Guild Wars 2

Johje Holan.4607:

Both of these reasons is why it needs to be winner take all. Or in this case the winner gets the most tickets and 2nd and 3rd both get the same amount of tickets.

That way if a 2v1 happens, as soon as one of the two takes the lead, the 2v1 will have to change or else the “other” of the two will lose and do no better than the 3rd.

There is also the (more likely, I’d wager) outcome in most matches of the 2nd and 3rd servers just giving up completely after 1st pulls out ahead. Since the reward for 2nd and 3rd are the same, and in most cases pulling for 1st would mean a week of limited sleep and days off work for the server with less off-hours population.

A system which encourages all sides to fight for first sounds like a good idea. I just don’t think that would be the way to go about it, given timezone population disparity is generally the deciding factor in points.

goldenwing.8473:

Solomon, I would agree on principle, that some of those transfers are probably being funded via outside sources. However, there’s enough cash there coming in that it’s still reasonable to assume ANet is getting “their cut”.

Just to address this sub-discussion:

It costs GEMS to transfer, not gold. Every single gem(1) is bought with real money. Third party gold sellers cannot generate gems.

This means even if guilds are using third party gold merchants, then converting that gold to gems, Anet is still making money. Someone bought those gems using real money or they wouldn’t exist to trade for gold in the first place.

Suggesting Anet isn’t profiting from transfers is misleading.

~$22,000 sounds like a lot of money, but I know several people who have spent more on a game from the last MMO I played, and it’s not as popular as GW2. So don’t discount the existence of a few people with way too much money and not much brains. Not saying that’s what is happening, I don’t know, not from any of the servers affected. Just saying 20 grand isn’t as much to some people as it is to most of us.

(1) (well, okay, a few are generated through achievement rewards and such, but nearly all)

Even in T1 that timezone is slow. Just not a lot of land in the middle of the Pacific ocean to have a large player base.

There’s often nothing in the way of fighting, usually an early/late guild group or 2 PvD’ing around the maps and a few hardcore defenders burning the candle at both ends to ride an AC down in glory.

This is the variant I came up with. This is definitely not an “optimal” build.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRApd8flsApZolDxVIEERR8Ql1YY5H8CVHAJwje1MA-TViAABJcCAgZ/BAeCAPYCCI1fEU/QFKB34gAImyPSBwkwK-w

(I don’t use ascended armor in the calculator as this is a “just for fun/screwing around” build and that’s more expensive than I’d recommend for sanity purposes, but if you can afford it go ahead)

It’s fun but once your enemies figure it out it’s easily countered. It lacks mobility and has trouble with heavy condi pressure (as most class/builds do so whatever).

Solo I might switch the tome for renewed focus and mace for scepter, but in small group (which is what I designed this build for) they are very powerful.

Craft exotics if you have the gold, use dungeon tokens if you like dungeons. Runes can be replaced by simply overwriting them with the ones you want to use.

WvW gear and Orrian Karma gear should be a last resort since neither can be salvaged to reclaim your runes should you ever desire to do so. The exception would be if you plan to use Melandru runes, nearly the entire heavy Soldier’s set comes with free Melandru runes and that can save you a lot of gold.

This can work very well in open field, mostly versus really melee heavy team compositions.

It takes practice to pull off, everyone needs to be capable of staying out of the melee ball and not getting caught while watching the driver and staying ready with nukes on the bomb points. It’s an attrition or wait&bait style of fighting. Don’t nuke the melee ball, kite and CC it to break it up, then focus out of position players in the backline or melee players who’ve been pulled and boon-stripped. Regroup for water blasts on enemy downed so the blast damage finishes them then pull off (this should take no more than 3 seconds and don’t do it if the melee train is close enough to counterbomb).

With a good driver it’s a great way to counter a standard melee/backline setup. It’s confusing as heck to their driver because there is no clear focal point and regroups seem to occur randomly.

It doesn’t work well in GvG though. Mostly because the terrain in OS is too tight to allow much kiting or spreading. Every player needs to be capable of full disengage for this to work and you simply can’t just book it into the seats in a GvG.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Seriously, just pick whatever class you feel like playing. The rest will sort itself out.

This right here ^

There are no ranged/melee classes in this game, everyone has access to weapon swapping after level 7 (iirc) and weapons available which fill both roles.

There are no tanks, everyone has ways to avoid damage partially or entirely with dodge, block, blind, aegis (boon which blocks one attack), projectile reflection/destruction, crowd control (crippling/chilling/immobilizing/stunning enemies).

There are no dedicated healers, but every player can heal themselves and others. Simply reviving a downed ally with the “interact” key is a 50% health heal.

Every class (called professions here) can play every role, the ways they do it vary in effectiveness to some degree, but generally any profession can handle any situation with a swap of traits/skills/weapons/gear.

For example: a guardian can block ranged damage with shields, blind enemies to make them miss attacks, buff allies with boons to protect against damage and restore lost HP and cure them of poison/bleeding/burning/etc…. an Elementalist can do all those things too, just using different skills.

Play whatever seems most fun, and try at least 3-4 different professions. If you like PvP you can enter that area and be leveled to max with nearly all skills and traits available to try out what a profession plays like at endgame (pvp builds are not identical to pve but very close, all the skills work the same other than minor balance differences, but the stat spread is less customizable to keep balance).

Yes. stuffstuffstuffstuff

Bumping this thread so more people can get their timings.

It seems like these zone events are really designed for 20-40 people, not 150.

The main problem with Boss Blitz was scaling from too many people, it was easy with 4-6 on each boss, and absolute chaos once more than 10 arrived (with the map cap there could easily be enough for 20+ at each boss).

Dry Top events seem to be mostly do-able by groups of 2-6 competent players. With 9 different (I think) events which contribute to Zephyrite favor, that’s only about 40ish players required out of 150. Some of the bosses may need more, but there is time to group up for them after clearing the easier events.

Just like the other hard fights (Teq, Marionette, BB, etc.) I expect the level of random organization to increase over time.

A list of available servers (megaservers/shards/districts whatever you want to call them) with the WvW queue system would fix all this. Relevant data for the list would be meta-event status and number of players queued.

This would allow players to continue enjoying the game while waiting for a map rather than spamming the join function for an unknown amount of time. It would also allow players who just want to gather some nodes and do story or explore to select a low population map for their needs.

I don’t want to see a reduction in the type of content which requires and benefits from organization. It’s incredibly fun for many people and adds a new layer of challenge to PvE.

I thought this post was going to be some random complain-y rant, and…. It’s exactly what I thought it was.

Find a guild you like, which fits your playstyle and time zone, and join their server. The only thing that matters at all about server choice for PvE is access to guild bank, upgrades, and influence gain (all tied to the guild’s main server).

Check the guild recruitment section of these forums to get started.

*The issues I mention at the top are supposed to be solved within this year.

First of all, welcome back.

motherbox.5493:

Maybe I just don’t get this game. I want to like it so bad and I love the characters and graphics but I think it’s lame to do the same things over and over again for no reason. Does anyone have any advice?

My advice would be to objectively evaluate what keeps you playing any game that you enjoy. List the qualities you like in MMOs and for each, also list WHY you like that quality (this is very important, and this skill can be useful in anything).

If Guild Wars 2 offers things which will keep you having fun, then stay, or keep coming back periodically and trying the new things (it doesn’t cost anything anyway).

Most games (MMOs) incentivize players with ever increasing stats. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_creep if you are under the illusion that higher stats = better game. This results in more of a feeling of obligation than fun. If you’re looking for a game that “makes” you play, look elsewhere. I’ve never seen an MMO that puts out even a total of one hour per week of fresh content. Usually new skills/weapons/classes are either useless or totally overpowered for months after an expansion.

It’s ok to play for a couple hours every couple weeks. The idea that a single game should somehow define your existence is leftover from subscription games and f2p/p2w grinders, and GW2 is trying to discard those old notions in favor of a more open ended gaming experience.

What to do in Dry Top? Kill stuff, do events, search for treasure, RP as desert bandits, try to organize maps to hit t3/t4 status. Pretty much the same stuff as the rest of the game. It’s ok if you don’t find that fun, fun is different to different people, but that’s what the game is.

Deim Hunir.8503:

Maybe the soil lacks minerals lately with the dragons sucking everything up so they go crazy, I don’t know.

Might not be far off there at all. Magic could be viewed as an essential mineral of sorts for the Pale Tree (and by extension, her saplings/branches/seeds/whatever).

It’s true in real life as well, no need to bore the forums with that stuff though.

Pretty unreasonable to expect content to be released so quickly that hardcore players won’t run out of stuff to do.

It’s always faster to read a book, watch a movie or play a game than it is to write/film/program one.

The only way to extend playtime to that length is requiring a bunch of grind and/or time-gated activity (short of hiring thousands more programmers, but that’s probably not in the budget for a B2P game).

Remember to gather all the materials you pass as you are wandering. That’s a big chunk of the total exp you can get clearing a map, and a good way to make money (or you can use it to craft which also gives you exp).

Also, talk to and/or observe any NPCs you see, some of them will start event chains. Many events lead into each other and end in a boss fight of some sort, but there is often a down time between stages where it can appear nothing is happening if you aren’t watching the incidental NPC dialogue. Running from one place looking for events can often take you away from events, if that makes sense.

The original designers meant for players to explore, interact with and participate in the world, not focus on the goal of leveling. That’s changed a lot with living story events and festival content like the current crown pavilion, but all the old content is still there in the open world (well, mostly).

There are several different games within the game. WvWvW, sPvP, open world PvE, world events, dungeons. They all provide ways to get loot and exp in various proportions related to your success.

Spiuk.8421:

PattyCakeChamp.5268:

Yesterday there were more people on twitch watching the TA vs Agg gvg than most of the gw2 esports channels combined….

Anet your gold mine is waiting.

How many? 100 people?

D I G I T A L S P O R T S

About 1,200 from what I saw.

It uses your healing power and boon duration.

The stats of the caster of the skill are the stats used in calculations.

ASP.8093:

Thrashbarg.9820:

I’m not saying the stacking sigil change alone is killing build variety. It’s just another thing on the list discouraging it, and the list of reasons NOT to play alts and different builds has become far too long.

Err, the stacking sigil change is making you actually commit weapon slots to your stacks. I don’t think it’s unfair. It does slightly favor builds who “park” one weapon and only swap on occasion (since you can “hide” your stacking rune on that other set); but most of the on-swap sigils heavily favor builds who swap weapons on cooldown, so I really don’t see a problem here.

Compared to the old way of doing things, now you don’t need a second weapon with different sigils to make optimal use of your stacks.

I think you missed my point, or I am missing yours.

I’m talking about requiring a 2nd sigil of each type, for each build, on each character. Sure you don’t need a weapon with a second sigil if you want to be optimal, but you need a second sigil of the same type and to sacrifice a slot on an underwater weapon (this hits engis and eles twice as hard as everyone else, but let’s not go there for now).

I don’t unequip my weapons when I get in and out of the water. It’s just lazy coding since they can’t seem to get the transition in and out of water working properly. They will probably just leave it like this because it’s sort of fixed compared to before, and any time it gets mentioned on the forum a bunch of people chime in with “derrr, buy moar sigilz” so they probably don’t think many people even care, which maybe they don’t I guess.

7 characters with at least 2 (4 in the case of my engineer) different builds using different stacking sigils. Add that cost to the power creep of ascended and the inflation of the economy from PvE activities, and outfitting each of those builds becomes an unreachable goal (or at least unpleasant enough to dissuade me, I’m not into grinding excessively).

I’m not a player who dedicates their life to a single “main”, not even to a main build on most characters. I like to theorycraft and try experimental builds.

The guild I used to run with disbanded, and most guilds I see now want meta builds only. Finding a group that is both coordinated and open to experimentation is difficult in today’s WvW climate. The expense of testing builds is just another hurdle.

I’m not saying the stacking sigil change alone is killing build variety. It’s just another thing on the list discouraging it, and the list of reasons NOT to play alts and different builds has become far too long.

Transferring servers isn’t likely to increase the amount of players you see in less popular maps.

Empty zones in those levels mean there are few people on those maps from any NA server. It’s not like GoM players get shoved off to some empty server while “full” servers get their own special full maps.

Unless the map you are trying to load into just reached cap and generated a new instance and you are one of the first in it (or last left after a new instance takes priority, had this happen in FG a few times, pretty fun actually having a map to myself, but I’m weird).

*I do not work for Anet, so I am only guessing at how megaservers function based on my experience with the previous overflow system which it seems based upon.

• I see plenty of people on most maps during prime time (3pm-10pm Pacific). Playing outside that time it can be pretty empty. There are lots of ways to level, so many players in that range are doing other things under the illusion that the game is more fun at 80. Those level maps aren’t ever going to be super full, unless some guild is running an event of some sort. Facts of life in a 2 year old MMO, just less people leveling, and less doing it old-school (map exploration).

It should be possible to datamine things like how many siege blueprints dropped and where. Siege already remembers it’s owner. It’s not about it being impossible, it’s about it requiring people’s time to check (same thing in the corporate world, I guess).

It doesn’t affect profits how botters and gold sellers do. That’s the reason we don’t see in game GMs taking action on these things.

“….And you alone shall be blessed by My gifts.”

That’s about right considering the droprate.

Grats though, and hope Anet fixes this for ya. The amount of bugs in this update….. geez…..

xFireize.6318:

15g, 30g, and now 100g,.. Am I missing something or some of you are exaggerating?

That’s not unrealistic. I have 7 characters, with several builds each. Perception, bloodlust and corruption for each. Some people have more. It’s not up to you to tell people how many characters or builds they can have.

Also, bumping in hopes a Dev might deign to respond to our lowly request for a simple yes/no answer to “is this new behavior a bug or intended?”.

Nymph of Meliai.6739:

The eotm map is actually a great map to play but it has been hijacked by the pve/pvd karma train. People complain when they meet a proper fight or a defended objective… I have actually seen commanders refuse to engage a defended place and turn away from fights.

Really?
It’s one long linear series of choke points over an instadeath fall, severely limiting class/build/group diversity (need moar guardianz foar dem staboz! GWEN is already meta in WvW, in EotM it’s even worse).
It’s full of dungeon level mobs that hit harder than players with blanket aoes everywhere and have huge health pools and fast respawn times.
It’s full of gimmicks which unbalance fights. Commanders would be pretty insane to attack a fully sieged and defended frostreach keep, for example (far too easy to make that place into a killbox farm).

Any case, anyone with a bit of pvp spirit complains about the way the game is played on eotm. So how do we solve this mess?

It is actually quite easy…. think why does this not happen so much on borderlands? The borderland maps are designed better than eotm and ebg for this kind of behaviour. I think the solution is that you need to make eotm more rewarding for defense.

The differences are huge. Map layout, match length, and imbalanced mechanics make EotM a bad place for anyone who enjoys strategic large scale pvp. The map would need a ground up redesign to be anything other than a zerging in circles game where guild groups can blow off steam by facerolling unorganized pve players.

To do this you need to make the points count for something…. that way it becomes beneficial to defend.

so my solution is to give a prize for the side that scores the most points but the prize needs to be worth more than what can be gained from pvd farming. This needs careful thought because you need to balance the reward from capturing something with the reward from gaining the most points by defending your assets… we don’t want to turn things into a turtle game – a balance must be struck.

My idea off the top of my head would be for the winning team to receive a single bolt of damask. It is not too much of a prize but it is something worth fighting for.

How many people are really going to coordinate at the level required to defend against full map blobs in a 3 hour match when the players are all randoms from random servers? People don’t even seem to be able to divide into groups of ~10 to do the boss rush in the pavillion, I’m not sure they would have much success running a 3 hour map defense.

Don’t you understand? Hiding a drop behind staggeringly bad odds makes it EPIC! EPIC, get it!

The few people who manage to afford this thing are gonna have such enormous throngs of worshipers following them to simply bathe in their awesomeness that the game will double in sales overnight!

Seeing one of these super rare backpieces on display will cause everyone near to spam /cheer, which would potentially crash the servers if more than 2 exist in any one map within the same day.

(/sarcasitcthrashbarg)

Some word on whether this is intended or not would be appreciated. I’m guessing it’s an unintended result of an intended change (a bug).

I’ll salvage/replace all my stacking sigils if this is the intended behavior, too much jumping in the water in WvW to waste a sigil slot on a buff that won’t last if I get my toes wet.

grifflyman.8102:

Ken DeBoer.9268:

I wouldn’t say that the Devs don’t care, they just can’t really do anything right now until the season is over. They tried a different type of scoring and it didn’t work like they intended. I’m fairly certain they will try, yet another, scoring system for season 3.

Just give us a new scoring system based on population and give us a score DECAY. The longer you hold something the less points you get.

When suggesting an idea, try to imagine first how it could be exploited. The last thing WvW needs is MORE incentive to not defend and let things flip for more rewards.

“Hey guys, our garrison is tier 3 and we’re not getting many points from it anymore. Let’s just let the enemy flip it so we can reset the point gain.”

No thanks.

The scoring system is okay, the matchmaking system(s) are not. Glicko was designed for sports teams and chess players, whose skill level and team numbers/composition are predictable. WvW coverage is about morale and a million people’s random life schedules. The game is a hobby, not a professional sport.

Matchmaking should be done by graphing number of active players at 15 minute intervals. Matches should be made from the servers with the closest active WvW populations.

Flissy.4093:

No thanks. PvErs would still need to spend >100g crafting and >50g per weapon/armor piece for Ascended, while a WvWer would get it for 10g and, quite frankly, a pathetic amount of badges. Change this to ascended rings with a cost reduction and that would be fine with me.

Do note that PvErs don’t like crafting either, and it absolutely is not a PvE activity (there are crafting stations in home BL), but use 1-2 hours to get a worthwhile reward. Very few people actually do like crafting.

Tomes, WXP & Skillpoints sure. Not so much boosters, leave those to gem store only. Obsidian Shards? WvW already gives plenty of karma, so seems unnecessary to me.

Would be nice for WvWers to be able to obtain dungeon item skins, so they can get those skins without needing to do several dungeons.

PvE players can make 100g in about the time a WvW player can make 5k badges (even zerging edge). I still don’t see the issue. Time spent playing should equal time spent playing, as you suggest with the dungeon skins.

~5days playtime = ~100g = ~5,000badges….. etc.

The conversion rate may need a bit of fine tuning, but really, what’s the problem with WvW players having access to end game gear in a reasonable amount of time?

Plague form blind (+chill on blind trait), huge damage prevention and soft CC.

Power well bombing, huge damage and boon management.

Condition aoe pressure, soft CC and damage mitigation, with basically every single skill providing at least a couple of these things.

Inherently tanky with death shroud HP pool and can easily trait for high self stability.

moeruwa.3506:

What I’m saying is PvE players will flock EoTM with level 1 characters. Hit level 80 with with enough badges to get ascended gear if they really grinded it out.

Wait a minute. What you’re saying is this would follow their original design plan of players having full best in slot gear by the time they reach max level? Oh noes!

(Not bothering to dig up the dev quote which said that was exactly their goal, from a million years ago, and probably by someone who doesn’t even work there anymore, but hey, it was originally intended to be that way, by someone anyway, at some point….)

The badge rewards from Edge of the Mists could use a reduction, but really, who cares if/how other players get their gear. Geez.

Afkjosh.3912:

Lablamb.2419:

Anything that is difficult to pass through with stability? Chill and immobilize doesn’t get removed with stability. I’ve been playing a Staff Elementalist for a while now and I seem to not control much of anything.

That’s why I figured everyone had stability on and with a Glamour Mesmer I could remove the boons. Other than Necromancer and Mesmer, are there any boon removal classes?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Searing_Flames

Guardian.

One single boon removed from one single target on a 10 second cooldown is NOT a boon removal class. Decent trait in small scale, absolutely worthless in zerg v zerg. Any class can do the same thing with a sigil of nullification.

Engineer also has a crappy boon removal utility (it’s ok in a roaming build, but a kit or elixer is almost always a better choice). Thieves can trait to steal 2 boons every 21 sec and can also steal a few with mainhand sword. These are also best in small scale, losing effectiveness rapidly as enemies increase in number.

Necromancers and Mesmers are the only ones with an AoE boon removal ability (well, Engineer “throw mine” is 5 target irrc, but the others are pulsing fields which persist for several seconds and buff allies, no contest really).

All that said, if you want an area control class, and staff Elementalist doesn’t have enough for you, you’re going to be disappointed with anything else. This game doesn’t have a class that can solo lockdown a whole area how some games do. It’s a design choice which some people don’t like, but I see why they did it this way. It’s fun for one person to feel powerful enough to control a battle completely, but for the players who have to simply stand there and die, unable to react, it’s not fun at all. Choosing to remove the ability of a single player to have fun at the expense of the frustration of a large group of people keeps more people playing the game. More people playing the game means more money for the company (obviously) and more targets for you to PvP with in the long run.

CC in this game isn’t about a single hero stopping everyone. It’s about coordination. Boon stripping and CC have to happen together to be effective. It’s about having a team not a godmode skillbar.

The list above is the same as mine, except I don’t recommend Defense Against Guards until after Supply Mastery 4 and Build Mastery 1.

The reason is:

It will take roughly 100 hours (very rough, with boosters and zerging through edge or something even faster, pulling defense/scouting/etc duty, much much longer) to get the levels required for Applied Fortitude buff.

That’s a lot of time in which the Supply Master proc will give a huge amount of extra supply to your team. That’s a lot of time you’ll be spending building siege, so doubling your build speed for a single point makes sense as well.

Spending an extra 10(ish) hours without an additional 2500(possible)HP is better IMO than spending 100+ hours without adding any benefit to your team (beyond what a rank 1 would).

A guild of organisms would probably be helpful. You could get it solo though, assuming you’re dedicated and somewhat efficient. Pick the ten achievements that seem easiest and go for it. While you’re at it, you may find you enjoy the game mode.

Edge of the Mists is generally quite fast for many things. Just don’t allow it to cloud your perception of WvWvW. Expecting similar behavior in the “real” maps will be met with disappointment (possibly depending on server).

Johje Holan.4607:

They at least need a substitute for uncapped AoE.

You mean like this? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arrow_cart

Eliandal.8735:

……All this is doing (at least in our bracket) is breeding fair weather WvW. If it’s the first matchup – people just don’t show (queues on all maps are gone within 2 hours on Friday night) whereas for the second – well we’ve had off and on queues for different maps all weekend

And therein lies the main problem with WvWvW. Anet has no way to know the percentage of fair-weather players. Servers which actually could compete with each-other simply give up due to morale issues, internal politics, or lack of desire/ability to change tactics for different opponents.

Add to that the insistence on using ranking systems designed for professional sports (or chess) where the team sizes are static and the rosters are known to all sides for a 24/7 game-mode without set teams. Expecting consistent performance from thousands of random people who basically amount to hobbyists (even the most hardcore) is ridiculous.

“Duels” are arranged, mutually consensual. Random 1v1s and 1vXs aren’t duels, don’t expect people to behave by some imagined rules of duelling when you haven’t talked to them first to establish that is what they want.

A small but frightening Asura rises from the heaps of the fallen, with an expression of rage, seeking vengeance for his early demise.

Tibstrike.2974:

Well then, if the map is still too small, you could always go to WvW, and one guild captures Bay and the other Hills. Whoever captures the other keep wins. Big enough for you? Hell, another server’s guild could act as roaming mercenaries if it sounds too easy.

I think this is what the designers actually imagined people would do. It’s what I thought would happen when I saw the WvW system in beta. People are just too stupid or lame or something though.

The guild I belong to occasionally does this, just take a structure and hold it all night, and sometimes it results in GvG-like fights. I’d be more interested in GvG if this was the regular way of things.

SkylightMoon.1980:

I run a 15-20 man skill group with about 9-13 heavies depending on the group size with the rest ranged. We usually dont have much trouble wiping groups that are 30-40 man sized grouped, especially pugs. The only thing we have had trouble with lately is countering 30-40 man groups that run 20-30 melee. Specific guilds actually that just run enormous melee together. It seems impossible to counter as by the 3rd or 4th push we’ve only wiped out 10 people in their zerg while their entire melee train is still alive. Theres no way in hell we can push into the melee train with our melee, as we all get melted instantly. Slowing down the melee train with cripple and chill does work for a bit and gives us time to do other things but its still not enough. 20-30 melee, especially guardians, have an enormous amount of healing and dps, and health.

Wiping any coordinated group twice your size is going to be generally unrealistic unless your group has jedi-like skills. That you’re still engaging on the 3-4th pass instead of kiting for cooldowns indicates that’s not the case.

Any experienced guild group twice your size will be extremely difficult to beat. They have double the everything you do, healing, total damage output, condition removal and application. Their cooldowns are up twice as fast as yours for major skills (effectively). The only way to beat them is to force/trick them into doing something stupid. I know a few tricks for that but they only work once on each group usually, and I’m not really gonna explain them either. ;p

Xenon.4537:

You people have witnessed the evolution of a definition first hand. Words are just words, and their meaning can shift over time. Somewhere along the line, the abbreviation “RPG” started to be used as a blanket description of a genre of video games. Most people who were previously unfamiliar with actual role playing (like DnD or LARP or whatever) simply took “RPG” for their own. Today when we say “RPG” we really mean a video game like Skyrim or Dark Souls or what have you. A game where you play a character that has stats you allocate. MMORPG simply means a video game where you play a character that has stats you allocate and is massively multiplayer. The original idea of role playing was lost from the term “RPG” when such video games became popular.

To be fair there wasn’t even a lot of “character development” laid out in the original D&D. It was pretty much a book of rules about character creation, stat allocation, map /dungeon creation and combat interaction. Playing as a character that isn’t “you” is “role playing”. The depth to which the “RP” community takes character creation and collaborative storytelling is beyond that framework and always has been.

OP’s form of RP is largely based on adding to these sort of frameworks, and I don’t see how GW2 is any less conducive to it than D&D.

Do I think they should open un-instanced Salma? Sure. Do I think that will somehow make all the roleplayers happy? Nope. Happiness is where you make it, just like real life.

The best roleplaying happens with pen & paper games or even just group-storytelling without an official ruleset. MMORPGs have really pretty worlds, but the limits of the chatbox make it totally uncomfortable for me to RP in them and the limits of graphics make my imagination feel frustrated by constraints over time.

This skillpoint: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Noose_Road is guarded by a group event level champion.

It’s possible solo without stealth (the boss isn’t soloable unless you are insanely good) by carefully pulling and killing the adds on the left side and sneaking back into the far left corner. The boss has a walking pattern, watch it and when it starts walking toward it’s farthest point from the skillpoint, run in as fast as you can and interact with the point, there is enough time to do this and run away without getting aggro (assuming you position correctly and kill the adds quickly enough that they don’t respawn mid-channel).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Azabe_Qabar,_the_Royal_Tombs can also be guarded by a champ, which will require stealth or a group to kill. Check gw2state.com for a server with the event completed to get it by guesting if possible. It’s also possible to solo the pre-event up to the point where the skillpoint gate is opened, before the boss spawns, then leave the NPC to die (it becomes a group event at this point anyway) and come back and clear what mobs are around, get the skillpoint but don’t rez the event NPC or the mobs/boss will spawn.

Say I go into the dungeon forum and post that I make 5-10 gold a night in WvW but when I try a dungeon it takes several hours to clear one path and I end up paying more in repair than I make in drops? What would their answer be?

By no means should you be losing money playing WvW for 3-4 hours. That you are says you need an answer like the dungeon forum would likely give to my question above: Get a better build, better gear, a good guild, some practice, correct strategies, learn to dodge at the right times and what skills/weapons/armors are best, etc. You’ll die some for sure, it’s “war”, but if you aren’t making more than your repair fees over the course of hours, you’re doing something wrong.

Speed running dungeons is the best money in game, for sure. I don’t want WvW to be that profitable, otherwise it will be all blob-train, no pvp all day (more than it already is, it’s getting there already for many servers).

Single target or aoe? Small scale or zerging? Moving enemies or players dumb enough to stand on the edge of a wall or chokepoint?

Check the 10k meteor thread on this page…..

This will probably get me laughed right out of the forums, but hey, that’s fine by me.

0-30-30-0-10 Valk/cavalier/celestial gears. Screw all that healing/sustain/cond clearing crap and just blow them up before they know what’s happening. Use protection boon from auras and stability from rock solid to tank long enough to win or run. Diamond skin to auto-counter cheesy condi bunkers, or geomancer’s freedom +melandru runes + lemongrass food.

The standard (beginner) d/d build is 0-10-0-30-30 or 0-10-10-20-30 with soldier’s/knight’s/cleric/s gear. Most roamers are used to this build and know how to counter it though. It hits like a limp noodle without might stacks. Tricks based sword thieves and corrupt boon necros will eat this build for lunch.

Eimi.4062:

Well I’ve been trying mesmer and warrior, and while I like them…I am still torn on what to play. Is there any build that has some utility in dungeons but can also lets me play solo without running around screaming “NOT IN THE FACE” the entire time?

Guardian. Full zerker guard has comparable DPS to warrior, tons of reflects/blocks/boons. The mobility is a bit lacking (not really, but that’s what you’ll probably hear from everyone), but every party will want you for dungeons and soloing is easy too.

About the screaming, I don’t know what to say. What’s causing all the screaming? Perhaps you should get a helmet with a face-guard, wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face, would ya?

Powerful auras should be a master level trait (or maybe written in stone, instead). It would create many more viable builds. Right now, signet-aurashare isn’t workable (despite signet buffs which make them somewhat okay now) due to the trait loadout making it impossible to take the trait which maintains the passives from signets after activation. Selfish signet-aura is kinda decent but not party oriented and doesn’t have the sustain or escape to solo, so basically need a party built to support you.

Tempest aurashare might be somewhat decent, but relying on getting stunned to proc auras is um, something…..

I find it best to drop powerful auras trait altogether and run with a staff if I want to support by sharing auras:

ThiBash.5634:

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

So, a combo field is as good as one of our grandmaster traits? Figures.

Well, with the limitation that it only works for armor of frost. :-)

Which is actually quite powerful. A -10% damage buff that can’t be purged or corrupted, stacks with protection and chills anyone who attacks. The application rate competes with d/d aurashare rates with the right build (aquamancer’s alacrity, arcane brilliance and wave) and doesn’t require more than 10 points in water.

To get numbers like that you have to be full glass hitting full glass opponents. All builds have some support built in due to staff CC and fields. I wouldn’t suggest full glass builds to new WvW players (or anyone) unless you have some allies nearby who will rez you constantly and protect you from the thieves who will hunt you relentlessly.

Something like 25-30-0-10-5 with every damage boosting trait you can take, full zerker gears, scholar runes or ruby orbs, signet of fire for precision, and an arcane skill to proc the +crit damage after arcane use trait in air. Probably mist form as an oh-&^%& button, too glassy for armor of Earth to help much.

Mash Hog.5672:

I’m thinking of a Tempest Defense/Aurashare Build:

0/30/0/30/10

Or 0/30/10/30/0

I can’t decide whether I want to take the perma-vigor or the AoE Protection.

Both work, but I prefer the protection with the aurashare build. I’m not a huge fan of aurashare, however. I feel to be really viable it would need to be a master trait rather than grandmaster, OR have a larger effective radius.

I don’t play tPvP though, just WvW, the size of the cap points might make aurashare range more bearable in there. I’ve even had some success with a 4-signet fire-aura build in WvW, so take my opinions with a massive dose of “silly Thrashbarg, WvW is for ______ (insert favorite insults here)”.