on, say “oh not this kitten again”, and log right back out. Don’t be surprised if you see very little of AR in this matchup redux.

To BP, I’m not sure if you were trying to help us get our EB keep back last night or ninja cap it, but if it was the former, thank you.

Why, why, WHY Anet do you hate us so!?!?! >:(

Krash.9486:

So you are upset that we had a server WvW night where for once we had good numbers and that’s just not fair?…….and you would like for us to escort your up-levels into the towers where they can man siege and kill us….

I know when I take my up-level to WvW All the BP people just smile and wave at me as I walk by…. o.O

Here is a tip that a pro WvW server like BP already know I am sure…..there are 3 ways out of every Spawn camp….so when I see players camping one of them…as I have seen from EVERY server….I go another way…….also pesky roaming thieves will hang around watching for target of opportunity to gank…..and they don’t seem to care if you are a up-level or not……. I can safely say I have also seen this from EVERY server.

This is WvWvW BTW……stuff happens

LOL.

I find it funny how different people read different emotions into the written word. It could be a really good study/paper for psych class. ;-)

No, I’m not upset. It’s an observation that a fair number of the SBI forum posters claim one thing, yet the opposite is the reality. It really just shows the duality of the server population there.

Re. ganking the solo newbs, in our previous marathon matchup w/ BP and EB, it was simply etiquette that 80’s don’t gank the solo newbies at the spawn. I made that part bold because it’s very specific to ganking solo lowbies at the spawn. Everyone wants new players to join WvW, and this practice doesn’t do much to promote that.

anzenketh.3759:

Most of us rather play it classy. Please stop the trolling. I liked AR and IOJ thread much better.

Imagine us being stuck with both EgoBay AND BP for 13 weeks!!! 3 full months of this. It was so bad for the least few weeks of the matchup many folks just refused to WvW. Between the antics in-game and the endless “we’re so good, you’re so bad….RAWRRRR!!!!!” BS on the forums, boards, videos, you name it, basically everywhere these guys could post, PvE was a more attractive option. Case in point, see airstu.2579’s post above. Oy…..

thel.5423:

And if they are spawn camping you, then they’re likely bad apples, every server has them. Just go out a different entrance or go to a different map. They’ll leave if they aren’t getting any fights.

Agreed, and that’s what I told the newbs, and showed them the routes. It’s just that once or twice in a week I can understand, but this is the first time I encountered it 3x in a 4hr span and have seen it more from SBI this last week than any of the other servers we’ve faced.

It just seems odd, again, in that SBI seems to have 2 very distinct “personalities”. Last week when matched w/ us and IoJ, I saw very little of these “bad apples”. This week? Oy. Maybe they got some transfers that they need to throw back, LOL.

And anzenketh.3759, please don’t apologize for what others are doing. Everything I see from you has been very respectful and classy. As you say, you can’t control what some on your server may be doing. What I would ask though is if you have any influence on your server population, please ask them to stop spawn camping uplevels. Thanks.

anzenketh.3759:

I take from your comments you are in AR. If you are fighting in the enemy borderlands you are dead regardless if you are a uplevel or not. Why? because of how the game is currently played at lower ranks borderlands matter more to keep it all. In EB the 1/3 matter most. I highly doubt that they were targeting the uplevels. I honestly don’t notice uplevels unless they are in my party. Also keep in mind that until just yesterday we were behind you in score.

I’m not talking about BL, I’m talking about EB. Everyone understands that it’s “open season” if you’re in the enemy BL.

And please elaborate….what does score have to do with spawn camping uplevels?

And yes, uplevels were targeted because once I started escorting them with one of my 80’s the campers disappeared.

Rising Dusk.2408:

An invader leaves the safety of their spawn and in a fleet of fancy gets killed by an enemy! Who knew it could happen? There are three exits to every spawn; if someone’s camping one, take your guys to another. Or, you know, just kill the campers. That works too.

Uplevels naturally get killed first because they are easy to down, easy to finish, and easy to get out of the way so you can focus on tougher opponents. I always kill uplevels first in 1v3’s or something of that nature.

I’m talking solo, not 1 vs 3. And here’s the interesting part. When I got a complaint from an uplevel, I logged one of my 80’s in and escorted the uplevel to the keep. We never even saw the camper. If I would have, I would have pounded them into the dirt and let the uplevel I was escorting spike them just for spite.

Anyway, yes, it’s PvP. We all get that. But with other servers there has been an etiquette that 80’s don’t target solo uplevels for “easy kills”. That’s just lame.

DtC.4806:

We both had 60-80 each

I really wanted to like SBI…….

All the talk about “we don’t have the numbers”, “we’re a PvE server”, “we don’t care about score”, etc etc, yet last night you fielded 4x our numbers and focused on our BL as well as our assets in EB. In the 4hrs I played yesterday evening, we were outmanned the entire time and the only zergball I encountered attacking our stuff was SBI. Interesting for a server that doesn’t care about score and doesn’t “have the numbers”.

And what’s with SBI’s 80’s ganking uplevels? Never have I seen so much of that from a server (not even Ebay….they at least had the decency to just ignore them and let them reach a tower/keep). And by ganking I mean waiting around by our spawn and when an uplevel tries to get anywhere, one of your 80’s jumps them from behind and spikes them in about 3 seconds. We need more players to come to WvW and that lame BS is just going to send them back to PvE. If you want badges that badly, at least man-up and jump 80’s when you spawn camp.

Looking forward to reset. Not sure how we keep getting stuck with servers like Ebay, BP, and now SBI, but maybe we’ll get a decent roll today…..

Juular.4729:

Thorson.9218:

Ezeriel.9574:

I keep logging onto my guardian. I do this, because people just can’t stop talking about how great they are.

I then log into WvW and get stomped.

I don’t get it….

On my warrior, I get Healing Signet, Adrenal Health, Regen Banners, some regen food, and I can charge into battle, and feel like a god among men.

100blades is no joke in zerg pvp, and I can down people three at a time when they try to rez someone. I can’t be kited with my longbow, and the #3 blast is devastation from above.

On my guardian, I’m late to the show most of the time, because they are so godawful slow. If I don’t get ganked by a thief on my way to the battlefront, the first person with burst, that targets me, has about a 70% chance of sending me back to the waypoint.

What good is 30% damage reduced from protection (for only a few seconds) when you have no health to begin with? …and where is their amazing healing?

I honestly don’t get it, and I will continue to happily log onto my banner warrior.

I just rolled a Warrior after playing my Guardian for a week in WvW (lvl 80, all PvE…….I also have an 80 Thief that I did 70 levels with in WvW, 80 Ranger that I did 40 levels with in WvW, and an 80 Engi, all PvE). The Warrior, even at level 8, is a beast in WvW. In zergwars, with zero toughness (hey, I’ve got the starter armor!), I can roll into the enemy zerg at the front lines, 100 Blades their front/mid lines, roll through to the squishies (mainly to roll clear of their AOE) and start whittling them down before I have to roll back out. Sends them running for the hills. I tag lots of enemies and do surprisingly good damage.

I don’t have that sort of offensive power on my Guardian (mix of Clerics/Soldiers with Zerker weapons and all ruby jewels to get my crit chance to 50% and crit damage over 70% unbuffed). Note my Guardian is AH build, so he’s really made for survival, but with meh damage output, surviving doesn’t mean much when my team is getting roflstomped in the open field. Where my Guardian shines is in the utility that he brings to the fight. I typically run with GS/Staff, and Line of Warding is godly. Being able to stop an entire zerg from getting through a doorway, even for a few seconds, can turn the tide of the battle. Combine it with Wall of Reflection and for 5 seconds the enemy is stymied. There’s nothing like that on the Warrior (other than their bodies being a meat shield and swinging away with Hammer 4).

So…..I hear you about the Guardian getting stomped in WvW. Mine isn’t a front line pusher (he’s not built for it, and it’s not my preferred play style for him), and if I try to be I just get smashed. If you want a front line beast, IMO it’s Warrior FTW. I’m having a total blast on my little Warrior, that’s for sure. I have 20 badges in the first hour of WvW with him (brought him into WvW at lvl 5, he’s lvl 8 now).

Oh….and sumpin is wrong with your Guardian if you’re getting hit with 9k+ backstabs. I’ve never been crit for more than maybe 6k on mine, then I turn on the Thief and WW them into the dirt. When I roll “offensively”, I go GS/Hammer, and Banishing a Thief out of Shadow Refuge followed by Ring of Warding and just pummeling them with my big Hammer is endless fun. I can almost hear them squeak as they try to run, only to find they can’t escape. :-)

really please what build is ur warrior?. sounds amazing.

He’s only level 8. I can’t even select traits yet, so he’s a “zero” build, LOL.

Seriously, the “stock” Warrior packs a punch as soon as you unlock all the weapon skills (that’s why I didn’t jump into WvW at level 1….I wanted all the weapon skills unlocked). For a little while I rolled around with 2 lvl 80 Warriors and nothing stopped them. They literally just rolled over groups of 2-5. They both used hammers and simply destroyed stuff in the open field.

Once I get to level 80, based on what I see in the Traits and how I want to play this class, I’ll likely go with something like 20 20 0 20 10, Knights, all Ruby gems, and zerker weapons. Build editors say that should be good for about 3500 attack, 2500 armor, 20k HP, 60% crit chance, and 70% crit damage using non-ascended gear. :-)

Ezeriel.9574:

I keep logging onto my guardian. I do this, because people just can’t stop talking about how great they are.

I then log into WvW and get stomped.

I don’t get it….

On my warrior, I get Healing Signet, Adrenal Health, Regen Banners, some regen food, and I can charge into battle, and feel like a god among men.

100blades is no joke in zerg pvp, and I can down people three at a time when they try to rez someone. I can’t be kited with my longbow, and the #3 blast is devastation from above.

On my guardian, I’m late to the show most of the time, because they are so godawful slow. If I don’t get ganked by a thief on my way to the battlefront, the first person with burst, that targets me, has about a 70% chance of sending me back to the waypoint.

What good is 30% damage reduced from protection (for only a few seconds) when you have no health to begin with? …and where is their amazing healing?

I honestly don’t get it, and I will continue to happily log onto my banner warrior.

I just rolled a Warrior after playing my Guardian for a week in WvW (lvl 80, all PvE…….I also have an 80 Thief that I did 70 levels with in WvW, 80 Ranger that I did 40 levels with in WvW, and an 80 Engi, all PvE). The Warrior, even at level 8, is a beast in WvW. In zergwars, with zero toughness (hey, I’ve got the starter armor!), I can roll into the enemy zerg at the front lines, 100 Blades their front/mid lines, roll through to the squishies (mainly to roll clear of their AOE) and start whittling them down before I have to roll back out. Sends them running for the hills. I tag lots of enemies and do surprisingly good damage.

I don’t have that sort of offensive power on my Guardian (mix of Clerics/Soldiers with Zerker weapons and all ruby jewels to get my crit chance to 50% and crit damage over 70% unbuffed). Note my Guardian is AH build, so he’s really made for survival, but with meh damage output, surviving doesn’t mean much when my team is getting roflstomped in the open field. Where my Guardian shines is in the utility that he brings to the fight. I typically run with GS/Staff, and Line of Warding is godly. Being able to stop an entire zerg from getting through a doorway, even for a few seconds, can turn the tide of the battle. Combine it with Wall of Reflection and for 5 seconds the enemy is stymied. There’s nothing like that on the Warrior (other than their bodies being a meat shield and swinging away with Hammer 4).

So…..I hear you about the Guardian getting stomped in WvW. Mine isn’t a front line pusher (he’s not built for it, and it’s not my preferred play style for him), and if I try to be I just get smashed. If you want a front line beast, IMO it’s Warrior FTW. I’m having a total blast on my little Warrior, that’s for sure. I have 20 badges in the first hour of WvW with him (brought him into WvW at lvl 5, he’s lvl 8 now).

Oh….and sumpin is wrong with your Guardian if you’re getting hit with 9k+ backstabs. I’ve never been crit for more than maybe 6k on mine, then I turn on the Thief and WW them into the dirt. When I roll “offensively”, I go GS/Hammer, and Banishing a Thief out of Shadow Refuge followed by Ring of Warding and just pummeling them with my big Hammer is endless fun. I can almost hear them squeak as they try to run, only to find they can’t escape. :-)

Maladon.5760:

Reset was basically map completion night for the majority of people that queued.

What you have to realize is that many of us, particularly the people who generally queue EB, don’t really watch the scoreboard. We log in to run around and kill people. We take towers and SM to generate fights. Then we all log out at basically the same time and pick it up again the next night, or not. We don’t take towers and supply camps right before the tick because we honestly don’t give a kitten about the tick.

That’s not to say that we have a defeatist attitude, we don’t. We’ve just come to realize that open field fighting is more fun for us than sieging map resources. The only thing you win in WvW is bragging rights about how many people on the other side of the world play on your server. It’s not much of a prize.

There are some people on SBI who are very dedicated to playing for points and winning the matchup but they are few and far between. That sort of playstyle has never really suited me, I simply don’t see any fun in it. However, we do manage to generate points when we’re looking for fights so it works out in the end. It’s just not a priority to be out there every single night.

Thanks to everyone who replied. It makes sense, but holy Quaggans Batman, that’s a HUGE difference in populations!

Understand about the points thing too. Seems AR has a smaller avg WvW population than SBI or BP, but they seem a bit more “passionate” about winning the matchup. Either way, it’s all good, and it’s been fun meeting you guys on the field.

Gothahm.6274:

I prefer to point out great fights and respect the enemy/competition but then I get called a care bear so…meh.

I hear ya. I expected that to happen last week in our AR/SBI/IoJ matchup, but no one ever played the care bear card. It was an entire week of civil, respectful banter and a lot of posts about how much fun everyone was having. Refreshing…..

To SBI folks – Did one of you report that last week when we were paired w/ IoJ you queued all 4 maps on reset? I ask because I tend to see 2 different SBIs. I see the hordes version where you have numbers that we can’t comprehend, and I see the other version where it seems WvW isn’t really important to you and you just don’t show up. Mind you I’m talking NA prime time, so I’m not comparing NA prime to EU prime. Just curious because AR can, at best, queue ONE map, and even that is quite rare, yet I see posts from SBI folks about not having the numbers. Very bi-polar.

And BP…..wow. Somehow over the last 2 weeks you guys copped a major attitude. I don’t ever remember reading so much infantile smack talk from you guys when we were both being steamrolled by Ebay. QQ’ing, yeah, but now? Yikes. Last week’s match w/ IoJ was much more enjoyable. :-(

Would like to add another “Thanks!” to IoJ and SBI for a fun matchup. I’ve been out of town for the last 2 days and see SBI has pulled ahead (when I logged out last, AR was ahead…..sigh), and IoJ is staying in the mix! Great stuff. Gonna miss you guys.

Gotta chime in here and say that after 13 weeks….13 WEEKS…..with Ebay, you guys (IoJ and SBI) are a breath of fresh air in so many ways. Most of all, you’re good sports, which is something Ebay will never be (and I’m really enjoying watching them get steamrolled this week….payback is a kitten). Thanks to all for a fun reset and great weekend.

loseridoit.2756:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temporal_Curtain

the curtain doesnt pull you off the wall if you cannot attack the people below the wall. It only pulls you to the edge. If you can attack the people below, then be careful because the curtain will pull you off the wall

I play a focus mesmer for wvwvw

As another poster already noted, you CAN be pulled off a wall even if you can’t attack those below you. I just had this happen for the first time in WvW last night. Maybe it’s a new bug???

Not sure what happened exactly, but I was manning an AC along the back edge of the wall when all of a sudden I got pulled off the AC (not by a Guardian, I was never in LoS for his chain) to the front of the wall (one that has a little ledge) then pulled again right down into their zerg. Maybe 2 mesmers in a row got me? Anyway, I was shocked, but being a thief, I still lived…..then caused havoc among them w/ CnD, so maybe theirs wasn’t such a good idea, LOL.

Walabone.6713:

Gonna throw this video Kyle Finnegan put together here. We don’t normally do this on the public forums, but it was a great evening and fun was had by all, and Kyle did a great job of editing a massive amount of footage and putting into one very epic WvW video (imo). I’m also quite proud of how far our little BP Zerg-Breaker initiative has taken us. Kudos to all the BP involved, to Ebay for pushing us to improve, and to AR for their tenacity and the great fights.

Enjoy!

Thank you for putting it up and to Kyle for taking the time and energy to put it together. I know doing this isn’t easy, but it’s certainly appreciated.

I’ve only been WvW’ing for a few months, so watching a coordinated group like this is extremely helpful in learning group tactics and synergies. Well done.

P.S. Excellent choice of music! :-)

ganeshori.6309:

I wonder what on your system is giving you the ability of 90fps. Im running a 3570K clocked to 4.5 GHz, gigabyte gtx680 s.o.c., 16GB 1866 corsair dominator platinum, 250 gb samsung 840 pro ssd.

I doubt its the cpu….both seem to run pretty even in this game….wouldnt think its the cards….could it be that sweet ram yer runnin? what settings you running in-game?, size and settings of yer monitor?

Oh, and Im averaging around 70fps in slow areas….drops to around 40 to 50 with our normal FA zerging….and about 30 on reset night, where we have the actual lag issues here.

I’m running 1920 × 1080, all settings max’d (distance, shadows, player detail, etc).

My only guess would be that it’s a combination of things. My memory is faster so my mem bus is running faster. That has a big impact. The 3770 is also hyperthreaded, meaning it can present 8 “cores” to the app vs. only 4 with the 3570 (yes, I know, there are still only 4 cores….I’m just noting the differences). That might have an impact. Finally, I run NOTHING in the background, not even a browser. I noticed on my old system that every little thing I ran had an impact, so on the new one I just run the game.

I hope that helps.

PsYcHoSeAn.4835:

loseridoit.2756:

Dear OP,

Are you sure its not your computer?

Anet fixed culling a bit which increase the graphic requirements abit.

In most zerg server lag fest, fps is fine and they can 1 attack.

if you cannot 1 attack, then i wonder if it is your computer?

Post your system spec?

I think if it was my hardware I wouldn’t be able to do anything at all but I can.
My frames rarely drop below 40fps and I can jump, move and pick up stuff without a problem.

What I can’t do is use skills…so i’m pretty, pretty sure that the problem is not with me.

Ah….ok. Then I’d have to agree w/ you. In my case I couldn’t do ANYTHING, but if you can run around, etc., just no skills, it’s prolly not you.

So……why would some servers experience this while others don’t? If you assume that queues are limiting the population per map, and that limit is the same for every server, why doesn’t this happen to every server at some point (i.e. when you hit the queue limit)? Maybe the map population (and therefore queue limit) on the higher tier servers is set higher to accommodate a larger number of players, and they are reaching the limits of the code/HW???

Bubbles.1047:

What the kitten? FPS and lag literally have nothing to do with each other. I get 20-30 FPS in huge 3-way fights, which is perfectly fine with me. The lag tho, is a different story.

My edit and your post may have crossed in the ether. See the last bit where I noted that after upgrading my system, BOTH fps and skill lag are now non-existent. This could be due to any one of a number of things, but I just tossed out my system specs and rough performance results to give the OP some guidance on what others are experiencing.

Just to be clear, after upgrading my system to a relatively high spec, I no longer experience fps OR skill lag in large (100+ onscreen) zergfests. Comp specs may or may not be the source of the OP’s lag, but maybe it helps them find a solution.

loseridoit.2756:

Dear OP,

Are you sure its not your computer?

Anet fixed culling a bit which increase the graphic requirements abit.

In most zerg server lag fest, fps is fine and they can 1 attack.

if you cannot 1 attack, then i wonder if it is your computer?

Post your system spec?

+1

My old system, which I FINALLY got around to upgrading, was horrible in this regard. Small skirmishes (10×10×10), no worries, no lag, just good fun. Zergwars w/ 50+ per side? I’d freeze in place. Can’t move, cast, etc. 5 seconds later I’d get 1 tick of movement. Next tick I was offered to WP cause I was dead. Note that this lag would happen even if I was sitting inside the castle/keep. I KNEW when a zerg was nearby because my fps would plummet.

On my system since my upgrade (Intel i7 3770K quad core overclocked to 3.9GHz, AMD HD7850 grfx, 8GB 2133MHz DDR3, 2TB 6GB/sec SATA HDD), I avg about 90fps in all but the largest zergfests. At worst I drop down to about 30-40fps….and that’s with all settings max’d. If I wanted to improve things, I could lower my settings in those big battles (150+ on-screen), but it’s perfectly playable as-is and wow….at max settings (which I could never use before) the grfx are stunning. Note this is for both fps and skill lag….I just don’t have an issue with either now.

Ralathar.7236:

But now everyone just wants to give up because of some silly point board.

I don’t think that’s what’s going on w/ AR, but unless/until a rep from one of the larger AR guilds comments, all we can do is speculate with regards to their reason(s) for staying out of WvW this week.

Ralathar.7236:

I dislike modern gamers sometimes lol. Graphics =/= a game. Gameplay = a game. There are countless examples of this out there of games with subpar graphics or even downright simplistic graphics that are great games.

I’ll take “meh” graphics w/ terrific gameplay over “WOW” graphics and truly horrid game play any day. It’s “meh” graphics with “meh” game play that now worries me about ESO……

I’ll reserve final judgement until I actually play the game, but my hopes have been dimmed somewhat.

Back on topic of AR/BP/EB, it looks like 5/28 may be our salvation:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Upcoming-WvW-changes-may-28th/page/2#post2063640

Dark Aidget.3879:

Thorson.9218:

Dark Aidget.3879:

Even my hopes for ESO have been dashed.

Gah!! Don’t say this! What about ESO has your hopes so…..hopeless? I was really looking forward to that one……

Someone leaked beta gameplay. Turns out to be kinda… meh. I know, I know, betas are still betas and stuff can change, but not an old game engine. It was depressingly underwhelming. That cinematic trailer set the bar too high. They better cancel their PtP plans or it will be the biggest flop since Warhammer online.

Ugh.

OK, now I’m depressed……

Dark Aidget.3879:

Even my hopes for ESO have been dashed.

Gah!! Don’t say this! What about ESO has your hopes so…..hopeless? I was really looking forward to that one……

Dinas Dragonbane.2978:

Thorson.9218:

No.

And don’t expect much AR presence in WvW this week. Enjoy the ghost town…..

This makes me sad

Me too.

I don’t know the “why”, I just know the “what”. Maybe one of the leaders of one of the larger guilds will chime in……

Lyonell.1753:

Score update anyone?
Is the BP/AR alliance still on?

No.

And don’t expect much AR presence in WvW this week. Enjoy the ghost town…..

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Break his knees with a baseball bat. Stealth away from that one you sneaky kitten.

Or this ^^^^^

LOL

Zenith.7301:

Thorson.9218:

Zenith.7301:

At the cost of karma and supply, and it’s 1200 range so all the thief needs to do is shadowstep away out of that 1200 range and wait till you disengage from that trap spot.

When triggered, the thief gets the Revealed condition for 30 secs. There’s no range involved, i.e. he can’t run away from the Condition that’s applied….it’s like a bad smell, LOL. So, he can’t stealth for 30 seconds. A gc thief (which most are) spec’d for stealth will die long before Revealed wears off. Also, the karma, supply, and badges are relatively cheap. The QQ’ing on the Thief forum pretty much shows how impactful this is in WvW.

Shadow Step and Infiltrator Arrow do not require stealth to get away.

Understood. But we have a really good gap closer (swoop) and if traited, 1500 range on our LB, so getting into range and then using our mad Ranger skills (along with some help from our pet buddy) to take him down is much easier when he’s Revealed. :-)

Slalom.3174:

Exploit’s video and build are a good place to start.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Video-Exploits-WvW-Melee-BM-Ranger/page/3#post2035335

Good luck.

^^^ This, plus check out the following video for hints on mesmers in particular: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Aodh-Nitola-RIOT-Solo-WvW-Commentary

Zenith.7301:

At the cost of karma and supply, and it’s 1200 range so all the thief needs to do is shadowstep away out of that 1200 range and wait till you disengage from that trap spot.

When triggered, the thief gets the Revealed condition for 30 secs. There’s no range involved, i.e. he can’t run away from the Condition that’s applied….it’s like a bad smell, LOL. So, he can’t stealth for 30 seconds. A gc thief (which most are) spec’d for stealth will die long before Revealed wears off. Also, the karma, supply, and badges are relatively cheap. The QQ’ing on the Thief forum pretty much shows how impactful this is in WvW.

idevourwater.3149:

I find it impossbile to kill a well played d/p thief.
.
.
.

Assuming you’re talking about WvW, I think the new anti-stealth trap just fixed your problem with stealth thieves……