Guild Wars 2

Terkov.4138:

Yeah, if you are going mainly for 1v1, SB will be better than LB.

^^^^ I’ll dog pile on and agree, LB in 1v1 is not good (awesome for large groups and tower/keep sieges however, so keep one on hand!). It’s way too slow and the inverse range penalty is horrible. I always swap to GS when in melee range, and with high toughness, it actually makes a really big difference with my survival, but again, it’s not a terrific 1v1 weapon. If 1v1 is your goal, and you want to use a bow, SB + S/D can be a very effective setup when mixed with lots of points in Skirmishing and WS to improve your traps.

Good hunting!

RyuDragnier.9476:

Suggestion to AR, get yourselves a Teamspeak, Vent, something so you can coordinate regardless of the map you’re on in WvW. Ebay does this, and because of that our response times get pretty fast.

And a very good suggestion it is, and one that the AR commanders are pushing in chat. It makes good sense, but getting people to use it, stay organized, etc…….hmmph. But it’s better than nothing.

FWIW the larger guilds all use it. The smaller ones…..dunno. They might within their own guild parties but may not join the chat for the larger events. They’d have to come here and chime in to know for sure.

tiramisu.8706:

Could have been helped. AR just didn’t respond quickly enough.

Correct…..sadly.

We have our moments, both good and bad. Sometimes we don’t respond fast enough, and sometimes the folks who are on just don’t care and go do their own thing. Other times we can get maybe 10-15 to try to hold off a much larger zerg w/ golems and as you all saw, that’s not exactly our strong point. LOL. It’s sort of like that Forrest Gump box of chocolates line…..you get what you get

No matter, we’re having fun regardless. We do have those moments where we hold off a much larger force (like at Bay last week), and that was really gratifying. We just need more of that type of coordination.

Actually, AR and BP are not “teaming up” outside of a special event a few nights ago where the two did work together to wipe EB off the Eternal map. That event lasted a few hours only.

I’ll let the commanders/guild leaders involved elaborate (or not) on any further “collaboration”. ;-)

And props to ALL servers, including EB, for partaking. It has made a stale matchup much more interesting, and definitely a shout out to all of EB. There’s no quit in those guys, and I think everyone is having a great time.

Loxsus.3841:

Thorson.9218:

GS 3 also comes in really handy to catch those runners. :-)

Or to be a runner yourself when you happen over that hill and see a wave of red coming your way O_O

LOL. Very good point! :-)

Works well in WvW too. Players see a ranger and know if they get in melee range the ranger is in trouble (due to the damage going down as range decreases….a REALLY stupid mechanic IMO, but I digress…..). Swap to the GS and go to town. It adds a ton of survivability and Maul (GS 2) is a beast. GS 3 also comes in really handy to catch those runners. :-)

Zenith.7301:

Make stealth break on hit,

I think this would kill the class. If stealth ends “early”, they get the Reveal debuff. That’s 3 seconds of being exposed. In 3 seconds most classes could burst them down.

In WoW, thieves were a PITA, just like here. Once they added Flare to the ranger class (they call them Hunter) which “revealed” the thief, most re-rolled other characters because stealth during PvP was their only advantage. Without it, they were a paper class that couldn’t even reach a ranged foe without dying, let alone hurt them. I hope for their sake Anet at least learned that lesson from WoW (now I wish they’d learn the “nerfing builds into the ground to appease the QQ’ing noobs = death of the game” lesson……).

llkoolaid.8204:

Thorson.9218:

llkoolaid.8204:

Thorson.9218:

Do commanders have the ability to see how many from their server are on a given map at a given time, or only their own guild (or nothing)? It would be really interesting to see if BP + AR = EB in WvW numbers, on average.

And re. what anyone “gets” out of the alliance…..it lasted a precious few hours, and we don’t get anything from it because we don’t want anything from it. It was just an interesting experiment that provided some interesting results. Most important, it was cool, fun, and everyone had a blast. I think EB was surprised by it, was challenged by it, and they too, as a server, likely had a blast. THAT was the point. The rest (score, place, blah blah blah) doesn’t matter.

Hey Dovgan, look more people crying about numbers…

LOL. Yet another reading comprehension challenged PvK’er.

So…according to you, if a post has the word “numbers” in it, it’s “complaining”. ROFL.

For those who can actually comprehend, it’s a question: Do commanders have the ability to see numbers of 1) total team members on-map, 2) total guild members on-map, or 3) (careful here koolaid, this is a tricky one) none of the above. Just curios (or in koolio’s lexicon, complaining…..LOL).

You kids make me laugh. Thank you. :-)

No, I said that you are crying.
The answer is number 3.
BP + AR > EB in numbers.
BP + AR maybe = EB in skill.

Question answered, stop crying or “complaining”.

LOL. You don’t stop making me laugh. So in your own admission, the word “numbers” to you = “crying”. ROFL.

I’m seriously concerned for your health. Stop, get up from the computer, and leave the room FAST! There are obviously some open paint cans or other toxic substances filling the room with vapors that are making you daffy. Please, for the sake of your little Quaggan children, FLEEEEE!

Oh, and thanks for the answer. That was actually helpful. :-) I only asked it because one evening a commander sent out chat that said there were only X players on the map, so I thought that might be another skill they get. Guess not, and he was just talking out his kitten.

Xsorus.2507:

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

You can see me fighting a D/P thief in this video

Thief played really bad. He chased you then BP + HS instantly instead of BP as soon as coming out of stealth to force you out of melee then HS for stealth.
Also he kept using Shadow Shot waaay too much from stealth to get a BS off on you causing him to waste too much initiative.

standard “Thief played really bad”

That’s not “really bad”. Really bad is the thief that my raven nearly solo’d. I was laughing my kitten off watching him run around, stealth/unstealth, and run around some more trying to figure out what was kicking his kitten (was amidst a 20v20 smashfest at a supply camp). He finally ran beyond my pet’s range. I don’t think he ever did figure it out. :-)

FWIW, bird pets do really well against stealth thieves because they are hard to hit (and hit pretty hard) and will beeline for them when they come out of stealth. Ravens are particularly good thx to their F2 blind. Thief stealths, you F2…..when they come out of stealth, raven swoops in and blinds them.

llkoolaid.8204:

Thorson.9218:

Do commanders have the ability to see how many from their server are on a given map at a given time, or only their own guild (or nothing)? It would be really interesting to see if BP + AR = EB in WvW numbers, on average.

And re. what anyone “gets” out of the alliance…..it lasted a precious few hours, and we don’t get anything from it because we don’t want anything from it. It was just an interesting experiment that provided some interesting results. Most important, it was cool, fun, and everyone had a blast. I think EB was surprised by it, was challenged by it, and they too, as a server, likely had a blast. THAT was the point. The rest (score, place, blah blah blah) doesn’t matter.

Hey Dovgan, look more people crying about numbers…

LOL. Yet another reading comprehension challenged PvK’er.

So…according to you, if a post has the word “numbers” in it, it’s “complaining”. ROFL.

For those who can actually comprehend, it’s a question: Do commanders have the ability to see numbers of 1) total team members on-map, 2) total guild members on-map, or 3) (careful here koolaid, this is a tricky one) none of the above. Just curios (or in koolio’s lexicon, complaining…..LOL).

You kids make me laugh. Thank you. :-)

Luzano.6983:

Where in my post did I say I care about score or tier rank?

Nice reading comprehension. I actually prefer this Tier and hated T4 because it was hard to roam or find small man groups. I was part of that GF group that you praised outside your SE tower. Small group coordination and roaming is my favorite. I would rather have fights like that than take objectives.

You said AR never has a Queue. The original post you responded to was meant to highlight and explain what happened in our BL and in Eternal with the 2v1, which was pretty darn fun. You might not have had a full Q, but you sure sent your zerg guilds.

You called us Midnight Warriors. I said we never had a significant late night force and it was actually BP that was always resetting everything oceanic time just until recently. Pretty sure the only loud mouth screen shot posters are the ones that either barely post and really don’t represent Ebay. Oh but wait, that’s all you read and just generalized from there.

You said we would have fun fighting bigger/equal numbers. I said that you’re preaching to the choir here. We already know all about that since we’ve done it in T4 when we were outnumbered and we do it consistently in the groups I run with. Yeah, we might have a bigger T4 NA population to cover more maps but even BP will tell you we are more organized and get more done with less numbers.

This week is actually pretty fun so far because both BP and AR are coming out to play. You guys are actually giving us a challenge when you work together, compared to the last few weeks of this match up.

If you really can’t understand those points, I will gladly paint you a picture IRL.

Paint me a picture IRL? My reply would get me banned, so I’ll just say LOL!

Beyond that, what I see here is we basically agree. I wish BP and AR actually could work together more because I think it puts this matchup on more equal footing numbers-wise and adds a new twist to this pairing, but that whole alliance thing lasted < 12 hrs. What I find funny is all the PvK’ers coming in here and crowing about how great EB is doing 2v1. For those folks I say don’t hurt your arm with the back pats. While it lasted, we rocked Eternal, but that’s long since over.

Now, it’s back to killing as usual. Our commanders seem to be learning better tactics (well, some of them are…..), especially against larger forces, and I see them getting better each week. This will serve us well in the future, regardless of who we’re up against.

Eurantien.4632:

Longbow 4-2. GS 4. Raven F2.

This^^^^

If you’re gc you’ll still lose, but if you have decent toughness and do the above, it’s even money.

Do commanders have the ability to see how many from their server are on a given map at a given time, or only their own guild (or nothing)? It would be really interesting to see if BP + AR = EB in WvW numbers, on average.

And re. what anyone “gets” out of the alliance…..it lasted a precious few hours, and we don’t get anything from it because we don’t want anything from it. It was just an interesting experiment that provided some interesting results. Most important, it was cool, fun, and everyone had a blast. I think EB was surprised by it, was challenged by it, and they too, as a server, likely had a blast. THAT was the point. The rest (score, place, blah blah blah) doesn’t matter.

Luzano.6983:

Thorson.9218:

Not even close to reality. Full queues from AR in your BL??? We don’t have full queues anywhere, ever! Our WvW population is tiny.

I guess if I were in your shoes I’d be kitten to be stuck in this tier week after week. Maybe that’s why I see so many EBay come here and keyboard rage. Dunno. You have a T4 WvW population and you’re stuck in T5. Week after week. Your midnight warriors? I mean, why bother? It’s got to be zero “fun” to roll up to undefended towers and keeps, flip them, and then just sit around for hours because no one shows up. Week after week. Same thing. We fight until our population goes to sleep, then wake up the next day and retake our stuff. Meanwhile, Ebay enjoys a huge points lead and…….what? I mean, do WHAT? Sit and take screens of “we ownz all!!!!”? You guys must be totally sick of this matchup. If you aren’t….well, that says a lot.

For our part, we’ll keep playing the game, and have a ton of fun doing it. After all, destroying forces that have superior numbers is a LOT more satisfying than rolling a 40+ man zerg through undefended territory.

For your sake, I do hope Anet rethinks their strategy (I assume they have one) and reworks matchups according to WvW population and not just total server population. I think you’d get a lot more out of WvW if you were pitted against forces of equal (or greater) size. I know we do. :-)

Lol did you even play in our BL during reset?

Pitted against forces of equal and greater size? Been there. Done that in T4. We know know all about that.

Midnight Warriors? Lol for the longest time our Oceanic/Late night presence was pretty low and it wasn’t until recently that we started our Ehmry Late Night crew guild. BP Kalkz and their late night crew was the biggest reason for quite a bit of time why we weren’t winning with even bigger points spread We never had a significant night force since HIRE and RP were here and even then they still struggled and didn’t stay with us very long.

We might have a T4 NA population and definitely held our own during T4 NA. But it’s all about coverage in higher tiers and we’ve always needed more oceanic/late night coverage.

Please do your homework before you write another pointless post. You’re preaching to the choir here :]

Ps. Or it could be that your Jimmies are rustled and that’s why you care so much about our ranking?

Your post -> LOL

I see reading comprehension isn’t your thing. No problem. I’ll help you out: we don’t care about rankings. Many of us have said it before, but I’ll say it again because maybe repetition will work for you. We’re in it to play. To fight. To have fun. Rankings. Who the kitten cares? Oh, right….you do. LOL.

And yeah, I was on at reset. Not sure of your point. Maybe you don’t have one. Homework? I couldn’t give a kitten what you guys did in T4 or any other tier….it doesn’t matter….at all…..except to you. That’s gotta suck for you then being stuck in a rank that’s a downgrade eh? “We did blah blah in T4”. “We were blah blah in T4”. This is T5. Embrace it. Draw it in and make it part of you….because it is, and has been for weeks. :-)

Kalkz.5297:

Borlis Rock Ftw

Good job AR & BP

+1

Great job guys.

Respect to BP.

PenguiNet.3420:

EBay was only 2nd in score because we had full queues of the largest zerg guilds from AR and BP in our home BL.

Not even close to reality. Full queues from AR in your BL??? We don’t have full queues anywhere, ever! Our WvW population is tiny.

I guess if I were in your shoes I’d be kitten to be stuck in this tier week after week. Maybe that’s why I see so many EBay come here and keyboard rage. Dunno. You have a T4 WvW population and you’re stuck in T5. Week after week. Your midnight warriors? I mean, why bother? It’s got to be zero “fun” to roll up to undefended towers and keeps, flip them, and then just sit around for hours because no one shows up. Week after week. Same thing. We fight until our population goes to sleep, then wake up the next day and retake our stuff. Meanwhile, Ebay enjoys a huge points lead and…….what? I mean, do WHAT? Sit and take screens of “we ownz all!!!!”? You guys must be totally sick of this matchup. If you aren’t….well, that says a lot.

For our part, we’ll keep playing the game, and have a ton of fun doing it. After all, destroying forces that have superior numbers is a LOT more satisfying than rolling a 40+ man zerg through undefended territory.

For your sake, I do hope Anet rethinks their strategy (I assume they have one) and reworks matchups according to WvW population and not just total server population. I think you’d get a lot more out of WvW if you were pitted against forces of equal (or greater) size. I know we do. :-)

@Entropy: Thank you! I originally built a little Mesmer to go WvW’ing with, and 2 days later the nerf bat clobbered the “Glamorous” build. <sad face> Now you come along with a really nice build that makes me want to pick up the class again (lvl 30, WvW mainly w/ a smidge of PvE). I realize I won’t be “strong” until I hit 80, but now I have a new build to shoot for. :-)

Apologies if this has been suggested before but it didn’t show up in a search.

What I would find useful in WvW is a way to accurately gauge range to my target. In RL, you could pace it off, etc., but there’s no way to know if the treb I just placed will reach a certain spot other than wasting the supply (and blueprint) and trying it, unless I’ve placed one there before. It would be great if there was a way to know ahead of time, either through a player skill or a blueprint skill (i.e. double click the blueprint and have 3 skills vs. just 2: 1- Place, 2 – Cancel, 3 – Check Range <— this could show a red circle on the mini-map of its max range).

This could help promote some very creative “open field” siege points and get some of that siege off tower/keep walls. It could also be very useful for placing ballistae to counter the new ACs. :-)

Caliban.3176:

The zergs existed before, but it was still viable to run in smaller groups. That last part has been destroyed in this last patch.

I still run in 5-10 man groups in both Eternal and BL. Before the patch, you could pretty much ignore ACs. Now, you have to account for them and deal with them.

What people seem to be upset about is they can’t steamroll everything with their 40-man zerg any more. Guess what? That was the point of the AC buff!!!! Before, if a 40-man zerg rolled up to a tower w/ < 10 defenders, unless the others on the map rallied REAL FAST and came to wipe the zerg, the tower was lost (PVDoor anyone?). Now, 4 well-placed ACs can defend the tower, at least long enough for help to arrive, and it seems the zerglings are QQing about it. CHANGE TACTICS!!! THINK!!!! There are ways around this, just be creative (1 ballista shot will take out an AC, 1 treb shot will take out an AC, etc).

The only “mistake” Anet made in this patch was AC’s are too effective against enemy siege, and they admitted it and are going to address it. Beyond that, the real issue here is some folks just can’t seem to adapt.

Gravy.7589:

The reality is good players make classes OP.

^^^^ Very well said.

And yeah….noob Thief who is used to spamming 3 FTW comes here and QQ about Guard being OP.

I’ll be LOL’ing about this all day. Thanks! :-)

Hickeroar.9734:

I will say, though, that this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone refer to Guardians as “OP.”

ROFL. Agree, and I thought the same thing and is why I thought the title was a joke! Guess it is in a way……. ;-)

OMG….I thought this post was one of those joke titles where his post says “Hah!!! Gotcha to look didn’t I!!!!” and then go on a rant about something else. But he’s SERIOUS! ROFL.

As others have said, L2P. Guardians are in no way OP. LOL.

timidobserver.7925:

Deniara Devious.3948:

timidobserver.7925:

Crazy engy is going to die a horrible death due to lack of stability. The lack of stability is what makes me wary of any bomb build in a zerg. With the utility slot nerf to elixir S, using bombs in WvW is even less appealing.

Indeed. But I guess different tiers, EU and NA, have different meta. Here in EU tier #1 the melee train used to be meta. Thus a lot of hammer warriors and also guardians. You needed to time your dive into enemy zerg very well in order to come out alive (go in at wrong moment and you get hammered into mushy squish). But I was using grenade kit for that. I still dive into enemy zergs, even as a commander. I find it a bit safer, because the meta uses a bit less knockdown + stability now. More PuGs, less organized tightly packed teams. But there is a lot thieves (also in zergs). You can even have double thief team looking for weak victims in middle of a zerg fights. Elixir S nerf hit so bad I had to scrap that skill. Elixir S is pretty much a recipe of getting downed in WvWvW, because you cannot heal or stow any kits during that 3 s. I wish some engineer trait or utility (e.g. a gadget) would give stability as stability is so sorely needed also for many dungeons and pve play as well. Engineer condition removal is solely dependent on elixirs and cleaning formula 409. Medkit drop antidote is not that efficient condition removal as you need to walk over it and WvWvW fights tend to have tons of immobilize (e.g. warriors use leg specialist trait).

Overall the recent patch reduced engineer survivability in WvWvW and the confusion nerf hit some builds really badly.

Yup. Pretty much if you are wvwing in a zerg you should be chucking grenades. Mask’s build also still works even though the confusion nerf hit it hard.

Bombs, not so much unless you have a shout/hammer guardian friend and are specced into boon duration so that you can take advantage of stability when he uses it.

Eh, flamethrower gets an honorable mention. With juggernaut you can get really really tanky. Though, in the end you are only really good at tagging enemies, but you can only hit 3 people at a time.

Interesting perspectives, but that hasn’t matched my experience so far. Only one time did someone have a clue that the rampaging knucklehead with the flame thrower in the mob of 20+ bodies charging into the Lord room was about to BoB them to kingdom come and knocked me back out. Too late as my BoB still did it’s work just as my butt hit the ramp. The onrushing horde mopped up. Now I just BoB and THEN roast ‘em, cause it’s nigh impossible to tell which one is the Engi with that many bodies crammed together. Meh….it’s all fun.

I will agree though, unless you take Firearms 4 to increase pistol/rifle range, wall huggers will need to swap to grenade kit and work on their carpel tunnel to be effective. But I tend not to wall hug….. ;-)

Dovgan.8605:

AR doesn’t play for a place, these folks like to fight.

^^^^ This. Well said Dov.

nothing.7941:

Props to AR, after all the talk of transfers and a pretty big points gap y’all have done a great job of fighting back in the past 2 days. Well played so far, hope we can nose you at the finish line.

Yeah, yeah, playin for 2nd, w/e.

Thanks for that. Yesterday was…..challenging, especially in our BL. We had one of you (I think it was BP….was a long day) attacking Garrison while another attacked Bay. We have a hard time mustering enough players on BL to defend ONE keep let alone two.

The Bay fight was just insane. We did a huge “300” (with about 15) in the Lord’s room 3 times as their zerg smashed through ours, downed the Lord, but couldn’t clear the room (and at Bay, there ain’t much room to do the fightin’). Very fun. I hope someone got a recording of it. My compy is so pathetic I drop to about 1fps in large battles like that, so trying to record would just freeze my system. <sigh>

To the GF guild farming at AR BL Bluelake last night:

Very well played. Dang you guys are good, and obviously spend a LOT of time perfecting your skills. I think you were 2 Thieves and 2-3 Mesmers (always hard to tell given the number of clones you all squirt out). I had fun just watching you guys and learned a ton. Well done.

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

I can has link to similar build but with direct dps?

I’ve been trying to build something that has healing power, power, precision, toughness, and crit dmg…

Holy cow batman, it’s tough.

Was hoping to hit 2800+ attack, 40% crit, 50% cdmg, 2700+ armor, and approximately 700 healing power (give or take).

For runes I will probably go with 2 monk, 2 water, 2 earth so I will have 93% increased regen duration and 80% increased protection duration. A lot of vigor coming in so it will help maintain protection uptime. I shall return with a link once I iron it out.

I’ll let the real experts give the details (or not….they seem to be quite silent on this topic), but my assumption is to not go into BM at all and use the pts to go into Skirmishing if you want to be more melee DD or Marksmanship for ranged DD. Beyond that, I’ll have to play a LOT more WvW and see what works. I find a “good” player knows a BM ranger’s strength is in the pet (they figure this out in the first 2 secs of the fight when kitty smacks them for a 2k opening crit), so they just blow the pet up and then you’re a badge. I’d rather go DD and let my pet just add to the dps goodness vs having them as a primary component to it.

If the ranger masters on this thread care to point an uplevel (65….getting there, but WvW leveling can be slow unless you’re a zergling) to a thread/build that meets the above goal, that would be great. PMs work too….I promise not to tell. :-)

And to the OP, did I read your post right and you’ve left AR for EB??? If so…..<sad face>

Furajir.3815:

Thorson.9218:

As others have said, nice vid. Your survivability is amazing. You were getting hit and your health was going UP! A linky to your build would be most appreciated. :-)

As soon as I get off work tonight I will update post with build etc.

Thank you. Much appreciated!

Puandro.3245:

SB is a great weapon and it has some good defensive skills but once forced in melee might as well bust a melee weapon for higher damage and more defense which sword/X and GS are good for.

That’s exactly what I’m finding. There will be those times when you end up in melee whether you want to be there or not, and SB/LB is just a badge at that point, especially in the large group fights. Trying LB – S/D and it seems to be working better.

What I find interesting re. most of the Ranger videos I’ve seen where they are having “success” (i.e. not being a 30 second badge) in WvW they are running a melee build (sword/dagger, axe/torch, GS for survival/escape, etc). Few, if any, solo roaming rangers are running sbow or lbow as their primary weapon. Is this just because of play style preference of the folks in the vid, or are xbow rangers really that kitten solo roaming WvW? Lvl 62 at the moment, so learning what I can before I can gear for dominance, LOL.

Interesting coordination earlier today between BP and EB in Eternal. While BP attacked Veloka, next door EB was hammering Overlook. Once BP took Vel, they hammered Overlook from the NE. Strategy to pound AR, or just coincidence that both of you were hitting Overlook at the same time? Just curios. Either way it was total mayhem and everyone had a whale of a time. We got wiped multiple times (we had a whopping 20 players on total), but finally clawed our way back into our towers and keep. Good times!

WvW is a zergfest. Nothing breaks up/pushes back a zerg at a choke point better than a crazed engi with a pension for explosives. Elixer B → smoke vent → napalm → BoB FTW. Send blinded, burning bodies flying through the air. If you have a like-minded engi to follow right behind with another one, it usually takes the fight out of the zerg and sends them running (while burning of course). :-)

Note this tactic is also brilliant when capping a tower. Since defenders like gathering in the Lord’s room, it makes the pile of loot bags quite deep. Watching burning bodies fly out of the tower to their death (or into your onrushing zerg) never gets old….is that wrong? ;-)

Asura Mesmer here, so you prolly already see where this one is headed. I was defending our BL Garrison which was being attacked from multiple pts. Finally someone yelled out that the NE gate was down and get to inner, so I hopped down from my perch and started running. Somehow I got turned around and rather than running to the inner gate, I ran smack into the attacking zerg. Nothing but a giant red blob. I figured my only chance was to keep going into them since they won’t be expecting a lone crazed Asuran to attack them, so I popped decoy, blinked further into them, then veiled and made it through the smashed gate that they just all came from. I didn’t have a scratch. I made it around to our water gate and got in to aid in the mad last stand, which was epic, the whole time laughing like a lunatic that my crazy save worked. We finally got wiped since they had 4-5x our numbers, but I’m sure there was more than one of them scratching their heads wondering WTH happened as they came through that outer gate. LOL.

As others have said, nice vid. Your survivability is amazing. You were getting hit and your health was going UP! A linky to your build would be most appreciated. :-)

@Tiger: Yes, zerg surfing is stupid fast leveling. The very few times I’ve done it (my compy is crap so with more than 20 people on the screen at one time my fps goes to kitten….about 1-2 fps = free badge to the other team), I’ve gone up 1 level in 1 full sweep of the map. 10 minutes max. And the loot/badges just roll in. But it’s not all that fun for me, especially given my compy limitations. I’d much rather run w/ a 5-10 man team like I did last night. Now THAT was fun, my fps didn’t suffer as much, and I got in a lot more fights and helped my team a lot more.

@Gorma: Thank you very much for the tips! That’s exactly what I was looking for. I’m still getting used to all of the mechanics and utility of this class, and I learn a few new things about it every day. This is NOT a noob class for sure if you want to play it well, and I love the challenge of finding all of the synergies/combos that work in different situations. Now I know why I put my first Mesmer aside (difficult to play well for a noob) but kick myself for doing it because if I had stuck with it I would likely have it as my main vs. my Guardian (GW2 Easy Mode, LOL). And yes, I read all the other class forums and they all complain about the Thief, so I don’t feel so bad. ;-) They’re a lot easier to make run away on my Ranger though……my Engineer, not so much (hah!).

Godmoney.2048:

At the risk of sounding like a kitten (I can live with that) I’ll give you the best piece of advice.

Finish leveling. You can easily hit 80 in a 5 or 6 days of doing hearts, some crafting, map completion, etc.

Stay in the lowbie zones and just get map completion. If you do all the level 0-15 zones you should be 35 or so. Then do all the 15-30 zones and you’ll be 50. 60-80 is a breeze. Throw some cooking in there for good measure and you’re set.

You’re only hope is to avoid thieves altogether as a lowbie, so why not just spend a few days leveling up? Why even waste your time with gear concerns until 80?

You make a fair point, and not knowing that I already have 3 lvl 80’s I can see where you would say that. I leveled all of them in PvE, and frankly I’m tired of it. It’s boring, repetitive, and a grind. I’d rather have some fun, and right now I’m finding WvW fun and exciting because it’s so dynamic (relative to PvE anyway). Since I play on a low population server, we’re always the underdog and rushing to save this tower, that keep, our BL….it’s VERY fast paced. Flipping control pts and camps is good xp (as well as joining in on retaking our towers/keeps), arguably as good or better than PvE, but I can’t get much done with a spike through my noggin’……hence my request for guidance from the mesmer community for how to survive against the one class that is causing me issues 1v1.

I realize I’ll likely lose to a “good” thief right now, but since I can hold my own against everything else, I guess I’ll just keep plugging away and learn how to beat them. By the time I’m 80, it should be a pretty even fight. ;-)

Pyroatheist.9031:

Thorson.9218:

@Justine: completely agree. It’s frustrating that the reward system is such that they will get a badge from me even though they are lvl 80 and I’m uplevel. Many times they just sit and wait for the uplevels, ignoring the lvl 80’s that are also running supply. Why work for a badge when you can take the uplevel with relative ease? Sad……

Not sad, smart.

You and everyone else are all carrying the same supply. It’s all going to the same place, for the same purpose. All other things equal, every one of you is worth the same as a target. However, uplevels die faster and easier. The faster they kill, the less supply gets run.

Understood. But then wouldn’t it be smarter to try to kill ALL of us vs. just the uplevels? I have zero issue if they’re trying to stop supply, that goes with the territory, but they’re not even killing Yaks!!!! They’re just ganking uplevels….that’s the “sad” part. The overall strategy of preventing supply I totally get.

@Pyro: very good point, thank you. That makes perfect sense. I was stuck in this mindset that I needed to keep staff around for fighting at the supply camp if/when I get jumped, but frankly I just need to stay alive! I can swap to staff once I get back to safety or when I want to flip a control point or camp. :^)

@Justine: completely agree. It’s frustrating that the reward system is such that they will get a badge from me even though they are lvl 80 and I’m uplevel. Many times they just sit and wait for the uplevels, ignoring the lvl 80’s that are also running supply. Why work for a badge when you can take the uplevel with relative ease? Sad……

Thanks guys.

@Knatty, I completely understand and frankly was afraid that was the answer. They can hit so hard and so fast that with my gear I go down pdq. What I’m trying to figure out is if there is anything I can do to at least survive a bit longer. I think if I can get through their initial burst and get in a quick heal, I at least have a fighting chance against the “average” thief.

@Pyro, I currently run w/ Staff and Scepter/Focus, Focus mainly for TC to “run away really fast” (and also to run as fast as I can to/from the supply camp). If I run torch OH, I lose my speed, and I’d hate to give up the utility of the staff to run something like Sword/Torch – Scepter/Focus (scepter damage is soooo lame). Hrmmmm…….

So, as an uplevel (lvl 25 currently), I try to help my server in WvW by flipping control pts, flipping camps, running supply, and manning siege. What I find is that my biggest issue is getting ganked by thieves while running supply. They like to stay stealthed and then pounce on me (funny most of them target me, the uplevel mesmer, vs. the lvl 80’s that are around….I must be DANGEROUS….lol). Only 1 time was I able to get away using a combo of Blink, TC, and pooping out clones as fast as I could whilst running to my tower.

Keeping in mind that I’m level 25 and don’t have many Trait pts to spend, and my gear is woefully “Glicko’ized”, can you guys/gals give me some hints or tips on how to either 1) get away from these guys, or 2) have half a chance of facing them until help arrives? TIA.

As a lvl 20 in WvW, glitcho doesn’t do such a great job (none?) in scaling my weapon damage, so I have to get “creative”. Case in point, yesterday a zerg attacked one of our towers by throwing down 2 rams and pounding away at the front gate. We threw down a few ACs and in short order had the zerg on the run, leaving the rams still at our front door. Not wanting to let another zerg come along and get free shots at our gate, I decided to take them out (I was the only one left in the tower while the “big kids” ran the zerg off). Well, my weapons were doing a whopping 50 pts of damage to the rams, so I thought why not try popping some clones on them w/ F1. This works great on guards and other WvW NPCs. Nothing. Zip. Zero damage done to the rams.

So I ask, is this “working as intended”, or should I send a bug in on it?

Ralathar.7236:

Looking at the confusion damage another way:
.
.
.

Thanks for taking the time to look into this in such detail and running the numbers. Very interesting, and much appreciated. :-)

Nak.8315:

Thorson.9218:

Nak.8315:

Thorson.9218:

Nak.8315:

You guys make it sound like its a huge thing that goes on that drastically affects your ability to play. Get over it. Back capping will still exist because there are some players that prefer to play that way, Just like how a lot of you like to Zerg it up, and I like to play in Smaller groups. Deal with it.

Scenario: Mesmer dies (sad face), and hangs around inside a keep. A perma-stealth thief does his perma-stealth thing, also inside the keep (which is now in the hands of the other team). Some time later (10 minutes? 20 minutes?) perma-stealth thief rez’s dead mezmer, who then portals a kitten-load of his team inside your keep. This dynamic happens all-too frequently, and as admitted by Anet, is not a dynamic that is “working as intended”. Therefore, they are going to address the corpse issue, hopefully with a very short timer then depop (in WvW…..who knows what, if anything, they’ll do w/ PvE). Problem solved, and no Quagans died in the process. Bonus!

Now, if a team fails to sweep for a sneaky mesmer who has found a legit hidey spot, shame shame on the sweepers. Enjoy (or not) your back cap.

Solution: Everyone on the Map doesn’t need to be within the same screen as each other. Break up the Zerg have some players scout and play defensively. At that point you have eyes on the Mesmer Corpse, if the player see the thief he yells out.

If you leave kitten undefended you should expect for it to be taken.

So, your solution is to force people to baby-sit a dead guy. I’d rather actually play the game than be forced to watch a non-decaying corpse. Fortunately Anet agrees with that and will be fixing it.

Now go play and have fun. Mind the pointy sticks…..

Don’t tell me what to do.

ROFL……

RyuDragnier.9476:

Thorson, there are various ways to fix this. Keep a Necromancer and/or a Ranger who is okay with watching the fallen mesmer on them. Have them throw numerous traps and marks on them. Congratulations, any thief who tries will be killed so hard.

Completely understand and agree there are ways to deal with this as it is today. Right, wrong, or indifferent, however, it forces someone to baby-sit a dead guy, which isn’t what Anet had in mind for this particular scenario, so they’re addressing it.

Will keeps still get back capped? Heck yeah, and they should be if peeps don’t do their job and sweep for LIVING players. A perma-stealth thief can stay hidden all night long if that’s their thing, ‘cause if there isn’t a LIVING mez around, he’s just wasting HIS playing time, not others.

Nak.8315:

Thorson.9218:

Nak.8315:

You guys make it sound like its a huge thing that goes on that drastically affects your ability to play. Get over it. Back capping will still exist because there are some players that prefer to play that way, Just like how a lot of you like to Zerg it up, and I like to play in Smaller groups. Deal with it.

Scenario: Mesmer dies (sad face), and hangs around inside a keep. A perma-stealth thief does his perma-stealth thing, also inside the keep (which is now in the hands of the other team). Some time later (10 minutes? 20 minutes?) perma-stealth thief rez’s dead mezmer, who then portals a kitten-load of his team inside your keep. This dynamic happens all-too frequently, and as admitted by Anet, is not a dynamic that is “working as intended”. Therefore, they are going to address the corpse issue, hopefully with a very short timer then depop (in WvW…..who knows what, if anything, they’ll do w/ PvE). Problem solved, and no Quagans died in the process. Bonus!

Now, if a team fails to sweep for a sneaky mesmer who has found a legit hidey spot, shame shame on the sweepers. Enjoy (or not) your back cap.

Solution: Everyone on the Map doesn’t need to be within the same screen as each other. Break up the Zerg have some players scout and play defensively. At that point you have eyes on the Mesmer Corpse, if the player see the thief he yells out.

If you leave kitten undefended you should expect for it to be taken.

So, your solution is to force people to baby-sit a dead guy.

I’d rather actually play the game than be forced to watch a non-decaying corpse. Fortunately Anet agrees with that and will be fixing it.

Now go play and have fun. Mind the pointy sticks…..

Nak.8315:

You guys make it sound like its a huge thing that goes on that drastically affects your ability to play. Get over it. Back capping will still exist because there are some players that prefer to play that way, Just like how a lot of you like to Zerg it up, and I like to play in Smaller groups. Deal with it.

Scenario: Mesmer dies (sad face), and hangs around inside a keep. A perma-stealth thief does his perma-stealth thing, also inside the keep (which is now in the hands of the other team). Some time later (10 minutes? 20 minutes?) perma-stealth thief rez’s dead mezmer, who then portals a kitten-load of his team inside your keep.

This dynamic happens all too frequently, and as admitted by Anet, is not a dynamic that is “working as intended”. Therefore, they are going to address the corpse issue, hopefully with a very short timer then depop (in WvW…..who knows what, if anything, they’ll do w/ PvE). Problem solved, and no Quagans died in the process. Bonus!

Now, if a team fails to sweep for a sneaky mesmer who has found a legit hidey spot, shame shame on the sweepers. Enjoy (or not) your back cap.

Once Anet fixes the issue of corpses being allowed to stay around (and they’ve already said they’re going to fix this), most of this “back capping” kitten will be history.

Xsorus.2507:

Rofl, You want to know why you’re getting nerfed

Count how many times in the video they said “We want New Players ect ect”

New Players do stupid things..Like spam attacks when Confusion is on themselves….Therefor Anet is nerfing Confusion to appease fools who don’t know any better.

Its part of their “Dumb down the game as much for the mouth breathers”

^^^^^

Now the question becomes, will the bucket fill faster than it empties……

Someone mentioned the constant nerfing killing WoW, and I totally agree. It’s one of the main reasons I left. Did Anet learn nothing from them in this regard? Kittening off your loyal players to pull in $50/head for newbies will work in the short term, but in the long term, the population shrinks, and baby Quaggans die because no one will be there to save them from the Krait…… sad face.

So…..would you guys still recommend the same build (Glam) given the new sniff confusion nerf that’s coming? >:(

^^^

Awesome input, thanks guys! :-)